Spring 2016 Farm Tour

Spring has been a very busy time on the farm. Trying to get things fenced in (the true never-ending story), repair equipment, learn how to plant my first in-ground vegetable garden. It's been crazy. But I wanted to give an update on what's been going on at the hacienda Del Vecchio.

CATTLE

we have a total of 6 cows at the moment.
2 full-size angus which I originally intended to butcher at the end of the year but am now debating keeping the heifer to breed for next year. Depends on how my pasture lasts through the year. The steer is definitely going to someones freezer though. I had thought about getting rid of him fast by graining him, but after a week with the grain and the fresh spring grass, he was having major digestive issues (even though I tried to ramp up the grain slowly). All grass fed is the way it's going to be on our farm I guess.
4 miniature cattle.

Mamma cow is a registered purebred red Dexter. I had planned on milking her with this calf but she's been pretty adamant that I will not be doing that any time soon. Maybe I'll have a milking station built by the time she has her next calf.

We also have 2 of her daughters. One is a Dexter, Lowline Angus cross about a year and a half old that we are hoping to breed this summer. She's in the picture below getting friendly with our Dexter bull. The bull we plan to keep with the 2 adult Dexters and the Angus heifer to breed over the summer and fall. But when the fall grasses end, so does his tenure at our farm. He'll either go for freezer beef or I'll sell him to someone else who wants a bull if I can get a good price.

Finally, there's the baby heifer who was born just before Christmas. Her dam was pregnant with her when I got her so I'm not sure if she is full blood Dexter or Dexter, Lowline Angus cross. I believe she's the latter. She's the little one in the middle of the upper picture.

GOATS

We're down to our last two goats (both young bucks) and don't plan on getting more anytime soon. I had really bad luck with them. One drown, one somehow got his head stuck in a hay feeder, and only one of the does we had carried to term. I don't know if I have something in my field that goats cant tolerate but cows can or what. We've sold or eaten all but the two above. The white one is a Kiko Boer cross that I've had since he was little and the other is a Boer Alpine cross. We plan to sell them or eat them. The Kiko cross would make a pretty good herd sire so hopefully I can get a decent price for him.

PIGS

We're down to three from our last litter. It was awesome to have a litter of baby pigs but with the limited space we have to devote to pigs we only had a couple sows. It just wasn't worth it in terms of feed bill or putting up with an adult boar. There's nothing better tasting than home raised non-gmo fed pork though so we'll stick to feeder pigs in the future.

BIRDS

For our egg hens, we got a new coop from someone on craigslist this spring. Eventually we'll separate the run that's attached and use it for our meat birds but that's still a ways down on my to-do list. As a side note, Our batch of layers from last year refuse to roost or lay in the new coop but continue to use the shed that the pigs are in. Hopefully these pigs don't develop a taste for chicken the way their parents did.

This is our turkey. His name is turd. If you couldn't guess by the name, I don't like turd. He's big and mean and likes to run up and attack everyone in my family. Yesterday I bought a compound bow at a garage sale. I will practice with it in front of turd until I become proficient enough to dispatch of him. Then he will go in the freezer until thanksgiving (or I get a craving for a turkey sandwich.)

This is my current chicken tracktor for my meat birds... one day after I repaired it. And yes, the goats are kept on the other side of an electric fence. Evidently it's worth the shock to frustrate me. Another reason I'm getting outa goats. (Ok, i do think this is pretty funny.)

This year I got a good deal on some freedom ranger chicks so I'm going to see how they do for our broilers. They're supposed to take a little longer to grow but have less health problems than cornish cross. We'll see. I have a batch of cornish in the brooder for now.

and finally

THE GARDEN

This is my first attempt at a dirt garden. I tinkered around with an aquaponic greenhouse in the past and will hopefully be putting that set up together again this fall but since we have the space, I wanted to try traditional gardening. Let me tell you, there's a lot more to it than I thought.

I wanted to size my garden so that it wouldn't be so large that it was overwhelming but was large enough that I could sow enough seed that odds are it would yield us SOMETHING to eat despite my utter lack of knowledge. I went with roughly 30x60.

Even though it's not so large that it would be undoable by small and hand operated equipment, I wanted to be able to learn what I'm doing enough to scale it up in the future. Plus I just wanted an excuse to use my tractor.

Having no experience in farm gardening, i thought, "I have a tractor and a plow. I'll plow and then I'll plant stuff." Yeah, that's not how it works. Note to future self: you plow, you disk, you disk, you disk, you drag harrow, you weed (with FIRE!), you rake, you plant. After that, flame weed again BEFORE the veggies start poking through and the plants should have a good head start on the weeds.

So needless to say, i ended up buying a few more pieces of equipment than I originally thought I needed a 6' tandem disk harrow, Chain drag harrow, a flame weeder, and a really cool row seeder that saves my back a lot of bending and saves me a LOT of time.
Rural King had it for the cheapest I could find - no they don't pay me. I just like it.
http://www.ruralking.com/earthway-precision-walk-behind-garden-seeder-1001b.html

Below is a section of the garden that has our beets, chard, peas, green beans, and various cabbages, radish, and turnips. I've gone back and thinned them a little bit and made a really tasty "microgreen" salad with a big honkin duck egg on top. That's probably the best way to eat a salad. The pea greens were my favorite tasting. They had a sort of nutty flavor to them.

All in all I'm excited about the year and looking forward to finally putting a cow in our freezer at the end of the year and having our first set of on site bred and born calves next spring.

Goat and Cauliflower Curry (or lamb)

so it has, once again, been a long time since my last post. Some people recently asked me for my goat curry recipe so I figured I might as well put it here. This curry is somewhere along the tikki masala/makahni spectrum. It may not be the most authentic recipe in the world but we like it and we often use this sauce for chicken as well (there will be at least enough leftover sauce for a couple of lunches)

This recipe uses an Instant Pot which is a fancy electric pressure cooker my wife wanted (and I use) but you could do this in any pressure cooker or a slow cooker or even braised in the oven.

Ingredients:
4 tbsp Butter
1 inch knob of ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic, grated
1 onion diced
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
2 cans coconut milk (could use cream)
1/2 cup rasins (can substitute some sugar or brown sugar)
1/2 cup chopped cashews
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
~ 1/2 tsp your favorite curry powder*
minced chilies if your family can tolerate spicy food. alas, mine can not.
1 tsp salt - i usually add less and then tweak it once it's cooked.
2 lbs goat, 1 1/2 inch cubes. (can substitute lamb)
1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets

*For my curry powder I'll usually take Madras brand (in a silver tin in the Indian section at kroger) and add some ground fenugreek and cinnamon. I've tried a couple that I've gotten from Indian groceries an one was good, one was a different style than I was looking for. I don't really know what to ask for and it also means a trip to a separate store. If you have a suggestion for your favorite, I'd love to hear it in the comments.

Method:
I like to debone the goat before I cook it or tear whole chunks off once it's cooked even though every time I've had it in a restaurant it has been chopped with the bones in.

over high heat, melt butter. Brown the goat meat. add garlic, ginger, and onion and saute for another min,

transfer to instant pot or slow cooker. add 2 cans of coconut milk,1 large can of crushed tomatoes, salt, and curry powder. I usually set the instant pot on manual mode, high pressure, for 2 hrs. Our goats were on the older side so they're tougher. If you have young goat or lamb it would probably be done in 45 min. If you're using a slow cooker i really have no ideal how long it will take. probably all day or overnight, but it will get the job done.

once it's done turn off the instant pot and release the pressure. Add raisins, chopped cashews, and cauliflower. Put the lid back on and put on manual mode, low pressure for another 10-15 min until the cauliflower is to your liking. Add more salt at the end if it needs it. If you're using a slow cooker, i would add the raisins and cashews about 1/2 hour before you plan to eat and steam the cauliflower before adding.

Serve over rice if you like. garnish liberally with chopped cilantro. We are trying to be paleo/primal right now so we don't eat the rice. originally we were making the curry without the cauliflower and serving it over cauliflower rice but this is easier and i actually like it better.