Coffee anyone ?

[rachels.haven]

Giant pink banana and sweet meat squash were my favorite flavor-wise growing up in Iowa. You'd go to the local "pumpkin patch" and stroll through their tables and tables of varieties of squash they grew for sale and look for these giants and buy them at a fraction of grocery price. Pink banana and sweet meat were my favorite because they cook up super sweet and were super, super edible with butter and salt (almost too sweet). Up here they don't grow very well because they need both soil fertility and warm weather, but MAN, you are a lucky duck. If I remember right, they stored decently well too. They MAKE the pie and you can be making it for months the way they store and produce. They are big though, lol. Giant/jumbo in the pink banana actually means BIG.

 

[Mini Horses]

Well now I need to have that on my list of new to grow! My butternuts have stored very well for me but these sound much sweeter. Easier than pumpkin too. Just will add, not deleting the butternuts. So Bay -- save some seed for me, just dry them well. Addy coming to you. One day I'll get a surprise in the mail.

Great job on the CCX! You should be set for meats -- pork, lamb, chicken, beef working. And your garden did so well. You've worked hard but had a good year! Be proud.

I'm hoping my pastures come thru with the rye cover crop. If so, it may be something you would like to try in a spot there. Temp wise may work. Strictly winter, dies with heat but works for some winter graze. Check it on line..abruzzi rye. I can buy it cheap from a local. Shipping kills you...at least here, therefore at most suppliers. This baby clover is so cute. It's the crimson. Loved the pretty pics of yours. I have a lot of other clovers here but not as pretty. This spring I have to collect dandelion puffs to reseed fields. My goats love those leaves. Excellent nutrition. Comfrey plot expanding, too. All about forage here! A big consideration for my eventual staying home -- that R word. . Got a goat soap maker who will start buying goat milk from me in Spring. I'm closer and less $. I'm happy with that. Who knows ... 2021 may be my year after all...if things keep working out. Three new egg customers last week helps confidence on that front...every little bit counts.

It is a cool 60 out there today...won't go but maybe 66 and rain mid afternoon. Light breeze. Everyone here will shelter in place this afternoon. I've got laundry going. Will clean late day, during rain. Have two more fields to spin seed this AM. Rain it in!! The grasses there will give it shelter to grow....and hold ground temps a little longer in a month or two when weather cools way more at night. Currently temps are perfect for it. Hope abounds...I mean, it is a winter crop!!

 

[Baymule]

@Mini Horses I will be glad to share seeds with you. I already saved seed from the one I have used so far. @rachels.haven it’s nice to hear from someone who actually has eaten Giant Pink Banana Squash. Move to Tennessee and I’ll send you seed too! LOL LOL.

10 more chickens on ice. I spend approximately an hour on each chicken, fine picking and cutting and packaging. So 16 birds on ice equals out to 2 days of processing. I have 14 sold for $6 a pound. One order is from a lady that bought lamb and a couple chickens, the other is a new customer and she wants 10. My regular pig/chicken customer bought 25 chickens in the spring and is out of breast meat, wants more. My chicken raising is small scale, but growing business. I think $6 a pound is outrageous but these people don’t bat an eye and are excited to order and wait months for it. Go figure.

10 more to go, Neighbor Ron helped me today, it was cloudy and cold. We drank hot chicken broth! I have him a 6 pound pork roast and he was delighted. He’s coming back Friday and we’ll finish up.

 

[Mini Horses]

My chicken raising is small scale, but growing business. I think $6 a pound is outrageous but these people don’t bat an eye and are excited to order and wait months for it. Go figure.

We think alike. But I have a friend who gets 80-120 for a turkey! Soon you will get a plucker set up. Hey, I think $8 a gallon for goat milk is a lot but, I love it! So much of this great food we have, raise...is just our everyday way. we under value the true cost of what it does cost to purchase!

A qt of crappy pasteurized goat milk is $4.78 + tx at WM....That's almost $20 a gal. Nothing like the taste of fresh. Same with your chicken! Tell the buyers to tell friends. That's how I get most of the customers for eggs -- they say the taste is superior to store that are $5 dz. We both know feed, handling and FRESH makes all the difference.

Small scale, repeat customers...all I want. Pay for feed, some labor and not a get rich thing....just a little profit. Our kids & lambs take care of a lot of the expense, for those herds. Hoping it keeps up.....hey a veggie stand

 

[Baymule]

What kind of turkeys does your friend raise? Does she buy poults or raise her own? Maybe I need to investigate that. I would love to have a slaughter building with concrete floor with drain, washable walls, it wouldn't have to be big. A plucker would be awesome. Sitting outside under the two big oaks is nice, but hand plucking takes a lot of time. I dream of dropping in a dirty birdie and taking out a plucked, naked chicken! Haha, but for now, its hand pickin' chicken. Poor BJ was so sad that he couldn't help today. He never thought that he would be upset at NOT slaughtering chicken! LOL LOL

 

[Baymule]

Coffee is ready. On my second cup. Gonna do outside chores this morning, then pile into chickens. Home health care therapist is coming this morning, then I think, one more visit.

 

[promiseacres]

Coffee is on.
We are back had an exhausting but fun weekend horse camping. Now to get the camper winterized. hopefully DH'S work should be slowing down. So maybe more time for working on the farm house.

@Baymule what's your thought on skinning poultry vs plucking?

 

[Baymule]

Coffee is on.
We are back had an exhausting but fun weekend horse camping. Now to get the camper winterized. hopefully DH'S work should be slowing down. So maybe more time for working on the farm house.

@Baymule what's your thought on skinning poultry vs plucking?

I've skinned layer hens and old roosters, they are tough to skin or pluck, take your pick. Skinning is faster though. I simmer them in the crock pot or in a big pot, so skin isn't needed. I don't skin the CCX, we pluck them.

glad y'all had fun horse camping. Now to buckle down for winter. Hopefully y'all can get more done on the inside of the house at the farm.

 

[Mini Horses]

@Baymule don't know breed but, bought poults. They were white. Up near DC so big $$$ customers! Set up with all the gear -- pluckers, chilling, etc.

@promiseacres -- once butchered, skin is only there to get crispy when baked or fried! If you eat a lot without, as much sold in stores comes now, skin it! It's all a messy job. Bay has a system that works for her --- experience.

Foggy again -- been a week of it now. Got really chilly cold yesterday with low 60s and a drizzle all day, with breezes to boot it along. Went to low 50 last night and the chill was truly from the "wet" of it all. Dreary day. Of course, everything is wet out there now!!! At least my seed got rained in.

Need to make a feed run. Not in the mood. It's the weather -- did nothing much yesterday and today is shaping up the same. another cup and hot shower....attitude adjustment!! Can't do this -- get moving, old lady. . Pep talk over.

 

[Finnie]

@Baymule what's your thought on skinning poultry vs plucking?

I
've skinned layer hens and old roosters, they are tough to skin or pluck, take your pick. Skinning is faster though. I simmer them in the crock pot or in a big pot, so skin isn't needed. I don't skin the CCX, we pluck them.

The first time I ever processed a chicken it was a year and a half old rooster. A woman from the Indiana BYCers thread generously offered to teach anyone who wanted to come to her farm how to do it. So I took my Black Langshan rooster who had turned mean. Janet suggested skinning him, since at his age he would be tough to pluck. But man! It was SO hard getting that skin detached! I labored over that tough skin for two hours!

I have since plucked an older hen, and she was no problem. Her feathers came right out. And I’ve done Cornish Cross, and they pluck real easy too. I plan to give skinning one more chance before I decide for sure that I prefer plucking.

I have a few male ducks that need to go. I’ve heard ducks are terrible to pluck, but I don’t want them skinless. They are on Craigslist, and I’m procrastinating in hopes I will be able to sell them before I need to process them.