Roll Farms - Herdstock is over, and I'm feeling hung over, lol

[marlowmanor]

I may have to try the freezing maters thing. I've got 40 roma plants, 2 german johnson, 2 better boy and 5 black cherokee.........they are heaping full of maters that are hard and green and not turning red at all!

I wont laugh at you, too much. FIL and MIL are like that about their cattle. They just wont eat them if they have to care for them, so any beef for the freezer is raised by me. Cuz I have a tiny cold heart and a big warm stomach.

I cant kill them though. I can clean them, cook them and eat them. But I'm just not a killer. (yup, total wuss am I)

My tomatoes were like that for a while. Lots of green ones that took forever to get red. Just got some off last week. Now if I can keep Cameron from picking more green ones I can keep getting them fairly regularly. Last time I checked the garden with the kid I kept having to get onto Cameron for picking green tomatoes while I was checking the rest of the garden.

I've got cherry tomatoes, Juliet tomatoes (they look like the Romas), Cherokees, and Kangaroos (they are meaty Australian tomatoes my dad grows, they can get huge and are delicious on sandwiches!)

ETA: We froze some maters last year. We just cut them in half and put them in freezer bags though. They didn't work perfectly. We try to get the most air we can out of the bags but we did end up with some freezer burn. If I freeze more I will try Rolls way.

 

[Roll farms]

I'm too cheap to buy one of those machines to suck the air out, so I stick a straw in the bag, close it almost all the way, then suck all the air out, remove the straw and seal. It truly looks vacuum sealed.

Also make sure you use 'good' freezer bags. Regular baggies won't work, they aren't thick enough.

 

[redtailgal]

Rolls, I used to do the same thing cuz I hate to part with my money, lol.

I ended up getting the ziploc vacuum bags and the little handheld air sucker outer thing..........the whole setup cost 10$ and it's worked great on our meats for over a year now.

 

[autumnprairie]

they do work great the ziplock vacuum seal set up

 

[Vickir73]

I thought I was the only one who sucked the air out with a straw I bought that little hand-held sucker thing and like the way it worked, but the bags are more expensive than the regular freezer bags - so I'll alternate.

 

[redtailgal]

They are more expensive, but I cheat a little by going the wash and re-use route.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

I'm too cheap to buy one of those machines to suck the air out, so I stick a straw in the bag, close it almost all the way, then suck all the air out, remove the straw and seal. It truly looks vacuum sealed.

Also make sure you use 'good' freezer bags. Regular baggies won't work, they aren't thick enough.

that is funny. My wife does the same thing and for the same reason. She laughs, but says it works and is a lot cheaper.

 

[SDBoerGoats]

I blanch them juuust long enough (about 45 seconds to a minute) to get the skins off, then cut out the core, sling off the seeds and slice them. Put 'em in a baggy, suck the air out, and pop 'em in the freezer...perfect for veggie soup. I use romas for freezing. I also freeze tomato juice....I use 'regular' (better boy, early girl, rutger, etc) for juice, they are pretty mushy / fleshy to freeze.

It rained for 5 mins. yesterday and for 3 glorious hours today. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.



Congrats on the wethers. Don't laugh, but I cannot eat goat. Yes, I raise / sell 'meat' goats. But only b/c people around here want them for 4-H wethers.
Goats are like dogs to me...I couldn't eat one of those, either.

Rolls, I can't either, I just can't eat one of these babies I raised and bottle fed, they are so freakin adorable and sweet. And I am already getting the heebies about the kids market goats for fair. I have totally stayed away from them, cause I knew from the beginning which ones were going. Well, I was helping body clip the other day, and they are so gentle and lovable, they love the kids and yeah, act like dogs. They play on the hillside and rocks, jumping around so cute and I was thinking yep, next Saturday is D day, and you're going on the meat truck and it made me nauseous. I'd have a hard time looking them in the eye.

 

[Roll farms]

Sorry if my pond story is boring, but I am pretty impressed w/ how it turned out, and while I like to think I'm a good / hard worker....I even amazed myself w/ how quickly I was able to dig this HUGE hole in the ground.

Here was the 'plan'....

Tuesday (different angle)

By Friday night

Saturday we finished digging, installed the felt liner (to protect the pond liner) and the rubber liner, and started filling it up.

Late Saturday evening it was full and we started putting rocks around it

Then I added pond die, more rocks, and a few plants

We've ordered the waterfall / filter kit and I'm going to build a small waterfall when it comes in. Then install the pump and finish the landscaping and she'll be done. The digging was obviously the hardest / worst part.

And I dug that sucker ALL by myself. In 4 days. Heh.

DH and I dug all the rocks out of our pasture / back acreage. He kept saying 'Let's get these big ones' and I kept saying, 'Let's don't!'....after we got them up here he was glad I didn't get ALL the big ones. He had a hard enough time moving these.

In other news, Bullitt (boer buck) is home from breeding at a friend's house. Chaos has his last 2 Nub does. Freeney has Levi and Dallas. He'll be leaving in 2 weeks.
(Sold him to Mo's Palaminos).

They are calling for a chance of rain for M, T, W, Th, and F. I may just pee myself if we get all that.

 

[elevan]

Nice pond!

on the rain