The carrots did fantastic in the aquaponics system. While they’re a bit ugly looking, they turned out huge!
Aquaponic carrot harvest
Mmmmmm…
The first round of bacon turned out great in the new smoker so we decided to try our hand at sausage and make some more bacon (of course). I’m still getting the hang of tying the braids for the link sausage.
Country style nightlights
I’m sure the neighbors think we’re crazy by this point…
It’s still a bit chilly at night so we have the heat lamps in the chicken tractors while they’re out in the front pasture. At night, the white tarps glow from the lights and remind me of Chinese Lanterns. Delicious, yummy, chicken flavored Chinese lanterns.
We built a smokehouse
We’ve wanted to smoke our own meats for quite some time, so after numerous hours watching YouTube videos and looking at other peoples’ designs, we decided to take the plunge and build a cold smoker smokehouse. It’s based off the design from Deep South Homestead’s videos and has worked great so far. We can’t wait to smoke more bacon and sausage.
We used tongue and groove cedar for the smoker box and constructed an offset firebox so that the internal temperature wouldn’t get too hot for cold smoking. It’s topped off with a metal roof (leftovers from another project around the farm).
Nothing goes to waste on a farm
One of the things we take pride in when slaughtering animals is that we use as much of the animal as we can. It’s one of the ways that we honor its sacrifice to our family. This is just one such example. Most people don’t have much use for the chicken feet but we take the time to dehydrate them. This preserves the feet for weeks (even months) and makes for fantastic, healthy dog treats.
COVID-19 leading to smaller turkeys
I’ll admit, the title of the article is a bit of click-bait. COVID-19 has no effects on poultry, well at least not directly.
Continue reading “COVID-19 leading to smaller turkeys”Pet me, please
It’s pretty crazy how some animals develop a personality all of their own. This pig (Periwinkle, I think) acts just like a dog. She wags her little tail and loves being petted. In these photos, she hopped up on top of her feeder to get closer so that I could scratch her head.
Meanwhile, while her sister (Petunia) is nice and is friendly, there is a huge difference between the two. Periwinkle is more friendly and awesome in general.
The three little piggies
We added three additional pigs to our flock, herd, whatever you call a group of pigs. The girls have decided to name them Poppey, Periwinkle, and Petunia.
Continue reading “The three little piggies”Introducing, Mr. Piggles
We took the plunge and purchased our first pig today. He’s a Yorkshire boar. He’ll remain un-cut and will be used to breed the other pigs (the ones that we don’t have yet, lol).
He’s small at this point, but it won’t be long before he’s big and strong.
Even with the ride home and the change of scenery, he was still friendly towards the girls and was very curious overall. Kaylee decided that one of the weeds around the pig pen certainly tasted better than the food he had, so she should feed it to him. He didn’t seem to mind.
Do you want to eat a sick bird?
If you’re purchasing your chicken or turkey from one of the large poultry processors, your family may be eating sick or diseased animals.
Continue reading “Do you want to eat a sick bird?”