Pigs Training 2015

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The three spotted piglets have finished their electric fence training in the barn.

They started their training with a stall and a small outside run, fenced with two strands of electric polywire, backed by pig panels. The panels kept shocked piglets from running forward when they encountered the electrified fence.

Once the sheep were out of the barn, the piglets had access to the rest of the barn where they rooted and turned the bedding.

I built a second run with electric fence , not closely backed by panels, but surrounded by fence and the winter coop.

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I backed the trailer, with modified livestock pen sides to the barnyard. With a filled grain bowl and eventually a fresh bale of straw, the three pigs walked up the ramp, into the trailer. It was time to move the trio to the prepared garden pigyard.

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The garden pigyard is at the edge of the yard, close enough to the house to monitor the pigs' antics. To prepare the garden for the pigs' arrival, I left last year's turnips, weeds and volunteer rye to stand and I topped scoops of corn with wheel barrow sized piles of barn bedding.  The pighouse was dragged into place and filled with fresh straw.

The pigs got right to work, rooting and digging.

With two strands of polywire and a strong fence energizer,the pigs are working for the farm.

After they finish working the soil of the garden pigyard, we will move the spotted trio to the Hill Field, where they will tackle weeds and work in leftover winter bedding and a lambing season's load of barn waste.

Meat birds-18 days old

This Cornish Cross chick is 18 days old. The group of 30 chicks is well into a second 50lb. bag of organic chick starter and I have bedded them out with a half a 3.25 cubic ft. bale of wood shavings to keep them clean.

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These chickens are not genetically modified organisms, but hybrids,  selectively bred to grow quickly and efficiently. For a market that demands a plump bird with plenty of white meat, they have a proportionally large, almost featherless breast, atop very large, stocky feet.

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In many agricultural systems, a bird this age will be ready to slaughter in 24 days. On our locally sourced organic feed, without 24 hour light and grazing pasture in moveable, open bottomed  pens, the chickens will be off the farm in around 52 more days.

Yes the longer grow out time frame is less efficient at converting feed to meat, but the manure the birds deposit on our fields is very beneficial to pasture rejuvenation and the meat from these actively grazing chickens is firm, but not tough, and flavorful.

Roasting a whole lamb, without a spit or a deep hole.

In an effort to expand my repertoire of lamb recipes, we roasted a whole lamb for Easter.

With a wether lamb in the barn, a houseful of easy to please guests, roasters locally available and an experienced pig roasting friend, I was ready to attempt this new venture.

Honestly, the recipes I read on the internet were a bit daunting. The ground is still partially frozen, so digging a big hole for a fire was out of the question and an expensive spit did not seem like a good investment, for our first try.  So we decided to apply the “low and slow” method of roasting meat to create a tender, evenly cooked product.

Here’s what we did:

I brought the lamb in from the cooler an hour before roasting.

We started the charcoal with two chimney starters in the belly of the roaster. Once the coals in the chimneys were hot, they were poured  out and 50 more pounds of briquets and a few pieces of apple wood were piled on top. Our roasting expert ( friends with skills are this cook’s blessing)  used a shop vac to blow air on the briquets, to get the coals burning quickly.

While the fired was building, I blended a rub for the lamb: olive oil,chopped garlic and parsley, and homemade basil, lemon and chili salts. We covered the whole lamb with the seasoned olive oil and added a few heads of garlic and quartered oranges to the abdominal cavity and stitched it up.

Once the coals were hot, the drip pan was set in the roaster then the grate to heat.

We placed the lamb, belly side toward the fire, legs splayed and inserted  digital thermometers into the leg and shoulder.

Thanks to the wise advice and watchful eye of our friend, the grill was kept at 225’.

Although I would have preferred to take the lamb off the grill at around 145’, it cooked much quicker than expected, and we pulled it off the grill when the leg thermometer read 166’. (This took about 2 1/2 hours of roasting.) The shoulder, which takes longer to cook was about 145’.

We set the lamb on a clean tablecloth on the picnic table and covered it with pieces of foil.

After half an hour of rest, I sliced the lamb.

The meat was moist and slightly smokey.

Perfect for our celebration.

Next time, to protect the bottom of the legs from over roasting, I’ll wrap them with foil.

And, I will remember to take pictures.

Non-GMO pig feed again this year

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Last Friday I made my final “before-the-pigs-arrive” decision.

That we were going to raise pigs this year was a given. We love the meat and the land needs the rejuvenating work that pigs provide.

Because this region is full of enterprises that support large and small agriculture, I have feed sources beyond the more mainstream offerings at our local ag store.

We were very satisfied with last year supplier, Grove’s Mill, 20 miles away in Lewisburg. Our pigs grew well and with little notice, they could bag my feed in 50lb bags instead of the standard, 100’s.

There is a feed mill only 8 miles from Lilac Hill, and in an effort to “shop local” I asked about their feed. They were able to offer me almost everything I wanted, a custom mix with our preferred Fertrell’s minerals and local grains.

The major difference in the feed is that Grove’s uses locally grown, non-GMO corn.

Do GMO’s negatively influence the health of my pigs, of the people that eat our pork or of the environment? Discovering the answers to those questions would put me in front of a computer, sifting through research and diatribes, not moving fences, watching sheep and growing food.

In my mind, choosing non-GMO, removes uncertainty and I can focus on caring for the animals on the farm.

Feeding chickens in winter.

To add a bit of protein to the Buckeye's diet on these cold mornings, I serve them beef or sheep liver. After the frozen package thaws a little, I cube the meat and toss it into the scraps bucket. When the girls find the tidbits they greedily run off to a corner of the hen yard and feast.

Crunching the numbers for 2015

It may be frigid outside, but my mind is filled with thoughts of spring's pastures and baby animals and money.

So far this morning I have done research on lamb ear tags since we have experienced a high number of tag failures. Buying the tags will be the easiest part of the equation, figuring our what coding best suits our management system is a bit trickier. Although the cost of each tag is small, once coupled with the time needed to retag lambs, our production costs rise.

I have also been looking at the cost of production for poultry. Some costs are fixed, such as the price of peeps, shipping and processing. The price of feed can change, and since we have opted to raise the fast growing birds with local, certified organic grain, the starting point is almost twice that of conventional feed. With exercise and low caloric pasture as part of our birds' diets, our poultry has never achieved the advertised feed conversion rates listed in poultry catalogs. The numbers, especially for duck, are steep.

As a farmer,the stark financial realities of small farm food production are impressive, yet we are still committed to growing high quality, humanely raised meats. As a cook, my efforts to extract the most food value from the fat, bones and meat of our products is renewed.

Wethers to the butcher

Yesterday I drove two wether lambs to Gensemer's in Bloomsburg. Caroline was correct, Katahdins gain weight when the weather turns cold. Selecting for calm ewes, building efficient handling systems to limit stress and rotational grazing across our improving pastures seems to have fostered my developing shepherding skills. Hopefully this experience will translate into higher finished weights. The two lambs in the back of my Subaru looked good; there is a certain amount of satisfaction in a job well done.

Managing the Buckeye roosters

Lilac Hill Farm is going into winter with 5 Buckeye roosters, plus a banty roo' that arrived with 3 banty hens. Over the course of the last year we raised two more Buckeye family groups to add to our Lilac Hill Buckeyes. With three breeding groups, I hope to improve our flock following the Livestock Breeds Conservancy guidelines.

That goal is lovely, the reality right now is that I have a larger flock than usual going into winter.  I added feeders and spread fresh bedding in the coop more often. All the birds eat greens harvested from the lightly frosted gardens.

My original, Lilac Hill rooster is in with the hens, he seems to help maintain order in the coop. Lots of hens means I can gather hatching eggs from the girls that get through winter best. I saved two roosters from each new breeding line (NC and hatchery) and will select the best fellows in the spring.

The NC and hatchery roosters reside in their own pens near the garden, tearing up the ground for next year's new vegetable beds. When the weather turns very cold, the roosters will move to the outhouse coop. I am sure the feathers will fly on moving day.

The banties? The hens are here to hatch and rear chicks in the spring. Besides being a pretty farm ornament, the rooster watches over the hans and adds an interesting soprano "cock-a-doodle-do" to the farmyard choir.

Six roosters , it is noisy out there.

Pork Chop Cook Off

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Last weekend I had the opportunity to man the pork chop station at Owens Farm  pork tasting event. After a walking tour of their dynamic farm, Caroline and Dave  served pulled pork, ham, bacon and baked goods produced with farm rendered lard. The pork chop tasting offered visitors an opportunity to compare grocery store chops and farm raised Tamworth chops.

As a disclaimer, I am a home cook, my favorite meals tend to employ simple, rather old fashioned cooking techniques which highlight whatever is fresh or in abundance from our own or nearby farms. Even though this was not an America's Test Kitchen trial,  I tried to treat both meats evenly. Armed with two non-stick skillets, I trimmed a bit of fat from each chop and rendered a bit of liquid fat to fry up the chops. 

The Owens farm chop sizzled and developed a lovely caramelized crust, surrounding the moist meat.  Even without a resting period, the cut up samples were moist and full of flavor.

The grocery store chop was frustrating to cook, I just could not get that rich caramel color. Initially the grocery chop did sizzle but I believe that was the " added broth" listed on the label, cooking away. Once the broth cooked off, I could not not develop a rich crust and risked cooking all the moisture out of the chop. The store chop had little flavor.  I wonder how much of the flavor and weight of the store chop came from the added broth?

Beyond its intense, beautiful flavor, farm raised pork requires more effort and resources. Arranging for a pork share, managing the freezer so there is enough bacon for summer BLT's, flipping to the back of the recipe box for a picnic roast recipe, and paying for the yearly delivery is an investment.

As a farmer, of course I believe it is worth the effort. I love what I do and I love the food we grow. I believe that small farms, like Owens Farm and Lilac Hill Farm are good not only for our tables but benefit our land and support our communities. But honestly I am conflicted; how do families with increasing demands on their time and wallets make room for my products?  For that I do not have an answer, I am just working towards making a place for our farm raised foods at the table.

Freezer Management- How I handle stew hens

After butchering I do not always have time to cook the stew hens. I have the butcher leave the necks on the birds that need to be slow cooked so I can find them easily in the freezer. I have not come up with a way to id parted birds that need slow cooking as some unfortunate guests discovered this past summer.

Planning 2014, part 2

During this winter planning time we evaluated the pros and cons of all farm ventures, especially poultry with its high labor and feed demands.

Buckeye chickens

Beyond their eggs and meat, our heritage breed Buckeyes earn their keep by voraciously seeking out pests, avidly tossing around the compostables and efficiently setting eggs and rearing the next generation of birds.

In an effort to increase the size of our Buckeyes for the table, we purchased another breeding line this year (ordered chicks to start another for 2015) and will follow the protocols of the Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s, Chicken Assessment for Improving Productivity, . Heritage breeds grow slower, do not need higher protein, more expensive feed and raise their own replacements. Buckeyes work year round, allow me to control more of the input costs and if correctly managed, I can add breeding stock to the list of products we can sell. My biggest challenge will be in finding a market for non-broad breasted heritage breed chicken meat.

So, the Buckeyes stay on the farm with a plan to improve the quality of our flock and add breeding stock to the products we produce.

Cornish Cross meat birds

The Cornish Cross meat chickens I raised last year were delicious and added to the fertility of our fields but  after 8-9 weeks of daily moves of the open bottomed pens and organic feed, they were not large. Cornish Cross birds are very efficient at converting grain to meat, but with the slower weight gain, possibly due to their consumption of lower calorie grass and exercise in the uncrowded pen, and the fixed costs of purchase and processing, they did not pay for themselves. I am on the fence about raising Cornish Cross chickens again. The meat was tasty and the bones produced beautiful stock, but there are plenty of local farms raising broad breasted hybrid chickens more efficiently than Lilac Hill. If I have enough customer interest, I will raise one batch of meat birds but will  commit to raising them for 10 weeks to attain a larger size rather than crowding them in a pen or restricting their access to pasture.

Ducks

We like ducks. They are comical additions to the farmyard and with less feed than chickens, produce meat and eggs that  are tremendous.

As a saleable product, duck has drawbacks. With their 28 day incubation period (chicks incubate for 21 days) and sometimes seasonal laying period, hatchery purchased ducklings cost at least $2 more than chicks. Processing a duck costs $3.50  more than a chicken and if the timing is not correct and the bird is starting to molt, the product is not as pretty.

Beyond cost, many cooks do not have experience with preparing duck meat so finding a market for pasture raised duck is harder than for chicken or turkey. My kitchen has been my lab as I search out approachable recipes for cooking duck that is tender, crisp skinned and not greasy. Thanks to my latest recipe book purchase, Duck, Duck, Goose, my cooking  results have become more foolproof.

Locally sourced, pasture raised, organic grain fed duck meat is limited, so if  I can find cooks interested in trying duck, ramping up our duck flock may be a good venture for Lilac Hill.

As much as we appreciate our rare Saxony ducks, they may not fit  our future production needs. As much as I would like to continue in conservation efforts for Saxony ducks, I am not sure if I can afford to keep a purebred flock.  I do have a new Saxony drake who should give us a few years of service, which combined this year’s best Pekin drake, selected from the meatbird ducklings I ordered for this season, I may be able to breed a “farm duck” that lays reliably and hatch out our own Pekin x Saxony duck eggs in an effort to control costs.

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White Pekin Ducks

In spite of the greater costs of raising duck, I have ordered Pekin ducklings with the hope of finding interested customers. With daily moves in opened bottomed pens, the ducks will fertilize the pastures as they feast on bugs and greens. I’ll feed the ducks organic feed. I assume that  like the meat chickens I raised last year, our grow out time will be longer than advertised due to our ducks’ exercise and varied diet. Unlike the Cornish Cross hybrid chicken whose quick growth limits its longevity, a Pekin duck is a sustainable breed that can be kept as part of a home flock. As the ducklings grow I will select the best Pekins to add to the Saxony flock. If all goes well we can experiment next year with crossing the faster-growing-Pekin with the more-egg-laying Saxony.

If you have any interest in poultry from Lilac HIll Farm, please contact me.

Planning for 2014: Part 1

Over the winter we evaluated some of our long and short term goals for the farm.

Each farm enterprise must improve the soil on the farm, to increase the future carrying capacity of the land and provide nourishing food which we can profitably sell.

The most difficult decision I have made is to move the Belted Galloways off the farm so the increasing Katahdin sheep flock has access to more pasture and purchased winter hay.  To retain the important benefit of breaking the sheep’s parasite cycle, a neighbor’s beef will visit our fields and  rotate over the grazing paddocks. Blair will move to a nearby farm, Harper will head to the butcher this summer and I am looking for a farm interested in purchasing Josie, our Belted Galloway heifer. Formulating the grazing plan should be more straightforward with only ewes, meat lambs and the occasional beef visit; managing water, shelter,manure and breeding should be less complex with just sheep; and transporting animals off farm is achievable with our own trailer and old Subaru Outback.

Grazeable land, money for infrastructure and human energy are finite resources that I need to manage well as we develop into a financially sustainable farm. Electing to move beef off the farm, in spite of my affection for them, is just one of those “pull on your Muck boots”  choices that will hopefully lead to our success.

Dinner over a year in the making

"I had delicious fried chicken at work. Can we make fried chicken?'.......
"How many chicks should we order from Joe?"....
"What are dimensions of this portable coop? When can we pick up the metal roofing? What size welded wire should we buy?"......
"Are the chicks feathered out yet?"....
"Did you already move the chicks ?"
"Did you already move the meat birds?"
"Do they need more water?".....
"Can you pick up another bag of feed?"...
"Do you want any birds cut up?"...
"What issue of Cook's Illustrated had the recipe?"....
"Is it ready yet?".....
"Yes it is!"
The results of this yearlong quest for a delicious plate of fried chicken was totally worth it.

Roasted duck

With roasted duck on the Christmas dinner menu, I was able to try a recipe from Duck, Duck, Goose, by Hank Shaw. I already knew that roasting a whole duck is more complex than roasting a chicken because duck legs and thighs must cook to a much higher temperature than the breast meat. Hank Shaw states that the difference is about 40'. To deal with the difference the breast meat is cut off the bone in the middle of roasting the bird.

After bringing it to room temperature,trim the excess fat and remove the fat pockets from between the skin and meat. I will save and render the fat later.

Pierce the skin all over without damaging the flesh. This will allow the skin to crisp during cooking.

Rub with lemon and salt. Place the lemon and a trimmed garlic head in the body cavity.

Roast on a rack in a 325' oven.

Remove from the oven when the breast meat reaches 130-140'.  It took about 45 minutes to reach 130". In the future I will probably allow the temperature to reach 135'. 

Carve off the breast meat and tent with foil. Return the roasting pan to the oven and cook until the thickest part of the thigh reaches at least 165'.

Using some of the rendered duck fat, sear the skin of the breast cutlet until evenly browned.  Although the recipe did not call for it, I cooked the meat side of the cutlet too.  

Salt and slice.  Since there were only four of us at the table, we did not wait for the legs and thighs.  The recipe recommends cutting them off the carcass and searing them too.

If other recipes in Hank Shaw's book are as delicious as last night's roasted duck, Lilac Hill's plan to increase the size of our duck flock is a good one.

Murphy's ears

Saxony Ducks: Winter 2013

It is easier to keep the ducks within the fenced vegetable garden over the winter. It is a short, fairly flat walk from the water spigot to the garden gate. "Short" and "flat" makes my twice daily trips with buckets manageable during the iciest part of winter. Ducks submerge their bills in water to clear their nostrils after they gobble feed or sift through dirt. Eventually their water buckets are a muddy mess, demanding twice daily water changes.

Within the garden they are separated from the four-leggeds who would be happy to push through fences to eat duck feed. The garden soil and mulch offers tasty tidbits for the curious ducks too.

It took a couple weeks to find straw bales to edge the lower garden fence. These bales will act as a fence this winter and a mulch for the asparagus next summer.

Two pens rest on raised garden beds. The ducks can seek shelter in these pens, but if they are like our previous Saxonies, they will  settle in the open air. Once breeding season begins I will use the pens for breeding groups.

To keep the Saxonies busy I'll lace the pile of garden trimmings with corn kernels, putting the ducks to work turning the compostable waste.

Early winter water

Nights can get cold enough to add a layer of ice in the troughs now. Even though I can still break this layer, I have decided to add the tank heater to the larger trough. When the water is warmed a bit, the sheep and cows drink more which has to be better for the newly pregnant ewes and Blair, the still-nursing Beltie.

Easy beef vegetable soup

With cold weather here, a pot of beef vegetable soup was on the menu.

To start I sautéed half a chopped onion, 3 stalks of chopped celery and and 3 peeled and diced carrots. To that I added 4 chopped mushrooms and 5 chopped cabbage leaves and gave the vegetables a sprinkle of salt . For soup I like the diced vegetables to be small enough so that each spoonful of soup will have more than one vegetable piece. I tend to reach for a bit of lard for sauteing when the flavor of my olive oil will be masked by the stronger flavors of the soup. Unlike other fats or oils, this lard is from a nearby farm, a valuable byproduct of the effort of that farmer and rendered at the local butcher shop.

Once the onion was soft I added three handfuls of diced chuck roast. I trimmed the roast of fat, saving the bigger pieces of fat for when I grind some lean top round for burgers. This chuck roast, from a grass-raised, grass-finished beef is beautifully marbled and is very tender when simmered or slow cooked.

I stirred the beef around, making sure the pieces were separated then added enough water to cover the vegetable beef saute and scraped up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Then I poured in the juices from a quart of tomatoes. (I find that the liquid in my home canned tomatoes is thinner than store bought so adjust with water when necessary.) I usually just squeeze the tomatoes to break them up rather than chopping the juicy tomatoes on the cutting board. I simmered the soup for 20 minutes . About twenty minutes before I served the soup I added some diced potatoes and cupcake pack of corn.

In the summer I always cook a couple more ears of corn than we will eat. Once it is cool, usually the next morning if I have not used it for fritters or eaten cold for breakfast, I cut it off the cob and wrap it up in little packages that fit in my cupcake pan and pop it in the freezer. Once frozen, those wrapped corn cupcakes go into a gallon sized zip bag, making room for the next leftover corn. 

 I thinned the mixture with some water since I wanted a soup and not a stew and served. This is not fancy fare, even though I added a handful of chopped parsley at the end, just a basic soup. It is the kind of soup that my mother made to warm to feed six squirmy children. Like many soups, it will probably taste even better tomorrow.

Galloways in winter, pigs in spring.

This year, during the coldest days and nights of winter, the Galloways will be sequestered in a deeply bedded paddock, out of the wind and facing what little bit of sunshine is available. We plan to add layers of corn to the fresh layers of carbon rich bedding.
Per Joel Salatin's example, the cows should eat through fewer round bales in an effort to stay warm and the Barn Field should sustain less winter damage from too heavy hooves on mostly frozen ground.
Once the beef are turned out to pasture, the corn should be fermenting. The rooting action of pig snouts in search of corn will turn the manured bedding into compost for the gardens and fields.
In a future post I will talk about the other tasks I have planned for the pigs.

Settling in for winter

With the wind starting to blow, the water tote near empty and the North Field grazed down, it was time to move the cows into the Barn Field with the sheep. The two shelters, hay ring, unfinished hay from the ram pen and troughs were also dragged into the field. After a bit of jostling for position, the sheep, donkey and cows are content. The Barn Field is protected from the wind and quite lovely, especially on this sunny day.