Is the cow pregnant?

When we first decided to have a cow, we had in mind of getting milk at some point. So, 2 years ago, we decided it was time to go shopping for a cow! We’re only 3 in our family so a big Holstein was out of the question because of the amount of milk per day they produce so we opted for a cute little Jersey! Like the one that did the ad for the Hershey Chocolate bar “back then” (gosh I’m old!!!).

We visited 2 farms: a “regular” milk farm and an organic milk farm. We found our little brown pearl at the organic farm. The owner told us there were 4-5 cows ready to go. She left us to go get something in the house and came back with a list of the cow that was ready to go. She gave us the name of each and every one of them. Faith (her name) was the one we chose!

Faith moved with us about a week after our visit at the farm. She was very quiet on her way home and already very friendly with us, the birds, the dogs and Justin. We halter broke her as soon as she was here, gave her bath, brushed her every day so that she could get use to us as much as possible. We didn’t want to have a dangerous and mean cow around us. She was so friendly that when she escaped (more than once) she was always ending up at our neighbour’s place, more specifically in their garden (!!!) and they would walk her back in the field without any problem (other than eating their salad!!!).

So, in 2015, Faith was over a year old and it was time for her to meet a man! We contacted someone who had a little Dexter bull and the gentlemen move in with us (with Faith) from spring 2015 to fall 2015. He was a very good and gentle tenant except for a few fences he broke when tried to reach grass on the other side.

Not being there with them 24/7, we don’t know if love did his magic but we noticed that Faith was not in heat anymore! And mostly, she wasn’t trying to escape each month to go meet a man!!! I think she looks bigger than she was in the spring, her belly is much rounder on the side and Tim said that he doesn’t  know if it was a bowel movement or not but he felt something moving in his belly . Fingers crossed she’s going to give us a beautiful baby in March-April 2016!

 

Pork chops à la Annette

So, as I previously mentioned, I'm really not a pork chops fan. Because we're raising pigs and because we have about a ton of pork chops in the freezer, I need to learn to love them.

My friend Annette gave me this easy to make and absolutely delicious recipe. Here's what you need:

- 1 pork chop/pers

- 2-3 tbsp of pesto/pork chops *

- Herbes, whichever you like, I used Rosemary, Thyme and herbes de provence

- Salt/Pepper

*Here's a link to another post about a pesto recipe I did. Easy and delicious: http://ballycanoelowelandfarm.blogspot.ca/2016/01/pesto-more-pesto-please.html?m=1)

 

First, sprinkle your spices on each side of the chops and then coat your pork chops with pesto and grill them in a pan for about 3-4 minutes/side in oil.

Once they are grilled, take a cooking plate and pour some apple cider vinegar in it (enough to cover the bottom of the plate, about 1-2 millimetres). Put your chops in it and cover with veggies. I used steamed carrots and potatoes and I sprinkle more spices on top of the veggies and salt & pepper.

Put your plate in the oven at 400° for about 20-30 minutes depending on the thickness of your chops.

While your pork is in the oven, cook some rice and then, voilà! You have a delicious meal in you plate in no time! I must admit that since I've made this recipe, I don't think I'll ever want to eat my chops another way!!! Thanks Annette!

 

Regrowing green onions

I tried this last year and I'm doing it again this year being more careful this time. Regrowing stuff! I started with green onions because it's easy and because we put green onions in almost everything.

Easy like I said, just make sure you leave 2-3cm of the onion from the roots when you cut it and put the stem in water, change the water 1-2 time per week (I also "clean" the roots by running water on them to remove anything that can collect in there) and set in a indirect sunny spot somewhere in your house and voilà! You will have green onion growing back from the old one.

 

I notice that after regrowing the same onion 2 times, it has a tendency to grow thinner... My guess is that the onion get "tired" at some point and can't produce bigger "green". I think it's normal but all in all, you can regrow your onion 2 times which is not that bad considering the fact that it's not like it's hard to take care of and it doesn't cost anything to do it.

Last year, I tried regrowing lettuce and it worked well but I didn't continue to do it because we weren’t eating enough lettuce and I ended up "loosing" them.

Other easy stuff you can regrow is: leeks, celery, pineapple, garlic, garlic sprout and even mushroom (got to try this one this summer).

Italian pork chops inspired by...

Inspiration can come in different ways. This one came in my inbox!

I got inspired by a recipe my friend posted on her blog (here's the link: https://ruralcanuck.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/italian-baked-chicken-breast/)

As we didn't have any chicken in the freezer, I decided to use pork chops instead. So, following her recipe, I coated my chops with homemade pesto (click here to see my recipe: )

Because there was 1/2 tomato left from yesterday's dinner, I had all the ingredients in hand to do a delicious dinner. Then I came home to this! Someone ate my tomato today while I was at work!!! So I used 1-2 tbsp if canned diced tomatoes... Hopefully, it will work out!

Then I added cheese and popped everything in the oven at 400° for 35-40 minutes.

Pesto!!! More pesto please!!!

I love pesto! And it's so easy to make.

Here's what I do to make my own pesto, and don't be disappointed because I'm not reinventing anything here!!!

Here are the ingredients I use (sorry, no quantities as I eyeball everything depending on the amout of pesto I want to make)

- basil leaves

- roasted almonds (optional)

- parmesan cheese

- olive oil

- salt/pepper

- garlic (that I forgot to put in mine!!!)

I roughly chop my basil leaves and then I grate parmesan cheese and my garlic. Since I don't have pine nuts (because it's too expensive) I normally use roasted almonds and I grind them. Once all this is done, I blend everything with olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper. And that's it! You have a delicious homemade pesto!

Enjoy!

Winter VS water

Ahh! Tis' the season! Winter, snow, sliding, walks in the wood, fire in the stove that smells great, building snowmen, outstanding Hydro bills... Winter.... Oh, and of course the "best" part: hauling water to the animals!!!

Since we don't have running water in the barn, and since the animals still need to drink (!!!) we need to carry water from the house to them. That means, on a normal cold day, 2 pails of hot water. Enough to melt the ice in the barrels. But on a freezing cold day (like the one we had last year) when it was - 1,000,000° (windchill excluded!!!) 2 wasn't enough. We (and by we, I mean Tim) had to make 3-4 trips. Really painful!

So everything starts in our bathroom where I fill up the pails with hot water...

Then, I take them down the stairs (it feels like a "reverse Kill Bill")

And then Tim takes them outside to the animals (under the supervising warch of Theo).

Tim is doing the hardest part of the job so why am I complaining you'll ask me? Because sometimes Tim isn't there and I need to do it. I have a really bad back so it is painful for me to do that. Walking with the pails on ice and snow kills me!

Finally arriving at the barn and realizing that you dropped almost half of the water when walking because you slipped or fell, and you need to go back home, take your boots off, go up the stairs again, fill the pails again, go down the stairs, AGAIN, put your boots on, go out and hope not to fall or lose water again... Priceless!

But those birds, cow, goat and pigs need to drink too and we love them so, putting aside all of my complaining, we do it as often as we need to.

Green tea body scrub

Something easy that I love to do is make body scrubs. They are easy, you probably already have everything on hands to make it and there is are so many options that you can tweak the recipe you will decide to do.

This one was made for my mother in law. I decided to do this recipe because I already had everything home to do it, no need to go to the store!

Here are the ingredients required for this scrub are:

3/4 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of coconut oil (I used Nutiva coconut oil from Bulk Barn)

1 bag of green tea

1 tsp of Matcha green tea powder (from Bulk Barn)

Put the sugar and tea in a bowl, mix well and then add the coconut oil. Room temperature is fine, you don't need to melt it before. Using a fork, mix all the ingredients together and BAM! You're done!

It fit in a small 250ml Mason jar I had on hand. If you want to make a bigger batch you can always double or triple the recipe.

How cute is that!!! Last Christmas, I made some Vanilla Chai sugar scrubs and they were a success! 

I also noticed that since all the ingredients used are edible, you can keep a little portion of the scrub with your beauty supply and use it on your lips as a lip exfoliate... And you know what, it taste delicious!!!

So go ahead, be crazy, try new "flavours", use different types of sugar, salt, epsom salt (but don't use this one on your lips!), oils (grape seed oil, olive oil, etc.), add mint, rosemary, pepper, lemon peel or any essential oil you love. The sky is the limit!!!!