Meet Our New Hens!

Our new ladies:) Five Black Sex-Link hens who lay beautiful brown eggs!

Breuster didn't know what to think of all these new girls!

Our new girls have settled in very well. We're getting 3-4 eggs per day from the 6 hens we have but expect that to increase once they've been here for a while. I love having fresh eggs anytime we need them! They lay such wonderful eggs too. Huge brown eggs with rich yellow/orange yolks. If you haven't had a farm fresh egg, go find your local farmer asap! You are missing out!

Another Meal Worth Sharing: Black Bean Salad and Spinach Turkey Burgers

One of my favorite things about changing the way we eat is all the new recipes! After a while, it seems like we get stuck in a food rut. Same meals over and over. And of course it's usually the simple ones like chili, spaghetti, tacos, etc. While those are all good, we get tired of them. Lately, thanks to Pinterest, I've been trying to throw in a new meal each week. So far, I've hit a homerun each time! Last night was no exception. I have seen several versions of this Black Bean Salad but didn't have all the ingredients or some of the things in the original recipe wouldn't sound good. So, here is my version:

1 can Black Beans (rinsed)

1 avocado

1 1/2 cups frozen corn (I'm guessing that's how much I used)

1 large tomato

1 tsp olive oil

2-3 tbsp lime juice

2-3 garlic cloves, finely minced

salt to taste

pepper to taste

Cook corn as directed. Once done, rinse in cold water or place in refrigerator until ready to use. Cut up the avocado and tomato into bite size pieces. Mix beans, avocado, corn, and tomato together. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, lime juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Pour over the bean mix and blend well. 

This recipe can be modified in so many ways too. Bell peppers and onions would be delicious additions! I can't wait until this summer when the corn, tomatoes, and garlic are all fresh from our garden! 

We had Spinach Turkey Burgers also which are always a hit, even for my 7 year old, until he noticed the green in them. These are super simple. Mix 1 pound of lean ground turkey with 1 package of thawed frozen chopped spinach, 1 egg, and 1 packet of taco seasoning. Throw them on the grill and you are in for a treat!

Hope you now have a few new ideas to get you and your family out of the dinner rut!

Supper Idea: Chipotle Pork Salads

I had to share this recipe. It's spicy, filling, and has a little bit of everything! I'll call it Chipotle Pork Salads. The meat is prepared in the crockpot which is a huge added bonus for our family.

Chipotle Pork Salads

Boston butt pork roast

Can of chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, chopped

6-7 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/2 of a fresh lime, juice only

About 1 cup of beef broth

Trim and cut pork into 1-2 inch pieces. Combine everything in the crockpot and cook on High for 5-6 hours or on Low 8-10 hours. 

For the rest of the salad:

Lettuce

Tomato

Refried Beans (fat-free with a little lime and Mexican cheese on top)

Corn

Salsa

Mix the salad fixin's together and top with a few pieces of pork. Spicy and delicious!!

My, How Life Changes

Last night, I was talking with my Love about our farm and it hit me. One year ago, if someone would have said "this time next year, you'll be working on your farm" I would have told them they were insane. I really would have thought they were crazy if someone had of told me that 5 years ago! "No, I'm going to have a nice little office job where I don't have to do manual labor" would have been my reply. After working our land, I can't imagine it any other way. Who knew I would go to college to get a business degree and later realize that I couldn't handle one more day of doing that? Sure, there are stresses on a farm...like spending an entire day planting seeds and hoping most of it will come up, wondering if it will ever rain again when you're entire garden is looking brown, or having a stray dog find it's way onto your property while your goats and chickens are loose. And of course, life always throws you curve balls when you have a family but that doesn't even compare to the work stresses I used to face on a daily basis. Now, we just need to get this thing productive so my Love can join me in working this land each day.

The Day I've Been Waiting For

It's here! Finally here! I can finally get lot's of seeds going today and I'm so excited! With the early onset of spring this year, I've felt behind on my gardening even though the chance for frost will be around until mid-May for our area. It's been way too early to seriously start anything but today I'm going to start tomatoes and peppers! I plant according to the good ole Farmer's Almanac. The 2012 Best Planting Dates for Seeds for your area is tailored to your specific region. Type in your zip code and it will tell you the moon-favorable dates to start seeds indoors and outdoors! I'm sure everyone has their own little tricks about what dates are best to plant certain things. What do you go by? Do you plant by the moon or some other signs?

Our tomatoes from last year. Mountain Pride I believe.

Now, for what you've all been dying to know...here are the varieties I'll be planting today! They are all organic and heirloom or open-pollenated varieties. 

Tomatoes

German Johnson

Cherokee Purple

Amish Paste

Brandywine

Hot Peppers

Hungarian Hot Wax

Purple Jalepeno

Sweet Peppers

Lipstick

California Wonder

I'll also be starting Ground Cherries also known as Husk Cherry or Garden Berry. I'm so excited about these! We have had several folks give us ground cherry preserves and they are amazing. Happy planting!

Spring is Here!

Marigold's started in newspaper pots

 Take a look around! Spring is here at Bumgardner Farm and there is plenty going on. We're starting lot's of seeds each week, working on gardens, building a goat fence, and more!

Carrots: Just a few being grown indoors.

Cheap way to warm your soil to help seeds germinate: plastic wrap! It makes a mini indoor greenhouse.

Working on preparing our tomato planters. These grew the best tomatoes last year. Having them off the ground seems to help with drainage.

Red Romaine Lettuce

Small garden on left: Future Amish Paste tomato garden. Large garden on right: garlic, potatoes, onions

This one will be corn, beans, peas, squash, hanovers, and cucumbers

Our new farm toy:) It cleared a patch of multi-flora rose bushes that would have taken at least a full day by hand, in only 30 minutes.

Sunny at 2 months old

2007 Subaru Legacy for Sale

A Second Round of Snow Scenes!

I had to take my camera with me on my evening walk to feed the goats. This is one of those breathtaking snows that pictures just don't do it justice. The air is still and the snow is piling up fast. It's beautiful!

Even the brush pile looks pretty!

Snow Scenes

Finally, a snow day!!

Preparing for a Fence

There are a lot of first's for me now that we're farming. Putting up a fence is one of those things that in my mind didn't seem too difficult. I figured the worst part would be digging holes since we have an abundance of rocks around here. Nope, that may still end up being it, but so far it has been the rose bushes. Not the pretty little roses retirees grow in front of their homes. These are the multiflora rose bushes. Here is a great description of them. My favorite line: "Do not plant multiflora rose." Back in the day, they thought it would be a good animal barrier. Maybe so but when you remove animals from the land, the roses take over. In order to get a fence line cleared out, I've been beating and cutting these bushes for almost 2 weeks now. Finally, the fence line is clear! It's such a relief. My body is scratched, my hands ache, and my feet are really starting to feel the pain of standing and climbing up and down the side of a mountain. It is so worth it though. The goats love rose bushes so they get to take care of the rest of them!

It's so refreshing to work outside that I actually enjoy the aches and pains at the end of the day. Here are some of the views from the top of the future fence line.

Looking behind me at the path that has been cleared. We're lucky enough that the deer keep this part of the property trampled down.

Another view from the top

Looking over towards the rock quarry. You can almost escape the noise of the dump trucks from this high up.

I'm slightly jealous of our neighbors property. Somehow, he doesn't have a single rose bush!!

Marcell looks pretty amazed at how big that tree is

Looking up into the big tree. I love trees. They're all so unique and beautiful.

Marcell, our cat, was my hiking buddy yesterday. He didn't know what to think about all the noises and things going on around him. His eyes were huge the entire walk. Maybe he was waiting to pounce on something or perhaps he was terrified of all the new surroundings. He was a great hiking partner until we got back down to the goats. He's familiar with Sunny, the baby, but he's never met Daisy before. Her size and spastic ways seemed to frighten Marcell. Mama carried him out of the woods and back to the house while earning a few more scratches.

Sunny, The Baby Goat and Other Farming Adventures

After finalizing garden plans, I was itching to get out and do what I could on our unusually spring-like day yesterday. It was perfect weather to pull rocks from the garden. If we could sell rocks and multi-flora rose bushes, we'd be millionaires. 

While I was at the garden near the goats, I let Sunny, the baby goat, run around with me. I've never seen a goat so confused. He totally thinks I'm his mom. Sunny followed me back and forth from the garden to the trailer until he finally wore his little legs out and fell asleep under the four wheeler. Later, he got a ride on the four-wheeler up to the house for his lunch time bottle. There was a crew cutting trees on my neighbors place and one of the men came over to compliment my cute little billy. And to say how he'd never seen a goat follow someone around like that or get a ride on a four-wheeler.

Of course, I had to snap some pictures of Sunny:

Already learning to eat grass and weeds. That's something only his mama can teach him.

He's taller than Breuster now! I believe Sunny is the only animal on the farm who can "play" with Breuster and not get flogged.

Have you ever seen a goat smile? Sunny, the smiling goat.

Once I finished in the large garden, I put Sunny up with his mama and adventured down to our smaller garden. This one has so many rocks I didn't hardly know where to start. I'd decided I'd remove the ones larger than a baseball since there is no way I'm going to get this soil rock free...ever. That is until I crushed my thumb between a couple of the largest ones. Now, I'm after those rocks. I don't care how sore my back gets or how many black thumbs they cause. I'm going to get them. All of them. As soon as I gain movement in my thumb again...

Garden Planning

It's almost time to order seeds! In just a few weeks, my home will be full of new life. Our last frost is so late that a lot of what we're planting needs to be started indoors. Our living room and kitchen will be packed full with small plants of tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupes, and so much more! We decided open-pollinated and heirloom seeds are the only way to go. There are so many different hybrid options out there but I want something sustainable. I want to be able to save the seeds from everything I plant and be able to use them again next year. I'm sure you're dying to know exactly what we're going to plant...so here it is:

Garden #1 (Pictured Above)

Fortex Pole Beans

Penelope Peas

Yellow Crookneck Squash

Edens Gem Cantaloupe

Marketmore Cucumbers

Northern Pickling Cucumbers

Double Standard and Silver Queen Corn (I still have a little research left on these. Some corn varieties do not grow well together)

AllStar Lettuce Mix - includes Green and Red Oakleaf, Green and Red Romaine, Lollo Rossa, and Redleaf lettuces

Garden #2

Ailsa Craig Exhibition Onion

Kennebec Potatoes - we planted these and Yukon Gold's last year. Kennebec's win!

Adirondack Blue Potatoes - They're blue all the way through!

American Purpletop Hanovers aka Rutabagas

Planters

Hot Pepper Lantern Peppers

Yankee Bell Peppers

Lipstick Peppers

Hungarian Hotwax Peppers

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

Brandywine Tomatoes

Amish Paste Roma Tomatoes

German Johnson Tomatoes

Atomic Red Carrots 

After researching seed companies, I really like what Johnny Seeds has to offer. Plus, I called to ask a few questions the other day and they were super friendly and helpful. They are online at johnnyseeds.com and you can also request a catalog from their site. I know it's more earth friendly to just shop online but I am so much more organized with the paper catalog in my hands. I can mark what I want and flip back through it over and over plus they have lots of tips in their catalog. Please leave a comment if you have a suggestion of a great heirloom or open-pollinated seed.

We Have a Kid

We are pleased to announce the birth of Sunflower (Sunny) born Tuesday, January 17, 2012. He's a beautiful little billy goat born to Daisy. 

Sunny is being bottle fed due to his mother being hurt on a barbed wire fence last year. She was given to us to remove her before she got pregnant again but we got her a little too late. Or perhaps right on time looking at that sweet face of Sunny. 


Sunny is going to be spoiled. He is staying inside at night so he doesn't attempt to nurse Daisy and to keep out of these cold nights we have here. I never imagined I would have a goat sleeping in my laundry room!