Sometimes I Miss Having Pigs

Waldo and Polly. Photo taken June 2015.

I think of the various farm animals Dan and I have had, pigs have been a hands-down favorite. We had American Guinea Hogs, a small heritage breed native to the South. They were good foragers, friendly, excellent at turning all food scraps into manure, but hard on fences. So when our fences began to experience a lot of collateral damage from falling pine trees ...

A lot of them fall over roots and all. This one
made a handy get-away hole under the fence.

This one fell on top of the fence.

As did this one.

This one is leaning just inside the fence corner!
Another fence disaster just waiting to happen.

... we decided to sell our Waldo and Polly until we could deal with the problem and repair our fences. That seemed a better alternative to keeping them penned. Eventually, we will have pigs again.

I miss them most at times like now, when I have a surplus of milk.

I'm currently milking three does, one twice a day and the others once a day because I'm milk sharing with their kids. Total, they give me a little more than three-quarters of a gallon per day. That isn't much by cow standards, but for two people who don't drink milk, it's a lot. And it accumulates quickly! I use it to make cheese, kefir, and ice cream, but sometimes I have more than I can attend. Feeding it to the pigs was an excellent way to deal with a surplus.

The other thing the pigs were excellent for was consuming whey. Whey is a byproduct of cheese making and since there is more water in milk than milk solids and butterfat, cheesemakers end up with a lot of whey.  The chickens and cats aren't interested in that, but the pigs loved it!

Whey leftover from 3 half-gallons of milk

There are a number of things can be done with whey. I use it in place of water for all my cooking and baking. (As it sours it is excellent with baking soda as a leavening agent). It can be used to water plants. My favorite way to use whey is to make gjetost and primost.

Gjetost is Norwegian goat whey cheese and it is absolutely divine. You can read my "Gjetost (Norwegian Goat Whey Cheese)" post for details and the recipe. Primost is similar, the difference being that it isn't cooked down quite as long as gjetost and so is spreadable. I make both, which one depending on how far along it is by bedtime (in other words, I don't want to let it continue to simmer down overnight). Besides being delicious, both products use up all the whey.

Makes a wonderful sandwich spread on toast with jelly.

I also like to make the more traditional whey product.

Whey Ricotta

I use ricotta for a lot of things. Lasagna and cheesecake are traditional favorites, but I also use ricotta in my no-fat ricotta biscuits, gnocchi (Italian dumplings), and gelato (Italian ice cream without the cream). You can read how I make whey ricotta in my "A Simple Ricotta Cheese" post.

But! Ricotta still leaves whey, and that brings me back to missing having pigs. Looking forward to the day they can be part of our homestead again.

Sometimes I Miss Having Pigs © July 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Amaranth Harvest and Other Seed Crops

Here is my amaranth harvest for 2016.

A small Golden Giant amaranth head.

That's it. One small head of amaranth seeds. But even that was a surprise, because I thought the entire planting was bust. I planted a large bed of amaranth last spring, but that was before our two months of upper 90s and no rain. After we finally got rain, no amaranth grew and the little plot was soon overgrown with everything I didn't plant.

Amaranth is usually easy to grow and relatively heat and drought resistant. Both greens and seeds are nutritious as human food, but I especially grow it for animal feed. It is rich in protein, calcium, copper, and is a good source of lysine, an amino acid (which makes it a good protein balancer for corn, which we also grow but is low in lysine).

Both chickens and goats will eat the seed heads, which require virtually no processing. I store whole heads in large trash cans and toss them to the chickens who peck the seeds out. For the goats the heads can be chopped or the seeds roughly stripped (I just pull the head through a gloved hand). If the stems are chopped or broken to small pieces the goats will eat that too. Leaves can be fed either fresh or dried (which I add to my DIY mineral mix). The stalks can be chopped finely and fed as bulk in a homegrown feed mix.

The one plant that made it was stunted and pretty much hidden in the weeds. I didn't notice it until we were getting ready to turn the goats into the garden. Like my lone hope sweet potato I'm considering it a seed crop and am grateful for at least the one head. It will give me a lot of fresh seed to plant next spring, when I can hope for a better year and an abundant harvest.

Three other seed crops have been field corn,

Truckers Favorite open pollinated corn

cowpeas,

Ozark Razorback cowpeas

and cushaw squash.

Cushaw winter squash, harvested from an unexpected place.

Of the corn I planted only a small patch for the purpose of getting next year's seed. We knew the goat barn would take up all of our time and so chose not to plant our usual quarter acre of corn. Corn seed is only viable for a year or maybe two, so being able to have fresh seed next year was important.

The cowpea harvest would have been more abundant if we'd gotten good rainfall, but at least I have some. Like the corn it feeds us plus our critters, so it's something I like to grow every year.

The cushaws were volunteers! In the buck pasture of all places. I fed rinds, pulp, and seeds to pigs and goats, who both had access to the buck pasture. I'm guessing they spread the seed in their manure. Even while the pasture was drying up I watered these vine's with leftovers from the goats' water buckets. They are small for cushaws, but will provide a good amount of winter squash eating for Dan and me this winter (with more rinds, pulp and seeds to feed).

On the bright side, this year we were plentiful in blueberries, figs, apples, pears, almonds, acorns, and pecans. Strawberries, peaches, raspberries, and elderberries weren't record harvests, but I got plenty for pies, jams, jellies, and ice cream.

Winter gardening may be a bust this year too. We've only gotten a quarter inch of rain in the past two and a half months, so my garden soil is either powder or hard as a rock. Hopefully things will change soon.

So how is everyone else's harvest doing? Do any of you have a fall or winter garden in the works?

Amaranth Harvest and Other Seed Crops © Oct 2016 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Unexpected Visitors

Saturday morning as I was getting ready to go out for chores I heard Dan calling me to come quickly. I ran to the back door to discover we had a pot belly pig in the yard!

There were two of them. They were not willing to be caught, but they were willing to follow Dan into the front pasture for food.

We had no clue where they came from, so Dan called the county animal control to come get them.

Hopefully the person who lost them will think to look for them there.

Unexpected Visitors © June 2016 by

Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Scrapple Fail = Livermush Success?

Dan grew up eating scrapple, but I had never heard of it until we took our first trip to Pennsylvania together. We stopped at a quaint country restaurant for breakfast, and he ordered some for me. Good stuff.

What is scrapple? The basic idea is to make a flour and meal mush, add seasoning and finely ground cooked meats, and pour into molds. The mush solidifies when cool (as cooked cereals are wont to do) so that it can be sliced and fried in butter, lard, or drippings until crispy brown. Serve with maple syrup, applesauce, or buttered grits and you've got a winner.

After we got home I kept my eye out at the grocery stores and would buy it when I could find it. It's not easy to find here in the South where livermush is much more common.

Now, I'd never heard of livermush either, but have come to decide that livermush is the southern equivalent to scrapple. The main differences are that scrapple uses a variety of meat parts and may or may not contain liver. Livermush always contains liver, usually head meat, and uses all corn meal. Scrapple uses flour (often buckwheat) and may or may not include corn meal.  (If you use cooked steel cut oats, it's called "goetta".) For Dan, the only option is scrapple, so when we processed our two young pigs earlier this year, I saved the heads, tongues, and organ meats for making scrapple.

What was difficult was choosing a specific recipe. There must be hundreds of scrapple recipes. While they are basically the same, there are many variations in ingredients and proportions. Which one would taste like what we're used to? I figured if I it wasn't absolutely perfect this year, there is always next year!

So here's somewhat of a recipe, written down mostly for my own record keeping. I did not set out to have these particular amounts, this is just what I ended up with. To cook the meat:

• 2 pig heads (pigs were six months old)
• tongues, livers, hearts, and kidneys
• 1 medium onion, chunked
• 3 celery stalks
• enough filtered water to almost fill a gallon pot

I simmered the heads until the meat was tender, then removed them and deboned the meat. The organ meats were cooked separately in the same broth. The only thing I had to prepare were the kidneys. These were split lengthwise and the white vein removed. Once cooked everything was removed and allowed to cool. The onion and celery were feed to the chickens. I ended up with three quarts of broth. Cooled meat went through the grinder and I ended up with two pounds.

My old meat grinder is smaller and slow, so I bought a new one.
Much faster! For scrapple, the meats are cooked before grinding.

To make the mush:

• 3 qt broth - reserve about 2 cups cold
• 1.5 cup cornmeal
• 0.5 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 tbsp ground sage
• 1 tbsp ground thyme
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp ground rosemary
• 1.5 tbsp salt

First I mixed the flour, corn meal, and seasoning in the cold 2 cups of broth. Doing this made a smooth paste and eliminated lumps when adding it to the simmering broth. When the broth came to a simmer I added the meal paste. I was to simmer until thick and then add the ground meats. Most recipes said it would take about half an hour, but mine was much slower to thicken. It may have been the corn meal. One recipe stated that different brands recommend different amounts when making a cooked corn meal cereal. I used our home grown corn for my meal, so I had only trial and error on which to go.

Once the cereal was thick, the ground meats were stirred in and brought to a simmer again. Joy of Cooking instructed to pour it into bread pans that had been rinsed in cold water. Not sure why, but I did it anyway!

I had enough to fill three small bread pans.

One Sunday morning I took the first one out of the pan and tried to slice it. Observation number one was that it wasn't actually sliceable; it was too soft. I made a mental note to add either more cornmeal next time, or less liquid next time. Instead I formed it into patties and fried it.

It's really tasty fried in sausage or bacon grease.

The verdict? Well, the first tasting was good, but it didn't taste like scrapple. In hindsight I should have used less liver because that was the predominant flavor. Instead of scrapple I figured I had made livermush. It was disappointing on the one hand but delicious on the other.

Because it made so much I had to freeze the rest of it. Scrapple and livermush can be frozen, although it's not recommended. This is because it tends to retain water when it thaws, making it somewhat water logged. I squeeze out the excess water when I form the patties and the rest steams out during cooking. The other trick to good scrapple (or livermush), is to not flip it until the first side is crispy brown. That helps prevent it from falling apart.

I have to say that subsequent servings weren't so strongly liver tasting, so it's possible I didn't thoroughly mix the mush. Either way we like it (although Dan still likes scrapple better). In fact the other night it tasted exactly like the scrapple we've been used to. We had it with creamed hard-cooked eggs on toast (pictured at the top of the post). For an authentic Southern breakfast serve it with scrambled eggs and buttered grits.

Scrapple Fail = Livermush Success? © May 2016 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Master Plan 2016

If you've read my blog for awhile or my first book, then you know that one of our cornerstones of homesteading is our Master Plan

When we first bought our place we walked the land, dreamed out loud, and discussed what we wanted to do. To keep our proposed big picture in mind, Dan wanted to map out how it would look some day. That's what our Master Plan is, a map of where we hope we're heading; of our goals fulfilled. It serves as a reminder of what we've decided and makes it easier to discuss how new ideas fit into the big picture.

We've updated it almost every year. Now that new goat quarters are finally going to become a reality, we've been reflecting back over what we've learned over the past several years and have been discussing land usage. All of this is reflected in the new Master Plan. (To see previous plans, click here).

Things in black are current, blue designates 

what's planned. Gates are notated with pairs of dots.

The biggest change (besides the goat barn) is more permanent designations for pasture and field crops. I've long hung on to the idea that we could rotate field crops and pasture in a four or five year rotation plan that utilized our critters in soil preparation. The reality of doing that has proved more challenging than I anticipated. This is partly because the odd shape of our land doesn't facilitate an easy moving around of critters. The animals themselves don't like change-ups, especially if it means being driven to different areas. It's so much easier to simply open one gate or another, depending on where we want them. This doesn't mean we can't use them in various areas, but having a more permanent setting is less confusing for them.

The area we've chosen for field crops in the new plan is in a good sunny spot which has fewer weeds than "doe pasture 2" and more sun than "buck pasture 2" where I've grown them in the past. We plan to prepare it next fall for winter wheat. The placement of the new goat barn with a small fenced-in "goat corral" will make it easy to rotate between the girls' two pastures.

Rotating the bucks amongst their smaller pasture areas will require a little more fencing (as in a corridor from the shelter to buck pasture 3. We may even be able to divide their pasture 1 into two for additional rotations. I also plan to make more hedgerow garden areas along fencelines between the various pasture areas.

For permanent quarters, we think the pigs should be toward the back of the property. When they were closer to the house it was impossible to carry feed or hay to the goats without being accosted by pigs. They are pigs, after all! We can still give them access to whatever area we want them rooting in, so they can still have pasture, but a permanent home farther back gives us a little more control. As long as we feed them in the same spot, they'll be happy.

Once the barn is done we can finish the house (only three more windows plus siding to go), including adding on a small greenhouse. That front corner of the house faces south and gets good sun in winter.

The other thing we plan to do is finish fencing the rest of the property. Most of the property is fenced, except for the back "wooded, not fenced" area. There is a lot of good browse back, but the property lines are very dense with shrubs and fallen trees. It will be a big job to clear it to erect a fence.

The most amazing thing with this plan is seeing how far we've come and how "little" is left to finally have the sense of being "established." Trying to get one's homestead set up is a lot of work and there is sometimes a difficult balance amongst time, money, and our goals.

Do you have a Master Plan? I'm looking for folks who do, because I'd like "How To Make a Master Plan" to be part of my The Little Series of Homestead How Tos. If you'd be willing to be interviewed for an upcoming book and see your plan in e-print, please contact me and I'll tell you what I have in mind.

Master Plan 2016 © May 2016
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Of Decisions, Priorities, and Pigs

One of the lessons learned from homesteading with animals is to not get too attached to them. For one thing we just don't have the room to keep them all, and for another, they die. We've sold and traded plenty and had losses from diseases, accidents, predators, and old age. In the beginning it was hard not to be in love with having critters, if not the critters themselves. Even so we've known from the beginning that we have to love the land more. As the humans on the place, it's our job to serve both livestock and land and keep a balance that will meet the needs of both.

The goat barn represents a huge project, because it's means more than just building a building. It means we have to analyze it how it fits into the whole of the homestead. The goats, pasture, pasture rotation, field crops, the other critters, browse and forage areas, as well as the barn are part of the big picture. That meant rethinking fence lines, gates, traffic flow, how we're currently using our fenced areas, and future goals. To have working room to construct the barn we have to re-do all that temporarily, shuffle some critters around, and then put it back together in a new pattern suited to the new set-up. We also need to do fence repair from those fallen trees and general wear-and-tear.

We got out our Master Plan in order to discuss and visualize options. Because of the fencing situation, we couldn't see any way around confining the pigs while construction and fence rebuilding were going on, but we really didn't want to do that. In the end we decided it would be best to sell the pigs. I had just finished selling Polly's nine piglets, the freezer was full of pork, and if we could sell Waldo and Polly as a pair, we could replace them later when everything was back in order.

I priced them well and by the end of the day they were on their way to a new home. Our partnership with them was a good one and we learned a lot (which I'll share in an upcoming post.)

It seems strange not to have pig chores and hear pig grunts in the background all day long, but it was the best decision for them and us for the time being.

Of Decisions, Priorities, and Pigs © May 2016
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes

When I mention our Jerusalem artichokes (or sunchokes), people often ask me what I do with them. Well, I feed them whole to the pigs, and wash and chop them for the goats. Some people eat them raw, but we find they are gas forming. Instead of raw, I like to lacto-ferment them. They also make a nice addition to roasted vegetables. Since it's nearly the end of the sunchoke harvest, I decided to roast a batch the other day as a side dish for homegrown chevon burgers.

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes

• Jerusalem artichokes, cut or sliced into bite-size pieces
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder
• Optional: any other veggies you'd like to roast with them, cut or sliced into similar pieces

Mix all of the above, coating the pieces well. Spread out on a baking sheet. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

That's my standard veggie roasting recipe, but since it seems to be such a universal favorite, I'd be curious as to how others do it. Care to share your roasted veggie secrets?

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes © April 2016
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Baby Critter Update

Everybody's growing fast!

The piglets are a little over two weeks old now. On warm days they are out and about.

We ended up with five males and four females.

Pigs get weaned at about five or six weeks of age, so I'll be looking for new homes for most of them by the end of the month.

Daphne's twins are about two and a half weeks old. They are the friendliest, cutest things.

Daphne is an excellent mom.

Mastering "the stump" is always a proud moment.

Daphne, how'd they get into the hay feeder?

Pulling on Mom's beard.

Daphne's boys now have nicknames, suggested in the comments of my "Baby Goat Cuteness" post by Jay Ater and Renee.

"Thunder"

"Lightnin'"

Next to kid will be Jessie, the white one in the middle.

Her due date is April 6. 

Baby Critter Update © March 2016 by
Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Weeding and Gathering: Chickweed

This time of year there isn't much growing, but one thing that I see everywhere is chickweed.

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is a pretty little plant, I think. It makes a lovely dense green ground cover with tiny white flowers. In my part of the world it thrives during the mild days of winter. The pigs like fresh handfuls.

Waldo chowing down on a big handful of chickweed.

The chickens like it too.

The Speckled Sussex were on hand to jump right in. The
Australorps were late comers but soon helped themselves.

The goats aren't very enthusiastic about it, but I dry it and mix it in with their herbal vitamin and mineral mix because it's a source of vitamin A and copper.

Chickweed is a good vegetable for humans too, although I grow enough garden greens that I never think to harvest it for that. It can be steamed like any other cooked green, or the young leaves can be harvested for salads. For us, I harvest it for its medicinal value.

According to Penelope Ody's The Complete Medicinal Herbal, it can be taken internally as a cleansing tonic and diuretic, useful for urinary tract inflammations. Externally it is used in creams, poultices, and compresses for skin conditions such as rashes and eczema, for painful joints, wound healing, and to draw boils.

We've got it growing all over the place and I love the pretty carpet of green it makes.

Thriving in the garden under the shelter of the old Egyptian wheat stalks.

This is a good time of year to gather and dry it, not only for the goats' mineral mix, but also to have a supply for salve making later this year.

Weeding and Gathering: Chickweed © March 2016
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Baby Goat Cuteness

Tomorrow I announce the winner of the Trailersteading giveaway, but I wanted to sneak in a few of the latest baby goat photos. I can't wait too long to share because they grow so fast!

Daphne and her baby boys at one day old.

Now that they're dry, you can see their coloring a little better. Buckling #1 is mostly black, but like his mom, has a few white spots here and there.

Couldn't get him to face the camera!

Buckling #2 looks a dark silvery gray, which is actually a mix of black and white hairs (called "grizzled").

Now here they are in their little goat coats. The wind has been terribly cold so I'm happy that they fit. This is their very first outing at two days old.

Meeting the other goats. This is B1 and Violet.

I didn't realize B2 had such interesting leg markings until I saw this photo

I lament that my camera isn't good enough to get action shots. They look calm and still in these photos, but they are really very bouncy.

The coats fit fairly well except that for newborn Kinder kids they don't need to be so long. Mamas identify their babies by smell, particularly their hind ends. When kids come to nurse she'll check to make sure it's her kids and not somebody else's trying to sneak a little milk. Also she keeps them clean back there, but so far so good. I actually made a knitting mistake and didn't add stitches to accommodate chest girth, but it this case it gave a better fit. Kinders are a midsize goat; smaller than standards but larger than miniature breeds.

And of course, a piggy shot.

They've been exploring their little barn but always come back to the sleeping pile. In the late afternoon the sun comes in through the door, so they're taking advantage of that.

Next baby goat due date - April 6.

Baby Goat Cuteness © February 2016 by
Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/