Garden Think: Revamping The Beds

When we first planned out our garden, we based it on the 60 by 80 foot "Eat 'N Store" garden in Dick Raymond's Joy of Gardening. Even though we're only a family of two, Dan figured it was a good starting place. He tilled the ground and to make the beds initially, we simply divided the garden in half, with a main walkway down the middle. I ended up with beds about 23 feet long. I honestly didn't think much about them after that, except occasionally to wish they weren't so long to walk around.

When we put up the cattle panel for our fall peas, I began to think about how I could use cattle panels as trellises in the future. Cattle panels are 16 feet  long, and after some quick recalculations, I realized we could make three 16 foot beds per row, to replace the two 23 foot beds.

So we're going from this...

...to this...

It gives me more beds, but they will be easier to work with I think. The bottom of the garden is solid green, because currently we have winter wheat planted there. I'm not sure if I'll make beds there later, or continue to use it for growing small patches of things like wheat, amaranth, or sunflowers.

In addition to shorter beds, the two main pathways will be wider as well. I measured where they would go a few weeks ago, and outlined the new paths with rocks.

Garden before, with proposed pathway marked.

The other day Dan tilled the empty beds, and I started to make the new paths. The soil is soft and moist, so I easily shoveled out the new paths and used the soil to fill in where the old middle path used to be.

New pathway.

It will take awhile to do all the beds this way. I decided to change the beds and pathways after I planted the fall garden, so we'll have to wait on that and on a few things I'm waiting to go to seed. The cattle panel trellis at the bottom still has peas growing on it, and I'm hoping to run this new path between the t-posts once the peas are done and the panel is down.

I have to say that the 16 foot beds look so much more manageable. And the path being wider really helps with the wheelbarrow. And working outside is making me excited about this year's garden. With the kitchen remodel out of the way, it's gonna be gung-ho gardening.

Garden Think: Revamping The Beds © January 2013 

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

Rendering Goat Fat

If pig fat is called lard and cow fat called tallow, then what is goat fat called? Well, I don't know either, but when we had our goats processed, I received a huge, 10+ pound bag of fat. Considering how much my concept of eating fats has changed since reading Nourishing Traditions and Ray Peat, I was delighted. The bag has been sitting in my freezer until a couple of days ago. Last Friday we had freezing rain all day, so a project that kept me near the wood cookstove was highly in order.

Rendering is the process of melting animal fat in order to pour it off and leave behind any bits of meat. It's a simple process, really. It requires cutting chunks of fat into smaller pieces, and then melting them in a heavy bottomed kettle, such as a cast iron dutch oven. The bottom of the pot is covered with water, to keep the fat from browning before it begins to melt. As it melts, the water evaporates. The melted fat is then strained into jars for storage, and there you have it.

Cubed goat fat in my biggest Dutch oven & on the wood cookstove

My problem was that my biggest Dutch oven is a campfire model, i.e. with legs. I used to have a huge flat bottom one, but we got rid of it during our apartment dwelling days. You know, I hadn't used it in over a year so out it went. What a mistake.

Melting

Because of the legs I had to keep the fire burning quite hot to keep it simmering and melting. That was okay because it was cold out and I also used the heat to bake biscuits to go with scrambled eggs for lunch. This first batch took me all day.

The next day I decided to do another batch. This time, I opted to use my 16" cast iron campfire skillet. I probably couldn't have used it with an electric or gas range, but with a wood cookstove, the entire stovetop is a heating surface, rather than only the burners. I did place an iron trivet under the pan, just to make sure I didn't burn it.

2nd batch was in my large cast iron skillet.

This pan worked much better and only took half a day.

My yield for two days was 3 and a half quarts, and I still have one more batch to go.

Quart jar of rendered goat fat.

In addition, I have two pansful of cracklings.

Cracklings

Cracklings are all the bits that browned instead of melting. You can see my recipe for Cracklin' Cornbread here.

[UPDATE: Feb. 12, 2012 - yesterday I finished rendering all the goat fat. From 10.66 pounds of goat fat from the butcher, the yield was a gallon plus of rendered fat, and about 3 quarts of cracklings.]

For more information:
Rendering Lard: A First Timers Guide - Lehman's Country Life
Rendering Lard - Pioneer Living Survival
Crock Pot Method - A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Oven Method - The New Homemaker
How To Render & Store Traditional Animal Fats - Nourished Magazine
Uses For Cracklings and Lard - The Simple Green Frugal Co-op

Rendering Goat Fat © January 2013 

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

Personal Chicken

I appear to have my own personal chicken. Not that I want a personal chicken. Nor that I think of chickens as pets, I don't. That doesn't mean I don't like chickens, I love chickens. Given our lifestyle, it just doesn't make sense to become emotionally attached to our animals.

This chicken however, seems to have attached herself to me. In fact about the middle of the afternoon, she usually comes looking for me. I'll look outside the kitchen window and there she is, at the bottom of the porch steps, looking up at the house and waiting for me to come out.

If I'm already outside, she'll come running right up to me. She'll stand at my feet, cocking her head to look at me with one eye. Then she'll cluck as if to say, "I found you." After that she'll follow me around. In the event that she doesn't find me, she busies herself by scratching up anything I've mulched.

Technically, she's not even supposed to be on this side of the fence. She's a fence hopper though and has defied every wing clip I've given her: one sided, both sided, even, uneven, lopsided, you name it. She still makes it over the fence.

The other day she saw me raking leaves, hopped the fence, and came running. She happily scratched down all the leaves I was trying to rake up. I don't deny that this is a tad annoying, but as friendly as she is, she won't let me catch her.

This hen is one of my original 19 hand raised baby chicks. She is an Ameracauna, and was my only green egg layer. I say was, because she hasn't laid an egg in forever. She doesn't even have a name because we don't name our chickens. But I don't reckon that matters one iota to her. Nor to me for that matter.

Personal Chicken © January 2013 

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