April's Fool

As Aidan did the evening chores tonight, he was shocked to discover a little lamb in amongst the ewes feet. He and I watched and examined the ewes to discover who this little ewe lamb belonged to. The ewes were all scrambling to get their mouthfuls of the evening grain, so it was difficult to figure it all out, but Felicity seemed protective of her. I couldn't believe it was Felicity's lamb because she wasn't supposed to be bred. She was in my non-breeding group along with 5 ewe lambs from last year. Not to mention that I wasn't expecting lambs until mid April, so I wasn't ready. The little lamb was discovered fairly dry and content around her mother, so I gather she's had her belly's full of milk already, since she doesn't seem too interested in nursing. She appears mainly white with a lot of phaoe which is like a reddish brown on the tips of her wool. She's absolutely adorable, but I have no idea who her father is. I thought I had everything well organized last fall and I don't remember any mishaps or rams getting out. I suspect it is one of the ram lambs from last year, but I'll never know. My only concern now is that I don't have any other surprises. As it is, I could be expecting up to 22 lambs and right now, even that feels like too much. I've named the ewe lamb "Dawn" for her colouring. She's my little April Fool's joke.

Rogan Josh (Lamb Curry)

The intense cold snap and snow storms we have just experienced sends me looking for comfort food. This recipe has become my absolute favourite lamb dish. You can make it with stew meat or you can cut up a leg or shoulder roast into cubes. Because my lambs are small, I've found that the stew meat pieces are very small, so if you prefer bigger pieces, try cutting up the leg or shoulder.

Rogan Josh

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1-2 medium onions finely chopped
• 2 cloves finely chopped garlic
• 1” cube freshly grated ginger
• ½ -1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 3 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp ground coriander (this is best when the seeds are freshly ground)
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground red chilies
• 500-700g of cubed lamb pieces (I have used stew lamb, boneless shoulder roast or leg of lamb cut into bite sized pieces)
• 1 ( 796 mL) canned diced tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp plain natural yogurt

Heat the 2 tbsps of vegetable oil in a large pot on high heat. Add the finely chopped onions and fry until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and continue frying at lower heat for 2 minutes.

Next add the salt, turmeric, garam masala, coriander, cumin, and red chilies and keep stirring and frying for a couple minutes. The mixture will be dry and this is called dry-roasting.

Add the chunks of fresh lamb and continue frying until the pieces of lamb have been evenly browned. You may have to add a Tbsp more of oil if everything is sticking to the bottom of the pan or if it is too dry.

When lamb pieces are fully browned, add the canned tomatoes and stir, allowing it to cook for a few minutes.

Add the plain yogurt and stir well. Return it to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cover. Simmer the lamb curry for 1 ½ hours covered, checking it every 30 minutes to stir it down.

The curry is done when the lamb pieces are tender, not chewy. If it appears too runny, you can continue simmering with the lid off. Adjust salt if necessary. When it is ready to serve, sprinkle with freshly chopped cilantro and stir it in.

Serve over basmati rice, warm naan bread and chutney (our favourite is Mrs. Ball’s Peach Chutney).

This recipe was adapted from the recipe at http://www.route79.com/food/rogan-josh.htm

Snow Day!!!

I love Snow Days! Snow Days here mean that the buses are cancelled and the kids get to stay home. There isn't much point driving them into school because there are very few students that go and they don't do anything and luckily, I'm home so they have that option. By this morning, we had more snowfall than any of the other days this winter. Before going out to do the animals this morning, I joked with the kids that if I didn't return within an hour, they should come looking for me. It was the first time I really had to dig out the way for me to reach the animals and for them to get out. Luckily, my heated hose worked just fine, so I was able to water the animals. There have only been 2 days so far that my hose wouldn't work and it was understandably cold (-20ºC and colder with the windchill) on those days. Half an hour later, Brianna poked her head out the back door calling for me. I was in the barn so she couldn't see me. I thought she was going to ask me if she could play computer, but she just wanted to know if I was OK. She's so sweet!

Snow Day is a relaxed and happy day here on the farm. With the power still on and no one having to leave or drive in the weather, there is a wonderful feeling about being "snowed in". In the morning, I don't fuss much about the kids watching TV or playing video games...they pretty well do what they want. After lunch, they have to shovel and go play outside. Brianna took Emerson out and was training him to pull a tobaggan. Both dogs and kids alike enjoyed climbing the big mountain created by Hugh with previous snow clearings. Unfortunately, it means that I can no longer contain the dogs in the front pasture because the mountain now spans across the top of the fence and they are agile at going up one side and down the other. Baking brownies, hot chocolates, reading and popcorn movie night will round out the day. Here's hoping that I can get out tomorrow morning, because it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Stay safe everyone!

Devilled Eggs

The first recipe I'm presenting is Devilled Eggs, not necessarily because my recipe is spectacular (although it is simple), but to talk about how difficult it is to peel a hard-cooked Farm Fresh Egg. The eggs you buy from me are usually laid that day or the day before. As an egg ages, an air pocket naturally begins to form between the outer shell and the inner membrane. Fresh eggs have no such pocket and when hard-cooked in the first few days, will stick to the shell and make peeling nearly impossible, frustrating and result in unattractive devilled eggs. For any Farm Fresh Eggs you buy, where you know they are likely a day or 2 old, I recommend to either wait at least a week before making hard-cooked eggs or leave them out on the counter for a day or 2 at room temperature.

To hard-cook eggs, I place the eggs in a pot of cold water and slowly bring the temperature up to boiling. I will boil for 1 minute in a full rolling boil, then turn off the heat and cover the pot and leave it on the same burner for 10-15 minutes. After that, I will put them in the sink, remove the hot water and run cold water from the tap over the eggs to cool rapidly. When they are fully cooled down, I will crack the eggs and let them sit a bit longer in the water. Then I peel the eggs carefully from the large end, trying to get to the air bubble.

Devilled Eggs

(adapted from a recipe on pg. 56 of Company's Coming Pint Size Books by Jean Paré "Finger Food", Company's Coming Publishing Limited, 1993)

8 hard-cooked eggs, cut lengthwise, yolks removed

To the yolks add the following and mash together with the back of a fork...

4 tbsp. mayonnaise

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

1/4 tsp onion powder (0ptional)

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

I like to put the yolk mixture into an icing/piping bag with a large star tip and fill the egg white halves, but you can also spoon it in. Garnish by sprinkling with paprika or chives or whatever is your preference. Refrigerate them for an hour before serving.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season.

I've been reflecting on all of the accomplishments to our home and farm for this past year to try to banish the impatience I feel at everything that I still want done. Hugh and I have put in a lot of fencing, about 1500 feet (livestock page wire fence, chain link, cedar privacy fence & temporary fencing). We've installed 5 different gates, 2 of which I built with the kids. We have a lovely pool to look forward to, come early summer. Planted a few trees & shrubs (Weeping Willow, Weeping Mulberry, Crimson King Red Maple, Juniper, Stella Cherry, 3 Chippewa Blueberries, currant, raspberry & gooseberry, lilacs). I had 18 lambs this past year and finally organized myself to sell some of the surplus products: sheep, wool, lamb and eggs.

This year I plan to add meat chickens to the livestock. The front pasture will need dividing into 3 separate pastures so that I can accomplish proper pasture rotation for my sheep and their lambs expected to arrive mid-April. I'd like to plant more fruit trees and expand the "blueberry patch" if the 3 shrubs I planted last spring succeed. All this and more is planned for 2011.

I wish to thank everyone who has supported my little farm this past year. Especially for my customers, I've decided to share some of my favourite recipes featuring Hill Grove Farm lamb and eggs. Look for them in upcoming posts.

Happy Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Happy and Merry Christmas.

I once heard that on Christmas eve, the animals are given their one chance to talk, so if you are very quiet in the barnyard, you may hear exactly what they are thinking. Just in case, they got an extra ration of food for the evening to celebrate!

Naughty rams!

Since being off-line for nearly a month due to our wireless internet service provider going AWOL, breeding season for my sheep has begun with lambs expected early April, 2011. On Nov. 16th, my new ram Two Bars was put in with the new and younger girls in the sheep barn (9 girls) while Choy is in his pen with Tommy (the wether) and my 3 original girls: Meg, Thelma & Annie because I really like the lambs I got from this match-up in the past...especially Annie giving me wildly spotted lambs. There is an empty field in between the 2 rams with visual barriers on both fences. 7 ewes are being kept in a non-breeding pen (5 ewes from this year and 2 yearlings) and so far I'm happy to report that the lessons learned from last year's breeding season are being implemented successfully. All was well until yesterday morning...

Clio & Emerson (my Bernese Mountain Dogs) have been having a blast with training and walks in the now abandoned front sheep pasture every morning when I do chores. They have been really good and I've been increasing their freedoms and trusting them. I gave them a bit too much freedom and they took off. After chasing them down 5-6 properties over, I was tired and my previously sore foot was worse for the experience. I finished off the morning chores and headed in.

About an hour later I glance out into the sheep fields and see Choy in Two Bar's field. I race out to see that they are fighting and bleeding badly from their heads from bashing each other over and over. They are in a face-off and they aren't paying any attention to me, so I grab Choy's horn and start to drag him back only to see that Two Bars is backing up to ram him again except now I'm in the middle. I let go to grab my shepherd's crook for help. This isn't going to be easy. I return to the 2 rams and grab Choy again and with the hook I grab Two Bars' horn. I'm backing up with one ram who's trying to move forward and the other being dragged forwards with the hook (he's trying to get away now). When I finally reach the first locked gate, I shove Choy to the other side and quickly try to lock the gate, but Two Bars rams it hard before I get to lock it leaving a big bloody spot on the barrier on the gate "Now get out and stay out" he says to Choy! I managed to separate them. I drag Choy back to his pen and see that I had forgotten replace the makeshift barriers to his gate. Just before breeding season, when all rams were together they busted the gate and the large fence post at ground level. Now, I use a bungee cord to keep the post and gate together, I have a little chicken house on the inside supporting that broken post, I have a large kiddie pool and an old tire placed in front of the gate so Choy can't ram it and get out and I have a cinder block on the other side to keep the gate closed...but that morning, I'd forgotten to put it all back after I'd fed them.

So, Choy had pushed his way through the bungee cord closed gate, raced across the empty pasture in the middle and busted a hole in the page wire fence and through the barrier to land himself in the fight of his life with Two Bars for capture of the fair maiden ewes in his pen. Luckily I saw them or I could have had a tragedy, because they would keep fighting until 1 gave up or died.