Anytime Now…we’ll have a new kid on the block

It’s been in the planning stages for two years now. Back in February 2011, I had decided I wanted to begin providing more nutritious—and less harmful—food for my family and me. I wanted to avoid, as best as possible, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), chemicals in the form of herbicides and pesticides and various toxins added to commercial foods, so I decided to begin raising my own food.

Our first food producers on the farm were chickens. We now enjoy fresh farm eggs every day. Extra roosters were slaughtered and eaten. I also decided to plant a wider variety of vegetables and berries and increase what I already grew. Becoming less dependent on grocery stores also required one more element: milk.

Breeding Toggenburg Goats For the First Time

Sun Feb 3/13: Sunrise: 7:32; Sunset: 17:25 (-7.1 at 7:00 am, light snow falling)

On October 13, 2012, we put our Toggenburg buck (Rascal McTaz ‘Taz) in the same pasture as our Toggenburg doe (Spirit of the Valley). Spirit showed no signs of being in heat (the condition in which a female doe can be impregnated), but we had read that putting her in with a buck would trigger this.

Spirit and Taz had never before been out together, yet they’d ‘met’ and seen each other through fences for more than a year. Both were a year and a half old and this was the first breeding for both.

You Can Now Order from the Annapolis Seeds 2013 Catalogue

Annapolis Seeds in Nova Scotia began five years ago. It grows and sells natural seeds, ones not infected with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

From Annapolis Seeds website: Annapolis Seeds is a living seed bank for the Maritime region, our goal is to maintain, select and develop the greatest diversity of seeds possible which thrive in our climate. 100% of our seeds are grown in the Maritimes by small-scale growers committed to sustainable farming methods.

The Scoop on Fat: lard and oil

As an uneducated consumer who bought products based on price—for the most part—and took product names at face value, I didn’t know what I was truly buying. When I saw vegetable oil, I assumed it was oil from vegetables…more than one vegetable. When I purchased shortening, I assumed I was buying fat rendered from animals. Perhaps this was true fifty or maybe thirty years ago, but by no means is that the case today.

Monsanto and Seed Companies

Are you concerned about where you buy your seeds from? Are you worried the seeds you buy are genetically modified, contain Round-up or are manufactured by Monsanto (the company spear-heading genetically modified organisms)?

Eat Close to Home recently posted a blog about seed companies, which ones are owned by Monsanto, and which seeds are produced by Monsanto. You can read it here: Monsanto and Johnny’s Seeds.

Be Popular with the Birds

Winter is here and so are the winter birds. Blue jays, chickadees, sparrows, dark-eyed Junko and mourning doves are regular visitors to the feeders outside the kitchen window. This spot is great for the kids to watch the antics of the various types fleeting from juniper tree to feeder to maple tree. When the squirrel arrives to indulge in peanuts, then everyone—including the birds—get excited.

My feeder wasn’t always popular. When I first began feeding the birds, I bought cheap feed. After all, it was for the birds; I didn’t have to eat it. However, very few birds took advantage of the free food. Who could blame them; the stuff looked like dried grated corn.

Cold Winter Day in Pictures

A few days ago I woke to an outdoor temperature of -24.4 degrees Celsius. That’s minus 24.4 or minus 12 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the coldest day so far this winter. The radio announcer said it was -30 with the wind chill factored in.

Watering, feeding and tending to the animals would be a challenge with frozen locks, frozen bucks and frozen gates.

Self-sufficiency: Learning One Step at a Time

I love to learn. The only thing I find more rewarding is using the knowledge gathered in life.

The things I prefer to learn about are the basics skills such as…

How to make a one-match fire

How to identify a few edible native plants

How to grow potatoes, onions, cucumbers or other basic foods

How to construct a simple structure in the woods with few materials

How to cook a simple yet delicious meal

Going Out Like a Lion!

Nova Scotia Sunrise: 7:53; Sunset: 16:43

The Maritime provinces is currently being hammered with a large storm. The moisture falling from the sky is falling in various states, depending on where you live (on the coast, inland, low-lying areas, mountains).

We woke to about three inches of snow covering the ground and the white stuff still falling. A few hours after dawn, it was raining. A few hours later, it was snowing again. Then it rained. Freezing rain beat on the window for a while. Now it’s snowing. We live on what we like to call the ‘weather line’. We get a mixture of what is north and what is south of us. It’s difficult to predict by the forecast what we’ll eventually end up with.

Organic Milk in Nova Scotia

Finally. I can walk into a local supermarket and buy organic milk produced in my province, Nova Scotia. Up until a few weeks ago, I had to buy milk brought in from Ontario. But that was better than the alternative: no milk guaranteed to be bio-solids free.

But let’s back things up a bit. I didn’t always worry about drinking milk that was not organically stamped. I grew up drinking milk and loved to drink it as an adult. Then one day, I had a bad experience.