Vintage 1905 Juice O Mat

Have you ever heard of a Juice o Mat? I found one this morning at a garage sale. I went to lift it off of the table and it was heavy...no aluminum here! It had a beautiful retro look and it seems functional. I looked around on the internet an apparently folks collect this item but there doesn't seem to be much history on the piece. I wish the Rival Company would create a product history on their web site. I definitely would like to learn more.

Fooducate

Fooducate is an interesting web site and iphone/android app that GRADES the food you buy at the grocery store. "Fooducate's scientific algorithms grade each product and provide simple, concise explanations. The Grading system is developed by scientists, dietitians and concerned parents." I try to buy locally and in our home, we preserve food that we grow ourselves. I believe that food takes time.... cooking takes time.... I also have a busy family and work outside the home so I like convenience as much as the next guy. However a balance must be established between convenience and the food we eat. This is my two cents for the day. Feel free to explore the Fooducate web site. Think critically and ponder your options.

Living Homegrown

Living Homegrown has a wonderful presence on the internet. The blog is well written (unlike here) and emphasizes the things I would like to try. This year they are beginning their blog with "31 days of Living Homegrown". I found it quite interesting thus far as Weck Jars and Beekeeping have been highlighted(amongst other things). I look forward to reading the remaining entries this month and adding more to my "to do list". :)

Welcome Back

Life has a way of side tracking me. My friends and family enjoy viewing our farm through this blog but I have been lax in doing so. So I will attempt, once again to restart this blog. Something new this year: I was selected to be an Ohio Cultivator. This is someone that applied to the program that wants to emphasize agriculture, gardening, cooking and promote local sources of food etc. This is promoted through our Farm Bureau. Apparently these folks believe that I would be an effective participant of this program. I will try to document here the journey of a "first year" Ohio Cultivator! Join me.

Farms happenings this week.

Farm Update - One of our hives died - :(

Weird clouds overhead!

New Chicks - YAY. Now I only ordered 7, but I adopted 8 more.... I'm like a kid in a candy store when the chicks come in. :)

Thinking about spring

I've been thinking about spring lately and planning what I want to plant in the garden and if I want to add any more critters to the farm. I was surprised when I went to the garden boxes last night to find onions! Yeah... I have onions! My strawberry plants are over run by grass. And 4 asparagus plants struggling to survive. (I thought asparagus was prolific and spread quickly? We've had these 4 plants for about 3 years now... hmmmm)This year I want to try growing a pepper that, when dried, can make paprika. I want to try raising potatoes in a box/bucket. As for critters, I want ducks. I so miss those cute adorable birds. I hope my girls will help me build a better pen to keep those nasty coyotes away from these birds. I think I will go to the feed store tonight and place my order. Additionally, I have 'quick' checked on the bee hives and fed them about two weeks ago. I need to make more "bee juice" as we don't have many things blossoming right now. I hope they can make it through the rest of this crazy late winter/early spring weather. The wind has been another interesting force to contend with lately. I came home one evening to find the chicken waterer blowing about the chicken yard, alpaca feeding bowls blowing around the pasture and a cardboard produce box in my neighbors corral. Also, our little puppy (a Jack Russell mix) has learned to 'round up' the chickens. We had to cull our rooster because he was attacking us when we would feed and collect the eggs. That is not acceptable behavior for a long life on a farm. So now our puppy helps the girls find their way home to the warm coop in the evening. Until next time....

Cupcake liners

Yesterday, I made some cupcakes for the Robotics team as it was my turn to take dinner to the kids. I dusted off my "filled cupcake" recipe and it was a hit. I'll post the recipe soon. I was looking for my cupcake liners and found that my cupboard was getting bare. I sorted through my hodgepodge of liners only to find that I had a plethora of fall themed liners. So I decided to use the familiar pastel cupcake liners ... you know the kind in pale pink, yellow and blue. Since my family couldn't eat the cupcakes I set aside for the team I decided to make another batch. I needed more liners. So I stopped at my local Walmart store to pick some up. I found "designer" cupcake liners... from Wilton. But where are by "Baker's" brand liners? After searching the internet and Amazon.com I discovered that Reynold's is now the manufacturer of the pastel cupcake liner. However, they don't have any in stock...neither does Amazon.com! No offense to Wilton and other designer brand cupcake liner manufacturers, but I only need my pastel liners. Let me know if you see these "old fashioned" liners around town.

Mom... your on your own!!!

Conversation in the car on the way to school this morning... Well girls, I've seen my friend's chicken coop and she has an fenced in, roofed area that the chickens can hang out in safe from the elements and varmits and scratch and dust until they are content. I think this will be the project for 2012 ---to expand the chicken coop area to include a covered area for the 'girls'. To which they have replied... "sounds good mom, but your on your own!". Looks like I'm going to have to rally some friends, fill in the hole where the plastic pond is, dig some post holes, gather some wood, find roofing materials and chicken fencing to create my chicken oasis. Any volunteers? :)

I wanted to get back to this blog, revive it and breathe new life into it. So today I want to start with my goals for 2011 and what I want to do for 2012. The things that I removed are to get the bees productive, make wine and try rutabagas. Our bees are doing well and I hope Emily and I tucked them in properly for the winter. The next day we have with temperatures above 50 degrees I will peek to see if they could use more food. Until then we have to believe in their survival instincts and hopefully the queen will be strong enough to lead her hive into the spring. The bees produced a fair amount of honey for us this year and I have to say this was the coolest thing I have ever done. Bottling honey is VERY STICKY work but so worth the effort. We received an inspection by the state of Ohio apiary inspector and we have to treat for varrora mites. The mites are not out of control at this point. We received our inspection in fall and will treat our bees in spring should they survive the winter. Our wine making efforts are in full gear. Jim has embraced this hobby and is excelling at it. Our only failed effort was the cranberry wine. I'm still saddened by this. I was so looking forward to this wine but alas, something went wrong in the fermentation period and he tossed it out. However we have sweet cherry and sour cherry, made from the berries, currently working which will be bottled late spring 2012. He has also made wine from kits including Merlot and Chianti. I am the official taste tester and a job I take seriously... as I feel compelled to check as many bottles as possible! ;) Now for rutabagas. We tried these unique root vegetables, however, I tried them out of season. DUH. I would like to revisit this vegetable one day to give it another try.

Allison and Helen. Helen, we had a great time during your visit. Please come back again.

Helen and the Blankie!!! :)

Helen, Emily and Kevin.

How many teenage boys can you get in the back of an Amish buggy? In this case...3! Robert, Michael and Collin.

2011 German students visiting Ohio from Hennef, Germany. We love you!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

Another Thanksgiving was celebrated with family and a new friend. For the past two years our family has hosted a German exchange student via the high school German club. Working with a school in Hennef, Germany our coordinator finds host families to share an American Thanksgiving with these students. This year we hosted Helen and showed her Daffins Candy Store, Kraynaks Christmas tree lane, Wendell August Forge and Slovak Folk Center and of course Grove City outlets. We shared with her the gluttony that is Thanksgiving with all the trimmings: Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed potatoes (which were almost forgotten), sweet potatoes, wilted lettuce, green bean casserole, pumpkin and pecan pies. She also witnessed up close and personal the fiasco of Black Friday. Her group then took a bus trip to Washington DC ( a one day excursion that nearly did them in!). After some resting time it was back to the mall for Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch deals. Monday we went with her group to Sugarcreek, Ohio to learn about the Amish community. We had a unique opportunity to witness an Amish school day, ride an Amish buggy (those horses are amazing!!!) accompanied by more shopping and eating at an Amish restaurant. Tonight everyone will gather, hosts and visitors, for an American pot luck supper. I hope she enjoyed her stay in America and with us and will remember her time fondly.

November

It appears as though I only have a moment once a month to post to this blog. October was just as busy as September for our family and farm. I canned sauerkraut, cranberry sauce, cranberry apple sauce, and cranberry mustard. I never really liked cranberry because I have the image of this gelationous substance globbed onto a serving dish at Thanksgiving. I never really cared for the taste either. But Fresh Cranberries are wonderful and so are the cranberries that I preserved this year.

Our newest addition to the farm. ROSE our Jack Russell, Fox terrier and several more...mix breed puppy. She is adorable and smart.

October!

Wow, I realized that I haven't blogged since August. What happened to September?

Today I made pumpkin bread. YUM!



September found me canning: (left to right) pickled beets, roasted red pepper spread and red root relish!



AND Jalapeno Jelly, Tomato Jelly and pickled Jalapenos!


I am earnestly working on our pantry this past season. I am quite proud of our efforts this year. I still hope to can pears and cranberries. We have some winter pears in the yard and I need to beat the deer to them! The cranberries should arrive when Jim returns from his hunting trip to Wisconsin. These will both be new to me to can. I can't wait.

I also want to make pumpkin rolls. I haven't had time in recent years to attempt this project.

Also, our lovely young ladies attended the Austintown Fitch Homecoming festivities with their friends!

Kevin, Allison and Katie


Alexis, Emily, Jamie and Alyssa

Good Morning!

Good Morning. This is the beautiful sky that welcomed the day today. Emily is our resident photographer. Good job sweetheart.

Chicken Scratch

I found this nice PDF article from West Virginia University Extension office about Chicken Scratch. I am declaring this my winter project (along with about a dozen others!). Chicken Scratch is embroidery on gingham and I remember it mostly on my mom's aprons. I can't wait to start. Then when I get good at this I'll make an apron for every day of the week! And of course, I found one with roosters!

Honey!

This is our first honey harvest. All this came from Emily's beehive. It's awesome and mmmm,mmmm, good!

Bottle trees!

This is my bottle tree! We are recycling wine bottles for our own wine. I was busy today sterilizing and de-labeling the bottles.

Adventures over the horizon for Okinawa exchange student - TownCrierOnline.com | Community news from Boardman, Canfield, Austintown and Poland, Ohio — Town Crier

Adventures over the horizon for Okinawa exchange student - TownCrierOnline.com | Community news from Boardman, Canfield, Austintown and Poland, Ohio — Town Crier

Another project for next year.

Whilst at the Ohio State Fair I spotted the miniature garden competition. Hmmm... I want to try this next year.