We have been making a lot of cheese lately – both fresh, cultured cheeses and fresh renneted cheeses (we have no cheese cave to age them). For years I have wanted to be more serious about dairying, but when I looked at cheesemaking books, I felt intimidated and unhappy about all the additives and delicate…
Author: toadstoolsfairyrings
The Last Spring Calves
Chestnut was the last of our mama cows to calve this spring. We missed when she had been bred, and months ago I thought she would be the first to deliver because she was so large and pregnant. But after all the other calves were born, she was still getting bigger and bigger. Her udder…
Graduating the Chickies
The pastured meat chickens have been a lot to keep up with so far. They grew faster than we thought they would (doesn’t this always happen?) and it was a wee bit of a struggle to keep up with them. They are so incy-wincy-teeny-tiny when they arrive, you can’t imagine they will be so large…
Home-made Maple-Pecan Granola
I know, I know…granola recipes on the internet are a dime a dozen (no, actually they are free), but this isn’t your run-of-the-mill granola recipe. This is soaked-to-remove-phytic-acid-naturally-sweetened-WAPF-style granola, and it is SO good, I can hardly keep it stocked in the house. Sometimes mornings can be rushed, and it is so nice to have…
Herb-Roasted Chicken
We have had lots of beautiful, fresh herbs in the garden lately, but of course you can make this recipe with dried herbs as well. It turned out beautifully browned with crispy skin and a fragrant, herby flavor. Herb-roasted Chicken 1 sprig of fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried) 1 sprig fresh dill…
Large Pigs At Large; Piglets Behind Bars
Sooner or later, piglets all get to this stage – the stage where they bust through electric netting and go marauding on devilish and troublesome mischief adventures. In the midst of a busy gardening week, and on top of that a winter virus running through our milking herd and causing some anxiety (all the…
Wild-harvested Stuffed Grape Leaves
I’ve always wanted to try making my own brined, pickled grape leaves. Not only are the ones in the store shockingly expensive, they are not organic and have weird preservatives. I always loved stuffed grape leaves, but I haven’t made them in years. This spring the wild grape leaves in the forest looked so green…
Welcoming Summer
This week brings some very, very busy days in the garden. Our garden is almost a full acre, but parts of it are always left fallow. The size of the garden/fallow area is up to how busy or ambitious I am during planting-time. This year we have plans to cultivate most of the garden space. There’s…
OEUFS FARCIS: French Stuffed Eggs
It’s so fun dyeing eggs for Easter, that we always hard boil at least 3 dozens. Twelve eggs for each child seems to be a satisfactory number for dyeing, but then we are left with the question – what do we do with them once we are tired of egg salad? Yes, there’s egg salad…
A Garden Interview With Douglas And PJ Worth
This garden interview is with my friend PJ Worth and her dad Doulgas Worth. PJ has grown deep roots on the place where she has lived and gardened for her whole life. She and her father have about an acre of land in Micanopy, all intensively and beautifully landscaped with roses, herbs, fruit trees, and…
Easter and Lichen’s First Calf
Spring is such a lovely time, and Easter might just be my favorite holiday! This year has been so busy already, we missed out on a lot of our usual celebrations, like making an Easter tree. I felt downright unprepared for Easter just now, to be honest. We were so busy putting in an ambitious…
Slovenian Poppy seed Easter Bread
We will be doing our usual egg painting and dyeing this weekend, but I wanted to share this bread tradition from my family. This bread was a special treat from my childhood. If we were visiting my grandmother, it was always out in pretty swirly slices after mealtimes, and I would often grab some to…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 