Spring Around the Homestead

  Spring is here! This is a busy time around the homestead, getting ready for gardens and harvesting, new baby animals and weather too darn pretty to be indoors!

  We’ve been bottle feeding a few calves, breaking up the garden, planting a few things, burning out the fence rows, and just generally being outdoors enjoying the weather.

I painted these cute rocks for my potted herb plants. I also made some for my garden, for when all the plants go in. I just painted the rocks, used a fat Sharpie to write on them, then added a coat of spray on clear sealer. I loved quick simple projects that turn out cute!

Here are my two bottle babies! These guys are cute, and I do love caring for them, but I know that come fall, one of them will be feeding my family. Growing your own food can be hard, but knowing what goes into what you eat is an awesome feeling too.

Here’s my son, burning off sections of the fence row. We do this to keep the fences cleaned up, and to reduce ticks and fleas. The fields get burned off too. It just gets rid of the old/dead stuff and makes the grass come back fresh and green. When this gets done we are careful to watch the weather (no wind!) and usually burn off after a good rain, when things are dried out, but not too dry. And of coarse, always having some water nearby.

I hope all are having a fabulous Saturday! The weather is beautiful here, and I’m fixing to head out and work on my chicken coop!

What are ways you get ready for spring? I’d love to hear back from you! I’ll be in the jam making mode in a few weeks, as strawberries are starting to come off. Stay tuned for a jam-session!

 

 

Food Review: Roasted Rabbit

Okay so a month or so ago we bought rabbits to raise for meat, even though we’d never tried it before. (A little nutty- I know right?) So we bought what we thought were 2 females and a male, only to end up with 2 males and a female. We bought another female to make up for that, and had the extra male we didn’t really need.

This particular male was just around 4 months old and was around 4-5lb. Now after butchering and dressing him out, he weighed around 2 to 3 lb. Raising rabbits for meat is a very economical way to eat healthy, fresh food that you know where it came from, how fresh it is, what it’s been fed, and who has handled it.

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Now I know a lot of people say they are squeamish about eating such a cute animal, but I have no more problem feeding my family rabbit than I do chicken/beef/pork or any other meats. Our next project is to get some sheep to have our own fresh lamb!

So I took the dressed out rabbit and seasoned it with a local seasoning called “Magic Chick Dust” and some onion flakes also. Placed it into the slow cooker with a bit of chicken broth in the bottom, Cooked all day on low and it was fall apart tender when I got home. I picked it off the bone and had enough meat to feed my family dinner. (I had made some cheesy rice and some honeyed carrots to go with it.) This would also be enough meat for a casserole or soup too.

So what’d it taste like, inquiring minds want to know? Like chicken, yes it tasted much like chicken, which was what many people had told me. I did not have my camera out, so I forgot to snap any pics, but picture a plate of shredded roasted chicken and that’s what it looked like.

So we will be eating more rabbit as we grow them off. We have babies right now that are a few weeks old and are growing off quite quickly. We also have our other female we thought was expecting, but thinking not now. So she will go back in with our male for awhile.

The garden is in full swing with: potatoes, onions, tomatoes, squash, lettuce, and bell peppers. Going to add some broccoli and cauliflower this weekend.

Hope you are having a wonderful week- mine has been quick, but good so far. Have a blessed day and weekend!!