The above picture is compliments of my son. The massively yellow thing is real butter made with real raw milk. Remember I told you that he had made it once before and it took forever! Well, this week he tried again and it only took a few minutes. A bit of reflection told us that the difference was that the butterfat was very, very fresh - only a few hours from udder to us.
It also tastes good. I prefer my butter with a bit of salt added but since the shaker is on my table, I add some when no one else is around. We are becoming so successful at feeding ourselves that we are thinking of ways to try to recoup some costs. So far I have come up with a bunch of ideas that have been rapidly shot down. My latest is growing Manuka wood and starting some bee hives. It seems that Manuka honey is a superfood and has great health properties to it. Sounds good to me. Unfortunately my son (the same one who made the butter) pointed out that I have to carry an ephedrine kit since a bee sting could kill me. Perhaps being surrounded by hundreds of bees is not the smartest possible life decision. Still, if I had life insurance, they could make out all around.
So I am back to dreaming of raising ducks or meat chickens. Right now our egg chickens are putting on a splashy display of 5-7 eggs per day from 10 chickens. Pretty impressive since they aren't supposed to lay in the winter. Luckily the family loves eggs (I don't). I will eat them but I don't go out of my way for one.
The steers are still porking up even though the grass is not too good but winter will come to an end soon and I shudder to think how big they'll grow once they get into new grass.
In the meantime the Suffolk sheep continue to do their duty. We are up to 14 lambs with 6 of them sets of twins. That comes to 11 Suffolk moms. We are waiting on the other 3. And then it should be the Romneys turn. The Suffolk were covered by a Romney ram but hopefully the Romneys waited for the stud Suffolk ram. I'm not sure though since 1 Romney has already given birth and not a Suffolk characteristic to be found in her offspring.
All in all there is abundance all over this farm. I just have to figure out how to make some money at it. Perhaps I could offer the farming experience for a day at $100 per head. Some lucky people could weed, feed chickens, mend fences, shovel manure, chase ewes, haul water and pay for the privilege. Perhaps I need to refine the concept a tad.
Til next time.
