Bread Review

As I told many on facebook I was trying out a new wheat bread recipe. This recipe is still a honey wheat bread , but it doesn't use any sugar and has far less ingredients then the one I was using before. One more perk it makes two loaves instead of just the one loaf my other recipe made. I am really liking this recipe alot! The family gives it great reviews as well! ( that is always a plus!) I got this recipe out of the Treausred Amish and Mennonite Recipes cook book. by the Mennonite Central Commitee. I would highly suggest making this really delicious bread. The only thing I changed about this bread is that it calls for white and wheat flour. I did all wheat flour and it came out fine but the choice is yours. So here is the recipe: Honey Wheat Bread 2 packages active dry yeast 1/2 cup warm water ( 105 degrees- 115 degrees) 1/3 cup honey 1/4 cup shortening 1 tablespoon salt 1 3/4 cups warm water 3 cups whole wheat flour 3-4 cups white flour Dissolve yeast in the 1/2 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl. Stir in honey, shortening, salt, the 1 3/4 cup warm water, and the whole wheat flour. Beat until smooth. mix in enough flour to make a dough that's easy to handle. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Kenead about 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size ( about 1 hour) Punch down and divide dough in half. Form into 2 loaves and place in a greased baking pans. Let rise until doubled ( about 1 hour) Bake at 375 degrees F. for 40-45 mins or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans and cool. Makes 2 loaves. Judy Buller (Mennonite Central Committee cookbook 2011) Enjoy! ~ Katie

Dehydrating

I know this is a short post but had some questions and wanted to see if any of you had any answers! I have become intrigued with dehydrating foods. I have been watching youtube videos and love the idea of not using the electricity of a freezer and dehydrating fruits, veggies, ect! I also like the idea of my kids having healthier snacks like those fruits and veggies that I have dehydrated. Do any of you dehydrate?? What are your experiences with it? What kind of dehydrator do you have? Any certain one you would recommend?? On other news we are looking for a boyfriend for Happy our rabbit. :) We are going to breed her and start a meat rabbit operation. We are excited but also nervous! We are trying to do what we can with where we live and this is one thing we can do. Do any of you have rabbit operations? Any advice? Well I hope you all have a great day! ~ Katie

2013 Goals

Wow is it really already Jan. 2013! I don't know about you but 2012 really flew by for us. The little farmer turned 5 and started kindergarten, Baby farmer turned 2 and is talking more then ever. We introduced Happy to our family. This end of the year has been very hectic. The Farmer started a new position at his job, which he is excited to be doing! Little Farmer has become very intellectual and wanted to read a lot this year and being able to read a few books on his own. (still talks a lot about wanting show sheep and now a lot about beef, can't wait till he can!!!) Baby Farmer was having digestive issues and we found out there was a bad bacteria in his stomach/ intestinal track. Then on top of that he had a double ear infection. Ugh. But everyone is healthy for the new year!( lets hope it stays that way! Haha okay now on the the main reason for this post. I have a lot of goals that I would like to do this coming year with Homesteading. I accomplished some of the tasks I wanted last year, but I wanted to do some different things this year. * Learn to Pressure can- just got my pressure canner today!!!!! * Get another blueberry bush to go in patch- Last one the dog ate it! * Save all my seeds for next years planting- put my seed order in at Baker seeds . If you haven't ordered your yet I would definitely say to order from this company. They sell GMO free heirloom seeds. Also recommend reading his book The Heirloom Gardner. * Build a cold frame * Grow enough/ preserve enough to feed us through the winter. ( this may be one goal I won't be able to reach but still will be motivation) * learn to crochet dish clothes * Learn to make soap *Learn to cook with different grains * Sell produce/ baked goods at local farmers market * Have lower water usage * continue to line dry clothes *Write on blog at least once a week Well there you have it! I would love to hear any homesteading goals you have or if any of you have any tips for any of my goals. Hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas ( and remembered the true meaning) and a Very Happy New Year! ~ Katie

Fall!!!!!!

Fall is on it's way! Tuesday a friend od mine called and said they are has a half a bushel of apples they werent going to use , thhey wanted to see if i was interested. So me and they boys went and got the apples and started making stuff! I made a wholw crockpot of apple butter and then canned. Also made abiut 2 1/2 qts. When the farmwr gets more i will make more applesauce and some pie filling. What do you do with the apples ypu get? I would love new recipes to try! What is your favorite part about fall? Is it the cool weather, sweaters, bonfires,hot appple cider, crunchy leaves, changing leaf colors or maybe school starting again (iceberg nothing like "a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils") i really need to watch that movie again! (you've got mail, aka one of my all time favorite movies!) Anyway I would love to know how things are going on your homesteads! Thank you and have a great day! Katie (the farmers wife)

apologies

I wanted to say sorry i havent been on here for so long. Our laptop broke and for some reason our main computer won't let me get on my blog. So I am doing it on my phone. I 8 have missed writing on here so much! To give some updates: little farmer starts kindergarten on wed.! Ahh he is growing to fast! So is little Hoss! Our garden didn't do to well this year. We did get alot of beans, snap peas and swiss chard. The cucumbers didn't do well at all and the squash dies early. We are getting some tomatoes and peppers but not enough to freeze. How are your gardens doing? Did you plant anything new or different? Have you started your fall planting? What ate planting for that? I started our fall seeds late last week and we have sprouts xoming up already! I have planted radishes, two kinds of lettuce ( iceberg and mixed salad greens), and beets. 8 am hoping these come out better then the summer crops. We are still praying that God has a farm for us. But doors have not been open for that yet. So we are patiently waiting( as much as we can) and doing as much as we can here. I hope you are all doing well and continue to follow me! I'm still here! Have a wonderful day.

Farming in the Old Days

Sorry for it being so long since I posted last. things have been so crazy busy around here and our main computer won't let me get onto my blog, so I can only use the laptop which takes forever to warm up ! I am glad to be back !

I wanted to give you a quick update on our little homestead. We have planted two apple trees in the yard, a red delicious and a golden delicious. the potatoes are doing awesome and so are the onions, cauliflower , onions and celery. Our strawberries are actually flowering and have small strawberries on them! This weather is really confusing them. We are getting officially getting compost tea from the worms, once the weather gets warmer and the wind isn't so harsh then we will be harvesting the compost in the bottom of the tub. I will be sure to post about that when I do it.


I have been watching series on internet about farming back in the Edwardian era and Victorian period farms. Historians "go back in time" and go back to these eras to run a farm like they did back in that period of time. It is so cool to see how people lived back then and to learn about what they had to go through. I think it would be neat to do something like this and go back to a farm that use to be running and bring it back to life for a time and live like they did for a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFjdpu4QoLo - Edwardian farm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA1269IgGY0 - Victorian farm

What do you guys think? Would you do something like this? It makes me think if we had to go back to living like this would we be able to do it? I think it seems like a lot of hard work , but watching them do all the farming and house work it make you think of how much they do and how much more I should do! hahaha Hard work never hurt anyone!

I hope you all had a blessed Easter! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!

Spring is here!

Well things have been busy here at our little homestead. Lots of planting going on! I have the raised beds filled with green beans, potatoes,peas ( which are already poking through the ground),cucumbers,cauliflower and lettuces. Everything is starting to show their heads already! Yeah I know I was early getting the seeds in but the weather was calling me! hahaha

An update on our worms... We are proud parents of more worms! hahah they are producing babies! They are doing a great job with eating everything and making nice poopy for our garden hahah. Here are some pics....

We made a run for Happy to give her more of a "condo" then a one bedroom apartment. hahaha She is loving it! I see her in the mornings laying out enjoying the quiet and the sunrise. I admit I love it too! haha

News on the basement it is coming together great! the 2 coats of primer are done and we have some color on three of the walls and hope to have the rest on by the end of this week. Then the second coat and then the walls are done! All that is left is painting the ceiling, the floor and the barn doors we are making! yay!

I am still working on being content with where we are living. Every day I grow impatient on why we are still here when there is somewhere else we could be doing something so much bigger. But for some reason God still wants us here, so here we shall stay until He wants us to move.

Here are some pics of our homestead so far this spring! Hope you all are doing well and sorry this is so short the computer is acting up and I atleast wanted to get something posted since it has been so long!

Have a wonderful week!
~Katie