Trying New Things
Sometimes it can be hard to try new things. There are a million excuses not to. Time, there is never any extra time. Money, who has money to throw out if it all goes awry? Where will it go? Do I even have those materials? No. Nothing new for us today. It’s so easy to avoid trying new things and nobody notices if you don’t. So, it’s not always something I make a point in doing, but lifestyle changes necessitate, no, demand one tries new things.
While we say we are moving into full time farm life, we have opened ourselves up logistically to try new things and keep that promise. We have begun canning and dehydrating foods from our garden, cooking veggies that are easily grown, roasting cuts of meat we have never cooked with before and trying to get inventive with using what we have. It’s actually fun sometimes, and other times it feels like a big waste of time. Our latest ‘try’; fermenting lemons we were gifted from a friend. This one we’ve wanted to try for years and always missed the opportunity for fresh lemons from friends outside of Lassen who can actually grow them. Well, we’ve finally gotten a chance and we are holding our breath now while we wait to see the outcome, it takes about a month, so we only hold our breath figuratively. So, how did we do it?
Here’s the gist. First you give the lemons a good scrubbing, in just hot water. You want to pick good lemons with a life left, not just the old ones you need to juice before they go bad. After cleaning about 10, we took the stems off and cut them into quarters and measured about 5 teaspoons of salt.
I used a Celtic Sea Salt that we just really enjoy the flavor of but any sea salt should be just fine (I don’t think table salt works for fermenting).
We moved the lemons to a glass bowl and sprinkled salt as we layered. Taking a clean quart size jar, we filled it with a layer of lemons and then used a sauerkraut pounder to express some juice and pack in the lemons tightly. We repeated until the jar was full. Adding the last bit of salt and scraping the glass bowl to make sure all of the salt was incorporated, we pounded one last time.
The recipe we followed said to juice a few extra lemons for juice in case you need to top it off, we didn’t, but I used a glass fermentation weight to ensure the lemons were fully submerged. When we were finished we screwed the lid on tightly and moved it to the pantry room to stay cool. The recipe says to turn it every 12 hours to ensure the lemons are all wet with the juice and salt to inhibit any mold growth. We wait now for a few days and then we will put them into cold storage and wait for about a month until they are fermented through. I also added a glass fermenting weight to the top of the jar to make sure the lemons stayed submerged.
I love lemons, love the juice and the tart flavor and really everything except the way my teeth feel after eating them. So, await our report. We will see how they come out and whether you can actually just eat them, peel and all like we’ve heard, or if they really add the flavor we need to any recipe. We will have to report back with the details as soon as we can.
What new thing have you tried lately? Are you ever afraid to try something new? Does it come natural to you to jump in and try new things without hesitation?
Okay, this is an update after months of waiting for the lemons to ferment and then they sat in the cold storage and eventually the refrigerator. I finally got to try the lemons!! Verdict?
Well, to be honest, not a huge fan… The bitterness has not completely gone, although the sourness is definitely down and its a bit less hard to bite through. I’m sadly NOT impressed and thinking maybe I did something wrong. I really had my hopes up, so really, maybe I did it wrong. Might still be good to cook with, like was recommended in the original recipe, but I did have high hopes for something good all on its own. One more bummer in the trying new things department. haha
How-To: Fire Starters
How to make the best fire starters.
What you need:
Loads and loads of laundry so you can save the lint from the trap, lots of children helps make this part of the process much quicker
About a year or more worth of old candles, saved up in an old grocery store bag
Cheap dish gloves
Crock pot, nice if it’s an old one you don’t mind getting messy
Crock pot liner
An old ladle
Parchment paper and a big place for finished starters to cool
So, 5 kids in a house makes for TONS and tons of laundry. My oldest daughter does our laundry and has, for a couple of years, been mostly in charge of it. She knows to save the lint in an old grocery bag we keep near the detergents. Anytime I have a conversation with someone about our laundry it’s always, “How much laundry do you really have.” To which I say, “Well, we do at least two loads a day, generally. BUT, the way it goes is that IF we skip a day, we have to do 8 the next day to catch back up.” It’s funny, but it’s also pretty much true. I don’t know how laundry math works, but that’s always the numbers I come to in my house. Anyway, save your lint, it’s GREAT for these!
Now, I know some people also use egg cartons to put this all in, but we USE our egg cartons, like over and over, so we don’t really have those around to use for fire starters. We do have some get worn out over time, but I like to make a LOT of fire starters for the kids so it doesn’t really make sense for us. (If you buy your eggs and just throw away your cartons, totally keep those and try them out! I hear great things.) My oldest son and oldest daughter, laundry girl, also generally tend to the fire. They’re great at it and it’s never that easy for me to get to along with other chores so the help is amazing and they are practically pros by now, even though they don’t get paid. Ha.
Okay, so the candles don’t really matter, as in the type of candle. I don’t have any sort of process in which I pick out candles for these. I have even been known to take other people’s old candles when they are going to throw them out. I usually end up with a lot of unscented candles in the lot, so I can’t say if the scents would cause any sort of problem, they are usually so diluted by the tapers and other types of unscented that it doesn’t matter. I’ve also used candles that had push pins and paint on them, the paint usually melts into the wax and the push pins I removed with some pliers beforehand. Wicks and the little metal part and even stickers just fall off and I pull them out as I go. I use the ladle to get them to the surface and just pull them out and onto the parchment to cool.
Okay, so I like to gather my materials, line the crock pot and throw in as many candles as I can fit. I put the lid on and turn it up to high and I just go on about my day. Within a couple of hours, the candles should be melted and at this point I will even decide if I want to add some more, since they melt into WAY less space. It’s honestly hard to really explain how much of everything you will need, so it kind of has to be observed and learned as you go.
Once your candle wax is melted, you have your parchment out for cooling and you are prepared to burn the life out of your hands, turn your crock pot to warm and brace yourself. It really is pretty hot, you can wait for it to cool down, but it will make the wax a little thicker on the starter and makes them a bit harder to use. It saves your hands and usually I make as many as I can with the really hot stuff and then walk away for a few and come back to finish. Doesn’t sound worth it now, but trust me, these are far better than anything you can buy in the store or online.
I tear off a piece of the lint and dip it quickly into the wax, then I squeeze it between my fingers and shape it so it’s fairly flat, in case we need to place it on top of a piece of wood. Balls will roll off and make for unhappy fire tenders. The really hot stuff squeezes out so it’s almost like you didn’t dip it, and these are the best ones. When it cools a bit before dipping, the wax really sticks on the outside, not bad, but it’s a little harder to light. This year I had to stop because I had to leave the house and when I returned the wax had cooled a bit and I finished with cooler wax, which made for a lot of very thick waxed starters which I haven’t had any complaints about just yet, so maybe it isn’t as big of a deal as I think.
Another option is to put the lint onto the parchment and then pour some wax on top. I did this one year in a pinch and then we broke pieces off to use. Unless you use very little wax and then press it down to get some out and stuff, it will be really hard to break apart, and they could end up with too much wax and be harder to light. They WILL still burn for a really long time and make starting the fire much easier though. Either way, these are just the best!
Once they cool, I place them into an old cookie tin and we keep it by the fireplace, usually with matches or a lighter inside. There really isn’t much of a need for kindling because they light up and burn for so long, but my 7 year old really takes pride in his kindling making skills with his little ax, so we usually still use it because I like to encourage the hard work and inclusion in family chores that we all benefit from, like a warm fire to heat our home.
So now you know the trick, the world's best fire starters are actually the world's cheapest and they probably take the most prep work, if you count months of saving candles and lint. But nothing can compare, honest.
Do you have anything you save to turn into something else?
Did you know ladies used to save their hair off their brushes to place under their hair as they styled it to make it look bigger? At least we aren’t doing that! 🤣
Feral children, what’s that?
Oxford defines feral as: [especially in animals] in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication; or, resembling a wild animal. You ever hear a parent describe their kids as feral? I love it, I think it’s hilarious but also like, a badge of honor in some instances. Now, let me be completely honest. My kids are actually very well behaved, I mean, what feral animal performs family chores and uses phrases like “yes, sir/mam”? They don’t do much talking back and if I ask them to come down from a tree or put down an animal, they listen pretty promptly. So, I won’t pretend they are the conventional type of ‘feral children’, just all my own. Children were made to be wild. They were made to climb trees, or everything as my kids do, and jump in mud and lay in grass with lambs and dogs (often getting soiled with excrements unbecoming of human persons). They wipe snot and eat dirt and use sticks as teethers. But they also strengthen their immune systems with small(ish) exposures to bacteria and consume lots of probiotics. They use their muscles and always eat a full meal after some serious play outside. They spend hours a day in the fresh air most of the year and can be found reading a book while hanging from a harness they situated in a very high branch, or building shelters in trees and weeds to spend the night in. The lessons they learn can’t be taught and are often only caught and the memories will last their entire lives. Who doesn’t remember giving a mud pie to an unsuspecting aunt or being given a funny nickname to reflect a messy face or tattered clothing? Ferality, it’s the new put down for energetic kids, but I think it’s so much more than that. In our home, or rather front yard, it’s a lifestyle. The lifestyle. I love so much about it, and try to prepare my home for the parts I don’t. Anyone else use whelping mats for their entryway, or carry kids from the front door to the bath on a weekly basis, if not daily? If you aren’t reading books to your kids outside, surrounded by dogs or chickens, or finding jackets on wood piles and hanging from the trees, are you even living? I’m sure this life isn’t for everyone, but man is it ever a wonderful life. Go ahead, call us all feral, we will wear that badge proudly because it makes this rural life of ours beautiful and adventurous and into a constant series of opportunities to learn. We wouldn’t trade it for all the luxuries in the world. We feel so blessed to live it and I only hope everyone can have an adventure or two where they can just live feral for a bit. Barefoot in the snow, sand in the bathing suit, unkempt and leafy hair during a camping trip. Take some time to learn together and make memories and hold on to those kids.
Do you have a favorite feral memory from your childhood? Do you have feral children of your own?
Piglets are probably my fave
The piglets are coming, the piglets are coming!
New piglets enjoying some Non GMO cracked peas, barley and corn.
I cannot tell you how much I LOVE piglets. Since I was 8 years old, so like a few years, I have loved pigs. It all started when my sisters got their first 4-H piglets for fair. It was the start of my love of animal husbandry, and it began with those beautiful piglets. I can remember laying in their bedding with them and playing tag, yes, pigs can play tag and I DID lay in their bed. I remember too being momentarily crushed when they left to be processed, but the love and joy lasted through. I was thrilled the next year when I was old enough to raise my own pig for fair. When we decided to begin our farm, after the first pigs came on and we stood back to enjoy watching them smack their feed. I told him I think I could just die happy if I could watch pigs eat everyday, for the rest of my life, no vacations necessary. It’s been 8 years since those pigs came on farm and a lot has changed, but I am still ever so in love with piglets. What makes it all the better is that we have found a great farmer, right down the road, who farrows and has a beautiful and clean operation, respecting of his sows and boar. We totally scored and are so excited to start a professional and personal friendship with him, his wife and their son. We are also preparing for their transplant into our ecosystem and fencing! Before that first group of pigs, we had been enjoying books about farming, some originally were blogs with first hand experiences from first time farmers and some were “how-tos” from experts. They all agreed, be careful with your fencing because the piglets WILL get out, in fact, just make sure not to bring them on late in the day or you will find yourself running around in the dusk/dark trying to recapture your little escapees. We laughed at their inexperience and chalked up the experts to lacking the skills we possessed. Well, I didn’t mentioned earlier that while we enjoyed watching those little piglets eat, we were breathless and mostly just happy we didn’t actually lose any. Yep, we brought our piglets home at dusk and they definitely escaped through what we thought was small enough fencing and took right off into the pasture and even to the neighbors’. We figured it out when their dogs went crazy and we spent the next hour or two chasing tiny piglets in a 3.5 acre pasture and were eventually successful enough to trap them in the garden, which had just seen its first frost and thus was finished for the year. AND that is where they stayed. We didn’t even dare move them to their paddock, we just filled the garden with bags and bags of woodchips and used an old chicken tractor, filled with organic alfalfa as their shelter. We learned that the alfalfa kept them warm enough to keep a LOT of fat on them, even though we wintered them, and then used the accident as a perfect way to expand the garden and have them root the grass and weeds for free! I guess it was an experience worthy of any farmer and we probably needed the humiliation. So, this week, before the piglets come, we will prepare the paddock for tiny and strong little escape artists and pray for the best.
Hold on winter, I’m still in summer mode!
WINTER IS COMING!
Over here, we are officially grasping at summertime and trying our best to hold on while we enjoy the outdoors (it’s finally cool enough to be in the sun), eat the last of the fresh garden veggies, and finish up summer chores. Preserving is NOT finished and the garden is NOT fully harvested, even though the hens have been released to forage as they please in there. We have shelters to build, water lines to be put away and a whole host of other warm weather chores on our tab. We really are grasping even though it’s gone, frozen drinkers and hoses in the morning are the obvious signs, but we continue to chug along, like it’s still summer. One more BBQ, check, chickens still in the pasture, check, and food still in the garden, CHECK, CHECK! We will just pretend that summer isn’t over until the leaves have fallen (even though that skips FALL) and probably find ourselves harvesting potatoes while the first snow comes down on top of us like our last potato harvest. It keeps life interesting.
You won’t hear me complaining about the temperatures NOT being in the 90s, but below freezing has its difficulties as well and maybe I will paint that picture this winter after an especially difficult morning of chores (which is bound to happen). Yeah, I think we will hold on for a week or two more and stumble about the final tasks, just praying that winter doesn’t come early. Before then, we will enjoy highs in the 50s and dust off the heat lamps and finish off one more group of chickens, even if its a little late.
I mean, the flies are still holding on so….
Some of our muscovies enjoying the shade in the pasture.
Have you been struggling to give in to the season change too? Any last minute trips to the lake, or barbecues on the books for your family?
What are you doing to prepare for winter? Any indoor active toys for the kids you pull out, or favorite scarves and boots? Let us know!
Who are we?
Hi. I’m Mallorie Kelly, of O’Kelly Family Farms. Even though the Blog identifies as Jim, just know, its’s actually me. ;-)
I would like to introduce you to our Big Dream and farming philosophies, and maybe a little, to US; the Kelly Family of Lassen County. We are a family of believers, who also believe that food is medicine and what we eat really matters. We raise our food on our small family farm, we are only 4.5 acres, with the love and care we, your family and the animals deserve. All seven of us are lovers of our livestock and animal husbandry. We started our farm as a beloved hobby but always with a bigger future in mind. Now, we face a turning point where we are expanding our little farm and preparing to offer our home raised foods to other families who may not have the ability to, starting with Pastured Raised Chicken. We started this journey to feed our family real, clean and just plain better food. Healing ourselves of the ailments we had acquired was a big motivation to our farming practices being as natural as we can sustain. After 5 years in the Marine Corps for Jim (that comes with some wear and tear), several poor medical diagnoses for me (cealiac disease, hashimoto’s disease, melanoma, multiple food allergies and even more autoimmune disorders), and chronic ear infections, colds, environmental and food allergies and poor immune systems in the kids, we wanted to find a better way to eat and a to live. Farming became our healing, as cooking became our delight. We cherish the opportunity to raise healthy foods and we relish in the optimism of sharing it with others. Just know, every chick, every pig, goat, duck and guard dog has been well treated, as animals deserve. We thank them for their cooperation and their sustenance, both for our family and others. We would like to remain open and transparent, so we may become a trusted farm in our community. We do not use hormones, GMOs, antibiotics, vaccines, or artificial insemination. We allow our animals the space needed for sanitation and security; lowering their stress is a huge priority for us as their stewards. We currently raise our family dogs turned livestock guardians, Pasture Raised Cornish Cross Chickens, some very happy Barred Rock Egg Hens, Free Range Muscovy Ducks, Free Range Khaki Campbell Egg Ducks (our first ones just started laying this week!), Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats, Berkshire Hogs (who are about to wean and move onto the farm) and a variety of fruits and vegetables for our family and friends. We have learned, over a decade and a half of research and trials, that a variety of animals makes for a cleaner environment. We have learned that moving our livestock into new pastures accordingly, lowers the need for antibiotics and vaccines to nearly non existence, and we personally do not use them on our livestock and not really our humans either. We know that chickens love to follow behind other animals for cleaning (and new, tender grasses to forage) and that pigs will stomp out all vegetation if left in one space for too long. We have also learned that there is almost nothing cuter, except maybe our one year old Emanuela, than a baby goat jumping onto an unsuspecting 11 year old James’ back, and that piglets eating their feed make the cutest smacking noises, not unlike David when he was younger. Our love for our farm shows in our food and we can’t wait to share it with your family. Until next time, I’m signing off for bedtime.