Vaughnshire Farm

I can not rack my brain to retrieve even a slight, faint memory of what boredom is? I am not sure. I secretly think that if I didn’t have to eat and sleep, I could get so much more accomplished, but thankfully that is not possible and those breaks for nourishment and sleep are much appreciated short reprieves from constant work!

In my life, there is always something to do and to remain sane, I have had to give up many of my ideals to even exist. Ideals such as a perfectly in order house or spotless laundry room or a kitchen that stays clean for more than 3 minutes. Remember those times when all the laundry was caught up and put away? Remember when the house cleaning was finished and there was absolutely nothing else to do? I don’t remember those days but maybe they once existed? Currently, I have had to accept the fact that laundry will not be completely finished and put away. I rate my laundry not on if the room is perfectly clean or not, but rather how tall the pile is. I try to keep it under two feet. Laundry is an ongoing process and a daily fact of life.

I also have to accept that my 1000 square foot house will look like 7 children live in it. Why burden myself with impossible visions of a perfectly manicured home. We live in the country. It’s muddy and 99% of the time there is chicken manure on the front porch and most of the time at least 4 of the children manage to step in it on a daily basis.

I just expect the children to come inside thoroughly bathed in the sights and smells of small country life and currently that consists of mud and leaves until the grass grows thicker in the spring. Of course in the spring, I have new sights and smells to deal with, namely one called poison ivy.

I am tempted to become overwhelmed at all the commotion around here but at the end of the day when I pray over my sleeping children, all that commotion, mess, noise and work somehow slips to the back of my mind as a distant burden that can’t compare with the invaluable sense of accomplishment, completeness and love I have for those 7 sleeping little children.

For now, I am learning how to let things go. I am constantly grasping for what is important. I am striving to maintain a happy, peaceful home and accepting the fact that I may have several piles of laundry on the couch and a basket of dumped out toys on the floor, and homeschool books scattered all down the table. More than that, add the bustling atmosphere of learning and love. How much more important are these than the materialistic looks of a sterile home that has been disinfected of all real living! If only I could remember that every time I am tempted to become overwhelmed.

(No, I don’t know what he was attempting to do and NO, Those are not play clothes!)

I want a real happy home with thriving children that are taught of the Lord, loved by a momma that has real peace with the place God has put her and doesn’t stress over dirty laundry. Real living, real messes and real noise. I have to remind myself on a daily basis of what really matters.

Our friends over at LAF have posted a very entertaining homemaking clip made in the 1940’s entitled “Cooking:  Terms and What They Mean”

I thought this video clip was fitting to follow my post on ultra-convenience foods!  When I have time, I will post the actual video clip to my site.  My daughter enjoyed watching this clip over and over.  I enjoyed watching it for different reasons as it proves to be a very telling paradox to where we are today in a nation of illiterate home makers who could care less if their husband came home to a made-from-scratch chocolate cake!

Has anyone taken notice of the new generation of convenience foods that we are seeing surface like wild fire? If you told the modern woman that store bought bread, dry pasta or dry beans were actually once considered a convenience item, they would think you had fallen off the wagon 1,000 miles ago. While we all have differing standards of where we stand on convenience food products and how we use them in our homes, no one can doubt that we are a lazy generation that has been spoiled with ultra-convenience.

I was in a wholesale grocery warehouse the other day and was struck like never before that the “convenience” food industry and our mindset we have towards convenience food is costing us more than just money! The mass marketing and availability of ultra-convenience has enabled home makers to become unskilled and unproductive in the area of cooking and baking. No wonder why most women haven’t a clue about how to cook. Everything is in a jar, cardboard box or plastic bag. The basic skills of the home maker are being handed over to Kraft and Oscar Meyer but not without a cost. If my great grandmother could stroll the isles of the modern grocery store, she would not believe the insane amounts and types of convenience foods on the shelves.

Let’s take a look at some of these new generation, ultra-convenience foods:

Oscar Meyer Fast Franks. Now this is an interesting new ultra-convenience, marketing scam item that I am still wondering about. Pre-packaged hot dogs already in the buns? I can’t help my sarcasm over this item. Oscar Meyer wants to make you believe that making hotdogs just became drastically easier, as if it was difficult before. In fact, here is what Kraft foods says about their new product,

“It’s mouthwatering to imagine — a tasty, hot and juicy Oscar Mayer hot dog wrapped inside a soft and warm bakery-fresh bun. And now imagine only having to wait thirty-five seconds for that first delicious bite.”

“Preparation is easy, and there’s no cook top mess or boiling water!”

“By leveraging proprietary dough technology, Oscar Mayer Fast Franks have made hot dogs easier to enjoy than ever before.”

(I am left wondering what “leveraging proprietary dough technology” is exactly?)

Instead of walking to the hotdog section of the store and buying a package of hotdogs and then having to walk all the way over to the other side of the store and pick up a package of buns and then going through the tedious process of having to make the hot dog, Oscar Meyer has made life easier by making the hot dog for you! Now you can buy pre-made, several-layers-of-pre-packaging packaged hot dogs in buns. You can even choose from two types of hotdogs: Beef Franks and Meat Franks. Hmmm….

I predict that the Fast Franks of the next generation may contain hotdogs that are pre-filled with ketchup and will instantly heat when you snap them like a glow stick.

Next item on the list is the bag of pre-peeled, pre-boiled eggs. I stopped and starred at the large bag of pre-boiled-peeled eggs for a few seconds in disbelief. Now boiling water is too much of a hassle and heaven forbid you ever have to peel another egg! I was expecting to see a “Food For Dummies” label anywhere on the package, but instead I found directions for how to use this new convenience food as if the consumer would not be able to figure it out. Or maybe the average consumer does need directions for how to use a bag of pre-boiled-peeled eggs?

Evidently because of declining egg consumption and falling egg prices, egg suppliers have been working on innovative ways to boost sales. Thus the idea of the pre-boiled, pre-peeled egg was born. Homemakers aren’t buying normal eggs. I am not surprised actually when I consider that modern homemakers do not cook or bake with eggs any longer because they are buying so many pre-packaged convenience foods that do not require the usage of eggs. The only good thing I can say about this product is that it is a real food, unlike the fast frank which contains the mysterious “proprietary dough technology” that seems to me to be code for “legal poison”.

Next item on the list has baffled me as well. It is the pre-cut apples. The only positive aspect I can see with this convenience food is that at least there was a thought given to a food that was actually healthy, however, I am positive that all the preservatives that are dumped on that pre-cut apple can not be good for you. When I saw the pre-packaged, pre-cut up apples on the shelf, I couldn’t figure out why in the world such an item existed and who, in their right mind, would buy a cut-up apple that was 3 times more expensive than the whole apple displayed 3 feet from it? Then I remembered that in this culture, if a 2nd grader takes a plastic knife to school, it is cause for suspension. So what’s the connection? These pre-cut apples are hot items for school lunches. Dole solved this problem by cutting up apples for over worked moms and has enabled a well loved fruit, the apple, to be easily sent (without a knife) in little Billy’s lunch sack , even if it is laden with chemical preservatives that cause cancer.

We all are familiar with the more common convenience foods. They have been popular for years. Most of us have used these products at some time or another. However, I have to wonder if many of the more common convenience foods used to be as outlandish as the pre-made hot dogs are today? If we are too busy to cut up apples or wash salad, it seems to me that we are too busy and maybe we should reorganize and reevaluate our priorities.

I am not bashing all convenience foods. Some convenience foods really have enabled the homemaker to have more time and for busy homemakers that is a blessing. However, as homemakers, I believe we must be very careful not to relegate our skills to corporate giants who, in turn, dumb us down by enabling us to be cooking and baking illiterate.

Most home makers depend way too much on convenience to run their homes. We need to recapture the lost skills of home making and stop being so dependant on the grocery store to hand us over pre-packaged, prepared, pre-cooked, pre-heated, pre-made, pre-cut, convenience foods.

Our great grandmothers knew the arts and skills of cooking just about anything. Their kitchens were well used. Their minds were filled with the arts and sciences of cooking and baking. They could make a delicious meal from the basics. They wouldn’t dream of buying pre-packaged scrambled eggs.

Our grandparents’ generation thought the new store-bought bread and already ground flour were huge leaps towards the direction of progress, although they still made cakes and gravies from scratch and knew how to cook a tender roast. Sunday dinner at Grandma’s house invited us with fresh baked pie, turkey and mashed potatoes and of course, sweet tea.

Our parents’ generation did not prepare dry beans or make bread and relied more heavily on convenience foods. Box cake mixes, canned soups, sugar cereals and sports drinks, gravy mix and multi-purpose baking mixes were all the rage. The stores became filled with the latest and greatest convenience package. At least they used eggs and cooked their own bacon, cut up their own apples, roasted their own turkey and made our birthday cakes.

Our generation buys pre-made everything. This is an instant gratification, need it now, convenience based generation. If really in the mood to cook, packages of pre-made dough already cut in the shape of a cookie are available at any store. This is a fast food and out-to-eat generation who spend a considerable amount of time out of the kitchen and away from the family meal table. This generation can recognize advertising slogans and can name off the .99 cent menu at various fast food establishments. They can not follow a recipe in a cookbook unless it lists “cake mix” as an ingredient. This generation is sorely uneducated about cooking, homemaking, health and home management.

The next generation of homemakers are not going to know how to boil water and it is looking as though there will no need for that room we call, the kitchen.

The convenience craze is also picking the pocketbook. In an article entitled, Time Saved Money Wasted, Cathryne Sykes, exposes many convenience foods and their costs. She says,

“A friend of mine, for example, bought pre-marinated, individually vacuum-packed chicken breasts for $1.67 per four-ounce portion. It never occurred to her this is $6.68 a pound! Boneless chicken breasts were selling for $3.29 a pound. If it takes 5-cents worth of seasoning and one minute to season a pound’s worth (do it in the morning and leave it in the fridge to marinate), you pay $3.34 per minute for this “convenience” or $200 per hour!

In another article called “Nutrition researchers gauge the true costs of convenience meals“, I found that unless you buy shredded cheese during a mega sale, you will be paying a great deal more than if you just bought a block of cheese and shredded it yourself.

“The group determined that the consumer was paying the equivalent of $80 per hour for the convenience of buying shredded cheese, $75 per hour for sliced gala apples, and nearly $50 per hour for pre-cut celery.”

I do enjoy many conveniences that we have, however, while convenience is not in and of itself a bad thing, I am reminded to consider the effects of ultra-convenience on my own home making skills. I want to expand my culinary skills and fill my mind with knowledge that once was common place in the field of homemaking. I love the move back to simplicity and enjoy the age old pleasures of the arts and sciences of cooking, baking and making of the home.

We love fresh salsa. I make it often using my blender and various salsa making produce. I don’t use a recipe really….I just add what I have that would be found in salsa.

This time I added a bunch of cilantro, sweet red pepper, green bell pepper, 3 cloves of garlic, a small onion, tomatoes, 1/2 of a unknown hot pepper.  I bought a bag of hot peppers at the store for $1, so I came home and made salsa. The rest of the peppers, I washed, sliced and froze in freezer baggies for next time.

I blend on low until it looks just about right. I do not like to leave salsa in my blender for very long because I make fruit smoothies and protein shakes in it as well and do not want that hot garlic peppery smell in my smoothie. If I have a lot of salsa, I will put it in those ziplock containers with screw on lids to store in the refrigerator. It doesn’t last long around here so I don’t worry with is spoiling. I have frozen it before, but it took on a more watery consistency and I am not sure if that is normal or if it was just what I made it out of that time.

Time for the taste test….. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into! This batch was not really that hot so I let her eat some. After the first initial taste of it, she loved it so much that I had to make her stop eating it.

I added a spoonful of salsa to each of our soup bowls and it turned an ordinary but tasty chicken soup into a delightfully, spicy, different meal.

Some husbands bring their wives cut roses and chocolate, my husband brings me wild turkey.

After years of marriage and many children, he still impresses me. A flock of about 40 turkey were in our side yard garden area. A few minutes later he walks in with a present for me.

He actually spared me the dirty work and when I returned from running some errands, he had a turkey ready for me in the refrigerator. When we returned, I put the kids to cleaning it up a bit.

After several good scrubs and rinses, it was ready to go.

My daughter made stuffing and stuffed the bird.

After several hours in the oven wafting smells of Thanksgiving were in the air.

After supper, I thought, “Maybe we wouldn’t starve after all…..“

If you stop in for a visit around supper time, most likely I will feed you something with either chicken or deer (unless you are my sister-in-law. I wouldn’t do that to her and am warning her that she might want to skip this post altogether.) We raised our own chickens this fall and processed them the first week of December. We have friends that have been raising their own meat for years and have taught us many valuable skills. This Fall was full of learning about growing and processing our own food; from our backyard to our freezer.

If you are wanting to raise your own meat, the best advice I could give is to find a family who has already done this before and have them teach you! We learned by helping and watching friends of ours who showed us “how it is done”. When it came time to process our own birds, we knew what to do. If you haven’t followed the chicken raising experience, you can check out the Family Farming section of my blog.

Where to get birds: We ordered our chicks from a man who owns a small hatchery in Kentucky. Our chicks arrived early one morning and my husband and boys went to the post office to pick them up.

What Kind: We ordered a cornish rock cross which means that his parents looked something like Rocky on Chicken Run and his mother looked something like the round fat cornish hen. In fact, with this bird, they grow to be so overweight, that their legs will break just from the weight if you do not process them within a 7 to 12 week time frame. They are true meat chickens. There are 3 different types of chickens: Meat birds, Layers, and Dual Purpose. If you are wanting to raise a bunch of birds at one time for meat…you would want to get meat birds. However, this spring I will be ordering a dual purpose bird mainly for eggs, but after the egg production lifespan is over, it can be for food as well.

How many: We bought 100 birds and spilt half of them with another family in our church.

Where to keep them: In the beginning, as baby chicks, we kept them in a warm pen with straw and a warming light. It is best to have a pen that does not have corners, octagon or circle shape is best. When bigger, we wanted our chickens to be able to forage for bugs and grass, however we didn’t want them running around the yard at will. We had predator concerns with dogs and opossums so we kept ours in an electric fenced area. Ideally, next time we will build a special chicken tractor to keep them in that will protect them from predators but also enable us to move them around the yard to eat bugs and grass.

What to feed them: In the beginning we fed them a high protein chick feed. As they grew, we changed the feed to meet their protein requirements. They have special feed at farm co-op stores just for meat chickens. Next time, we will be buying a bulk amount of ingredients to mix our own feed.

Work involved: It is a daily job caring for these chickens. In the beginning, cleaning out their pen and providing them with fresh straw is easy. As they grow, the work grows, however, it was a perfect job for two of our young boys. At 9 and 10 years old, they were great chicken growers!

Final Thoughts: Would we do this again? Absolutely! Actually, we are seriously considering raising turkey not only for our own family, but for others as well. Once we are to a place where land size will permit cattle, we will also venture into that. Once you have raised your own meat, food takes on new meaning. I am mindful every time I cook a chicken of all the work that went into this bird. I know what it ate and I know it is a clean safe, healthy food product for my family.

I would recommend Joel Salatin’s books and website. We went to a conference last year and heard him speak about family farming. I thoroughly enjoyed his presentations and my boys absolutely were inspired. For further information on family farming, I would recommend his book Family Friendly Farming. Although this book does not give the specific 1, 2. 3’s of how to raise your own chickens, it is an excellent book. His other books are more specific.

• Holy Cows and Hog Heaven - The Food Buyer’s Guid To Farm Friendly Food
• You Can Farm - Talks about what it takes to establish and run your own small scale farm.
• Salad Bar Beef - How to raise grass fed beef.
• Pastured Poultry Profits - How to raise poultry for profit and yourself
• The Polyface Farm DVD - Shows exactly how to implement the techniques Salatin talks about.

You can view an online clip of how they raise Turkey in the Gobbly Go as well as view other short clips on the family friendly farming techniques. Joel Salatin also has how-to tapes on raising chickens, rabbits and other farming interests.

Speaking of Turkey..tune in soon for my next blog post.

Here is my latest super sized grocery deal for the large family.   Kroger had a product promotion sale in which the store offered an instant $7 rebate when you bought 8 Kraft / Nabisco participating products.  The only limit was that you could only get one $7 rebate per transaction when buying 8 products.  So I ended up doing multiple transactions.  After finding out that the sale was valid for an additional week,  I decided to order an additional 60 coupons from the coupon clippers website and really stock up before this sale ended.
Actually, with my coupons the Kraft cheese crumbles ended up being completely free with some overage going towards the tax.  Here are my totals:

3 visits with 21 transactions (No problems whatsoever.)

36 bars of cream cheese
24 boxes of triscuits crackers
8 boxes of cookies
100 bags (various crumbles, shredded, cube and block)
8 bags of additional cheese for free because I found the manager and asked him if he would check in the back for more crumbles because the ones on the rack were out of date.  FREE BAGS just for pointing that out to him!!

Total paid $42.61
Regular price $431.68

Some of the cheese was already in the freezer when I took this picture.  The cheese crumbles and shredded cheese freeze well.  I did find out that  cream cheese is good for 2 months past the expiration date as long as you do not open the package.  Cream cheese will freeze, however, it does alter the consistency a bit so it would not be good for spreads but still good for baking.  Though it may seem like a lot of cream cheese, I should have bought twice this amount.  If we have a breakfast with bagels, it takes two packages of bagels and 1 package of cream cheese to even start to feed us.

Last month I stocked up on 23 packages of bagels, which doesn’t last long around here.  I have to get my brain thinking in even bigger stock quantities!

This is my first try at winter gardening. So far, it isn’t by any means feeding us, but is a hobby that reminds me of how scary it would be if I was responsible for actually growing all our food.

Here is my one cabbage. In the fall, I planted lettuce around it. Now it is sitting under one of those plastic tubs acting rather nicely as a cold frame. It allows the sun in, well that is if the sun ever comes out, and keeps the freezing temps from killing my plants. Here is what it looked like in the earlier months.

Inside, the cabbage is finally getting bigger and forming a ball.

Here is the broccoli cold frame. Being the inexperienced winter gardener that I am, I didn’t pick the broccoli soon enough and some of it started flowering. I was expecting the heads to look exactly like those in the store. Silly me, what was I thinking?!? They looked similar but were greener and a bit smaller. So I snipped the heads off and we have since been getting smaller off-shoots which I am adding to our salads. Next year I would love to plant 3 times as much broccoli and stagger plant it so my plants were producing at different times.

Here are the headless broccoli. Smaller lettuce plants are growing underneath. Next year I will revise my set up and build a more functional cold frame that is easier to get into without having to unwrap the plastic. Maybe something with a hinged lid. Actually I would love a greenhouse

The beginning of February and we are finally getting some winter weather. It had been freezing cold rainy dreary muddy stuck inside wishing for the warmer weather so the kids can go play outside. I think if it is going to be 9 degrees there better be snow on the ground, however it doesn’t work out like that normally.

The snow mover and his driver

She didn’t like it. It wasn’t warm and didn’t taste like momma’s milk.

She loved it! This was her prized snowball that daddy threw at the tree when they came inside. I think she is still holding a grudge.

Here’s wishing they had cleared some brush for a sled hill. Actually, we tried sledding but the snow wasn’t good sledding snow. Snowball fights were good enough though.