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Clearing Land
Many years ago, I’m not sure how many, our little property, like most property in New England, was a farm. The evidence still exists in the form of many old, deteriorated, and sometimes buried stone walls which separated pastures, a few very old fence posts, and what seems to be a very old foundation for either a homestead, or perhaps a barn. We moved here a little over nine years ago with the intention of slowly converting the land back into farmland. It was almost completely wooded. It’s been a slow “spare time” process but our efforts are beginning to show real progress. We’ve cleared a few acres completely into “raw” land, and are progressing into more woodlands.
To me, it’s interesting… no, meaningful… no, well, I’m not sure what the word is… to see the land in its raw form. Sometimes when I’m in the woods and fields I’ll see some new evidence of past homesteaders. I’ll try as best I can to fit the pieces together and imagine what it must have been like… In this part of the stone wall there was a gate, here was a corral of some kind, and there’s a small field which I’m not yet sure of the purpose. I make mental pictures of animals passing through and grazing. I can see berries growing, families working, children playing – 100… 200… 300 years ago in this very spot. I think about Native Americans who lived here, farmed here, passed through… Was there something sacred about the “high spot” next to the river that runs on the back border? Did they swim near the bend on sultry summer days? Did they think about the same things I think about while they worked, lived and passed on this land? I wonder what life was like for all of them, and what they would think about what we’re doing on their land today. I like to think that there is a connection between us and them, that in some way we are all a community, separated only by time, yet united by this land. I wonder what our future community will think 100… 200… 300 years from now when we and the memory of us are gone, and all that is left are some scattered piles of stones………
this little piggy…
One of our pigs had a litter last week.
This pig of ours has a history….
This pig wasn’t born here, nor did we buy her…. we sort of “acquired” her. One day last year a guy randomly stopped at our house. He knocks on our door, and states the obvious “you have pigs”. Perplexed I respond “yes, yes we do”. He says “Do you want another one?”
Now, I’m not quite sure how to answer him. Do I have time to think about it? Can I call my husband at work? Can I get back to him? I have so many questions….. many of which I hadn’t even thought up yet. There are so many things to consider, the dynamics of it all, how do I respond…
“ummm, sure.”
We figured, in retrospect, that we would grow her a little bigger and just add her to our stash in the freezer. Then we did something you should never do on a farm. We got attached. We liked her. She was sassy, she fit right into the herd. Ok then, we go with it. Our boar, Fonz, really liked her. So now….
Posted in Pastured Pork
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Cowboy Candy
I found a recipe for Candied Jalapenos and had to try it. Now I haven’t “tried” it, as in, Eaten it… yet… but I CAN’T wait!!
Cut up 3 lbs of Jalapenos… please use gloves and protective eye wear (someday I’ll let you know how I know why to do this!)
Keep Children (and dogs) out of kitchen while you cut up peppers… It will be hard, they love to help… they want to be where you are… you … must… resist….
Once your peppers are cut up, you remove your gloves and wash the counters, floor and surrounding cabinets, lights, random cups that happened to be on the counter while you were doing this job because it was 8 at night….put 6 cups of sugar into a pot, with 1/2 tsp of tumeric and celery seed, 3 tsp granulated garlic ( I used whole cloves put through the garlic press, you need one clove per 1/4 tsp granulated)
gorgeous isn’t it?? Now add 2 cups of cider vinegar
simmer for 5 minutes
add peppers to syrup mixture and simmer for 4 min… exactly.. do not go over… do not skimp and go under…. there will be mayhem, there will be chaos…. not really, just make sure it simmers for 4 min….
sooo yummy… after the 4 minutes are up remove peppers to hot, clean jars. You can use any size you like…
now reduce the syrup by bringing to a rolling boil and let boil for 6 min… a rolling boil, not a strolling, or skipping… or even jumping boil, but a rip roaring rolling boil. rolling, rolling. rolling… gotta get it rolling… get ’em in get ’em out…uh.. oops sorry, moving on…
Once the syrup has boiled for 6 minutes pour over the peppers leaving 1/4 inch of headroom. Insert a wooden dowel, chopstick, or any other such pointy object, around inside of jar to get trapped air bubbles out. Wipe rims of jars with damp cloth to get any sticky residue off. Can using your favorite method, mine being a pressure cooker, for the allotted time. I did mine at 10 lbs for 10 min. A water bath canner would have different times. You can call your local agriculture exchange for that information.
Allow jars to mellow for 2 weeks to a month before using. Use on sandwiches, in recipes or just out of the jar. I’ll let you know how we like it!!
Dangers of higher learning
All of the ladies were away for the day yesterday and it was just me and the boys. We ate lunch and, mostly because I was tired, we had a “quiet hour”. I took a nap. The boys spent their quiet hour blowing whistles, rehearsing lines from “Despicable Me”, and running through the house just beyond sound barrier speeds. Anyway, when I woke (which, for some strange reason, seemed to be at just about the same time that I dozed) I went to the table and sat to get my shoes back on when I heard what seemed to be a typical “cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, clukooooook!” It sounded a little strange, but I thought nothing of it at first. But then it came clearer, louder. “Cluckooooookkkk!!!” As in crystal clear. Unmuffled. Very strange. Is there a chicken near a window? Curiosity got the better of me so I walked toward the cluck, and there, in our library, standing on my copy of “Java Programming” by Y. Daniel Lang – was a chicken.
Now this may not seem to be unusual to average folk, but we have a strict policy of not allowing our animals to read. You never know what they might pick up. We have lots of books, for example, on the revolutionary war – and we don’t want these critters getting any ideas. I showed this lass the door, but we’ve got our eye on her……..
Curious cases of disappearing pigs
I just read this and thought to myself, Wow. I suppose I should be keeping up on store pork prices, but I don’t go into too many stores these days. Why eat make-believe, sickly, factory manufactured, tastes like cardboard pork when you can eat all natural, healthy, farm raised and out of this world delicious can’t ever get enough exploding taste buds pork? Especially now that, apparently, factory cardboard contaminated pork prices are so high that it’s worth stealing entire herds! (Just how does someone steal hundreds of pigs at a time anyway? We often have trouble moving just one at a time…) Anyway, now that I’ve tantalized you I’m sorry to say that because we are currently building our herd we have no pork available just now, but we will likely have a limited amount this spring, around March or April. If you are interested in getting some of the best pork that you ever will taste, drop us an email at tomcovafarm@gmail.com . We’ll put you on a list and notify you when the time is getting close. Our pork prices are very comparable to store prices, but the quality of our pork blows. theirs. away.
By the way, if you happen to be driving by our farm and see some strange men with a big truck chasing pigs in our fields, give ’em heck!
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Pastured Chicken Hot off the Grass!
As weird as it may seem, I always look forward to processing day. I like to know how well we did our job by the look & weight of the birds, and there is no better way to know that than by “looking under the hood” so to speak. Today was a good day – our best by broiler raising standards. For one, all of our birds ended up larger than we’ve ever raised before. While the growth rate of broilers never ceases to amaze us, the average weight of our broilers this time around was 4.14 lbs dressed. (Our largest was 5.88 lbs dressed! Remember, these birds are eight weeks old!) We’ve implemented several changes including feed control, some slight modifications to the feed ration and stocking rate, and a few other minor things which on the surface may seem insignificant, but makes compounding and significant improvements to the health of our broilers. Another factor that made this day delightful (and yes, I do mean that) was the fact that we got to use our new automatic chicken plucker. If you have ever plucked a chicken by hand, you might have an inkling of what I mean. If you’ve ever plucked 50 or more at a time by hand, then you will completely understand our euphoria. The plucker station used to be the most hated. Now it’s the most coveted.
Look closely. In addition to our recently deceased, scalded and not so little friend being disrobed in the plucker tub, you can clearly see a smile on the plucker queen as she leans leisurely in an (unrehearsed) pose of peaceful serenity. Nobody else dared to attempt to take over the plucker station today. I asked nicely and was able to watch a couple of times though.
Another great thing happened today that made the day even better. Our good friends from Morning Star Meadows Farm in North Stonington came over to help, and great helps they were. Thanks guys!
If you’re interested in purchasing some of our broilers, give us a call: (860)564-9884, or email us at tomcovafarm@gmail.com . The price is $3.50/lb, about $14.50 for an average 4lb+ broiler.
Posted in Chickens, Pastured Poultry
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Sir Lics’alot
Or, Mr. Licker…. 
In reality, his name is really Mal… Or Cap’n Mal… or Malcom(e)… Anyway you call him.. he’s a licker!!
Mal is our new stud and we are soooo excited about him! He’s everything you want in a Golden. He’s goofy (note the first pic), he loves to play with the kids 
Wherever we are… That’s where he wants to be
We love him…. we adore him…. he’s majestic… he’s silly… he’s…..
A Golden Retriever 
Oh and did I mention how excited we are to see how his babies are going to turn out??
What is it?
A. Part of a do-it-yourself milking station for those new fangled genetically modified giant milk cows we’ve been hearing about.
B. A homeschool weather experiment.
C. A super efficient chicken killing apparatus.
D. An insect control device.
E. A homemade three-row concentrated crop waterer.
F. Something left from Steph’s latest close encounter with brain enhancing aliens.
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