Homemade Beans.

Sprouts, starting to sprout. 

Homemade Baked Beans.

Homemade baked beans were not exactly my favourite dish as a child. I was always told that I would like them in the future and here I am, baking beans. You start, as pictured above, by soaking your beans. These beans are navy beans but another kind or even a combination of beans can be used. The beans need to be covered with water and soaked overnight. You can use a quick soak method but I don't recommend it. I find the beans are always easier to cook and digest when soaked overnight.

The beans are then combined with onion, garlic and other desired vegetables. Some use carrots, celery, peppers and even apple. Molasses and Maple syrup or honey is then added along with tomato paste, mustard powder, any additional seasonings and water. I do not exactly follow a recipe. I use a recipe for approximate measurements then always make my beans a little different depending on what veggies I have to use up.

You dollop butter on the top to keep the beans from drying out since you cook them for a long time.

I usually bake my beans in the slow cooker on a day when it would be most appreciated. This time I baked my beans on top of the wood stove since we would be using the wood stove anyway to heat the house. One day and one night of baking filled my home with the most pleasant sweet molasses and maple smell.

Here they are bubbling away.

Scientific Experimentation.

With all the sprouting, soaking and general food prep in the kitchen my counters often look like they're covered with 'Science' Experiments. Here I'm sprouting some alfalfa, soaking some raw cashews and navy beans.

The cashews will be drained and dried for straight up eating and the beans will be turned into baked beans. I might as well make the baked beans on top of the wood stove since I don't need them for any specific time and I will have the wood stove on all day anyway. I can't wait for their smell to invade the house.

My early morning date. Always on time, every morning.

This photo is from late fall.

He insisted on sleeping on these onions all day. I kept checking them fearing his body heat would not allow them to properly breath and dry. They were fine to use after a few days of being used themselves as pillows, however I did have to brush them off before storing them covered in cat hair.

Venison Jerky.

Drying meat for preservation dates back before refrigeration. My boyfriend hunts and this year we were lucky enough to get a deer. We try and use every part of the deer we can and every scrap of meat. Making Jerky is an excellent way to use the less desirable cuts of steak so they don't end up becoming dog food.

Making Jerky is really easy and can be made with or without a dehydrator.

It can also be made with good quality grain fed beef.

Step one: Marinade

The meat is cut in 1/8-1/4 inch pieces, depending on preference, either with or across the grain, again depending on preferences. I like to go slightly across the grain, you do lose the large uniform strips of jerky while keeping the marbling of fat consistent. To make the marinade combine tamari soy sauce, maple syrup or honey, cinnamon and other desired flavours.  Allow this to marinate at least over night.

Step Two: Dehydrating

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees.
Simply lay the strips of venison on a pan suitable for drying the meat. The venison does shrink when dehydrating and can be placed a little closer together than I have mine here.
Place it in the oven where it will remain for at least 5 hours, maybe more, depending on the thickness of your venison strips.

Step 3: Enjoy!

 

Dehydrating meat may have been invented for long term preservation but it doesn't last long around here!

Jerky makes a great snack for winter exercising whether you are cross country skiing, snowshoeing, sitting in an ice fishing shack or even at the local arena skating.Venison jerky is a great portable protein!

N. ViroPotter

My lovely sister lent me this cool little gardening device. It's a mold for creating your own paper pots from recycled newspaper.

Therefore, I am spending a portion of this afternoon whipping off a bunch of these little guys to use for my flower transplants like sunflowers and pansies.

End of the Onions.

I am in the process of putting on a chicken to roast. I usually stuff the cavity of the chicken with an onion for flavour. I took out my trusty onion basket and was shocked to see that this is all the onions I have left for the Winter. I'll soon be able to plant onions in our cold frame and green onions do not require a long growing time before using them. Still, I am a little sad this is all that is remaining. I'll be planting more next year, mostly increasing the amount of red onions I plant as I did not realize I would use as many as I did. Some day, maybe 30 years down the road, I'll have this down to more of a science.Until then, I am enjoying the learning process.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland.

After Dio and I returned from our walk this morning I snapped some pictures of the snow.

I had to take the chickens some beets I had cooked for them this morning and this is the pathway to the chicken shed.

The Winter Chicken Shed.

Chickies.

Beets not Blood.

 

Chicken Tractor.

Grand Finale.

10 ways to keep your chickens safe from predators.