Fodder Experiment

We've been reading lots about sprouting grains hydroponically to feed the cows and chickens.  By sprouting them and letting them grow up to 6" tall, the food value increases by four fold and feed costs go way down.  I've also read that it increases milk production and butterfat content.  We've found a fully self-contained system that costs $9,000 and uses lots of electricity.  We've got to find a better solution.

I found a great discussion on the forum for Keeping a Family Cow.  These folks are having success with lot tech and low electricity solutions.  We decided to give it a try.

We're starting with wheat, just because it's what we have handy.  Yesterday we soaked it all day.  The grains doubled in size.

Today we drained it and spread it in trays.  If everything works well, it should be a mat of grass in one week.

We're already having visions of a full system in an outdoor greenhouse.  I think we'll need to do 3-4 trays each day to feed all the cows and chickens.  That means 21-28 trays going at any one time. 

Last weekend we finished spreading the compost on our back garden and got it all tilled in together.  My husband got the furrows cut and now we wait.  They say it's good to let the manure and soil make friends for 2-3 weeks before planting in it. 

Our indoor starts are doing well while they wait for outdoor planting.  The cabbage and brocoli are huge and I don't know if we'll be able to wait 2 weeks to plant them.  These celery have to wait until late April or May but they are looking fantastic.

We started hardening off the cabbage and broccoli, getting them used to sunlight.  The first day we put them out for two hours and then two more hours the next day, two more the next, until they are out all day.  I failed to do this one year and everything almost died. 

Moving the starts outside gives us more room under the grow lights.  We started tomatoes and peppers so they'll be strong in late May when it's safe to put them out.

While we were out working in the garden, I got close enough to the pasture to see that the chickens have eaten it down too far.  Some of the little grass plants are gone and some are so tiny.  We closed up the gate way to the pasture and we'll keep the chickens in for a month to let the pasture grow and recover.  We also put out some fresh grass seed to help it fill in.  Today it's raining, perfect weather for grass seed to start.  I pray that it grows like mad!

Still Harvesting

All summer it was easy to go outside.  An occasional thunderstorm or the heat of the day would drive us in, but we were out every day.  Now in the fall, there are more stormy days than nice ones.  The rain has stopped but now the winds are so high that we don't dare get on a ladder.  The work on the shed will have to wait.

This morning I did some harvesting.  The artichoke plants we started from seed have grown huge and this is our second cutting.  The plants are perennial in milder climates, but I'm going to bury them in mulch and try to keep them over the winter.

Some of those broccoli plants are still producing little heads down underneath the main growth.   There is enough for dinner tonight.

As I was walking through, I noticed some carrots that I had forgotten about.  They have grown huge.  I suspect they are past the the tender/sweet stage, but they'll still be good in stew.  We have a bed of little carrot plants that I'm hoping will get decent sized before they stop growing.  I've heard of people over-wintering carrots in the ground and that they get actually get sweeter as it gets colder.  We're going to give it a try.  So far they aren't big enough to bother with, and I don't know how much growing they have left this fall.

We are three weeks from Christina's due date.  I am nervous about being the human responsible for her safe delivery, but we have the vet's cell phone number and Jerseys are supposed to have easy deliveries.  Initially she will give colostrum, which is only good for baby cows, but we'll milk her anyway.  Jerseys give much more milk than a calf can deal with and it's unsafe for the cow or the calf not to milk her right away.  Inside of a week it will have changed to regular milk.  In anticipation, I got some cheese cultures that were on sale.  I think Christina is anxious to get back to her molasses grain that we only give her when she's being milked, the stuff that we call her candy.

Soreness and Surprise

It's cool and rainy today.  It wasn't supposed to be and I had a long list of things to get done outside.  I'm not that disappointed that I have to stay in.

We harvested that surprise broccoli that had been growing on the back side.  Off only six plants we almost filled the harvesting bucket.  After washing them, I looked in the book on how to freeze broccoli.  It recommended soaking them in salt water for 30 minutes to eliminate insects.  Sounds good, so I did that.  Then it was pretty standard.  First I cut them into the sized pieces I'll want when they come out of the freezer.

Then I blanched them.  This old blancher was in my grandmother's things after she died.  It's a pot in a pot.  The inner pot has holes like a colander and nests nicely into the outer pot.  After bringing the water to a boil, I threw it a bunch of broccoli and let them go for three minutes.  After draining, I dumped them into another strainer to drain and started the next batch.  Finally, I dumped the drained broccoli into bags.

It took less than half-an-hour from start to finish.  In the end, we got about a gallon and a half in the freezer.  That's a lot of broccoli when I didn't realize we had any.

That broccoli will taste sweeter because it was a surprise.  And it's a blessing because I'm sore and it gave me something to do today without straining any muscles.

My body has been slow in learning this new lifestyle.  Raising food involves a lot of lifting and physical work.  My body is middle aged and not especially athletic.  Sore muscles have become a regular part of my life.  Last Friday we scooped cow pies and then Saturday I helped my daughter's girl scout troop pick apples, lifting quite a few heavy boxes.  My back is still sore.  But the rain has given me a respite, another day to heal and recover.  I pray that each time I suffer this soreness, God is using it to grow strength in my body so next time won't be as bad.  That's all I can hope for at my age.