Eating on the Homestead

[minnikin1]

I’m struggling with the chore of menu planning, and I’m convinced the main problem is an over abundance of choices! Piles of cookbooks and cooking shows and magazines with recipes; supermarkets that make your head spin with the options, produce available all the time. Homesteading books with how to make cheeses and breads and canned goods and beverages! Every cuisine on the planet is available and flaunting it’s favorites.

On top of that, I have a complete lack of knowledge about using seasonal foods (my mother was FAR removed from the farm, so I never learned how to plan based around whatchagot.)

Our level of self-support is still in the “setting up” stage. We’re planting the fruit trees, buying and setting up the gardens and just learning how to grow food. Our chickens aren’t laying yet, and we’re just now acquiring some of our livestock. We do hunt and fish, but basically, I’m still buying most our food. But for several years I’ve been trying so hard to shop in a way that simulates what growing our own will be like.

I’ve been trying and collecting recipes that require a minimum of purchased staples. I’ve been trying to eliminate excessively complicated and time consuming foods. I know I will be dealing with gluts, so I look for a variety of ways to prepare things. I know I will have more eggs and dairy than I will know what to do with, so I try to incorporate those items in EVERYTHING.
The family has to be trained to this new way of eating, and can be oddly resistant to accepting homemade tastes over store-bought. (Why do kids PREFER those junk food burgers every time???)

Then there is the “information gap” The stuff the books never talk about. They tell you “how to raise a cow”. And there is “how to make cheese and butter”. But there is no map to get from here to there.
Example: you get your cow (or goat) and you go out and milk it. There you stand with your first pail of milk. Now what? How do you incorporate the day to day of milking and making dairy products into your real life, your day-to-day routine? How often do you make cheese? Butter? Is it a daily chore or more like baking, something you do once a week? Can you add today’s pail of milk to yesterdays project? Where do most people store it? How much time is there until “uh-oh, it’s gone bad”. How many bottles and jars do you need to have on hand to be ready for one family cow’s worth of milk?

Sorry to rant, here. I guess I’m just tired. I want to do this! I want to learn.
Sometimes I just wish I had a grandma to watch. Someone teach me how to do it. Starting from zero is SO HARD!

[mom2girls]

Hi, I am in the same spot, not yet farming yet tying to live the life as much as possible. I make my own butter, with store bought cream. I do it twice a week now, but when we have acow I will do it once a week. As for eating seasonally, that is where the eating within 100 miles comes in. If there is a local farm shop there instead of the grocery store. As for wanting a grandma around to teach you. What about rereading some novels, like the Little House books. I knowthey are for kids but that is how they lived back then. There are so many others, that is just my favorite. Good luck, I am not sure that help any. Tracy

[mpillow]

Trust you instincts....

And to some degree your routine as far as making products is based on supply and demand....if you have company then you may make an extra batch of cheese or bread pudding and use up lots of milk...

I feed old milk to chickens dog cat or fatten a calf or pig with it....I dont generally keep goat milk beyond 2 days for human consumption...it can be frozen or canned to suppliment during dry phase...

I usually use a gallon of goat milk and make 1 quart of yogurt and a batch of cheese once a week until the buck goes in the barn...then milk is frzn to feed out to possible orphaned kids or mom's that don't have enough milk...and if I dont need the frzn at kidding time...it can be fed out to the animals...I even canned about 48q of milk that my chickens are enjoying during the cold weather.

Farmer Boy is a good resource from the Little House series...

[Bluecreekrog]

Minnakin, I do most of the cooking around our place, (we are 2 1/2 men) so I think I'm qualified to answer this thread. I cook as my Aunt and Grandmother (farm wives) did. Breakfast after barn chores (animals always eat first). Breakfast was always eggs, bacon, coffee or milk. Toast, a bran cereal and maybe a piece of in season fruit rounded out the meal. After dishes were cleared dinner was started, this was the big meal of the day. meat was put on to slow cook. Then depending on the day, they baked made butter, canned, worked in the garden, washed or cleaned house for a few hours. Dinner was around 1 pm. It was a meat dish, several vegies, (either fresh or home canned) always potatos either mashed or fried, bread and pies, cake, or in season fruit in cream. Supper was leftovers from dinner or something quick like hamburgers. This was a working farm routine, it seldom varied except during planting or harvest. Meals don't have to be a big deal, simple food well prepared is still the best. Sunday is for "special" meals.

[albionjessica]

Just a little note about canned milk... We usually only used canned milk for cooking/baking, and I'm sure it's perfect for supplementing chicken and other animal feed in the winter. It has a different taste if you drink it plain out of a can than when it's fresh. It's just not the same. Maybe this is just because our family did something wrong in the canning process, but I don't think so.

[raymilosh]

minnikin,
we're in the same boat. I have been spending the last few years slowly transitioning form grocery store food to homegrown food. I have also tortured myself with the same things you have. I hve also realized that this is just part of the process. I don't have anyone around who knows the old ways, either, so I just read things, ask questions on this forum and do my best. I also take it easy on myself. Yes, i still go shopping and buy out of season things like fruit. And no, I don't have my won milk yet, nor do i know how to make cheese yet. But all good things in all good time. Fact is that I DO grow and store sweet potatos, squash, pumpkins, eggs, hickory nuts, tomatos, pickles, sumer vegetables, collards, kale, wild foods, sour kraut, mead, honey, etc, etc. I have come a long, long way and i am really happy with what i already do know and i plan to continue to enjoy learning and accomplishing new things.
So first off, look how far you've come and savor the learning yet to come. You can enjoy where you are on your path right now.
As far as advice goes, i have been a bit short on cash lately (or at least i have pretended that i am), so i have simply spent less money at the grocery store. I just stopped buying things that hve been on my list...no more morning star farms stuff, fewer canned things, no prepared things...ingredients only. no bottled jiuces, no cereals, etc. I have been letting the cupboards "go bare" so to speak. It has forced me to look around the house and figure out what i can make from what i have stored. it has been a bumpy process. i find my diet being lass varied. i find myself willing to go pick chickweed or collards or mustard greens when the house has been bare of grocery store greens for a while. the kids aren't really enjoying it either, as they are used to grocery store stuff and junk food because they spend time with their mom and their grandparents and at school. When they get hungry, thoug, they will eat.
I also pay them to help me in the garden or to gather eggs, etc. they seem to like foods better when they helped grow and harvest them themselves.

[pickapeppa]

Then there is the “information gap” The stuff the books never talk about. They tell you “how to raise a cow”. And there is “how to make cheese and butter”. But there is no map to get from here to there

Not a rant, it's reality. There is definitely an information gap. It makes it hard to take it from 'vision' to 'reality' and livable. It's a darn good thing we have grocery stores to supplement in times of error, yes?

I rented "Frontier House" number one for entertainment, and number two to see the day to day routines of homesteading. I was dissappointed there were few day-to-day things they focused on. It seems to be more about emphasizing the dangers, dullness, exhaustion and community disputes. The most I got out of it was cows need milked twice a day 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and that if children can handle big animals, maybe I could too, and if you live in Montana, you can get a big snowfall in June. At least we have meteoroligists and the weather channel to prepare us ahead of time, lol.

We need a flylady for homesteading routines! At least for suggestions. I wish I could help you some. Maybe a book on dairying for small scale?

[Bluecreekrog]

I use canned milk for creamed vegies and mashed potatos. Too many eggs? Its noodle time, yum.

[mpillow]

not for drinking....here either

[albionjessica]

I agree with Blue on the keep it simple. Don't feel bad if all you can get on the table is the bare necessities. My brother and I always preferred my mom's more simple meals over her extravagant concoctions. One of our favorites were empanadas, aka pasties. The dough is really easy to make, doesn't have to rise, and is very accomodating to multiplication if you have more mouths to feed. You can fill them with cheese, fruits, veggies, meat, or mash... or any combination of those. Works well all year long as a seasonal dish because you just put in whatever you have on hand. You can bake, fry, deep fry, saute, and freeze them for days when you just don't have time to cook. And they can be made small enough to carry in a pocket for those days when you'll be outside working (like during harvest) and you won't have time to break for a formal lunch/dinner. PM me for the dough recipe if you can't find one in your cookbooks.

[Maura]

You may enjoy Carla Emery's book, the Encyclopedia of country living. She did all that and explains the day to day challanges and drudgery of milking in the barn or the pasture (cow's preference) and what she did with the milk. If you can take the time to just sit down with the book there is a wealth of knowledge in it.

You have time. You need fences for cows and goats and you need to know what is in your pasture (and in our case, in our lawn). Children will be more cooperative if they have some say so in the matters at hand. Let them help pick out which fruits and berries you will plant based on the land, weather, and their likes. Let them help decide which breeds of animals you will raise. Fit the chores to the child. For instance, a child who hates cows shouldn't be the one to have the major responsibilities for them, but that child may be trustworthy with chores that do not involve direct involvement with them.

It will all come together.

[suzyhomemaker09]

We are slowly getting into the swing of things around here....We have 3 acres and on it we have 7 dairy goats, 2 weathers who will be going to freezer camp soon, 2 ewes, a host of poultry including chickens,ducks,geese,turkeys and quail, 6 rabbits, and 3 beehives. Phew...seems like alot doesn't it?
Upon learning that the birds will eat anything I try to plant our whole garden thing is going to have to be retooled for the spring.We have learned lots of the ins and outs of incubating eggs and brooding young birds. Butchering and processing those birds too.
There are 3 of our goats that are in milk now that I milk...I'm learning to make cheese slowly but surely. We make a table cheese (queso fresco) that fits anywhere you'd use
cheddar cheese, also mozzerella,feta, and neufchatel ( a cream type cheese made with whole milk instead of cream) and of course ricotta from the whey.
I bake all of our bread save for the occasional grab this 'cause we're in a hurry type thing. I cook most everythign from scratch..cheating a little as I get prepackaged seasoning mixes..(taco seasoning ,fajita seasoning...) I had a small herb garden at one point til my birds found it also and used fresh herbs in my cooking as well.
It is all a trial and error process..not many of us here I think came with full knowledge of how to do all these wonderful self sufficient homesteady things..that is why this board is such a great place. Ask and someone will help you with anything you want to learn.

[HilltopDaisy]

There's nothing like sitting down to a meal made of all homegrown foods. If next spring/summer will be the first big garden, you might want to think about devoting a sizable area to things that you can pretty much plant and forget about. Let them take care of themselves. Vegetables like winter squash and potatoes ~ plant them, mulch them, and take a peek every so often, and harvest. Not much to storing them, either. Nothing to cooking potatoes, and the squash, well, cut in half, scoop the seeds and bake. Same with garlic and onions and Jerusalem artichokes. CowboyJoe mentioned growing greens in a pvc coldframe this fall. If we'd a done that we'd a been eating greens into December this year! I eat a lot of eggs, because I have a lot of eggs. I'm lucky because I love beets and collards and kale, and they are very easy to grow. Don't have a dairy animal in milk just yet as my work schedule won't allow it. Some day, for sure. I have the goat, just haven't gotten her bred.

Lack of time seems to be a big limiting factor for me. For example, I bake my own whole wheat bread. Grind the wheat, no bread machine. I'm out of bread and don't have time to bake any. I could stop at the store and buy a loaf similar to what I make for about $3.50, but I won't. I'm simply out of bread until I have a few hours to devote to it, and then I'll make three loaves. I'm stubborn that way. I hate to spend my money on something I can make for a fraction of the cost. I take my dinner to work with me, and share a breakroom with several other people. Oftentimes they will ask what I'm eating, out of curiosity. Some of them stop at the supermarket daily and purchase a frozen item or premade deli meal, some go to the machines and eat a candy bar and soda for dinner. I might be eating fresh egg salad or a bowl of homemade vegetable soup. They say "Wow, that looks good. You made that?" Many people aren't willing to put the amount of effort into it that we homesteaders do. Pat yourself on the back!! Give yourself a gold star for trying, OK?

[3girls]

Old Timey Foods:

meatloaf
pot roast
country fried chicken
chicken and dumplings
chicken and noodles
tuna casserole--all born out of the Depression
other people can add pork stuff--we didn't eat very much of that when I was young.

Seasonal Foods: Leafy, fruity in summer; roots in winter. Kale, corn salad (maiche) beet greens, carrots, yams are all winter foods and loaded with vitamines, anti-oxidants, etc. The raw-er the better. Carrot and raisen salad is one of my favorites! I also like to cut up a rutabaga and some carrot into smallish pieces, steam or boil in a small amt of water til soft. In the meantime, saute onions and garlic in butter and olive oil. Mix the two and serve. Lots of veggies and beans in soup stock to which is added a lot of kale at the last moment -- mighty filling!

I second the recommendation of Carla Emery's Encyclopedia... Gene Logsdon's books are good. I think one wants to get some pasture started before trying to raise anything more than chicken and rabbit. There are so many books out there for the "in between" that explain all you will want to know. Experience is the best teacher. You'll seek a solution to each problem, and it will all come together for you. NO ONE starts out and does it perfectly. Very experienced farmers have stuff that goes wrong.

Good luck in your endeavors.

[mpillow]

Pizza Fritata

6 eggs beaten...pour into buttered fry pan medium heat...flip (try to keep in one piece) add some tomato sauce spiced or can of cheap spag sauce.....top with simple goat cheese and italian seasoning...cover pan for 1 min to help melt cheese.. add more toppings if you like or add them into the egg like omelet



simple cheese....heat milk up till it almost boils....add 2-3 TBS of vinegar(enough to separate curds and whey) pour through cheese cloth lined colander (keep pan under to catch whey...feed to animals or keep to make ricotta) let cheese drain at least 3 hrs as much as 1 day add salt to taste or whatever herbs spices you like....

[Terri]

I learned this a little at a time.

For instance, first I had blackberries, Then, I had too MANY blackberries, so I froze some. Then, I had all winter to decide what to do with them.

Then, later, I had eggs. Then I had too MANY eggs! So I made custard and deviled eggs. By the time we got tired of the eggs, I realized that I could scramble them and feed them back to the chickens.

Etc.

Also, some food pantries will take veggies.

[shelljo]

IT will come. Having grown up eating what we had, and growing up on a ranch, you ate beef at every meal, potatoes at every meal and another veggie. Desserts were usually fruit (canned) or nothing. Our meals were very simple. Desserts were usually sundays only. We ate eggs and bacon, or biscuits and gravy oatmeal for breakfast. REally, really simple, basic meals. Pizza a treat and always homemade. Heck, Mom used her cake pan lid and her cookie sheet to make pizza. I thought everybody had square pizzas! Never any chinese food, didn't have that till I went to college. Spagetti was a rare meal. We had winter food and summer food. Summer was the time for fruit and fresh veggies. Winter, everything was ate out of a can or the freezer. Soup--winter food. Salad--summer food. Roast chicken--winter. Fried--summer. etc. Not a lot of variety at our house. Of course I was also mortified when we did go to the store--once a month--and Mom would make me drag around a second grocery cart. We'd get two overflowing grocery carts for $100. My, how times have changed.

[Turkeyfether]

YOUR LOCAL YOKAL PRODUCE STAND MAY GIVE YOU A RARE JEWEL (OWNERS) like we have up here-they can,freeze,make bread,juices,etc.,etc.
they have offered me wonderful advice & new ideas.Other neighbors & people you meet may have similar interests as you. Local 4-H groups have much to offer kids & build pride in their efforts.it's not just feeding the calf,it's preparing it for the county fair blue ribbon!
Do you also have a job? I work fulltime & spring,summer & fall almost overwhelms me with canning,managing brooders (chickens & turkeys),starter pots for veggies,plowingplanting,weeding,etc.Be sure to take time to go to the lake with the kids,walk the dog in the stream,fish,swim,etc. It seems that there's NEVER enough time to do all that needs to be done! Muck stalls(groan!)

[Mid Tn Mama]

IF you watch the tightwad tips and whats for supper threads on the countryside forum you will see things people are making and eating seasonally.
I get a lot of ideas there.

Did you know you can freeze eggs? I mix them up and put them in zip lock bags (as many as it takes to make a scrambled egg breakfast for our family in each bag.) When our birds molt or slow their laying in the dead of winter, I'll use the frozen ones.

We garden most of the year. Even now at the end of Nov. we are harvesting cabbage, onions, peas, brussel sprouts, turnip greens and brocolli. First grow things your family likes. Then start slipping in some other things. My kids like stir fry with peas and carrots, then I started to add cabbage--Now whatever is in season goes in there.

Since I stir fry alot, I keep a quart canning jar filled with my partially made teriyaki sauce. I make it by putting half water and half soy. I add a couple tblsp of sugar to it. You can add japanese rice wine (mirin) or regular white wine to it--I just don't keep that on hand (also can add sesame oil). When I stir fry, I just take some from my premix and add a little cornstarch to thicken. That way I make it once and use it four or five times.

When we are harvesting we eat what is ripe and freeze and can the extras for the winter. I have a full freezer and pantry. My family doesn't like winter squash that well, so I only inflict it on them once every week and a half. But they are getting used to the taste and it is soooo nutritious for you.

I concentrated our garden on easy things to grow and those things my family likes and items that are costly at the grocery store (like peppers, sugar snap peas).

I second the idea that Carla Emery has menus for homesteading by season in her Encyclopedia. Gives a good nutritional basis for cooking.