NH Homesteader's journal

Whew Sunday! I cooked down a boatload of tomatoes for most of the day, blended them and added spices. In the freezer! I managed to get it thick enough for pizza sauce. We eat some pasta but we eat a lot of homemade pizza! I have a ton more tomatoes ripening. Frost last night but managed to keep my tomatoes covered and alive! Supposed to be 32 tonight!

We spend the afternoon being farmy! Raked the goat pen, well near the hay feeders anyway and threw the hay in with the pigs. If it stays dry it gets repurposed! I go nuts wasting hay, it's so expensive! Even though I got a bunch for cheap this summer, lol.

We have a couple of stages of chicks that are waiting to join the big chickens so we shuffled them around a bit, they're growing well. One of my black Spanish turkey hens is molting and she looks freakish! She has no tail.

Had some chili that was in the crockpot all day. Used up the last of the ground pork from last year's pig, I actually forgot it was in the freezer or it would have been gone long ago!

Chili on a cold day is awesome. We also like gumbo on cold days. My mother was from Louisiana and gumbo is the traditional winter food. I didn't learn to cook from my Mom, she was a terrible cook, but I think it just came from the bloodline. LOL

Haha! My mom is a decent cook but hasn't come over to the anti-processed food team yet. She's getting there though.

I've never had gumbo. I'm not even sure what it is.

Gumbo is a Cajun soup. First you start with a roux (pronounced roo). Heat bacon grease or oil on medium high, in a heavy iron skillet, add flour to make a gravy consistency, not too thick. Stir. Stir. Stir. Stir. Turn the vent fan on over the stove. The idea is to cook the roux until it is chocolaty brown, but not burned. Stir. Stir. Keep Stirring. When the right dark brown color, add water and keep stirring. You should wind up with a nice brown gravy. Transfer to a big pot and add a little more more water (from cooking your chicken). If you don't know when the color is right, it is right before the roux burns. Burn your first batch and you'll know from then on.

Sometimes if I used a lot of bacon grease, I refrigerate overnight to let the grease harden so I can remove it. Or not. Add chopped onion, salt, pepper, garlic, celery and bell pepper. For the meat, seafood is great, such as shrimp. Since you are butchering chickens, use one of them. Bake or boil your chicken, pull the meat off the bones, drop in the pot. Reserve the water/juice for the gumbo. Simmer. The gumbo should be thick, but not as thick as gravy. Too thin and it is watery. Brown pan sausage and drain grease off. Or slice stuffed sausage into half inch pieces and brown, then drain. Add sausage last. The reason for that is if you simmer sausage with the gumbo, all the seasoning cooks out of the sausage and it is bland.

Okra. Gumbo is chock full of sliced okra. My guess is you don't grow okra. You should, if it will grow there, it is a standard Southern fare. You can buy sliced unbreaded okra in the frozen foods section. If you have never eaten it, reserve a small portion of your gumbo and put some okra in it to try it. If you don't like it, then you haven't put it in the whole pot. If you do like it, dump the bag in the pot and enjoy.

Tomatoes. Some use them, some don't. I've made gumbo both ways. It's your pot of gumbo, do what you like.

Cook up a pot of rice and spoon some in a bowl, ladle the gumbo over it. Top with chopped green onions.

Found a Paula Deen recipe for gumbo. Look around the net, make a pot of gumbo! Any questions, just ask.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/gumbo-recipe.html

Sounds good! My husband went to high school in Georgia so maybe he's had it before. Gotta ask him, maybe he'll at least know what it tastes like! I don't even know if the grocery stores here sell okra. Maybe in the specialty food section lol.

We had rain here last week -- probably storm you have now -- so I cooked a couple pots of stuff. One ham & beans, another of beef stew. Lots of serving size containers in freezer for winter use, just heat & eat! Chili next. Best part? I'm using what is already here to be cooked!

Doesn't everyone repurpose hay/feed? My chickens free range & clean up from horses feed, pigs scraps (well, now pigs are in lower pastures so chickens not)....I put cut grass into pens for pigs, some for chickens to eat & mulch in bare spots, etc. Winters hay is used for everyone. If I get a few bales with a lot of seed, I have wet it and gotten fresh growth. Chickens love it. But depends on winter temps. If not tooo cold, I've put into a little hoop house, clear plastic over & gotten it to sprout.

We have to re-purpose or it is expensive waste.

I don't know, I guess I assumed people didn't do it much for fear of spreading diseases or something. My goats get fresh everything though. My chickens don't free range, with the exception of the one who knows how to hop the fence.

I am having a hard time keeping track of Journaling here vs. over at BYH. Most of what I do is more suited to this site but we need to recruit some people over here, it's quiet in comparison!

We have about 70 bales of hay stashed away in my husband's sawmill. He's not very happy because he can't fix the sawmill until we move the hay... And I have nowhere else to put it until he builds me something... Which he needs the sawmill for...

We traded a pig for the hay and some extra cash. With the drought hay is going for upwards up $7/bale so good trade for us! We ended up with extra pigs this year anyway.

It's cold today. Only supposed to get up to 60!

I would LOVE to trade a pig for some hay! Hay is pretty plentiful here right now, but it's first cutting that was long past due to be cut...so not the best quality. I was holding out for second cutting, but with all the rain we've been getting I don't think it will happen....sigh.

Yeah the hay isn't great here at all this year. I'll be supplementing with alfalfa pellets since I have little ones still growing and hopefully will have a pregnant doe this winter!

Our feed bill is pretty bad right now. Looking forward to butchering season! We have 40 Cornish x meat birds and 6 broad breasted turkeys that eat nearly as much as our 5 pigs! Plus the goats, laying hens, and heritage turkeys. And the dogs. Oy. Petty soon...