This Week at Ramsey Farms

In The Kitchen

Tested out homemade fruit snacks that didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. You can find the recipe including my pics right here. I hate wasting good ingredients on experiments that go wrong! lol ;) Have you ever had to toss something you've made? Tell us the story in the comments section below!

Used my sourdough starter for a nice fat healthy tanned round loaf (see pic). Fed my sourdough starter 3/4 bread flour + 3/4 cup whole wheat flour + 1 1/2 cups distilled water. Let it sit on top of the dehydrator while I was proofing bread to rise (inside the machine it's about 110 degrees) and the nice bready sour smell is divine and there is a lot of bubbling action! Want a batch of my sourdough to begin your own starter?! Seriously - I'll have some ready to give away (or of course use myself) every few days so come by and bring a jar! :)

Attempted to make farmer's cheese.

I am a little sad that my first two batches of sourdough bread didn't rise well - even though my 2nd batch proofed for 12 hours! I have been using no-yeast recipes and did not introduce store bought yeast into my starter, so my thinking is that it isn't "yeasty" enough yet to bake without adding some. What do you think? I know my friend, Amy W. has used sourdough starter and my mom (she's the original expert at all things baking), so hopefully they or someone out there (YOU?) will clue me in! Next week I'll make another batch using a recipe I found that does include yeast, so we shall see if that gets a rise of it! Ha! Pun intended.

Homemade Wheat Crackers

• 1 cup flour (I used 1/2 c whole wheat + 1/4 c bread flour + 1/4 c all purpose. I believe I will use less whole wheat flour next time. Any flour combination will do for this recipe so get creative with rye, pumpernickel, and other flours.)
• 1 garlic clove, mined
• 1 green onion stem, minced (optional)
• 1/2 golden cayenne pepper, dried, crushed (optional)
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1/2 tsp your favorite dried herbs (I used basil & oregano, try rosemary, thyme, dill, etc)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 cup water



homemade wheat crackers 

• salt, to taste for topping (I used a little table salt and kosher salt)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine all the dry ingredients except the salt. 
2. Add water & mix until smooth dough forms.
3. Turn out onto floured surface and roll out to 1/8" thick (I think I need a heavier rolling pin!)
4. Sprinkle salt over dough.
5. Bake on cookie sheet 10 minutes until firm (dough will still be pale)
6. Remove from oven, cut into desired shape (I used a pizza cutter to cut horizontal then vertical lines to make square/rectangle shapes)
7. Return to oven until browned and crunchy. Approx 15-25 minutes (?)

The crackers were delicious, but they were too thick. I didn't roll them thin enough is my thought. By the next day - too hard to eat. Next time I try this recipe, I will only use a tablespoon or two (if any) whole wheat flour and see how it goes. If anybody has a cracker recipe (it's gotta be EASY) please post it in the comments section below - I'd love to try it! Also, if you attempt this recipe please post your comments about your results. Hopefully your's will be better than mine! :)

Daughter baking biscuits!

Daughter's first biscuits! Perfecto!

My daughter made biscuits to go with our breakfast for dinner night this week. This was her very first experience making bread from scratch and the end results were FAB! 

The "Baby" loved big sis's biscuits!

Proud Baker!

I'm sad to report that the sewing machine I got for Christmas didn't work. :( I'm trying to find someone mechanical to check it out - know anyone? I'll trade them a loaf of homemade bread if they'll look at it and try to get her runnin'!

bread with kohlrabi & broccoli leaf salad - sooooo good!

Saving spaghetti squash seeds

Rainy Saturday afternoon coffee table implements!

In The Garden

Prepared for a severe cold front the forecast was for a low of about 5 degrees Tuesday morning! I  harvested all the "big" fully developed broccoli and some kohlrabi on Monday morning in anticipation of this big freeze.  Monday afternoon I covered the remaining crops and the herb garden before 2pm to lock in any residual heat from the remaining
sunshine of the day. This was an interesting experiment to see how these crops survived the overnight near 0 degrees.

Tuesday the low was 4 degrees. School had a 2-hour delay both Tuesday and Wednesday, though Wednesday morning we had a heat wave of 15! :) I left the garden covered all day Tuesday as it never got above about 25 degrees! Wednesday I vented the sheets around noon when the temp hit about 40. Then re-covered around 4:30 for that night's low of about 20. Thursday I removed the sheets completely in time for warmer temps (mid 50s) and rains...and...everything looks just fine! No frost damage whatsoever that I could tell on any of the herbs, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, cabbage, or broccoli that is left!! Hip hip hurrah! :) These plants should earn a gold medal in the world of hardiness. Thank you to my mom for the supply of cast-off sheets that I get to use to cover the garden - your 1970s sheets have successfully protected life! :)

You can see pics from the garden on my new page 2014 Garden here! I'll update it all year long!!

1st stage building cold frame.

Head farm manager, Chris built a cold frame of wood and 4 mil plastic sheeting (no windows at the Habitat store). It's finished except for the plastic and getting it in place. Saturday we ventured out into the rain to get SEEDS to plant in this little solar "greenhouse"! Seed and plant shopping or browsing even are both a help and an aggravate of Spring Fever (how many more days till spring...66 or 65?!) Onion sets, mesclun mix, and carrots are the seeds I got! I'll be able to plant in January / February once we get this installed in the backyard facing the southern sun.

 


I am so excited to report that my broccoli sprout jar has many little sprouts in it and hopefully more to
come! I can't wait to eat these little guys on a salad in the next 5 days or so! Also my basil seed reserve from last year's plants that I sowed into the plastic mini-greenhouse last week have sprouted! So nice to be growing anything right now during these cold, dreary, winter days!

I also learned about seed exchanges this week and have a couple of gardeners who are going to send me some seeds! Very awesome way to trade your excess seeds of one plant for some seeds of something else you want and very frugal (I always love that).

I found some awesome 10-cent knitting needles at a thrift shop this week plus have a garbage bag full of yarn my mom gave us when she moved. Stay tuned, my daughter and I are trying to teach ourselves to knit. She's pretty handy at things like this; it seems way complicated to my poor brain! We may need auxiliary help - do you know how to knit?!

Celebrate your blessings this week & take time to watch the sun set! :)