This Week at Ramsey Farms

October 21 - October 26, 2014

Tomatoes canned last week

It was a busy week here at the farm in preparation for our first group of visitors from North Carolina to celebrate my birthday!

I have set up a Ramsey Farms Facebook page and began listing the garden pics there. So for now to see all of our 2014 Fall Garden pics you will have to go HERE for the first album and HERE for the October 21 - December 31, 2014 pics.

Fresh Baked Rustic Breads

Chief Farmhand, Chris got the ol' homestead cleaned up, mowed, did the weedeating/trimming/edging, created trails in the woods, and finished up the new bonfire pit out back among many other chores. He stayed busy from dusk till dawn every day in preparation for our guests and the weekend party. I worked on ensuring sweet,  southern hospitality with a nice comfortable home and lots of good food! I made six loaves of bread (overkill, but I got to send a loaf home with each of the girls), got all the grocery shopping done, and did as much advance food prep as I could.

Gina, Katie, and Stephanie arrived shortly after midnight and we enjoyed hugs, greetings, quick catching up, and a midnight snack of fresh fruits, cheeses, crackers, and a creamy zesty cream cheese dip. Thank you to Katie for making her famous French Toast using my homemade rustic bread for Saturday breakfast! We enjoyed our sweet toast with fruits, juices, coffee, and mimosas!

Ramsey Farms Fridge Pickles

At lunchtime we feasted on Gina's chicken salad, turkey, and ham sandwiches on homemade rustic bread with swiss or colby cheeses alongside my Ramsey Farms pickles, fresh fruits, and chips.

Saturday's dinner was my brown sugar chili, so here is the recipe link again for your convenience as this got rave reviews! This is an awesome recipe that can be altered according to your own tastes, based on what you may have on hand, halve it, double it, freeze it, love it! I sauteed my onions and garlic, browned, drained, and seasoned my ground beef on Thursday. I then chopped my carrot, celery, and peppers and added those on Friday. Then Saturday afternoon, added tomatoes, beans, salt, and pepper and turned on the crock pot! We were serving steaming hot chili, baked potatoes, and homemade rustic bread along with homemade hot apple cider by the brand new fire pit by 8pm! It was the perfect birthday day and evening!

Having these friends come visit the farm was the best birthday gift I could have asked for and I hope they know what this meant to me and how important they are to me. "Watching your car head off down the driveway was a very slow and sad parade. I cried like a baby when you were out of site. Please come back soon - you know the gate at Ramsey Farms is always open for y'all!"

I did promise Gina and Katie that I would share the apple cider recipe. So look for that in a future (soon) post - promise. This has nothing to do with anything else in this article, but I just want to share my new way the cook bacon! Thanks to The Kitchn blog for this recipe solution.  Baking it in the oven is so much easier, quicker, and far less messier than pan frying on the stove. This is perfect for me and I'll never splatter my stove-top with bacon grease again!

"Of course you can dance! You've just spent too long listening to someone else's music!" ~ Ramsey Penegar