It has been almost a year since I posted last. I'm ashamed. But last year was interesting. We had, probably, our last annual lamb roast. We continue to downgrade our sheep population as we are getting old and with Pat working full time plus extra, making hay is difficult to find time for. Plus we have had little snow pack on the Grand Mesa the last couple of years, so the irrigation water supply was greatly decreased. Which means no water to grow hay.
This fall, I decided to quit several of my part time jobs so I could concentrate on growing more of our own food and canning much more. Last summer I canned spaghetti sauce and it is so great to be able to open a quart of homemade sauce and it saves on the budget. So this coming summer, I am also going to make pizza sauce as I have a great dough recipe now and I adore pizza. I found a good site for ordering cheap books, Alibris! I ordered, Food For 50 , which will probably be an adequate size recipe for me to can new things. Plus I ordered, What Can I Bring Cookbook by Ann Bryn and Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka. I love Kafka's cookbooks, they are fun to read as well as good recipes. And the cookbook by Ann Bryn is really good. I have tried 3 of the recipes so far and they are keepers. The savory cheesecake was good and impressive. The spinach balls are a great appetizer which you can freeze and cook in 12 min when you get to where you are going. The lemon cheesecake with gingersnap crust was good. She also tells you the best way to transport your finished dish to the potluck or party to keep it beautiful and safe to eat. I am doing a church vegetarian cookbook and it has really forced me to find good food recipes to fill in the gaps. It has also gotten me excited about cooking again. I had gotten bad about convenience food and thought it saved time but actually if you have a good recipe and the food is in your pantry you can make it from scratch just as fast and the taste is far better. So, it proves you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.
Apparently, our removal of the rams from the ewes was not soon enough and now we are going to have lambs in winter! We only have 5 ewes and 2 of them will be having their last lambs due to age. It is so sad to grow so close to them and then have to get rid of them. We've had them since 2004! Now I just hope the babies live and their mothers love them all. I really don't want a lamb to raise by bottle this year! I've found that the lambs don't survive well unless I throw them in bed with me and diaper them and truly become their mother. The lambs however think that they are supposed to eat paper if they hang out with me and poo-poo (or vitamin S, as Pat calls it) if they hang out with the dog. So I have learned to let them go to live with the other sheep much sooner than they are ready to go just so they will learn to eat grass. Then I have to run out with supplemental bottles several times a day. Boy, those little lambs come running when they see me coming with a bottle, baaing all the way! Does a mother's heart good!
So, I will try to keep you informed of this year better than I did last year! Love, me
This fall, I decided to quit several of my part time jobs so I could concentrate on growing more of our own food and canning much more. Last summer I canned spaghetti sauce and it is so great to be able to open a quart of homemade sauce and it saves on the budget. So this coming summer, I am also going to make pizza sauce as I have a great dough recipe now and I adore pizza. I found a good site for ordering cheap books, Alibris! I ordered, Food For 50 , which will probably be an adequate size recipe for me to can new things. Plus I ordered, What Can I Bring Cookbook by Ann Bryn and Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka. I love Kafka's cookbooks, they are fun to read as well as good recipes. And the cookbook by Ann Bryn is really good. I have tried 3 of the recipes so far and they are keepers. The savory cheesecake was good and impressive. The spinach balls are a great appetizer which you can freeze and cook in 12 min when you get to where you are going. The lemon cheesecake with gingersnap crust was good. She also tells you the best way to transport your finished dish to the potluck or party to keep it beautiful and safe to eat. I am doing a church vegetarian cookbook and it has really forced me to find good food recipes to fill in the gaps. It has also gotten me excited about cooking again. I had gotten bad about convenience food and thought it saved time but actually if you have a good recipe and the food is in your pantry you can make it from scratch just as fast and the taste is far better. So, it proves you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.
Apparently, our removal of the rams from the ewes was not soon enough and now we are going to have lambs in winter! We only have 5 ewes and 2 of them will be having their last lambs due to age. It is so sad to grow so close to them and then have to get rid of them. We've had them since 2004! Now I just hope the babies live and their mothers love them all. I really don't want a lamb to raise by bottle this year! I've found that the lambs don't survive well unless I throw them in bed with me and diaper them and truly become their mother. The lambs however think that they are supposed to eat paper if they hang out with me and poo-poo (or vitamin S, as Pat calls it) if they hang out with the dog. So I have learned to let them go to live with the other sheep much sooner than they are ready to go just so they will learn to eat grass. Then I have to run out with supplemental bottles several times a day. Boy, those little lambs come running when they see me coming with a bottle, baaing all the way! Does a mother's heart good!
So, I will try to keep you informed of this year better than I did last year! Love, me
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