Greetings farm followers! Our Beltsville Small White hen decided to set some eggs. We raise two breeds of turkeys here on the farm. The Beltsville Small White and the Narragansett. We do not separate our turkeys so I am sure the little turkey poults are crosses. Nevertheless the poults are here! So far we have seven that have survived. The hen is still setting a few more and we have placed three in our incubator. We have separated them from momma hen and will raise them in chicken tractors. We really do not have a safe place for baby turkeys or chicks so the nursery in the barn works best. When they are old enough we will put them outside and raise some for Thanksgiving and perhaps part with a few. Here are the adult birds below.
Sprouting Einkorn Wheat Berries
Decided to start making more bread with sprouted einkorn so a few days ago I started the process.
6 cups organic einkorn wheat berries
8 cups of water ( not tap water which is chlorinated)
Place the 6 cups of wheat berries in a large bowl. Rinse with water not chlorinated and drain. Add the 8 cups of water (enough to cover the wheat berries) soak berries for 12 hrs. Drain berries and allow berries to sit uncovered in bowl making sure that they are moist but not too wet. You may rinse berries if they become too dry. When little tails start to appear it is time to dry the berries. If you have a dehydrator set the temperature to 110° and dry for about 12 hours. Periodically check the moisture level by cracking a grain. If it snaps easily they are dry enough. If still moist or bendable let them go a bit longer. There is a sweet spot so do not let them get so dry that they are hard and brittle. Your flour when the berries are ground will produce a gummy product. Store grains either in the freezer or sealed container.
Einkorn Sourdough Crackers
Ingredients
1 cup einkorn sourdough starter discard
4 tbsp unsalted grass fed butter, melted and cooled.
1 - 1 1/2 cups organic Einkorn AP (enough to create a sticky dough)
1/2 tsp aluminum-free baking soda
1/4 tsp organic onion powder
1/4 tsp organic turmeric
1/2 tsp sea salt
dash organic paprika
Instructions
For the dough:
In a medium bowl measure out the sourdough discard. Add the cooled melted butter.
Add 1 cup of the organic Einkorn flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp organic onion powder, 1/4 tsp organic turmeric, 1/2 tsp sea salt, and dash of organic paprika. Mix well.
Add enough extra flour to make a dough that's slightly sticky. It should be just enough flour to bring the dough together. Since einkorn produces a very sticky dough using a bendable bench scraper or a wooden spoon works best.
Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for 8-12 hours in a warm spot. The best case scenario is to mix dough at night so the rise happens while you sleep.
If your kitchen is fairly warm you can cover bowl and leave on the counter. If a cooler kitchen then proof the dough in the oven with the light on. Put a post it note on the oven door to remind you before you preheat.
To make the crackers:
When you are ready to make the dough, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Turn dough out onto a well-floured work surface and fold dough over for a few minutes, adding flour as needed so the dough doesn't stick to your hands or work surface.
Divide the dough into two even pieces. Cut two pieces of parchment paper equal to the size of your cookie sheet.
Roll out each piece on the parchment paper to about 1/8 inch thickness. This is crucial. Thin dough produces crisp crackers. Make sure the thickness is consistent on the ends as well as in the middle. Transfer dough to your cookie sheet.
Use a pizza cutter or pastry cutter to cut the dough into desired shapes, trying to keep similar sizes so the crackers bake evenly.
Bake the crackers at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Depending on how evenly your oven bakes, you may want to consider switching the trays around halfway through.
After 15 minutes check to see if the crackers have puffed up and are crispy. (They will crisp up on the pan after your remove them from the oven.) If still soft bake for 5 minutes and check again.
Remove the crackers when you are sure they are crispy and then let cool in the pan.
Store in an airtight container, if they last that long!
Happy New Year!!!
Greetings Farm followers! Happy New Year! My number one prayer for myself this year is that the Lord would give me a heart with an increased longing for Heaven. That my attention and focus would not be material, earthly things that fade away but eternal investments in lives till my sojourn is done. I pray for an abundant outpouring of souls eager to learn in 2023. May I grow in grace and knowledge and be useful to those I touch personally as I interact each day with hungry souls. I pray for a more humble servants heart with an increasing level of patience to deal with the many fearful folks living in this world. May I bless the lonely and if possible cause even just one minute of a day to be a moment of increased hope and joy. God is REAL and He cares!
I am looking forward to what the Lord has on the horizon for myself, this farm and my family this year. I have so many plans in my head but I know that a fool uttereth all his mind but the wise keepeth in till afterwards. Patience is a learned behavior and at 63 I have a long way still to go. The Lord has deeply impressed upon my heart His verse that before the foundations of the world He chose me to be His own. He has said that He has prepared good works for me to walk in as well. So if I truly believe His word then God has my life plan and I need to diligently seek Him daily and follow where He leads. The mysteries are His and what He reveals is more than enough to make my way forward. So may I study hard, walk by faith and put into action all He directs.
Farm Goals for 2023-Pray for me please!
Progress with the renovations so I can open my B&B. Continue to upgrade and put into place the things needful to make this farm truly a destination. Prepare for baby goats to be born this Spring. That means to seriously set up a better milking parlor in the barn. We have decided to purchase another milk cow. So the search is on. I love Jerseys (all kinds) but I am actually considering a Dutch Belted. So if any of you folks have any good leads let me know. My husband and I do not drink milk however, we know too many young families needing safe milk supplies. So time to put up or shut up. :-) Just a small scale operation. I have too many things on my plate to get sidetracked so need to keep focused.
We had so many requests for our organically raised pastured turkeys last year that I have decided to raise some Bourbon Reds to add to our two other breeds. These will only be for Thanksgiving and I will keep back two females and a male to be able to hatch out poults of my own Lord willing in 2024.
I am hoping to be able to do at least three batches of 25 meat birds this year. So I can have some excess to sell to others.
I will be starting my herb, vegetable and flower seedlings soon and I have had requests from some folks to grow some plants to sell. I will do my best. Check what is “for sale” page on this website later on this year.
My husband is interested in learning Reflexology so I will join him in this study and see where we land.
So hopefully the Lord will bring to fruition some of these goals this year. I will do my best to endeavor to achieve all that I can.
Amazing Einkorn Fluffy Biscuits
Folks in all the years I have been working with Einkorn I have yet to produce what I call a truly “fluffy” biscuit. Most of the time they turn out to be little hockey pucks. But alas we have finally hit pay dirt. I am always looking for more ways to improve my work with Einkorn. So I decided to just search the internet for “fluffy biscuit recipes” and lo and behold I found a nice little blog called Boston Girl Bakes. Now she does not use Einkorn nor my organic ingredients and does her mixing by hand but nonetheless I was able to replicate her recipe with a few tweaks of my own and produce truly fluffy einkorn biscuits. My daughter Ashley actually asked for the recipe and she too was able to make fluffy biscuits using the basic instructions from the blogger BGB and the minor adjustments I made. So here is the key. All ingredients need to be freezing cold, your oven needs to be very hot and you fold the dough rather than mix the dough. You do not want to over work the dough. Cutting your biscuits is important as well so take care to just push your cutter through the dough but DO NOT twist the cutter. Simply cut and remove. Follow these steps and you will produce truly fluffy biscuits I promise. Here is the recipe:
2 cups (240 grams) Einkorn All Purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 tablespoons (86 grams) ice, cold butter cut into 1/4’ pieces
*** 1/2-3/4 cup buttermilk (save a little for brushing the tops of the biscuits before popping into the oven). The recipe originally called for a whole cup of buttermilk but it becomes too wet so I have reduced it down starting with 1/2 cup and if needed 3/4c and this works much better. ****
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. In the bowl of your food processor place the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pulse the mixture three or four times to get everything combined. Evenly distribute the butter chunks and pulse the food processor 10 times. Do not to be tempted to over mix. The butter should still be visible in pea sized chunks. Add the freezing cold buttermilk and pulse 10 times more. The dough will be slightly wet and sticky. Empty the contents onto a piece of parchment paper using a stiff spatula if necessary. Lightly dust the top of the dough and using the parchment paper gather the dough to form a round ball. Do not use a rolling pin but rather use your hands to roll out the dough out to 1/2’ circle. Fold the dough over itself and pat it out again. Do this for a total of three times and then take your biscuit cutter and cut out as many biscuits (more or less depending on the size you choose) as you can. (Do the exact same thing with the scraps) DO NOT TWIST the cutter. Simply cut and lift. Place the biscuits next to each other in rows of three. Brush with the dregs of buttermilk and you are ready. Now this step is optional but I placed my biscuits in the freezer for about 10 minutes to give the butter a chance to firm up again. Then right into the hot oven. Bake for 13-15 minutes until tops are golden. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack. You can serve warm or cool completely and freeze the biscuits for a future date. *to make buttermilk add 1 tablespoon of either apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to cold milk. Let sit for 5 minutes then use as directed.*