Hi all, how is everything going?? and welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.
It’s been a quiet week at home for me except for music lessons but it’s been a busy week for my husband work wise. He’s busy but that is such a blessing.
My husband has been wanting to build a chicken plucker but just hasn’t had the time yet. One of his friends went to a farm clearing sale and bought this for him. It’s not exactly the same as what he was going to build but it’ll do the job just fine. We have a few roosters that are destined to try it out shortly.
We’ve also been busy milking and separating and making butter. I’ve got a few in the freezer now and want to get a few more. Butter prices have risen so this is saving us buying it.
I’ve also got some cream on the bench fermenting and then I’ll make it into butter tomorrow. This was a suggestion from someone on Instagram and it sounds quite interesting.
I hadn’t done any canning this year yet because I’ve mainly been using the dehydrator but I managed to make some tomato and pork hock soup this week and canned it. It’ll be great for lunches this coming winter.
My husband got the tractor fixed and has finished filling the raised garden beds. He’s got to add manure and rotary hoe it and then we can start planting. I got some purple garlic in the mail this week so I’ll be planting that first and then some seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. There’ll be more to go but I’ve got to order some more seed next week.
Okay onto our link up…
Our top three this week were…
A Week of Homestead Photos April 23rd – 29th by The (mis)Adventures of a Born Again Farm Girl
Evening Song – Deep, Deep Love by The Cotton Apron
Visiting Over the Garden Fence by Living Our Days
Thanks everyone for stopping by and linking up.
My husband has a busy few days this week and then I think he has time to do some work around here. So we’ll be busy planting veg and doing some tidying up around the garden.
The children are busy practicing the piano for the Eisteddfod and it’s only a few weeks now.
We also have a new grandbaby due in a weeks time so we’re all very excited about that and I’m looking forward to going and looking after the other children for a couple of days. Our no 2 daughter will come with me to help and the men will stay home.
So another quiet week for me, I still have some apples to bottle up and I’m hoping to try some pickled egg too. I’ve started the other quilt for the next granddaughters birthday at the end of the month so I need to sew that together and also finish a sock for her as well.
School has been going well so we’ll keep on with that too.
Keep on keeping on my friends…
Have a great week!!!
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”
Blessings my friends xxxx
You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.
What a great idea to can soup. Thanks for featuring my visit over the garden fence! Have a terrific week!
Hey there Michele, thank you and it was my pleasure to feature your post. I appreciate your dedication to stopping by and your constant support and friendship. Have a great weekend. Blessings
Thanks so much for hosting!
Thanks Debbie, blessings.
I heartly thank you, darling Terri, you truly live the old ways, blessed be !
Wishing you a most lovely remainder of your week,
I’m sending blessings of joy across the many miles,
with sincere gratitude for hosting
XOXO Daniela at – My little old world – (http://sweetlydreamingofthepast.blogspot.com/)
** heartily
Thank you once again !!!
Hey there Danni, you have such a way that makes me feel so special and loved and I appreciate you and your support. Thanks for stopping by and being a ray of sunshine. Blessings my friend. xxxx
Two things you must know: When you use a chicken plucker, make sure to have your scalding water the proper temperature or you will have shredded chicken (or else the feathers won’t come out at all).
If you ferment your cream before making butter, you will find it difficult to separate the butter from the buttermilk. I always try to make the butter just before the cream thickens, as it’s much easier then. The butter does taste much better for much longer if you sour the cream before making the butter.
Hey there Emma, thank you so much for your advice. We have done chickens before but not for a long time and I appreciate that pointer about the water and will pass it onto my husband. I did sour some cream but I couldn’t get it to whip, I don’t quite know what you mean about “just before it thickens” could you please enlighten me further?? I would like to try it again. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your wisdom with me and I hope it has helped others as well. Blessings to you.
The way I do it is to put my starter in the cream in the morning, and let the jar sit on the bench till sometime in the afternoon, then, while the cream is still quite runny, make the butter. I use my food processor, and it turns to butter within a couple of minutes. If the cream is already a bit sour before I add the starter (like when it’s already been in the fridge for a week!), it will sour and thicken much faster; when it’s fresh and sweet it takes a day or two. I’ve found that when the cream is so sour that it’s thick like yogurt, I have a lot of trouble separating the butter from the buttermilk. I use a starter called pima, for both cream and cheese. You can also use cultured buttermilk from the shop. Hope this helps!
Dear gayleanddemma, thank you so much for your advice. I don’t add a starter to the cream and it did whip up the second time I tried it and it is just lovely butter. I will do some research on starters following on from your advice. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out, I really appreciate it. Blessings
Wow! Ive never seen a plucker before – what an interesting contraption! Thank you for hosting!
Hi there Angela, yes it is an interesting contraption and that is quite the name for it “contraption”. Thanks for stopping by and I get a lot of joy from hosting this link up. Have a great weekend. Blessings
A chicken plucker – I always learn something new here, Terri! I would never have figured out what that was. ha.
I’m glad I could enlighten you Lisa, it’s such fun to learn new things and I’m always interested to in how other people live. Thanks for your constant support and friendship too. Blessings
Thank you for sharing the link to the song Deep, Deep Love at my blog. I hope others are as blessed by it as I have been.
Hey Mary, thank you for linking up and it was my pleasure to feature your posts. Have a great weekend. Blessings