Category: Other Self-Sufficient Practices

Bread Baking

On By Sarah WernerIn Farm Life, Favorite Farm Recipes, Other Self-Sufficient PracticesLeave a comment

I have been trying to teach myself how to bake bread for a few years now.  I’m sorry to say that even after TWO YEARS, I am not very good at it.

The only fool-proof bread recipe I have found is this one for Farmhouse White Bread from Farmgirl Fare.

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See?  Beautiful, right?  But … it’s white bread.  And we just don’t do white bread.

So, I am still trying and trying to learn how to make good wheat bread.  The best recipe I have found so far is this one for Honey Oatmeal Bread from Tasty Kitchen.  It really is delicious, but …

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… why, oh why won’t it rise???  Like I said, still delicious though.

I guess practice makes perfect.  Try, try, again!

 

Tapping Trees

On By Sarah WernerIn Farm Life, Other Self-Sufficient PracticesLeave a comment

For years now, Gage has wanted to try tapping trees in late winter.  This year, just to experiment, he tapped a handful of trees – one walnut and a few sycamores, just to see.

Amazingly, the walnut tree produced gallons and gallons of sap!  Little known-fact … it takes gallons and gallons of sap to make a tiny bit of syrup.2013-03-09_07-49-41_332Okay, so it made a little more than that, but this is all we have left!  About 4 gallons of sap = about a half-pint of syrup.  But man is it GOOD!  I’m sure we will be tapping all the walnuts we can find next winter!