Potter-Tioga Maple Weekend in Pennsylvania March 22nd and 23rd

This is a great way to see how maple syrup is made and get a chance for tastes of maple syrup and purchases of maple syrup and maple products (maple candy, maple nuts, granulated maple sugar, and so much more)!

We here at Fitzgerald's Family Farm make maple syrup, but we're not quite ready to be part of this great weekend... yet!

Click on the map above for a link to the Potter-Tioga Maple website.

You Won't Believe What We Captured While Tapping Maple Trees!

Maple season is here!  The trees were dripping watery droplets as we drilled into them.  This means the sap is running and we'll be boiling for maple syrup before we know it!

My son went with me into the forest and we formed a very efficient crew if I do say so myself!

Its very physically demanding to tromp up and down the mountainside in this deep crusty snow.  

One of my favorite parts of maple season is that I know true spring can't be too far behind!  the leaf buds are beginning to swell on some of the trees. 

Of course the day wouldn't be complete without a little adventure!

To go to mountainside where we tap our trees we have to drive through a large goat pasture.  I meant to drive my car up closer to the sugarbush so we wouldn't have to haul our equipment, but the snow was too deep so I parked it near the goat houses and we walked up instead.  

While we were working I started thinking, "what if the goats start climbing up on my car?"  I bet they could do a lot of damage!  My son went down to where we had left our coats and bag to get a drink and I asked him to take a look down the mountain and see if the car was o.k.  All of the sudden I heard him yelling and I went running down the mountain.  

When I got to the car I saw this.

This silly, curious doe had stuck her head in my car's wheel well.  Her horns were stuck and she couldn't pull her head out!

The other goats were no help.  The herd just stood back and gawked at her.  You can almost hear them whispering to one another, "someone needs to fix that." 

The doe's horn was stuck under a flap in the wheel well.  We pushed and pulled and twisted her head  and turned the car's tire.  We had to lift her up at the shoulders!  And of course she bleated piteously the whole time. Finally, we were able to pull her free.  

She ran for it and I could only get a shot of her as she rounded the corner!

Safe and sound with her herd.  I bet this curious doe will stay away from cars for awhile!

Mr. Billy Goat carefully checked us out.  I wasn't sure if he was thanking us or getting ready to butt us for leaving our car where his ladies would get into trouble.  

We learned our lesson.  We moved the car out of the pasture to keep from having any more goat adventures!

Jumping The Gun: Green Growing Things

I know I'm jumping the gun in getting my spring planting going.  But just one little flat of cold weather greens is o.k., isn't it?  

My extra early spring planting list:

Fresh Heart Lettuce

Lolla Rosa Lettuce 

Corn Salad

Pak Choi

Green Oakleaf Lettuce

Swiss Chard: Red and White Mix

Kale: Vates Blue Curled

Swiss Chard: Flamingo

Buttercrunch Lettuce 

and Smooth Leaf Spinach

What do you think of my new growing shelves?  I picked up cheap plastic shelving and grow lights.  The hubby drilled holes, added chains to hang the lights, and voila!  simple easy seed starting center.

I hope, that I'll be getting enough warmth in the high tunnel by the time these are ready to be planted in the ground.  I'm pretty sure I'll have to use row covers.  

Oh, the excitement of the first green growing things!

"Should You Eat That Bacon?" Flowchart

Source

From your own (or a friend's) pasture-raised pigs?

Oh, yes!

Bees Fed Spring 2014

Source

We VERY quickly popped open the beehives to feed the bees yesterday.  We had a brief bout of 40-degree and above weather and after this cold, cold winter weather we knew they would need food!  I put a fondant on the hives as its going to be too cold for a sugar water mixture. 

My Fondant recipe:

 8 lbs. cane sugar

2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

2 lbs. water

1. Bring to boil, stirring frequently

2. Boil to 238 - 242 degrees.  Boil at this temperature for 15 minutes (it takes a long time for the sugar mixture to reach this temperature and I can't stress enough to BE CAREFUL.  This will burn you very badly if it splashes on you!)

3. Remove from heat.  Let cool to 180 - 195 degrees. 

4. Using mixer, blend until cloudy white.  You can add HoneyBHealthy, pollen, etc. at this step.

5. Pour into container.  ( I pour mine out onto parchment paper in circles to create patties. 

6. Cool until hard. 

Sadly, we found that we did lose some hives.  This winter has been so terribly cold and harsh that we weren't surprised.  We hope with careful tending to pull the rest through!

I Think (I Hope!) The Egg Drought Is Over!

Almost every year I go through a period in the winter when my chickens don't lay eggs.  The days get short and they don't get the necessary light stimulation.  I don't put artificial lights on my chickens to stimulate egg production because my coop is a long way from the house and I don't have electricity to it and because I kind of like giving the girls a break.  It has always just seemed to be a bit more in the natural order of things.  

Last year, I froze whipped up eggs in ice cube trays to get me through the egg drought.  Surprise, surprise!  The chickens kept laying all winter.  So this year I didn't even think of it and the surprise was on me - the girls stopped laying for about two months!

I'm feeding 30 chickens and I REFUSE to buy the nasty, tasteless eggs from the grocery store.  (I know, I should have a least a few layers.  I have a number of old hens that need to be culled - in the spring) 

So, my family and I eat seasonally.  There are great recipes that don't use eggs.  Homemade bread for one.  How wonderful is a fresh loaf of bread baking on a cold winter day - the oven warms up the kitchen and, oh, that heavenly smell!?!  It's better for you with only a few ingredients (flour, water, honey, yeast, and salt) and costs less than 50-cents to bake.  My husband bought a loaf of whole wheat bread at the store the other day and it cost over four dollars!    

My other go to favorite (and my family's) is homemade biscuits.  Easy, quick, and oh, so good!  But what about desserts?  We do love our desserts?  I had a harder time finding desserts that don't use eggs, but we started making no-bake cookies fairly often.  The family didn't complain!  

In the past week or so the eggs have started to trickle in.  I've hoarded them and finally, today, my kids had eggs and toast for breakfast.  I think (I HOPE) the drought is over!

This is my favorite biscuit recipe: 

Never Fail Biscuits

from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

2 tsp. white sugar

1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced

3/4 c. milk

1.  Preheat oven to 450-degrees 

2. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse oatmeal.  Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the milk.  Stir until the dough begins to pull together then turn out onto a slightly floured surface (I put mine on floured wax paper)

3.  Press dough together and the roll out 3/4 inch thick.  Cut into two inch round biscuits and place on an ungreased baking sheet.  

4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until golden. 

These turn out wonderfully layered just like the commercial version (except you can pronounce what's in these biscuits!).  

Take Care Of Our Feathered Friends

As I grew up, I learned that this it the time of year that is hardest for our feathered friends   - the little birds.  They've eaten most of the seeds and goodies on the ground and most everything has been covered with snow.  

In this part of the country we have a lot of black bears.  Black bears and bird feeders don't mix.  But the bears have been hibernating so we hope not to find our bird feeders broken and strewn about the yard.  The birds can have something to sustain them.  

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

Lou Holtz