Q&A Monday

Hey guys, here's this week's Q&A post/video. I'm a little hesitant to share this one because of the topic, but I'm gonna' try it anyway. (P.S. Sorry for the background noise. Gyp was pretty active and had no desire to lay down and be quiet. Goofy dog...)

Let's Pretend It's Monday

 I didn't forget the Q&A Monday. Honest, I didn't! But we ran into some glitches along the way. To put it bluntly, Youtube ate my video. Yes, dear reader, this is my latest awful plan. The Caitlyn (meaning me) has gone live. I look like a dork... But here it is, nevertheless!! It's really low quality this week, and I apologize. Since Youtube obliterated my original clip, I had to cave and run this through My Movie Maker. Blah. So bear with me folks. Its got mistakes, its got hiccups, and its got me. This is a recipe for disaster. Or a really good laugh... Not sure which is worse. ;)

  Now, the book I mentioned in the video is called Microgreens: A guide to growing nutrient packed greens. Clicking those highlighted words will take you to the Amazon link of said book. If you're thinking about trying micros out, I DEFINITELY recommend buying a copy of this!

 I did also want to give a quick link to Johnny's Selected Seeds. So here's that. You're welcome. ;)

  And that's that! I'm already regretting this video of myself, but that's just the introvert in me... I need to get over this. Oh, and hopefully each subsequent video will be a little better in quality. This one's pretty pathetic.

Idea Brewing. Please Hold.

  Yes, I was supposed to do Q&A today. No, I did not do it. On purpose. I had questions to answer too... Oh bad me. First I fail to post the Link Up on Saturday (thought about posting it on Sunday, but it didn't happen, and now I'm all discombobulated!), and now I'm not doing my usual Monday post!? Sorry! Things will hopefully be going back to normal from now on.

 Today was a crazy day that was rather catawumpus (am I the only one in love with this word???), and then I had an idea for the Q&A Mondays to make them a bit better. Yeah, yeah, another hair brained scheme of mine that may or may not work. So hold your heifers, folks. I'll get to Q&A eventually, but we may not see the next round until next week. If it works, then you'll understand why the wait. If it doesn't... Well, then y'all can roll your eyes at me and say something along the lines of "I told you so". Or you could yell at me... Or shake your head and sigh... Or just be glad that we're back to doing it the old way. Personally, that last option doesn't sound half bad.

  Toodle pip and cheerio for now! Oh, and happy Veteran's Day! Thank you to all who have served and are still serving!!

Q&A Monday

 

 Okey dokey my dears... It's time to confront the question of the week and give it an answer!

  This week we're hearing from Tasha, and I *think* I understand the question, but I'm not positive. Tasha, you referred to micros, but then went on to explain fodder; are we just talking fodder here? I wasn't sure where the micros came in. Just to clarify the difference betwixt the two, microgreens are a leafy vegetable such as cabbage, kale, radish, and peas that are grown in soil until 14 days after germination, and then normally saved for human consumption. These are fancy little greens that sell for a hugely high price to restaurants. Chefs love 'em. Fodder on the other hand is barley or wheat (the two most common grains; you can sprout anything, but nothing grows like these two) that is grown "hydroponically", meaning there's no soil; you just keep them in drained trays until you have a mat of "grass" which you feed to livestock. You don't sell this stuff to restaurants. ;)

 I'm going to guess that we're talking about fodder here, so that's where I'm taking this conversation. :) You asked how often to water fodder, and then stated that you're having mold problems. I can relate. And I'll bet an acorn to an oak that anyone else who has ever done fodder will raise their hand and agree that they've had the same problem. Oh the mold issue... Don't worry, it's fixable.

 First off, make sure that the grain in your trays is no deeper than 3/4 of an inch. Any deeper and you'll just exacerbate the molding problem. Any thinner and it'll dry out too soon, and then when you get it wet again, you face mold, or the loss of the entire tray due to the germ dying. (yeah, this is sounding like a really fun project, huh?) If you feel that your seed depth isn't a problem, then next look at your drainage. There should be NO standing water, EVER. I repeat, NO standing water, EVER. When you water your grain, all liquid should drain out within twenty seconds. If it takes longer than that, then you need more drainage. Someone gave me "pre-drilled" trays once, and those things took almost a minute to drain. This seemed great at first; I was able to fill each tray to the brim and then walk away, letting it drain slowly on its own. Or, that was the thought anyway... Since there weren't enough drainage holes, there would be too much moisture hiding in the cracks and crevices; puddles sitting in the low spots where there was no drainage hole. After two days in the high 80's I had to throw ALL of it out. Mold. Lots of it. As to how often to water, I do it 3x's a day when it's hot outside (like, 80F and up). Anything cooler than that, and I find that 2x's a day is usually fine.

 Now, suppose your drainage is fine, and your depth of each layer is fine. Now what!? Mold is an extremely common problem during the summer; doesn't matter how you do it, you're most likely going to have mold issues because it's hot, your grain stays moist all the time, and each pound of grain has thousands - if not millions - of bacteria spores coating it, which is what causes your mold. So the key is to deal with the bacteria that's present on the grain itself. How do you do that? There are a couple ways.

1. Skip the initial soak during hot weather. Normally you let your grain sit in water for 12-24 hours before you put it in the tray. Skip it, and put your dry grain in those trays. I don't completely understand what effect this has on the grain, but someone gave me this tip when I was having issues with mold back in August and it worked well for me.

2. Put a "glug" (1/8 to 1/4 cup) of apple cider vinegar (raw, with the "mother" in it) in the water that is soaking the grain. This method you would obviously only use if you wanted to keep doing that initial soak (which some feel is beneficial in breaking down enzymes). Or, you can do a capful of bleach into the soak water. Either one should work; these *should* kill off the bacteria that's causing you problems. I say "should" a little hesitantly because nothing is for certain with this. I've had both options work really well for me, but I have a different climate than you most likely.

 If you're still having mold problems when they're growing, and you're not growing a huge amount of fodder, you could try watering with a watering can, and putting a bit of ACV or bleach in the can once a day (I would really recommend the ACV during the growing period) to keep that bacteria at bay.

 Hope this helps! Mold can be such a frustrating thing to figure out.

Q&A Monday!

 We squeaked by this week with a last-minute question! Hey, better late than never, right? Smile and nod folks, smile and nod.

  So, ze' question of ze' week? A reader is wondering what books/videos/websites I'm using to teach myself and my crazy pup to herd animals. Well, *I'M* not the one running around herding animals, but you get what I mean.

  My first reaction to the question was, "I wish I knew!" Then I remembered that I do have a few things... For the most part I'm only dealing with the bare bones basics of training Gyp. He's got a good bit of natural talent, so that helps too. But right now he and I are just killing time; I don't want to train my first herding dog, I want a professional to do it, so that I don't mess Gyp up. At first I thought Gyp and I would head to weekly lessons here in Oregon, but now we're waiting to settle in Missouri and then I'll find a trainer over there who will take on a farm girl and her English Shepherd.

  The main book that I've been using (and is forever next to my bedside for reading sprees) is Vergil S. Holland's book titled 'Herding Dogs: Progressive Training'. I found this at a thrift store 6 years ago and got it because I was curious to know how on earth people trained dogs to herd livestock. Today I'm using to train my own! It's a great read; easy to understand, and it breaks the process down into small, doable lessons. I've skimmed through a couple other training books but didn't care for those. This one sticks around.

  I've also been watching some Youtubes, and I have to say that these made a HUGE impact. I always figured I would teach Gyp the basics of "sit, stay, down, come, etc." and then leave things like "Away to me" and "come by" to the trainer. The videos made it so easy though! So I started teaching Gyp the commands! Granted, he's still a youngster and is apt to forget his commands every now and again, but at least there's effort.

  The Youtubes in question are taught by Ted Hope; an Englishman who excels with Border Collies, and training them. The videos are a little hard to understand (he has quite the accent, and footage quality is sometimes uneven), but they're worth the effort of watching.
 Part 1 can be found here.
 Part 2 is here.
 Part 3 is here.
 And Part 4 is here!

  It's also just been a bit of watching Gyp and putting commands to the desired action. For example, my book says that teaching the command "Go Back" (meaning, the dog turns around and does a straight line AWAY from the stock. No dog wants to do that!) is the hardest thing to teach. I accidentally taught it to Gyp without trying, when he was 4 months old. During the height of summer, I would always have to stomp down the tall grass before setting up the next day's portable fencing for the sheep. It took awhile and Gyp would get bored and would try to follow me via the path I had stomped. I never allowed him to follow because he was notorious for getting tangled in the netted fencing. So I would always say, "Gyp, go back!" and the only thing for him to do was to turn tail and run back down that straight, stomped path. After about a week of that, I could tell him "go back" anywhere and he'd make that straight line away from me. He and I still do this twice every day. Before he gets his food I have him "go back" and "come" multiple times at varying distances to keep him on his toes.

  He also responds to the word "wait", which was another accidental teaching... He likes to run ahead of me, and when I was done moving the sheep I was always afraid he'd run into the road and get hit by a car (we had to cross a road to get to the neighbor's property, where the sheep were). I'd watch him until he got close to the road and then I'd shout "Wait! Stay!" which got his attention enough to pause his galloping until I caught up. It eventually morphed to the point where I could say "wait" and he'd hesitate on anything and listen for another command. Nowadays he usually stands in place until I catch up to him, or if he can't see me then he'll turn around and come back. I like it that he hesitates though; I can slow him down, remind him to be cautious, or just make him wait on me.

  And as a random tip that someone once shared with me... I used to always have a hard time remembering which direction was 'Away' and which was 'Come By'; then a shepherd told me that he remembers it by thinking about how "time goes by" in a clockwise circle; just like a dog "Coming by" on sheep. Clockwise.

Hope this helps. ;) Gyp and I are still learning this ourselves!

Q&A Monday!

  I *almost* forgot to write today's post. Almost. Between trying to get an appointment set up with my vet this week (need to get a health certificate for Summer. She's going to a friend in Pennsylvania!!!), harvesting and planting the microgreens, and eating lunch; well... I was just about to post something else on here when I realized that it's Monday and I'm supposed to be answering questions!! I'm so off on my week days, and the week's only just started. This does not bode well. LOL.

  But here we go! I remembered just in time that it's Monday!

Penelope, you left a comment asking about making soap; specifically goat milk soap. I love making soap!! And especially the goat milk stuff! It's way easier than most people think, and much less dangerous than it's said to be (yes lye can do damage, but it's pretty easy to stay safe).

  My favorite recipe that I use these days is from a small raw milk dairy down in TN. I've used this recipe countless times, and I've also bought soap from these folks (yeah, ironic. A soap maker buying soap... I wanted to compare theirs with mine, okay!?). You can grab the recipe by clicking HERE! If you're serious about making soap, then I would highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend buying a good quality stick blender. The cheapest one at Walmart won't do it, either (trust me; that's what I bought and still fight with every time I make soap. It overheats really fast, stinks, and is poor quality).

 One tip I like to offer to soap makers is a twist on the stirring part. Pretty much all recipes (including the one I just gave you) will tell you to "stir the oils until you hit trace". This is code for stirring until your liquid oils/fats/lye turn into what honestly looks like banana pudding in consistency and you can trace smiley faces into it. I get really bored with all that stirring though, and when you've got an awful stick blender like mine AND you're doing a large 5+ lb. batch of soap, it can take an easy 1.5 - 2 hours to come to trace. I'm an impatient soap maker. So here's my tip on stirring: Stir with your stick blender for 15 solid minutes right off the bat. Then let the liquid sit still for 15 minutes. After that, stir for 5 minutes at 15 minute intervals. So basically you're letting it sit more than you're stirring. I love doing it this way, as I can go do other things while it's sitting, and my total stirring time comes out to about 20 - 25 minutes. I can handle that.

  I can't think of any books right off the top of my head that I like for soap making, but I have a couple websites. One is The Goat Spot, in their "Crafty Cabin" section. If I mess up a batch, or have a general question about something, then I usually go here to ask it since I get a pretty quick answer, and folks there are accustomed to using goat milk in their soaps. When I'm looking for soap making supplies, I like to shop at Bramble Berry. Their prices are decent, and their quality is really good. They also have a handy, dandy thing called a "lye calculator", which I prefer to call a "recipe creator". Hehe. This is what I use when I find I'm out of an oil that I needed, and now suddenly need to make up some sort of random recipe that will still make soap. You just enter the amounts of each oil that you want to use, and it tells you how much liquid and lye to add. Kaboom. You're cookin'.

  Those would be my tips and advice for you. I hope they help!!


Tasha, you had the next question, and that was "can does (female goats to new readers here) be bred in December? Breeding season typically starts in August/September, so not many people think about December breedings. To answer your question bluntly, yes. Goats will *usually* continue to come into heat up until January (I've had a few does keep cycling until March, and I ended up with August babies!). Nigerian Dwarfs will cycle all year around, so you can breed them whenever you want. I've always bred my does in November and December since I don't like cold weather kiddings, and I don't want them born during March which is our mud season (well, it's muddier than usual.). Breeding in November will give you April babies, and breeding in December will give you May babies. Lots of green grass and warmer weather during those months. :)

Kaia, I answered your question in the comments. Hope you don't mind!

 So there you have it folks! Soap and baby goats! Fun topics, if you ask me. ;)

Q&A Monday ~ Where To Find Local Food

I got a fun question to answer on the weekend, and that was a reader asking where to find local food. This is a question I got a LOT from milk customers, or just other random people who are curious. Sure, we all see those small farms and homesteads as we drive by them, or we might see a sign here and there saying "Eggs for sale", but what about when we're looking for some place where we can get as many things as possible from one spot? Or when we're looking for a farm that's in a specific area? So I thought it would be fun to give y'all a heads up on places to check out, as well as answering the direct question of the week.

We'll start off by answering the broader question of, "How do I find local farms" and then get more detailed from there... There are lots of websites that will host listings of local farms; I personally stick with about four sites, since I'm a girl of very little brains (and obviously one who has been watching too many Winnie the Pooh movies lately), and I lose track of places, people, and things when I try to get broader in my memory scope. 

Which four would I recommend the most, you ask? Good question. I'll list them from my most favorite link first, and then go down from there. (P.S. highlighted words are active links)

1. Local Harvest ~ I really like local harvest. It's easy to find things on here, it's well laid out, and it's helpful for the farmer and consumer alike. You can search for farms near you, or you can use the cool sidebar and search for specific items (I use this frequently when I'm searching for non-perishable items that can be shipped). 

2. Eat Wild. ~ I like Eat Wild because there's usually a good number of listed farms, and those that are listed fit the criteria of the website which is very specific and detailed. The only downside I see to this website is that you have to scroll, scroll, scroll, through the list in hopes of finding a local farm. It's alphabetically listed by farm names, rather than cities, so if you're searching for a farm near you, then get comfy; it might take a while before you see what you want. Other than that, I like it. I've always wanted to be listed on Eat Wild, but my farm has yet to meet the criteria. (I fed too much grain to my high producing milk cows to meet the criteria necessary; and rather than decreasing my grain amount, I chose to just not join. Maybe someday I'll have hardier cows though, and then I can join!)

3. Real Time Farms ~ This website has been so neat to watch as it's grown!! I was the very, very first Oregon farmer to be listed on here. It was lonely. And rather disheartening at the start. But it took off like a rocket and now there's no lack of Oregonian farms! I like RTF because it's fun, easy to use, specific to your searches, and has the option of farms, farmers markets, artisans, and eateries (I guess that's now the posh thing to call a restaurant??).

4. FarmPlate ~ This is another one of those websites that is fairly new but has a good following behind it. I admit that this is the last website I visit when I'm searching for something, although it's not for any reason against the site itself! It's certainly easier to find a farm on here than on Eat Wild, and shows more info upfront than Real Time Farms does. Shucks, the listings even give the exact mileage from where you started your search (e.g. McMinnville, OR), to each farm. I guess I tend to forget this place... Old habits die hard. I've been visiting the other websites a lot longer than I've known about FarmPlate, so perhaps it'll just take a bit more time for the ol' memory to remember coming here before giving myself a headache as I scroll through Eat Wild.

These are my four favorite websites. :) And this is how I generally start finding farms near me. And generally speaking, farmers know each other. So if you find one, but they don't have what you're looking for, there's a good chance that they'll know someone who does.

Having said that, I guess that's my cue to do more than talk the talk! Beth, let me introduce you to some of the farmers in our area!! 

1. Cast Iron Farm ~ This is a quick, easy drive to get to in McMinnville. I believe Christine primarily focuses on raw milk these days, and she does the job well. (her dairy parlor is to die for. Seriously.) 

2. Everbearing Farms ~ Everbearing Farms is a bit of a drive from you and me, Beth, seeing as it's in Woodburn, but I like this place. This is where my summer flock of sheep came from, as well as Cinnamon the Holstein/Jersey cow. Friendly, helpful folks here, selling vegetables and flowers. :) 

3. Oakhill Organics ~ Located on Grand Island (just outside of Dayton), the Kulla's run a year-'round, full diet CSA. I worked here for a short time last winter, and can attest to the fact that they have a wide variety of food that they offer! I have no idea if they have room for 2014 members, but I suppose a body could always ask if they were interested. ;)

4. Kookoolan Farms ~ Okay, in all honesty I don't know a lot about this place. What I do know though is that every time I speak with a local about food, they always instantly know who Kookoolan is. Ditto for farmers. They have vegetables and meats, as well as a small on-site store that they sell cheese making supplies through. They used to offer milk as well, but I believe they just stopped...

5. Working Hands Farm ~ This would be another drive for a person living in Mac... But personally, I think the drive would be worth it. I follow Jess and Brian's blog (ahem, and their FB page... If I did instagram then I'd most likely follow them on there too), and between their stories and photos, I'm intrigued by this pair of hardworking folks and their eye catching farm. I haven't officially "met" Jess and Brian... I saw them at the raw milk tour that was held at Cast Iron Farm some time ago, but I was in too much awe of them to walk up and shake their hands and introduce myself (and yes, I regretted not doing so, afterwards). Offering their customers fruits, vegetables, dairy, eggs, and honey in a well thought out CSA (I admit... I drool over their handmade wooden boxes that they put shares in.), they also do fun things like movie nights on the farm and other such things.

These five are probably the top five I can think of right off the top of my head. Search around on Local Harvest, Eat Wild, Real Time Farms, And FarmPlate though; you'll be sure to find lots of others in the area that have what you're looking for!

Ask It!

I used to do this in the past... Every Friday I would ask y'all if you had any questions that you wanted answers for, and then I'd answer them the following Monday. I've decided to try picking this habit back up again, and since it's on my blogging calender/schedule, I might be able to remember to do it now. Hehehe.

Got a question? Ask it in the comments! It can be anything from farming stuff, to wondering how I do something here on the blog, to some random personal question you've always wondered but never knew how to ask (I do retain rights to keep some things private though. Remember? I'm an introvert. *grin*).

Ask away my friends! If I don't have the answer you're looking for, then I'll do my jolly best to find someone who does, or if that fails too, then we'll all just throw our hands in the air and decide that the question is unanswerable. I'll do my best to stick to the first option though.