Stewed Beef Heart With the Family That Used to Need More Acres

 

Recently we had diner with our good friends from Hickory Lane Farm (formerly Need More Acres). Potato kale Soup, Sweet Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts, Sautéed Wasabi Greens, Salad, Apple Cake, Blackberry Cobbler!! Ok snap back to it.
The Howells have moved to a new farm that does indeed have more acres allowing them to better serve the community and those they provide for. We were excited to check out the new place and all the work they have been doing around the farm. This summer the Howells along with some dedicated friends have built a new barn, commercial kitchen and two high tunnels to go along with the 1800's farm house. All that while still growing for farmers market, their CSA, and the introduction of animals to the operation. Did I mention that the Howells are an amazing family!
So during diner with the Howells and the gang from Stoney Creek Farm the conversation turned to meat production and then to the different cuts of meat. When I mentioned that I'm not so adventurous in my meat choices I was meet with a challenge. The challenge to cook a beef heart. Before me was held a frozen beef heart!
First I have no idea what to do with a beef heart and then there is fact that is looks just like one would imagine a heart to look. Enter The Nourished Kitchen a beautiful book by Jennifer McGruther which has all sorts of helpful advice and recipes for the Traditional Foods Lifestyle. The book also happens to have a recipe for Stewed Beef Heart. Now I'm not one to follow recipes, I use them more as guidelines so if you want the actual recipe you may want to check out her book but the improve version did turn out quite well.

 

Stewed Beef Heart

1 beef heart trimmed and cubed

Water

2 Tbsp salt

2Tbsp lard

1 1/2 t dried rosemary

1 1/2 t dried thyme

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

2 potatoes

2 carrots

1 cup mushrooms

2 cups beef broth

1 cup strong grape kombucha

1 jar whole tomatoes

2 bay leaves

Cover beef heart in salt water and let soak for at least 4 hours. Remove heart from water and let drain. In stock pot heat lard and sautee rosemary and thyme for about 3min. Remove most of the herbs leaving flavored lard. Sautee onions and garlic in lard, add chopped vegetables and meat. Cook till vegetable are slightly tender and meat is browned.  Add beef broth tomatoes (I like to chop mine some) kombucha and bay leaves and salt to taste. Simmer for 30min to 1hr.

 

We shared our stewed beef heart with our friends the Dicksons and their crew of boys. If we can get all five boys to eat beef heart stew it must be good.  A big thanks to Hickory Lane Farm for their hospitality, for providing the beef heart and the encouragement to step out of my meat comfort zone.

 

 

Christmas Time is Coming

Here at Growing Boys Farm we do get into the Christmas celebration. Celebration of the birth of our Lord with family, food, friends and yes the decorating. I like to decorate. Not the strands and strands of lights kind of decoration although I do enjoy a good light show but I am a little too cheap to pay for the electric. We like the garland and mistletoe kind of decorations.  As you may remember we always get a real Christmas Tree and this year is no exception. But this year our favorite Christmas Tree Farm was CLOSED! And since Christmas tree farms in South Central Kentucky aren't in huge supply we resorted to buying the tree from TSC. Gasp! I know we might should have just headed out to the woods for a cedar tree which would have totally been locally grown and sustainable but.. The reason for getting a tree from Tractor Supply is that I really wanted a pretty one, no offense to the cedar tree. You see this year Growing Boys Farm is hosting our family Christmas and I mean the whole big family with Great Great Aunts and everything. I'm really excited about that but selfishly I want a really pretty tree for the occasion. Maybe it will sound better to say I am supporting the tree farmers and their families even if they did have to be trucked into the local TSC.

 

The rest of our Christmas decorations did come straight off the farm. Wreaths were made from grapevines that grow along the creek and then woven to form the base which is decorated with a variety of greenery.

Mistletoe is one of my favorite Christmas decorations. The Growing Boys Grandmother started the tradition the first year here on the farm by bringing us a bunch. Maybe she was already hoping for grandboys but whatever the reason it has become a must have tradition. We spend an afternoon every year on the hunt for it. Did you know that mistletoe here in our neck of the woods usually grows in walnut trees. To add to the mistletoe I made a wooden chalkboard sign using the new amazing chalk pens that we also use for farmers market signs. Thanks to a good friend for introducing us to the pens, they are amazing. They write like a paint pen but erase like chalk!

 

The other decoration I am excited about this year is the burlap! The bow of choice seems to be burlap and hopefully the burlap table runner will be done in time. Our garland  for Christmas Cards and all the wreaths are adorned with burlap as well.

 

Now off to get the menu for Christmas dinner planned because Christmas time is coming...fast. 

How does a locally raised pastured ham and chicken sound for starters?

 

 

Cold Weather Farm Update

Here in Kentucky winter has come early and in full force. It's not even Thanksgiving yet and the forecast is already talking snow and last night the thermostat hit 17. That means I finally have a few extra minutes for writing and pictures.

Although we were mostly prepared for winter there are a few things we needed to do before winter that still haven't been done. The wood did get cut, split and stacked, bee hives bundled up, and we did get the plastic up out of the fields but that's about it.

Now that we are wearing coveralls for all outdoor activities our focus has turned to the high tunnel. Mostly because it's warm and sunny in there during the day but cold at night. That makes for a lot of work to make sure we have enough heat and ventilation . I know I have said it before but it's so nice to step through the doors and into a nice sunny warm high tunnel and the produce is sooo good. It almost make all the covering and uncovering of plants worth it.

I realize it's been a while since the last post so here is an update on some farm news with pictures to follow...
BJ (the dog) and both of the boys have grown a lot! The bottle calves are almost weaned! The rooster is happy with all his new girls. I guess I forgot to mention that we had two mama hen for a total of 14 new baby chicks which are now almost grown. I just need to figure out which ones are hens and which ones are roosters.
Maybe with winter here there be more frequent news from the farm.

 

 

 

 

Farm Boys

I grew up on a farm in the same county that we live in now and my husband spent a lot of time on his grandparents farm. Yes, we are "from here". We grew up dirty, not because my mother didn't make us take baths, but because we spent our days playing in the dirt, or mud, or grass. We had our own tobacco plants that were just ours and the money when it sold lined our pockets. We grew up working. Working in gardens and in shops and in barns.
As with most adults that grew up on a family farm there was a time that we wanted to get away from it. A time when it was not fun or cool to be dirty and to work in the fields and barns and shops. We went off to school to get degrees or got jobs in factories.  We worked 8-5 or third shift and only saw each other in passing. We managed projects and made deadlines. It was satisfying and it paid the bills.
Then there came a time after we had children that we realized the life our parents had provided us was actually a pretty good one. A life where our parents and grandparents worked along side each other every day on the farm making a living and providing for us. There came a time when I realized that that is what I wanted for my own children. I wanted them to be farm boys. I wanted them to dig in the dirt and to have grass stained knees, farmers tans and dirt under their nails that no matter how hard you try never comes out.
As our children grow into men I find myself appreciating the gifts that the farm gives them more each day. It teaches them to work...hard. Sometimes we have conversation about what is the worst job. Is it digging carrots or cutting kale? Are they worse than cleaning out the barn?  The conversation always end with the conclusion that no matter how bad the job is it still has to get done. So they still pick the kale and dig the carrots each week. Sometimes they say that when they grow up they will never work on a farm but we will wait and see.
 The farm teaches them to try new things and to conquer fears. It teaches them to be patient and to hurry up. It teaches them compassion and how to stand your ground. It teaches them to DRIVE. That is the lesson they are most excited about right now. Our oldest growing boys is learning to drive the tractor. Not just drive but to bush hog, and then to mow hay, and rake and bale... Our youngest is taking over his brother job of mowing the yard. These are not lessons for the faint of heart. They are also not lessons that this mother wants to teach. They are my babies and its hard for me to realize sometimes that they are growing into men and that no matter how hard I try it must happen. It is our job to guide them on this journey but it is in the end their journey. Daddies are much better at teaching these lessons. They teach and instruct and then watch from afar as the adventure happens. They know what it was like to be a farm boy and to be on the journey into manhood or maybe the journey to be a farmer but we will wait and see.

Spring in Full Swing

I know I have said it before but it bares repeating, spring is a very busy time of year on any farm. This year is no different. We enjoyed a beautiful Easter weekend with family and church.

The apple trees are in full bloom and thanks to a generous friend two new ones are planted along with a new maple tree and ten new grape vines have been put in.

 

 The green house is planted and the plastic in the main vegetable garden is down. The first of many sunflowers have popped through the ground and the onions are happy with this spring weather. Fifty pounds of potatoes didn't exactly like the last cold spell but hopefully they will shoot back up. Fifty eight crazy baby chicks have made the shop their home for the next few weeks then they will be moved to the chicken tractors. All the baby heirloom tomato plants along with other summer veggies are still in the greenhouse waiting to make sure that the last of the frosts have passed. Soon they will make their way outdoors. We have a new addition to the farm, our new puppy BJ is taking a lot of the Growing Boys time right now. Not that he needs that much attention, but boys and puppies kind of go together. Shew, I'm not sure how much more this momma can fit into a day.

Be sure to check out WBKO on Thursday at Midday. We will be making spinach salad and talking about the upcoming farmers market. That's right!! Saturday morning is the first farmers market on the square. See you there!

Celebrating Spring With a New Coat of Paint

Spring has arrived! It's official, and I am loving it. Projects that had been put off till warmer weather are in full swing. One of those big projects was to get the barn painted...red. Deciding on the color of the barns on our farm was a big decision and since the neighbors barns are all black we decided to go with red.

 Thanks to our Grandma for letting us tear down the old tobacco barn to build a new barn here on Growing Boys Farm. While it was a lot of work tearing down an old barn, building the barn out of reclaimed wood was very gratifying and I have to say seeing it painted bright red the same as the old family tobacco barn is nice too.

 

While painting an entire barn is not exactly an easy project it is very rewarding in the end to see this huge building all painted. And...one perk to painting a barn is no tarps or drops cloths are necessary, you can be as messy as needed. Yes our clothes, hair, shoes, and sunglasses all bare the tale-tell spatter of red paint which happens to be oil based and hard to remove.

I think the cows are enjoying the new paint job as well or maybe they were just happy to have their heads buried in the hay rack.

 

 

 

 

Waffles anyone?

Delicious waffles are the breakfast of choice these days at Growing Boys Farm.

 

It's maple syrup time again! The trees have been tapped and the sap is running like crazy.

Between a round with the flu and then another round of sub zero temperatures it wasn't easy this year to find time to tap our Maple trees but a friend put a bug in my ear about a new way to boil down the sap. Remember last year when we boiled over a big open pit? That was great for the growing boys to play in and see how many sticks they could catch on fire and it was great for roasting marshmallows but it was not great plan for boiling sap. The ash tends to fly up and land in the sap pans which makes the syrup have a distinctly smoked flavor which doesn't go well with pancakes. This year we decided to try boiling down the sap on our wood heating stove. We like to keep a steamer on the stove because our house gets so dry in the winter and we thought the sap boiling down would just replace our steamer for a few weeks. It turns out that the process is a little slow but works beautifully and since we already need the fire for heat we aren't wasting any extra fuel. For us it's a great deal.

So far we have just over a gallon of syrup and the growing boys goal is to make enough syrup to last us all year on those delicious waffles.

When it takes so long to make it you use your syrup a little more sparingly then if you bought it at the store but that's probably a good thing too. Do you have maple trees? Why not tap one and see what you get?