This Western Life

Grass vs. Grain Finished Beef

Posted on April 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

Are you confused with all the terminology about beef? Grain finished, grass fed, natural/organic beef and grass finished might be making your head spin as you go shop through the grocery store and your not sure which one is the best for you. Here’s a simple way of explaining the differences.

Grain Finished-The Majority of American Beef : Almost all beef in a typical supermarket is finished with grain. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal that a cow be finished on grain, but here are a few things to consider. Cows were not developed to eat grain in the first place, they are ruminant bovines that were designed to digest hay and forage. However, grain is cheap (or used to be cheap) and it is easy to fatten cattle on. Before slaughter most cattle will spend 110-200+ days in a feedlot eating a diet consisting of 50 to 90% grain. By feeding grain to cows it’s easy to get a nice uniform product with consistency over and over again that makes it to the supermarket shelves, but this doesn’t come without a price. The nutritional content of the beef is completely changed when fed on corn making the beef less nutritious. The other risk factor is associated with the way the cattle are held within the last couple months of their lives. Industrialized feedlots are a breeding ground for disease and sickness. Consequently most cattle are either fed or injected with antibiotics to keep them from contracting sickness due to close and unsanitary conditions. The beef is then sent to major packaging plants that process thousands of cows a day and grind the meat into hamburger from several different cows! “It’s virtually impossible to determine how many cows contribute to a single burger.” (PBS)

Grass Fed- The Tricky, but Deceiving Health Food Spin : Marketing experts are not stupid, they know if people are becoming more aware of their food choices that they will make a choice between two different types of beef based on what’s on the title. If you are shopping at the supermarket and you know that most beef is finished on grain and you are trying to avoid it and you see one package that does not explain at all what type of beef it is and the other package right next to it says “Grass Fed” you are more likely to pick up the grass fed one. The problem with that is that most likely (once again) that beef was finished on grain. How is that? Well, grass fed is now a term people use to explain that the cattle were on grass/hay/silage at one point in it’s life. This is not too difficult to then label the beef with, because most beef are at some point on grass! Most ranchers raise the calves with their mothers and wean them at 6 months- a year. Some people sell those calves directly to feedlots and other ranches will keep them on their ranch’s grass until the cattle reach a certain weight and then sell them. The majority of the cattle will then end up in a feedlot to be finished 60-110 days. Once again, causing the same problems as listed above.

Natural Raised Beef- The Step Under Certified Organic :-/ : Natural raised beef is another sticky term, but it’s a little bit of a step up from grass fed. Natural, in the food world, simply means no antibiotics or hormones. The cattle end up in feedlots for the end of their life, but if the steer gets sick while in the feedlot and needs antibiotics he is then separated and cannot be sold as “natural.” It’s a little bit of a safer product to eat since you know the cattle haven’t been given any antibiotics or hormones but they still ended up in a feedlot eating corn.

Certified Organic- The Trick is Finding Out How it was Finished :-/ : Lots of people are into buying organic at this point. It is a great idea, but it is slowly being corrupted to the point that organic doesn’t always mean much. Organic has pretty high standards, but when it comes to beef you need to be careful at what exactly organic means. Organic means that there was no synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilizers used in the feed given to the animals (wikipedia), and that no animal can be given antibiotics or hormones as well. Once again, this does not guarantee that the cattle were not finished on grain. If you don’t mind them being finished on grain then organic would be the best for you, but if it bothers you that these animals were finished on grain 60-110+ days then the only beef out there for you is grass finished beef.

Grass Finished Beef- No Tricks, Just Beef : Grass finished beef is the way beef has been raised for thousands of years, before cheap grains and the industrialized system. It’s almost ridiculous that grass finished beef is so much more expensive than the industrialized meat, but the fact is, that there are not many ranchers that know how to finish cattle on grass anymore! For almost 100 years people have been genetically changing their cows through selection to finish on corn, have high birth weights and not to be finished on grass. It has become difficult to finish cattle on grass and it takes proper management and holding a steer for 2-3 years instead of selling it when it’s 6 months to a year old. Also, the product changes based on the quality of the grass, their genetics and a list of other factors, making it difficult to produce the same product consistently every time. When you put a steer in a feedlot to 60-110 days on grain it will taste exactly the same as every other steer in that feedlot, whereas a grass fed steer from one ranch might finish out differently from a steer at another ranch, making it an art for the rancher to find that consistency and learn more about the land and the grass. Grass finished does not guarantee that the animal has been given antibiotics or hormones or that the rancher doesn’t use pesticides or fertilizers. However, on our ranch (and a trend we see with other ranchers that grass finish beef) is that the ranches have more respect for the land and animals and treat them correctly. Grass finished animals don’t often get sick because they are not in confinement operations, so antibiotics are not necessary. When you are raising grass finished animals you have to manage your land properly so that you have enough good quality feed to finish cattle on. Pesticides and fertilizers can cause major ecological problems on a ranch, which is why we do not use either on our ranch.

With more people becoming aware of where their food is coming from probably the most important thing to do is get to know your farmer or rancher. We are more than willing and eager to talk to you about our beef and how we raise our cattle. We are proud of what we produce and are happy you are aware of where your beef is coming from. Here at Cunningham Ranch we hope anyone who is interested in our beef will contact us and consider coming to see the ranch and how we raise our beef.

A new documentary about meat: American Meat

If you have any questions, post below! If you are interested in our beef contact us today! Buy today!

phone: 541-339-3404

email: thiswesternlife@gmail.com

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Posted in Blog, Farm, Natural Cooking, Ranch, Western

Tagged beef, buying beef, cattle, certified organic, cows, grain finished beef, grass beef, grass fed, grass finished beef, how to buy a beef, organic beef, steer, what's the difference between grass finished and grass fed

Adventures with buttermilk: What to do with leftover buttermilk

Posted on April 22, 2013 | 2 Comments

I’ve mentioned in the last couple posts that buttermilk has some wonderful capabilities and now it’s time to look into what types of things you can do with buttermilk. Once again, this is buttermilk made from raw milk cream that is turned into buttermilk. I cannot guarantee and do not suggest that you try culturing buttermilk from store-bought pasteurized cream.

Please refer to my post on how to make butter to get your buttermilk.

According to “Forgotten Skills of Cooking” by Darina Allen: “Buttermilk is the remaining liquid after butter is made. In olden times, this type of buttermilk was considered to be ‘the cure for all ills,’ and a visitor to a farmhouse would invariably be offered a mug of buttermilk. During turf-cutting, haymaking and harvesting, buttermilk was considered to be the best drink to give energy, slake the thirst, and cure a hangover. Young girls washed their faces in buttermilk to improve their complexion, while their mothers and grandmothers used it to make bread.” (pg. 198)

Apparently buttermilk was quite a normal and typical ingredient found in Irish households and was never wasted. Today, most people make buttermilk by adding vinegar or lemon to a cup of milk and calling it good. To me, this cannot be the same amazing buttermilk as we see described above, so what do you do with the buttermilk leftover from butter making?

There are several options. The typical options would be to either: drink it or use it in some sort of cooking. It doesn’t take more than a second to type in buttermilk recipes to a search engine and get thousands of recipes that involve buttermilk. If I make butter close to Sunday we will have buttermilk pancakes apart of our Sunday morning breakfast. Irish soda bread is another recipe that calls for buttermilk as well. When it comes to recipes it seems like the opportunities are endless with buttermilk.

When I make butter what I typically do with buttermilk is leave it on the counter to culture and become cultured buttermilk. Cultured buttermilk has plenty of different options as well. If you are into cheese making, you can use 2 tablespoons of cultured buttermilk as a substitute for a mesophilic start in your cheese. This was a really neat discovery for me, because now I don’t need to buy mesophilic starts anymore, I just simply take the cultured buttermilk and put two tablespoons into a small container and freeze it in the freezer, or if I have it fresh while I’m making cheese I’ll just add it right then.

Another way to use cultured buttermilk is to sour cream. I read several books and blogs that said sour cream was extremely easy to make, just take your cream and leave it out on the counter to sour. Whenever I did that it never tasted or smelled like sour crem and we would always end up throwing it away. However, when I read in a book it explained that by adding 1 tablespoon of cultured buttermilk into a pint of sour cream would sour the cream, I tried it and it set up and tasted like sour cream. Just take one tablespoon of your cultured buttermilk and add it to a pint of cream. Mix well, and leave on the counter for 12-24 hours (or longer) until becomes a semi-solid state that no longer is straight liquid. You can then cap your jar or container and refrigerate it and use it for cooking.

I’m sure there are a million more uses for buttermilk and I’m still just discovering them as I go along. However, most of the time when I get buttermilk, I culture it. This is because I don’t always have a place to use my buttermilk right away and I don’t wish it to spoil, so I culture it and then refrigerate it until I need it. By culturing the buttermilk you are allowing it choose a set of bacteria and then it doesn’t spoil as fast, whereas if you don’t culture it, it has the opportunity to pick up bacteria from other sources, thus causing it to spoil quickly. I use cultured buttermilk is any recipe that calls for normal buttermilk. I haven’t seen any issues with it yet, in fact, it typically gives whatever I’m cooking with a stronger, more distinct flavor, which I enjoy.

Please share any other ways you have used buttermilk in the comments below. There are so many different ways to utilized buttermilk, so feel free to share!

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Posted in Blog, Cheese making, Farm, Natural Cooking, Raw Milk, Western

Tagged buttermilk, buttermilk recipes, buttermilk start, buttermilk substitute, cheese and buttermilk, cultured buttermilk, how to make buttermilk, making buttermilk, mesophilic, mesophilic start substitute, the forgotten skills of cooking, uses of buttermilk, westen a price

How to Make Butter: Step-by-step guide with pictures (raw milk tips)

Posted on April 19, 2013 | 2 Comments

Probably my most favorite thing about having a milk cow is being able to make my own butter. The taste and color are just not the same of store bought butter and it’s easy to see. Butter is one of the most vilified foods today and people are more than willing to replace it with toxic margarine or other butter substitutes. To me there is no substitute.

While Westen A Price was doing his intensive studies on non-”civilized” cultures he found that certain groups held butter in high regards, especially during certain times of the year. That time of year was in the early spring and summer when the grass is tender and fast growing. He found that the butter had special properties in which couldn’t be found any other time of the year, he called it the X factor (Why Butter is Better). Now scientist believe that it is vitamin K2 that is the sacred ingredient in this butter that comes from cows grazing on fast growing green grass.

With all that said, right now I’m making as much butter as I can and freezing it for the year, since it is such a short window of time to get as much of this “super butter” as possible. The cream is a deep yellow and the butter almost is a light orange, it is truly beautiful.

Without further explanation of the science of butter, here’s how to make it from raw milk. You can use store bought cream, but I cannot guarantee results.

Here is two gallons of fresh milked, milk. As you can clearly see the cream has risen to the top after several hours of sitting in the refrigerator.

Next we are going to skim the cream off the top as best as possible. I usually am liberal at how much I take off, bringing milk with me. I have a handy device that’ll help separate it further.

This is a grease separator. A recent discovery I made that has helped a bunch when it comes to making butter easier. I simply put the cream in it, let it set until it separates…

Then release the milk out the bottom! What a handy device. Not necessary by any means for making butter, but it allows you to make butter much faster and get more butter out of the cream because it’s not getting mixed with milk.

Next I put the cream into my blender. You can use a full sized blend, mixer, food processor or even jar with a lid and shake it. Use what you’ve got and don’t go too crazy buying new things because there are several ways to make butter.

Turn your blender (or whatever method your using) on and allow it to run. Timing is difficult to say, because for me it changes every batch. On low my blender typically takes about 5 minutes to turn the cream into butter. You can typically hear and see the change starting to take place, as shown in the picture.

Tad Da! Butter! This is what I got when I took the top off my blender, beautiful butter! But we aren’t quite finished yet…

Next we strain the butter. What is left over is called buttermilk. I am always using buttermilk so make sure to catch the strained buttermilk into a jar or bowl for other uses (what to do with buttermilk). I use a slotted/mesh spoon, but you can use cheese cloth or an old t-shirt to strain it, if you wish.

At this point the butter is “dirty,” meaning there is still buttermilk within the butter and we are going to do our best to clean it, because leftover buttermilk in your butter will cause your butter to be bitter and spoil quickly.

There are several methods at this step of cleaning. I just keep my butter in a bowl and turn on a slow, very cold stream of water on. As you can see the water is still a little blurry and not clear yet. Work the butter with your hands in the water until the water runs clear.

Once the water is clear I dump the water and continue to work the butter with my cold hands. I continually dump any water particles that form out of the bowl until most of the water is gone (it’s not going to be perfect, but the important part is getting the buttermilk out).

Finally when you butter is as clean as you can get it add as much or as little salt to taste. Salt help preserve butter longer, especially if it’s sitting out on the counter. At this point you can either put it in a mold (fun, but not necessary), leave it in the bowl and use it when needed, or put it on some wax paper and roll it, smash it into whatever makes you happy and seal the ends and freeze it for future use.

Butter making is quite the simple task and is an absolute must if you have a milk cow! Once again, everything is by trial and error. Don’t get totally discouraged if your first batch of butter doesn’t set up and you have to throw it away. For a long time I couldn’t get all the buttermilk out of my butter, so it was always pretty strong tasting and I would only use it in cooking. Now I’ve figured out how to clean it pretty well and the butter is good for everything, especially on fresh sourdough bread!

Milk/cream is so versatile! Don’t be afraid to experiment with all the possibilities.

What do I do with the buttermilk?

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Posted in Blog, Cheese making, Farm, Natural Cooking, Ranch, Raw Milk, Uncategorized, Western

Tagged butter, butter substitute, How to make butter, how to make cheese, how to make raw milk butter, vitamin k2, westen a price, x factor

How to Make Whey Ricotta: Step-by-Step Guide with Pictures

Posted on April 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

Over the last two years of exploring with cheese making, I have come to find the excitement of all the different cheeses you can make and that the “left-overs” of one cheese can actually make another cheese! Everything seems to build off of each other when you are making things with dairy products. The leftovers you get from butter makes buttermilk, the leftovers you get from making a hard cheese is whey, which can make ricotta. It’s whey cool

Now, the only way I know how to make whey ricotta is from the whey of a hard cheese, so if you have made or planning on making farmhouse cheddar from my last post (how to make farmhouse cheddar) then you are going to have plenty of whey left over to make this whey ricotta. You can possibly make it from whey that comes out of strained yogurt, but the recipe I follow says to use the freshest whey possible (within two hours of making cheese).

Without further adue- Whey Ricotta:

What you need:

2 gallons of fresh whey (within two hours of making cheese)
Cheesecloth (optional)
Thermometer
Big two gallon (or bigger) stainless steel pot
Metal slotted spoon for stirring
1/4 cup of vinegar (optional)

Take all that lovely left-over whey from straining your curds and put it in the same pot or a different one if you wish and place on the stove.

Turn the stove on high, because it’ll need to reach 200 degrees, which can take a little while.

You’ll see the whey start to put off some steam, make sure to keep stirring it so it doesn’t burn on the bottom.

Continue to stir while it heats up, once it reaches 200 degrees and has a nice white film on top remove from heat.

Continue to stir while it heats up, once the whey reaches 200 degrees and has a nice white film on top remove from heat. (The “quick method” of getting the curds to form is at this point adding 1/4c of vinegar, this will change the way the ricotta tastes, so I typically let it naturally separate, however, sometimes it doesn’t separate very well, so I’ll add the vinegar)

If you run your spoon through it you’ll see how the white flakes have started to meld together into little curds. Let it sit for a minimum of 5 minutes so the curds can collect.

After some time they’ll start to look like this all matted together. At this point you can pour through a cheese cloth and let it hang or scoop out and put into a bowl to cool. The ricotta resembles cottage cheese and can be used to replace cottage cheese in certain recipes.

For the first 2 years I would just throw the whey away to my chickens, pigs or dogs. Now we always make it into ricotta and use it in our daily dishes (cheese for Sean’s omelets in the mornings, ricotta cheesecake, replacement for cottage cheese, etc.) Ricotta is very versatile and fairly bland in taste, just have fun with it! Any comments below are appreciated on successes, failures, and recipes you use ricotta in.

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Posted in Blog, Cheese making, Diet, Farm, Natural Cooking, Raw Milk, Uncategorized

Tagged how to make cheese, how to make ricotta, raw milk, raw milk cheese, ricotta, Whey, whey ricotta

How to Make Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese- Step by Step Pictures (& Raw Milk Tips)

Posted on April 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

There is something very satisfying about making your own cheese. Whether it’s just a basic soft cheese or a perfectly aged cheddar cheese, it’s just a beautiful feeling of achievement. For my husband and I, it was a lot of trial and error. We use raw milk from our milk cow and we have had a lot of failed attempts at cheddar cheese, but after making it for over a year I think we finally have it figured out! I would’ve really enjoyed having a step-by-step picture guide of what exactly to do, so I decided to do it myself, so hopefully this helps you out!

We make Farmhouse Cheddar most of the time, because it’s fairly quick to make (compared to Traditional Cheddar). You can use pasteurized milk or raw milk, but here is the big tip on raw milk: Use the freshest milk possible, let it be that day’s milk or just one day older than that, but don’t go much older than that. We can tell you this from experience. We would use milk that was a couple days old because it would take us a while to collect 2 gallons. What I found out is that since raw milk is not pasteurized it has lots of live bacteria present in the milk, it continues to get stronger the longer it is not used. When you then go put in your starter into the milk to sour the milk it combats with the bacteria already present in the older milk. The newer the milk, the less bacteria. We had lots of cheeses that turned out very bitter tasting because of the older milk and didn’t resemble the taste of cheddar at all. This was a huge revelation to our cheese making, so I’ll just use milk that is brought in that morning or the day before, but nothing older.

Things you need:

2 Gallons of Milk: Raw or Pasteurized (try to not use ultra-pasteurized)
1 packet of direct-set mesophilic starter or 2 tablespoons of cultured buttermilk starter (how to make cultured buttermilk).
1/2 teaspoon of liquid rennet
1 tablespoon of cheese salt (non-iodized salt)
3 gallon stainless steel pot (or bigger)
Knife for cutting the curds
Slotted Spoon (stainless steel)
Termometer
Cheese cloth
Cheese press

Now, lets get started:

Put your two gallons of milk into your stainless steel container and put into your sink basin. If using raw milk make sure to leave the natural cream in and not skim it off, the cream allows the cheese to be more moist.

Fill your sink with hot water up to the point of your milk in the pot.

Put your thermometer into the milk and put the cover over the top to keep the warmth in. Allow to reach 90 degrees, but no higher

Once your milk reaches 90 degrees, remove from the hot bath and add your starter (I am using a homemade buttermilk starter in this picture).

Set your time for 45 minutes and allow your milk to "ripen." As long as the top is on your pot it should stay at 90 degrees.

Stir the starter in and set your timer for 45 minutes and allow your milk to “ripen.” As long as the top is on your pot it should stay at 90 degrees.

The next step is adding the rennet, we use animal rennet. Make sure the milk is still at 90 degrees.

Add 1/2 teaspoon to 1/4 cup of cool unchlorinated water. Mix.

Add rennet/water mixture to milk.

Mix the rennet for 1 minute. If you are using raw milk where cream is present make sure to “top stir it.” Use shallow stirring motion that allows the cream to get throughly mixed. Allow to sit for 45 minutes

After 45 minutes passes you should see the cheese pull away from the knife as shown. If this happens then you are ready to cut the curds!

Our favorite part. Cut in 1/2 inch cubes (don’t worry, it’s not going to be perfect). Go downward strokes.

Then across the strokes.

Mix with your spoon, this will break apart your curds, so don’t go too crazy. The curds are supposed to be cut all the way through, so I usually just break them apart with the spoon.

The smaller you make the curds the easier the whey is released from the curd. This is why is supposed to be uniform in size as best as possible, because you don't want certain curds to release whey faster than others (however, it's fairly forgiving, b/c it's not going to be perfect).

The smaller you make the curds the easier the whey is released from the curd. This is why it is supposed to be uniform in size as best as possible, because you don’t want certain curds to release whey faster than others (however, it’s fairly forgiving, because it’s not going to be perfect).

This is the most frustrating part of the whole process. The book says raise the temperature by 2 degrees every 5 minutes for 30 minutes until it reaches 100 degrees… We find this impossible without special equipment, so just be patient…

This part of the process usually takes us around an hour, partly due to us going off and doing other things and forgetting to check on it. I say do it slower than faster the slower the whey leaves the curds the better. We typically are stuck at 90 degrees forever and then it shoots to 100 degrees in less than 10 minutes… You just have to keep playing with the temperature of the water.

Stir the curds every 10 minutes or so to make sure they don’t mat together.

Congratulations! You’ve made it to 100 degrees, now it’s time to drain the curds.

With a colander lined with cheesecloth (over a bucket to catch the whey so you can make ricotta of course), pour the curds into the colander.

Now you have some beautifully drained curds.

Tie the corners of the cheesecloth and allow to hang for 1 hour (preferably in a spot that’s not drafty to keep the curds warm)

After an hour your curds will be lumped together and strained nicely.

Break apart the curds into a bowl, they should be about the size of walnuts… Give or take.

Add 1 tablespoon of “cheese salt.” Basically any salt that not iodized.

Get your cheese press ready.

Line your cheese press with cheesecloth and put the curds into the cheese press.

Press the curds down trying to fill all the spaces.

Put the top of your press on and follow the instructions of your press of how many turns you need to make to apply the weight. Apply 10 lbs of pressure for 10 minutes.

Put the top of your press on and follow the instructions of your press of how many turns you need to apply the weight. Apply 10 lbs of pressure for 10 minutes.

See the whey drip out.

After 10 minutes take the cheese out, flip it and redress it and apply 20 lbs of pressure for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes then you are ready to dress it and leave it for a while. Flip it again and redress it (I usually like to put fresh cheesecloth on at this point, but it’s not necessary). Apply 50 lbs of pressure for 12 hours.

Now after 12 hours (which if this ends up in the middle of the night a couple more hours won’t hurt until morning to take it out) take the cheese out and allow it to dry on a cheese mat.

Flip the cheese to the other side after a nice rind starts to form. (note: don’t buy a multi-colored mat, it bleeds onto your cheese). Also, don’t put it on a wooden surface, it’ll make the area underneath it wet, so you can put a towel down underneath the mat if you want.

We like to cut our cheese in half, since it is close to 2 lbs, so we usually package them separately.

After the cheese has a nicely developed rind (typically 1-2 days) it’s time to package it. We use a fancy Foodsaver, because we tried waxing it and it never turned out good, so we bought a Foodsaver, which works great for preserving cheese.

Label your cheese. I like to put the name of the cheese, when it was made and the earliest date it can be eaten. I sometimes add notes about how the curds looked, etc. Just in case it turns out really good or bad.

Add to your fully stocked cheese cave for at least a month. We bought a wine cooler because it keeps the best temperature. If you have a spot in your house that stays between 50-55 degrees feel free to store cheese there, but we don’t have any place that keeps a consistent temperature. Your supposed to flip the cheese everyday for the first week or so, but we always forget, so just flip them whenever you remember.

Congratulations on making your farmhouse cheddar cheese! I hope your proud of yourself and your amazing ability to change milk into cheese.

Remember, it’s a consistent learning process so if something went wrong this time and your cheese didn’t turn out well then try again next time. Even when our cheeses tasted “off” we usually added it to cooking recipes instead of adding it to a sandwich or eating it separately.

If you used raw milk it is important that you allow the cheese to sit for at least a month. It has something to do with the bacteria in raw milk get killed off if it is aged for an extended period of time before consumption (don’t let this freak you out, just practice caution).

Please let me know if you have any questions and I will try to help out as best as possible. This recipe comes from “Home Cheese Making” by Ricki Carroll. However, I add a lot of commentary that you won’t find in the book, which is why I decided to make this to help those who like a picture guide on how to make things. I know it would’ve helped me, especially since we use raw milk.

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Posted in Diet, Farm, Natural Cooking, Uncategorized, Western

Tagged aged cheese, cheddar cheese, cheese, farmhouse cheddar cheese, help making cheese, homemaking, how to make cheese, raw milk, raw milk cheese, westen a price

Wintertime on the Ranch

Posted on January 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

It’s wintertime on the ranch. The time of year where things slow down and we take more time to ourselves, not as many projects to do and the days typically consist of waking up later than usual, feeding cows, doing one or two projects then enjoying the evening curled up on the couch reading a book that has been neglected all year. This winter in particular has been extremely snowy and cold. Sean can never recall a time where there has been this much snow on the ground for such an extended period of time. We have become accustom to negative digits at night and barely reaching the teens during the day. However, winter has it’s own beauty and timing for a reason, which we do enjoy. We have been sledding, sat by the window and watched the snow flutter down, seen frost bitten mornings that stuns you with it’s beauty and tried to get Cecilia to enjoy playing in the snow (still hasn’t really enjoyed it yet).

Icicles on the side of the house

Beautiful evening moon-rises over a snowy landscape

Sledding Fun

Cecilia, not having fun

Beautiful, but cold frost bitten mornings

Sean always heads out the door in the morning to feed the cows since they are completely out of stock-pilled grass and even if we did have stock-pilled grass at this point there is so much ice on the ground it would be difficult for the cows to get to the feed. This year Sean is feeding quite differently then before. Instead of firing up the cold tractor everyday he instead harnesses his team of horses to get the job done. Now, none the less, the team can’t work everyday due to sore feet, so Sean feeds about 50% with the tractor and 50% with his team of horses.

The days that he decides to feed with the team he keeps our beautiful Belgian’s in the barn overnight so they don’t get too dirty outside. He then starts the hitching up process of criss-crossing straps and harnesses. Once they are both harnessed up Sean then directs them to the feed wagon where they gracefully step into place so Sean can then hitch them up to the tongue of the wagon. After everything is double checked Sean is off in the snowy landscape to start feeding the hungry cows.

Babe and Bell (the Belgian horses) are quite the team. They were trained by the Amish in Wisconsin and are wonderfully gentle horses. Babe is more calm (on the left) and pulls steadily. Bell has a tendency to get excited a pull faster and then get lazy and slow down to a snails pace, so it’s a good thing Babe is her partner to keep her steady. Both the horses have been very easy to work since they had such good training. Sean absolutely loves the feeling of working with such magnificent animals instead of the hardness of a cold tractor.

Once they take a short stroll down the road which leads to our meadows they approach the hay stack where all the hay is kept for the winter. The cows eagerly follow in anticipation of their breakfast and bellow since Sean never moves as fast as they wish he would. With much skill and several attempts, Sean backs the team up to one of the round bales, once he successfully is backed up enough into one of the bales he pinches the bale with long metal spices that insert in the center of the bale. He then uses a hand crank to pick up the extremely heavy bale and once it’s lifted far enough off the ground he gives his team a little click and they are off to the feed ground to unroll the bale. (This is his brother helping him feed cows)

After all that work they still have to unroll the bale so the cows can eat it. He hacks away at the frozen strings attached the bale that keeps it held together until they all break lose and he pulls the strings out of the bale (cows will choke on it).

Once the strings are all taken off they start forward with the team unrolling the bale as the cows happily follow behind and eat the hay falling to the ground. It doesn’t always go perfectly and the bale won’t spin or the hay won’t come off but with some maneuvering it eventually falls off.

After all that work for one bale Sean will go back to the stack yard and do the same routine between 7-14 times depending on how many cows he has to feed but to him feeding with the team is all worth it.

These are the things that we do during the winter on the ranch. It keeps us occupied enough that we aren’t dreading everyday of winter, but it will be nice when spring arrives

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Posted in Farm, Ranch, Uncategorized, Western

Tagged belgian horses, belgians, cold weather, feeding cows old fashioned way, feeding with a team of horses, icicles, ranch, ranch during winter, sledding, wintertime, wintertime on the ranch

2013 resolution to lose weight?

Posted on January 9, 2013 | 3 Comments

It’s always fun when the new year comes around, people start making all sorts of resolutions. The one that always seems to be on top of everyone’s list is to “get in shape” and “lose weight.” I’m glad to say that isn’t on my list anymore, in fact it hasn’t been on my list in the last couple years, not since college. It may come as a huge surprise to some, but there is actually a very simple solution to losing weight (I’m sure this’ll ruffle several feathers), you are what you eat. Period. I’ve said this before and most everyone agrees that I talk to, but I find very few that are actually willing to do something about it.

For me it was a medical situation, it was when I realized we were having trouble getting pregnant with our first child. I figured out that I had an ovarian cyst and was told my only options were birth control and/or surgery. Neither of which I was happy with. I did some research and stumbled into the diet answer. When you put toxic stuff into your body your body doesn’t handle it well and can cause problems inside the body… I thought I was doing well with what I ate (which is what I hear from most people), we lived on the ranch, so we ate the own meat we raised and I cut back on all those “evil things” like butter and other fatty things. Yeah, we ate some processed foods (which was actually a lot more than I thought) and lots of canned products. I thought our diet was just fine! When I looked into deeper I started to realize the way we had been eating was very damaging.

I was truly convinced right then that if something was to change I needed to do some dramatic stuff, so I did. After changing our diet dramatically and starting to try new practices we saw a huge turn-around. Within a month of changing our diet we got pregnant with our first little one. I lost over 10 lbs within a short period of time and now maintain a healthy weight that I have had no problem keeping regardless of how much I’m “working out”.

What did we do? How did we do it? Well, it’s still an ongoing process, but everyday we realize that the change we made in our diet was the best thing that we could do for ourselves and our family. I will outline what we did and how you can do it in your life.

These changes are not rocket science, but it does take self-discipline and sometimes more money going towards you food budget, but believe us… IT’S WORTH IT!

1. Strip your cabinets of all processed foods.

This was a difficult one for us to do. We had just gotten home from town the day before I made this discovery about our health, so I had just restocked the pantry and now I was kissing all that “food” goodbye.

What is a processed food? Well, a processed food is basically anything that you didn’t make yourself. Cereals, nut bars, condiments, canned food, breads from the store, etc. Things that come in boxes and basically never have an expiration date just can’t be good for you. I’ve been told before if you can’t get it around the parameter of the grocery store then your probably shouldn’t be eating it. This is a tough step. I would err on the side of being too liberal in getting rid of things, instead of keeping it. I have found (maybe some people have better self-resistance than I do) that if the product is in my house… I will eat it. So it’s better off not being in my house.

Most people get thrown off by “healthy processed foods.” In my opinion it’s an oxymoron, because unless you are willing to pay a very high price for “higher quality” processed foods they are still going to be full of preservatives, sugars and hydrogenated oils… Not healthy by any standards in our books.

2. Say goodbye to white flour and white sugar.

I know, another blow to the stomach, but it must be done. Both white flour and white sugar are over-processed and have absolutely no health value to them. In fact they can hurt you and rob nutrients out of your body. Just chuck it, you won’t miss it over time, I promise.

When we first did this and switched to whole wheat flour and natural sweeteners like honey we didn’t really miss the white flour/ sugar. In fact when I eat things with white flour/sugar in them a lot of the time I’ll get a really bad stomach ache from them.

*note: we actually hardly eat any flour in our diet in general anymore, so if you are a huge pastry fan, even switching to whole wheat flour/ natural sweeteners are not going to necessarily help you lose weight, it’s just the “better of the two” options.

3. Embrace the butter.

Most people here will probably become really confused of my butter to weight ratio. The more butter we ate the more weight we lost. Now don’t take this to an extreme! Our culture has been lied to in so many ways and this is one of them. Animal saturated fats are good for you… Not only good for you, essential to us and our functioning.

Ever try a low-fat diet and just crave sugar and flour all the time? Our body needs saturated fats and our culture has been tormented by the low-fat craze and has caused serious health problems for many people. A lot of people switched to hydrogenated fats, thinking that they were better for them, but can actually be seriously detrimental to people’s health. This includes: margarine, vegetable oil, canola oil, soy bean oil and shortening. It is very poorly processed and goes rancid on the selves, get rid of it! (check out this short article explaining it in better detail: Why are hydrogentated fats bad for you?.)

We need animal fats in our diet, so in our household we eat a lot of butter and lard. You can also cook with olive oil and coconut oil. We make our own butter and lard most of the time, so we just go with it more than olive/coconut oil.

4. Cook your own food.

I live out in the country, so I’m pretty bound to cooking my own food most of the time, but every time I return to the city I realize how easy it is to slip into the buying pre-made things or going out to eat. It seems like a basic request, but I know it’s one that people struggle with a lot.

There are very few restaurants that follow the 3 steps listed above. If they do follow the steps listed then they are typically extremely expensive and not friendly on your wallet. When I’m out if I have a choice between two different places like McDonalds and Chipotle, I’ll take Chipotle in a heart beat, but I’m also going to pay the difference for the quality of food I get. Remember just like a car or fancy appliance, you get what you pay for. If you buy confinement raised chicken eggs they are not the same egg as a pasture raised chicken and the whole make-up of the nutrients in the two eggs are completely different.

Stay at home and cook healthier.

You are what you eat and you get what you pay for.

Now what?

Now we have a simple outline of all the things that are good/not good. Remember, this is a basic outline if you would like some more details, I can list them below on better eating choices, but you are going to be on a much better path just by listening to the first 4 things listed and most likely going to see a change in your health.

Eat at home with your family. Learn how to cook without processed foods, white flour and white sugar. There are plenty of websites with recipes for you and guides on how to cook if you haven’t the slightest clue how to cook without those things.

Here are the typical things we eat in our household

meat (grass fed/ free range beef, chicken, lamb, pork)
organ meats (liver, heart, I’m still working on getting used to these)
cheese (we make most of our own, but buy some from the store)
butter, lard and olive oil
fresh vegetables in season (we sometimes freeze things from our own harvest, but try to eat within season as best as possible)
rice (brown, variety rice, no white rice)
beans (not from a can, but cooked from scratch)
limited fruits
limited whole wheat flour

We have been eating this way since 2010 and it doesn’t even phase us anymore. Not buying processed foods is not a struggle anymore and cooking everything from scratch, well, is still difficult but worth it every time. Following my first pregnancy I had no problem returning to my pre-baby weight (I was a full time nursing mother as well) and being pregnant with our second I still feel great (I don’t experience serious sickness at all).

Stop wasting money on weight loss programs that “make food for you” or tell you, you can’t eat saturated fats, they never work because your body naturally craves those things and you eventually will succumb to temptation.

You might be wondering where we learned all these things and it’s been a mixture of different places. You just need to do your own research to see what works best for you. We follow some of Westen A. Price‘s recommendations and I recently found out about the Palio diet, which I guess our diet kinda fits in that model, but we aren’t 100% all for it.

Finally, we don’t really like the word “diet.” It’s really the only word I can think of when describing what you eat, but in reality it’s a lifestyle change. We no longer worry about our “diet” because it’s just the way we eat on a daily basis. Once you accept it, see the result and love the lifestyle change, there really is no question of whether you want to continue or not, because that is the new normal for you.

More details on eating well:

Buy pasture raised chicken eggs
Buy grass finished beef, chicken, pork and lamb
Buy fresh caught salmon (not farmed)
Buy grass raised dairy products and if possible non-pastured raw milk
Buy fresh vegetables/ fruits from a farmer you’ve gotten to know (I’m not a big fan of organic, b/c it’s so pricey and typically not the best practices on raising it, so find a farmer)
If there is a dairy allergy try non-pastured products
Make your own chicken/beef broth
Grind your own flour
Use natural sweeteners (honey, stevia, molasses)

Please let me know if you have any questions.

This is not to be taken as medical advice. Just our own personal experiences.

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Posted in Blog, Diet, Farm, Natural Cooking, Ranch

Tagged diet, fat, natural cooking, new years resolution, palio diet, saturated fats, slim, weight loss, weight watchers, westen a price

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