Food Pictures from my Advance Skills 1 lab

Pear and endive salad 

koji rubbed steaks

Chocolate ganache tart and swiss meringue. 

Roast beef, artichoke, roast tomatoes and savory bread pudding. 

Apple galette, dulche de leche and vanilla bean ice cream.

my class plating lunch.

Rabbit fabrication1b

Rabbit is one of the most sustainable sources of protein we can consume.  I have been sharing this with our students for a number of years and finally we are starting to hear this around the globe.  This fall while in Copenhagen, Denmark I toured a urban farm and in the barn they were raising rabbits for consumption! Not only that but the tour was told, "rabbits are the most sustainable source of meat we can consume!" Validation at last! The video was produced by me over 6 years ago!

Tapping trees for maple syrup

Maple syrup is a great resource found in many parts of North America, it is natures way of supplying the new buds, on the trees, with water.  You are not going to take a lot of that water away from the trees if you are tapping them, the tree produces a lot of sap in the spring months.  The best part of learning how to tap into that magical tree is the pure syrup you have your house! Truly nature's gift! 

This year we tapped our silver maple and our box elder and I have been cooking sap for most of March! Tonight I cooked down another 4 quarts from the silver maple; thus far we have about 3.5 pints of syrup. I also just started cooking down our box elder sap, the sap from the box elder took a little longer to collect but I ended up with another 4 quarts from the box elder. Keep in mind we are talking about two different species of trees, but both fall into the maple family.  The two trees are still tapped and I will be checking on them today, 3-30-2019. I have been surprised to see the buckets full when I walk out to them but the weather has held causing the syrup to run. Basically, having a daytime temperature of 40 degrees f and below freezing at night will cause the sap to run. What I am finding in collecting the sap and cooking it down is the sugar content has varied each time I have cooked down the sap; the first taps I found it to be a darker syrup while the second tap collected is a more lighter color.  The flavor has also varied, the first tap definitely had a maple flavor (this is all from the silver maple), but the second round had a rich honey like flavor with a hint of butterscotch!  

This is the syrup from our first collection this year.

Our winter in Wisconsin (just like the rest of the US) was an interesting winter; the months November and December looked like drought years and January didn't look great.  Basically the snow fall was fair at best! February came and suddenly we were besieged with all kinds of weather, rain, snow, rain and ice! It was at that moment I had a feeling we were going to have a lot of sap! The moisture was definitely going to make a difference!

Our collection of sap and cooking it down for syrup is really just a hobby that we get to enjoy later.  We are not collecting vast amounts to sell or use but if we were, we would need to source other trees on the property! One of the factors for tapping a tree is the age of the tree; they should be around 40 years plus before you start tapping them for the prized syrup.  The bark should be well developed, keep in mind you don't want to harm the tree and causing disease to the tree from drilling tap holes.  The developed bark keeps the tree safe and you can fill in the holes fairly easily; younger trees with undeveloped bark creates an easy area for the tree to become diseased. This is why a lot of cities prohibit trees from being tapped, the cost of removing diseased trees and the spread of disease to the trees could be a costly. You should look for trees that are old enough, and trees that you can legally tap if they are not on your property.  Box elders are definitely a weed tree, thus I am not too concerned with tapping one that may be a bit young! Generally tapping trees in the maple family will work best and you can scout the trees during the summer months, looking at the leaves of the trees and the bark formation. Interestingly there are other trees that are tapped or the sap is taken from the tree through the branches; I have not tried these but apparently you can tap butternut, birch, sycamore and Douglas fir trees! The Douglas fir has the sap run from the tips of the branches.  I came across this information from James Beard award winning Sean Sherman's book, The Sioux Chef.

This year I did some research on tapping  methods and what I found changed everything in the way I tapped our trees.  The picture of the horse drawn carriage carrying syrup pots through the woods as the farmer collected syrup, may have been the way years ago, it's not today.  I believe the industry realized there were better ways to collect sap and the modern collection methods adopted were more efficient. Instead we now have a network of tubing running from one tree to the next and the taps are minimal at best causing less invasive issues with the trees and at the same time maximizing the collection efforts.  Instead of having a bucket hanging from the tree with a tap dripping into the bucket; you now see taps that are very small with tubing attached to the tap.  This method does not allow waste and at the same time keeps the sap fairly clean.  The industry also has syrup bags instead of buckets for collection. The bags are attached to a clip that has an area for the tubing to connect. I am not really a fan of this; what do you do with the plastic bags at the end of the season and are they even reusable? Instead I have buckets with lids that I drilled a 5/8 hole into and push the tubing through the holes. Prior to using the buckets I cleaned and sanitized them thoroughly, thus preventing any kind of contamination.  I have to admit transporting the sap from the trees to the house has been a pain but for now it is working out pretty good.  Keep in mind a 5 gallon bucket of sap weighs approximately 40 pounds! Lugging the sap as it is swishing around can be exhausting for an old guy!

Drill with 5/8 drill bit, rubber mallet for tapping the tree, food grade tubing, tap for the tree and a connector used to have two taps into the tree.

Cooking down the sap has also been a learning curve.  We have a 3 gallon pot that I cook the syrup in over a butane burner.  What I really need is a wider cooking vessel that will reduce the sap faster. What I have been doing is cooking it down in the pot and when it has reduced down to about half, I transfer it to a smaller pot and finish cooking it down in the house.  The key I have learned is that if you cook it too fast you can have sugar burn on the side of the pot, causing it to change the flavor and look of the syrup.  If you reduce it slowly you get less caramelizing from the sugar on the side of the pot and the flavor is truly from the sap. I am now taking the temperature of the syrup as it reduces and when it reaches a temperature of 219 degrees f it is ready to strain into the vessel you are going to store the syrup.  I have looked at the Brix level of the syrup and it has been around 66 on the brix scale. You can look up the scale for a better understanding but basically it is, "The Brix scale indicates the percentage of sugar in the maple syrup. The Baume scale is a measure of how dense the maple syrup is related to the density of water. The correct density for maple syrup is a minimum of 66% sugar (66°Brix/35.6°Baume)." https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjg0OnypqrhAhUSI6wKHa3pAVwQFjAFegQIDBAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.leaderevaporator.com%2Fpdf_files%2Fsyrup-hydrometer.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3V9Amh5nm3B0YRLp8bX07T

If you don't want to go to all that trouble you can taste the syrup as it cooks, definitely a bonus in cooking your own sap down! I would recommend not only tasting but to cool some down and look at the viscosity of the syrup, is it the right consistency?

Box elder sap cooking down in our shed.

The history of maple syrup is filled with all of kinds of legends! Most of the stories go back to the Native Americans.  I found this one and find it kind of interesting; A different legend, retold in The Atlantic Monthly’s April of 1896 issue, tells of a woman named Moqua. It states that she was cooking moose for her husband Woksis. When her boiling pot ran out of water, she refilled it with maple sap. The boiled down sap formed syrup in the pot. “History” Michigan Maple Syrup Association. Retrieved 5 December 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20110525093903/http://www.mi-maplesyrup.com/about/history.htm

Whether it is true or not? I bet that moose tasted pretty darn good!

At the end of the day I find that the goal to forage, and find foods that are right in our backyard to be interesting and fun to cook.  It is always an adventure and an opportunity to learn something new! Gaining new insight on not only finding foraged foods but gaining new insight on the best way to garner the foods and process them is fun! Cheers!

Food Pictures from my phone, after all I am a chef!

Mushroom-stuffed Rabbit Roulade, Confit, Celeriac-Potato Puree, Wilted Arugula and Shaved Fennel, Natural Sauce

Rabbit and trout

Duck Breast and Brussel sprouts

Raspberry mousse, pistachio Bavarian, Chantilly cream and berries

Chocolate ganache tart, vanilla bean ice cream, dulce de luche and berries

Roast rack of lamb, seared veal loin, croquette, artichoke and root veg medley

Arugula, endive and basic vinaigrette

Veal loin, capers, roast tomatoes

Chocolate ganache tort, meringue, caramel and raspberries

Panna cotta, apple gelee and cranberry

Bavarian, vanilla mirror glaze, chocolate and blackberry

Macarons, ice cream and berries

Losing our 29 year old Arab horse

“A horse is poetry in motion.”

Rhythm

Yesterday was a tough day. At around 9:40 AM, while in lab I received a call from Sara, my wife, to hear our 29 year old Arab was not doing well.  At that time he had been lying down and not wanting to get up. Sara was all packed up to head to a horse show and prior to heading out she was checking in on the horses in the pasture.  It was at that time she discovered the Arab.  It is with a very heavy heart we have to announce we have lost Rhythm to severe colic. Our decision was not easy; it was time, and yet we both struggled to find the courage to tell the vet it was time.

How do you put into perspective the idea of spending a good portion of your life with another animal? Rhythm was an Arab and he was 3 years old when Sara picked him up, our son was 2 years old and our daughter was 3 years old! Today our kids are 28 and 29 years old! The horse gave us many incredible experiences and he had his quirks; hoses were great big scary snakes or least we thought so, anything that ruffled or crunched was scary! The thing is, he did not have a mean bone in his body, and he was a gentle horse who just happened to have a loaded spring when frightened! Yes, that spring threw me a couple of times.  The list of riding adventures for this incredible family member is pretty long! Sara and Rhythm started doing endurance rides, they would trot rather briskly for about 25 miles a stretch in an actual endurance competition.  Sara and Rhythm camped together by themselves before riding in endurance competitions.  As a family one of my most interesting memories was when we were camping with our kids in the southern part of the state; we woke up to huge tornado warning, lightening was striking all around us, the wind was kicking up and we were racing to pack camp.  That horse was just as calm as could be, it was as if he was thinking to himself, “those crazy humans!” Turns out he had zero issues with the weather and we had no difficulty loading him into the trailer to leave that night.

Some of our recent adventures involved taking him and one of our thoroughbreds to the river for a swim! The Wisconsin River is no joke when it comes to the currents underneath, and yet, we took them out for a quick adventure! This particular part of the river has claimed the lives of a few over the last few years! One of my favorite adventures was our full moon rides through the neighborhood from the farm. We had a group of horse friends who, like us, enjoyed trail riding and so every so often we would all get together and ride on a full moon summer night.  It was always a thrill!  In recent years I started to, on a couple occasions, tack him up on my own and ride him by myself! I know, you probably thought, oh I thought you did this already, hey I am a novice in the equestrian world! Sara is the expert in our house!

In the end you realize or wish you could have taken him on one more trail ride or find just one last adventure but you realize it was too late.  He will be missed and I know we will look out into the pasture only to momentarily feel a pain in the heart as we cannot see him standing there. 

"To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go." -  Mary Oliver, Blackwater Woods

Hunting 2017

The yearly hunt on the farm

This year was a strange year for hunting; we had zero snow, warmer than usual days and I shot the largest buck I have ever hunted on the farm.

Hunting spot 2017

Same hunting spot 2016

Fall and hunting season are without a doubt my favorite time of the year. Spending hours outside in the quiet can be extremely effectuating; it is the equivalent of stepping into another state of being, one that offers a different perspective on life.  The stress of life is silently being lifted from you as you peer into the trees or landscape. “There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.” – Aldo Leopold.  The color of the trees, grasses and your surroundings are constantly changing as the light from the fading sun moves across the horizon.   It’s as if nature is choreographing action to see if you are really paying attention.  The sounds you hear, can be a distant gun shot, or a squirrel scrunching through the dry leaves to see if you are paying attention.  You may look up into the sky to witness geese flying towards a pond or leaving the pond for another adventure; the geese fly in formation as they ascend into the horizon leaving you with wonder as they find their path in line with the other geese.

It is often wistful thinking on the last day of the gun season as you walk back to the house. Despite having a successful harvest you still fill like you could spend more time hunting; but the reality is, it is not the hunting but instead it is the time outdoors sitting for hours. At least with hunting you had a good excuse!

This year was indeed a successful harvest; I managed to take a 10 point buck! That was the largest buck I have ever harvested on the farm.

Our dog, Buck, meeting the 10 point buck!

The temperatures varied each day we entered into the fields, on one day we reached a high of 63 degrees and yet on another day we were in the mid 20’s! It is crazy to prepare for the cold when you are not sure of what the temperature is going to be for the day! Opening day we experienced, sleet, snow, rain, wind and finally sunny skies! It didn’t matter, the weather could have been heavy snow and we still would have been out hunting. To counter the constant change in the weather I now hunt with a full back pack; inside the pack I keep extra layers of items to keep moisture away, or to store some of the layers I may need to shed as the day warms up.  Along with extra layers I carry ammo, first aid kit, a thermos of hot coffee (it has never impacted my ability to have deer around) and extra gloves.  I have a set of binoculars in the pack and a solar panel to charge my phone battery.  I know the later seems to be a bit crazy to bring into the woods but when you are hunting with others, communication is a safe way to hunt.  We text our locations or if we are moving, and we cannot always see each other.   

 This year I decided to forgo turkey for our thanksgiving and instead serve the back straps from the buck. First I marinated the straps overnight in a Dijon vinaigrette. Next I sous vide the straps for 3 hours at 125 degrees, seared them in a very hot cast iron pan, rubbed them with fresh horseradish and Dijon mustard and finally rolled them in a pesto rubbed panko crumb.  The sauce for the venison was a mulberry demi, the mulberries came from one of the many mulberry trees on the farm.  

Now comes winter and hopefully some snow!

Farm life 2016

It has been a long time since I posted in my blog! Sometimes life, work and other priorities just get in the way of finding time to sit down and write!

This year has been tough for growing food or just about any work we are accomplishing outside on the farm; extreme cold in the spring (late frost in May), and a fair amount of rain this summer, along with some very hot and humid days! We also had a little excitement on the farm; a lightning strike hit a downed tree on the edge of one of the fields! We ended up calling the local fire department as we had no way of getting water up to the fire to extinguish it!  Yet, despite natures best effort we are seeing some results.  When I planted the garden, after the late frost, I thought we were back on track, but the seeds I purchased this year turned out to be terrible! Literally, nothing came up from all of the seeds I purchased! After two weeks of not seeing any production I went back to the company where I purchased our seeds and they replaced everything! I have purchased seeds from this company for the last four years and have never had this problem? They knew I was not some stranger and happily took care to replace the seeds.  

Grapevines after late frost

Lightning strike on a down tree near one of our fields

To help the garden this year, after the seed fiasco, I started making manure tea with our cured horse manure; it really has helped speed up the growth of the plants.  I take dried horse manure and place it in an old sock and let it steep, covered, in a bucket for a week. The result is water filled with nitrogen to feed the plants. I carefully pour the liquid gold down near the plants; being careful to not get it on the leaves (I didn’t want the leaves to burn in the hot sun from the nitrogen). 

Beets and just to the left underneath the blue bucket is my horse manure tea

Last fall I planted garlic for the first time in our garden and yesterday I harvested the garlic; we now have 34 beautiful garlic bulbs curing! The garlic really took in our sandy soil with the addition of other nutrients added to the bed. We now have beets, carrots, swiss chard, and tomatoes flourishing in the garden. The good news on those bad seeds and the late replant is that all with the exception of the swiss chard can be harvested after the first frost. Thus, the time lost in getting started won’t be too impacted; we just may not have the large carrots and beets we normally dig up. Now that I have dug up the garlic bed I will be planting some lettuce and spinach in the bed to continue using it for the growing season.

34 bulbs of garlic harvested!

Garlic bulbs hanging for cure; we will cure them for about 3 weeks

Swiss Chard

Tomatoes (yes, I know they need to be pruned and tied up!)

Carrots

The grapevines this year took a really hard hit in the late frost; every single vine was hit with the frost! For the remainder of the season we have been working to not create too much distress for the vines and held back on some of the pruning.  It seems to be working but now we are faced with the scourge of gardeners; the Japanese beetle! Those mother#*$&@$’s are working on decimating the leaves on the vines! A while back I heard that if there are soybean fields nearby the beetle population explodes; our neighbor to the north of us planted soybeans this year and guess what? So….now I am on the hunt to come up with a plan to go after the beetles! There are a number of ideas out there but the problem with most of those ideas is the rain; with lots of rain, you have to apply whatever solution you did before the rain. We used to go up and pluck the suckers off into a container full of dawn dish detergent but with this population that will be tough. I have heard of spraying with soap and water but again with rain you will be at it every day! I have heard of traps but the problem with the traps is they actually attract more beetles to the area! So…stay tuned I really am not sure how other than spraying we are going to beat these bastards!

We took on a couple of projects this year with the help of our son William; one of which he hopes to produce income for the farm. We are harvesting down trees in our woods for firewood, or campfire wood or specialty wood for those who might like to craft their own creation. There is enough wood that we will not have to cut any live trees and for the project and if we start any live tree cutting we will bring in a forestry expert. The woods near the farm are important to the farm and to just go in and randomly cut would be foolish beyond belief!   The beauty of this project is it is helping us clean up the woods. One just has to look around and you can easily find trees that have fallen on to other trees (they are tricky to cut down) and removing them for future wood sales.  William had this grand idea that we could remove a number of trees, split the wood and sell it but has quickly learned that one tree is a lot of work! Despite the heavy work load it is coming along slowly and we are getting the downed trees out while managing small areas of the woods. One of the species of trees that has plagued the woods and is slowly making its way out into one of our fields is the black locust; this tree is a fast growing tree and the wood is incredibly hard! It takes a toll on the chainsaw! They grow incredibly tall in a very short amount of time and as fast as they grow they get blown down in heavy winds; unfortunately they fall onto another tree pushing that tree down as well! It is our hope to get to the trees that are doing this damage and help the other trees to prosper. In doing so, we uncovered a beautiful maple that we will be able to tap for syrup next spring!  

The second big project is one that William took on his own; he is removing the brush trees and fencing that connect two of the fields. Years ago someone put up a barb wire fence between the two fields and separated them but now William has gone down the row and removed the fencing, and pulled the scrub trees out.  This will be good for the two fields and the current tenants of both fields will be able to connect them and increase their crops. All of this work has occurred on some very hot and humid days!

Our foraging for food this year has gone well; Sara found a nice patch of morels in our woods. We have never had any luck finding morels in the woods but this year the conditions ended up being perfect! She spotted the tasty fungus around a dead elm and we noticed that the bark was falling off of the elm; it seems that might just be the key? Sara also did an incredible job bringing home asparagus this year; we must have consumed over 20 pounds of fresh asparagus this year! Plus the asparagus bed in the garden this year produced a nice bumper crop as well!

Tasty morels from our woods this year!

I am always amazed at how quickly life on the farm can take a sharp turn into an abyss of chaos or unforeseen difficulties; fortunately for us, our work in growing food, is primarily for our consumption. Thus when difficulties arise it is about learning and how to approach the problem that can best solve the problem. The respect I have for those who are selling their vegetables or working their farm is something we all should have! Consider the following facts:

·         Small farms made up the majority of the 800 farms that disappeared from the Wisconsin landscape in 2014, according to new national agricultural data. http://host.madison.com/wsj/business/number-of-small-farms-in-wisconsin-continues-to-drop/article_2760181d-ae69-517f-b5e2-d1871dd823fe.html

·         Current laws and other legislation are in fact hurting small farmers, whether it is the water use, or the ability to compete with large industrial types of farms.

·         Not a single word of the small farm plight has been discussed by any politician in this election cycle.

Our future in having locally sourced food from small farms is something we all should be concerned about. Supporting a local economy is by far better than buying into a global idea that only benefits large industrial farms.  When you purchase produce at the farmers market you are feeding more than just your family, you are feeding the family who sold you the food.  My lessons this year have taught me the importance of perseverance and realizing what this could have been like had it represented the whole farm on a larger scale! Imagine how Wollersheims felt knowing that the vines were not going to produce grapes this year due to the frost or an entire field destroyed by fire or pests! We are very lucky in the sense that our issues were not going to cause us financial ruin but instead were only minor setbacks for our own food source. 

The Annual Deer Hunt on the farm

Preparing to butcher our buck

I spent time thinking about this blog and what I wanted to write.  When I first started my blog my interest dealt about writing about life on the farm and as a chef growing food.  The significance of this comes from my belief of having access to good quality food and showing to the outside world how to go about growing food for your family.  Life on a farm is about life and death, it is a constant, and we may witness the birth of an animal or the end of life.  We are surrounded by wildlife that may prey on other wildlife, coyotes, hawks and other creatures will roam the fields as they hunt for food.  Like the animals we too have come to understand hunting for our food. Managing the farm includes keeping the balance of life under control and only hunting what you will consume.  We are not hunters of antlers and trophies, we are hunters of food.  I am not judging those that hunt for trophy nor am I suggesting we are better because of our hunting reasons.  We are excited if our bounty for the year includes a large buck but we are excited if our hunt includes a large doe. Our freezer is often stocked with vegetables from the growing season and venison from the hunting season; it is preferable to raise, hunt or forage our own food.  The simplicity of doing this is not political, it is not based on social media memes or other glorified reasons, it is based on using what is in front of you and providing for yourself with what you have available. 

Delaying my writing of this blog came from concerns of others, who currently are not of mind to read about hunting and anything to do with guns.  I am empathetic to the feelings of others whose lives impacted by a gun or gun violence.  Sadly, we live in a time where many will resort to a gun to undo the life of another. This is not new but due to social media and the internet we are assaulted with the behavior almost daily.  The exposure of the violence is not something we should ignore or believe it is going to just go away.  As a hunter this bothers me for many reasons, the first I do not want to lose my right to hunt game for food and the second there are people in this world who have no respect for human life. 

One of the views of our hunt this year

Hunting in general has been a way of life for some and yet a denied right for others; early modern Europe hunting was exclusive to the noble and in fact controlled by the noble. Pheasants did not have the land or rights to hunt in many forests and those rights were held by only the noble.  Hunting for sport was more important than allowing the citizens to hunt for game.  Today we have two kinds of hunters, those that hunt for sport and those who hunt for the meat. I would fall in the latter category.  

The experience of hunting can be demanding, cold, and harrowing and yet exhilarating all at the same time.  Opening day is the day when you find out if you properly prepared yourself for the elements, and prepared your rifle to accurately shoot.  Depending on the weather you may find yourself bundled in multiple layers and as you head into the field you can feel every one of those layers weigh against your body.  I started to carrying a back pack with me when I go out; I can carry extra water, gloves and other extra garments that will keep me warm and more importantly in the field longer.  I also carry extra ammunition, my field knife, binoculars and rifle stabilizer in the pack. We usually head out just before sunrise to (I say “we” if someone else from our family or friend will be joining us on the hunt) find our spot to sit. Throughout the year you can observe the fields and get a pretty good idea of where you should be sitting opening day or throughout the hunt.  If more than one person is going out we have a plan of where each of us can shoot or if we are going to be moving around to create movement from the deer.  Sara will sleep in and head down later in the morning; when she comes down her weapon of choice, a cup of tea! Sara will walk the woods, to try and drive any deer sitting tight in the woods, towards me.  She has done this for quite a few years and in fact she will also purchase a tag for hunting, but I am the one who will fill the tag, if I can.  I always enjoy Sara’s company when she walks the woods and meets up with me after her foray, and she enjoys the exercise making her way through the woods, plus she can work on her trails for the horses.

Once I arrive to the area where I am going to sit I will quickly look around before settling in for the long haul.  The opportunity to shoot will often happen right away on opening day, the deer are not running until those first shots ring out.  If nothing is moving I unload my pack with any items I may want to have nearby, binoculars etc. This year we had snow on opening day; this is usually a good thing as we can track the deer in the snow a lot easier, although, I can track deer fairly well in snow or no snow.  It’s kind of humorous when you start to think about life on the farm as it is all about feces; this can be manure for growing crops, inspecting to see what animals are making their way around the house and hunting, as we look for fresh feces giving us signs of deer or other animals we may be hunting.  I swear sometimes it’s all about the shit! I digress though and want to point out there are other signs we will look for; deer beds for example are areas where the deer pressed down the grass as they were laying down. These beds can be very telling, they will point to the trail they ran off to or upon further inspection let us know how long ago they may have been in the area.  In the snow you can look at a track and identify if it is fairly new just by cut of the snow or how frozen the ground is where the track is left. 

Sitting in the cedar scrubs waiting for the deer to pop out!

This year Sara had pushed out three deer and I took my shot only to miss! I was pretty upset because I had taken the time to site in my rifle this year, and even went out and purchased a new scope. Unfortunately it was off, and as I learned the second day it was really off! I stayed out all day on opening day and after taking the shot I did not see much to shoot at and in fact the closest deer I did see was in another field across from our farm. The second day sitting and I had a nice doe pop out in front of me, I took the shot and I missed.  Completely flabbergasted and angry; I don’t usually miss and in fact take a lot of pride in only having to take one shot to put an animal down.  I literally left all my gear in the field took my gun back to the house and went upstairs to retrieve another rifle. Sara asked what was wrong and all could respond was to explain I missed again and have no idea why the site was off so badly! Perhaps, it was fortuitous in the end, because when I returned to my spot and settled in, another large buck came charging at me from across the field. This guy had no idea I was settled in behind some scrub cedars, and when he realized my presence he stopped jumped one of our fences but when he landed I shot and put him down with one shot! It was a surreal experience for a couple of reasons, the first watching this buck racing down the field towards me, at an incredible speed, in itself an awesome sight and the second watching him fly over the fence, well above my head, I knew this time I am not going to miss! It is important for me to put the animal down quickly, not just because it is humane, but also to keep the animal from running off, and having to track an animal that has been shot, and with every move it makes in that condition, the meat will change.  The single shot worked and the by the time I walked up to the buck life disappeared from the animal.

We are without a doubt very lucky to live on a farm where we can hunt and have the equipment needed to haul back our carcass after field dressing the animal. Field dressing is extremely important and if handled wrong the meat can be ruined! It is important to carefully remove the organs without piercing them and to make sure the animal has bled out properly. If at any point you do not do a good job you are at risk of tainting the meat and ending up with a very poor quality.  Once I have successfully field dressed the animal I will walk back and get our tractor and haul the animal back to hang for skinning and butchering. 

After field dressing the buck

The next stage is just as important when it comes to butchering the deer. I understand the importance of hanging the meat for a period of time before processing, but the hanging time can also have other problems, first being the weather! If it is not cold enough outside to hang the deer for any extended period of time, it is better to skin and butcher the meat quickly. The key is the cooling of the meat; I will butcher the animal into the primals and quickly and get them into the freezer or an area where I know it will be cold enough to store the meat for further processing.  The other reason we struggle with hanging our venison is we have numerous coyotes in the area and when they smell that meat they will be out! I have always butchered our deer the same day or within two days of the kill and honestly the meat is excellent.  The work that goes into the butchering is not easy, especially if you are working to remove all of the meat without damaging the meat.  I will debone all of the primals, it really is not a good idea to utilize the bones from venison and due to CWD it really is not safe.  The other important part of the butchering is to remove the fat, venison fat is not tasty and in fact it is what will make the venison taste off.  The primals are broken down into the neck, shoulder and its fore shank, the loin or otherwise known as the back straps, the round and the hind shanks. Inside the carcass are the tenderloins.  You can get some meat from the flank and brisket, but it will depend on the size of the animal as to how much you may get.  Once I quickly removed the primals I will cut them into the fabricated cuts, steaks roast etc.  Any stew meat I will decide to either keep as stew meat or process it into sausage or ground venison.  Finally I seal everything, label it and place it in the freezer.  It can be labor intensive but having that meat in the freezer will ensure we have meat for most of the year and we will not have to purchase any meat for the house.

The point of this blog, sharing my experience with those who want to hunt or hunt already and are like minded about hunting.  Life on the farm is just that life, it comes from the ground and all around you and how you manage that life on the farm is about preserving the balance of life. Consider if we did not hunt, the deer population would grow exponentially and cause crop damage and other wild life would be impacted.  The act of hunting for food is just that the hunting for food and it is no different than raising chickens, or other livestock that will eventually be slaughtered for food. The difference being you will not always get a deer and you are not purchasing any feed for the animal, unless they are eating the crops. 

Skijoring on the farm 2016

A few years back Sara and I discovered the sport of skijoring; having a horse tow a skier, usually in a race, or a course with jumps or other obstacles. In our case we choose to traverse around the farm, Sara rode one of our horses and pulled me on my skies. It truly is an amazing experience to only hear the sound of the hooves of the horse as your skies glide through the snow.  This particular horse is 26 years old, Rhythm, and having him work like this and do so well was also nothing short of spectacular. We are working our quarter horse to take over the work and hopefully by the end of this winter we will have him pulling us on our skies.

We have been waiting for snowfall at the farm; it really has been a mild winter and we finally received enough snow on the farm to skijor! This year I attached my GoPro to my riding helmet to share the experience. I apologize as the video is a bit jittery, due to it being attached to the helmet! Watch the link below and let us know what you think of our skijoring adventure!

Mushrooms and foraging

"There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from a furnace. To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue." Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac

Part of this year has been spent getting to know the hidden treasures found on the farm, mushrooms.  We experienced the thrill of foraging mushrooms and learning not only the delectable edible ones but how to forage these unique gifts from nature.  In years past we always discussed how we should learn to forage mushrooms as we could see them all over the property! Despite the abundance of mushrooms we, or more appropriately me, were apprehensive of picking and eating mushrooms we did not know.  To aid us in gaining knowledge of the mycological edibles, we first enlisted a good chef friend of ours, who foraged mushrooms on a regular basis for his restaurant in Madison, Osteria Papavero.  Chef Francesco Mangano became our guide into the woods and assisting in learning the mushrooms varieties found on the farm. He was careful to point out the ones he knew about and quick to point out the ones he did not know.  Along with Francesco, we purchased two books the “The National Audubon Society Field Guide to Mushrooms” and “Mushroom with Confidence” by Alexander Schwab. The first book proved to be the most useful as it not only offered visuals for comparison with the mushrooms it also contained important information about the mushrooms. Francesco also suggested we join the Upper Midwest USA Mushroom IdentificationGroup on Facebook.  This proved to be invaluable!  We would take pictures of the mushrooms in the environment where we located the mushrooms, and take pictures of the mushrooms on the top and underneath; post the pictures on their Facebook page and within a short period of time we would get an identification response!  

Chick of the Woods 

Aborted Entoloma

The satisfying results of foraging are not just about finding the mushrooms and having the opportunity to cook these delectable treats.  Walking the land and looking around you and exploring the many different contours of the land and catching the glimpse of the wildlife found on the farm can be exhilarating in itself.  When you are foraging you have to look up, down and underneath and around trees, bushes and logs, sometimes you may even brush away leaves to find the growing population of mushrooms.  In one incident, we walked into the woods around dusk and as we made our approach into the woods you could hear turkeys roosting in the trees suddenly deciding they did not like being near us and take flight to the next tree.  We are not talking about 1 or 2 turkeys, no more like 10 or more! Another time we were walking and Sara came across a red coral looking mushroom, it was located in amongst a pile of leaves; it truly was a thing of beauty! I took a picture of the mushroom in its environment and made sure to get all angles of the growth including where we located the mushroom. I posted it on the Facebook page and within a short time we learned it was a Chick of the Woods or Laetiporus sulphureus.  Later I cooked this wonderful mushroom with roast beets, roast pears, roast parsnips and onion cream.  Sara immediately discovered why its name, Chick of the Woods, was indeed because it had the texture of chicken! The flavor was like no other mushroom I have eaten, truly earthy but in such a nice way. 

On another occasion, I had gone down to our summer campsite to take care of our tent and as I walked over to our tent I was looking down and all around me were mushrooms! They had popped up over the last few days and I immediately recognized them as Aborted Entoloma! The work on the tent was put off as I started gathering as many as I could and get them into a bag for dinner the next night! To be sure I posted the pictures of where I found them on the Facebook page and reviewed the field guide.  I was correct in my findings they indeed were the aborted entolomas! For these, I washed them off and sliced them to be sautéed with potato gnocchi.  The flavor was not the same as the chick of the woods but still tasty. They were much milder than the chick of the woods and the next time I prepare them I will look at both drying them first and grating them after they are dry.  I have done this with other mushrooms in the past and find that the dried mushroom ends up having a much more pronounced flavor.

Roast root vegetables, pears and chick of the woods mushrooms

Potato gnocchi and Entoloma mushrooms

Our garden fared well this year and we were able to harvest beets, carrots, leeks, parsnips, and mustard!  I cut back on growing vegetables in all six beds this year as we did not think we would need as much from the garden. This did two things, first I planted a cover crop, mustard and mustard is a great green manure; when it reaches a certain height you cut it down, cover it and it will decompose into the soil thus creating a great source of nitrogen and the second great beneficiary is eating the mustard because you end up with a great deal of it even when you cover the crop! From late July thru the harvest time we were eating leeks, carrots and beets as I worked on thinning out the crops.  All in all, I believe we ended up with at least 50 pounds of carrots, 25 pounds of beets and 10 pounds of parsnips. The leeks fared well and we ended up with about 3 dozen leeks.  Around mid-August, I planted more leeks and my plan will be to harvest them in the spring.  I heavily mulched the bed and in fact covered the young leeks.  We will see if they make it through the winter.  I also planted garlic this fall in one of the beds we did not grow vegetables; garlic is something I use a lot in my cooking and so I felt it was time to have some garlic. I talked with another farmer friend of mine from Garden to Be Scott Williams about obtaining the garlic for planting and he had a source! Thanks to Scott I was able to get the garlic and we discussed planting the garlic and any tips he might have to assist me in my planting. The plan with garlic is to snip the garlic scapes when they come up in the spring (they are tasty by themselves) and this will allow the plant to focus its energy on producing the garlic bulb. These are generally harvested in late June.  I am anxious to see the outcome of both the garlic bed and the leek bed.

The harvest from the garden

Leek bed ready to go through the winter

Recipes:

Roast beets, parsnips, pears, onion cream and chick of the woods

Yield: serves 4

Ingredients

4 medium sized beets

4 medium sized parsnips

4 pears

1 leek

1 whole unpeeled white onion

Chick of the woods mushrooms

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil

½ cup of Olive oil

¼ cup of Lemon juice

To taste Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

½ cup of honey

¼ cup of white wine vinegar

Method:

1.       Wash the root vegetables thoroughly and dry them off. Place them in a heavy pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven at 375 degrees until they are tender.  The parsnips may finish cooking before the beets; just remove them while continuing to cook the beets. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool enough to handle them. Using paper towel or towel that you don’t mind turning bright red, rub off the peeling from the roast beet. Slice the root end off of the beets and the top end off; quarter the beet for serving. Cut the parsnips into smaller pieces.  Set aside to combine with other ingredients in an area where you can keep them warm.

2.       Cut the tops off of the pears and cut the bottoms off the pears. Place in a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle brown sugar on each pear. Roast at the same time you are roasting the beets and other root vegetables. When they are tender cut wedges off the pears and remove the core. Slice the wedges into ½ inch wedges and keep warm.

3.       Place the whole onion in a heavy-bottomed pan, skin and all, into the oven with a tablespoon of olive oil. Roast until tender. When tender remove the onion from the oven and simply squeeze out the inner part of the onion from the skin. Cut the bottom off of the onion and puree it in a blender with the remaining olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

4.       Slice and wash the chick of the woods mushrooms and look for any tiny twigs, leaves etc. that the mushroom may have grown around.  Dry the mushrooms and in a sauté pan add the sunflower oil and heat the oil to just before smoking.  Slice and wash the leeks while the oil is heating up and add to the hot oil along with the sliced mushrooms.  Cook the mushrooms over medium heat until they start to get crispy and most of the water has evaporated from the mushroom.

5.       Combine the roasted root vegetables with the pears and add the honey and vinegar and mix together.

6.       Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and drizzle some of the onion cream around the bowl and serve.

Gnocchi sauteing in clarified butter

Entoloma and Potato Gnocchi

Yield: 20 dozen small gnocchi

Ingredients

2 pounds russet potatoes

1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour

3 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons kosher salt
1/4 cup of clarified butter

Sauce

½ pound of diced tomato

¼ cup of olive oil

1 tablespoon of chop garlic

1 tablespoon of chop shallots

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon of minced chives

Salt and pepper to taste

Entolomas

¼ pound of Entoloma mushrooms

3 tablespoons of sunflower oil

1 tablespoon chopped shallots

½ tablespoon chopped garlic

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

½ cup dry white wine

Method:

1. In an oven preheated to 350 degrees bake the potatoes for one hour or until they are tender.  Scoop out the potatoes into a ricer and place on a board or counter.  Make a well in the center. Place a layer of about a ½ cup of flour in the well, add the egg yolks, and then add about ½ cup more flour and the salt. Use a dough scraper to chop the potatoes into the flour and eggs. Do this quickly to prevent the dough from being overworked.  Add more flour as necessary. The resulting dough should be homogeneous and barely sticky on the outside. Shape the dough into a ball. Roll the ball of dough lightly in flour. 
2. Pull off a section of dough and roll into a long tube that is about a ½ inch thick. Cut into ½ inch pieces. Take gnocchi one at a time and using a lightly floured gnocchi paddle push the gnocchi onto the paddle and roll it down the paddle onto a floured surface.  It is best to test the first gnocchi off the paddle for seasoning and durability. Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil and when you have the first gnocchi completed drop into the boiling salted water. The gnocchi is finished when it floats to the top. Test the flavor and if it has not exploded in the water it is good to go. Once the all of the gnocchi have been blanched in the salted water remove them to toweling and lay them out to cool completely. Do not stack the gnocchi when you remove them from the water or you will smash them!  You can freeze them at this stage or use immediately.
3. In a medium size sauce pot add the olive oil, chop garlic, and chop shallots and heat together for a few seconds. Add the diced tomato and cook together covered until all of the tomatoes have broken down into a liquid. Add the balsamic vinegar and remove the cover and cook to a sauce consistency. Finish with salt and pepper and minced chives.
4. Wash the entolomas and slice them. Sauté the sliced mushrooms in about 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil with the garlic and shallots. They should be somewhat crispy when you are finished sautéing them.  When they have reached a nice brown color add the white wine and set aside.
5. In another sauté pan add clarified butter and let it heat up over medium heat. Add the blanched gnocchi and sauté in the butter until they are lightly browned. Remove the gnocchi from the pan and add the mushrooms.  Toss the finished gnocchi with the sauce and sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over the top with a little extra virgin olive oil and serve.