Winterizing the vegetable garden is an important fall activity that will help ensure success in your garden next year. A few hours of work now will make a huge difference in making your future garden a success. Winterizing The Vegetable Garden - 3 Easy Steps 1) Destroy Plant Debris By the time fall rolls around and a few touches of frost have hit, what's left in our garden looks pretty awful (see photo below - I'm embarrassed at how bad it looks!). But, now's the time to remove ... continue reading...
Easy (keto-friendly) Cabbage and Kielbasa Soup
Easy Keto Cabbage and Kielbasa soup is a favorite soup that we make yearly as we have beautiful heads of cabbage coming out of the garden. It's one of our favorite ways to use the tasty garden cabbage! We've made it for years now, and I make it steadily as the cabbage ripens during the late summer/fall and freeze the excess. With some warm bread, it makes a comforting and hearty dinner for those cold winter months ahead. Plus, Cabbage is a healthy vegetable ... continue reading...
About Buckeye Chickens
At Bramblestone Farm, we keep both Golden Buff and Buckeye chickens, and people often ask why we keep the Buckeyes. They don't lay as large an egg or as frequently as the Golden Buffs, so why do we keep them? All About Buckeye Chickens Well, Buckeye chickens are uniquely American, and they make wonderful dual-purpose (good for both meat and eggs) birds. They are the only American chicken bred by a woman and were bred specifically to thrive under harsh conditions. This makes them exceptional ... continue reading...
Fall Decorations Are Natural Chicken Dewormers
It's quite convenient that fall decorations (like pumpkins and gourds) are natural chicken dewormers too! We’ve been keeping chickens for quite a few years now and have never had any issues with them having internal parasites, even though we don’t use commercial chemical wormers. I believe one reason is that we always grow (and have a large number of volunteer) squash, pumpkin, melon, and gourds in the garden. And, we feed the extras to the chickens on a regular basis – there always ... continue reading...
Freezing Avocados By Vacuum Sealing (Packing)
We've started freezing avocados by vacuum sealing (packing) them when they're just ripe so we can enjoy avocados anytime! We love avocados, and tend to buy them in quantities when they’re less expensive. Any time of year I see them on sale, I buy them in bunches. But, then we run into issues when they all ripen at once and we can't eat them fast enough. So, that's why we started preserving them by freezing. How To Freeze Avocados By Vacuum Sealing (Packing) This works better ... continue reading...
Egg Bloom
What Is Egg Bloom? Just before laying an egg, the hen adds a protective layer called “bloom” or cuticle to the outside of the egg. This coating seals the shell pores, prevents bacteria from getting inside the shell, and reduces moisture loss from the egg. These are all things designed to make the egg last longer. Are All Eggs Protected By Bloom? All chickens add the protective bloom to an egg just before they lay it. However, because of the conditions at some large egg operations ... continue reading...
How To Make Hot Pepper (Chili) Oil
We make hot pepper (chili) oil as a replacement for the red pepper flakes we often see in Italian restaurants in the United States. Why? Because when we went to Italy, we found that they were using the hot pepper (chili) oil to spice up their pizza, spaghetti, etc. rather than the red pepper flakes. Why Make Hot Pepper (or Chili) Oil? In Italy, we noticed that many restaurants had hot pepper (or chili) oil on the tables instead of pepper flakes, and we found ourselves liking it ... continue reading...
Young Chick Care
Young chick care wasn't something we were initially familiar with because we eased into chicken-keeping by first getting three pullets (to make sure that we enjoyed having our own chickens). That was a huge success, so we eventually decided to get a traditional coop and add more hens. However, six young chickens came with the new coop (see New Chicken Coop) and were a complete surprise, so we scrambled to accommodate them. Preparing for them really just came down to what is best for housing, ... continue reading...
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