We have been homesteading for quite a while now and we have our system of chores down pretty well. Letting chickens in and out of the coop every day is one that we really hadn’t given much thought to, unless of course you are lying in bed and think “did I shut the chickens in?”. Then it’s on with the
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Spring farrowing (when piglets are born) is always a challenging time. Getting the houses ready, making sure the heat lamps are working, and preparing creep areas are just some of things that need to be done. We then need to separate the sows so they can be alone when they farrow. We always have had a love hate relationship with
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I was recently at our favorite family owned feed store with the brains of this crazy operation, when I put my hand in my pocket of my winter coat (yes, we are still dealing with winter temps here in the Northeast) and I felt something unusual. I thought “what the heck?” and I pulled out my pocket findings. The gentleman
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Now that the Christmas season is over and the shortest days of the year are behind us, we always find ourselves thinking of spring. We really enjoy winter sports like ice fishing. Catching up on inside projects is always rewarding, but our brains can’t stop thinking of getting our hands in the dirt. In reality, we are not far away
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We have been raising our own meat birds for years. It was a natural progression from raising laying hens. We raise cornish crosses and raise about 25-50 birds a year. We also butcher our own birds. This allows us to to see these birds go from chick to table. When the recent pandemic started we didn’t look for toilet paper
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There are a many ways to prepare ground venison. Ground venison is very flexible and by adding a few spices you can really change its flavor profile. One of our favorite ground venison dishes is venison meatballs. Over the years, this recipe has evolved. In the beginning, we treated the meat as if it were beef, but it still tasted
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At any given time, if you ask us what is in our freezer right now, we can give you a pretty accurate inventory. For those of you who live a similar lifestyle to us, you understand that it is essential to know what you have, what you are running out of, what needs to be used ASAP, and what you
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As the winter begins to wear on, I often think about warmer weather and the past summer. Sometimes I scroll through our pictures on cold days, usually looking at pictures of our homestead, and I am always drawn to pictures of food. Today I stumbled upon this picture and it drew my attention immediately. It looked like comfort food, like
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Everyone is a fan of taco Tuesday and we are no exception. Here on the homestead we just do it a little different. No Ortega taco kits like when you were a kid. Here we use as many fresh ingredients as possible, we raised the pigs, we grew the veggies, and we even made the soft taco shells. This
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Originally posted on two branches homestead:
When we first moved to our first and only home 23 years ago the first thing we did was plant a garden. We always loved to grow things and as time went by the garden expanded, but something was still missing. One day while visiting a friend, we realized what was missing. He had…
two branches homestead 