February 13, 2012

This is exciting - my first ever blog - I have joined the twenty first century and jumped in to partake of the blog world.  But before I write my first blog post I have to thank Sam of Cathartica Farm at http://sam-critter.blogspot.com/.   She made my day, my month, my year and even the past few years as she became my blog's first follower before I even designed it afer registering a few weeks ago. 

I am a 40 something cancer surviving prairie chicken born and raised on the Canadian prairies.  I studied Stats and Agriculture at university and upon gaduation went off and found a job to pay the bills.  I specialized in beef cattle production, dreaming of the day when I would own my own little herd of black angus ( way back when before they were as popular now - back then every farmer out west was into the big exotics and no one was interested in the beautiful, friendly and very tasty angus).  But Life has its own way and I never worked in the field except for one short 5 month period after my second child was born.  There were no jobs in the field back then, all my classmates went back to school to do a Master's and because I had been orphaned at 17 and 18  and ran out of money to continue I had to go find a job. I worked in a field related to agriculture but never again got my hands, boots, jeans dirty. 

But I kept the dream alive as much as I could and its still burning bright inside of me.  I got married, had two kids and am still working towards the dream of having my own little 5, or 10 or maybe 50 acres. 

While I work to pay off debts and save enough to put the kids through university when they get to that age, I am doing and learning everything I can for the one day when we make the big move.  Having studied animal science and production I know what the 'big corporate farms' do and how the store product gets to their shelves.  So I do everything I can to raise our family chemical free and to make everything from scratch but not just plain 'ol fare - having lived in the wonderful metropolis of Montreal, Quebec with all of its wonderful restaurants I strive to prepare and cook our food so it tastes like it  would if it was served at great restaurants but at a fraction of the cost.  At the same time I learn everything I can for us to live 'off the grid'.

I will write about preserving food including canning and dehydrating, easy fast ways to make great soups and meals from scratch, making charcuterie including, bacon, pancetta, sausages, cured  meats and fish as well as SMOKIN! all of latter,  sqaure foot gardening to maximize your garden space and also vertical gardening to take advantage of key areas of sunshine,  supporting CSA and your local farmer that raises heritage meat and vegetables to help keep the vital genetics around, and once in a while I will write about knitting, crocheting, carpentry, dogs like labradors and norwegian elkhounds,  the outdoors, and  soccer (am a referee).

As an aside I wills sometime  also write about what it was like to be orphaned as a teenager in case there are some kids out there who are currently undergoing what I went - losing someone you love from either cancer, heart attack or stroke.  Unfortunately i saw all three and if  sharing my experiences can help someone then so be it.

I will also fine tune my blog as time goes on so I can have videos to show techniques, as well as pictures and have tie ins to other like minded people.

For those who is live in NE Ontario check out the local farmers - there are quite a few into raising heritage breeds and farming without fossile fuels (horses and mules) - Rock n Horse is one of them http://www.rocknhorsefarm.ca/home. 

So join me for the ride - it will be fun - I will try to make you laugh and learn about great food on the way.


farmgirlwanabe