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5 Meals or More With 1 Pasture-Raised Chicken

09.22.2022 by Raelene Bradley // Leave a Comment

Before we started raising our own heritage breed chicken on fresh air, local non-GMO grains, lots of sunshine, and green pasture, it would take 2-3 birds to feed our crew.

Now though? Now we can stretch one bird into 5 or more meals. No skimping. No joking.

Here’s how we do it:

  • Meal 1: Roast Chicken

We process all of our birds right here on the farm. Every day is a good day for these birds and they live the best chicken life. And after processing hundreds and hundreds of birds and training many many family, friends, acquaintances, neighbors, students, and like-minded folks of all ages (even the youngest kids have a job), we’ve honed the process to be as quiet, efficient, and honorable as possible. We package every bird whole – it’s simple, efficient, and is the most versatile. Any kind of meal is possible with a whole bird.

Because of that, in our family, we most often eat chicken as a whole roast chicken. No one complains because it’s amazing and delicious and so simple to put together.

Rub the chicken all over inside and out with salt (I probably use about 1-2 tablespoons). Cut an onion and lemon in half and stuff into the cavity. Add fresh (or dried) rosemary and sage if you’ve got them. Roast at 350* until the temperature in the thigh registers 165* (usually right around an hour).

Serve with, well, anything: fresh or frozen vegetables, a robust green salad, roast or mashed potatoes.

  • Meal 2: Chicken Tacos

There’s something about a homegrown pasture-raised chicken. A little goes a long way and even though we’ve got a crew of 5 growing kids, we still have leftovers. These almost always get turned into chicken tacos. Because tacos.

Chop 2 cups leftover chicken. Combine in a saucepan with 1/2 pint salsa verde. Warm. Serve over toasted tortillas with all your favorite toppings. Ours include a cilantro cabbage slaw, cojita or other cheese, avocado, diced red onion and more salsa verde.

  • Meal 3: Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Even after feeding our crew two whole meals, there’s still more chicken to go around. The last 1-2 cups of leftover meat gets chopped and tossed into soup (in my opinion, soup is the best way to stretch a small amount of meat into a robust meal to feed a crew our size). One of our favorite soups is Chicken Pot Pie Soup – all the warm thick comforting goodness of chicken pot pie without the time of adding a pie crust. My kids love it so much that it’s become a regular birthday dinner request.

I’ll use chicken stock I’ve preserved from a previous roast chicken, plus vegetables from our garden, and milk and butter from our cows. It’s hearty and filling and perfect comfort food for chilly days.

  • Meals 4-8: Bone broth/stock

Now that all the meat has been repurposed into other meals, we’re left with the carcass and bones. I add these to a large stockpot with whatever vegetable scraps I have on hand. I always include celery, carrot, onion, garlic, and 6-8 peppercorns. I also like to add parsley, rosemary, or sage. I let this simmer on the stove for 12-24 hours. Not boiling, mind you – it’s best to not let it boil. Keep it low and let it simmer for a long long time to extract all the goodness from those pasture-enriched bones.

In my stockpot, one chicken carcass will make 7-8 quarts of stock. I’ll make a pot of soup right away with the fresh stock – often something like Broccoli Cheddar Soup or Chicken Noodle Soup or Vegetable Bean Soup. We also like to heat the broth and drink it with scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.

The remaining 4-6 quarts I will process in the pressure canner to make them shelf stable and add to the pantry. We’ll use it for soups, stews, cooking rice, sauces and much much more for weeks to come.

So there you have it. One chicken and more than 5 whole, nutrient-dense, filling and delicious meals to feed your family and nourish your bodies.

My daughter asked this week if we were rich. “We sure are,” I told her. “We have everything we need and all the delicious food we could ever want.” In my book, that’s true wealth.

If you’d like to try your hand at stretching one pasture-raised chicken to feed your family for nearly a week, you can reserve an October-harvested bird here or call/text/stop by the farm and pick one up this week.

People who love to eat are always the best people.

Julia Child

Categories // Blog Post, Recipes Tags // eat like a farmer, homestead, Homestead Skills

All About Cream : Part 1

04.07.2022 by Raelene Bradley // Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever wondered “What can I do with raw milk?” well then this series, wherein we explore all the delicious possibilities raw milk provides, will be right up your alley.

We’re starting with cream because, well, cream is my favorite.

Like eat-it-with-a-spoon-favorite.

“I have too much cream” – said no one ever.

And yet, when you get almost a quart of cream to every gallon, and your cow is giving 3-4 gallons a day, that cream adds up fast.

If this is you and you’ve got more cream than you know what to do with, this two-part series all about cream is for you.

What is cream?

Cream is the fat of the milk.

I am constantly amazed at the magic a milk cow conjures as she transform grass – nearly inedible for most species and certainly incapable of sustaining life and reproduction – into one of the most delicious, nutritionally balanced, super foods with oodles of beneficial bacteria, probiotics, enzymes, and glorious, delicious fat.

Rising To The Top

You’ve heard of the idiom “cream rises to the top,” yes? The essential idea is that the best ideas, the most skilled people, are the most noticeable because they “rise to the top” and stand out. There’s a good practical wisdom in that idiom because cream really is the best part of the milk, if you ask me.

When you let raw milk sit for 12-24 hours, the cream (or fat) will rise to the top. For some breeds of milk cow (like Dexter), the fat globules are very small and so it takes longer for the cream to separate and rise (closer to 2-3 days).

Fun (slightly unrelated) fact: the fat globules in goat’s milk are even smaller and so the cream never separates at all. Therefore, goat’s milk is naturally homogenized, meaning the cream/fat is evenly distributed throughout the milk.

Heavy Cream

The cream at the very top of the jar will be what is often known as “heavy cream.” It is thick and dense. You can almost stand a spoon upright in it.

My kids like to call this creme de la creme and that’s exactly where that particular idiom comes from: heavy cream is literally the cream of the cream, the best of the best.

Important: If you want to make whipped cream, you must use heavy cream.

Heavy cream will also produce the highest yields when churned to butter.

Light Cream

The light cream settles below the thick heavy cream at the top, but still above the liquid milk. You’ll notice that it’s not as thick and doesn’t stick to your ladle or spoon as thickly/stubbornly as the heavy cream at the top.

Remember – light cream cannot be whipped. It has too much liquid and won’t properly set up into soft peaks.

But it’s great for ice cream! And it will still make great butter, even if the yield is a little less than when you churn heavy cream.

Skimming Cream At Home

Skimming (or separating) cream refers to the process of removing the cream from the milk. For me (and most homesteaders), this is done manually with a ladle or spoon.

I like to use extra-wide-mouth gallon jars for all my milk because it makes skimming cream easier and more efficient and I am alll about maximizing my cream yield.

I use a stainless steel 1/2 cup kitchen ladle to manually skim each gallon, and scoop one ladle at a time, transferring it to another jar (fitted with a stainless steel wide mouth funnel to minimize the mess).

A Great Tip for Skimming Cream

Run the ladle under warm water just before skimming – the thin layer of water lets the cream slide off the ladle better and prevents a really thick buildup of cream.

Separating Cream Commercially

Commercial dairy processing systems use a mechanical cream separator (really cool, but generally cost-prohibitive for the average homesteader), and use centrifugal force to extract all the cream from the milk.

Because each cow gives a little different percentage of cream, each vat of milk will vary slightly in its cream fat percentage.  A cream separator equalizes every vat of milk by removing all the cream no matter how much it had to begin with.

The cream is later added back to the milk in the volume required to meet the mandated percentages for each product (3.25% (whole), 2%, 1%)

The Bottom Line

When you have more milk than you can use, always keep the cream.

Skim the cream and make butter.

Freeze the butter to use during her dry period.

Make self-stable ghee for your pantry.

Make lifelong friends of your neighbors by giving that yellow gold away.

Make gallons of ice cream and host a party.

Make cream cheese and cheese cake.

But always keep the cream.

Skimmed milk can go to the pigs. 1 gallon of skimmed milk or whey is all the protein a pig needs in a day and you can substitute milk pound for pound for their grain ration with no loss in nutrition.


I know. You’re gonna want to know how to make all these things. And more. I gotcha.

In part 2, we’ll talk about all the delicious ways you can use that abundance of cream.

The possibilities are downright delicious.

Stay tuned.

Categories // Blog Post, MilkCow 101 Tags // eat like a farmer, family milk cow, home dairy, homestead, milk cow

Hearty Mid-Winter Zucchini Bread

02.04.2022 by Raelene Bradley // Leave a Comment

I found a stash of shredded frozen zucchini in a freezer last week so I’ve been making LOTS of zucchini bread. We have seven (7!) chest freezers and 2 fridge freezers so unearthing an unexpected trove is not all that uncommon – ha!

We all love this recipe.

It’s easy to whip up and I generally do it after dinner while we’re cleaning the kitchen so it’s ready for breakfast in the morning and afternoon snacks thereafter.

The kids love it with a tall glass of cold milk. I like to add butter – because butter (chuckle).

Go on – dig out your own stash of frozen zucchini and add a little boost of summer nutrition to your breakfast fare this week. Your family will be none the wiser (wink wink).

Print Recipe

Hearty Zucchini Bread

Easy to put together with staple pantry ingredients, hearty and delicious for breakfast and snacks, this is my favorite way to use up my stash of shredded zucchini grown last summer and frozen to boost the nutrition of mid-winter days just like these.
Prep Time15 mins
Course: Breakfast
Keyword: zucchini
Servings: 8

Ingredients

  • 3 cups zucchini, shredded
  • 1 1/4 cups melted butter*
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs*
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 tsp cinnamon*
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Notes

*I have a LOT of butter on hand (thank you milk cow), but you could also substitute melted coconut oil or vegetable oil.
*It’s midwinter. Below average temperatures and way above average snowfall. My chickens aren’t laying. So I’ve been substituting 1/2 cup yogourt OR applesauce for the eggs instead. The bread does finish a little more dense, but with no loss of flavor or texture.
*Feel free to get creative with the spices. I often use an apple-pie mix of spices (including ginger, nutmeg, and cloves) or a chai-spiced version (with cardamom and black pepper).
In a large mixing bowl, combine zucchini, butter (or oil), sugar, eggs (or yogourt/applesauce), and vanilla. Mix well with a fork.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the flour mixture to the zucchini mixture and mix just until combined. Gently mix in chopped nuts (if using).
Pour batter into a greased 9×13 pan.
Bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick/knife inserted comes out clean.

Categories // Blog Post, Recipes Tags // breakfast, eat like a farmer, homestead

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belvederefarms

Hey there friends! Long time, no see eh? . Popping Hey there friends!
Long time, no see eh?
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Popping in to let you know I’ll be posting over at @belvedere.farms from now on.
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Same farm, same milk cow / farming / homesteading / canning & preserving / free-range kids capers & misadventures kinda stuff, but a whole new chapter.
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Sneak peek: if you’ve been around for awhile, you’ll know Maude (our milk cow Sandy’s first calf). She’s a brand new momma herself!
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She and I are learning together how to train a milk cow from scratch. It’s an adventure, to be sure!
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Come on over to @belvedere.farms and follow along.
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- Raelene
Wow. Just wow. . This is how I feel every time I l Wow. Just wow.
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This is how I feel every time I look at the pantry shelves, filling slowly but surely, bit by bit.
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Summer’s bounty + hard work (and plenty of hot sweaty days in the kitchen) means my family will eat like kings all winter long.
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It’s such a blessing to know these skills and get to pass them along.
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Sign up for my newsletter (link in bio) so you know when the next homesteading/self-sufficiency class is happening here at Belvedere Farms and you too can start filling those pantry shelves with goodness.
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Don’t put out that fire.
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#farmraisedkids #farmher #farmgirl #ican #homesteadmama
Can I hear an AMEN? Just tell me one thing: Team L Can I hear an AMEN?
Just tell me one thing: Team Lake or Team Ocean?
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Me? Lake. All the way. Nothing in the lake wants to kill me. 😱
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Just like that, canning season has officially begu Just like that, canning season has officially begun.
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I drove down to the vet’s to pick up meds for a sick heifer and since it takes me right through Amish country, I couldn’t resist stopping at a farm just off the road to pick up 10 quarts of small but luscious berries (the small ones are sweetest, I think).
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Harvested rhubarb from the garden and a couple hours later : strawberry rhubarb jam.
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When you’re filling shelves for the winter, every little bit counts.
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It may seem like a small thing, but it always make It may seem like a small thing, but it always makes my heart happy to look out the window and see the cows grazing in the pasture.
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It took a lot of work to get here, and takes a lot of work to stay here, but working hard for something you love isn’t a burden. Instead it builds confidence, self-respect, resilience, and stamina.
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Go, friends. Work your tails off at work worth doing. And stop every now and again to take stock of all you’ve accomplished and all you’ve learned. It’ll blow your socks off and give you the gumption to do the next hard and worthwhile thing.
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Every farm needs a barn cat. We’ve noticed a hug Every farm needs a barn cat. We’ve noticed a huge difference between the years we’ve had barn cuts and the years we haven’t. They’re essential.
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And yet, I’m pretty sure my kids all think we keep barn cats for the kittens.
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There’s a new litter every spring and so far we’ve always been able to give enough away to keep from being overrun. Their momma, Scout, is a phenomenal mouser (and catches birds and squirrels and chipmunks too) and earns her keep many times over.
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Eleven brand spankin’ new piglets born on the fa Eleven brand spankin’ new piglets born on the farm yesterday afternoon/evening.
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Recent Posts

  • 5 Meals or More With 1 Pasture-Raised Chicken
  • Tacos de Lengua – Beef Tongue Tacos
  • All About Cream : Part 1
  • How to help your milk cow adjust to Daylight Savings Time
  • What is A2A2 Milk?

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