Five Feline Farm Archives - Page 6 of 21

You Can Do It!

“Is there anything you don’t do?”

It is a question we get a lot here at Five Feline Farm. It’s true we do many things for ourselves; however the short answer is to the above question is: “Yes”. There are a lot of things we do not tackle. But, we certainly are of the mind set that anyone can do anything they want to do.

Today we want to encourage you to dream big. Make a list of all the things you might want to do. Don’t hold back. Put anything on your list that you have ever thought about doing.

Pick one of those things.

What would it take to get to do that thing? Make another list of the steps involved, then start doing those things.

It really can be that simple, but it also requires work and dedication.

For example, almost two years ago, we wanted to start a podcast. Neither of us have any experience with podcasting, radio, television or anything even close. That did not deter us.

The list of steps to actually publish a podcast included google searches for programs and equipment to use, Youtube videos and even a Lynda.com short course.

With the native Mac application “Garageband” and microphones ordered through Amazon, we recorded and edited our first podcast. A bit of research on Apple, Soundcloud and our own website host gave us everything we needed to know to set it all up and get it out into the world.

On January 29, 2018, Episode 1 went live. By February 11, 2018, and the third episode, we were posting directly on fivefelinefarm.com/podcast. The first few episodes were rough. But as we kept doing it, week after week, we improved. At least the recording, editing and posting is smoother; and a lot of people tell us they are listening. Next week we will be recording Episode 100.

You can do this too.

Whether it is a podcast, Youtube channel, blog, business or whatever is in your heart to do.

Just start.

If what you want to do is build a small business, especially a farmer’s market business, we are developing some tools you can use to walk through the process we followed.

Let us know how we can help you.

As always, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and on this blog.

To Be Encouraged

I have been thinking a lot about encouragement lately.

So much so I even had to look up the definition. Sometimes knowing the history of a word helps to see the word in a new way.

Merriam Webster says encouragement can mean something that makes someone more determined, hopeful or confident, or even more likely to do something. It is the act of making something more appealing or more likely to happen.

Etymononline.com reports the word “encourage” is from the Old French word “encorgier” meaning to make strong or hearten. Vocabulary.com gave the following example of use:

“When you encourage the tomato plants in your garden, you water them to promote their growth and health.”

A perfect fit for what we do here at Five Feline Farm.

So many of you, our families, friends and customers, have encouraged us in what we do.

You have given us strength and hope to continue to build this business. You have promoted our growth and health.

We first met many of you at farmer’s markets or you made the drive to visit us at the Mercantile. Some we met through social media. You have become friends and fans.

You are each a part of what we do and why we do it.

Thank you for making us more determined, hopeful and confident.

Thank you for your encouragement.

Making Sourdough Bread, Part 1

Bread is often referred to as the staff of life. It is one of our oldest foods, dating back to the time when people discovered grinding grain into flour, mixing that flour with water and baking it into a palatable mass. Not only is bread an old food, it is the base for many a meal in many a culture.

Our friend makes us bread. It is always wonderful. He gifts not only the efforts from his kitchen, but somehow in this giving of bread, he shares himself. Other friends have also brought bread to us when the Mercantile is open. Fresh, wrapped in a tea towel, still warm from the oven. They too shared of themselves.

I want to make this kind of bread. The kind that shares more than just the physical nourishment, but adds encouragement.

My recent efforts have focused on sourdough bread. At the Mother Earth News Fair in Topeka, I attended several workshops about flour, gluten, bread and even a hands-on workshop where I walked away with my very own sourdough starter.

“It’s easy.” the presenter said.

“Hard to go wrong.” she commented.

“Very forgiving.” she instructed.

I came home, fed the starter and stirred up my first loaf of sourdough.

“Liar.” I said aloud, intending my comments for the Topeka presenter, even though she is at this moment thousands of miles away.

Not a total loaf failure; my bread had a delicious flavor, but it was a flat, hard-crusted specimen. I thought I knew what went wrong. Too much water in the dough led to an extremely slack dough that would not hold it’s shape after rising. It spread out in the oven into a low mass that when sliced resembled something like biscotti.

Time to try again.

The sourdough instructor suggested dipping one’s hand in water when kneading the dough instead of sprinkling with flour. That made sense to me. I have a tendency to work in too much flour because I have little tolerance for the sticky dough when I’m kneading.

It’s time to get over that intolerance. This time I lightly sprinkled flour instead of using the water. It was still a very soft dough but felt much more likely to hold it’s shape. I prayed this loaf would turn out better.

It did not. I turned out another tough, hard loaf.

My comments this time contained words that do not bear repeating.

I want to make sourdough bread.

Why am I so determined?

I like that sourdough tends to keep longer than other yeasted breads that do not contain oil or butter. I like having a simple flour, yeast (or starter), water and salt bread. I love the flavor. I want to know I can do it.

The saga of my quest to make a good sourdough loaf continues next week.

In the meantime, follow all of the antics here at Five Feline Farm on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you can’t make it to the onsite Mercantile here at the Farm, our on line store is always open.

What I Did With the Tomatoes

Last week I posted about using up the last of the home grown garden tomatoes. As part of the final garden tasks for the year, the plants were removed and the last green tomatoes harvested. These slowly ripen in the garage allowing us the opportunity to have fresh, local tomatoes through a winter freeze.

Attempting to cram too many tasks into a day left me with limited time to do something with the tomatoes. So I resorted to a tried and true, relatively quick method of using up a random quantity.

Placing the tomatoes in a colander in the sink, I poured boiling water over them then rinsed in cold water. This made peeling easier. The next step was to squeeze out the seeds, quarter and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkled with my favorite Tuscan Sunset Herb blend from Penzey’s and drizzled with olive oil, these baked at 350º convection for about 45 minutes.

The baked tomatoes were dumped into a stock pot and blended with an immersion blender. (If you do not have one of these awesome kitchen gadgets, you need one. Stop reading right now and order on Amazon. Several inexpensive models are available and it is worth it.) Back to the tomato sauce: season to taste with salt and pepper, then keep warm while making the rest of the meal.

This is a super versatile sauce, but sometimes there is nothing like simple spaghetti noodles with this fresh sauce topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese. I added a quick salad and cheesy bread. Simple, satisfying and fresh.

This meal did not use up all of the sauce; what is left will make a tasty lasagna several days later. I will layer wide noodles with sauce, mozzarella and ricotta. Lasagna always makes enough for leftovers and is even better the second time around in my opinion.

At the end of this round of sauce, which took less than an hour of active time, we will have at least three meals. Not bad for November tomatoes.

I still intend to get out the Julia Child cookbooks, but when you run out of time during the day and just need to get something quick on the table; fix an old favorite and don’t apologize.

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Plus if you are coming to the Mercantile on Saturday, order pies and scones by 5:00 PM on Thursday. The Mercantile will be open every Saturday through December 21, 2019 with special hours on Black Friday.