Chocolate Cake

If you can find Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, buy it. It makes a great chocolate cake. Here's a recipe that people ask me for all the time - well no, that's not right. They ask me to make the cake. Sort of the same thing I guess.

Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups all  purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspooon salt

1 cup butter (nothing else will do)

1/3 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder (again, nothing else will do)

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon good pure vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan.

Melt butter with cocoa powder and a cup of water over medium heat stirring until it just comes to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool a bit while you measure flour, sugar, soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Whisk dry ingredients together to combine. Pour the chocolate mixture into the dry mixture and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for one minute. Increase speed to low high and beat 30 seconds more. Add eggs one at a time beating a few second after each addition. Add buttermilk and vanilla and beat 30 seconds more. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Test for doneness with a wooden toothpick.

While cake is still warm prepare frosting. In a medium sauce pan combine 1/4 cup butter, 3 tablespoons Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder, a few grains of salt and 3 tablespoons buttermilk. Bring to a bowl stirring occasionally. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla then beat in 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar. Spread warm frosting on warm cake. Let all cool on a wire rack completely. 

Some Books to Read

I've been reading some of Gladys Taber's books. Ms. Taber wrote a series of books about her Vermont farm, Stillmeadow. She and her sister and their two husband's bought the farm as a retreat from their New York City life. Eventually her husband left her and she and her daughter moved to the farm full time. She is my inspiration for this blog.

Another inspirational author or authors was Helen and Scott Nearing with their book, "Living the Good Life". I don't really identify too well with their very austere existence, but their books have a lot of good information for subsistence farming.

And then there is Gene Logsden and his book, " The Contrary Farmer".  I've had the opportunity to here Gene speak about organic farming and he really makes you believe.

A Week of Calves

It's been a long, tiring week. Six calves born since a week ago Thursday and three of them with issues! I hate calving in March; too wet and too warm. Much better in January and February when the cold keeps disease at bay.

The three Angus cows were all due to calve on St. Patrick's Day.  One calved a week early, one calved on the correct day and one has yet to go. Artificial insemination is still not an exact science. The calf born early just hasn't done well. She was born on a cold wet night but had warm sun that morning and should be fine. She won't nurse the cow and the cow wants to kill anyone who comes near her calf. Fortunately her owner is a veterinarian. We herded the cow and the calf into the barn where, with the help of some sturdy metal gates the vet is able to get the calf separated from the cow and bottle fed.

I suspected that my wonderful cow Violet was carrying twins. I've been watching her closely for a week keeping her near the barn in case she had trouble. She calved Tuesday evening about 7:30; a nice sized heifer calf (female) and I moved her to the barn since it was going to rain. The calf's hind feet were curled up and she couldn't stand on her hind feet right away so I made them comfortable safe in the knowledge that Violet is a good mother and would have the calf up and nursing by morning. At 10:00 pm I left the barn headed to bed. Next morning at 7:00 am I went out to feed Violet and the Angus cow and there were two calves with Violet!  She had twins after all. The second calf is a bull and his front legs wouldn't hold him up. Obviously they were too squished up inside the cow and their little leg tendons were not stretching out.

The vet helped me splint and wrap the bulls front legs and he is able to get up and nurse. The heifer's back feet, finally this morning, have straighted and she is standing and nursing, so - keeping finger's crossed - it looks like they will be OK.

In the meantime, Sarah, the neighbor's Shorthorn cow that I'm boarding, had a super little Limi/Shorthorn cross heifer calf with great markings. She should make a beautiful show heifer. She's getting along just great.

One of the rodeo girls had a bull calf out of a good bucking bull. It had to be rescued from a gully where it had fallen, but its fine and doing well.  And the Angus calf that calved on time for St. Patrick's Day is doing great and enjoying the sunshine.

There are five more calves to come and the weather people say rain starting Sunday through Wednesday. Hopefully the cows will wait until the end of the week as I am out of space in the barn!  Baby pictures will follow soon, but before I can take time for that I have to help get a huge tree off the fence!!! Ah farm life. It is never dull and I'm always getting plenty of exercise. No need to waste money on a gym!

All natural Beef for the Freezer

It's been years since I had to buy beef or eggs from the grocery store.  Every time I think about selling all the cattle and buying alpacas I visit the meat case at the grocery store and come home renewed as a beef farmer. In my freezer in the basement are steaks, brisket, ground beef (we do not call it hamburger) and a big 8 rib standing rib roast. It's always the best beef I've eaten anywhere.

The down side of raising and finishing your own beef for slaughter is that you get attached to them. Now don't get me wrong, I fully understand the only reason to raise beef cattle is to eat beef. And having cared for these animals for years and years I know just how stupid they are. I mean, how can you feel sorry for an animal who takes a bale of hay and while eating it also goes to the bathroom on it. Then of course the hay will not be eaten but turned into a bed. At $5.25 a bale, that's an expensive bed!

But I digress. The blond colored animal here is Butterscotch, a steer (castrated male) and was intended to be trained as an ox that would pull a cart. Butterscotch is a son of my pet cow Buttercup.  He is gentle and good natured and completely grass fed. He has a slaughter date of May 22.

In the back of my mind I keep thinking I'll have time to train him to pull a cart and together we will clean up all the big trees that have fallen over the winter and I won't have to send him to slaughter, ever.  In reality, if I can pre-sell the meat, he will go to Old Town on the morning of May 22 and be hanging beef by late afternoon.

The meat will be very lean and not as tender as the corn fed variety, but there is a market for grass fed beef and so I will not feed him anything but good grass and hay. Let me know what you think. Should Butterscotch meet his destiny on May 22?

Birthday Cake

It's March and all those June brides are having babies (count the months). When my Dad - who was a doctor here for 40 years - was practicing medicine in the 1950's, he would deliver an average of 40 babies between the months of March and April. Middletown hospital kept a cot for him as he sometimes delivered two or more in one day! Remember, that was before the pill!

So, for all you March and April birthdays here's one of our favorite spring birthday cakes. It's an easy one bowl cake and very delicious.

Orange Birthday Cake with Orange Frosting

2 3/4 cups cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4    teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

3/4 cup butter at room temperature

3 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup golden raisins, chopped

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a 13x9x2 baking pan or two 9 inch cake pans.

Sift cake flour, soda and salt together into the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a mixing paddle. Add the rest of the ingredients in order into the bowl.

Blend on low speed for one minute scraping the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for three minutes scraping the bowl frequently. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake the single layer pan for 45 to 50 minutes, the 9 inch cake pans for 30 to 35 minutes. Test for doneness with a tooth pick. Inserted in the center of the pan the tooth pick should come out clean.

Cool the cake(s) in their pans on a wire rack. Frost with Orange Frosting.

Orange Frosting

3 cups confectioners sugar

1/3 cup soft butter

3 tablespoons orange liquor or orange juice

1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel

With an electric mixer blend the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the liqueur or orange juice and orange peel. Beat until smooth.

Beef on the Hoof

For years we raised show cattle and breeding stock. Showing cattle is something you usually start doing as a kid in 4H. We came to it late in life, but being competitive by nature, enjoyed the thrill of the show ring as much as any kid. We didn't know what we were doing at first and depended on hiring a good show person to do most of the work. Eventually we learned enough to be more help than hindrance but its a skill learned over many years and lots of practice.

By the way, the 4H kids are just amazing. They are so hard working and so dedicated. These kids compete for college scholarships with their animal husbandry skills so its serious business. When other kids are spending hours on the soccer, baseball, or football field dreaming of the big win, these kids are spending hours in the cold and muck training, grooming and caring for their cattle, sheep, hogs, what ever. 

Getting a heifer or bull calf ready for the show ring takes months of work and study. Through their 4H programs these kids learn what makes a good animal and are able to make a good judgement on which young calves to halter break and groom for the show ring. Just teaching a calf to lead and walk in the show ring takes weeks of careful training. Then they have to be groomed everyday. That means giving them a bath and blowing dry their hair everyday and brushing, brushing, brushing. If you think washing and blow drying your hair takes time you can't imagine how much physical work it is to wash and blow dry an entire cow! It's a major upper body workout.

Learning to "fit" a calf or cow is even harder. Fitting means training and cutting the animals hair to show their physical structure to best advantage. This is both a skill and an art. Really good fitters are in demand and can earn big money fitting calves for the show ring. When a cow or calf is properly fit they look like velvet cows. I always say they look like they are wearing their party clothes.

Today is the major show day at the Kentucky Beef Expo. This kicks off the cattle show and sale season with Ohio's Beef Expo at the end of the month. If you are looking for a little taste of the farm experience or want to know more about raising cattle, visit a beef expo and talk to the cattle men and women who are showing and selling cattle there. It's an eye opening experience into the world of animal agriculture. These people genuinely love cattle or they couldn't do all the hard work it takes to get them in the show ring.

Beehive For Sale

Once upon a time I bought my ex husband a complete bee hive, smoker, pith hat and hive tool. It was his dream to have a small hobby farm and raise cattle, chickens and bees.  Alas, as often happens, he didn't know what he wanted and found out pretty quickly that he's a condo kind of guy. So he's not here anymore. Ha!

So, for 8 years the hive has sat in the basement waiting for someone to buy it some bees. My house sits in a locust grove. Bees love locust blooms and I am told it makes one of the best honeys.  I've been talking to a friend of mine, a naturalist who keeps bees, and she is encouraging me to buy some bees and get started. Now is the time, she says. Don't wait!

My brother says "Sell that hive!, you don't need to be messing with bees!" and he is probably right. I certainly have plenty on my plate with the cattle and my day job and my part-time job etc. So, here's a picture of the hive, still in the basement, with the smoker, hat and hive tool. I have it on Craigs list for $200 complete, and I am firm on that price. All together I paid about $350 for everything and its all brand new.

I've sold several things off Criag's list - farm equipment such a rear bale spear, hay wagon, road grader blade etc. For some reason people seems to think I should give away the hive. I've had offers of $75 to $100. I even had someone offer to barter tree services.  The hive has future economic value if I raise some honey with it, so I am standing firm on that price.  I will be ordering the bees in a week or so, so Craig's list people had better step up or loose out!!!