Bacon is Baaaack!

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You know that dog treat commercial where they claim that "dogs don't know it's not bacon"?

Well, you'll know if it's not Omache Farm Bacon!

Bacon will be ready for ordering starting for this weekend, December 5th.  As well as Half hams if you'd like to pick one up for a holiday dinner!  Check out our Home Delivery Page for pricing and how it works specifically but here's the gist:

1. You email us your grocery list (By 6pm Friday please)
2. We pull out bacon, pork chops, winter squash and eggs and/or whatever was on your list and put your name on it
3. On Saturday, your groceries are handed to you in one of three ways:
           a. Drop by the Winter Market in the 1912 Center between 10am and 2pm (12/5 or 12/12)
           b. Meet us in town after the Winter Market of in the afternoon on 12/19
           c. We'll stop by your in-town home after the Winter Market or in the afternoon.
4. Payment is made by: cash, card or check.

See? so easy!

Easter Eggs, Ham, and Lamb!

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Easter is right around the corner!

Have you bought enough eggs for decorating?  Do you still like making egg salad even though you don't have kiddos around this year?  Is your family an Easter Ham or Easter Lamb type?  No matter what, we've got you covered!

Check out our home delivery page!  Everything meat and egg wise is available for delivery this coming week in time for Easter Sunday! (Monday the 14th and Thursday the 17th)

(There are even a few veggies available! Act fast for veggies, they're first ordered first served!)

Don't want to buy a whole $25 worth of eggs? Check with your neighbor, perhaps they need a ham or a lamb leg roast or maybe they also need some eggs.

Don't know what to do with all those eggs once you've boiled and decorated them?  Check out the latest recipes and helpful tips we've posted: How to Boil an Egg and Margaret's Amazing Egg Salad.  They're really easy, I promise!

Do our eggs dye?  Well, that's a good question.  I've never heard of great results with brown eggs and the traditional food color and vinegar dyes.  There are however two other ideas that you may find very fun and quite gorgeous!

Stickers are always special but sometimes just don't have enough sticky.

Coloring with crayons works pretty well too.  Don't worry, you'll make egg salad with the broken ones from overly heavy hands, right? (although you've got to work pretty hard to break our egg shells!

The best idea I think I've found for working with non-white eggs I've found yet will go especially well with all those pesky crayon pieces you've been stepping on... again.  Take a look at Mama Smile's blog post about using them to decorate her eggs and at Mud Hut Mama's post about using the technique on brown eggs.  Wonderful and inspirational photos on both posts!

Tip: for doing the crayon shavings with this method, DO NOT pre-boil your eggs.  They need to be hot for it to work! (also, you can set kiddos to work outside with a hammer or big wooden spoon and a bag full of crayon pieces to smash while they're boiling...)

The BEST Egg Salad Ever!

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So we all know how scientific I typically am about my recipes.  This one's different...

Okay I was just kidding.  I do have some recipes that I'm pretty particular about but this isn't one of them.

Margaret's Amazing Egg Salad 
(based loosely on a Betty Crocker Recipe)

Serves about 6 humans.
(count your children accordingly, some days mine are worth 1 human each, sometimes they total 1/4 human...)

Can you hard boil an egg?

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I used to not be able to without overdoing it.  (go ahead, giggle, laugh, snicker.  The one who touts herself as an awesome self-taught cook couldn't boil an egg!)

OK, so I could hard boil an egg but I didn't really like them and wasn't ever really satisfied with the results of my endeavors.  Somehow, when the yolk turns totally chalky and has a bit of a green tinge to the outside of the yolk, it just seemed like I must be doing something wrong.

I was definitely overdoing it.

Now Offering...

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Home Delivery!

From now through the first Thursday in May, Omache Farm is offering home delivery of our farm fresh products!  Order right here, from our website and receive your order right at home!

We are fortunate enough this spring to have product to sell.  Unfortunately, there aren't any markets already set up in the early spring before most vegetable growers have produce.  We decided to trial another new program.  Hopefully with your enthusiastic support and patronage, we'll find the time and effort worthwhile.

If this works out, we'll likely offer a very similar program over the course of next winter.  Who knows what'll happen... perhaps someday there'll be coolers on lots of front stoops awaiting the Farmer, much like there were coolers awaiting the Milk Man...

How it Works:

And on with life we go...

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Firstly, a huge thank you to all the folks who helped us out in the wake of our barn fire!  Many of our neighbors dropped off anywhere from a few bales to a pretty good sized stack to help us through the short term and we've been sent many names and numbers of folks who may have hay for sale.  Others have sent money towards a hay fund or offered to pay balances for CSAs that aren't due until March to help keep us liquid while getting ourselves put back together.

The folks at Wilson Banner Ranch rallied the whole clan and then some with about 120 bales of straw in about 5 trucks to come up the evening after our barn burned to construct some straw bale and cattle panel hoophouses to shelter our homeless sheep and piglets!

We are ever so grateful for all of the family and friends who have offered their help and assistance during this time.

But alas, life continues to move forward, whether you're sick, your barn burns down or your creek floods itself to nearly-record levels because of a single day melt of a foot and a half of snow.  (no worries, the piggies didn't have to swim... but I do think they were starting to consider building themselves a boat...)

This Weekend, February 15th, Omache Farm will be at Artfully Yours Bakery on Main Street in downtown Pullman for another mid-winter sale.  We will be there between 11 am and 2 pm along with Wilson Banner Ranch!

Omache Farm will have Lamb and PORK! (no bacon yet.  Sad, i know!)
Wilson Banner Ranch has promised pears and apples, honey and fresh eggs.  Yum!

Come on over, say hi to some of your local farmers, snag yourself some pork and apples and enjoy something gluten and allergen free from Artfully Yours with your neighbor!

Apple Breakfast Casserole Recipe

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6-8 sliced of bread, toasted and cut in 1" squares (or other leftover bread)
3 apples, cut in 1" cubes
1/2 cup Craisins (or other dried fruit in sm. pieces)
6 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
Cinnamon, Ginger, Allspice, Nutmeg

sour cream, yogurt, apple sauce, etc. for serving

1.  Preheat oven to 325'
2.  Grease the bottom of an 8x10 baking dish.  spread your bread pieces across the bottom.
3.  Spread apple pieces on top
4.  Sprinkle dried fruit across top of apples
5.  Beat together eggs and sour cream
6.  Sprinkle spices across top.  (I rarely measure, just use my nose until it smells good, so start sparingly!)
7.  Place in pre-heated oven for 50-60 minutes or until apples are soft and eggs are set.

Serve as-is or feel free to use sour cream, syrup, yogurt, apple sauce, fruit butter, chutney, etc on top.  (Especially if you let it bake while you went outside to do animal chores and over-baked it a little! :)  )

Leftover Breakfast pie Recipe

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Corned beef and cabbage for dinner?  not much of a corned been sandwich family or is there just not much left for leftovers?  This recipe was a breakfast hit with my family and great for all sorts of leftovers that just aren't ever quite as good as "Leftovers"...  You can probably tailor the recipe to any type of meat roast and vegetable dinner that now is crowding the fridge as leftovers.

leftover cooked Cabbage (about 1/4 of a large head, cooked)
Leftover Mashed Potatoes
Leftover Corned Beef or 1/2 lb fresh sausage
2-3 medium Carrots (leftover or fresh)
one small Onion, leftover or fresh
4 eggs
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Sour Cream, for serving

1.  Pre-heat oven to 325'  Prepare a baking pan or pie plate appropriate to number of folks you're feeding.  (There were 4 adults and one 4 yo eating breakfast, I used a 9" ceramic pie pan)
2.  If using fresh sausage or onions, cut onions into large pieces and cook until browned in a small frying pan with sausage.  Break sausage up into small pieces while cooking.
3.  if using fresh carrots, chop into about 1/2" pieces or slices.  Chop cabbage leaves into bite sized sections, place in baking pan with carrot pieces.
4. If using leftover corned beef, shred or slice into sections and toss in baking pan with cabbage and carrots.
5.  add to baking pan cooked sausage and onions and toss together with cabbage and onions.
6.  Settle the meat and veggies into a nice even layer in the pan.  Beat eggs and pour into baking pan
7.  Spread potatoes in an even layer across the top
8.  Sprinkle Cheese across top of breakfast pie
9.  Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 45-60 minutes or until carrots are soft and eggs are set.
10.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
11.  lick the baking pan clean... yes it was that good!

Chef Camp #1: Priorities

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Chef Camp #1: Priorities

Budget? Health? Low-sodium? Organic? Vegetarian? Vegan? Allergies or sensitivities? Time?

All reasons are important.  What works for you may not work for anyone else.  The best priorities are the most important ones to you and your family.

Taking some time and seriously considering the aspects of food and eating that are important to you and your family can help you define your cooking style and your kitchen.

Chef Camp: Monthly goals: December

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Happy December Folks!

While I'm sure you all are loving reading about my opinions on how to improve yourself and your kitchen, I'd bet that everyone would love to hear also about your challenges and growth.

Many of the various "boot camp" ideas also have a participation or sharing component.  It's that whole build community thing, right?

I would love to know that some of you would like to grow and stretch as well.  Make a list.  Not a long one, a short one will do.  A list of what you'd like to improve upon, learn about, try out, etc. in your kitchen this month.  Feel free to share some or all of your list here and then at the end of the month, lets report back and talk about it.  Lets work together, build some community, and hold each other accountable for what we'd like to try.

Ready?  I'll start with mine below...

1. try out some pre-made breakfast type pastries for HM in the mornings and quick breakfasts for the rest of us.
2. find one new reasonably fast breakfast idea a week.

PLEASE NOTE:

All statements made within this blog are my own experiences and opinions only.

Part of Omache Farm’s mission is to educate consumers about our products and philosophies.  Please feel free to copy and distribute any information with citation.  Use information for your life that works for you and your family and feel free to discard the rest.  What works for one family doesn’t always work for another!

Chef Camp: Introduction

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The inspiration for my newly minted Chef Camp was a letter to the editor in WSU's school newspaper, The Daily Evergreen.  Here's the link to the letter I read.

A bit about ME. 
A.K.A. Why I feel qualified to stand on this particular soapbox.

Chef Camp

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Wishing you could tame that food budget?

Wish you could expand your recipe repertoire?

Want to learn how to figure out something new without consulting every recipe book and the internet?

How about cooking fresh, delicious meals on the fly?

Introducing: Omache Farm's Chef Camp

After a recent Letter to the Editor in the Daily Evergreen (WSU's student newspaper) from a student complaining that they really don't have time or money to cook healthy food for themselves, I was inspired to create a set of blog posts to help other folks improve their kitchen sense, their food budget and their health.

Here are the topics I will be working to cover in the near future.  Any other subject suggestions are happily welcomed!  What stumps you?  What is your kitchen goal?  What do you continually struggle with when it comes to food?  Please make a comment here or send us an email!   OmacheFarm@gmail.com

Topics:
Your pantry and the food bill
How to cook from scratch
Cooking on the fly
Fast Meals
Breakfast Variety
How to try a new vegetable
Protein other than meat and eggs
Bread
Gluten Free
The Potluck with Allergies
Cooking as a family
Cookbook bookshelf
Hands-free cooking
Cooking with Pastured Meats
Farm Fresh Pastured Eggs

PLEASE NOTE:

I am not a professional nutritionist.  All statements made within this blog are my own experiences and opinions only.

Part of Omache Farm’s mission is to educate consumers about our products and philosophies.  Please feel free to copy and distribute any information with citation.  Use information for your life that works for you and your family and feel free to discard the rest.  What works for one family doesn’t always work for another!

Winter Stuff Pickup

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We have our first pickup scheduled for our Winter Stuff folks!

What am I talking about? visit our Winter Retail page...

Tuesday November 26, 2013 from 3-6pm.

With Pork, Lamb, Eggs, produce, gourds, wool and farm crafts, there is quite a bit to choose from for November!

Wilson Banner Ranch will also be taking orders for Tuesday pickup this week.  They are offering butternut squash, Banana winter squash, more pie pumpkins and eggs, mix and match boxes of pears and apples and of course their famous apple cider!

If you have yet to sign up for our Winter Stuff email list so you too can order fresh, local food and other farm products from your local farmer, email us at OmacheFarm@gmail.com to get on the list.

Hurry!  Ordering for this week's pickup closes at 10am Tuesday morning!

We've got Chickens!

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Our farm is really starting to feel alive!

Every morning we have to let chickens out, check for eggs, go out to the barn and feed our little bottle lambs.   all before breakfast!  Each morning and evening as we are letting out or shutting in the chickens, finding more eggs is exciting and a bit of a surprise!  They are funny and beautiful creatures too!