Blogger is having photo issues so I'll have to just write this one without posting pictures.
After making and canning the burger patties this week, I was left with a lot of grease left over. I decided to put the grease to use and make suet cakes for the chickens. To make them, you melt the grease, lard, peanut butter....or any combination of fats; then pour over a grain mixture.
The grain mixture I use is the same that I use for the goats. It consists of:
Oats
Wheat
Milo
Black oil sunflower seeds
Alfalfa pellets
16% horse sweet feed
Calfmanna
I lay the grains out in a sheet pan, pour the grease over...completely encasing the grains. Once it is soft set, I put peanuts on top and mash them in a bit. Be careful where you put the peanuts so that when you cut the sheet into bars you don't have to cut through peanut shells.
Once cut into appropriate sized cakes, I wrap each cake with parchment paper. Parchment works well because the grease doesn't stick to it, and it's easy to unwrap to feed even if you have gloves on. Since I only feed these to my chickens during the winter....I usually have gloves on.
They really enjoy the treat, and the fat keeps them from losing too much body condition over the winter months.
After making and canning the burger patties this week, I was left with a lot of grease left over. I decided to put the grease to use and make suet cakes for the chickens. To make them, you melt the grease, lard, peanut butter....or any combination of fats; then pour over a grain mixture.
The grain mixture I use is the same that I use for the goats. It consists of:
Oats
Wheat
Milo
Black oil sunflower seeds
Alfalfa pellets
16% horse sweet feed
Calfmanna
I lay the grains out in a sheet pan, pour the grease over...completely encasing the grains. Once it is soft set, I put peanuts on top and mash them in a bit. Be careful where you put the peanuts so that when you cut the sheet into bars you don't have to cut through peanut shells.
Once cut into appropriate sized cakes, I wrap each cake with parchment paper. Parchment works well because the grease doesn't stick to it, and it's easy to unwrap to feed even if you have gloves on. Since I only feed these to my chickens during the winter....I usually have gloves on.
They really enjoy the treat, and the fat keeps them from losing too much body condition over the winter months.
Seems like I should be putting a picture right here.
With the weather so cold and the sun being hidden by clouds, I haven't opened the greenhut to check on the aquaponics garden in several days. On Friday we had a glimpse of the sun and I decided to get in there and have a look....good thing that I did! One of the elbow joints in the pipe from the floating raft bed had loosened and began to leak into the strawberry bed. This means that the water was being pumped from the fish tank, to the main growbed, to the floating raft bed...then instead of going back to the fish tank....it was flooding the strawberry bed and emptying the fish tank.
When I checked on them, there was only about 3" of water left in the tank....it drained over 250 gallons of water! I am happy to report that all is well, I refilled the fish tank (thank you, Lord for good well water!) and nothing seems to have been harmed in the whole mishap.
The sauerkraut is coming along. It's been so cool that it's going to be a slow batch...albeit a tasty one!
Still can't upload pictures....but it would let me insert a picture that I uploaded years ago. Go figure. Oh well, one of my favorite Faith smiling pictures....she chouldn't have been more than 2 in this shot.
With the weather so cold and the sun being hidden by clouds, I haven't opened the greenhut to check on the aquaponics garden in several days. On Friday we had a glimpse of the sun and I decided to get in there and have a look....good thing that I did! One of the elbow joints in the pipe from the floating raft bed had loosened and began to leak into the strawberry bed. This means that the water was being pumped from the fish tank, to the main growbed, to the floating raft bed...then instead of going back to the fish tank....it was flooding the strawberry bed and emptying the fish tank.
When I checked on them, there was only about 3" of water left in the tank....it drained over 250 gallons of water! I am happy to report that all is well, I refilled the fish tank (thank you, Lord for good well water!) and nothing seems to have been harmed in the whole mishap.
The sauerkraut is coming along. It's been so cool that it's going to be a slow batch...albeit a tasty one!
Still can't upload pictures....but it would let me insert a picture that I uploaded years ago. Go figure. Oh well, one of my favorite Faith smiling pictures....she chouldn't have been more than 2 in this shot.
1 comment:
Ohhh, my GOD!!! I am laughing my butt off! Girl, you have got some Angels!!!
That would be one of those, " I'll never be able to do that twice, " events in life.
Trust me. Been there. I'm STILL kicking myself for not selling T-shirts over a few of those from the pages of my life! LOL
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