Beef Availability

No Beef Available at this Time - Still at a loss Due to Drought

Will let you know when we have beef available.  You might try Betsy Ross Grass Fed Beef or contacting the Coyote Creek Organic Feed Mill in Elgin to see if the mill owner, Jerimiah Cunningham, has any GF beef for sale.  I've seen both of these operations and can recommend them.

Miss my regular customers and hope we see regular rain and fast growing calves soon.

Lauren

Cactus Pear Jelly

There's no beef in this recipe, but after my third lifetime try today, I found a Cactus Pear Jelly recipe that jelled and tastes great! Before I forget or lose my notes, here is the exact way I made my good jelly:

One quart cold cactus pear (tuna) juice

8 Tablespoons pectin (I used Ball Classic (dry) pectin; Surejell    would be one box plus two tablespoons)

3.5 cups of cane (I used organic) sugar

Mix the pectin and juice together in a large saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil (a boil you cannot diminish by stirring). Gradually add the sugar, stirring constantly. By gradual, I mean about 1/4 cup at a time. Return to rolling boil and stir and boil until the syrup passes the Jelly Test according to the Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving:  Dip a large spoon into boiling jelly sirup. Tilt spoon until sirup runs over the side. When the liquid has reached the jellying stage it will stop flowing from the spoon in a stream and divide into two distinct drops which run together and leave the edge of the spoon in one large flake or sheet. Stop the cooking at this point.

Put syrup into prepared jars. Process in water bath for five minutes. Remove from bath and allow jars to cool. Verify seal and store.

Notes to self and anyone else: The sugar amount I used was from the Ball Blue Book, which does have recipe amounts for cactus pears. I used the lower amount of sugar. There was no specific pectin amount given in the BBB, but a note that pectin was required. Because I knew that six tablespoons (one box of Surejell) wouldn't get the job done, I upped it to 8 T.   I may try 7.5 tablespoons next time.   I also did not add any citric acid or lemon juice as called for by many of the Internet recipes. I did add citric acid to my last (failed) batch.

 I don't know if having the juice in fridge for a day or two changed the pH at all (it would with my goat milk!), so I just noted in the above recipe that I used cold juice (which I had juiced about 48 hours ago.) I am very pleased with my jelly! It set up within a few hours - no small feat with cactus!

Beef Available November 2011

The good news is we received 2.39 inches of much needed rain mid-June. The grass is growing fast and means we won't be feeding any more hay. We had already fed three round bales the first part of June to supplement the meager grass.

Hopefully we will get more rain this month and later. The goal is always to make it through to the first freeze before we feed our home-grown hay.

The not-so-good news, at least if you're in the mood for a delicious steak or a grass-fed hamburger, is that we've sold out of beef for the season. Our spring calves will be ready for market in November 2011 and later. I'll start taking orders in October 2011.

Baby Goats!

My doe Spice delivered on Cinco de Mayo. We're still waiting on Ginger -- any day now as I've been saying.

These babies are very cute; the doeling looks just like daddy Bubba Gruff and the buckling is a rainbow of colors. One of my neighbors lost her last dairy goat to coyotes last year and had asked for my doelings out of this breeding. She now has carpel tunnel syndrome, is a year older and has declined the girls. So, they are up for sale but only to a good home. Otherwise, they will go back to Jobi Dairy and become professional milkers.