Best Oatmeal Ever!

Several folks have asked me for the oatmeal recipe after I mentioned it in one of my last blogs. This is by far the best oatmeal ever. The key to success is using a rice cooker. We use the Zojirushi Model NS-ZCC18 Ten cup with Neuro Fuzzy logic. I know that sounds like a mouthful but it makes perfect oatmeal (and all kinds of rice) effortlessly. We just put in the ingredients, set what time we what to eat, and it does the rest.

We started with a recipe from The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook and fine tuned it to our desires. This recipe makes 2 servings:

2/3 cup of steel cut oats (Bob’s Red Mill is great)

2 cups of almond milk (more about this shortly)

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 tablespoon of honey or maple syrup

Pinch of sea salt

1 good handful of raisins

I add all the components in the rice cooker and set the timer before heading to the barn for morning chores. When we return, the house smells like cinnamon and honey and the oatmeal is ready to eat when I have finished my shower. Perfect!

I throw one extra step in – I soak the oatmeal and almond milk overnight in the refrigerator. I don’t know if this absolutely necessary but it is simple to do when I am cleaning up from breakfast.

And now about the almond milk which we make ourselves. Not that I have a lot of experience milking but I have found that almonds are a lot easier to milk than say cows, goats or sheep. For one thing they don’t care when you milk them nor do you have to do it outside in the cold. All it takes is a 1/3 cup of almonds in 4 cups of cold water and a Vita Mix 500. I whiz them on high for 2 minutes, then strain and pour into a glass jar. The strained residue of almonds is added to the weekly whole wheat bread recipe or Saturday’s pancakes. ENJOY!

From Fleur Creek Farm

Free Range Turkey

Once nearly wiped out, the wild turkey has made a great comeback in Colorado and many other parts of America. When we first move the the Valley we rarely saw them. Now they are constant homestead visitors. It is not unusual to have 30 or more stop by. I think the main reason for this is our neighbor, Russell. For many winters, he and his wife have put corn out for the flock every morning. Russell recently told me he had nearly 100 birds coming to the hillside above his home to feed. Their place is only about 3/4 of a mile (as the turkey flies) from ours. As the winter receeds and the turkeys can move about easier, we start seeing the birds at our place.

It won't be long before the jakes (Toms) start gathering their flock together in anticipation of the breeding season. In late April and early May they will strut around in full display looking just like a Thanksgiving photo. It is a beautiful scene and one that reminds me we have survived another winter and spring has arrived.

There is a lot the talk of free range poultry these days, but our local wild turkeys take it to the next level.

From Fleur Creek Farm

Winter Morning Chores

One of my favorite times of the day is early morning, just before the sun breaks over the Wet Mountains. Shortly after getting up, starting the fire in the cookstove, and programming the rice cooker to make the best oatmeal ever conceived (more about that in a future posting), we head to the barn for morning chores.

During the winter it’s just the horses that need attention and they are more than ready for breakfast. They are all getting old (ages 21 to 31) so their feed ration includes a special pelleted concentrate for old-timers with poor teeth and digestion and all the beautiful Wet Mountain Valley hay they can eat. Our oldest horse, CB, no longer has any molars so he is relegated to the pelleted feed only. He is unable to chew hay any more but otherwise he is healthy and happy. The other three horses have their own share of old-age problems and receive various supplements in an attempt to help them age gracefully.

The horses have their choice to eat inside the barn or outside as we fill the feeders in both locations. Most of the time they prefer outside unless the Valley winds are at their worst. They don’t seem to mind the cold or even snow on calm days.

We take this time to check each one for any injuries or other health problems and to clean the barn area of any manure deposited since the last feeding. If the ground is clear of snow we spread the manure out on the pasture; if not it goes to the manure pile for use when the weather improves. We repeat the whole process in the evening.

Only after the horses have received their breakfast do we head back to the house for a morning shower and our breakfast.

From Fleur Creek Farm

Recycling on the Homestead

We try to take recycling to a whole other level at our farm. Of course we do all the regular stuff like hauling our glass, metal, plastic, newspaper, old magazines and cardboard to the local recycling bins. But we also look for other ways to recycle.

One of our best recycling efforts is that of the cattle. They start by harvesting the sun as they graze the grass and deposit their manure on our land. We are compensated for the weight that they gain during the grazing season with hay from the cattle owner’s ranch. This hay contains more nutrients which are processed by our horses through the winter and deposited back on our pasture. The actions of the cattle and the horses help incorporate the nutrients back into the soil so the nutrient cycle (or re-cycle) continues year after year. We also compost some of the cattle and horse manure for use in our gardens around the house.

The care of our kitties is another source of nutrient recycling. Several years ago we switched from using commercial kitty litter to using a pelleted horse feed in their litter box. I spread the soiled litter daily and it either breaks down releasing its nutrients into the soil or the resident wild turkey flock cleans it up and then deposits their own manure in its place. And added benefit is that the horse feed actually does a better job than the commercial kitty litter and costs half the price.

Over the course of a winter we will burn 4 to 5 cords of firewood. Much of it we cut on our farm but some comes from other locations. No matter the source after releasing its wonderful heat into our home, we spread the ash and send the nutrients back to the soil. More recycling.

Rather than composting kitchen waste in winter we generally burn the residue in the woodstove. The remains go out with the rest of the ash to be spread.

I know there is more that we can do and we are always looking for recycling ideas. Our goal is to turn inputs into nutrients and return them to the soil.

From Fleur Creek Farm

Getting Ready for Winter

The fresh snow on the peaks last Monday morning added a sense of urgency to our preparations for winter. We actually get started in May, soon after the past winter's snowpack is filling the creeks with run-off.

It takes the better part of the summer to bring in enough firewood to fill the woodshed. We try to have around 6 cords of firewood stacked and ready by early fall. Since this is one my least favorite tasks, we spread it out and around all the other chores of the season.


Once the cattle have left, we spend several weeks taking down temporary electric fences, mowing areas that did not get grazed, and moving the horses to fresh fall pastures. Over the course of the previous winter, we pile up horse manure which now needs to be spread back on the grazed pastures, in the orchard and the gardens.

Our hay barn can hold around 500 bales and even though we don't normally need this much, we fill it completely in case the winter is especially hard or the following year's hay crop is down. Our barter with the cattle owner brings us hay for the horses in exchange for summer grazing for his cattle. Its a great trade and a great feeling when the hay barn is full.

There can be times during the winter when it is impossible to get out so we make sure that the pantry and freezer are full of food and medicinals. This year we put a quarter of beef in the freezer which will probably provide us with several years of tasty stews, soups and more. Throughout the summer I collected wild and cultivated medicinal plants and prepared extracts which we use through the year. I have red clover, all heal, fever few, horsetail, meadowsweet, skull cap, and mullein ready.

We also make sure that the trucks are ready for winter and are packed with emergency supplies. This year we added new tires and windshields to the preparations.

We move a lot of snow over the course of the winter and our little Kubota tractor does a fine job of it. Several weeks ago, Don changed the fluids and filters and attached the snow blade to the back. She's ready!

One of the final tasks is cleaning the wood cookstove from top (on the roof) to bottom. It is a really messy job that takes around 3 hours. Last Friday was the day and I'm glad it is done. We usually have to clean it again once during the wood season and that's even more challenging with snow on the roof.

It has been a relatively mild fall but the weather reports are calling for a major change this week. Winter is knocking at the door but I think we are about ready.

From Fleur Creek Farm

Who knew bears liked tamales?

A couple of weeks ago found me heading for a family event in Santa Fe. I always enjoy this trip because we pass through some of the most pleasant country in the West – southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Depending on the weather we either head straight south over Pass Creek Pass then down through San Luis and Taos or west and then south through the San Luis Valley, Antonito, and Ojo Caliente. Either route has its benefits but if we find ourselves in Antonito, Colorado we always stop at the Tamale Connection. It’s actually a little restaurant tucked in the back of a gas station but they have the best tamales. We usually pickup a dozen or two from the cook at the restaurant and take them home for the freezer. There is nothing better on a cold night than a plate of tamales and a good stout brew.

No matter how often we head south, I always find something new to appreciate. This part of the West is so unique because of the Hispanic culture and the history that comes with it. As the residents easily move back and forth across the border, I often wonder if the area should be its own U.S. state. Southern Colorado really has nothing in common with the northern part of the state and I suspect it is the same for New Mexico.

One of the cultural aspects I find so interesting is the Hispanic land use pattern which is hundreds of years old and based on Roman and Middle Eastern concepts. Land was divided into commons, to be used by all the people, and smaller suertes that were under individual ownership. The commons gave the residents a large area for grazing and firewood collection and protected the watershed of the suertes. Each suertes was generally an elongated piece of land that would include river bottom land, pasture, and an irrigated area for crops. This land use design was based on the needs of the community and is so different than our Anglo land use which cares little for the common good. If you are interested in reading more about the Hispanic land use culture, I highly recommend Ancient Agriculture by Juan Estevan Arellano, a 5^th generation farmer from northern New Mexico. The book is actually the first ever English translation of a traditional farming technique manual originally published in 1513!

You are probably wondering what happened to the tamales. In preparation for this season’s beef, we have been eating our way through the last of the food in the freezer. Somehow a package of tamales had escaped earlier detection so we finished those off and I put the corn husks in the compost pile. The next morning I noticed that the deer fence around the back yard was flattened and there were piles of bear scat around the compost. The corn husks were no where to be seen. We repaired the fence, cleaned up the bear piles and figured all was well. Next morning was a repeat of the previous one so this time, in addition to a fence repair, we also added an electric wire on the outside at about bear nose height. The tamale munching bruin has not been back. I am generally very careful about having anything that resembles food and might attract a bear anywhere where one could find it. But who knew bears liked tamales?

From Fleur Creek Farm

Mom's Birthday

Last weekend was my mom’s 90^th birthday. At 90 she is more active, engaged and alert than many much younger people I encounter these days. She lives in Santa Fe with my sister so we started the birthday weekend by meeting up in Taos for lunch and an afternoon trying to find something to do there. Then we headed to Santa Fe to prepare her birthday dinner celebration. She was up until 10 enjoying food, wine and the company.

The next morning we headed out early to the Farmer’s Market and she made the rounds talking, it seemed, with everyone. We enjoyed lunch at her favorite café, La Casa Sena, then spent the afternoon hitting various stops we needed to make to restock our home pantry. We dined at home on an assortment of tasty treats before heading to the season finale of the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. She was up until 11 that night.

Through it all I kept thinking there is no way this woman is 90; 75 maybe, but not 90. She has been through a lot in her life. She was born in the Middle East and lost her mother when she was very young. She was raised by a couple who were complete strangers. She fell in love with a married man, had a child out of wedlock (me) when that was not an acceptable thing to do, eventually married him and since he was in the Army, followed him around the world.

She’s always been artistic and in her 60s started focusing on developing that talent. She has produced some beautiful watercolor paintings that are found in personal and corporate collections throughout the U.S. including on our walls. They are some of my most treasured pieces.

My mom is a pretty amazing person. I don’t know what her secret is but I hope she shares it with me one day.

From Fleur Creek Farm

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