Let's try not to confuse the situation, shall we?

NAIS ( for those of you new to my blog, this is the National Animal Identification System) has been getting a bit of press lately. according to Feedstuffs, there has been press about NAIS being stopped altogether. I however have not seen such articles, What I have seen is the Suspension of Effective Date for the proposed new Privacy Act system of records.
According to Feedstuffs, NAIS remains fully functional . And yet another article by Feedstuffs says that school meat purchases will be NAIS only registered farms. Apparently this will somehow help with recalls from downed cows. Wait, here is were I get confused. According to the USDA, large feedlots do not have to purchase individual tags for their cattle. So if one cow that has the same lot number as thousands of other cows, goes down, is processed then sold, wouldn't you still end up having a massive recall of the beef? You will not know which package of ground chuck was the downed cow. How does this make us safer? Nothing really changes except I will have to spend more money that I don't have to buy useless tags for all my animals, and into a system that I don't think will work, nor do I want, by way of taxes. There is no National Herd, there are ranchers that are kind enough to keep us fed. One would think that you would need to keep these ranchers happy is you want to eat. But what do I know. What I do know is that ion my own state only a few head honchos from the Cattlemen association wants NAIS so that selling overseas (read Japan) will be easier. It has nothing to do with food safety for their own country men. The other's that are against it are afraid to stand up because they would be losing all that cattlemen money. They gritch and moan behind their backs, and it makes me sad.

Onto other things. I watched a program that seemed to be promising the other day. (off the grid) It claimed to be on homesteading, a family purchases land in the backwoods and has 3 months to get it together before winter. This family doesn't have deep pockets and are on a tight budget. So I watched it. Turns out the family is Les Stroud's , you know Survivorman. I am sure the Discovery Channel pays him decently and you could tell when he had all these experts showing up on site. I was a little annoyed listening to him go on about this being real life and that they didn't have a lot of money. And the ads going on about how seemingly poor he was. He does not live paycheck to paycheck like most people do. This farm we are going out to, unless I can pay big bills, no one and I mean no one will come out to it. It is too far from any town. Experts wouldn't even think about coming out to this farm, not unless I had the Discovery Channel on my side. If I was to be really impressed with a documentary on homesteading, it would be a little truer to real life. Homesteaders are a broke bunch of people. Savings disappears with the first major illness. Give me a documentary about the family that lives paycheck to paycheck and are trying to homestead. Oh wait, that's what I do everyday.

I am sure things are difficult for the Stroud Family, but boasting about how little funds one has and yet making major purchases (solar, wind turbines, composting toilets, and a pre-made log cabin that the experts put up, having a helicopter move the lumber in and so forth) doesn't real life make.

The Secret to Simple Living? Simple Syrup

oh yeah, simple syrup is the answer to all life's question. Go ahead try it.

Why is the sky blue?

Simple Syrup.

What is photosynthesis?

Simple syrup.

I tell ya, it works.

Simple syrup is your basis's of so many sauces and beverages. And a great thing to have on your resume. If you watch programs like top chef, you are guaranteed to hear that said once per episode, "I'm making a simple syrup, blah blah blah." And now you too can create the answer to all life's question. Simply send me $19.99 and I'll... no, that's not right.

Yesterday I had 2 lbs of strawberries to preserve. I could have made jams or jellies, but then I remembered simple syrup, that and the price of molasses went up by $2 the other day, and we love our pancakes around here. I decided to make a basic multipurpose strawberry syrup. This is great to pour concentrated on your hot breads, or mix it half and half with soda water to make your own pop (yes, here is Kansas we say pop, not soda or soda pop).



You have to start with a simple syrup.

Boil 2 cups of water and 2 cups of white sugar for five minutes. Stir occasionally.

If you want to can this to keep some on hand at all times, process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

The strawberry syrup is also simple. Puree your strawberries and add 1 cup water to every 2 cups of puree. Once that is done add 2 cups of simple syrup to every 2 cups of strawberry juice. Boil gently for 15 minutes then bottle.

Now let's see who tells me what kind of bottle the syrup is in.

A Whole Mess of Things

My rose petal jam recipe made number 38 on Baking in Bloom: 50 best Edible Flower Recipes Ever. There are some good recipes listed there ( Baking Delights) . I have a bunch more up my sleeve, maybe I will share some more of them later. If you ask nicely.

It won't stop raining! It is frustrating because I have 60+ sweet potato slips to put into the ground. But the soil is clay, and it isn't wise to work clay when it is wet. You get bricks. My purchase of heritage sweet potato slips came in the other day. This is my first year ordering from Sand Hill Preservation. They have all kinds of heritage food stuff, including birds.

There is a little paranoia going around the neighborhood as of late. We found out that one of our neighbors had sold her home. No one even knew she was going to sell it. There is concern here because the last time new people moved in we began to have thefts. Not just my birds, but Brome, tillers, ladders, and so forth. The list is long. We know that not everyone is like this, but we fear this change. We are all making an attempt not to label the new people before we meet them. We had a small meeting of concerned neighbors last night. We explained and confessed our concerns, and we all admitted that we need to wait in our judgment. My husband and I know what it feels like to be judged before meeting with us. So we are reserving our judgment on this one as well.

This weekend I meet a woman from Craigslist, I bought 2 mixed breed bannies from her. The rooster is in my room trying to crow. Sounds more like someone is strangling him than a crow. She is a sweet girl and is having theft problems with her birds and neighbors as well. We talked for 2 hours without realizing it.

And finally, we will be having Christmas goose this year, although I would like to butcher him now! I have never had a problem with my geese going nutso on me before. But last night, one of the teen ganders went off on me, which got the adult geese attention and they went after him, whom of which was attacking me. SO I had 3 geese all over me, and I didn't have my boots on. I did have the hand towel that I brought out to dry off Mama's udders, so I started whipping that about. My husband almost fell over into a puddle laughing so hard.

"What did you just break out, your Chuck Norris or your Jacki Chan?"

Don't Just Stop and Smell the Roses, Eat them.

As some of you may have noticed, on the side bar under the Back to Basics logo I have an updated daily tally of things that I have harvested. One of those items was rose petals. I received an email the other day asking about said rose petals.

Here on the Neophyte Homestead we eat rose petals in various forms. The ones I harvest here are for Rose Petal Jam.

2 cups rose petals ( finely chopped)
2 cups boiling water
2 3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
( I did not have 2 cups of roses, so I had to adjust the recipe to fit what I had)

cover the rose petals with boiling water, simmer for 10 minutes. Strain and reserve both water and petals. Add sugar and the honey to the water. Simmer for 30 minutes. add lemon and finely chopped petals and simmer 30 minutes. Pour into hot jars.

I added 2 strawberries to mine. I tastes like watermelon Jolly Ranchers.

Hot Jam!

Ignore her.

The wind was blowing in the opposite direction for them to hear me. Typical Kansas wind howling passsed, dampening any sound that would dare try to go upwind of it. Of course they wouldn't hear me, but that wouldn't stop me from calling out. I walked out into the field, a bright red coffee can in one hand, being shook, so that the creep could be heard. Yet the sound of the creep was going against the wind as well, and only those that stood to the north of me could hear the sound.

I walked closer, until one of the ladies looked up. She spotted me, and didn't care, but when she saw the can she high tailed it over to me. "good girl Edie" I praised and walked to the barn. Her muzzle pushing at my side, and the back of my arms as I tried to keep her out of the bucket and lead her to the station. As we got closer to the barn, she realized what was expected of her, and she took off in front of me, then paced in the station waiting for her treat to be poured into the feeder. With Edie content, it was time to round up Momma.

I crossed behind Edie, patting her rump so she wouldn't get startled. Edie watched from inside the station as I got more creep for Momma. She watched as I walked through the goat pen, and back out in to the field, and something snapped in her head. The contents of the bucket must taste better then what I had poured into the station. Edie took off out of the barn, and ran full speed out into the field to greet me. I quickly place the bucket under my shirt. Sure I looked a sight to the neighbors, but Edie couldn't see the bucket. She pushed on my hands, looking for what she could smell. I reprimanded her to no avail.

With the wind still blowing, I had to walk out further to get Momma to see me. Once she did, I had to revel the bright red can so that she could see it. Edie saw it as well. Momma ignored me, but Edie slowly became frustrated and desperate. I continued to push her away, telling her NO! We swung around in circles, playing a rousing game of keep away. "Station" I tried to yell over the wind. "Go to the station Edie" Nothing was working, she knew that the bucket was better. The next thing I know, her horn takes a swipe at my bucket hand and side. The bright red can flies through the air, and she runs to were the content has been spilt. I stood there staring, and the past few weeks of frustration and physical pain came bubbling to the surface. "You fat cow!" I cried out, as tears welled up in my eyes. As I walked past the goats that bleated at me for my neglecting to love on them, and the chickens that made a fuss because they too know that what was in the bucket was better then the feed they got, tears streamed down my face. My arm throbbed and turned bright red from where the horn had hit me.

I walked into the house and my husband spied my tears. I told him what Edie had done, and showed him my arm which has become swollen. "I hate cows" I pouted like a five year old. My husband smiled at me. I shook my head,

"My pride hurts more then my arm."