Tag: Digby County

My Boy Rocky At Briden Farm

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My Boy Rocky

It’s been a few weeks since our new Dog, Rocky, come to Briden Farm. Many of You already know our girl, Holly. 

Holly Come To Briden Farm

Holly, a Golden Retriever/ Little River (Nova Scotia) Duck Toller who come to Briden Farm in April, 2021. She’s 8 years old, lived most of her life inside with Seniors. While she adjusted well to Farm Life, and gets along well with everyone here, she’d rather be inside than out. She’s exactly what I wanted, except for her desire to remain inside, and her choosing my Better Half to be her Pet, and not Me! We love each other, but she’s just not really “My Dog”. 

So, we needed, another Dog, one that will be happier to be outside, especially when I’m out working, and perhaps a pup we can train to help even more around the Farm. That said, just yesterday, Holly helped me herd a chicken from one area to another while Rocky bounced around and tried to figure things out! It’s quite a thing to see, when using mostly hand signals, a dog responds and works to help you in such a way. That said, after we were done, she was done for the day! “I did my job, now I’m going in the house”, seems to be her motto!

So, along come Rocky, our Golden Labrador Retriever who is about 8 months old, as compared to Holly at 8 years. It’s taken some time, but the two dogs are starting to spend more time together, with both starting to enjoy their time together. However, Tis Gris, our 17 year old cat, is not quite sure! Although she rules over the Dogs! 

Rocky, who is pictured at the top of this Post, is definitely my Dog, or perhaps I’m His! He stays on his mat when in the house, and comes to me to check in about every 20 minutes or so. He enjoys it outside, and enjoys spending time with me outside and stays with me, and checks in regularly when I’m outside working, He’s very responsive to my hand and sound signals. I give voice commands when needed, but have always mainly employed hand and sound signals when training and handling dogs. Since he’s a big boy, but only 8 months old, he’s sometimes rambunctious, but very loving and his gentleness will come with age. For me, he’s the Dog I’ve been missing! There’s something very intrinsic to having a dog who loves and trusts you and whom you can count on when you need them. 

So, now, when you come visit us at Briden Farm, you will probably be met by our two Dogs, Holly and My Boy Rocky! We await your visit, and remember friends and family are always welcome! ;).  

Homemade Pasta & Woodland Pasture Raised Pork

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Homemade Pasta and Woodland Pasture Raised Pork

I love it when a good meal comes together almost as much as I love our becoming more and more self sufficient here at Briden Farm. Imagine sitting down to a supper of Homemade Pasta & Woodland Pasture Raised Pork that you’ve made and raised! 

The photo above is exactly that! We milk our Goats for the milk, and then make butter! The left over part of making butter is Butter Milk and that’s what I use to cook our Berkshire woodland pastured, oven baked, pork chops!

The pasta, I made a week or so ago, and dried it for ready use and yesterday I cooked it in the Whey, which was left over from making cheese from our Goat Milk! Not only had I added oregano and basil, both from Watkins, to the egg, flour, and olive oil when I made the pasta, but also added a bit more to the whey when I cooked the pasta! So you just know that has to be good! 

As you can tell… I love to play with my food and using Watkins Products makes that so much fun! (Learn More)

Remember we invite you to come visit us at Briden Farm where we encourage you to leave your fears behind and embrace, the fun, at Briden Farm… where the Tea is Always On and The Coffee is not far behind! 😉 

Friends and Family are Always Welcome!

Thanksgiving at Briden Farm

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Thanksgiving Dinner 2021

Although, as expected, it’s going to take a few years before our Gardens are producing the way we’d like them, we do have lots to be thankful for this year. We have survived our first 14 months! It’s not all been easy, we have dealt with everything from sickness to pestilences. We’ve witnessed new births, dealt with deaths, and rejoiced in the living. 

This Thanksgiving our meal is a combination of the woodland pasture raised Berkshire pork that we raised. Vegetables given to us by a friend, pickles and preserves from both Grandma’s and from our Garden!

We’ve also had our own eggs, milk, cheese, butter, and apple sauce and fresh veggies, over the past months and even delicious farm raised chicken, duck, rabbit, and pork! 

We reflect at this time to give thanks not only for all the above, and each other, but for our families, friends, and friends who are family. So, we want to close by saying how special you all are to us and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! 

Apple Time at Briden Farm

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Preserving Apples

Last year, when we first moved here, the deer had pretty much totally cleaned the apple trees! So, we weren’t sure if we had any decent apples or not. This year, with the activities from the gardens, the pigs, ducks, chickens, and goats, the deer have moved off a bit. So now we’re discovering we actually do have Apple Trees worth saving, and some of them have some pretty good apples. Thus we’ve been making things like Apple Sauce, Apple Jelly, Apple Butter, as well as freezing sliced apple to use in Apple Pies! It’s a great feeling to have your own fruits to make these treats that will be enjoyed all through the winter, especially on those cold days when something extra special always makes things seem a little bit warmer! 😉