Spring Time in Western Nebraska

Awww... you gotta love springtime in Western Nebraska.  One day it is sunny, warm and a beautiful 70 degrees outside.  The next day... it could be snowing and 32 degrees with wind and the schools are either closed or have late starts!

This was the case last week on March 18th.

Although the cows didn't seem to mind.  They were still able to find the luscious green spring grass even under the snow.

One was even starting to roll a snowball with her nose!  Later that day when we came back from town the girls had constructed a snowman!!!!  

Just joking, but wouldn't that have been fun?

German Sausage Chowder

Quick post to add to your Open A Bar 2 Ranch recipes.  I think I should start a little cookbook... in my spare time.  Those who know me know that will not happen any time soon!

Delicious Zuppa Toscana

I know I have not been a faithful blogger for quite some time now, but I would really like to change that.

If I set goals, maybe I can rectify my lack of posts.

So, the first goal that I am setting is to post a recipe once a week that will highlight one of Open A Bar 2 Ranch's premium all-natural beef.

This week I would like to feature our all new Italian Sausage.  It is yummy and so versatile.  Not only is it delicious any most any pasta recipe, but it can stand alone as the star topping on a pizza!  Italian Sausage is also awesome for soups.

I will be sampling this soup, made with Open A Bar 2 Ranch Italian Sausage at the Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market this Saturday from 11am-2pm.  The market is held in the greenhouses at Aulick's TLC on 3109 Avenue B in Scottsbluff.  You can pick up a package of sausage at the market on Saturday OR we also have our all-natural beef at Hometown Harvest Cooperative at 1214 Center Avenue in Mitchell.

If you think this blog post is a big fat plug for Open A Bar 2 Ranch, you would be correct!

But I promise I will try to post more things about the goings on around the ranch.  I know some of you like those stories better than the recipes.

Enjoy!

Spinach, Ham and Cheese Quiche - Recipe

I made the most delicious quiche yesterday morning, I thought I should share the recipe. Besides, I haven't shared a recipe in a long time it seems... So here you go.

Let me first start by saying that if you don't know, I am a huge advocate for local food.  This was made with some of our farm fresh eggs, compliments of our beautiful egg layers here at the Open A Bar 2 Ranch, LLC, white cheddar dill cheese from the Cozy Cow Dairy in Windsor, CO and fresh spinach grown by Dan Weitzel of the Mitchell Valley Farm.  Dan grew the spinach in his high tunnel in Western Nebraska, in the months of January and February!  Can you believe it??  It is so tender and yummy.  Dan is a vendor, along with us at the Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market.  I often wonder how many people actually are aware of the fact that we are extremely blessed to have a winter market here.

If you are on Facebook... like the Open A Bar 2 Ranch, Cozy Cow Dairy, Mitchell Valley Farm and the ScottsbluffWinter FarmersMarket!


Here is the recipe.

I started with a basic recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens red-checked cookbook, one of my favorite all time go-tos, and tweaked it to my needs.

The Ingredients...


1 already made pie crust (because I stink at making pie crusts)
1/2 cup or so of chopped onion
2 Tbs. butter
8 farm fresh Open A Bar 2 Ranch eggs! (WARNING:  if you use store bought eggs you will probably get food poisoning or something of the sort...)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk (I used raw milk, straight from the cow, because that's how we roll...  take that USDA police)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup sliced ham 
3 cups lightly packed fresh spinach from Mitchell Valley Farm
1 cup Rocky Mountain cheddar dill cheese from Cozy Cow Dairy


(This recipe is very versatile, so use what ever ingredients you want to... just stay with the basic ingredients of the eggs, sour cream and milk.)


1.  Bake the pie crust according to the directions on the package.
2.  Meanwhile, saute the onions in the butter until translucent.
3.  Beat eggs lightly in a large bowl.  Stir in sour cream, milk, salt and pepper.  Stir in onion, ham, spinach (I left mine whole leaf, but you can chop it up if you want to) and cheese.
4.  Pour mixture into hot, baked pie crust.  Bake in 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes.  I covered the edge of the pie crust with foil so it would not burn.  It is done when you can insert a knife in the middle of the quiche and it comes out clean.
5.  Let stand about 10 minutes before serving.
6.  Eat and enjoy!  Yum.


The remaining dates for the Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market are February 25th, March 10th & 24th and April 7th & 21st.  It is held at Aulick's TLC in the greenhouse from 1-4pm.  You should come.  Seriously, you will be surprised at what all it has to offer.

AND if you want farm fresh eggs but can't make it to the farmers' market... let me know.  I sometimes deliver...  Call us at 787-1111.  Now all you smarty pants who live many miles away... don't bother asking... the answer is no.

"Victoberfest" - Don't Miss It Next Year!

On October 23rd my friends, Lee & Sarah Pinet, hosted their first annual "Victoberfest" at their goat dairy, Victory Hill Farm.  WOW, WOW, WOW, was it ever a success!  I am extremely sad for you if you did not make it to the festival.  You really did miss out on a FUN event.  Victory Hill Farm is the only dairy goat dairy located in Western Nebraska.

The fall weather was absolutely perfect with temperatures in the mid 70's and just a slight breeze and a few small gusts of wind at times.  We were so blessed with the weather, especially since Fall in Western Nebraska can often mean snow and huge amounts of wind!

The festivities started at 11am and continued until 4pm.  In essence, it was an open house plus more!  There were "penny carnival" (farm style) activities for children to do, lunch was offered, live music and a farmers' market.  We, the Open A Bar 2 Ranch, participated in the farmers' market.

Allow me to tell you more about the festival through my pictures.  (Remember you can click on a picture to see a full-screen view of it and then just hit your browser's back button to return to the blog.)

First I'll start the vendors of the farmers' market.  I am missing one picture of one of the vendors who was there.  He left a little early and I neglected to snap his picture.  So sorry.  I am not even sure what his name is, but he was selling some gourds and zucchini.

  

Dan the Man with Open A Bar 2 Ranch

 

Ernie Griffith with Ebee Honey

Nancy Butcher with Jam & Jellies Just For You

Farmer Dan Weitzel with Mitchell Valley Farm

Jane Sedman with Mama Jane's Artisan Breads

 

Kethera Moran with My Friend Kethera  

Nick Gompert with Spotted Tail Farm

 Laura Whelchel with Double L Country Store

Laura was also manning the Victory Hill Farm store and 

selling tickets for the activities.

She was busy, Busy, BUSY!

 

And now for some of the kids, animals and activities.

Group of kids having a great time.

Check out those smiles!

People enjoying lunch.

A young man enjoying the company of this bunny!

Face painting!



Bill Snocker providing some live music
on his guitar and harmonica! 

CHICKENS!

Bales of hay to climb on!

A big black horse, of course!

A goat resting amongst all the commotion!

Love this kid's hair!!

More goats!

What personalities they have.

That's what makes goats so fun, they are so animated and entertaining.

Lazy pigs!

This piggy wanted to know what I was doing.

 

 Cute!

 

A little hesitant!

Milk A Goat!

 

Can't tell who is having more fun, Sarah or the girl milking!

The "Corn Dig".  Candy surprises were buried in the corn!

Free picture taking station complete with wagon and pumpkins!

Gramps "hanging out" with his little man!

There was even a LIVE TURKEY Raffle!!

I wonder how many children were "allowed" to enter that one?

AND... who is going to butcher that turkey?

Check out this little girl's face...

right after the turkey did a very impressive...

gobble, gobble, gobble!

The "tomato toss".

The child with the highest score receive two ticket

to the "Spooktacular"!

Such concentration!

Ahhh... the pony rides!

Ahhh...

the pony ride clean-up crew!

So, if you missed it this year,

I hope that you will make a point of

attending next year!

THE END

Open House!

In order to catch you up on the goings on around here this summer, I need to tell you about the Open House that we had here on the ranch on June 18th.

Now, before you start bellyaching that you didn't know about it or wasn't invited... don't worry, we are having another one in October! Date to be determined...

Dan the Man and I have been wanting to have an Open House here at the Open A Bar 2 Ranch for some time now. This is not our first one, some of you chicken customers will remember the one we had a few years ago when we raised heritage turkeys. Actually that was in 2008. Anyway, I'm getting off the subject.

Dan the Man and I want our customers to feel as the Open A Bar 2 Ranch is "their" ranch. We want everyone to be a part of what we are doing out here and to get to know us and our operation on a personal level. We want our practices to be transparent.

The Open House was on June 18th. People who had pre-ordered chickens for Batch #1 we able to pick up their chickens at the open house. But that was not all. I decided to invite several of our "farmers' market" friends to also come set-up and sell their wares. We had 9 vendors who came!! They included the following: Diane Edwards with Wind Harvest Farms who brought some of their most delicious strawberries! Dan Weitzel, with Mitchell Valley Farm (a local CSA) who brought some yummy radishes and information on his CSA. Nancy Butcher, Jams and Jellies Just For You, surely you can figure out what she brought. Flower Field Farm, Nathaniel & Rylee McGown, who had free ice cream cones made with milk right off their dairy. Sarah Pinet, you know her as the "goat cheese lady" of Victory Hill Farm, brought her delicious cheve and other goat cheeses! Jennie Salters, Chalk Butte Pottery, you know the awesome chicken roasters... (see this post, and yes, Dan the Man bought me another one!) Laura and Jim Whelchel with Double L Country Store came with their goat milk products such as lotion and soap along with a vast array of other neat-o stuff. Beth Everett of Meadowlark Hearth CSA brought veggies and seedlings such as lettuce and last but certainly not least Jane Sedman, who you know as the bread lady or Mama Janes' Artisan Breads, who has the best buttermilk cinnamon raisin swirl bread on the planet.

We had our own mini farmers' market going on out here at the ranch. Thanks again to all of you vendors who came!!

The Open House started at 1 pm and of course, wouldn't you know it that a storm moved in around 1:45 or so. We are talking wind, rain and hail folks! Actually it would appear as if "Wind, Rain and Hail" seem to be this summer's theme! Thank goodness we had room for everyone to get out of the storm in the shop and studio. People were great and just moved inside and visited.

Here comes the storm.
Picture courtesy of Katie Bradshaw.

Dave & Laura Whelchel, Double L Country Store waiting out the storm.
Picture also courtesy of Katie Bradshaw.

After the storm cleared, we continued with the festivities. I was afraid that the storm would put a quick end to the open house, but when the sun came back out, the people began to come out as well. Some even told us that the radio had reported a tornado sighting in Stegall which is 3 miles east of us!

Dan the Man gave tours of the operation to several people who went out in two groups. That was after the storm... good thing we had plenty of rubber boots to share! The children loved seeing all the baby chicks and the baby calves.

We had plenty of help with the open house. Our oldest son and daughter-in-law (Nick & Sarah) were here on vacation, Chris came home from Kearney for the weekend to help, Danny's parents (Bob & Penny) came down from Colorado, and Danny's sister and brother-in-law (Carla & Jim) came up from Casper. My sister, Lori, bought and helped me plant several flowers the week before to help pretty-up the place. Too bad most of those flowers got destroyed in the July 2nd storm.

Anyway... I think it is fair to say a good time was had by all. We had a wonderful turnout and can't wait to do another on in October. I hope I can convince Dan the Man to offer hay rides! We will also invite vendors. I can see it now... hay rides, hay castle for the kids to play in, pumpkins, gourds, indian corn for sale from the vendors, apple cider, cookies, smoked chicken, bonfire for making s'mores... awww yes!! Come on FALL!

Free Range Chickens and Gardening

There is one drawback to "free range" chickens.

It's not...

... that the chickens do not stay home. Oh they do. I don't think I've even seen them across the county road. I've seen them wander all around, but for the most part, they stay in the yard and around the house, usually within eyesight. But then again, our yard is pretty big and when I say "yard", I don't mean just the front yard and the back yard, I mean the whole "farm yard" which includes the area with all of our buildings. For you city folk, I guess you might say that our "yard" is about the size of a city block.

{PS, as always, don't forget you can click on the picture to see a full screen view of it. Just remember to hit your browsers back button to return to the blog. The girls (chickens) wanted me to make sure you knew that because they want you to see how beautiful they are. They are so vain!}

... that the chickens lay their eggs all over the place. The chickens almost always return to their nesting boxes in the coop to lay their eggs. Very rarely do I find any outside the coop. Occasionally I do find an egg outside the coop, but it is always close to the coop. It's almost as if the chicken is caught off guard and realizes that she has to lay an egg and can't hold it, so she drops it right there. Kind of like your kids when they wait too long to go to the bathroom. LOL I can just picture the chicken running through the yard back to the coop, trying to get to the nest box before she has an "accident." hee, hee!!




... that the chickens will get eaten alive by wild animals. That has only happened a few times with the egg layers. If I remember correctly, we have only lost two of our egg layers to predators. We are very lucky because some of our neighbors have lost several chickens to fox, dog and other critters. I have lost a couple of my egg layers to a hawk, but that is it. Oh, and the chickens and cats get along just fine. The cats don't bother the chickens and the chickens don't bother the cats. We don't have any dogs. And we seldom have the neighborhood dogs or stray dogs wander into our yard.




... that the chickens will not come back to the coop at bedtime. The chickens always come back to roost in the coop when it is bedtime. It's not like we have to go "round them up" and put them to bed at night. They are such good girls, they are always home before their curfew and all that I have to do is shut the coop door at night.





The one drawback with "free range" chickens is that they love to dig in the dirt. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean. As soon as they hear me start the rototiller, they come running like a herd of buffalo. You can almost hear the "thunder" and feel the ground shake as they all come running.

Not only do they dig and scratch the earth, but they don't care where they dig. I constantly catch them digging in my flowerbeds. Just the other day I planted a few small annuals, alyssum actually, and as soon as I turned my back and went into the house for a few minutes, some chicken managed to dig up three of the six plants that I had planted. Not only did they dig them up, but they demolished the plant. I could not believe my eyes as I walked past the flowerbed and saw that some dirty bird had already dug in that one spot. Oh and let me tell you about mulch. I put the mulch in the flowerbeds, the chickens kick it out when they are scratching and digging. I put the mulch back in, they think they need to throw it back out. This is an endless battle that happens on a daily basis.

So, if you are planning on having "free range" chickens and gardening, take heed to my warning... Anything you don't want the chickens to ruin, you will have to fence around.

Dan the Man the "BIG RED" Kamado Kooker

For Christmas this last year, Dan the Man received a few gifts cards for Mernards from our boys. For those of you who do not have a Mernards where you live, it is like a Home Depot or Lowes. Danny has been sitting on those gift cards all this time waiting for the summer grills to come in stock so he could use them to help purchase a new grill. Danny has been wanting a new grill, a charcoal grill, for a year or so now. We currently have a gas grill that never seems to work right.

He originally did research on charcoal grills several years ago and ran across one called the "Big Green Egg" or some such thing. He has been obsessed with getting one since. The only thing holding him back is that they cost around $800 and while Danny can easily dish that kind of money out for some piece of machinery or equipment for the ranch/farm... he has a hard time spending that amount on something that falls in the "household" category.

Well, he finally found a "knock-off" version of the "Big Green Egg" at Mernards! Oh happy day! It's called the "Big Red" Kamado Kooker of which Dan the Man is the new owner of. It is about the third of the cost of the egg one. I like it, because it is red and matches perfectly with the Cleary building. Green would not have looked so good!

"BIG RED"
Kamado Kooker

(I just noticed his grilling "tools". What is my garden spade doing hanging from there?)

Oh my gosh, can I just tell you he has been like a little boy at Christmas with his new hot wheels race track that he simply can not get enough of! He has turned into an OBSESSED GRILLING MACHINE! Hee, hee! I'm not complaining, I've actually have enjoyed someone sharing the daily cooking chore with me! I am in charge of making sure there is something thawed out for him to grill each night (unless we are having left overs) and he does all the research on the internet as to the best way to prepare it. Sometimes this can take hours or even days!

We started out easy with hamburgers. Then moved to steaks and chickens.

At one of the winter farmer's markets I bought a chicken roasting pan that Jennie Salters of Chalk Butte Pottery made for me. Dan the Man just HAD to roast a chicken using it in his grill. I succumbed to the notion, but told him specifically, it could not get any hotter than 350 degrees or it could crack. He promised me, that it would not. I told him if it did, he would owe me another one.

Beautiful Open A Bar 2 Ranch Pastured Poulty
(Seasoned with Famous Dave's Country Roast Chicken Seasoning)
5.5 lb Roaster waiting to be roasted in my beautiful
chicken roasting pan, hand-made, just for me...
which by the way I hadn't even got to use yet.


Potatoes with a little olive oil and seasonings ready to roast.




Dan the Man, the chicken and my chicken roasting pan...




Dan the Man carefully setting everything in the grill.

He roasted the chicken for about 2 hours at 350 degrees. One of the nice things about these grills, is that it is extremely easy to keep the heat regulated in.

The finished chicken!

The finished potatoes.

The chicken turned out great! Very moist and juicy. The potatoes... well... since Dan the Man didn't know that he should probably turn them half way through cooking they were pretty brown... well, actually they were BLACK on the bottom half. And perhaps 2 hours was too long for them. And my pan, you are probably asking yourself... CRACKED! Boo, hoo. I am so sad. Guess Dan the Man owes his Country Chicken Girl a brand new chicken roasting pan from Chalk Butte Pottery! Oh Jennie....

Yesterday, he made a huge leap and smoked two 11 lb. chickens! That's not a typo, by the way, the 11 lb. chickens... Some of you know the story about the BIG chickens!!! Those of you who don't... in a nut shell, we had our commercial freezer konk-out on us last year in the middle of chicken production and ended up growing some pretty big chickens, as in 10-13 lb. chickens which we coined as our "churkeys"... chickens as big as turkeys! So these two chickens were from that whole episode.

Anyway, Dan the Man smoked them for 5 hours at 230 degrees and used apple wood chips. Oh my! He might be on to something. Perhaps Open A Bar 2 Ranch will soon be offering smoked chickens! Dan the Man's Smoked Chicken!

I'm just wondering how long this "grilling fascination" will last until it becomes "work" instead of "fun"! When that happens, the grill will end up being my duty!