Bramble Heights

10/31/2025

All In - All Out Swine Production

One of the first things we did was to get Pigs here. They've dug our gardens, cleared paths, destroyed things and fed us well for a dozen years and (probably) six Pig generations of highly questionable selection practices, some inbreeding at times, blindness in the Herd and some weird, recessive, vitamin A metabolizing problem that escapes me but is fatal if you get too copies of the gene.

Anyway it's been fun and we've learned a lot and we will be excellent Swineherds if we do that again but it's time for "All Out" and a relaxing, Pig free Winter.

06/16/2025

This is pork from a young Boar who was four months and a week old when we harvested him. We don't castrate the male Piglets and we harvest them before they hit puberty (so they don't get Boar taint).

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04/22/2025

It's a little late but I should-probably prune the young fruit and nut trees today.

04/03/2025

Duck Eggs!

We are getting about 20 Duck eggs a day and the Pigs really enjoy them but the Pigs are fat enough. The Pigs are *really* fat.

(old picture of washed Duck eggs, Pig Duck eggs don't get washed)

03/16/2025

Now that Spring is here, we will have three or four dozen *more* eggs than we can eat every week. So we're looking for one or two weekly customers who would like eggs delivered.

Fresh, organic, eggs from Free Ranged, Heritage Breed Chickens.

$6 a dozen. Please message with your location for details.

Note: you'll need to be relatively close to Mountain Grove or Parham. Free delivery for eggs like this has its limits :)

03/14/2025

We have about a dozen free ranging Muscovy Hens that were hatched last Spring and will be starting to lay in a week or so. They are going to be good Mothers. We can find you an unrelated Drake from similar, good stock. This is going to be a good year to grow a little food.

03/07/2025

Since our eggs are not "graded" by a "grading station" because there "isn't one" even close to us?
It is against Ontario Law for us to advertise them for sale, except for a sign at the bottom of the driveway, where almost nobody ever passes by.

02/04/2025

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10/20/2024

Lucinda & I are taking advantage of the dry, Sunny weather to do our Fall cleaning. Yesterday we moved fifteen or so cases of food from *before* this year's (disappointing) Harvest outside, out of the way. We will move it back inside, back *in the way* once the Dust Bunnies are gone. At times like this I really wish I would build some (God Damn) shelves.

10/18/2024

Somewhat Je**ed Duck. After I boiled the Duck legs and wings, I took the meat off the bones and put it in the oven while I boiled the stock down with onions and celery and stuff. After a few hours the stock was thick and the Duck meat was dried out like beef jerky.

So, when I put the meat back into my stew, the Duck meat soaked in lots of stock while it got tender again.

I learned two things: (1) drying out your reserved meat before you simmer your stew makes it better and (2) I shouldn't forget that you can store je**ed meat for ever and ever, without a fridge or a pressure cooker.

10/04/2024

I'm carving the Second Last Ham from 2023 today. A friend of mine from High School told me that he carves meat into "primary muscle groups". So I did that today. I just separated the big groups of muscle where they were loosely joined with connective tissue and tendons. I ended up with some big slabs of meat that will clean-up nicely into boneless roasts or chops. I left the smallest muscles on the bones. They are boiling on the stove to make "pork and beans" with. A pretty good way to spend a Fall day.