Dutch Oven Love

Exciting times are upon us in the Roorda house! Part of trying to live sustainably and eat healthier is by not only growing our own ingredients, but knowing exactly what ingredients we are consuming and what is going into our food. Although we may not be perfect at this yet, baby steps will hopefully get us to a great place in time. 

A Dutch oven is one of the most versatile kitchen cookware pieces. It has always been on the top of our kitchen cookware purchase list (obviously...we are Dutch after all!). Katie has been eyeing the swoon-worthy LeCreuset enameled Dutch ovens for a few years, particularly in the color Dune or Cream. We have one LeCreuset non-stick braiser and absolutely love it. But, even after watching the sales and trying to find the best deals, spending a car payment on one Dutch oven just didn't seem to make sense for us financially at this point in our lives. We began doing further research to find a Dutch oven of comparable quality and style. Most of the research led us to the Lodge brand, the similarities were too good to pass up and with the price being under $100, it was a great buy for us. Katie loves filling our home with classic, heritage-like pieces, and being a decorating guru, finding the right color was going to be a deal breaker for us. Thankfully, Lodge just came out with a cream colored oven called "Oyster White". We ordered it right away, and when it came, we were even more impressed with the color and quality than the stock pictures portrayed!  Among the many reasons for wanting a Dutch oven, one of the top reasons was the impeccable homemade bread the iconic ovens make. 

This weekend was our maiden voyage with it, we broke it in with making "Classic Dutch Oven Bread" which we found in our new Dutch oven cookbook: The Modern Dutch Oven Cookbook. This cookbook looks like it is going to be awesome for easy to moderate recipes that look delicious! Along with great instruction and tips for keeping your oven in tip-top shape. 

So far we have made two loaves of bread and a casserole: Shepard's Pie. We are loving it and are excited to for the many ways we will use this beaute of a kitchen tool. 

I have included the recipe, along with pictures of our bread making process. Enjoy!

Classic Dutch Oven Bread: (Though I made my recipe from The Modern Dutch Oven Cookbook, it is the exact same recipe as the one on the Le Creuset website (pictured).

Perfect bread in less than 5 hours!... Yum!

The Chicks Have Landed!

Friday evening, Katie, the boys and myself left for an evening in Mankato. Katie and I had already been to Tractor Supply Co. and knew the "Chick Days" were happening all March long. When we had stopped previously, there were no babies available, so we thought we'd check again. Sure enough: the little peeps of excitement were there!

Brock and Bentley had so much fun looking at all the chicks. Brock wanted the "yellow one" which was pretty much any of them, except the black chicks. Bentley was just intrigued at all of them running around and flapping their little, underdeveloped wings. I was hoping for Rhode Island Red chicks, but unfortunately they were all gone at the time, so we settled on Red Production chicks. Red Production are a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a New Hampshire Red and are known for their large brown egg production.

For most families, once you've picked out your 6 baby chicks, you would head straight home to set them all up....but not the Roorda family. Our hour long trip to Mankato couldn't be complete without a few more stops that only the nearest bigger city could offer. Knowing that baby chicks are susceptible to becoming too cold, we just had to bring those little chickies with us around the mall in the bottom of the stroller (in their box, of course), bundled up in coats and a spare blankie to stay warm. Katie said to me, "This is the first time I've ever walked around the mall with baby chicks." My response: "It might be the first time anyone has done this." Nervous of the loud peeping noises coming from the stroller, we tried to stay in louder areas. Katie mentioned that at one point, while in Target, the little ladies were so loud that she had to pretend to whistle to throw off a passer-bye. Never-the-less, we left Mankato, all chicks warm and intact.

Once we got home, I went out to the cattle barn and found an old, fiberglass watering trough and filled it with pine shavings, placed the heating lamp at, what I thought was the appropriate height.  We decided to put them in our basement to keep them away from a draft and to protect them from the predators all around the farm (including the cats that like to sneak into the garage at night). I filled their water and food containers where I also purchased at Tractor Supply Co. and placed the little ladies in their temporary home for the next few weeks.

After doing a little research on how to take care of your little, baby chicks, I found that they should be checked on at least five times a day, so the boys and I have stayed busy for the last few days, checking on the chicks. They seem to be happy and healthy, enjoying their little sauna (week old chicks should have their containment be 95 degree at least for the first week, decreasing 5 degrees each week until they go outside) in the basement.  For more tips on caring for your new chicks, you can check out the same page I did: Baby Chick Care

Brock is loving his new little friends. He's been such a big help with the chicks.  He even wanted to name them Brock and Bentley because they are "sooo cute." We convinced him to choose the female versions of their middle name, Henrietta and Alexandra, "Allie" for short. If you have any good girl names for the other four chicks, add them to the comments below.

Just a few more pictures of the little chickies, happy and healthy.

Be sure to stop by for further updates on the chicks as they continue growing and transfer to their new home outdoors.

(Please excuse the jammies and morning hair....It was the first "chick check" of the day!)

Let it begin...

This morning marked the beginning of our adventure! Katie and I ordered our fruit trees, plants and vegetable seeds. They will be delivered in the coming weeks and we couldn't be more excited!

After hours of researching websites, ordering seed catalogs, and checking our local greenhouses and nurseries, we decided to order from Burgess Seed and Plant Company. They were the most affordable and offered free seeds with our order. We ordered the following:

* Fruit Trees:
- Red Delicious Apple
- Yellow Delicious Apple
- Elberta Peach
- Kieffer Pear
- North Star Cherry
- Blue Damson Plum

* Fruit Plants
- 2 Northland Blueberry
- 3 Heritage Raspberry
- 25 Strawberry Plants
- 1 packet of Red Winner Seedless Watermelon Seeds
- 2 stalks of Victoria Rhubarb

* Vegetables
- We ordered the Vegetable Sampler at a 50% discount which included: radishes, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, beans, peas, beets, cucumbers, yellow peppers and the biggest selling point were the Minnesota Midget Cantaloupe. We still plan to buy a few more seed packets at our local seed store for a few more varieties but it's a great start!

To check out all of Burgess' website or to request a catalog, check them out directly:
Burgess Seed and Plant Co.

Genesis 2:15

"Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it"

All my life I've wanted to be a farmer. I come from a long line of farming families and have fond memories of summers on the farm with my grandparents, as both of my parents grew up on farms. As a child, people asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always enthusiastically responded, "a farmer!" At a young age, my parents moved to the suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul, in Farmington, MN, I began realizing the idea of that actually happening lessened and lessened, but my desire to plant, grow, harvest, tend animals, do chores, drive machinery, and all that goes with being a farmer still remained.

My dream started becoming a reality after meeting and marrying the love of my life, Katie. Our little family of four lives on an eight acre farm site in southern Minnesota where Katie grew up. It's been in her family for nearly 100 years and our boys are the fifth generation to live on the site. We have two boys: Brock is five and full of energy. Bentley is one and a spit fire that wants to be just like his older brother. The boys are one of the biggest reasons our family is going on this wild adventure ahead. Growing plants and doing chores teaches kids about the meaning of hard work, patience, and seeing the beauty God has placed in front of us each and every day.

With all the necessities needed: dirt, sun, outbuildings, and some elbow grease we plan to get our acreage into a beautiful working hobby farm with the hopes of becoming more self-sufficient each year. Over the next few months I plan to roll out phase 1 of my 3 phase plan.

- Phase 1: Plant a small orchard, grow a decent size garden, raise a handful of chickens and hopefully raise a few hogs.

- Phase 2: Get a few bees to help with pollination of our fruits and veggies while also getting some honey and beeswax to make all sorts of good things. If we didn't get hogs in our first year, then we would this year.

- Phase 3: Increase the number of animals such as a few beef cows, goats, sheep, and more birds.

Eventually, my hope is to grow feed and hay for the larger animals but that may be years down the road.

I hope you enjoy our little slice of living the good life using the tools God has graciously provided for us. For the rest of our journey we'll live by this verse of scripture, praising the Lord for his gifts he gives us each day:

"You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth"
- Psalm 104:14