Website & New Blog

If you're looking for the Becker Farms website you can find it at www.BeckerFarmsMI.com.

If you're looking for the new blog you can find it at www.marriedtothefarm.wordpress.com.

My Blog Is Moving...

I've been working on a new look for my blog. Since Blogger wasn't really letting me do some of the things I wanted to (like have pages for certain topics) I decided to switch to Wordpress.

From now on I'll be posting over at http://marriedtothefarm.wordpress.com/. This page will stay up for awhile as a jumping off point but please change your links for updated posts. I'm sorry for the inconvenience but I think it will be worth it.

I posted some new pictures of what's going on around the farm so head on over and check it out! I hope this is a step in the right direction...

Funny Vegetables

Check out this monster tomato!! It was the highlight of my morning. I've been canning for 12 hours now! Luckily, I'm done with the hard part. Now I can sit back and relax and just switch out the canner every so often. Yahoo!


These are my pitiful little onions...I'm still not sure exactly why they flowered instead of growing. They are so cute that I almost don't mind except that they're already gone! Don't they look almost like little purple light bulbs?

The Bottomless Bucket of Tomatoes (sigh)

It may never end! Okay, maybe it will, but I'm afraid it won't be this weekend. A batch of spaghetti sauce with meat calls for 30# of tomatoes. I already used approximately 30# from our garden and got 12 pints out of it instead of the 9 that the book says. I have enough left from our garden to do 1 more batch. The neighbors, Brian's aunt and uncle, offered him what was left in their garden. He brought home one basket full that turns out to be just shy of one batch worth - and there is probably one or two more batches left down there. So add that all up and I have a minimum of 3 batches left to do, assuming I get to them before they rot.

The hard part is not the actually canning it is prepping the tomatoes. There are so many different ways to do this but here's what I've been doing:

Put a few tomatoes in boiling water for 30 second to a minute.

Scoop them out and in to a pot of cold water with ice in it.

Pick them out one at time and peel off the skins with my fingers. They slip off quite easily.

I take a knife and cut of the top or scoop out the top and the bit of green inside (it depends, some of the smaller ones don't have much to scoop out).

Then I tear them in half (like an orange) and use my finger to scrape out the seeds. If it is a very small tomato I just squeeze it in my fist to squish out the seeds and liquid.

All the good parts go in a big pot. I feed the rest to the chickens!

Fall Festival: My Favorite Fall Recipe

Share your favorite fall recipe at LifeasMOM. All participants will be entered for a chance to win The Autumn Book by Susan Branch.


This is somewhat of a repost but I can't help it, the following truly is my favorite fall recipe. It is great because you eat it at all three meals and dessert.

This recipe came on the back of my electric bill and gives credit to Bernice Hass:

Apple Bread

1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2 c chopped apples
1 c sugar
2 Tbsp sour milk (or buttermilk, I use a little milk and vinegar)
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Topping: 2 Tbsp butter, 4 Tbsp sugar, 1-2 tsp cinnamon

Cream shortening & sugar. Add eggs & beat. Stir in sour milk, vanilla, flour, baking soda, & salt. Add chopped apples and nuts. Put in greased bread pan. Add topping and bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes. MMmmm!

Fall Festival: Gone to the Dogs

Now it’s your turn! I’d love to hear all about how you and your family amuse yourselves as the seasons change. Do you have special activities that you do with your kids? Are there certain movies that you watch during the fall? Do you have fall crafts, games, books or field trips that you enjoy? Share your favorite autumn vacation spots at Daily Dwelling.

Today's theme is all about fun. For me, the fun part of fall is feathering my nest by doing the things I shared yesterday. I also enjoy decorating my porch. I set out pumpkins and tie cornstalks to the porch posts. Dressing up is fun too, although I don't always do that now that I'm a little older. Last year I went up to the bar dressed as a hippie. It was great because I love to people watch and I could do a lot of it with those big glasses on!


For us, for now, our dogs are like our kids. So, one of the best parts about fall is watching them play and have fun. Good luck trying to rake with them around!

Fall Festival: Feathering your Nest

How will you be feathering your nest for Fall? What do you to get ready? Decorations? Winterizing? Stocking Up? Preserving Fall Produce? Harvesting Said Fall Produce? Cleaning? Organizing? Overhauling your Calendar? Whatever you do to ready your Home and Hearth for the new season, we want to know about it at Hoosier Homemade where Liz is offering up a fun giveaway of sewn fabric pumpkins to fall-ify your home.

Fall is one of the busiest seasons around our farm, tied only with Spring. This year I'm welcoming Fall with open arms and have been enjoying the tasks that come with the season. Here are a few things we do to prepare for the colder months:

• At the top of the list, canning is in full swing. I'm putting up corn, tomatoes, and apples all within the next few weeks.


• As the garden offers up the last of the vegetables it is time to clear away the dead plants and prepare for spring. I've been weeding one last time, then I'll spread some compost and mulch the whole thing with straw. The garlic goes in and dormant plants (strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb) can be transplanted.


• Last week I dug out the flannel sheets and installed the electric blanket on our bed. Nothing says fall better than that!


• We're reducing our outdoor chores as much as possible. The turkeys have moved to the freezer, the ewes are off being bred, several steers are ready to go to market, and we culled all the young roosters in order to save on feed. We'll be busy preparing winter quarters for the animals that have been on pasture all summer.


• Brian and our neighbors are preparing to harvest the fields. They took a part off the combine tonight to have it repaired. Our neighbors hauled in the first of their sugar beets last week and soybeans will probably come off in about 2 weeks.


• On our to-do list all of the outdoor projects have gone to the top of the list. I stripping and refinishing a cabinet now while I can still open the windows for fresh air and the landscaping needs to be finished.

I'd love to hear what you're up to now that fall is knocking at the door.