Our Ultimate Goal

As work and planning continue to go into making the Hust Roost a functioning farm, all of us involved have felt the need to identify the ultimate goal of our venture. While we very much enjoy what we are doing thus far and planning on doing in the future, we know that if we did not keep our main goals in focus, we would be in danger of never achieving them.

After a few lengthy discussions, we boiled the ultimate goal of the Hust Roost down to the simple act of devoting ourselves to the Lord. It is our desire to give our plans to the Lord and see where He takes us. While it is difficult to hand over the reins to God, we believe that this is the best thing that we can possibly do, not only for the formation of our farm, but also for the formation of our souls.

We believe that God is calling us to lead humble, honest lives where we strive to be a blessing to all of those around us. With God's hands directing our imperfect efforts, we hope and pray that the Hust Roost will be a community business that is more interested in helping and encouraging others, building relationships, and being an example of Jesus' love than making a buck.

Don't get me wrong, we would love for the Hust Roost to eventually be a profitable enterprise that we can make a living off of. Once we move down, we are planning on working part-time to make ends meet as long as necessary (which will be made easier by the growing self-sufficiency of the farm). Life has so many more aspects to it than money, and it is one of our goals not to prioritize money above other, more important things.

My father has always told me that there are three important aspects to a job. 1) Do you make enough money? 2) Do you feel like you are making a difference in the world? 3) Do you enjoy it? We view the Hust Roost as a place where we can make a big difference in our community and enjoy doing it with people that we love. We figure that if we can do something that we love, make a difference, have a great environment to raise a family, and make enough money to get by, our lives will be well-lived. We are not just looking for a job that we can love, we are looking for a lifestyle that will please our Heavenly Father.

May Days

The last couple of weekends in May have broken some new ground for the Hust Roost!

Here you can see Tom and Casey literally breaking some ground. Whew, they spent their whole Sunday afternoon on that section!! The goal was to expand the garden on both sides, nearly doubling the amount of growing space! (If anyone is wondering, this is in Casey's Dad's yard in Glen Aubrey, NY).

Casey and Gramps stirring up rocks

After the unwanted grass was ripped out (and used to fill the old fire pit), we had lots of rock-picking to do. The garden is right next to a creek bed, so the soil is filled with rocks... Including some big enough to be our grave stones! (Sorryyy, no pictures). Once you remove all those, though, the soil is great. 

This picture shows the new organization for the expanded garden. Each bed is about 10 x 4 feet and can hold two or three rows of veggies. Each bed will get a number so we can record what crops went where each year, and then rotate them! Also, my favorite part, the beds make it so we can easily walk through to weed, pick and plant. Not to mention... each beds is designed to fit under a "hoop house."

 (What's that? See below!)

These pictures show the assembly of a "hoop house." They are made from PVC-pipes bent over a wooden frame, with a clear plastic sheet stapled over top. These are basically mini greenhouses used to extend growing seasons, making it so we can start growing earlier in the spring and stop growing later in the fall.
More veggies!!!

<---All done!!! Well, besides the plastic sheet.
And besides the rest of them we want to make...
I think now that Casey and his Dad know what they're doing, the rest will go faster. :)

Mulching the blueberries with chicken manure- they love it!

The new batch of Rhode Island Red chicks was moved from the garage to the barn. Some of these will grow up to join the other laying hens, but the roosters, well... they'll join us for the chicken barbecue in July!

The hens enjoying their new outdoor pens, courtesy of Tom and Casey.

I caught Gramps planting some broccoli as he watched all the excitement next-door. He grows his sprouts on the windowsill, then transplants them into his fancy raised-bucket-garden. Apparently he's the broccoli expert! I am sure learning a lot from the Husts.


~Rachel

Pulverizing Peanuts!!!

 Look at those deliciously pulverized peanuts!!! If that description sounds violent, it's because it was. Have you ever learned about the ancient wine-making process, where people stomped on grapes all day  till the roads looked like rivers of blood? Well… this process is entirely different… but those peanuts still went through a lot.

First, they were ripped out of the comfort of their little pods.

Then, their bare backs were roasted at 350 degrees for 3-5 minutes before being poured into… the blender. (Dun dun dunnn). Our sources told us that a food processor works best, but that a blender could work, too. Good thing my Grammy gave us this power horse! It got a little hot, but after a couple minutes the peanuts were powder… But not peanut butter.. Apparently, a little oil will help get the creaming started, so we added a couple teaspoons of canola. That did the trick! Soon, we added the other ingredients- 1-1/2 teaspoons of molasses and 1 teaspoon of salt.

And got this! It's strangely lighter in color than normal peanut butter, which makes me wonder what exactly they do to it! (Don't worry, we will still buy it from the store too- the price isn't much different from the normal kind at all. BUT it is probably 5x cheaper than the "natural" variety, and tastes so much more like peanut than sugar and other flavors. :)

 After tasting his raspberry jam and peanut butter sandwich, Casey (I quote) 

"was scared at how good it was."

That was interesting… and easy!

Today's project took only a few minutes of prep and a couple hours of waiting, and produced this vat of white, yummy goodness! It's yogurt :)

Again, Casey looked up all the details (this is what happens when I'm doing homework all the time and he's bored!)

Here's how we did it:
-Heated milk (about a quart) in a saucepan till it reached 185 degrees F.
-Meanwhile, let a half cup of yogurt sit outside the fridge to get warm.
-As soon as the milk hit 185, we removed it from the stove to cool to 110 degrees.
-As soon as the milk hit 110, we mixed in the yogurt (as well as a little vanilla pudding mix- extra for flavor, and for sugar for those bacteria to eat!)
-Then we poured the concoction in this jar, screwed the lid on tight, and put the whole jar in a crockpot set to the Warm setting.
-Then we filled the rest of the crockpot with warm water to create a warm, cozy bath for the yogurt.
-We checked the crockpot water intermittently (which for Casey meant every 10 minutes!) to make sure it was staying 110-120 degrees.
-At 5 hours, we took it out, and it was thick, curdle-y Yogurt!!

To get rid of the curdles we mixed it up well, then let it sit in the fridge to thicken.

Later when we tried it, it was a little watery (this is why people add dry milk powder to it!), so we poured it through a cheesecloth, aka T-shirt. ;)

We mixed some strawberry jam/sauce into it for extra flavor and it was delicious!

I liked the consistency and flavor better than store-bought, but that could just be me. It was milder tasting (less tangy) than the store-bought, but if we let it incubate longer, it would probably have been tangier. We will definitely be experimenting with this (Casey says another batch is due this week!) since it's so easy, and also cheap… and let's be honest, we're a little obsessed with frugality. ;)

First Syrup of the Season (and of our lives, ever!)

I was told by a friend that spring seems to come more quickly when you have maple syrup to boil down! Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but it sure adds festivity to the coming of spring (which is already a wonderful thing)!

We got some spiles (the metal spouts you plug into trees) for Christmas this year, and then Casey researched the ins and outs of the process, as he is so good at doing. I swear he does more research and reading now than when he was in school! ;)

Anyways, here is the first boil-down session, which we did right in our kitchen. This was about 3 gallons of sap (that was all we got from the two trees through most of March- it was a cold winter!)

Here you see Casey's idea to prepare pancakes ahead for the morning. :)

And this here was our final product. You can see by the reference point of the apple that we only got about half a pint from the 3 gallons! But most of the pay-off was the fun and experience for the future.

And it is pretty exciting to put your own syrup on pancakes. It tastes like the real thing- and it is!

P.S. the first batch of syrup ended up being too thick, and crystallized into sugar, which was just as delicious. The second time around we made 3x as much, and it was just right.