Mary Stage

Kitchen Hack- Filling Ziploc Baggies

This neat kitchen hack will change the way you fill ziploc baggies forever!

For those of you who have a fully stocked kitchen for canning, you will already have the cool tool you need, no need to spend any more money to be able to do this kitchen hack.

So what is this neat tool? It’s a jar lifter, used to lift canning jars in and out of the canner. Here is what a jar lifter looks like:

So how can this canning tool help me to fill ziploc baggies?Read More »Kitchen Hack- Filling Ziploc Baggies

Buying Bulk Egg Cartons on the “CHEEP”

bulk buy egg cartonsBuy Bulk Egg Cartons to Save a Few $$

Nobody wants to go out and buy egg cartons, but some people who sell a lot of eggs are forced to find some way of obtaining them once all their friends and family run out of egg cartons and you can no longer recycle them.

It helps to mention that you sell eggs or have chickens everywhere you go, whether you end up selling eggs or not because many people will surprise you with dozens of egg cartons for free! These are the best kind to use, especially around the farm. At Wild Heaven Farms, we collect our eggs everyday into egg cartons so that we have less chance of breaking them.Read More »Buying Bulk Egg Cartons on the “CHEEP”

Lazy Bacon and Eggs with Toast

Lazy Bacon and Eggs

Bacon and Eggs- the lazy way

Who doesn’t love bacon and eggs in the morning? Or for lunch, or anytime really that you are hungry. Bacon and eggs is something that most people who raise their own pork and chickens will always have on hand to cook. (OK you don’t “have to” raise your own pork and chickens, but you must frequent the grocery store regularly to have these items on hand)

I don’t know about you but I don’t always have the time to stand over the cast iron skillet frying pan after pan of bacon.

What I did discover is that you can cook baconRead More »Lazy Bacon and Eggs with Toast

Bugsy Blue- My Easter Egger Hen

This picture of my Easter Egger hen was taken this morning as I stoked the fire in the barn. It has gotten over 150 likes so far in the group Appalachian Americans on Facebook so I thought I’d do a little write-up about Bugsy Blue for anyone who wanted to read it.Warming Feet by Fire

(edited to add: This picture now has over 170 likes and I’m not even done writing this post!)

Please meet Bugsy Blue the Easter Egger hen and Heather, my 2015 graduate who used this chicken as a propRead More »Bugsy Blue- My Easter Egger Hen

The Best Tip for Surviving the Cold with Chickens

winter chickens water bowlsThe first winter here at Wild Heaven Farms was pretty mild for us and the freezing water bowls weren’t that big of an issue. We did only have the 2 coops that we were maintaining at that time.

The next two winters were horribly cold! We broke records for so many days with the coldest temperatures in a row. We had also grown each year so being able to keep the chickens in water was quite a challenge.

We are always learning as we go, as many people who have started a farmstead do. The first really cold year we ran an extension cordRead More »The Best Tip for Surviving the Cold with Chickens