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Bell Farm: Where Good Food Grows

My name is Ellen Bell and I am a wife, mother, and farmer. Two years ago, I moved my family from our suburban home to a 10 acre farm just outside of Des Moines, and I started Bell Farm. I’m following a dream of mine, and I haven’t looked back.

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Bell Farm began with a large garden and a small flock of laying chickens. We sold a little bit of produce through our Facebook page ​and a few dozen eggs a week to friends and family. As word of mouth grew, we slowly expanded and branched out, trying new things.

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For example, we brought home a few dozen chicks from the state fair one year, and lo and behold, our meat chicken business was born! Now we raise 100+ meat chickens a year. They are free­range and pastured on our property, and we humanely butcher and process them ourselves here at the farm. We’ve also found markets for some of the other by­-products of the meat chickens, such as hearts, livers, gizzards, and necks/backbones for making homemade chicken broth and stock.

Our laying flock of hens has grown, as well. We currently have 28 laying chickens with plans to increase to 50 this year. We sell approximately 10 dozen eggs each week. Our customers seem to appreciate the fact that our hens live happy, healthy lives outdoors, and that they can come visit their egg producers anytime they want!

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Our first summer at the farm, we planted a medium sized garden, primarily for our family. Like other things, that expanded quickly as well. Last summer we cultivated roughly a half acre and sold 40+ varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs through a CSA. For those who are unfamiliar with this farm model, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and refers to a program where customers (also called members) can pre­pay for a portion of the farm’s harvest (also called a share). Shares are typically distributed to the farm’s members on a weekly basis throughout the growing season. Last year, Bell Farm’s CSA ran for 5 months and included 10 member families. This summer, we will continue our CSA program and expand it to 12 full shares, which we will sell in either full or half share increments. We’ll be cultivating over an acre this year, and we have plans to sell our excess produce at area farmer’s markets, through our Facebook page, and to other outlets like grocery stores and restaurants.

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An interesting side­shoot of our farming business is teaching classes. In the last decade, there has been a resurgence of interest in homesteading topics like gardening, food preservation, raising backyard chickens, etc. For several years, friends would casually inquire if I had ever thought about teaching classes on any of these topics. I always dismissed the idea, but once we moved to the farm, I decided to give it a try. The first class I taught was a Garden Planning Workshop. The two hour course, taught here at the farm, instructs beginners and seasoned gardeners alike in how to plan out and execute a low maintenance, productive vegetable garden. This class continues to be one of our most popular courses. Since then, we have added almost a dozen other class offerings such as Pressure Canning, Raising Chickens 101, and Making Homemade Yogurt.

This spring we will embark on yet another new farming adventure: pastured pork. We are currently in the process of prepping about 2 acres of heavily wooded land on our property for 4 piglets that will be coming to the farm in April. We will be raising a heritage hog breed that is well adapted to forest life and foraging. The pigs will be rotated through the woods in paddocks. This means that they can root up one area of the woods, eating lots of plants, shrubs, nuts, and roots. When that area is showing signs of wear, we will move them to a fresh patch of land, which will allow the previous area to re­grow and repair itself. This is unique method of sustainable grazing in a wooded area is also known as Silvopasture. We are excited to dive into this new project and learn more as we go.

For more information about our farm, please feel free to contact me through our Facebook farm page here! ​We also welcome visits to the farm, and we gladly accept offers of help during planting season. We love to show others how they can get up close and personal with their food!

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Written by Ellen Bell

My New Year’s Resolution 2015

It’s the New Year! Have you already started your New Year’s resolutions? Every year I make a list of things I want to do aaaaaaand maybe I accomplish one or two things for awhile, then give up. This year I decided I was making ONE resolution …. I will wake up at 5 am every week day.

 

You are thinking “Wow that’s early!” “That’s your only goal?” Yepp, it is! I have other little goals, but I will not be able to accomplish them, without my MAIN resolution. My thought process is, if I wake up every morning at 5 am, that gives me an extra 2 hours or more to do what I want to do. The house is quiet, kids and hubby are still asleep and daycare kids have not arrived yet.

The past few months, since I had baby Amelia, I have messed around with a few ways to live healthier and be active.

I tried:

  • Planning when I was going to workout and where – I became overwhelmed and felt if I missed one class, the entire week was ruined.
  • Working out during nap time- That lasted about a week.
  • Going to YMCA classes when my hubby came home from work- I began to miss family time or I was completely exhausted and did not want to leave the house!

I was also:

  • NOT making myself a healthy breakfast – Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
  • NOT allowing myself to wake-up before my day began – I would wake up about 30 minutes before daycare kids arrived.
  • NOT allowing myself “me” time.
  • NOT allowing myself time to meditate before the day began.

SOOOOO I figured if I make this one resolution, to wake up at 5 am everyday, everything else will fall into place. If I get myself out of bed at 5 am, what else am I going to do for 2 hours? It’s my time, I want to be healthy & active and this is my chance!

So far it’s been going great! I’ve been able to meditate, workout, shower peacefully, take my time preparing a healthy breakfast, and even prep myself a little for the day for when the kids wake up and daycare kids arrive!

This goes to show you may have several resolutions, you may want to achieve this year. It can be a little overwhelming BUT if you make ONE main resolution everything else will just fall into place.

Happy New Year’s to you! What are your New Year’s resolutions?!

Pulp Muffins

I want to share an awesome recipe for you juicers out there! Pulp Muffins! I have been juicing a lot more lately and when I am done juicing, I end up with soooooo much pulp …

I feel like I’m wasting food when I just throw it in the trash. I did some research of what others do with their pulp and I came across baking it into breads and muffins. What a great idea! Especially when you have some picky eaters (like Monte) he is getting some veggies, in what he calls “cake” and has no idea! 🙂

I came across this recipe and I had everything on hand, but did change it up a bit. Here are the ingredients I used …

Ingredients

  1. 1 large banana
  2. 2 cups Juicer pulp
  3. 4 Tbsp Honey (I estimated, probably used a bit more)
  4. 1/2 cup applesauce
  5. 1/2 cup maple syrup
  6. 1/2 cup greek yogurt
  7. 6 eggs
  8. 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  9. 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
  10. 2/3 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
  11. 2 tsp baking powder
  12. 2 tsp baking soda
  13. 1 tsp nutmeg
  14. 2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Combine all ingredients in mixer and mix!
  3. Spoon into muffin tins that are pre-sprayed. Fill them half way full.
  4. Bake about 17 minutes. Each oven varies!
  5. Let cool before removing from pan.

These are super tasty with a bit of peanut butter on them. Monte loved them! I also took about half and froze them. This recipe yields about 24 regular size muffins. If you do not think you will eat them all right away, make sure to freeze them and pull them out as needed!

What do you do with your leftover juice pulp?

 

 

 

Honey Bacon Brussels Sprouts

Alright let’s talk about a vegetable that I do not think gets enough attention … Brussels Sprouts!

According to Livestrong.com brussels sprouts carry several health benefits including …

  1. Low in calories and low in fat! 1/2 cup of brussels sprouts is about 28 calories, there is just a trace amounts of fat, and about 2 g of protein!
  2. Source of digestive – regulating fiber. This helps with preventing constipation and to help lower cholesterol.
  3. They have 20 essential vitamins and minerals.

 

Pretty much, if you are not eating brussels sprouts now, then START! 🙂

There are many ways you can eat brussels sprouts. You can season them with a bit of salt and pepper and saute them with olive oil, or you can doctor them up with much more! I created this recipe the other night for dinner and LOVED it! Check it out!

Honey Bacon Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients

  • 1 pound brussels sprouts, trimmed
  • 3-5 slices of turkey bacon
  • 1/2 – 1 cup you favorite honey mustard dressing
  • 1 Tblsp olive oil
  • Salt & Pepper

Directions

1. Place olive oil into a pan at medium heat, add brussels sprouts, and season with salt and pepper

2. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.

3. Cut up your turkey bacon into small pieces and add it to the pan!

4. Cover and cook about 10 minutes.

5. When bacon is done, take pan off stove, let cool 2-3 minutes.

6. Add your honey mustard dressing.

7. Mix it up and serve!

The other great thing about this recipe is you can eat this as a side dish or as a meal!

What’s your favorite way to eat brussels sprouts?!

Halloween Snacks and Goodie Box

Halloween is just around the corner! (Just in case you haven’t noticed from all my posts)

Monte and I have been doing lots of various activities that are fall and Halloween oriented like visiting orchards, pumpkin patches, making yummy “fallish” meals, sensory bins, and more!

To get Monte more into the spirit, I decided to make him some healthy Halloween snacks.

Both of these items I found on Pinterest!

The original recipe for the Frozen Yogurt Banana Ghosts can be found here.

What you will need is …

  1. Large Bananas
  2. Vanilla Yogurt
  3. Mini Chocolate Chips
  4. Popsicle Sticks
  5. Wax Paper

 

Cut the bananas in half and freeze for about 30-45 minutes. Insert the popsicle sticks, then spoon the yogurt all over the bananas. The original recipe says to “dip into the yogurt” but my bananas began falling apart and falling off the stick so I just spooned the yogurt on top. Add the mini chocolate chips for the eyes, then freeze until you are ready to serve!

I also found this Candy Corn Fruit Cocktail recipe! Of course, the link was broken but you can tell what needed to be done by the picture.

What you will need is …

  1. Pineapple chunks (you can used can in natural juice or fresh chopped pineapple)
  2. Mandarin orange segments (you can used can in natural juice or peel & separate small cutie segments)
  3. Whipped topping
  4. Candy Corn (optional)

 

You can use whatever container that works best for you. I’ve seen some in mason jars, but I chose to use small, clear cups (easier for Monte to get his fingers in there). Divide the pineapple chunks evenly on the bottom of your container. Then place the mandarin orange segments evenly among the containers, on top of the pineapple. Place a dollop of whipped cream on top and a piece of candy corn!

 

I absolutely love activity boxes for Mr. Monte! It’s so simple to create a theme and place a bunch of different items into the box, so he can take it to my mom’s house. It keeps him busy and I think he enjoys all the goodies he finds 🙂 The other great thing, there is no right or wrong way to create these. You can use whatever items you have lying around. Another great place to look is the Dollar Store and dollar bins at Target!

 

This box includes:

  • Rubber toy skeleton
  • Assorted bugs such as spiders, butterflies, etc.
  • Small orange pumpkin
  • Several short Halloween books
  • A couple Halloween sticker books
  • Foam sheets (to put stickers on)
  • Halloween magic paint book

 

Everything was purchased from Michael’s or I already had it lying around the house!

What items would you add to your Halloween Activity Box?