Fall 

It's finally here, Football, Pumpkins. Apple Butter and Pecans. It sounds simple but those things pretty much sums up fall around here. Not necessarily in that order either..

The great thing about living in North Carolina is the ability to travel from the coast to the mountains without ever leaving the state. We recently took a day trip to Asheville and stopped in at their farmers market. We are frequent visitors to the State Farmers Market in Raleigh, because we have to face the fact that we can't grow everything, and I love to just browse to see the veggies and plats available, But Asheville's Market is a whole new adventure. There you can get apples direct from the Orchard and since their season is a bit ahead of ours we get a sneak peak at whats up coming!

We brought home a couple of Bushels of Early apples, Arkansas Black and Suncrisp, they make awesome Apple Butter and Apple Sauce. We fill up the counters with Crock Pots and let them do all of the hard work. By the time we're done we'll have made at least 10 dozen jars for the Fall and Christmas markets. If you're interested in making some of you're own here's an easy recipe for you to try.

Crock Pot Apple Butter
 About 5lbs of Apples (we leave the skins on since they aren't waxed)
1 to 1 /12 cups of Sugar (Depends on the Apples and your preference, Brown or White Sugar)
1 Teaspoons of ground Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon of ground Cloves
1/2 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar.

Core and Chop the Apples. Place then in the Crock Pot and cook on a medium heat for about an hour.
Once they have begun to soften add your spices and vinegar. Cook on a medium heat for 8 to 10 hours depending on the apples. They will be dark brown. We use and immersion blender to get a smooth butter. You can leave the lid off for the last hour or two to get a thicker consistency. Fill your jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space. Wipe the rims clean, remove any air bubbles and place your lids.
Can be put into clean jars and kept in the refrigerator or it can be water bath canned. We process 1/2 pints for 10 minutes.  Makes about 8 1/2 pints

Great for Homemade Holiday Gifts or keep them all for yourself!

But it's only Six...

That's how it all started. We moved from the coast to about an hour and a half inland. Yeah we both grew up with Grandparents that farmed and we had great memories of that time, couldn't we just recreate a bit of those by gone days... and that's where we started with a tiny garden and six baby chickens from a local store.

They were so cute, silly and brave all at the same time, I was determined to make them pets, so have them love me as much as I loved them. I gave them names to fit their personality, we raised them in the house and it was crazy stressful when they went out for the first night to their newly build Coop.

They survived and are happily running around terrorizing the gardens and the other animals. But the issue is that that that those six have turned into almost 35!. Yes 35! We have entered a whole new level of Chicken Wrangler, so beware, when they are selling you those yellow balls of fluff they know that you will be back for more and all of the extras that they need. They should have a sign on those corrals that say CAUTION- Chickens are Addictive....kinda like potato chips you just can't have one or six.

The do work for their living, laying eggs and eating the ants and other bugs around the house and in the garden. They won't be dinner.. ever, I know some disagree about this but they are truly pets and they have their own personalities.. just wait you'll see..

So what's in a Name?

This Blog is technically for Our Greene Acre and it's products but a bit craft and general farm craziness will work it's way in too, just to round it out and give you an idea what it's like to live on a Micro Farm.

So who and what makes up Our Greene Acre?
 Chris and I are the lead chicken feeders, gardeners and Preservers, (is that a word?). We have a small piece of a farm in Rural Eastern North Carolina.
 Instead of using Our Greene Acre as the blog name I wanted something that related to our life on the farm. So Cluck Cluck Buzz was born, it's a play on the kids game Duck Duck Goose. The game starts off calm with a bit of excitement, you're waiting on the game to start (which is about like waiting on the sprouts to spring up) then someone jumps up and runs around and around the circle frantically trying to make it back to the vacant spot before the original person (which relates to the growing season, there is always something else that needs to be taken care of) and then the person who didn't regain the spot starts it all over again (kinda like you can't believe that it's planting/harvest/canning season AGAIN). It's a bunch of laughs, dashing around and making friends, just like living on a farm and selling your produce, preserves and crafts.

Welcome to our Blog, Take off your coat, grab a stool and hang around for some fun!