Beauty Farming Life

  Kenmore Electric Convection Stove   Well, this is the stove we decided on.  One requirement 2nd Man had was that the oven had to have a convection oven for his baking.  We were also limited by the fact there there is no gas out there, it's all electric.  This will be a big change for 2nd Man's cooking.  He's been used to gas all these years.  Most decent convection oven ranges are electric ovens with gas burners up top (dual fuel they call it) which is what we have at the city house.  But out there he will have to get used to electric. Anyway, we knew a standard 30" range was all we had room for.  We also knew we wanted to go with Kenmore, just so we could have an easy to repair/parts readily available (in the country) appliance.  So our final decision was color.  Our kitchen in the city has stainless steel appliances.  I like that look.  I think it would be particularly well suited toward the farm as well....

Based on your suggestions when I  asked about heating  options for the farm, we made some purchases.  First, we decided on these oil filled radiator heaters.  We bought two for now.  I did my research and found that these by DeLonghi were the best reviewed.   DeLonghi radiator heaters The unique thing about this particular model are these unusual vertical thermal tunnels which allow more heat out into the room.   DeLonghi radiator heater with vertical thermal vents And wow, did they work great! We only took one out this weekend (in case I needed to send them back).  It was cold and damp on arrival.  The temperature in the house was 56 degrees.  Outside temp had been in the low 30's overnight and was about 44 degrees when we got there.  So the house does stay warmish even without heat. Anyway, I put it in the bedroom (where we'd want to make sure it was warm when we stay overnight) turned it on and cl...

  The appliances came!  The appliances came! We finally have a refrigerator, and it fit perfectly in its new spot in the mudroom.  When we decided to get a refrigerator, we measured carefully to find one that fit the spot the space and this one was the best and as you can see, it's about as good as it could be.  Side note, don't you just love a brand new refrigerator?  All the potential, it's clean, it's empty, it's shiny and new, just waiting to be filled up with food, including the bounty of the garden! Here is the new stove in its home.  The house is all electric so we had to get an electric range.  I'm sure 2nd Man will have a "electric burner learning curve" as we have a gas stove in the city.  The oven is electric at both places.  An electric oven allows for "convection" baking and that's what this one is, a convection oven.  He loves that aspect of it. So now the appliances are in and we are excited, as we now have a means o...

 Kitchenaid 7 quart Mixer in the box  2nd Man keeps asking me if I posted about his Christmas present yet.  So here is 2nd Man's sort of Christmas present.  I say sort of because we bought this before Christmas and he said he didn't need anything else for Christmas, after of course I had already  Santa had delivered presents. Unboxing the Mixer It's a new Kitchenaid Mixer.  With two kitchens for the foreseeable future, the mixer is not one of those things we can easily move back and forth as we need it.  So we moved one of these, the older one we've had for years, out to the farm (you probably saw it in the recent kitchen pictures) and we bought this one.  It's a new version they have, it's commercial quality, and has a 7 quart bowl, with the largest motor they have ever made, 1.3 hp!  It's also the quietest one they have ever made, and trust me, as great a product it is, they've never been on the "quiet side".  The...

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about getting some space heaters put in at the farm and how well they worked at warming up the room temperature.  I forgot to mention that we made sure to switch the ceiling fans around to run the other direction for "Winter". Ceiling fan direction, image courtesy of Hansen Wholesale I found the image at  Hansen Wholesale  where they have more information about the process and the science behind it that you can read about. EDIT:  The direction is as you look up at the fan.  Easy way is to just turn it to low, wait for it to slow down and then just look up.  Doesn't matter where you stand, just look up and see if the blades are rotating clockwise or counterclockwise and adjust accordingly. CLOCKWISE - Winter (warming effect) COUNTER CLOCKWISE - Summer  (cooling effect) It worked great.  When I got there, I realized the fans were still spinning counterclockwise which is the way they s...

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about getting some space heaters put in at the farm and how well they worked at warming up the room temperature.  I forgot to mention that we made sure to switch the ceiling fans around to run the other direction for "Winter". Ceiling fan direction, image courtesy of Hansen Wholesale I found the image at  Hansen Wholesale  where they have more information about the process and the science behind it that you can read about. EDIT:  The direction is as you look up at the fan.  Easy way is to just turn it to low, wait for it to slow down and then just look up.  Doesn't matter where you stand, just look up and see if the blades are rotating clockwise or counterclockwise and adjust accordingly. CLOCKWISE - Winter (warming effect) COUNTER CLOCKWISE - Summer  (cooling effect) It worked great.  When I got there, I realized the fans were still spinning counterclockwise which is the way they s...

This is the latest acquisition (delivery delayed due to weather) for the farm! Presto Dehydro Digital Food Dehydrator I received a gift card at work for Christmas and we've been deciding what to get with it.  We didn't want to get just anything, like books or kitchen tools, we can always get those.  Instead, we wanted something that we've never had before and something that could help at the farm.  We started tossing around ideas and came to the conclusion that this would be a great choice.  With fresh produce from the garden this year, hopefully it will be the perfect addition.  We decided on this brand/model.  We like the timer feature and adjustable temp range.  I'm sure there are other fancier ones out there, but we want to start small, learn and work our way up to something bigger and badder, ha. CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT ON AMAZON We are excited to begin the process of learning to dehydrate things and preserving some of what we grow. ...

This is the latest acquisition (delivery delayed due to weather) for the farm! Presto Dehydro Digital Food Dehydrator I received a gift card at work for Christmas and we've been deciding what to get with it.  We didn't want to get just anything, like books or kitchen tools, we can always get those.  Instead, we wanted something that we've never had before and something that could help at the farm.  We started tossing around ideas and came to the conclusion that this would be a great choice.  With fresh produce from the garden this year, hopefully it will be the perfect addition.  We decided on this brand/model.  We like the timer feature and adjustable temp range.  I'm sure there are other fancier ones out there, but we want to start small, learn and work our way up to something bigger and badder, ha. CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT ON AMAZON We are excited to begin the process of learning to dehydrate things and preserving some of what we grow. ...

Dual zone wine refrigerator   Here is what we got as our joint birthday present (which was in March, LOL).  The latest addition to the mudroom at the farm.  Since we leave the window unit air conditioner thermostats turned up very high when we are not there in the Summer, and we do enjoy our wine, we felt a special fridge was the best choice to keep the wine we have at a constant temperature. We moved the water cooler into the kitchen, so that left a gap between the orchard rack and the mudroom shelving.  As you see in the photo above, it actually fit perfectly, literally without an inch to spare. 24 Bottle Dual Zone wine fridge doors closed Above is what it looks like full, though I'm sure we'll be slower in filling ours up with our favorites.   We found this unit that holds 24 bottles, including large bottles on the bottom shelf.  The reason we liked this one best was because it is dual zone, meaning we can have 12 wh...

Nostalgia Electrics Red Microwave Here is our microwave story; we haven't had one in years! It's probably been 10 or more years without one.  We cook most food fresh so we just never needed one.  Coworkers and other friends would often ask "but how do you cook popcorn?" or "how do you melt butter?"  or "how do you thaw stuff from the freezer?" or "how do you cook potatoes?"  Well let's see, we cook popcorn on the stove top in a pot, takes a few minutes, we melt butter in a small saucepan, it takes a few minutes as well, we put stuff from the freezer in the fridge and let it thaw the night before, and we roast potatoes in the oven when we need to.  You'd be surprised how you can  make do without one. That being said however, as 2nd Man gets more and more into baking, there are times when a microwave could speed up the process.  We're fans of the Cooks Illustrated show "America's Test Kitchen" and a lot...

Sears Kenmore 15,100 BTU Window Unit Yay, we have cold air, but, alas, with an asterisk. We bought two of them Friday night after work.  Since they were on sale at a great price, and were the largest BTU's you can get for 110V electrical, the timing was just perfect.  We got them loaded into the Jeep, took them out there, and carried the heavy monsters into the house.  The instructions, as I feared, left a little to be desired, but after about 2 1/2 hours, we had the first one in and turned on.  Wonderful cold air blowing into the room and it started cooling down the house, at least the front part of the house. So we decided to go ahead and unpack and install the second one too.  Actually, 2nd Man voted for waiting until next weekend, but I said let's just do it, while we don't want to do it and get it over with.  You know, like when you just rip off a band aid.  So we did.  Second one only took about 30 minutes start to f...