So many of you comment on how much you enjoy my pet blogs - especially those that provide tips for making food for my four dogs, Bete Noire, Creme Brulee, Empress Qin, and Emperor Han.
Every few months, when I see that my supply is running low, I set aside time to make my dogs a batch of home-cooked food. Preparing my own dog food has many benefits - fewer preservatives and additives, more varied and better ingredients and, of course, more of what I know my dogs like to eat. I also know the food is from wholesome, organic, reputable sources - and that is very important to me. Over the weekend, we prepared a giant amount of food filled with excellent quality quinoa, turkey, fish, venison, and lots of nutritious, organic vegetables.
Enjoy these photos. And go to my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 for more.
Here’s my handsome Chow Chow Emperor Han, watching the birds from the terrace outside my Winter House kitchen. My dogs are very healthy. Look at Han’s coat – it’s so thick and abundant. My dogs’ good health and appearance are due, in part, to the food they eat. I love cooking for my dogs because I know exactly what they’re getting.
Inside, on the kitchen counter are some of the ingredients for my next batch of dog food. I currently have four dogs – my Chow Chows, Han and Empress Qin, and my French Bulldogs, Bete Noire and Creme Brulee. Having multiple dogs means there’s a lot to prepare. I use the best ingredients – butternut squash, carrots, broccoli, sweet potato, sweet peas, mixed vegetables of corn, green beans and more carrots, kale and Swiss chard from my greenhouse, and quinoa.
The meats include salmon, venison, and turkey. Each protein is cooked separately until tender.
These broccoli heads are cooked until fork tender also and placed in a big stainless steel bowl. All my food is completely organic and full of flavor.
Here are the carrots. My dogs love carrots. They are low in calories and high in fiber and vitamins. Occasionally crunching on raw carrots can also be good for their teeth.
In this pot, I cooked some of the mixed vegetables and added venison, which is deer meat.
The squash is roasted and then cut into chunks.
Here is a bowl filled with the mixed vegetables including the kale and Swiss chard from my greenhouse garden.
Sweet potatoes are also great for digestive health because they’re high in dietary fiber. They’re low in fat and contain vitamin B6, vitamin C, and manganese, and they’re rich in the powerful antioxidant beta-carotene.
In another pot, I include a turkey – the wild turkey that found its way to my chicken yard almost two years ago. Once the turkey meat is removed from the bones, any carcasses are saved for the coyotes – nothing goes to waste.
All the foods are cooked thoroughly and distributed equally into the bowls.
Next, Elvira runs everything through the food processor. This step may seem extraneous; however, I have found that my dogs prefer their food ground rather than in big chunks. And watch out for bones. While some of the bones will be ground in the processor, it is a good idea to always carefully check for potentially dangerous bones. Making my own dog food takes a bit of time to complete, but it is well worth the effort to feed my dogs the best food possible.
These quart-sized containers were pulled from the rack and laid out. This step of filling the containers is done in a production line process, so it can be completed quickly and efficiently. Can you guess how many containers we filled?
This was my biggest batch yet – 72 quarts in all! It’s very important that dogs also get adequate amounts of calcium, and omega-three fatty acids – add supplements if needed. And, always talk to a veterinarian or canine nutrition expert before changing a dog’s diet.
If planning to freeze, only fill up to the first line around the container so it has room to expand. The quarts of food are left to cool a bit before securing the lids.
Each lid is marked with the contents and the date it was prepared.
Some of the food will be stored in my Winter House kitchen refrigerator, so they are easy to access. The rest will be stored in freezers elsewhere until needed.
Here’s Enma scooping some food into the dog bowls for supper. We mix high quality kibble with a scoop of their home-prepared food. Enma mixes it thoroughly with the dogs’ additional vitamins and supplements.
And then it’s meal time! My dogs eat two meals a day – once in the morning and once in the evening. Splitting meal times is good for their digestion. Cooking for one’s dogs is a personal choice, but if you have time, and are interested in giving it a try, I know your pets will love every meal. Creme Brulee and Bete Noire are ready to eat!
This day was so nice, all the dogs ate al fresco in their yard behind my kitchen.
Han is the first to get his food and the first to finish. My dogs love their food and always lick their bowls clean.
It was a delicious meal for all. Qin seems very content. Now it’s time for a nap.
This time of year my outdoor grounds crew is very busy "cleaning" the woods of all the cut trees and debris.
As many of you know, I feel very strongly about composting. In fact, an entire corner of my farm is devoted to this important process. Here at my Bedford, New York farm, my crew amasses quite a large pile of organic materials - bark, stumps, logs, and brush. All of it is either repurposed as milled lumber, or left to decay and made into garden dressings, such as mulch and compost. Nothing goes to waste.
Enjoy these photos.
As part of the woodland maintenance around my farm, dead, damaged, and diseased trees are taken down during various times of the year. Here, Domi, from my outdoor grounds crew, secures a chain around this log that was cut down last summer.
Using our trusted Hi-Lo, Chhiring carefully maneuvers the tractor and piles up the logs near the side of the carriage road for pick-up and chipping. “Cleaning” the woods allows us to reuse and repurpose a lot of natural materials – and it makes the area much prettier.
Stacking logs and other debris takes time. Every year, my outdoor grounds crew spends several weeks working in sections of the woodland.
After pruning and grooming various trees, branches are also left in neat and tidy piles close to the roads, so they can be picked up at a later time and chipped – everything is returned to the earth, organically and efficiently.
Pasang and Domi fill the dump truck with smaller stumps. Whatever can be moved easily is brought to my compost yard.
My large composting area is in a field behind my “Christmas tree garden,” where I planted 640 Christmas trees about 13-years ago – White Pine, Frasier Fir, Canaan Fir, Norway Spruce, and Blue Spruce. They are all doing so well.
Here is a view of my compost area – one of the most important areas on the property. It’s actually very organized. Piles are divided into types of debris – some in various stages of decay. Wood chips, mulch, leaf mold, grass clippings, and organic matter made up of manure and biodegradable materials. Most of these piles are combined and put through tub grinder that comes to the farm every couple of years.
Straight, long logs will be put through a portable sawmill and made into usable lumber boards. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to various sizes. If I cannot save a tree, it is comforting to know I can reuse the wood left behind.
Stumps and other wood will be made into much finer chips. This pile is growing quickly.
Other piles include this leaf mold, which is compost produced by the decomposition of shaded deciduous shrub and tree leaves, primarily by fungal breakdown in a slower cooler manner.
Leaves shed in autumn tend to have a very low nitrogen content and are often dry.
The pile of composting chicken and horse manure, which is filled with nutrients, is smoking. Healthy organisms in the compost will be active and produce steam even in winter.
In another area, we pile up unused rocks from around the farm.
And here are piles of organic material in different stages of decay.
This pile is under a compost protection Gore-Tex tarp, which keeps the rain away, and allows excess moisture to evaporate and breathe.
This compost will be used to cover my garden beds in spring, and top-dress the vegetable gardens.
My young trees are also potted with rich, nutrient filled compost. Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed over time, while mulch is the layer of organic materials used as a protective cover.
Wood chips are spread out evenly around my young trees growing on the edge of my hayfield. Wood chips decompose quickly, and add nutrients back to the soil. Like mulch, using wood chips insulates the soil around the saplings and provides protection from the cold. Here’s Chhiring dropping batches of wood chips using our Kubota M4-071 tractor.
And here, mulch is used to cover the areas surrounding my azaleas.
Covering the garden beds also helps to deter weeds. Using these materials is a wonderful way to beautify the gardens and give back to the earth. Do you compost? Share your comments and tips with me below.
During this time of year, the bird feeders at my farm are filled with chirping hungry wildlife.
Winter is a difficult time for wild birds, especially here in North America - days are short, nights are often cold and long, and natural food supplies are scarce or hidden by snow. I have a number of bird feeders at my farm, and all the birds love to come by and feast on the seed I provide. I also set out fresh water and cut holes in the burlap covers over the boxwood, so birds are able to take shelter during inclement weather. Helping the wild birds is important to sustain local wild bird populations, but it is also one of the easiest and most beautiful ways to observe and appreciate wildlife and to understand the types of birds that frequent the neighborhood.
Enjoy these photos. And remember, Daylight Saving Time returns this weekend, so be sure to “spring forward” one hour before you go to bed tonight.
Behind my carport I keep a long row of bird feeders for visiting avian friends. During winter, I hang 20-feeders under the eaves – in spring and summer, about half that amount. They are checked and refilled every morning around 7am. It’s important that I feed the birds all year long – they depend on it.
Feeders should be set up where they are easy to see and convenient to fill. They should be placed where seed-hungry squirrels and bird-hungry cats cannot reach them, and if near a window, no more than three feet from the glass to prevent possible collisions.
All my wild bird seed is stored in galvanized metal cans and kept inside my generator room next to the carport.
This is a wild bird seed mix. This includes white millet, black oil sunflower seeds, striped sunflower seeds and cracked corn. The birds love this seed.
When filling the feeders, we use a pole with a hook on one end. Each feeder is carefully removed from its hanging location and refilled on the ground.
Here is a closer look at the pole with the handy hook at the top – it works very well and makes filling these feeders very easy.
Phurba fills every feeder to the top – depending on the time of year, these feeders can quickly empty.
These tube feeders allow the seed to flow only when birds peck at it, which helps keep any spillage to a minimum.
My bird feeders are refilled every morning – sometimes midday as well, if the birds are extra hungry. Each tube feeder holds about three quart-sized containers of seed. This is a black-capped chickadee. These birds are highly curious about everything, including humans. Its black cap and bib, white cheeks and gray back, wings and tail make it an easy bird to distinguish and identify.
This bird is at a feeder filled with nyjer. Nyjer is a great seed to offer birds, especially in winter because it contains more oil, and a higher calorie content, so birds can store fat to survive the season.
Some of the birds perch patiently in nearby trees until they’re ready to feast.
Others sit on the branches of the apple espalier.
Many birds prefer tube feeders – hollow cylinders with multiple feeding ports and perches. Tube feeders attract small perching birds such as finches, goldfinches, titmice, and chickadees.
Here’s a downy woodpecker – the smallest woodpecker in North America. Even if your bird visitors are not entirely dependent on your food supply, try not to leave them without food. If you plan to be away, fill extra feeders, or ask a willing neighbor to continue feeding your birds until you return.
On the other side of the carriage road, under my clematis pergola, are several more feeders that need refilling. This is my Martha Stewart Copper Bird Feeder available on Martha.com. This handsome feeder attracts many avian visitors through the day. The birds love to perch on the copper lip and watch the activities around the farm. You can also find wild bird seed on my web site at Martha.com.
Phurba begins at one end and brings down each bird feeder. Here, he stops for a quick photo.
This feeder has four feeding ports and the lipped tray to catch any fallen seeds.
Phurba uses the long pole to return the feeder to its hook – always careful not to step in the garden bed below, especially at this time as many of the precious bulbs are just beginning to emerge.
It won’t take long before the birds come flying – the birds love this location.
Phurba also puts seeds in a couple metal trays on the ground. My peafowl love to come up to my terrace parterre for afternoon snacks.
I also feel it is important to make sure all the wild birds have access to fresh water. I use one of these double wall metal chicken waterers on top of a heater to prevent freezing. Made of galvanized steel, these waterers are clean, durable and can hold a couple gallons of water.
Pet bowls of water are also left out. Night temperatures are still freezing here in the Northeast, so every morning, Phurba removes the ice and replenishes the supply.
Some of you may have seen the holes cut out of the burlap here at the farm. I purposely create these holes for the visiting birds. They love to go in and out, especially when it is windy.
The feeders are visible from my Winter House steps – it’s always so nice to see what bird come to eat at my feeders. Look closely – this feeder was filled to top shortly before the photo was taken. The wild birds are hungry!
When starting to feed birds, it may take time for new feeders to be discovered. Don’t be surprised if the feeding station doesn’t get birds right away. As long as feeders are clean and filled with fresh seed, the birds will find them. According to our Audubon Society, more than 125 bird species visit my farm – and in summer, guess what? They take care of all the bugs – I never see any pesky flying bugs near my home. Helping the wild birds – it’s a Good Thing!
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