Time for Soup!

Well winter suddenly hit hard this year and and all out storm came knocking last week. Only it did not bring much rain with it from Russia, only extremely low temperatures :S
Alexa was here last week and we are still freezing even though we have been blessed with some sun since yesterday.
I have successfully avoided all and any types of housework last week hehe eeekh i know but seriously i could not leave the only room with heating. Doing the dishes and showering has been hell and you need glorious comfort food every day to survive so i have been making more soups than ever!
Pity though i just noticed i did not take any pictures of any of the soups i had made but will very soon i promise..some were divine..others not so much hehe

I will also be sharing my favorite recipes soon :) so far i have been fortunate to come across the awesome leafy green Swiss Chard and it has been an amazing addition to my veggie soup..i promise i'll get back with pics and recipes soon. I have to log off for not because i can't feel my fingers lol

How to Make Karishe

Today I had some karishe and honey for breakfast and decided why not share with all of you the super easy way to make this delicious and healthy dessert!? so here goes..

for 500grams of Karishe you will only need:

1- 2kgs raw milk.

2- 0.5 teaspoon of calcium chloride or household citric acid both mixed with a little water.

Process:

1- Heat the milk to 95 degrees Celsius.

2- Add the Calcium Chloride or Citric Acid.

3- Lower heat and you will start seeing the Karishe pile up at the top just like the pic below

4- wait 30-60mins until all the Karishe is piled up and scoop out into a bowl.

5- Add as much of the left over liquid in the pot as you like (since some people prefer a more moist Karisher).

And that is it!!

super simple and easy :) 

You can top it off with some honey, sugar, jam, marmalade, really anything you want to satisfy your sweet tooth and enjoyyyyy

All Dairy All The Time

When in doubt...have some Labneh hehe That's kind of always been my moto when it comes to dairy and not being able to decide what to have whether for breakfast, lunch or dinner..Labneh is my go to product and never fails me.

My ultimate healthy yet extremely tasty dinner is a Labneh sandwich jam packed with all and every kind of vegetable you have available. You can't go wrong here..start off with brown Lebanese pita bread, spread a generous amount of labneh and any of your favorite veggies, mine usually includes: spring onions, raddish, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers and mints with of course a dash of olive oil and a pinch of salt! Heavenly!! :)

Another simple yet diet friendly option, if you're laying off the carbs, is the awesome Labneh with mint and garlic. Use it as a dip with cucumbers and a side of some green tea and it will not disappoint!

I also use Labneh as an alternative in all my Aioli sauce needing foods, insead of the Mayo :) yup you can use it in almost everything requiring mayo and best of all guilt free! so labneh away everyone :)

Thank you Bees!

I love bees!! i love honey!

I never knew i actually liked honey even though we always had it in our house. My parents used to buy the usual commercial stuff and i never seemed to like that, it was always too sweet for my liking and i knew they had to add sugar to mass produce otherwise the jar would cost a lot more than it did.

Finally this year we got to taste our very own honey from our very own hard working wonderful bees and let me assure you...it was everything i had hoped it would be..sure it had a bit of a smokey flavor from my husband using the smoker around the little buzzers a lot but thats ok...i still think it's pretty awesome tasting :)

whats really getting on my nerves these days is all those articles i am stumbling upon about all the dead bees...millions and millions dying for no reason! they just up and die on their own...it definitely has to do with all the nasty pesticides used on the plants and veggies we eat mindlessly and that needs to change. I read a few articles about the USA trying to ban the use of a few products and i really hope these things are banned worldwide..people do not seems to be aware of the importance of bees but the fact is 4 years after the bees are dead we are dead!! no more mankind!!! so simple yet it seems we are headed that way...spread the word! love the bees!!

Grow My Business!

It has been so long since i last posted and i feel so bad!! We've been super busy and i will shortly tell u one of the things that's been keeping us busy :)

A few months back i was browsing the net and came across a competition called Grow My Business for small businesses that gives them a chance to grow by winning an amount of money so i applied..the process was fairly simple..all i had to do was answer a few simple questions and to be honest i never thought anything would happen beyond that point..

A month later we got an email saying we have been chosen as one of the top 25 finalists..we were so happy especially since it was a genuine surprise..I had applied saying we have an online business selling fresh milk and dairy products and wish to grow by opening a retail store in Beirut. The email stated that we had a 2 day training on business and marketing stuff so we attended and met a few other participants..
After the training we got another email with a deadline for submitting relatively short business plans...i worked my butt off to finish on time especially since i have never written a business plan in my entire life and know nothing about it..coming from an IT major!!
I researched and banged my head a few times and it was over. We submitted well before the deadline and decided to forget about the competition for a while and not get over excited since a novice such as myself had prepared the business papers hehe
Well a few weeks later we got the email that we are now in the top 12!!!! we were over the moon and this gave me so much confidence that i actually seemed like i know wat im talking about lol..we had a presentation coming up and the nerves started flowing..


I prepared the entire presentation but told my husband there is no way i will be the one presenting. That had to be him especially since he has some experience in previous work presenting to the sales team and such. 
It was a Monday (2 weeks ago) and our appointment was at 11:30 AM. We showed up with my husband almost puking of nervousness and finally it was our turn. It went ok..i will not say perfect because certainly the nerves played a role and some of the questions asked could have been better answered but none the less we were proud we got this far and decided to cross our fingers for the finals. (even tho i am quite sure as with everything in this country some sort of political influence will take part and will be the final decision maker).
Yesterday we received the email that the winners will be announced on the 22nd of October at Bank Audi in Down Town. Let's just say i'm not counting much on it but it would be quite awesome!!

All About Us :)

Ola Everyone! We are quite excited over here and we hope your day has been as rewarding as ours :)

Anyone living on a dairy farm knows a farmer's life is quite monotonous and can be a bit boring to tell you the truth. Not much goes on, it's all routine and the animals like that but it can really take a toll on you. So anyways, enough of the boring talk, let's get to the reason of my excitement hehe

A few weeks back a reporter for NOW online contacted me wanting to visit the farm and write and article about us. It seems my sister knows her and had told he about how we do things and so she decided an article is in order :)

We have been trying to schedule a date suitable for all of us for quite some time now and finally last week it worked!

Yasmina Hatem passed by along with Basil, a long term friend my husband and have come to know since he is very good friends with my brother in law. 

We had a chat and a few laughs then it was off to meet and greet our glorious cows, chickens and bees. 

They finished the visit and we gave them a few of our products and Yasmina told us she would let me know once the article is done. I was so excited already hehe

Yesterday she sent me the link and we were so happy with it, it's nice because it was describing why we make our choices for what we do around here. The fact that we are not organic and why as well as a few details about our chickens and bees.

Here's a few nice pics and info from the article:

It's always nice to get recognized and here's a link for everyone to enjoy.

Have a good one! :)

Getting back to it!

I know it has been quite a while since i last posted (to me it feels like forever) but i have a really good excuse i promise :P
My husband and i had our yearly vacation and we had been planning so hard for it and of course as usual we headed to The Awesome Netherlands! i just love it there and that's not only because my sister and uncle live there but because it has everything you could ever want in a country and God knows we lack everything in Lebanon so a bit of something good lets you see the difference...

It was an 18 day vacation and we tried to make the most of it by visiting some new places and all time favorites like Den Haag :)
But enough about that. We are back at the farm and focused more than ever on our online business (which is doing pretty well thank you). We have added a few products like butter, which is super easy and i promise to share the recipe with you guys asap and are generally bettering the service and everything. We are also pretty excited about the fact that "Grow My Business Lebanon" contacted us last week to advise that we had made it on the semi finalists list and need to prepare a business plan and attend a few trainings (which we did) and at the end if we make it we might stand to win around 30000$ which is pretty darn amazing for our business especially since we plan on opening a store, in fact that is why we applied :)
So fingers crossed...will keep you all posted on how it all goes and if you're interested here's a link to our page.
Oh and check out this adorable little baby hatchling that came with us as an egg all the way from Holland to be born here. We are so proud hehe

Puppiesssssss

I love farming and the fact that you can witness the birth and growth of animals is just amazing.
We love dogs and although we initially got them for safeguarding the premises we spoil them so much that they love people now. So instead of attacking strangers they now run to people to get petted and loved!! Even though some of them are quite intimidating due to size once people realize they just want to be loved they all start playing with them.
Our very own Sila who was adopted with her sisters and brothers from a friend of a friend and was pregnant a few weeks back. I was waiting so anxiously to see the babies especially since i had never seen puppies when they are super small.
A month ago she gave birth and we spent a few days looking for her and her pups, until finally we found her under a water tank with the tiny babies. My husband told me it will not be for another couple of weeks till they are able to see and walk so i was peeking at them daily to check the progress. There are nine of them!! :O poor thing she has so many mouths to feed.
Today i heard the yapping outside and went to check on the cute little things, they were wandering around and growling lol here's a few pics...now all we need are 9 names heheh

Our First Review

We just got an amazing call!

A few weeks ago we contacted the man behind No Garlic No Onions which is one of the most famous review sites in Lebanon. Dr Anthony reviews restaurants and all types of food mainly. So my husband got the idea of why not sending some free samples to see how our products rate with a well known critic.

Today we got the verdict! My husband got a call from Dr Rahayel who told him he had written a post about the goodies we had sent so he rushed into the house and we read it.

I’m happy to now tell you that we have a new company that offers premium quality Dairy products with a certain finesse I’ve been waiting to taste for some time now.

It seems that they take care and pamper their cows even more than the one on TV…

These are just a few of the awesome comments we received. We are happy to know where we stand with professional critics and hope to keep moving forward. :)

check out the full version here:
http://www.nogarlicnoonions.com/el-hinnaoui-farms/#comment-8707

Self Sustainable Life

A few weeks back we decided why not grow our own fruits and veggies!!

We have the land and the resources so let's put them all to use. My husband went and bought a few plants of everything. Beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, corn...you name it, we got it! 

We were so excited and we started with the planting one afternoon hoping to grow them organically of course. It took quite a while since the land is a bit big and there was a lot to plant but finally after like 3 hours and some help it was done!

We are so proud and have been watering them daily and plucking the weeds and everything.

It's so weird that a few years ago i was so into the whole city life and everything and now i love my life! I really hope we would be able to accomplish all we want and succeed with the whole self sustainable life style. There is nothing worse than buying things and wishing you knew where they came from or how they were grown. Especially since in our beloved country there is no control whatsoever!! the government is practically none existing so we are trying to keep it clean our own way.

Here's a before and after pic! its been around 20 days and i can already see baby cucumbers and zucchini. So exciting :)

Newborns

It seems it's the season for babiessssssss
The farm is full of newborns and cuties :)

Here's a pic of our latest baby calf who is here after a long wait. 

We also have a few puppies that were born a few days ago. We spent ages looking for the mom's hiding place for the puppies and finally found it a few days ago. She was under a pile of rocks very well hidden so we weren't even able to get a pic of the little puppies but once we do i will be sharing them with you all :)

Active Bees!!

We have been quite busy around here the past few weeks and finally had a bit of time yesterday to check on the bee hives. We knew they were doing well but you always need to check anyways.
My husband went yesterday evening for a quick look and came back happy and surprised. He brought back some all natural bees wax done by the bees. It seems they realized they did not have enough room anymore so they started making their own wax to keep the eggs! it's so interesting..these bees really literally work their butts off every single day and don't waste a single minute.
Anyways, what my husband did was install a new floor (i am sure there's a different term for that but i am not aware of it LOL) well it's basically like a new floor in their house which is made up of ready bees wax that they can directly use to put honey and eggs in, so no need for them to work and waste time in making the wax! :)

here's a few pics to show you a bit more what i mean! You can clearly see the small white worm like things in the middle..these are the eggs!! so wonderful! I love bees :)

Farm Visits

It feels like such a long time since i last posted! i haven't had much time lately but there is so much to share. I have had some personal engagements mainly some paperwork and preparation to visit my sister in the Netherlands next month which i am super excited about as well as some farm related ideas and tiny projects.
We have had a few guests on the farm. All people we know like my previous boss and his family as well as my cousin and her family kind of to prepare ourselves for the eco tourism project we wish to eventually master.
We are having mainly tours for the children and showing them around, teaching them about the animals whether cows, chickens, bees and even the dogs who seem to be enjoying having new people over the most hehe

The last visit was my cousin and her family who passed by last Friday and enjoyed themselves a lot. We had breakfast of all local dairy products and eggs and my cousin actually gave me a nice idea of opening a bed and breakfast here. It's quite interesting coz there is not much financing needed and we already have some empty rooms so that is a project i will definitely be giving more thought.

It's such a nice feeling to see the kids enjoying themselves so much. they never want to leave and they ask the cutest questions. Last time Yvan (pic on the left) was like what's milking?! after we had asked him whether he wants to milk the cow. 

We hope to be inspirational to the kids and have a positive influence on them as well as educate them on farm and animal related issues which then they would share with their friends and who knows maybe a few farmers will evolve! :)

Spring Cleaning, Fixing and Building!

I love spring! it's my favorite time of year! as i am sure it is for many people. These past few days me and my husband have been busy trying to make the front and backyard look nicer and more well...springy hehe
My husband has become quite the handy man with carpentry surprisingly! He had no idea he had it in him until one day i told him i need a dining room table and downloaded what seemed like a fairly easy design and step by step build-your-own table online and gave it to him. A week later he had made a great table, i love it! it's everything i have ever wanted my dining room table to be and it costs a quarter of what it would actually cost if we bought it done.
Then he did the dining room chairs and a walk in closet! Amazing husband really!!
This time he wanted to do a picnic table so he downloaded all the sizes and design and started and was done in 3 hours lol he got the hang of it and of course when it's time for painting and color choice then it's my job!
Here's a few pics to show you what i'm talking about hehe

Today we spent the morning building a sort of support for one of the roses we have that is just kind of bursting everywhere..it's trying to hang on the sides but it keeps falling over on the ground and well it needed some support. 

Feels great when you create something from nothing and we also bought these lovely roses for planting around the house. 

Sick Moos!!

It seems all i've been writing recently is bad news! WTH! i really hate this and seriously don't mean to make you all miserable :( but i don't know why all we have been going through recently is sad. Here's hopefully the last of the upsetting news i'll share...

Recently we have been hearing about this awful cow disease taking over the area and we were happy all our cows were healthy and not showing any signs. Then we did something quite dumb if i may say so myself and bought 2 new cows and Ta Da! one of them started showing signs of the disease a few days after we got her. She had unstable body temperature, lack of appetite and small wart looking like lumps on the udder amongst other areas (somewhat like cigarette burns) that develop to become quite big before eventually death.

Luckily my husband noticed the early signs and contacted all the vets he knew and was finally able to get a diagnosis (since no one had knows what it was and people were losing cattle left and right). It turned out to be Lumpy Skin Disease and can be treated yay!! so we directly started with the treatments and all the rest of the moos have been vaccinated and hopefully we dodged a bullet!

I really hope things start to look up for us. Again sorry for the pessimistic posts!

Dog accident

Today is a micro blog day. I really don't have much time which is why I am opting for the fast way!
We've been working on many ideas and I promise we will share in due time. Its quite interesting and I hope it works out!
Today was really sad as we have our first ever 3 legged dog :-( Gustav was in an accident and unfortunately the only way to save him was to cut off his leg. Poor thing he was in so much pain and we were so sad. But at least he will be ok!

Sick Chickens :(

This has not been the best week. The weather is changing daily from super hot to cold and so the cows and chickens are suffering.

We noticed last week a few sneezing chickens and so gave them the proper vitamins. A day or 2 later, a few of the chicks were found dead. Then a day later, it was like a massacre, there was almost 5 dead chicks and one big chicken. It's so sad when you care for and raise animals and this happens. We noticed a few symptoms and asked the vet who gave us a medicine for the case. We are treating them but still we are unsure about the causes and why this is happening. I'm in the process or doing my research hopefully we would not face this again. 

I told my husband not to get too depressed about the matter since we are new to the whole chicken raising thing and we will eventually get the hang of it. Till then, I hope we don't see any more poor dead chicks :(

Bye Bye Sunny

It was a sad day today. Well not exactly sad..let's just call it a mixed feelings day. You see we have had horses on the farm for quite a few years now and at first my husband's family, back when I didn't know my husband, took interest in them and gave them care and love. 
Over the years the two horses they had bred and gave birth to beautiful kids and all the while my husband and his brothers were riding them and grooming them and everything. After a few years everyone lost interest. The boys grew up, barely spent time at the farm and all the attention started being given to the cows.
My husband was very much into the horses until he fell over one a few times and hurt his back and ever since he steered clear.
Anyways, when we moved here there were two horses left of the entire happy family. These two were locked up in the barn, barely moving. You could see them sad and lonely. Last year one of them died. We don't know how or why though, we just found him lying there. And so there was one left, his name was Sunny. Sunny seemed so lonely until finally my husband decided to sell him. I mean we do want to start an eco tourism project where kids mostly would come visit the farm and see how everything works but we can also get an older horse for the kids rides since it would only be a few minutes each rather than keep Sunny locked up there and we do have some time until that project sees the light.
Today Sunny was gone. I was sad to see him leave but happy because we sold him to the town's horse lovers. Two guys who have a passion for horses and take excellent care of them. And this way we would still get to see Sunny from time to time in the area which is nice.
Sometimes you just have to let go and make room for something new. The area is now occupied by the young and cute adorable calves and so everyone is happy :)

Some Shocking Facts!

A few days ago my husband went an visited a dairy farm near Tyre where the owners also manufacture their own dairy products. The owner there is very nice and my husband was over there arranging with him when and where he wants us to deliver the milk from our farm (he is in need of more milk). the reason i'm sharing this with you all is because after my husband got back from the meeting he was totally shocked at some of the info that guy shared with him in the business. It seems our country is in a much worse shape than we thought. People think they are buying fresh milk and cheese made from fresh milk with no additives but the fact is it's all a bunch of lies.

Apparently even the biggest dairy brands in Lebanon "cheat". They claim not to add solids in their labne but they do. they claim there are no chemicals but there are. Some use margarine and chantilly cream to make their labne and laban more creamy and the public have no idea they are wasting their health away in the process. What's even more disgusting is the fact that the government knows this is being done and they couldn't care less. They conduct their visits (if ever) and check the basic hygiene regulations meanwhile if the manufacturer is adding powered milk to cheese he claims is made from 100% fresh milk they disregard and consider that completely normal!!! We need to educate people so these big companies don't end up fooling everyone and getting away with it and so that the little manufacturers that are using minimal healthy ingredients are punished. I was really upset by what i heard and intend to follow this through and let everyone know the truth.

Will keep you all posted with my findings.

How To Make Akkawi Cheese

Today i will be sharing with you how to make one of the most popular cheeses in Lebanon. Akkawi is fairly easy and tasty. Try it in a pita sandwich with come watermelon on the side and it is a guaranteed winner!

The steps are basically the same as that of Halloum but much less work hehe:

You need:

- Fresh Milk (10 L), raw or pasteurized.

- Vinegar  ( 3 tablespoons)

- Cotton cheese cloth

- Something that weighs around 15kgs..sounds daunting i know but we suggest a pack of 2L water bottles.

- Water (1L)

- Salt (you need one cup for every 6 cups water).

And here are the steps:

1- Heat milk in pot to 60 degrees Celsius (if raw) and to 36 degrees if pasteurized.

2- If raw milk was used. Cool it to 36 degrees, a quick way to do that is to place pot in a tub of cold water.

3- Add vinegar and stir.

4- Leave aside for 0.5 hr.

5- To check if the mixture is ready stick a knife in the middle, it should come out clean. If residue sticks to the knife, leave mixture a while longer.

6- Cut mixture, which is now jello like, into 0.5 cm squares and set aside for 5-10 mins.

7- The mixture should now contain whey which is clearly visible between the pieces. Mix it up a little and set aside for around 10 mins.

8- The cheese has now sunk to the bottom of the pot, remove the whey and set in a bowl aside. Keep removing whey until u find the curd at the bottom.

9- Carefully remove the curd and place them in a cotton cheese cloth (same as the one used for labne).

10 - Wrap the curd in the cloth around 5 cm thick and make it cube shaped.

11 - Set the weight on the curd in the cloth.

12- Add cheese to brine which can be prepared by mixing 1L of water with half a cup of salt.

13- After 24 hours, rinse the cheese with some water and munch away!

Cheese must be kept in the fridge and lasts up to two weeks.

Surprise Bee Hive

Today began as a quiet regular day. I had breakfast, finished my morning chores and it was time for lunch. My husband had been craving chicken fajita sandwiches and fries so I decided to do those. I realized halfway that we are out of potatoes but luckily we keep some in stock at the storage cabin in the back yard so i made my way there.
I got there, opened the door and saw a couple of bees flying around and there was an echoing loud buzzing noise in the cabin. It was unusual and i knew i had come across a hive of some sort so i yelled for my husband who came right away and discovered that a queen bee and her army had made their way into an empty hive we had kept in the cabin. 

It was such a nice surprise, we tidied them up and opened the hive appropriately for them to enter and make it officially their home oh and i did manage to make some fries after all hehe

Apparently When bees decide to move to a new home and begin a new colony, "scouts" head out to find a location. These bees are able to travel many miles form the original hive but still find the way back to the colony. Wild bees usually prefer rock crevices, hollow trees and other small, enclosed areas for hives. Once the scouts have found a suitable location, they return to the colony and lead the other bees there. The bees, including the queen, fill their stomachs with honey for the long journey to the site of the new nest. Food that is not digested is regurgitated and used as building materials for the new hive.

How To Make Labne

Labne is one of the best breakfasts in Lebanon. I personally eat it as a dip with almost anything, cucumbers (if on diet), chips, kaak...

Nothing can beat it with some mint, olive oil and even some garlic with a side of hot tea! i'm drooling as i write hehe.

The recipe for labne is incredibly easy.

Labne with Mint and Pita

1- Simply take any amount of Laban you already have or hopefully made with the help of my previous post ;)

2- Add salt to taste and mix well.

3- Put mixture in cheese cloth and hang over the sink for 24 hours (as pic below). 

Laban In cheese cloth over sink

4- ENJOY!!

Labne Balls in Thyme

 If you want to keep the Labne for a while in or outside the fridge just roll it into balls and add any of your favorite herbs and soak in olive oil in an airtight container and they will last as long as you can keep your hands off them ;)

How to Make Laban

Hello there! i realize it's been a while since i last posted but the internet connection is all to blame. We have tried several providers and no one seems to be honest enough to say they never answer their phones and you will barely have any internet and when you do you will have to wait a few hours for each page to load. So anyways we finally found someone who seems professional and hopefully a man of his word!

Back to our subject! Today's post is about Laban making, this is a very easy and straightforward way, our laban is a lot like greek yogurt, if not exactly the same. It's packed with calcium and protein and if you're on a diet it can help keep you full a long time ;)

Here's the details:

To make 1kg of Laban you need 1kg of milk.

1- heat milk till 90 deg Celcius.

2- Cool it to 45-47 deg.

3- add one table spoon of yogurt culture or laban you already have (could be any kind from the store), mix it well, avoid bubbles.

4- Cover and preheat oven a little, just 2-3 mins, add laban for 3-4 hours.

5- check it with a spoon, it should have lumpy laban consistency.

6- put in fridge and enjoy once cold! :)

Simple and easy! doesn't even take a lot of time to prepare. Try It with a few cloves of garlic and some chopped cucumbers for a refreshing salad (laban b khyar).

First Fairy Egg

Today my husband went to check on the chickens and came back with a rather lovely and weird surprise. One of our chickens had laid an unbelievably tiny egg. Seemed like something was wrong but after a bit of research we found out that this is completely normal and these tiny cute eggs are called fairy eggs or witch eggs. Apparently sometimes a hen will lay a fairy egg when something has disturbed her reproductive cycle. Sometimes a hen will lay a fairy egg or two just as she comes into laying, before her reproductive system has gotten into gear. They are sometimes lighter or darker than her regular eggs because they may spend more or less time in the "egg painting" area of her system, the shell gland. It is normally nothing to be concerned about. 

I think in our case since most of our chickens are so young the reason for this egg is the fact that she is setting up to start laying more and more eggs. It's so nice that we get to learn and experience so many things first hand. We are new to the eggs business and so far it's quite interesting and well the chickens are so cute hehe