It has been hot for us recently, in the mid 90’s. Last year during the heat wave, they recommended putting a fan in the barn, which I did. But I wasn’t sure that it actually cooled the barn and how it could help wooled animals. So this year, I decided to set it up near a west facing window in the barn. This side of the barn is relatively cool with some shade. It actually might be helping a little.
I also opened up all of the windows and doors on the barn, particularly in the upper hay loft. My hope is that the heat will rise out of the barn this way.
I am trying the make sure the animals have cold fresh water each day. I think they are appreciative of this.
I am trying to make sure they all have shade as well.
The older sheep are having the hardest time with this heat. I hope they survive it.
We haven’t been cooking much in the house. Two days ago I used the smoker on the back porch to make ham and corn on the cob. Yesterday I used the left over ham to make Ham Slices in Fresh Cream Sauce from my Julia Child cookbook. Today was my monthly Taste of Old Colony History zoom. The recipes were for Clotted Cream, Strawberry Jam and Classic Scones. So yesterday I made the jam which did not require much boiling. Then I made the clotted cream. This involved the oven at 170 degrees for 12 hours so I did it overnight, stopping at 3 AM. And then I made the scones during the zoom this afternoon which only involved 15 minutes of baking. So it didn’t heat things up too much. Here is the clotted cream before I skimmed it.
And here is the strawberry jam.
And here are the scones.
I tried to mix the clotted cream, but it never got smooth. I happened to have some English Clotted Cream which is obviously smoother but also less yellow.
She made a peach-strawberry Bellini in the zoom as well. So I made some with some of our canned peaches from last year and the strawberry jam (as I didn’t have any fresh strawberries left). Here is Tom’s scones and Bellini with the recipes.
It was incredibly good. Highly recommended to try once.
That sounds so delicious! I love scones and your strawberry jam is beautiful! I’ve never had clotted cream.
It’s been very hot here, too. I hope it cools off soon. It was about 100 degrees here this afternoon. Not fun. I hope your animals will do okay. I’m so thankful my house has A/C!!
The scones were amazing. Clotted cream is similar to butter. I am sorry about the heat, but glad to hear you gave AC.