Quinn's Quails

09/24/2024

Liquid rennet is superior. I’ve been making mozzarella since last year, but it’s always been time consuming and messy because the rennet tablets either didn’t work at all (or barely worked), or I used vinegar which isn’t very effective either. Liquid rennet is the way to go for fresh mozzarella from goat milk. The curds were perfect and the cheese was so easy to stretch and shape. I also finally got some gloves to wear when cheesemaking because you have to dip your hands with the cheese in ridiculously hot water. I will never trust a rennet tablet again!
Rennet is used to coagulate the milk to create cheese. You can use rennet tablets (at your own risk) or liquid rennet from animals or vegetables. Vegetable rennet was the cheapest for liquid so I opted for that and it worked great!

09/22/2024

Oh. My. Gosh. These came out SO FREAKING GOOD!!! These cinnamon sugar braided rolls are so soft and perfectly sweet. Not to mention they are so pretty 😍. 10/10 will absolutely be making this recipe again. Next time I will top with large sugar crystals for a bit more crunch.

09/18/2024

This evening our little Fern got roughed up by Poppy. We cleaned up her wounds but she’s still pretty shook up and sporting a bit of a limp. Poppy, despite her size and despite how well she protects the goats 99% of the time, is still a puppy. On occasion she plays a little rough and this time she got carried away. She will be on the line lead for the next few days to put her in check. Luckily Andrew heard Fern crying out and went to check on her. Fern will be okay, but she’s the runt of the herd and getting lots of love and care.

09/08/2024

After two failed attempts (one of them this morning) at making yogurt from our goat’s milk, we bit the bullet and got a crockpot. We needed something to maintain a consistent and correct temperature because the lowest setting on the stove was too high. We had a ton of milk to burn through so today I also made fresh mozzarella for our diy pizza night tomorrow, and Aria made vanilla pudding and spider cookies. The yogurt *should* be ready by 9:30 tonight. If the crockpot works out, next up is cream cheese ☺️

09/05/2024

Spotlight on Poppy! She’s just out here living her best life 🥰. Poppy will be 10 months later this month and has quickly grown into her role here on the farm. She is a vigilant protector of her goats, bolting into action when needed. We are so grateful to have such a hardworking pup. It’s a good reminder that dogs thrive when given a job, especially the job they were intended to do.

08/03/2024

Ivy fixing his farm truck yesterday evening with this stunning backdrop is one of the many things that makes all the hard work worth it.

04/22/2024

Some of you may have guessed it, we have moved! We recently purchased 10.5 acres in El Dorado County and couldn’t be happier. We have so many plans (expanding our quail aviaries 🐦 , goats 🐐, more chickens 🐓, a livestock guardian dog 🐾, eventually a cow 🐄, and soooo much more) but for now we are just trying to unpack 😅. I can’t wait to share this new adventure with you all. And soon I will need to change our instagram name!

03/30/2024

Big things up ahead for us ☺️

01/04/2024

10/20/2023

I had to taste test the Baked Potato Soup I made for dinner tonight. It’s sooooo good. It’s going to be hard to wait until this evening to eat some more, but Andrew picked up some bread for a bread bowl.

As usual I casually followed a recipe online. Here’s what I did:

Boil salted water, peel and roughly cube 3 large russet potatoes and drop them in the water. While the potatoes are cooking, dice a package of bacon and cook in a medium-large stock pot.

When potatoes are soft, drain the water and lightly mash the potatoes leave some hunks of potato in the mash.

Mince some garlic.

Remove the crispy bacon from the pot, leaving behind the grease. Cook the garlic in the grease for a few minutes and then deglaze with red wine (I used a cheap burgundy). Allow to deglaze for about a minute, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.

Once deglazed, add a few tablespoons of flour to the stock pot and stir well. Allow to cook for a minute or two before adding 3 cups of chicken broth. Slowly add in some heavy cream (measure with your heart) and bring to a gentle boil.

Once bubbling, add in the potatoes and stir. Add sour cream, bacon, and slowly add in some cheese (I used a Mexican cheese blend). Leave some bacon, sour cream and cheese out to top your bowl.

You can add onions before cooking the garlic if you like (I don’t like onions so I left them out). And to make it a more authentic baked potato, garnish with green onions/chives (I don’t like either so I didn’t add any).

Enjoy!

09/18/2023

Ivy’s school asked us to set up an incubator with quail eggs at the school entry. We happily obliged! I’m excited to share the joy of quail hatching with so many children and their families. These chicks are due to hatch the week of October 2nd!

05/21/2023

Did you catch me on this morning talking about our Quail Raising workshops? We have classes in May and June, including this Tuesday at 5:30pm. I hope to see you there!

05/19/2023

Hi, I’m Sarah and it’s my 🎉birthday!🎉 If you’re new here, welcome and let me tell you about myself and the journey I’m on. I’ve always been a bit of a tree hugging, earth loving, nature and animal girl - whether I was stalking (and capturing by hand) lizards in my childhood backyard, or hanging out the side of my car to yell at men twice the size of me for tossing trash out their window (yikes 😬). I could (and still can) get lost in the details and beauty of the natural world for hours. While I’ve always been very protective of Mother Earth, my sustainability journey didn’t start until 2014 when my husband and I bought our first house and our oldest was born. Even then I didn’t start to get “serious” until 2018 when we moved to our current home. Sustainability isn’t something you can achieve overnight and it’s something I still work toward everyday. I’m really glad you’re here and I hope you decided to stay even though my content creation comes in waves (thanks ADHD 😅). You’ll find that I’m no influencer, but I do hope I can inspire you to work with what you have (whether you live in an apartment or on acreage, or in the suburbs like me) and take steps to be a better steward of the Earth in any way you can.

05/17/2023

I’m👏🏽Ob👏🏽Sessed👏🏽. ✨Asteroid✨ is a better mama than I could have hoped for. We had a scare last night when I went to check the coop and they weren’t in their usual spot. Andrew and I hunted all over the backyard for them with no luck. First thing this morning I hopped out of bed and went outside to check for them. Happily they were safe and sound. This morning Astro is out early with her babies teaching them how to dust bathe, forage and drink from puddles.

05/02/2023

Quail are the new backyard chicken! Hens start laying in 6-8 weeks and lay about 300 eggs annually. Come learn how to get started! If you’ve been thinking about lowering your impact on the environment and raising your self-sustainability, quails are the perfect way to easily and ethically source protein. They are great for suburban and HOA living as they make little to no noise, unlike chickens!
Check out the link in bio to sign up.

04/23/2023

It was a great day at the today! We sold out our quail eggs again, but the kiddos lost steam since we brought enough eggs to last the duration of the market 😅. We will be back May 13th - can’t wait to see you then!

03/31/2023

Catch me at the tomorrow, Saturday morning! We will just have quail eggs available this week but will have other items (microgreens, herbs, and eventually tomatoes) soon! Who knows, maybe more than that some day.

03/25/2023

We are producing microgreens now! This tasty batch of arugula microgreens is headed to today. Arugula microgreens are nutty, peppery, and packed with flavor. They make a wonderfully crisp alternative to lettuce on a sandwich or topping to toasts, pizzas, and soups. Anywhere salad greens go, microgreens can go!

03/12/2023

That feeling when you’re in a flow state starting your seeds and then you run out of seed starter soil 😩. Anybody else behind on their seed starting? I started veggies last weekend and this weekend I’m starting flowers.

03/07/2023

Starting April 1 you can find us *most* Saturdays at the Midtown Farmer’s Market selling fresh, delicious quail eggs! 20th & K Street in midtown, Sacramento. Don’t miss out!

02/10/2023

We’re rich!!!! I found 2 secret stashes!!!! Last year we lost our favorite hen, Hazel, and since we only had 2 hens remaining (Flora and Peanut) we opted to get some more pullets. We ended up adding Asteroid, Sage, and Alice to our small flock. We recently discovered Astro was laying but yesterday I discovered 2 secret stashes from Alice and Sage! It’s official, we don’t need to supplement our eggs from the grocery store any longer! The only hen who hasn’t pulled her weight is Flora - she hasn’t laid in over 6 months. However, I’m convinced she has a super secret stash somewhere with hundreds of eggs 😆 she’s a sneaky lil bitch so I wouldn’t be surprised.

01/12/2023

Our girls refuse to lay in their nesting box these days. I caught Asteroid laying her first egg in our acid mix soil. The egg was pretty small but in this economy with an egg shortage, we will take what we can get! We are so proud of Asteroid and happy that she is finally earning her keep!

12/20/2022

Small-space solutions for feeders! I needed a better solution for my quail chicks to help eliminate food waste that also didn’t take up too much space in my large and small brooder bins. I bought a few differently sized desk trash bins, drilled some holes for the feeder ports, and voila! Waste-free feeders! (Note: the feed all over in the photo was from before I put the new feeder in). I also use storage totes for brooder bins and needed something even smaller to use for day-week old chicks - the plastic food storage container is perfect for this!
Hopefully this helps you with some waste-free/low-waste solutions for your birds ☺️

11/29/2022

Our latest hatch! This was a small group, but adorable nevertheless. They are anxiously awaiting their new brooder box to finish drying (check stories for more info) so they can move in.

10/12/2022

Quail Taco Tuesday, anyone? I guarantee you’ve never had quail or tacos like this before! Oh. My. Goodness. These were so freaking GOOOOOD!!! Panko breaded quail topped with a Dijon mustard lime vinaigrette slaw and fresh tomatoes, drizzled with a turmeric and aleppo pepper sour cream. Yea. It tastes as amazing as it sounds. I’m telling you… quail is the new chicken!