Flat Branch Farm Newsletter - November 6, 2025 - Vol. 12

Hey there Reader!

As we get into the last couple months of the year, things are slowing down for us at Flat Branch Farm. Not that there aren’t things to do - we’re looking at what went well and what didn’t, planning for next year, and all those things. But as far as updates and interesting stuff to share with you… I’ll be honest, it’s getting harder to think of what to include here.

So… I thought I’d ask you! I whipped up a quick little survey last night. If you have a couple minutes - It should literally take less than 5 to fill out - I’d love some feedback.

Dairy Cows

I sent off samples for pregnancy checks on 2 cows Monday - hoping for results today or tomorrow. Since I was sending those off, I also included a couple “bulk tank” samples. We don’t have a huge bulk tank that stores hundreds of gallons of milk like a big dairy. But that’s what they call it when milk from multiple cows is combined in the same container. It was actually just milk out of our little bucket milker from Monday morning.

Anyway, those samples are being tested for components - butterfat (aka how much cream there is), protein, lactose, milk solids, and somatic cell count. These different tests explain the make-up and quality of the milk as well as udder health on the cows. I’ll report back on those next week.

Three cows also have an appointment with the vet tomorrow morning to be pregnancy checked in person.

Re-Quoting

A pessimist is someone who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.
~ Michael Levine

On the Blog

Fall and winter equals baking season. And I’m not ashamed to say half of the time when I decide to bake something in the fall or winter, it’s because I want an excuse to turn on the oven and warm up the kitchen! But I really do enjoy baking and everyone in my house perks up when they see fresh baked breads, cookies, or biscuits cooling on the counter.

Someone asked me the other day if I’d share my sourdough starter, so I got it out and started feeding it - and thought this would be a good topic for discussion. I am by no means an expert sourdough baker. As you will read in this Keeping and Using a Sourdough Starter blog post, I actually bake with the discard more than I bake a true sourdough recipe.

Do you keep a sourdough starter? If you don’t and would like to try it out, this is the perfect time! And I would be happy to give you a start from mine.

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Recipe Share

Sourdough Discard Banana Bread​
adapted from the Old Stonington Baptist Church “Country Cookbook” published in 1987 for their 150 year celebration

Everyone at my house loves banana bread, but we don’t all agree on what “type” is best. Some like it plain, some like it with pecans or walnuts, and others want chocolate chips added in. If we have bananas on the counter long enough that they start getting brown spots, pretty much everyone stops eating them. So I keep a ziploc bag of bananas in the freezer for bread. As soon as the bag gets too full, I make a double or triple batch of bread. And I like to talk tough and say, “you get what you get,” but I almost always end up making several different kinds.

Required Ingredients: oil, sugar, eggs, bananas, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sourdough discard

Optional ingredients: milk, pecans, walnuts, chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350* F.
2. Whisk/beat together ½ cup oil or butter + 1 cup white sugar.
3. Add in 2 eggs + 2 large (or 3 small) mashed bananas + ¾(ish) cup of sourdough discard. Combine well so there are no chunks of banana. If needed, add a little bit of milk to smooth out the bananas. 1-2 tbsp should be plenty.
4. Add in 1½ cups of flour + ½ tsp baking powder + 1 tsp baking soda. Mix until smooth then stop. If you’re using a stand mixer don’t walk away - you don’t want to “over mix” the batter.
5. Fold in any extras like chopped nuts or chocolate chips. Use ½ cup of either or both.
6. Pour into a greased bread pan and bake for 1 hour or until done (when toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean).
7. Let bread cool slightly to set before slicing.

Notes:

1. I use avocado oil or softened butter.
2. This recipe makes 1 loaf in a standard bread pan.
3. I line bread pans with parchment paper - it is so much nicer to remove from the pan and the edges don’t get overdone.
4. If using smaller/different sized bread pans or muffin tins I suggest only filling them ½ to ⅔ of the way full. Due to the addition of the sourdough discard, the bread rises really well during baking.
5. If using smaller/different sized bread pans or muffin tins you will need to adjust (shorten) the cooking time. Just watch them closely after 30 minutes and use a toothpick to determine when they are done.
6. This recipe is easy to double, triple, or quadruple. If I had a bigger mixer, I’d make 10 loaves at a time. They freeze well and thaw perfectly.

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Just for Fun

“There are 3 kinds of people: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and occasionally, someone who doesn’t even know what happened.”

Good Advice

Complaining is a waste of time. All it does is prolong improvement. - Unknown

If you know of someone else that would like to join our little-but-growing community, feel free to forward the newsletter to them. Anyone can join here . Just remind them NOT to click unsubscribe in your forwarded email...because that will actually unsubscribe YOU instead of them.

Talk soon,

Lori

P.S. You can go back and see all of our weekly newsletters here . I also have a handful of “freebies” available - a Raw Milk Cheat Sheet, Benefits of Yogurt download, and several collections of recipes.