Super Banty Bowl

Happy February! Most years, January and February is spent huddled down, reading books and knitting and creating in the home. I really feel that quality down time in the winter energizes us for spring and summer. Winter is when we relax and play. There's not that much work to do out in the garden or barnyard; no picking, plucking or canning to be done. It's really the time of year I look forward to the most. Our flock (ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks, goats and rabbits) is smaller in the winter and they're happy to just be lazy too!

Not this year though! 4 broody hens had different plans for us when they hatched 34 chicks this past fall. Bantam chicks. Bantam chickens are great for pets or play, but they suck for an urban farmer. They're smaller then other breeds and are bred for their attractive good looks and spunky personalities, not for egg or meat production. All full sized chickens fly but as they grow, they do so less and less. They become heavier and more interested in grubs and food on the ground. Banty's never loose their ability or desire to fly. My fencing abilities are not of the best quality and it's become increasingly hard to keep our little feathered Friends from roaming the neighborhood.

So yesterday we butchered. We had 9 roos that were driving us and the neighbors bonkers so our amazing friends and neighbors came over and helped teach the kids how to butcher a chicken. This was the first time that the kids had actually taken part in butchering an animal. Jason actually delivered a mortal blow to a chicken he called "Mr. Jerky Roo". I'm so proud of Jason, Josh and Stella! And what a great way to spend a Super Bowl Sunday! While we set up the butchering areas, the kids threw the football around the front yard and loosened up for what did become an emotional event. We all expressed our thanks for these amazing (though sometimes annoying) little birds. This couldn't have been the event that it was without the care and love of our friends and neighbors. I'm so grateful that we are surrounded by such a great community!

Sweet Corn Relish and Corn Chowder

We love corn 'round these parts and since corn is just now hitting the stands at the farmers' markets, we've been indulging ourselves. Today we made Sweet Corn Relish. I found a recipe, Blue-Ribbon Corn Relish, in magazine entitled Canning (creative name, eh?) and made some changes.

Sweet Corn Relish

8 cups of fresh corn (approx. 8-10 ears)

2 cups water

3 cups chopped celery (3 or 4 stalks)

2 medium sweet red peppers, chopped

2 medium green peppers, chopped

1 large onion, chopped
2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 3/4 cups sugar

4 tsp. dry mustard

2 tsp. pickling salt
2 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. ground turmeric
3 tsp. cornstarch
3 Tbs. water

The first step in this awesome relish is to remove the husks from your corn. We actually love to use these husks and silk in our sheet composting ventures. Right now these very same greens, pictured above, are layered in among other compostables and newspaper beneath my Sumatrian Plum tree. Wash your corn and scrub with a veggie brush to remove all the silks still attached to the corn.

After washing said corn, remove the kernels from the cob. Place kernels along with 2 cups of water in a large stock pot. Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Once the water reaches a roiling boil, lower temperature and cover. Simmer for a few minutes until corn is almost tender. Drain and return to your massive stock pot.

Chop your celery, peppers and onions; add to corn. At this time you'll also want to add the turmeric, celery seed, pickling salt, sugar, mustard and vinegar. Simmer, sans lid, for 5 minutes or so. Stir occasionally.

While your veggie concoction is simmering away on the stove, mix together in a small bowl, the cornstarch and 3 tablespoons of water. Stir the starchy water into your veggies and cook and stir and cook and stir and so on for a handful of moments until it's slightly thickened and bubbling.

Scoop your Sweet Corn Relish into hot, sterilized pint jars that have been patiently waiting in the oven. Leave a 1/2 inch head space. Wipe the jar rims and place your lids. Process your jars in a hot water bath. They need to be boiled for 15 minutes. When your 15 minutes is up, place jars on a wire drying rack or whatnot until they're cool. This recipe makes 6 pints with a little left over for some after-canning snackings.

Sweet Corn Relish is not only tasty but beautiful in the jar. This makes a great gift partnered with a bag of homemade tortilla chips or a loaf of fresh bread coupled with a local pilsner or sun tea.

One of my favorite soups in the whole world, Fresh Corn Chowder, requires almost the exact same ingredients as the Sweet Corn Relish. I found this recipe years ago in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest and Other Timeless Delicacies by Mollie Katzen, the author of the Moosewood Cookbook. Depending on the time of year, whether or not I'm forced to use frozen corn or fresh or if I've forgotten to pick up a certain ingredient at the market, this recipe can be extremely flexible and always tastes stunning.

Fresh Corn Chowder

2 Tbs. fresh butter

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 minced celery

1 sweet red bell pepper, minced

4 cups fresh sweet corn (approx. 4-5 ears)

1/2 tsp. salt

freshly-ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. fresh thyme

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1 cup stock or water

1 cup evaporated milk (or regular milk)

Like the previous recipe, begin with getting the corn buck naked. Make sure that there's no silk left on the corn before you cut the corn off the cob. Many a time we've been lazy and neglected to de-silk the corn properly and have paid the price while eating later. Silks get stuck in your teeth and don't have the best texture for soup. Place naked, de-cobbed corn in a bowl and set it aside for later incorporation.

In a medium sized sauce pan, saute the chopped onion in the butter. Cook the onion to a beautiful, buttery translucence. Add minced celery. Cook over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes. Then add chopped peppers and corn.

Seasoning time! Reduce heat slightly and add seasonings; stir well and cover. Let her cook for another 5 minutes or so until all the veggies are slightly soft and the flavors are meshing well.

Add stock. We like to use our own chicken stock, from our own chickens, and haven't ever used anything else. Thus said, my preference is to use chicken stock. You can use vegetable stock if you're not into the meat thing or water works as well.

Simmer for about 10 minutes. Using a blender or food processor, puree about half of the soup's solids in its own liquid. Add the yellow goo back to your soup and simmer again.

About 10 minutes before you plan to serve, lower the temperature to medium-low and add the evaporated milk. Raise the heat slowly, gently, to eating temperature. Do not bring to a boil as scorched evaporated milk does not taste very good.

Dig in! This soup is great paired with a light salad on a warm summer evening. 

Reused cloth bags

 My friend Naomi owns this great little farm and garden store in SE Portland called Naomi's Organic Farm Supply store and she recently spoke with me about making cloth bags for her store, with her name stamped on the front. Great advertisement for her as well as being a much needed creative outlet for yours truly. This is what I've come up so far...

I really dig reusing while conserving both our economic and environmental resources. Luckily we live just a few miles away from The Bins. The Bins is a Goodwill Outlet store, we just call it The Bins because everything is in these 20ft long bins; you've got to dig for your treasure. It usually stinks in The Bins and we've found some pretty gnarly stuff that I'd be remiss to describe here, in amongst some retro jewels. It's proven to be an excellent source of random fabrics.

 I found this great old skirt with little mirrors along the bottom that I was able to cut up and use in two different bags. Nik stops by on his way home occasionally and he's picked me up lots of old doilies and dishrags that I mash up and use as fun little add-ons. Each bag is reversible and super sturdy. The idea is that they'll eventually be used as grocery/farm bags. 

 In total, I've made maybe 10 prototype bags (as I had to write up my own pattern) and 4 finished bags. And it only took me 3 weeks! I'm sure I'll get faster and more proficient as time flows along.

P.S. I thought I'd also throw this one in. Another friend just had a babe and I thought, what better then a reversible baby bag with tons of pockets and a little secret on the bottom of the inside? Nothing! So Josh and I whipped this bad boy up. I kinda wish I could keep it now.

Freddie

I'd like to introduce you to Freddie, the newest addition to our homestead. Freddie is a 1950's Janome New Home sewing machine that somewhat resembles, in my opinion, a 1958 Dodge Dart. I was in great need of a heavy duty sewing machine as I've recently been asked to create a line of shopping bags for my great friend Naomi, of Naomi's Organic Farm Supply fame. My last machine, unfortunately, was cursed. Through no fault of my own, the timing got all screwed up and I was unable to retain my loyalty for the 1970's Brother that used to aid in my creations. RIP Brother. My wonderful mother not only found Freddie, she bought him for me as well. Thanks mom!

Hola amigos! It's been awhile, quite awhile, since I last posted. We've experienced a great deal of upheaval since I last wrote; such is life! We planned, organized and designed my girlfriends wedding (it turned out amazing!); my grandmother, whom I had been caring for this past year, left this life in December; I rewrote our curriculum and we've welcomed an abundance of life and mourned our fair share of death on the farm in the last few months.

There's really too much to recount so I'll begin anew, with trying to hatch some eggs. As we have mating pairs of geese, turkeys, ducks and chickens, we decided to side step the whole buying of baby chicks this year. Of course, I'm sure we'll still pick up a few adorable associates along the way, we've decided to try and breed, hatch and raise our own butcher stock this year. My mother so kindly donated a mid-range incubator and I've spent the last two days pouring over poultry books trying to decipher exactly how to ensure a healthy hatching. After ascertaining that I'll most likely fail, I threw our clutch in the incubator, or as I've fondly begun to refer to it - The Eggzabator, last night. Included in our hatch hopefuls are 6 turkey eggs, 12 duck eggs and a lonely goose egg. The problem with incubating these three breeds together is that the duck and goose eggs need more humidity then do the turkey eggs. And since I can't figure out how to get the Eggzabator to get more humid, I just threw them all together and I'm innocently, or ignorantly, hoping for the best. I never said I was a great farmer, just an enthusiastic one!

Another wonderful addition to the 'stead is Whitney Houston. What a horrible name, you say? Yes, I do have to agree with you. Unfortunately, I had no say in this matter. The story is long and sad and sweet; I'll begin. Arwen was accidentally impregnated, through lackadaisical farm standards assuredly. We didn't even realize she was prego until a week before she delivered. The day of her birthing, February 12, I inspected her to see if she had any telltale discharge from her vagina, as usually occurs in almost laboring nannies. As discharge was discernibly absent, I relaxed and went about my day, to be culminated in a date night with my partner Nik.

6pm finds me looking pretty and ready to hit the town (the local bar) when my mom calls frantically saying that she heard splashing water in the barn. Now, as preface to what I've just relayed, I must explain that there are two houses on our property. My Mum lives closer to the Habitat (barn yard) and is always calling to say that the animals are making weird noises. Keep in mind weird noises are what barn yard animal do. A squawk this way to mean that, a quack that way to mean this. That's what they do. Anyhow, she calls to say she hears running water, or splashing in the back and she's worried there's a raccoon killing the goats or something. Nik and I run back to the Habitat, as we always do when my mother worries, and what do we find? Arwen, in labor, with two babies at her feet and a third halfway out. Now did I mention how cute I looked? I looked good! And here I was, about to kneel in the hay and blood and all sorts of fluid from a birthing mama goat. Why do I even try? Anyhow, after pushing the last baby free, Arwen immediately stands and starts licking clean the larger, brownish kid. The other two she ignores. At first I thought the first one she had birthed was dead. He was covered in amniotic fluid and didn't seem to be breathing. I cleaned his face and that of the last kid born. The larger one, the one Arwen immediately took to, was already up and around, nursing some of that excellent colostrum. I tried for quite some time to get her to nurse the other two; she just wouldn't. After about 30 minutes, I took the two small kids inside.

For the next two days I bottle fed them every few hours and tried to help them thrive. They began to walk about 12 hours after they were born and I had the highest of hopes. I even named them in the belief that my positive energy and love could help them thrive. I named them Zora Neale Hurston and Herman Hesse. Good, powerful names after favorite authors. Unfortunately, they both passed within 4 days of life. They both passed at Woodburn Veterinary Clinic, after lots of time, energy and money. During that time my mom took it upon herself to name the surviving kid. I was so busy with the two runts that I gave no thought to her naming choices. Whitney Houston... Oh woe! The travesty of her discretion on top of the death of two beloved babes! I was in a funk that was inescapable for a week.

Whitney is now healthy and happy and the light of our farming days. She's got more personality then a lot of folks I know and she's never above a romp. I choose to take every experience as a learning opportunity and try to never miss the simple joyful happenstances that can be found. Apart from being more careful of breeding mishaps, I've come to cherish Miss Whitney more then I had hoped as she symbolizes the dichotomy of birth and death, renewal and the passing of energies. And she loves to poo on Nik's favorite chair in the living room. His subsequent annoyance is the remedy for all that ills!

Happy wintering!

Thanksgiving Tidings from around the Homestead

This Thursday is Thanksgiving. As usual, this holiday means a ton of work for me and mine. We'll probably abandon any premise of schooling this week and focus on our preparations and meditate on traditions. This year Thanksgiving means something more then the usual feast. This year, we actually worked for this day. This year, everything that will grace our table has been cared for, grown and harvested by us on our land. Aside from a few ingredients including and not limited to Bob's Red Mill organic flour, sea salt harvested in California and butter churned by the Rogue Creamery, each ingredient - vegetable, herb or flesh - has seen our administrations.

In addition to our joy concerning the menu, I'm pleased to report that Gretchen is doing just fine, now out back with her flock. It took about a week for Gretchen to become fully mobile again and the last test of her strength was a float in the tub. She did swimmingly! Jason also had a dentist appointment this week and although I try to never post such mundane things as dentist and doctor appointments (like trips to the store... necessary and completely boring), I couldn't help but post this photo. What pimp shit!

Yesterday, Saturday November 20th, we had butchered (by Harrington's in Boring) one turkey, 6 quail and one pheasant. The size difference between Limpy the turk and this tiny quail was spectacular. I wanted to butcher Limpy myself but was left in the dark when Nik told me that he wouldn't help me in my ventures. I've read so much about how to process a bird and I really wish I'd stuck to my guns and done it myself. Either way, she'll provide a wonderful meal for my family and I'm extremely thankful for her. Happy Thanksgiving!

Mushrooms and Green Tomatoes and a bit of Free Geek

What a busy week! A friend brought over 5 lbs. of chanterelle mushrooms that he had picked at the coast. We traded a medium sized frozen chicken and a dozen duck eggs for the 'shrooms. Good deal as we've all decided that we love the chantrelles! They're in the dryer now. We'll seal the dried mushrooms into pint sized jars and freeze for 2 days to kill anything that might still be alive after the drying process. I'm keepin' my fingers crossed!

I've been told over and over again to include some computer based learning in to our curriculum. I've been told that to know the zen of the computer is to know the path of the future. Well fine. After rebelling against technology for years (except for this fine blog! I don't even have a Facebook page) I decided to include some technology based lessons into our studies by volunteering at Free Geek. If y'all don't know what Free Geek is, find out! It's so super duper cool and we so love all the Geeks working and volunteering there. Here's a link to their website, research! http://www.freegeek.org/ We spent 4 hours dismantling disk drives and recycling the different bits and pieces, learning what each part looked like and what each piece did. We're doing the Adoption program at Free Geek; volunteer for 24 hours and earn a computer. Simple eh? And fun! Stella and I don't need a computer but Joshua and Jason are super stoked to be able to earn themselves a computer that they'll be able to use all by themselves a couple of hours a week. See, I'm progressive!
Until super recently, we were able to draw out the growing season and were eating pretty much every day from the garden. Though the last few days have been nothing but deluge and downpour, I'm afraid to take a photo of what it looks like now. This picture was taken just a week ago and look how healthy we are! How happy! I feel like I could write a book about all I've learned this year with the garden and the animals and although I didn't achieve what I sought to achieve, I did learn a lot. I feel we're on the right path and I wouldn't have traded all these ups and downs for a million dollars. Every death, I carry with me and every triumph, I wear on my sleeve. All in all, a good harvest season.

Ghetto Composter and Jerry-Rigged Wheelbarrow

Today was a beautiful, sunny day and darn it if we didn't deserve it! After a rainy and cold summer, my Summer To-Do list is but half it's original length. I'd have preferred it to be completed, but such is life. We did however, utilize the day in all it's splendor; we finally built the Habitat Composter!

Although we have an Earth Machine composter and a compost tumbler, we really needed something larger that could be turned easily as well as be centrally located. So out of pallets Joshua, Stella and I built two compost boxes. Eventually I hope to expand it to three. It's so totally ghetto that it's cool; we named it the "O", in honor of a metal letter O that we found at Scrap last year.

And can you believe it, we haven't had a working wheelbarrow ever?!?!?! We had bits and pieces of one that Jason and I surgeried together today. A few bolts here, an over sized metal rod there and voila! A working, if not slightly shaky, wheelbarrow. It works like it should and that's what matters most. Yay for usin' what ya' got!

Finally, our new Goat Tractor!!!

After two years of desire, a year of failures and then another six months of planning, Penelope, Arwen, Big Mama and Maybelle finally have a comfortable new home! Sunday morning found us up early and shopping for lumber at the local lumber store. I'd much rather have scavenged construction materials from Craigslist, Freecycle or local construction sights, but my wonderful Mom offered to purchase all the materials new. And since we were unexpectedly scheduled to have the Tractor done before the first of September, we were left with few options.
That said, we began the actual building of the Tractor after hours of debate and price checking, in wonderful spirits and under the direction of the Lord of Construction, Aaron Reick. In addition to being an engineering student and a building guru, Aaron also happens to be the kids' Godfather. Despite personal constraints, Aaron not only designed and spearheaded our project, he worked and directed us for 12 hours on Sunday. What a guy!

I love this photo of Aaron, to the right. He spent much of Sunday in this pose. Kindly listening to our uniformed advice before respectfully teaching us how things are really done. Such patience! In addition to Aaron's assistance, Luke Russel and Mike Bird also lent their strong backs and nimble hands to our project. Without each of them, we'd never have been able to finish this project. Hero's I tell ya!
Mike and Jenny are our neighbors to the East and their kids Bryson and Carson also threw in their effort. Jason, Josh, Bryson and Carson nailed together the header over the doorway as well as offered us hours of entertainment.

At this point the Tractor is structurally finished. We're planning on painting this weekend and I'd like to find some corrugated metal roofing and a gutter on Craigslist to finish the roof. Then we'll pack bark chips and straw on the ground as a floor for the goats. After it's all finished we will re-fence the East side of the Habitat and fix up the coop. Then we'll be done for the year! I just can't wait to head back to the Habitat and see everyone happy and safe and warm in their specific homes. I'm thinking we'll try to plan a "Habitat Warming Party" sometime in September, so mark your calenders!

Scrap Candles

So I save everything. Even the ends of my candles. You know... the stubs at the bottom that never seem to burn up all the way. I save all the little wax ends in a little tin, up on one of my shelves. Sometimes I also pick up half burned candles that I find in free boxes while journey-ing around. Those too go up on the "reuse" shelf. Well, this morning before the kids got up, I reached up to put an emptied out milk container up on the "reuse" shelf and guess what happened? If you guessed that I knocked the wax tin right down on my head, you'd have guessed correct. Damn, that smarted!!! So in addition to changing out the lavender in my lavender oil jar that's sitting, stewing, on my kitchen window sill (the one and only facing south) I decided to throw in some candle making. And cleaning. Oh Lordy! The cleaning! The kids and I started by harvesting any wax we could find and then melted! Melted! Melted! We took some of the spent lavender from the stewing lavender oil jar and added them to a couple of the candles. Despite the fact that they've been cookin' for 7 days in the direct son, they still retain some of their awesome scent. By the time we were done, there was wax everywhere! Just look at these photos, the counter and stove were spotless when we started. Ohhhh, we're such piggies!

Strawberry jammin' season done!!!

Finally finished with the Strawberry Jam!!! Yay! The end tally was 6 flats of berries; 3 wide mouth quarts, 9 regular mouth pints, 3 wide mouth pints, 34 regular mouth 1/2 pints and 52 wide mouth 1/2 pint jars of finished jam; 13 steam burns, 5 consumed days (spread out over two weeks) and 4 1/2 hours spent at the sink, washing jars. I've already given away 9 jars to friends, neighbors and folks that just happened to make me happy. I think this will keep us in jam until the next Hood's harvest, in a year!

Homemade fly trap

I hate flies. I just can't help it. I know that everything plays an important part in the natural way of things, but I just can't stand them. Part of the problem is our lack of screen door; since our doors are open all the time in the summer, those darn flies believe the have a right to just fly on into my home. Damn flies! We've used fly strips and I've even bought a can or two of fly spray this year. I know, I know, how could I??? Anyhow, we decided to try a couple of fly traps near our front door and here's how one turned out. It's ingenious really and it's working wonderfully. Just cut off the top to a juice or pop bottle, invert the top, fill with jam and water and 1/4 cup of vinegar (to discourage the bees - as I do so love them!) and hang. Voila! The flies get caught in the bottle and drown. No more flying through Beka's house for you nasty little buggers!

Spray cleaner and the awesomeness that is Dr. Bronner's

For as long as I've lived on my own, I've made my own cleaners. As I know a lot of folks do as well, I'm not posting this to tell y'all the wonderful cleaning powers of vinegar and baking soda. I am posting this because I've found a new ingredient to add to the water/vinegar mixture to make your spray cleaner extra awesome. Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile soap is a wonderful product that you can use for anything, anywhere. We use it to brush our teeth and wash our dishes when we're backpacking; we use it to wash our hair at home, it's really a wonderful product. Dr. Bronner's soaps are vegetable based and completely biodegradable in addition to being organic and certified Fair Trade. Great stuff, Dr. Bronner's is. I drop a couple of drops into my vinegar/water mixture (you can add a few drops of ammonia for super hard stuff like oven cleaning) and it's cleaning magic. Happy cleaning!

Dishwasher soap

It's cheap and easy to make your own dishwasher soap. And it works really well. I found that although we reuse as much as possible and grow or trade for a lot of our food, there are little necessities that nickel and dime us into debt. Dishwasher soap is one of those things. All you need to do for dishwasher soap is mix 1 to 1 borax and baking soda. If you're feeling really adventurous, put some white vinegar into your rinse dispenser. Happy Dishwashing!