Today 11-19-11

I have just locked the chickadees in the henhouse for the night and  i am taking some time to write a few my thoughts.

I enjoy our chickens soo much. Today they were out and about the yard as usual and doing what they do. They spend time scratching looking for seeds and bugs, digging holes for dust bathing, and exploring.

This brings me to my thoughts on a very controversial subject, corporate chicken and egg farms.

These factory farms are notorious for the mistreatment of the animals.

Lots of vegetarian and vegan groups use this as a reason to support their lifestyles. More power to them

This however is NOT true for those of us who raise chickens in out backyards. Our birds enjoy their lives, they have lots of space while in their henhouse (the room for four chickens is bigger than my own bedroom). They have the run of the yard during the day with plenty of room do as they may. They get plenty of exercise. They have their regular crumbles along with chicken scratch (a corn mixture) as well as raisins, vegetable scraps, yogurt, oatmeal, and numerous other treats, plus all the bugs and worms they can find.

Though i do not think i could eat my chickens, mainly because they are more like pets. But i thank them every day for their wonderful eggs and the hours of joy they give me.

Thanks for reading

Some photos

Morning get together

Good afternoon. This morning my girlfriend Diane and I joined a group of people for an informal couple of hours of talking  and sharing.

it was a gathering of a diverse collection of individuals that centered around the slow food, slow money movement as well as permaculture and sustainability.

Slow food is a way to get to know your family, neighbors and friends thru gathering together around the hearth preparing good nutritious food and sharing the days/weeks events.

People need to get away from supporting big business factory farms/food production and concentrate on local farmers, ranchers, herders, and other food providers.

It is often said that it is cheaper to buy food at a fast food restaurant than it is to eat a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables and backyard raised eggs and the like. This cant be farther from the truth a garden can be started  relatively cheaply and cuts down on costs in the future such as medicines and doctors visits. As Diane says, with a bag of rice, a bag of beans, fresh eggs and vegetables a family could eat very well and nutriciously and inexpensively.

Animals on factory farms are regularly mistreated, fed corn instead of their primal foods such as grass.

Chickens are kept in shoebox sized cages, unable to do what comes naturally to them such ranging to forage for food and socializing with other chickens. For people who are not familiar with chickens, goats and other farm animals are unaware that these animals share and contribute to our ecosystem. I raise chickens and was unaware that they have unique personalities quirks and habits.

I am not talking about foghorn leghorn here, but they are individuals none the less. Apart from waking us up at 7 am with a racket, they are fun to interact with, they have a calming affect at the end of a long day. They also are a supply of compost material and eat harmfull insects in your garden.

I am starting to ramble here, so i will quit for a while and play with the girls in the coop.

Every one a have a great weekend.

Candied Jalapenos

I'm not one for super hot spicy peppers normally, but these babies can really add a nice touch to a grilled cheese sandwich, or chopped up to add a little spice to anything you are making like deviled eggs, soups, vegetables, etc. A little goes a long way, which is why we tend to have an open jar in the refrigerator all the time.

 I made them last year with red jalapenos, this year I tried green, and I was disappointed. Where the red ones look like little jewels, the green ones look drab. I hope to find a supply of red jalapenos before the season is out to replenish our supply for the year. 

There are a lot of recipes out there. This is the recipe I used last year and this is the one I tried this year.

The recipe suggests you wait at least 2 weeks to mellow out the flavors.  This is a good idea.

Oh, I also tried making candied jalapenos similar to candied orange peels by cooking the jalapenos in a 2 to 1 ratio of sugar to water for about 10 minutes, then removing the jalapenos and bringing the syrup to 221 degrees adding the jalapenos back and bringing back up to 221, then remove let dry slightly, shake with sugar, let dry again and store in the freezer. You probably could leave them out of the freezer, but I wasn't sure they were totally dry. I plan to use these on top of  cupcakes or some other dessert for a party I'm going to in a couple of weeks. I tried one, and they are hot!

Canning San Marzano Tomatoes

I had to find out for myself. After hearing about how wonderful San Marzano tomatoes are in the pasta making class I took from Rosetta. I took the plunge and did a lot of canning in the past few days. You can find her method documented on her website. However, I also added 1 T lemon juice and 1/8 t salt to each pint jar.  I also made tomato paste from a recipe in Rosetta's  wonderful cookbook called My Calabria. Her cookbook is filled with great recipes, and not only that, it tells her story of coming to the US from Calabria and her family who grew all the food they ate and continue to do the same at their home in Oakland. I plan to take another class from her soon. I can't wait to use these lovely canned tomatoes throughout the year, and especially in the dead of winter. I tasted my fair share of fresh San Marzano's and they are tremendous. You can get San Marzano tomatoes from Happy Girl Kitchen Preservationist Society, or if you are lucky and they are deliverying to your neighborhood, from Mariquita Farms via their Ladybug Buying Club.

Our chickens

We have four chickens that were hatched on February 26th 2011.

They are all different breeds: Buffy, a Buff Orpington,Trouble, an Easter Egger so named because she has been looking for trouble since the first time i saw her;, Phyllis, a White crested Black Polish, so named for her white crest that looks like Phyllis Diller, and Blacky a Black Cochin.

While having hens at times can be fun, although, nothing is fun about them making a huge racket about 7 am. I hope the neighbors don't complain but so far none has.

They started laying eggs at twenty weeks except for Blacky's, tho we suspect the egg we found this afternoon is hers, since she has started exploring the nestbox lately.

UPDATE:The egg we found was not Blacky's egg. As of 9/16, she has not layed one yet.

Making Ricotta Cheese

Well, I went shopping and believe it or not, they were out of ricotta cheese, so I decided to make my own as an ingredient in some lassagna I'm making tonight.

I heated up a gallon of milk to 185 degrees, careful to stir it occassionally so it didn't scorch, then I added 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar, and about 1/4 t of salt, stirred for one minute, and let it sit for 2 hours before straining through cheese cloth.

Making Butter

We've been doing so many fun projects that we haven't blogged about yet. I figure there is no better time than the present to get started so here goes!
Today I'm making cultured butter. I learned how from taking a class called "Living  Cultures Kitchen" from Ruby of Institute of Urban Homesteading . Ruby is extremely knowledgable. Cultured butter is different than butter you buy from the grocery store. It is made by mixing cream with a source of lacto-bacteria, either from buttermilk of yogurt.