What Did She Do Today?

She Spent Another Day in the Kitchen August 30, 2009

More time in the Kitchen putting food away. I added Corn, Kale and Peppers to the freezer.  Tomatoes drying in the dehydrator, along with some summer squash.  I dried a bit of Kale and some Peppers, with the idea of drying a whole lot of things, in very small quantities, then I can throw them all in a soup, and see how that works out, so I can know what to dry TONS of and what to not bother with.

Tonight was a great One Local Summer Meal.  Burger from Sunnyfield Farm in Peterboro, made up as simple hamburgers.  Corn on the cob from Herring Pond Farm (the only cobs that avoided the freezer), and pan fried potatoes (from Wake Robin Farm), joined by Red Onions from Meadows Mirth, Green Peppers from Nippo Brook Farm, bits of kale left from freezing from an unknown Farmer at the Portsmouth Market, and some garlic from my garden.  Oh, and some brandywine tomatoes, cut for simple eating, also from Herring Pond Farm

Spending all the time in the kitchen, putting food by, has really helped me get dinner made each night.  Add to the fact I have a crazy number of food options right now, eating around here has been really good.  I also find myself daydreaming of what I'm going to make with all this food this winter.  Like the dried tomatoes had me thinking, Pizza, with Pesto, Dried Tomatoes, Elk Sausage, and homemade Mozzerella that I'll make with milk from the farm.  MMM...Doesn't that sound like a great way to bust through the cold, snowy weather we are sure to have in January?

I'm completely exhausted, but very happy and feeling good about my efforts.  It's funny how frozen food can make you feel so cozy!

She Ate A Very Local Dinner August 13, 2009

My One Local Summer Meal this week is very basic, but very local.  All of the components came from my own yard! 

I sliced and pan fried a summer and zucchini squash.  Then fried an egg, placed it on the bed of squash, garnished with some Sun Gold Tomatoes.  It was amazingly delicious. I'm a fan of the squash cooked that way, anyway, and the egg was a nice touch.  Added to the tastiness was the fact I harvested it all right outside, moments before cooking it.  I have no pictures because I still struggle with food shots, but it was beautiful with the yellow, green, orange, and red. 

Other than making dinner and doing some work for my business, I really had a hard time even getting out of my own way today.  I slept very late this morning, and still took a nap with the baby this afternoon.  Mini was tired too, and took a very long nap, and the baby was barely awake 1 hour together all day, despite our prodding her.  I'm not sure what was in the air, but I'm hoping to be more productive tomorrow.  I think tonight will be spent sitting and knitting...maybe I'll go grab a bowl of yogurt and blueberries.  Yes, that sounds good. 

She Threw a Party August 8, 2009

My oldest baby is 3 tomorrow.  We had the party with her grandparents, and uncle today.  She had a wonderful time, and had a lot of outfit changes, as she received several new costumes, and each new one, prompted the old one to be removed and the one to take it's place.  The gifts were heavy on Fancy Nancy and Little House on the Prairie.  So fun to be a little girl.

We don't give Mini refined sugar, and only in the last 6 months has she had maple syrup or honey as a sweetener.  She's not diabetic and I know the syrup and honey have the same effect on blood sugar, but we have tried to limit her sweet/sugar intake because not only is it empty calories, it spoils the flavor of the naturally sweet things in life, like veggies.  Birthday time is the only time I feel compelled to reassess our choices with sugar.  Cake and ice cream just go with birthday tradition, and not just the birthday honoree is looking for it, but so are the guests.  For her first year I made a cake sweetened with fruit and applesauce.  It was pretty good, but not amazing.  The adults were served the cake with cream cheese frosting, and Mini had hers with unsweetened whipped cream and loved it.  Last year, strawberry shortcake, again, sugar for the guests, but not for mini.  Again, big hit.  This year, since we are using honey in small quantities with her, I opted for a "real cake", sweetened with honey, and containing chocolate!!  I then found a complimentary ice cream recipe, and added blue berries.

Our Birthday Celebration lunch was very local...all you One Local Summer readers!

The choice of Chicken Salad, or Egg Salad on either local made bread, or on a bed of fresh garden picked lettuce.  The Chicken came from Lasting Legacy Farm, the Eggs, were from our girls, and the basil from our garden was mixed into both.

Sides were potato salad made with potatoes, onions and peppers from the farmers market, and instead of mayo I used pesto, yum!  I made some of the yummy beet salad I made a few days ago.

The ice cream was the biggest hit for Mini.  She is a fan of homemade ice cream, made with Brookford Farm cream, of course.

I now, conveniently, have several lunches worth of leftovers in the fridge!

I haven't forgotten bunny pics, I promise.  They are forthcoming...

She Could See the End in Sight! July 27, 2009

I haven't been posting as much lately, I think because I feel like I have nothing "fun" to post about.  I really want more time for crafting or going off to do fun things, but honestly homesteading really takes a lot of time.  I've spend the past few days working on coops, which I'm excited about and will post pics when they are all done, but feel like telling you I'm again working on coops is a bit redundant and not a lot of fun, for you, the reader.  But, they are almost done!

While working with Dad today I made a comment about how he was not left doing all the heavy lifting for this project, as I did about 90% of the ditch digging myself, and the rest was mostly help from Husband.  We were digging a ditch around the outside of the growing pen for the meat birds.  We did this to bury chicken wire underground, to hopefully deter predators from digging under the wall of the bare ground coop. 

He agreed, and when I asked if he could believe I was working this hard, he replied he couldn't and that it was a far cry from the 10 year old Amy who would fuss and whine about hard work, and most often hurt herself, so she could go inside, instead of helping.  I honestly don't remember if the little accidents that occurred during projects, such as cutting and stacking firewood, were intention, or if I really was that clutsy, and just benefited from this fact, but he's right.  Nearly every time the family went out to cut the wood for our winter heat, I would drop a log on my foot, or hand, or finger, and cry.  My parents would tell me to just go inside, and clean the house instead of helping with the wood.

There is such a difference between doing something because you are told to, and truly being compelled by something inside yourself to step up and do the hard work.  Working on this project has been very satisfying, and I'm thinking about how glad I am that I have a tub to soak in at the end of such a long, hard, and sweat filled day.

Oh, and I really don't enjoy working with chicken wire!  This is my poor left arm.  I'm not even going to show you my sad leg!

Tonight I enjoyed this week's One Local Summer Meal.  I have a very hard time photographing food and having it look appetizing, so I'll refrain.

Chicken, oven fried with simple herb rub.  A mix of veggies, sauteed, including Zucchini, Summer Squash, Kale, Onions, Garlic, and Butter.  Then thinly sliced potatoes fried in a pan, with onion tops, garlic, salt and pepper.  Yum! 

She Heard Chicks Peep July 17, 2009

The birds are looking better.  I haven't posted for a couple days because I've been taking care of them, and haven't had any great news to share, so instead of being a bummer for 2 days, I refrained.  I did lose 2 birds, both of which were a bit on the weak side to begin with, and I have 2 more that I'm not sure about, so have quarantined them together and will see if they improve, or not. 

There have been six chicks hatched in my incubator!!  They were due today, but will come over the next couple days.  There are a couple more cracked shells, so more to come.  Mary has at least a couple under her already too.  I moved the first 2 from the incubator down to Mary, and realized on my way back inside that I should have taken their picture before I did.  Ooops.  I was so concerned that they get to Mary, and that she accept them, which she did.  Yay!  I love raising chickens...today.  The other 4 came later in the night, so will stay in the incubator overnight, and go down to Mary in the morning. 

 

Wet and New

Other fun news from the past two days.  I went to the Exeter Farmer's Market for the first time.  I wanted the freedom on Saturday to do whatever I needed to for coop building, so decided Thursday afternoon would be a good time to get stocked on produce.  I was right.  That market is amazing.  The location is so peaceful, on the water with lots of grass and trees.  Many of my favorite vendors from Portsmouth were there.  Brookford Farm was their with their raw milk and cream, which they aren't allowed to sell in Portsmouth, so that was cool.  I purchased a lovely, big, purple cabbage, Garlic Scapes for Pesto, Sweet Onions, Spring Garlic, Summer Squash and Zucchini, Potatoes, and some little round Zucchini's for stuffing! 

I made my One Local Summer Meal last night.  Dinner time got away from us, so I needed something fast and easy.  So in 15 minutes, this is what I whipped up...

Summer Squash and Zucchini were sliced into a fry pan with some butter and a cover...so sort of sauteed, but the liquid they created by being heated aided in sort of steaming them.  I seasoned with salt and pepper.

On the way home from Exeter Market I picked up some Elk Sausage from Velvet Pastures Ranch in Lee, so I scrambled some in a fry pan, added a some scrambled eggs, a mix of chicken and duck from our ladies, and cooked it all together.  If it hadn't been a local summer meal I might have added cheese, but I didn't have any local cheese.

It was fast, yummy and local.

More coop building is happening here.  The door coop worked out so well, I went back to Restore and picked up some more for coop 2.  Mom and Dad have offered to build the 3 season coop for the meat chickens.  I'm excited, because it is going to be modular, and I love what dad has designed.  I'll of course show you when it's done, even though it's not going to be "what I did".

At the Exeter Market, I met Deb, the woman who gave me all those great apron patterns.  She and her husband were chatting with Joseph of Yellow House, when I stopped at his table to say Hi.  It was great to meet her and finally have a face to go with the comments and emails.  We talked about my secret to getting so much accomplished...parents.  Yes, my parents and husband are a huge support.  I describe it as such, "My life is too big for one person to live it, I need a support staff."  I really do all the things I post, but I do get a bit of help especially with the big things, like construction projects, and child care. I'm very fortunate to have such a wonderful family, we work well together and having the two generations so close gives my little ones such a wonderful sense of family.  I am really blessed.

She Started Coop Building July 10, 2009

I had a great dinner tonight.  It was my One Local Summer meal week 5, I believe.  I took the lobster that I cleaned out of the shell, put it in a casserole dish, covered with butter, bread crumbs made from homemade bread, Parmesan cheese and Basil and Thyme from my window box of herbs.  Baked it in the oven, and made up some potatoes that I bought from the Farmer's Market last week. Swiss Chard from my garden fried up with some garlic scapes.  YUM!!

We need a lot of coop space built.  I have 28 Dorking chicks that are getting too big for the brooding pen they are sharing with the Guineas and the Buff Orpingtons.  Jane and her crew need a bigger house too.  I'm starting with the Dorking house.  I bought a deck from a guy on Craig's List.  He delivered it for a total of $60.00!  That is 5'7" by 7'5".  Dad and I went over to "ReStore", in Dover.  It's a store for Habitat for Humanity.  The bring building supply leftovers, from houses they fix up, as well as donated items that are sometimes new and sometimes used.  They sell them at the store and use the proceeds for more Habitat projects.  It's very cool, and one of the business offering a 10% discount to all Green Alliance Members!

They had a bunch of solid wood doors, one that was particularly cool and already had a hole in the front, with a pull down door...perfect for a nest box access!  The doors were only $15.00 each, and for a total of $105.00 I got all the wood necessary for the walls of the coop!  I have a window in the backyard, that came free from the side of the road.  Restore had a few hinges, some screening and vents, as well.  I have to buy aluminum roofing, and maybe a trip back to Restore for some framing wood, if we run out of our stash, but otherwise, we have everything we need, and it shouldn't cost over $200.00.  I'm not sure I'll be so fortunate with future coops, but this one is helping the pocket book!

Oh, and it's going to look super cool.  Here is a drawing from my journal:

Today I saw a woodchuck in the garden.  I called dad to come down with his gun, but the little guy disappeared before dad arrived.  There was no damage signs in the garden, so hopefully, he won't be back, but I need to do something, as I don't want to lose what has come up, since the rain has already detered some growth.  I'm going to spray the Animal Stopper from Mesina and hope for the best.

She had Dinner with a Friend June 30, 2009

A friend from college, Jay, came for a visit.  He's living and teaching in India, and is home, in the states, for school break.  It was great to reconnect.  He reads my blog, but he got to see the birds and rabbits, and kids and house, and crazy messy life of mine in person.  I served him my One Local Summer meal, for this week, Meal #4.

We had mixed veggies.  I started by putting butter in the pan and pan frying some potatoes and turnips.  Once they had started cooking, I added cut up garlic scapes and broccoli, covered and let the moisture build up.  I added a little more water, when I added the peas and zucchini.  Finished cooking until all were done.  Staggering the veggies allowed the longer to cook items to have the extra time without over cooking the quick cooking veggies.

I steamed up some beets.  YUM!  I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying beets this year.

For meat we enjoyed some goat kabobs cut, that had been coated in flour with a bit of pepper and cinnamon.  Then pan fried with some butter and fresh garlic.  It was even better than how I prepared it the last time.  I think the coating made it moister and the cinnamon was a nice touch.

I made biscuits that used non local ingredients, to make strawberry shortcake. 

Where everything came from:

Robin Wake Farm: Potatoes
Yellow House Farm: Garlic Scapes
Meadows Mirth Farm: Turnips and Beets
Warren Farm: Strawberries
Sugar Momma: Syrup to sweeten the strawberries
Brookford Farm: Cream
Jenness Farm: Goat Meat
New Root Farm: Garlic, Zucchini
Nelson Farm: Broccoli
My Garden: Peas

We've had a lot of fun with the bunnies today.  They are so sweet and so soft.  It's really lovely to sit and pet them.  The mama let me sit and pet her for a very long time.  She really seemed to enjoy the attention. 

I've been doing a lot of reading on rabbits.  One book, Raising small animals for pleasure and profit by Frank Getz Ashbrook can be read on google books.  The other book is a reprint from a 1927 book, Raising Rabbits for Fur, Meat and Profit by Robert G.Hodgson. 

She Found All Kinds of Local to Report on Today June 16, 2009

One Local Summer Meal, Week 3:

Mini Steaks from Lasting Legacy Farm, marinated in soy sauce, garlic (from winter farmers market) and Maple Vinegar, then pan fried.  When the steak was about 1/2 done, I threw Turnip Greens and Pea Tendrils in on top and put a lid on, letting the greens steam on top of the steak.

Spring Turnips are still the focus for veggies right now, but others are picking up pace, like peas...I had a few from my very own garden that I steamed with the other greens!  I tried something akin to mashed cauliflower with the Turnips, adding a few chives, cream from Brookford and a little butter, then blended with a hand blender.  They were great that way.  I have been having all kinds of fun figuring out new things to do with the turnips.

As a lovely ending to the meal, we enjoyed yogurt from Brookford Farm, a swirl of honey (not local, but I'm going to seek out some local honey, as I've been hearing about several people raising bees locally).  I topped the yogurt with sliced strawberries from Warren Farm!

YUM!

Buying Local.  I have 2 groups to share:

3/50 Project...Brick and Mortar stores need your our help.  The big box stores can be convenient (if you don't find your head swimming, forgetting half the things you went for because you got sidetracked by the myriad of other things jumping out at you, or become nauseous from all the chemicals off gassing...maybe that's just me)...but they can be convenient, as can the internet, where I know I buy a good portion of the few things I do buy these days.  There is still a whole industry of small, individually owned businesses.  They are still holding on, but how much better would your neighborhood, town, community, or State be, if the money stayed in that area, instead of traveling all over the country, or world?  For every $100.00 you spend at an individually owned store, on average, $68 of it stays in your community.

The 3/50 project is asking that you spend $50.00 in 3 brick and mortar stores each month.  Pick 3 stores you would miss if they went out of business and start making a greater point to go there.
We have been trying to buy locally as much as we can, and have found doing so has enriched our lives.  We have made friends, like Rick and Margot at Spinning Yarns, we have learned a lot, like when we talked to Dave at Hardscrabble Hill Feed in Barrington about our chicken coop plans, and other miscellaneous chicken questions, and we have people who we get to have happy little chats with, like with several of the fine folks at Calef's.

If you are in the area, there is another cool local store opportunity.  Green Alliance.  It's a membership/discount card.  The cost is $35.00 and the discounts range, but all the businesses are green.  Acorns Salon in Dover, an Organic Hair Salon is offering 20% off when you show the card!  I've been wanting to go there for a hair cut, anyway.

Chicken update:  We had 50 Buff Orpington Chickens arrive today.  One was lost in transit, one passed shortly after arrival, but the rest remain happy and healthy.  They are staying in bins upstairs for a few days to be sure they are healthy, so that they won't cause any problems for my healthy guineas and dorkings, but then they'll go down into the Brooder pen.  These chicks are super cute.  They are so chubby and fuzzy.  More so than the other breeds I've had.  Very sweet indeed.

Today while hand feeding Jane and the Ancona Chicks I noticed one of them was sneezing.  This concerned me and I wanted to go check my resources to determine if it was the sign of a problem or not, but was pretty sure if I left I wouldn't easily be able to pick her out again...the trouble with raising all one breed, instead of picking a variety of colorful birds for your flock.  So I scooped her up and brought her in.  I'm pretty sure she's a she, because her comb is pretty small and still pale yellow, and not red, like the cockerels.  Anyway, I brought her in and had her sitting in my lap, petting her, while I read books and checked the internet.  Basically I found that sneezing happens, and that it could be from the dust of new shavings.  Well, their food is nearing the bottom of the bag, so I'm pretty sure she was just getting dusty food, as she didn't sneeze at all in the house.  The really amazing part of all this, was I had an Ancona sitting on my lap, contentedly, not showing signs of nervousness at all.  There is hope for this skittery breed to be affectionate babies afterall!  Yay!

Duck update: Josephine has 1 week to go!  She has been setting on the eggs for 3 weeks, and ducks incubate in 28 days.  I'm sure I'm more nervously excited than she is.  I never candled them because the duck arrangements aren't as easily accessible as the chicken set up, so I have no idea how many eggs were fertile and how many started to grown.  I just can't wait to see!

She Ate Well Again Tonight June 9, 2009

Another "One Local Summer" Meal was served up tonight.  I invited my parents over for Chicken from Yellow House Farm, Spaghetti Squash harvested from my own garden last fall, Turnips and Turnip greens from Robin Wake Farm bought at the Portsmouth Market, and Asparagus from Warren farm. 

I cooked the Turnips as I did last time, but this time I fried the greens instead of steaming them and oh, my!  They were great like that.  I put some butter in the pan, along with some garlic, added the greens, salt and pepper and cooked until the greens were wilted.  I liked them even better, done up this way.

The chicken was a fryer, so on the small side for what you think of as a chicken, and it was a heritage breed so it was also much leaner than a factory farmed chicken, despite being 16 weeks older than the factory chickens.  Factory chicken is genetically modified to fatten at 8 weeks.  This makes them unhealthy and weak, unable to even walk after 4 weeks.  Poor things.  The chicken we ate tonight walked it's whole life, and was vibrant and vigorous at the time of harvest. 

I placed the bird in my clay cooker with chicken stock, I made myself this winter and had frozen in ice cube trays, garlic, salt and pepper.  I added the spaghetti squash and cooked all of it on 350 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours.

I steamed the asparagus.

YUM!!

Josephine has made it to the half way mark with her eggs.  She has been sitting for 2 weeks and has 2 weeks to go.  Good Job Josephine!

We had some wildlife excitement today.  Christopher and Mini came home to find a rather large snapping turtle in the driveway.  We are guessing it was a female, who left the swampy tributary to find a good place to lay her eggs.  We took pictures, but when the chickens found her, we got a bit nervous for their safety, so dad came down and loaded her into a laundry basket and brought her back down to the river.  After she left, dad shared snapping turtle stories, including the fact that he, and I, though I don't remember, have eat snapping turtle before...shoot!  Now that would have made a great One Local Summer Meal blog post!  Anyone interested in a photo tutorial of how to dress out a snapper?

It's amazing how high Snappers get off the ground.
It was pretty cool to watch her moseying on up the driveway.

She Made Her First 'One Local Summer' Meal June 2, 2009

I joined in the Farm Philly challenge to eat one completely local meal a week.  I made my first one, for the challenge today.

Menu:

Goat - Kabob Cut
Melted a little butter in a pan, put the flame on Med/Low, added goat pieces, salt and pepper.  I let cook, covered for about 15 minutes on Med/Low to Low.  I had read to cook goat slowly to keep it tender.  It was tender and I really enjoyed the flavor.  I had never eaten goat meat before, but several friends have been recommending it and I'm thinking that while I don't have the space for a cow, I do have the space for goats, so while I'm not thinking this year, I am thinking they are a possibility in the future.  Especially since I now know I like the meat!

Steamed Beet Greens from the Farmer's Market in Portsmouth.  I believe the farmer is from the Exeter area.

Spinach Pan Omelet.  I might have strayed from the rules here, as I did use Organic Valley cheese in this omelet, but there wasn't much and if my family weren't such cheese nuts I could have omitted it.  I just scrambled our own eggs, with a little Brookford Dairy Milk, Salt and Pepper, a bit of cheese (I believe Brookford supplies milk to Organic Valley for use in their products, so maybe it was local...okay a big stretch, I know).  I prepared my small Iron fry pan with some melted butter, when hot, I poured the egg mixture in, stirred around a bit, and then left in on low to heat through.

We had water for beverages.  Mini had to be told to slow down while eating the goat!  The meal was a big hit.