What Did She Do Today?

Happy New Year!! January 9, 2010

Wow!  It's been a while, folks.  I've missed you.  Things have been busy around here, and I haven't been in the place of taking pictures and writing things down.  But I think I'm back now.  I guess time will tell.

What has happened...

I got all my Christmas Crafting done.  Knitting:  Shawl for mom, Sweater and a face cloth with the Charlie Brown Christmas tree for Christopher, Sweater, socks and hot water bottle covers for the girls.  Sewing: Topsy Turvy dolls for the girls, potholders for my cousin.  We had a lovely holiday season.  Every year I think of 10 new things I want to add as traditions, and realize they must be added NEXT year.  But the tradition we have of the advent is lovely, and still perfect for our family.   We did add the celebration of Saint Nicholas day this year, and I'm so thrilled we did.  We don't do the typical Santa thing around here, but there is nothing wrong with Santa.  He's a lovely, jolly ole' fellow, and his roots are so dear.  Adding the celebration is perfect.  Ewoyn had great fun being in on the game with all the rest of us, pretending that Santa left gifts for us, and getting excited.  I loved it.

The barnyard is doing great.  We have done all the processing for the year!  The ducks were a whole day with some lovely friends who came and made very light work of what could have been a daunting project.  It was great!  Christopher and I had a babysitter come Friday so we could process all the "of age" rabbits, save 3.  One buck who will find a new home, the next town over, with Natalie.  Two Does who may find homes with a couple other folks who want to start raising the Creme D'Argent on their homesteads! 

The breeding poultry are settled into their homes for the winter, and the Does are all bred, with babies due in February!  That is if they all took.  You never know with rabbits.  So you'll have to check back around Valentine's Day for baby bunny pics!

I'm knitting like a woman on a mission, lately.  I am done the body, and working on the sleeves of a simple black pullover, for myself, as well as a great scarf that uses up scraps.  These projects are both worked on small needles and I'm looking forward to them being done.  See, I went to the LYS year end sale, and broke the bank!  I have beautiful, colorfully, yummy yarn busting out of bags, begging to take the place of this simple black (kind of boring to knit) sweater.  The scarf is fun to knit, but it's done with leftover sock yarn, so it's SLOW moving, since one row is 480 stitches long!  Crazy.  But wait till you see it, it's worth it, I swear.

The Skunk Zoo is selling, and has found it's way into a few more local shops, and Husband and the girls are going to be making the rounds to a few more shops and book stores.  It's exciting!

I have not made the lemon curd, but I did juice the lemons and collected the zest so that I didn't have to worry about the lemons going bad.  The zest is in the freezer and the juice is in the refrigerator.  I anticipate making curd with Jessica, as we are going to have a day long Jelly/Jam/Curd day this month.  I have Autumn Olives, Elderberries, Strawberries, Peaches, Black Raspberries, Blueberries and Grapes, all in the freezer, waiting for the slow, calm days of January!

Okay, hoping to be back with pictures and daily musings!  I hope the last couple months have been good to you, and your celebrations were special!

 

 

She Canned Fun Stuff! October 20, 2010

I wouldn't have picked to be doing "fun" canning today, as I have a list of not as fun things, that really need to get done, but it was necessary.  I have pears and tomatillos that need to be processed before they go bad, and I had specific things in mind.  I didn't know if I could get away with freezing and doing these fun goodies later, so I bit the bullet and got started.

Tomatillos did pretty well in my garden this year.  I only had 4 plants and the yield was a solid half bushel, or more.  I've not done much with them, as I'm not super familiar with them, but decided that some salsa was in order.  I found a recipe online, and other than substituting a sweet pepper for most of the jalapenos, and  parsley for the cilantro, I followed it.  The resulting salsa was fabulous!  I had a small amount left, after jarring, that wasn't enough to really put in a jar so I put it in a pan, laid some fish on top, covered and simmered.  It was delicious!!  I am loving the local fish lately.

I made another double batch of Chunky Spiced Pear Jam, which we have been enjoying on toast, lately. 

One thing I've been wanting to try my hand at, is chutney.  I have never made any and can't say that I've done much with the store bought form, either, but I do love the chutneys that have accompanied meals in fancy restaurants.  Pears just seem perfect for chutney so I gave it a try.  I used a couple different recipes as my inpsiration, but they all seemed pretty similar to this one, except I added dry mustard (about 1 tsp) and cinnamon (also a tsp), no red pepper flakes (Husband prefers less spice than more), Honey instead of Brown Sugar, so only about 1/2 the amount called for, as I find it to be sweeter than sugar.  I also grated, with a microplane, the garlic, instead of just letting it simmer and remove.  That just seems crazy to me.  Garlic is so yummy, you can't just take it out! 

I'm pleased with how it all came out.  I have a few more pears that I'm trying to figure out something special for, and a few more tomatillos that I'm just going to can up like regular tomatoes, for use in sauce this winter.  I love the tangy sweet flavor and I think they will compliment a tomato sauce, quite nicely.

Tomorrow, more apples!  Looking for Chuntey recipes for the apples, and I might try that Chunky Spiced Jam recipe with the apples.  I really prefer jam over jelly.

I've been remiss in introducing you to our newest breeding buck.  He came with the name Sam, and I'm tyring to decide if I'll keep that name.  My other bucks are Almanzo, Henry and Jack.  Boy names are harder to pick, than girls, I think.  I have enough bucks, but Sam needed to be saved.  He is from Virginia's first litter, and he's just too good to end up being dinner.  He has a very nice form, but he wouldn't work for Virginia, as she has his mom and full sister as breeding does.  He will stay here and she will get a different buck from me, who isn't closely related to her does.  So until I figure out how many bucks I'm going to keep, and which ones, he's going to hang out here.  He seems to like his new home, and has transitioned well to the whole food diet.

I haven't mentioned the chickens lately.  They are certainly not center stage on the homestead this year.  We have found we just really enjoying eating duck and rabbit more, so the chickens are fewer.  Chicken is still a popular dish around here, but I love the darkness of duck meat, and rabbit is just phenomenal, and so easy to harvest, that I don't really mind not doing all the business of plucking chickens. 

Well, tonight, the young laying hens were moved to the laying coop.  It was a bit of a project, so one I have been procrastinating, but Husband helped and it went smoothly.  All the old ladies had their bands removed.  I checked to see if they seemed to still be laying.  Those believed to be laying recieved a pink band. 

All the young girls were banded with clear, but there are a couple who have already started laying, so I tried to identify them, and those who I believed were laying got a yellow band.  I did this so that in the Spring I can breed from them, as they are the early maturing birds, and the older girls are still laying after the fall equinox, so kudos to them. 

The bands are just zip ties from the hardware store.  They stay on well, are inexpensive, easy to find and come in a variety of colors, so they are a great option for temporary identification.  Identification is very important if you want to form a good breeding flock, and breed well, which I hope to be able to do.

She Spent the Day in the Kitchen with Irma and some Tough Ole' Hens October 9, 2010

I finally did something with Irma.  I've been feeding her, but have not made anything with her for a while now, besides an occasional batch of sourdough crepes.  But today I pulled her out and used her to make a batch of sourdough Cheese Crackers, English Muffins and some oatmeal muffins!  Everything came out great.  We are going to have the oatmeal muffins along with some canned peaches for breakfast tomorrow, before heading to the Brookford Quark Fest! 

The crackers are nice and crisp, and cheddar cheesy!  I'm hoping to use the english muffins for mini pizza sometime in the next couple days. 

The Pears were canned yesterday.  I canned 13 quarts, out of about 1 bushel of pears.  I have  2 bushels left to process, which must be done on monday, as I'm busy tomorrow!

While I worked in the kitchen, and ran errands, a pot simmered on my stove, all day.  It contained 6 2 year old laying hens, that I harvested in Spring.  I need to make room in the freezer, which might be futile and a new freezer purchase may be necessary regardless, but for now I'm trying to move some things out to make room for newer items. 

After simmering all day, I removed all the meat, which I will use for sandwhiches, and such...maybe even a chicken pot pie.  Oh that sounds so good!  The carcusses are all in the pot again, with all the liquid the chickens cooked in, and celery, onions, basil, salt and carrots, to make stock!  I am going to can quart jars of stock. I'm so excited to have nice, rich chicken stock that is easy to grab.  It's one of the things I miss the most about not buying premade food, the ability to just grab a container of stock.  After I get this canned I will have stock readily available that was made with far more flavor than any store stock.  The best of both worlds!

Josie's chubby bunny is doing very well.  I'm pretty sure it's a girl, and she's getting so big!  I kept her in at night for about 5 days as sort of a diet.  She was getting so fat I was concerned it could effect the way her structure developed, and was advised by Neva, our neighborhood expeienced breeder, to bring her in for 12 hours a day so she didn't eat all day.  I did this, which afforded the chubby bunny lots of snuggle time.  The Baby is very smitten with animals, especially the chubby bunny.  She's so gentle. I didn't have to cue her at all. She picked the bunny up, out of her box, and held her so gently and carefully.  It was so sweet!

One of the highlights, so far, in October was teaching another homesteader how to harvest their rabbits.  Virginia bought a bred doe, raised up the litter and they were ready for harvest on Tuesday.  She and her Husband, Steve, came over, learned how the process works and then worked together, with supervision, processing their own 3 rabbits.  They did a great job, and left having learned a skill they can use to feed their family healthy, local food.  They took with them 5 Ancona hens, who will reside in their little 1/2 acre homestead, and provide them with, hopefully, an abundance of eggs!  She made her first rabbit meal...ever.  Virginia got a rabbit before ever having eaten rabbit!  She wanted to homestead and rabbits fit in her space and neighborhood better than meat chickens, so she made the decision based on what worked.  Fearless!

We are all going to the Quark Fest and Brookford Farm tomorrow.  Are you going?

The Brookford Farm Quark Festival is happening on this Sunday, October 10th, from 11 - 4 with a film showing at 6.

We'll have puppeteers, baked Camembert, food workshops, famous chefs, bobbing for kohlrabi, a movie in the heifer barn, and of course, plenty of quark-themed delicacies for the tasting. Local artists and musicians, an elementary school, and yours truly, the Brookford Farm farmers, will be in attendance.

Sample our delicious artisinal cheeses as well as other dishes made with our pasture-raised beef and pork, organic vegetables, and renowned dairy products.

There will also be workshops on traditional crafts like beekeeping and food preservation, pumpkin-carving, a straw labyrinth, and of course a hayride through beautiful seacoast countryside at the very peak of fall. For kids, there will be crafts, games, activities, and more!

The food preservation workshops require registration, so send an email to brookfordfarminfo@gmail.com if you wish to register, or have any questions.

Brookford Farm
70 Sligo Rd
Rollinsford, NH 03869
603-742-4084
www.brookfordfarm.com

 

 

She Welcomed Eliza Jane! September 30, 2010

I drove, with friends, to China Maine to pick up 8 rabbits.  One was for me, a beautiful Sr. Doe, who I think will be named Eliza Jane.  When he's old enough, she will be bred to Henry. 

 

Not much happened today, besides picking her up, as it was about a 12 hours round trip, with stops for lunch, and picking up the rabbits, and their cages.  It was a good trip and I now have this great heritage breed in my rabbitry!  I may have a jr doe available, if anyone out there, in the area, is interested in starting with rabbits, or starting with a new breed, let me know!

She Welcomed Henry and Made Cough Syrup September 29, 2010

There are some new additions to our Rabbitry.  I've decided to add the Champagne D'Argents to our breeding stock.  The Champagne is a different breed, not just a different color.  They have slightly different standards and with the Champagnes weighing in, on average 1 pound heavier with slightly more meat on their frame.  They are are born black, and silver out, as they age, making a beautiful rabbit, with a great pelt.  They are still relatively small boned, with a good butcher to live weight ratio.  I received a jr buck, that is 4 months old, from a breeder in PA, today.  The breeder was heading out here to pick up some Cremes from the breeder that has helped get my friends and I up and running, so I had her bring an extra jr buck along.  His name is Henry.  He's a little narrow in the face, but he has a nice body form, so I think he'll make a great starter buck. He is in his gawky teen stage, and he's still silvering out, so he'll look more like his back, all over, when he's fully mature.

Tomorrow I'm driving with friends, to Maine, to pick up a Champgne Sr. Doe.  You can meet her tomorrow night.

Josie's single kit is getting VERY large.

So much so, my rabbit mentor recommended bringing it inside for 12 hours a day so it feeds less.  If you let them get too large they can have joint issues.  So we have the little one in the house tonight.  What a little chub!  She'll go back out tomorrow, for the day, but we'll be bringing her in at night for a little while to let her develop properly.

The Progressive Pioneer Make and Do Friday recommended a recipe for cough syrup.  There is a great shop, in the next town over, that is a font of information about herbs and their uses.  I brought the recipe over for a second opinion.  I wanted to know 1) if there was anything they would add, or leave out and 2) is it safe for children.  Not all herbs, even though they are simply plants, are good for everyone.

It was recommended that I take out the Balm of Gilead, Coltsfoot and Lobelia because this will be used with the girls.  Also to add in some Elderberry Flowers and Elderberry Syrup.  So in the end the recipe I used was as follows:

• 1/2 tsp each: thyme and elecampane
• 1 tsp each: boneset, slippery elm, wild cherry bark, elderberry flower and yarrow
• 2 tsp irish moss
• 1 Tbs Mullein, Peppermint
• 3 Tbs Elderberry Syrup (I used the syrup I made from foraged berries)

Add all the above to 4 cups water.  Boil until 1/2 the liquid is reduced.  I reduced a smidge too much so added water back to reach 2 cups.  Strain, and add 2 cups of honey.  Return to stove and simmer for 1/2 hour. 

It was recommended, at The Mustard Seed to give 1 tsp every 2 hours to children and 2 tsp every 2 hours for adults.  The link on the Make and Do Friday site, has a little bit of information on each herb and why it would be helpful.  If for adults you could leave in the omitted herbs and still add the Elder ingredients, as Elder is a great immune booster.  Once I picked up the ingredients this was a very simple process and very cost effective.  It tastes, primarily, like honey, but you can taste the elder and mint as well as hints of other things.

My sprout experiment has been fun, so far.  The broccoli needed to get light sooner, it's rather leggy.  The corn is very strangely corn tasting.  Like if you took all the flavor from a whole cob of corn and packed it into one kernal.  Intense.  I'm going to try them in a sautee and see how that works.  The peas are doing well, and the basil is slow but filling in nicely.  I could definitely have sown them more densly, so I'm glad I did this random seed experiment to see how they grow.

This is the leggy broccoli.  I'm going to sow them closer and in their own tray since they move much faster than any of the other things I tried.

These are the peas, flanked on either side by two varieties of basil.   I'm going to let the peas grow into pea tendrils, and I think that when I do this "for real" I'll cover them with dirt instead of the cloth I used this time, as they are a larger seed and would probably be happier in more dirt.  The cloth was brilliant for the basil and broccoli, though.

 

She Finished Finished Mittens and Gathered Fruit! September 28, 2010

I didn't meet my goal of 5 pairs of mittens in one week.  I needed 1 more hour, to finish 1/4 of a mitten, so not bad, but I went to bed last night with only 4 3/4 pairs done.  They are done now, and look great!

In the basket are 3 beautiful pears.  Jessica and I went on a little road trip to Londerry, in Southern NH to the only place we could find who had pears, Mack's Apples.  We gathered up 4 bushels of bartlet pears, which we will be canning on Saturday!  There is going to be a group of us working on them, and it should be a fun and productive day.

Today Jessica, another friend and I, headed over to Butternut Farm/Orchard, in the rain, to gather drops.  We were three drenched, but happy ladies, with 9 bushels of apples!  They will be turned into great things like applesauce, apple butter, frozen apples and possibly some dried apples. 

Last Thursday, Husband and I got a babysitter, and spent the day together...harvesting rabbits.  Another local rabbit raiser, stopped by to learn this end of things.  She has the Creme D'Argent breed, as well, and has a doe, with 5 young that are almost ready for harvesting.  Husband got the chance to learn about the eviscerating.  He usually does other things while I do that part, just by the nature of how things work, but he got to try his hand at this, as I was teaching him, and Virginia, as we went.  After letting them rest in the refrigerator (my free refrigerator, thank you Maggie!), they were bagged up and put in the freezer.  If you are interested in purchasing rabbit, let me know. I have a few for sale.

Food around here, lately, has been very good.  We had a lovely dinner of rabbit livers in sauted onions, accompanied by sweet potatoes fried in duck fat!  What a lovely way to deep fry food.  There was no rancid "fried food" smell in the house. Just clean yummy fragrance wafted about.  Delicious!  And a fun fact, the duck fat, livers and onions all came from our yard, and the sweet potatoes came from our CSA farm up the street.  Very local, indeed.

I've been missing cereal.   It's great as an occasional snack, so I whipped up a batch of the soaked grain granola that I've made before, and greatly enjoy. Irma, my sourdough starter, and I have been having a grand ole time making crepes, fluffy pancakes and and other great treats.  I highly recommend the "Pay what you can" E-course that I'm taking.  Lots of Rabbit dinners, including rabbit in gravy over mashed potatoes.  Tonight was ice cream with pears that I sauteed in butter and syrup.  I don't think I've ever eaten this well!

Our little family is getting busier as the girls are getting older and into more things.  Mini is taking Ballet Lessons once a week, thank you Grammy and Grampa, still has Swimming lessons once a week, and now we are taking part in a local Homeschool Co-op one morning a week.  Last week Mini had a great time playing with a little boy, as they painted the rocks.  the Co-op is very free form, with several activities set up, allowing the children to explore and decide what they want to participate in, including activities they dream up all on their own, like the rock painting. I look forward to seeing how it evolves, but the girls really enjoyed themselves their first week.

Husband is getting busier, too.  His last speaking engagement has already led to a second.  He will be giving his lecture on how to teach story on November 2 at the Chichester Library.  We expect to be seeing the first copy of the book that he and Mini wrote early in October, as well!  The Skunk Zoo is a collaboration with the story idea coming from Mini, compiled and illustrated by Husband, with some editorial direction from Mini...including the demand for the addition of a ballerina. 

Yes, our little family is busy, and it's been a lot of fun. 

She Enjoyed Better Health September 22, 2010

Oh, my!  Life has been rough, these past few days. I caught some sort of cold that would not let go.  Soar throat, stuffed head, headache, cough that pulled stomach muscles, and kept going, creating much pain.  I couldn't even get out of my own way, and any moving around sent me into a coughing fit.  I didn't work for a whole week...can't remember that happening since I started my business.  I didn't even do much on the computer other than watch Hulu.  So glad that is behind me now!

What I did have the ability to do was sit in one place, cuddle The Baby, watch Mini do her clever tricks (she was thrilled for a stationary audience), and knit.  I finished my sweater, which is blocking right now, and will have buttons soon, which is when I'll show it to you.  I made mittens for Mini, and I thoroughly love them.  They were made with Mochi Plus in a rainbow coloration, and they are so darn cute, warm, soft and cozy.  They are the perfect mitten and fit her perfectly. One of the things that makes them perfect is there is no specific left or right, either fits either hand. I love such projects!

The food preservation came to an abrupt halt last week, making me very glad that I pushed to get some much done, earlier.  I'm hoping for another round of tomatoes, but if not, I'm feeling good about the 78 quarts and 7 pints I have to date.

Apple picking is on the agenda for this week.  The season is off kilter this year and I need to be sure to get some applesauce into jars for my crazy, fruit loving girls, before they are all gone.

Yesterday was the first day of the Kids Clothes Sewing Challenge, and I did diddly squat.  No sewing yesterday, or today.  Not a good start.  I was going to clean my sewing room last week, but with being sick, I didn't, so I'm not organized, or ready to start...I know, wah wah wah, stop your whining and get something stitched...okay, I'll try.  I gift a handstitched goodie last week...does that count?  No, of course not, but you still want to see it right?  This was for my neice, in honor of her first birthday...never mind the fact she was over 13 months old before she got it...shhh.  I love these sets.  My girls are both still wearing the sets I made, like it, for Mini.  Mini wears them as a shirt, with jeans or a skirt, and The Baby is wearing them as a dress, or a long tunic with pants, depending on the weather.  Well worth the time spent sewing. 

I haven't really kept you up to date on the rabbit news.  We have a litter of 8 from Clementine which are almost 5 weeks old, and weighing in at over a pound each!  It seems my new feed schedule might be working, and I'm excited to see how that plays out through 12 weeks.  Josie kindled Sunday night, but of the 6 born, only one was alive this morning.  I'm not sure what happened.  Two were on the wire, which was sad, but 3 of the 4 in the nest box didn't make it either.  They all looked fully formed and were good size kits, so I'm perplexed.  Sometimes there is just no way to know what happened, or why.  I need to breed all the girls for one more litter before the cold of Winter arrives. 

The sunflowers are not nearly the size I was expecting, but they did flower, and I will have some heads to throw to the chickens, this winter, for a tasty, healthy treat.

 

 

 

 

She Picked 200 pounds of Peaches August 20, 2010

I really like Butternut Farm in Rochester.  It's run by a lovely family, and the place is so clean, organized, well kept.  The fruit is delicious and the picking is great.  I canned many peaches, even more jars of apple sauce, and froze lots of berries last year, all from Butternut.  One time last year, my friend Jessica and I found a great deal, a couple rows of over ripe peaches that they were selling for half price.  This is not a deal that comes often, but we hit it right. So this year when we hit it again, we were thrilled and amazed at our fabulously lucky timing.  With half price peaches and another 5 cents off per pound for having our own containers, we got right to work.

My family loves canned peaches, so there is no way to have too many.  I also want to can up some peach salsa, and freeze some for pies and peach cobblers this fall. 

Tomorrow is the day of canning.  Jessica and I will be in the kitchen, all day, canning and slicing and freezing.

Today I came home and there wasn't a single duck in the yard.  I have 42ish ducks with 22 babies, and none were to be found.  I didn't see any mayhem in the driveway, like feathers scattered, or blood.  The chickens were all in their coop and those in the growing pen we quiet and still.  It was a silent farm...

After much searching I found all the ducks huddled in one duck coop.  Scared.  What is going on?  I counted, and they were all there.  My friend Joseph and I were looking around and he spotted the source of the strangeness.  A hawk.  Sitting, looking beautiful and menacing at the same time, on my roof peak.  Upon seeing us, looking at him, he flew to a tree.  Then he dropped down to grab a chipmunk, who escaped.  He then flew into the woods.  It was a beautiful creature, though I was happy to see it head out.  I did put everyone to bed a little early. 

I love Muscovy Ducks.  I love that they are basically silent, they are very independent, not easily spooked, they are amazing mothers, beautiful to look at, and they are good to the babies, even if they aren't their babies.  I don't imagine I will ever not have Muscovy ducks on this homestead.  All the ducks were very attentive to protecting the ducklings from the hawk. 

I started the rabbits on a new feed schedule today.  I've been feeding them Alfalfa Hay, Oats and Barley.  They are growing very slow, due to a lack of protein, I assume.  They are healthy, with good coats, and bright eyes, lots of energy.  They look great, just very small.  I have decided,  after much research, to try feeding the growing kits Calf Starter.  I decided to try this because I can get organic calf starter and much of what is in the starter is in the rabbit feed, too.  I'll be weighing and observing to see how it does with the rabbits.  I'm hoping it is the solution, so that I can still feed organic feed, but also have quick growing rabbits.  I'll keep you posted.

I mentioned canning, and I'm sure this will bring questions...What will you be canning in?  BPA in canning lids have folks stumped.  This is where I am with it. 

I am going to try to can some things in the old style bail type canning jars.  I have a lot available to me, for free, and the rubber rings are readily available at the local hardware store.  But I will be doing some canning in the regular Ball Jars with the lids.  They do contain trace amounts of BPA, and while I prefer a BPA free existence, there is certainly far less exposure than canned goods from the store, and once the canning process is done, there is little to no contact with the lids, and the food. 

This does not mean that Jarden Company shouldn't change their formulation.  It does not mean that I will stop looking for an option, but I would much rather can local, fresh Tomatoes, Peaches and Apple Sauce in my own kitchen than give up, because of this obstacle.  I am not saying I have the perfect solution, but if you want to know my thoughts, you now do, and if you find another option, I'd love have you share what you are doing.  I know the bail jars are not recommended by the USDA, or FDA, or whoever determines what is safe for us to consume...but, I don't usually find them very good at figuring that out anyway, so I'm willing to give the jars a try.  Most European options utilize the same sort of system, and there isn't mass "death by canning" across the ocean.  I think they are still safe, but that is only the opinion of one girl who has been doing this canning thing for only a couple years.  I am not a expert, and I am not recommending anything, I'm just sharing what I've resolved to do this year.  Hopefully a company will come out with a solution.

Oh, there is an option that is BPA free, that I'm still not sure I want to try.  Tattler has a plastic, reusable lid that is BPA free.  I'm distrustful of plastic, so I'm still not willing to use that option, at this time, but it is available, and is being recommended by Lehman's, among other canning supply stores.  What I like about Tattler, is they are reusable, made in the USA, BPA free, and a small family run company.

Okay, off to prep the kitchen and canning supplies for the big day tomorrow. 

She Did All Sorts of Things July 13, 2010

I made Sprouted Spelt Flour.  I've read that sprouting the spelt berries, then dehydrating them, before grinding them into flour is a great way to remove the phytic acid that each of the berries contains. 

Phytic acid is the chemical that allows a seed to keep from germinating until the time is right.  It is what allows seeds to be eaten by animals, survive the digestive track and make it out the other side, it a lovely pile of manure, the perfect growing medium.  The problem with phytic acid is it also keeps the seed, even when ground into flour, to release all it's nutrients to our bodies, to be used.  Phytic acid also makes digestion more difficult. 

 

One way to remove the phytic acid is to soak the grain in an acid based liquid, like water and some apple cider vinegar, whey, or yogurt.  That isn't always practical, and cuts down on the ability to bake anything on a whim.  So the other way to release the phytic acid is to sprout the grain.  Once it sprouts, the phytic acid is released, your body views it as a veggie and digests is much easier and more thoroughly.  Very cool.  I decided to soak some berries, and dehydrate them, so that when I want to just whip something up, it will be ready for grinding.  It stores well when it's sprouted/dehydrated, as well.

 

I tried it today to make up some Strawberry bread! The flavor and texture was great, but was too moist, so didn't cook all the way through.  I'm thinking I'll just grill it to finish it off, piece by piece!

Today was actually pretty productive.  I started the morning in the studio making some beads and testing a new tool.  I'll show the beads later, as they need to be cleaned, but the knobs don't, they come out of the kiln ready to pop on a drawer! 

I really like the orange and brown, but something happened to my oxygen while I was making the blue one so there is dark gray streaks in it.  I'm still putting it on my daughters dresser of random blue knobs, but I wish the grey wasn't there.

So are you tired of hearing about my eating rabbit?  I hope not, because I'm going to tell you again...

Tonight I fried some bacon, removed it from the pan (used it to make a very yummy blt), then browned the rabbit (that I had pieced and coated in egg and herbed flour).  Removed the rabbit when browned, then tossed in a whole heap of onions and garlic.  Sauteed, then added the rabbit back in, covered everything in rabbit stock, and let simmer all afternoon.  Delightful!

I served it with pan fried potatoes and a salad.  I love rabbit!  I have a couple left for sale, if you are interested, contact me Amy(at)Zooziis(dot)com.

I found this very cool tutorial for turning a tank top into a romantic top of a century gone by.  I loved the idea, and thought it would work for a sleeveless linen shirt I have.  I gave it a try tonight.  I like it.  I opted for multiple linen fabrics for the flowers, to tie it all together.  I think it will be fun to wear.

 

I also snuck off to pick more black raspberries! I am so excited with the amount I've been able to pick this year.  I'm going to do some sort of preserve so I can make Sage and Raspberry Duck this winter...mmm.  Doesn't that sound amazing!?  I love eating from my yard <grin>.

Oh, cool thing that I didn't do, but pertains to the blog...Someone contacted me from "The Forum...News from the towns around Pawtuckaway".  It's an online news source that also does a print version a few times a year.  They wanted permission to publish my blog posts on their site!  So cool.  They thought I had a voice that others might light to hear.  That made me smile.  They put up my post from yesterday, today.  If you came her from there, welcome neighbor.  I hope you enjoy the blog, and maybe we'll run into each other at a Farmer's Market or other local event!

She Got Adventurous in the Kitchen July 12, 2010

It was the dinner hour, I had nothing quick, to whip up, in mind.  I started looking through the fridge.  The rabbit would take to long to cook, but I'm thinking I'll plan ahead and have it for dinner tomorrow.  There was lots of veggies...then I saw the livers.  I had placed 3 livers in the refrigerator, instead of freezing them, with plans to figure out something to do with them...but honestly, I had little hope.  I have a mental block on only a few things, when it comes to food.  Tofu, Raw Fish and Liver.  I think that is it.  There are other things I do not like, but those are three are things that I've eaten, and found the flavor to be fine, but I pretty much choked them down, due to a mental thing I couldn't get around.  Deciding that I have a better relationship with food now, and that I find great value in consuming food that gives back a great deal to my overall healthy well being.  I thought that I might be able to concentrate on that, and it might allow me to enjoy liver.

I fried bacon in the pan, removed it, and used the drippings to caramelize some onions, and then in when the liver.  It cooked quickly, just what I needed on such a night.  It was accompanied by a broccoli salad, that was recommended to me by my friend Jessica.  It consists of raw broccoli, crumbled bacon, raisins, and a sauce of mayo, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and pepper.  Heat the sauce ingredients to blend, then toss the remaining items with the sauce.  Easy, fast, yummy.  Unfortunately, I still have not mastered making my own mayo, so it was the store bought stuff, but it was so darn yummy.

The big question.  Did I choke down the liver?  Not really.  I did make sure to have a fair number of onions and crumbled bacon on the fork with each piece, and there was certainly a mental battle waged in my mind, but the flavor was really good, and the onions and bacon really helped the texture.  I also found Rabbit Livers to have a nicer, more mild and slightly sweeter flavor than the beef and deer liver I choked down in my teens.  Husband enjoyed it a lot and would like to see it on the menu again.  Mini wasn't sure of it, at first, but after trying a couple small bites, decided it was good, and ate her entire portion.  The baby couldn't get enough of the stuff.  As soon as she had some in her mouth she was asking for more.  Decision: Rabbit liver, not so bad.