The Joys of Gardening

For years I wanted to start a garden. 

So four years ago we picked out an unused corner of the yard, mowed it all down as short as we could go, measured, and started building garden boxes.  In our part of the country the soil is really heavy clay, and we decided that rather than spend a lot of time and energy tilling we would just use the square foot raised bed method.  Building the boxes took awhile.  Filling them with soil took awhile.  And planting?  Yes, that took awhile too.

Our garden has given us highs and lows.  I've never successfully grown a crop of corn, but the first year I had the mother of all potato harvests - from a 4'x8' box!  Last year we had no potatoes, but managed to grow enough onions for most of the year and share with friends (and I use a lot of onions when I cook). I (finally) figured out how to grow a crop of peas last spring and had another good crop this year.

Each year something fails and something exceeds my expectations.  Sometimes I can't seem to keep the fire ants from invading and by others a wandering deer may eat half my grape vines.  I never know. 

The one thing I do know is that the reward is always worth the work.  There is simply nothing like a salad made of veggies you grew yourself; eggplant Parmesan from the glossy purple fruits of your labor; chewy and sweet sun dried tomatoes.  And let's not forget, peas straight from the pod.

Oh the joys of gardening!

I made Granola Cereal... and it was Good!

Of all the cereal choices out there, I love granola the best.  As anyone who eats granola knows however, a good granola is really hard to find.  Some are too hard.  Others too sweet.  I've even had those that are too salty.

Tuesday night while thumbing through "Dehydrating Food: A Beginner's Guide" by Jay & Shirley Bills (I've mentioned this book before) I came across a recipe for "Prepared Cereal".  Basically a homemade granola.  Naturally, I had to try it!

So here's the recipe as written in the book:

16 cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups coconut
1 cup wheat germ
2 cups raw sugar
3 cups whole wheat flour (freshly ground)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1/2 cup honey

I made a few tweaks based on what I had in the house, so I used:

16 cups of old-fashioned oats
2 cups coconut
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 cup honey

Directions say to mix together the oats, coconut, wheat germ and sugar.  In a separate bowl, mix the wheat flour, oil, salt, and honey, then pour over the dry ingredients.  Mix together until crumbly.  Spread out on baking sheets and bake for 2 hours at 250 degrees, stirring every half hour.

For storage it says to keep a week's worth in the refrigerator and freeze the rest.  I'm assuming this is mostly because with the oil in it there is a potential for it to go rancid.

Now then, here's some tips:
1.  Be prepared that this makes A LOT!!!  I used two great big bowls to make this in and still had trouble not making a mess.  Next time I make mix it up in my Granny Ware Water Bath Canner, just because I think it's big enough to contain it all while mixing.
2.  I'd mix the flour in with the other dry ingredients and then dump the wet over it all to mix in.  I felt that the flour had so bonded to the oil and honey that I really had to work at it to not get super big chunks.  Also, the oats didn't really stick to the rest of it, and though they toasted fine, I personally am used to a more chunky granola.
3.  Do add fruits or nuts!  I added a cup and a half of dried cranberries and a cup of sliced almonds.  Looking back I would have doubled it.  If you use dried fruits or nuts, make sure you put in enough to make a difference.  Also, you may need to increase your wet ingredients a touch to coast and bind the extras better.  (This is why I added the extra honey, and still felt it could have used a little more.)
4.  Omit the salt altogether.  For the volume of cereal it's not much salt anyhow, and I think to make it lower in sodium you could easily omit it and not make a taste impact.
5.  Be prepared for the fact that no matter the size of the baking sheet, you'll still be at least an inch to two inches deep.  That means be very very careful when mixing it up.  And don't forget to mix as it bakes, because it will brown along the edges.

So Tuesday night I made this up, and left it in the oven overnight to cool.  Wednesday I packaged it up and this morning was our first taste test.  My husband gets up and goes into work before I usually rise, so when I sat down to try it I had no idea what he thought.  I found it to be delicious!  A quick text and I found out that he liked it even better than our favorite granola from Cascadia Farms.

We've added one more thing to the list of things that we'll no longer be buying from the grocery store.  Unless one of us gets a hankering for frosted mini-wheats or frosted flakes (hey, we aren't perfect!), this will be our new daily cereal.  To alleviate boredom I think I'll change the extra ingredients.  Already I'm thinking about cranberry apple pecan, blueberry almond, mixed berry, cinnamon raisin.... and I'm thinking some flax seed or ground flax seed may also make a great addition.  The skies the limit!

Enjoy!

A Pup Named Goliath

After the devastating loss of (most) of one of my chicken flocks, and after being harassed endlessly by raccoons we decided that and LGD, Livestock Guardian Dog, was what we wanted.

LGDs can be one of several breeds of dog, including Anatolian Shepherds, Great Pyranees, Collies, etc.  Most famously and perhaps most widely used is the Great Pyranees.  They are a large dog, pure white or white with "badger" facial markings.  These dogs can be anywhere from $100 - $5,000 depending on the area and the breeding.  What sets the Pyranees apart in terms of LGDs is it's ability to bond with it's charges and it's independent nature.  It can be stubborn and strong willed.

I knew this and still wanted one.

I looked online and in our local agricultural paper.  There were several ads for pups and I called on each one only to find they were sold.  Placing an ad on Craigslist got me in contact with a man three hours from the farm that had an 8month old he was willing to part with.  A great pup he said.  No trouble, no barking, just playing too rough with the baby goats.  We negotiated a price and set up a time to pick him up.  His name is Goliath.

On Saturday we loaded up in the truck and drove south.  I fell in love with the big, playful pup immediately, though was concerned with his complete lack of training.  He had been out with goats since the age of 12 weeks and had had no lessons in obedience AT ALL.  Still, he was reasonably well behaved for a wild heathen!  :-)

We put him in a harness and my husband managed to load him into the truck.  He did very well and mostly just laid in the back seat and looked around.  Once home we took him for a walk around his intended areas and because we wanted to make sure he stuck around we tied him on a 25' line. 

Thus began the longest night of barking I have ever endured. 

He quieted down about 2am, mostly due to the fact that he had gotten off of his line and was running loose in the poultry yard.  The alarm calling of our seven year old llama, Prince, woke me and alerted me to the trouble.  I went out and caught him, putting him back on the line.

He was quiet until I made it back to bed.  And then, the barking began again.

By Sunday morning the husband and I were both more than a little tired and cranky.  My husband went out and let him off him cable and within 10 minutes, and in true Pyranees fashion, he managed to figure out how to push up the cattle panel gate and escape.  He came straight to the house and onto the deck.  My husband put him back and we tied the gate shut.  5 minutes later he had found another hole and was loose again.  Needless to say, back on the tie out he went.

And thus began the barking.... again.

He quieted down around noon.  Of course, as we later found out, that was because he was methodically chewing off his brand new harness.  Around 1pm my husband noticed that he was just wondering around the poultry yard.  I came outside and watched him until he decided to go for a long walk, under the barb wire and onto the neighbors property!!

Now, remember when I mentioned that Pyranees are stubborn and independent?  Well, at this point Goliath really drove this point home for me.  He absolutely REFUSED to come to use.  In fact, no amount of hollering at him would even make him look our direction!  My husband went through the fence and drug him back literally by the scruff of his neck.

Hastily we built a pen for him using cattle panels and some fence posts, and that is where he has been since Sunday. 

He made us pay for it Sunday night.  He barked all night.  I wondered how it was he even still had a voice.

Monday I started working on clearing the fence line so that I could put up a new fence and got a good portion of the trees cleared out.  That night he did much better and barely barked at all.

Tuesday night my husband pulled out the chainsaw and cut the one tree that was in the way for the new fence.  I sent an email to the guy we bought him from and mentioned the trouble.  He wasn't surprised.  Apparently any time he was moved away from his goat herd he went through fences and barked constantly.  He did tell me that they really wished they hadn't sold him, and if he didn't work out that we could work out a trade for some goats or something.

Umm, that would have been nice to know.... in the beginning!

The coyotes were out howling last night and my sweet puppy barked off and on for most the night.

Today the weather is cool and I'm hoping to get some work on his fence done.  When he is not in his pen he is really pretty cool and calm, and I understand he doesn't like to be in such a small area. 

Maybe he'll be better soon.  We've wanted goats for awhile, so if nothing else I may just invest in a pair of goats and see if that doesn't make him a bit happier.

Maybe.

Apples on Sale? Sounds like a good time for Apple Butter!

I'll admit it, I've developed a real love of canning.

To take the raw ingredients, make something wonder, and preserve it without a lot of chemicals and sugars is a wonderful feeling.  I'm always on the lookout for a good deal on produce and when I find it the mind instantly starts looking for things to do with it!

As you may have read on last Friday's blog, I scored a good deal on celery Thursday and dehydrated two bundles of it.  I also got some big, gorgeous apples for $0.99 per pound, which is a good price for us, especially this time of year.

So Sunday morning I broke out the peeler/slicer/corer.  I'd bought this little gadget last fall for my first small batch of apple butter and to make some homemade applesauce.  If you don't have one of these and do any type of apple processing, you are just missing out.  They are really very inexpensive and make life so much easier. 

The Victorio Apple and Potato peeler. 

Here's how I make Apple Butter:
(And you're going to need a large crockpot)

1. Peel, core and slice your apples.  If you don't have a peeler/slicer, you'll get the best results if you cut thinly or into small pieces.

2. Put the apples in the crockpot.  No need for water or lemon juice as the apples will brown anyway during cooking.  Fill the crockpot to the brim and really pack them in.  You'll be surprised at how much they cook down.

3. In a bowl, mix 1-2 cups of sugar (to taste, I use the lesser amount on sweet apples and the larger amount on more sour apples), 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp of ground cloves, and 1/4 tsp of salt.  (I've also made this by omitting the cinnamon and cloves and substituting in an equal amount of apple pie spice.)

4.  Pour your mixture over the apples.  You don't have to stir it in, but if you've packed your crockpot really, really full like I do, you may have to take a spoon and work the mix in between the apples so that you can get your lid on!

5.  Cover and cook approximately 10-18 hours, stirring every couple of hours.  Eventually it will cook down enough to stir with a whisk instead of a spoon.  You want it to cook down good and long, and as it cooks it will develop a nice brown color.  It's going to make your house smell wonderful too!

6.  Let it cook to your desired consistency.  The last hour you can leave the lid off if you want your apple butter to be really really thick.

7.  Scoop your apple butter into pint or half-pint jars and water bath can for 10 minutes, following standard canning practices.

For this batch I ended up with 10 half-pints, usually a combination of Gala, Jazz and Red Delicious apples.  Any apples will work, and every combination with give you a slightly different flavor.  This batch is much sweeter than the batch I made in the fall which consisted of Granny Smith and Galas.

Happy canning!

Dehydrating Celery.... Great for Soups and Stews

Celery has never been my favorite vegetable.  Slather some cream cheese or peanut butter on it or dip it in some bleu cheese or ranch dressing and I'll munch on it, but plain, no thanks!

Seldom do I buy celery unless I really need it for something.  Most recipes only call for a stalk or two and then you are left with the remainder of the bunch.  In my house, unfortunately, it hangs around in the crisper until no longer crisp and then finds it way out to the chicken house to be enjoyed by the flocks.  I really do enjoy it in soups and stews, but I generally just leave it out rather than risk the waste.

Not so any more.  I recently purchased the book Dehydrating Food, A Beginner's Guide, by Jay and Shirley Bills.  In it they dehydrate things I had never thought of, and list not only how to do it, how to store it, but also how to use what you've dehydrated.  If you've ever thought about drying your own foods, this is a great book!

Although I was not a newbie to the world of dehydration, my attempts had mostly been in the arena of jerky-making and creating my own "sun-dried" tomatoes.

So yesterday when I checked my weekly Kroger ad and saw that celery was on sale, I decided to go for it.  I bought two large, good looking bunches and brought them home to dehydrate. 

Following the instructions in the book for slicing 3/16" thick, steaming for 2-4 minutes, I placed the celery on the rack of my Snackmaster Dehydrator and turned the knob to the 135 degree setting for vegetables.  That was about 5pm.  The book indicates that it should take 12-15 hours for celery, but here in the south with such high humidity it usually takes a bit longer.

This morning around 8am I checked and most of the trays were dry.  The dry celery was put into jars and vacuum sealed with the Foodsaver jar vacuum.  The pieces that were still wet went back onto a single tray and returned to the dehydrator for a few more hours and when I checked them at noon they were all finally done. 

If you dehydrate your own vegetables you will quickly learn just how much water those veggies contain.  Two big bunches of celery dehydrate into a pint and a half of dried.  Placed into soup they will quickly hydrate back to regular size and still retain the nutrients of fresh. 

Now I have celery for my soups and stews without the waste, and that makes this country gal very very happy!

Happy dehydrating!

Raising Turkeys

I make no claims to being an expert.  Just sharing my experiences.

Of the poultry I've raised, turkeys seem to be the most sensitive, but you just can't beat the personality of these big, beautiful birds.

Last year I bought my poults from McMurray Hatchery.  I ordered 15 of them, which is the minimum, and lost only three during brooding. (Now, if you are thinking about buying turkey poults be warned.  You are talking a big investment up front, as poults average about $10 each.  You loose even a couple and it makes your overall average climb.  If you've accepted that up front, you'll be miles ahead.)

This year of course, the poults are now grown and laying eggs of their own.  Although heritage breed turkeys such as the Bourbon Red, Chocolate and Narragansett breeds that I have will hatch their own eggs, you are always in my opinion, miles ahead to hatch them in an incubator if you have one.  The reason for this is simple; a brooding hen does not lay.  If you can hatch the eggs, your hens won't loose the 28 days of brooding plus rearing time and will continue to lay throughout the season.

Incubating turkey eggs is not like incubating chicken eggs.  Turkey eggs expire much more quickly (get them started before 10 days as opposed to three weeks for chickens), and are far more sensitive to temperature fluctuations.  My best hatch rate to date has been only about 50%, whereas chickens are usually 85-90%, if that gives you any indication of the differences.  Temperature and humidity requirements are the same.

Regardless of where you get your turkeys, they all should start out the same way.  Brood them on pine shavings covered by newspaper for the first day to day and a half so that they don't eat the shavings and learn where the food is.  Despite many people online who will tell you this causes leg problems, I have yet to see any.  Food should be an actual turkey starter of 28% protein if you can find it.  My feed store orders me a turkey/quail starter, medicated, at 30% for about $16.  This is not an area you want to skimp!  Chicken starters are not advisable for turkeys as the protein count is much lower and the medication is not labelled for turkeys. 

For the first few days I also add a couple teaspoons of sugar into their water to give them a little boost.  I do it with chicks as well and have seen a much more robust couple of days than when I've brooded without.  When you put the turkeys into the brooder make sure to dip their beaks into the water just a little bit.  Sometimes they will start drinking; sometimes they don't.  I usually scatter a little feed on the paper for them and have never had a problem with poults learning to eat.  A lot of online resources will tell you that they are slow to figure out food and water, but that's not been my experience.

Manage the brooder temp just as you would with chicks.  Watch for signs of huddling (cold) or panting (hot).  Don't be surprised if you lose a few in the first week, this is normal.  Not all little ones grow to be big gobblers!

At about a month to six weeks I put my poults out into mobile pens outside.  By this time they are feathered and will begin to grow pretty rapidly.  I continue to feed them starter, as they will not be able to meet their nutritional needs on grass and bugs alone.

By two to three months, I begin mixing the starter with adult feed (layer pellets and cracked corn), or if you can get it a good turkey grower.  We feed the mix for about a month before moving them onto the adult feed, which we feed out until butcher time (unless you can get a finisher).  If you have access to a TURKEY grower or finisher, follow label recommendations.  We can't get it, so we do our own thing.

Of course, we keep our birds in mobile pens throughout the growing season, and return them to the turkey house for the wetter winter months.  The birds still have access to large outside runs.

Despite what you may have heard, turkeys are fantastic in the home flock with a little management.  They are big, friendly birds and enjoy being talked to.  Our toms have been hand raised and because of this are not aggressive, even during the mating season.

**A note about mating season: this is the time of year that your toms will drive you nuts!  Any little noise will set them to gobbling.  This is a natural response and their way of attracting mates, but you might be a bit unhappy when they gobble every time you open a door, talk, close a gate, etc.  They will also gobble when roosters crow, the dog barks, the donkey brays, etc.  It will die down after a few months and they'll return to a more occasional gobble.



How to Lose a Chicken Flock in 15 minutes

Sometimes the best of intentions just end badly.

This morning I let one of my chicken flocks out for a little grass.  The ten hens and two roosters in question live in a 6x8 house with an 8x24 foot fully fence run.  Of course, anyone who owns chickens knows that in short order a flock of chickens no matter the age with completely render a piece of ground to look like the surface of the moon - devoid of all life and containing huge craters.

Anyhow, it's not unusual for me to let out a flock during the day - I'd had the other large flock out just days before.  So about 10am I went out and opened the pen door.  Excited chickens bounded out and I went about my business.  With two roosters on guard and a llama roaming through the pen I seldom stick with the chickens but opt to let them do their chicken business.

Today that was a big mistake.

About 30 minutes after I let them out it began to rain.  I looked out and the roosters and ladies had retreated to under a couple of big trees and continued to scratch around and eat.

The rain lasted over an hour and when it quit I looked out and the chickens were fine.  I sat down to finish reading a post on one of my favorite website.  Ten minutes later I heard a commotion coming from the poultry yard, but being that it was the time of day that the girls would be laying I ignored it for the first few minutes.  When it continued I looked out and saw a puff of white feathers and my white Orpington laying there.  That's when I saw Prince, our seven year old llama in pursuit of a large red fox that was running off with a New Hampshire hen.  I ran to the back room and grabbed up our air rifle, stuffed a pellet in and got out the front door in time to get a shot on him.  I hit him, he dropped the chicken and took off running.  Of course, miss chicken was dead.  I ran to the poultry yard and found nothing but bodies.  Not a chicken to be found that was still alive.

I went inside to call my husband.  We'd talked about getting a "real" gun for some time and that time was now.  After I got off the phone I looked out the front windows to see Mr. Fox coming back down the driveway.  Apparently, the air rifle pellet was not the deterrent I had hoped for.  As I opened the front door it heard me and took off.

After that I went outside to look over the other flocks and make sure that everyone else was okay.  On the way out I heard crowing from the back fence line, far from the pens, and discovered that my big Delaware rooster was a little battered but alive.  While trying to catch him I also discovered a Red Star hen hiding in the brush.  I caught the two of them and put them back in the pen. 

As I went around picking up carcasses and throwing them on the burn pile I nearly stepped on a New Hampshire hen that was hunkered down in the grass.  She too went back to the pen.

So in all I managed to find three chickens.  In the three years I've raised poultry here we had never seen a fox, much less in the middle of the day.  When added to the weasel that killed 65 chicks last month and earlier troubles with raccoons, not only are we investing in a gun, but I'm going to seriously being investigating adding an LGD, or Livestock Guardian Dog, to our farm.

From the last time I had looked outside to the moment I entered the yard and found them all (nearly) dead, only fifteen minutes had passed.  Not only are fox sneaky, they are unpredictable and FAST!  Poultry owners beware!

Until next time.

My First Turkey Hatch

28 days ago I loaded up the incubator and started what I hoped would be my first turkey hatch.

Originally I put in 17 eggs.  Some where nearly a month old, so I wasn't necessarily optimistic about my hatch rate, especially when you consider that these eggs were laid by young, first time layers.

Despite a couple of small set backs, such as losing power for an hour on two different occasions, the first eggs began to crack on Saturday evening.  By Sunday morning I had my first couple of poults, and the last of them hatched today.

Out of the 8 eggs that fully hatched, only one looks to be a Narragansett, and he's a little fella.  The other seven are Bourbon Red/Chocolate  mixes, and of them four have the chocolate markings and three have the red.  One of the little chocolate colored ones is very very tiny and was the last to hatch, and I'm not optimistic about his chances.  In all though, they are adorable!

They've gone from the incubator out into the brooder and have fresh water up high that they can't fall in, but low enough they can drink it.  I've also started them on a true turkey starter, which I think is very important to get them growing right.  I'll keep a pretty close eye on them for the first week, since turkey poults are just not as hardy as chicks.  As one turkey raiser once said "poults are suicides just looking for a place to happen".

I've already cleaned the incubator and started a whole new hatch.  We'll have to wait and see what the next 28 days bring!

The adult Narragansetts - Bob and his ladies.

Our big tom turkey Bill, his little Red hen and his Chocolate ladies.