Our Homestead in Pictures, Mid-April Edition

The scent of this Korean Lilac bush is the best thing I have ever smelled 

A neighbor gave a tiny potted lilac bush to me after the tragic death of my sister in a car accident. I planted it the following spring and it has grown to be enormous. Its heavenly scent reminds me that I will indeed see my sister again in Heaven someday. 

Baby cherries

Since I am attempting to nurse the cherry tree to back to health, I did some of the holistic sprays of spring during its bloom. The oils in the spray prevent blossoms from setting so any cherries we get will be especially appreciated. I thought the loss of the cherries was a small price to saving the entire tree. 

"Chester" blackberry blossom

Our "Chester" blackberries are blooming and the "Triple Crown"s are full of buds. I really hope we don't get a frost that will truly nip our blackberry harvest in the bud.

These are the berries that developed from these blossoms

The strawberries are developing quickly. I can't wait to taste that first berry. It is crazy just how much better homegrown strawberries taste than their counterparts from the store.

The strawberry plants we planted last month all appear to have survived. You can see them in the photo below (right side of the pic). They are all growing and some have even tried to put out flowers. We pinch them off since the baby plants need to focus on growth.

A shot of the north half of the garden

Compare this photo to the one taken  of the same view just two weeks earlier. Massive growth.

"GoldRush" apple tree in foreground, "Enterprise" in rear. The orange flag marks
the spot for our row of blueberries.

All of the apple trees are leafing out. I guess that sunny and windy day we planted them on didn't harm them too much. You can see that we put down some mulch around the trees. We used a particular kind of mulch and did it in a specific way. I know that sounds cryptic and I'll hopefully be able to post about it soon. I have to get my blueberries planted first, though.

Fishing line and bird scare tape will hopefully deter hawks

Our chicks are now five weeks old and are full-fledged little chickens. It is time to start giving them excursions into the great outdoors. First, however, we needed to do something to deter birds of prey. I often see hawks flying above our homestead and I do not want my chickens to become casualties. The chicken moat is supposed to be narrow enough that hawks won't want to risk snagging a chicken there. The main run, on the other hand, is a different story. Hubby Dear and I strung 50 lb. test fishing line back and forth over the run. Then I attached strips of bird scare tape to flap and flash in the sunlight.

This Salmon Faverolle is curious but cautious

The chickens themselves are a bit suspicious of this whole outside business. I suppose that's only natural since they have always been confined in one way or another. If we want them to go outside, it involves catching all the chickens and chucking them out the door. You don't even want to imagine what it takes to get them all back IN the coop after their outing. 

Chicken taming is a work in progress, that's for sure.  

January 2012 in Review and February Preps

January was a quiet month for me on the blog, but not so much at home. I have been so busy. Between my kids' homeschooling, extra-curriculars, and the normal insanity of having two toddlers (including one who is doing her best to give up her afternoon nap), life has been pretty nutty. Hubby Dear and I have also been going full-throttle with diet and and exercise, which has eaten up time I normally spent on the computer. My derriere is thankful for the change, however, and I've managed to lose 10 pounds in the last month!

Even though I didn't get time to blog, I most certainly worked on preps during the month of January.

1. Sales!

I hope many of you were able to take advantage of the sales at markdown.com and Honeyville Grains. I am very happy that I was able to stock up on both Tattler canning lids and freeze dried foods.

2. Reading, reading, and more reading

I read quickly through The Small-Scale Poultry Flock and have been mulling over all the interesting ideas it gave me for the role poultry can play on our homestead. Next, I bought a copy of The Holistic Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way. Talk about wow. If you are interested in growing fruit organically, you've got to get your hands on this book! The focus of the book is building plant health, starting at the soil level and working up. It has me re-imagining the layout of our orchard and has piqued my interest in permaculture. I really can't recommend this book enough.

3. Miscellany

I socked away items like work gloves, bandannas, and safety pins.  These are all cheap, readily-available preps that could be important to have on hand in an emergency. Bandannas alone have countless uses.

4. Chicken business

Our chicks are due to arrive in early March. I spent a good portion of my prepping budget this month on various chicken paraphernalia.

Feed storage

I bought a couple of galvanized steel trash cans to store feed in and a couple of bales of pine shavings. Since I intend to use the deep litter method of manure management, I need mucho mas pine shavings.

Random chick stuff 

I also picked up the supplies I'll need for our chick brooder. Hubby Dear and I weighed out a variety of options (including crafting our own brooder out of a plastic storage bin), but for reasons of ease, the number of chicks we'll be brooding, and because I'm a total sucker for a so-called complete kit, we bought the Deluxe Brooder Starter Package from Randall Burkey.

The Deluxe Brooder Package from randallburkey.com 

You're supposed to have at least 1/2 a square foot per chick in your brooder. This set up will give me just about the right amount of space for the 17 chicks I'm expecting.

I also bought chick-sized grit, a bag of starter feed, and forage cakes. I'm glad that February always flies by so quickly because I am more than ready for my chicks to arrive!

Oh, and there's this little something that arrived via tractor trailer.

After some trial and error (including a dead lawn mower battery and creative use of a tire iron),
Hubby  Dear got the coop hitched up and moved it around to the back yard

This is an 8x8' chicken coop built by Horizon Structures. The delivery driver arrived after sunset one evening and decided that he couldn't make the turn into our driveway with his 75' long trailer. That meant he had to put the wheels on our coop and unload it directly on the country road we live on. Then he and I wrestled this nearly 1700 lb coop off the road and up enough of our hilly, rutted driveway to finally make it onto our yard. Hubby Dear, of course, was at work and missed all the fun. ;) The next day, he hitched up the coop to the lawn mower and moved it around back to take its place of honor in the chicken moat.

It was tricky business to get the coop positioned in the moat. It took many tries to get it right.

Horizon Structures is located in Pennsylvania and I... am not. Take a look at the amount of road dust that collected on the outside of the coop during the long journey to our home! It would have been better to buy locally, but I didn't have any luck finding something with the size and features I wanted.

In place and ready for action! Now we just need to finish the chicken moat.

This coop has a lot of upgrades, including an easy-clean glassboard floor, electrical package, and automatic chicken door. I'm pleased with the overall quality of construction, but was disappointed that the roof and paint got damaged during transport. Thankfully, Horizon Structures is not only sending me touch-up paint and extra shingles but also hiring a handyman to make it right. That's a business that knows how to treat its customers.

What's up for next month?

February Preps:

1. Books - You know I had to have more books on my list! Continuing the theme of permaculture, I plan to get (the unfortunately named, but useful) Gaia's Garden. I also find the concept behind Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day to be very intriguing. I make all of our bread, but the recipe I use for homemade pizza recipe takes long enough that I don't make it very often.

2. Chickens - I still need to get a few odds and ends for the chickens, namely a long, high-quality extension cord so that my coop can have power. We need to finish constructing the north wall of the chicken moat as well.

3. Orchard planning - Our apple trees and blueberry bushes will arrive in March. Ahead of that, I need to work on our plan and get some of the supplies that I can't find locally.

4. Garden - We are expanding our square foot garden next year and so we need to build a few more boxes and make more Mel's Mix.  

5. First aid preps - I have a huge list of items that I have yet to buy. I hope to make inroads on this.

6. Feminine products - After my ill-fated cloth pad experiment, I kind of abandoned this area of preparedness. Time to get back to it.


So that's me. Any big plans for February or accomplishments from January you'd like to share? 

Using Your Food Storage: Chicken Cobbler with Caramelized Onions

Hubby Dear was on-call from 5 pm Friday until 7 am Monday. That meant that every person that showed up at our hospital with ailments large or small was seen by him. Needless to say, we didn't see very much of him over the weekend and he was very worn out by this morning.

To thank him for his hard work providing for his family, I made one of Hubby Dear's favorite meals today. Chicken Cobbler with Caramelized Onions is rich, comforting, and, of course, can be made entirely from your food storage. I use refrigerated piecrusts as a time-saver, though of course you can make your crusts from scratch if you are so inclined.

My photography does not do this dish justice. Try it - you (or your significant other) won't be sorry!

Digging in

Chicken Cobbler with Caramelized Onions

1/3 c. butter (or canned butter or canned clarified butter/ghee)
2 large onions, diced (or 1 c. dry onions, rehydrated)
1/4 c. flour
1-12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1 T. chicken bouillon granules (or 3 bouillon cubes)
1/4 t. pepper
3 c. coarsely chopped cooked chicken (or 1-2 jars/cans of chicken)
3 T. chopped fresh parsley (or 3 t. dry parsley)
1-15 oz. package refrigerated piecrusts (See recipe below to make from scratch)
1/2 c. finely chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese (freshly grated or the stuff from the green can)

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add onion, and saute 20 minutes or  until caramel colored. Add flour; cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Gradually stir in evaporated milk and chicken broth. Add bouillon and cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in pepper, chicken and parsley. Pour chicken mixture into a lightly greased 10 inch deep dish pieplate or a round casserole dish.

If you are using pre-made piecrusts, unfold them and press out fold lines. Sprinkle 1 piecrust with pecans and Parmesan cheese. Top with remaining piecrust. Roll into a 14 inch circle; press edges to seal. Cut into 1/2 inch wide strips. Arrange strips in a lattice design over filling, reserving any extra strips.

Bake at 425 for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Place remaining strips on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 425 for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with cobbler.


Pie crust - makes two crusts
Adapted from a recipe from Crisco

2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening, chilled
4-8 tbsp ice cold water

Blend flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.

Cut chilled shortening into 1/2-inch cubes. Cut chilled shortening cubes into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle half the maximum recommended amount of ice cold water over the flour mixture. Using a fork, stir moisture evenly into flour.  Add more water by the tablespoon, until dough is moist enough to hold together when pressed together. Divide dough in two. Shape into disks, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for thirty minutes. Roll each disk out into  a 12" circle and proceed with recipe.

I Canned Chicken and Ground Beef...and Lived to Tell About It

I did something recently that had intimidated me for the longest time: I canned chicken breast and ground beef. For some reason, canning meat has always seemed mysterious, difficult, and possibly dangerous. After all, it was only this past summer that I used my seriously vintage (60-70 years old and going strong) pressure canner for the first time and canned green beans from our garden. I made Hubby Dear check and double-check that I was following the directions correctly so that I didn't blow up my kitchen. We survived and my canning confidence grew exponentially. Yesterday I threw caution to the wind and stepped into the world of canning meat.

Folks, if you have been holding back on canning meat for any of the reasons I listed above, stop! Canning meat is so easy. In fact, chicken breast is the easiest thing I've ever canned, period. It really couldn't be simpler. Here's how to do it.

1. Pack your jars with chicken. I trimmed and sliced chicken breasts into large chunks and placed the pieces in clean canning jars. A pint jar will hold about 1 lb of chicken. Maintain 1" headspace. (For those new to canning, that means fill the jar with meat up to 1" from the top of the jar.)



Chicken packed into jars

2. Pour hot water into the jars over the chicken. Some people skip this part. A couple of my canning books said to add water, and I followed their advice.
3. Free any bubbles and adjust water to maintain the 1" of headspace. Run a plastic knife or bubble freer around the edge of the jar a couple of times. It was amazing just how many bubbles were trapped in the jar. I had to top each jar up with water to keep the headspace at 1".



Using the bubble freer to release any air from the jars

4. Clean off the jar rims with a damp paper towel. I had chicken gunk all over the rims of mine. If you don't take the time to clean the rims, your jars might not seal properly.
5. Place boiled lids on the jars, tighten rings to "finger tight", and can it!

Ready to can

Put 2-3" of water in the bottom of your canner and then load your jars in. Put the lid on and allow to heat. Once you see steam exiting the top of your canner, start timing. The steam needs to exhaust for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, I shut the petcock (the vent where the steam exits - this controls the pressure in the vessel) and watched until the pressure in the canner reached 10 lb. I have a dial gauge canner. You might have a weighted gauge canner which is different. Check your manual for instructions specific to your model. Process at 10 lb of pressure for 75 minutes. If you are at an altitude higher than 1,000 ft above sea level, you will need to check a canning reference for adjusted times/pressures.

  6.     Check every so often to make sure your canner maintains 10 lb of pressure for the full 75 minutes. 
          You might have to adjust the temperature on your stove. It takes remarkably little heat to keep the
          canner going.

  7.    After the 75 minutes, turn off the heat. When the pressure reads zero, open the petcock. I wait a
         couple of minutes before I open my canner, just for insurance. Open the canner lid AWAY from
         you and remove the jars. They are still very hot, so be careful.

  8.    I let the jars rest on my counter undisturbed for at least 12 hours. My jars and lids were a
         bit greasy and schmutzy, so I put some white vinegar on a kitchen towel and wiped them clean.

   9.     Label jar with the contents/date canned and enjoy! For best quality, use within a year.

The finished product

Canning ground beef is very similar, but there are a few differences.

1. You need to brown your beef ahead of time.



5 lb of ground beef, browned and ready to be canned

2. Put the browned beef in clean, hot, canning jars (a pint holds just under 1 lb of cooked ground beef), reserving 1" headspace, and pour some boiling water up to the 1" level. 



Freeing bubbles from the beef and water

3. Free any bubbles, adjust headspace if necessary, wipe rims, etc. The remainder of the process is identical to the chicken. Process for 75 minutes at 10 lb of pressure.  

Et voila!

What's the point?

Why should you can your own meat? Well, if you like to eat meat, you'll definitely want to have some on hand if you're living off your food storage! I know Hubby Dear gets grumbly if I feed him too many vegetarian meals in a row.

Does home canning meat save you money? Here's what I found:

Sam's Club chicken

5-13 oz cans of "Member's Mark" chicken at Sam's Club - $9.98, not including tax. When I add in our crazy-high local taxes, it came out to 15 cents per ounce.

Vs.

7 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breasts - 14.05 + tax
12 pack of pint jars with lids - 10.69 + tax

I added in tax and prorated the cost for the 7 jars I filled with chicken. It came to 18 cents per ounce. If I hadn't had to buy any canning jars or lids, it would have cost me only 13 cents an ounce.

If you get a crazy good deal on chicken and have a ready stock of canning jars, home canning meat will indeed save you a few pennies.

What about the taste? 

I don't know! I haven't tried it out yet, but I've heard great things about home canned meats. I'm going to do a blind taste test of my home canned chicken vs. the Member's Mark chicken I have in storage and I'll post the results.