Monday, November 26, 2007

Good News From the Chicken Coop!

Chickens don't have clocks, but they definately know what time it is. As the sun shows it's setting colors of orange, red and purple, the chickens have begun their dance. They slowly file into the coop, clucking and chatting. They gather around the feeder for a midnight snack, and the waterer for a nightcap.

By ones and twos, they make their way up the roost ladder, but little progress is made. One has forgotten something and jumps back down to the ground with a thump. Others excuse themselves and jump down from one roost level to another before settling onto the highest rung. Another is looking for her friend, and jockies for position. Like a latecomer to a concert hall where the music has already begun, one move jostles the whole row and they cluck their complaints for all to hear.

Our Roo is the last one up to the roost. He walks up and down the roost to evaluate the prime spot. Is he looking for his favorite hen or the spot from which to protect his flock? He settles on a location and squeezes in, causing more disruptions from the girls. They all must shift one way or another to accomodate their boyfriend.

Finally all is quiet and the chickens have settled in for the night. They will be in the same position when I come out before dawn to refresh their feed and water. I turn and glance into the nest boxes and there it is.

Our first egg.

The chickens fooled us all, and beat our poll: the date was November 24, 2007. Thanks to all who participated!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

A Farmer to Call Your Own?


Meals don't get much more local than this: home-grown lamb burgers (mixed with mint sauce, egg, bread crumbs, salt and pepper), roasted, home-grown Brussels sprouts, steamed, home-grown yellow beans. I haven't attempted homemade ketchup yet!
I have the best customers. They are really more like friends than customers. One of them told me of a time they were sitting around their dinner table with friends, talking about "their farmer." The friend inquired, "You have a farmer?" Their response, " Of course, her name is Gwen. Who's your farmer?"
Another time I overheard one customer on her cell phone say, "I'm at the farm, picking up my vegetables." The farm. I love that, as if there is only one farm that they could possibly be at, in the world!
To know who makes your food and how they do it is growing ever important. With GMOs, e coli contaminations, and salmonella in the foods you eat, it's essential you know what is in your food (and more importantly, what's not in your food). What was the crop or soil treated with and why? How was the food handled after it was picked? When was the last time the picker washed their hands and how healthy are they? I don't mean to alarm, but it is alarming to think about.
Recently, I watched an episode of the show, Dirty Jobs, where the actor goes to a turkey farm and works for a day. I was horrified. Outside, the "farm" was pristine, with nary an animal in sight, just long buildings. Inside those buildings were thousands of turkeys. They never see the light of day. They never live as a turkey, and can't even roost at the end of the day, as would a wild turkey. The actor's "job" was to turn over the litter near the waterers, to get the dry stuff to the top, as well as find all of the dead turkeys in the building. There were at least 10 dead birds per day. I was amazed that they let television cameras into these buildings. Won't people be disgusted at how their thanksgiving turkey spent their life? How they were raised? What they ate? How healthy is the meat from these birds, not to mention how healthy were the birds themselves?
I've sadly come to the conclusion that people just don't want to know. The majority of them (and this includes many members of my own family) want to go into a supermarket and buy the shrink-wrapped meat, and not think about that it once lived. They want the ease, convenience and flexibility of buying whatever they need at the moment.
I've done it myself, recently. Since our chickens haven't yet begun to lay eggs yet, I've been confronted with my own decision about where and how to buy eggs. Once, I admit, I bought them from the supermarket (organic, free-range ). And then I realized what a hypocrite I'd been. So I went to the local health food store... and bought eggs from New Hampshire. Now, I've gone onto Local Harvest and found a local farmer that grows chickens how I believe they should be grown, and feeds them accordingly. These eggs I can feel better about buying and eating. But if it was a challenge for me, a farmer, it could be insurmountable for people who don't live as close to the land as I.
So, I ask you: Who's Your Farmer?

Birthday Cakes



Birthdays come once a year, and so do birthday cakes. I make a variety of custom-ordered birthday cakes for our family members, but when it came to my birthday, I wanted something different. So I stopped at an ice cream cake store to see what I wanted. They had an interesting variety, but included actual cake with the ice cream. I asked if the frosting on top was buttercream, and the answer was, "it's our non-dairy topping." ugh. What exactly is "non-dairy"? An oil-based, corn-syrup awfulness that really tastes like nothing.
So, I came up with a plan B. I would make my own birthday ice cream cake. This way, I could design it exactly how I wanted, no cake on the insides, just ice cream and chocolate crunchies. And I could have fabulous ice cream flavors! (I try to resist Ben & Jerry's for most of the year, but birthdays are special.)

This is what I came up with: in a springform pan (I've had them for years, a set of 3, and yet, they've never seen a cheesecake) I pressed ground up Newman O cookies (a trans-fat free Oreo substitute), a pint of Carmael Sutra Ben & Jerry's, (softened), cookie crumbs on top, homemade hot fudge on top of that, (a break for freezing at this point, since it was getting muddy), a pint of Phish Food B&J for the top layer, with the rest of the hot fudge, with the cookie crumbs sprinkled around the edge, for good measure.

The cake was awesome, and rich, and amazing. I wouldn't change a thing, I think I reached the pinnacle of ice cream cake design, and calorie consumption, all in one fell swoop.

Good thing birthdays only come once a year.

Monday, November 12, 2007

It is SO not spring... right?!



I can't believe it. I just received my first seed catalog in the mail yesterday. I am so not ready to start thinking about spring and planting next year's garden! I'm barely over this year's garden!! So I swore I wouldn't even crack open the cover of the catalog for a month, at least.

But I glanced at it each time I walked by. The "over 200 new items" tag kind of had me curious. What could be so new? A new color of Swiss Chard? A new, must-have broccoli? A tomato that would make you forgo all other tomatoes? I had to know, it was killing me.

*sigh* So I cracked it open. And was assaulted by gorgeous, glossy pictures of vegetables growing in their glory. Peppers, asparagus, greens, garlic. It all was there. I didn't notice too many earth-shattering new ideas, though. Overwhelmed by the possibilities and the potentials of a new garden, I flung it away, to gather some dust for another month.

I will not look at the seed catalog. I will not look at the seed catalog. I will not look at the seed catalog.

For at least a few more days.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

More Brussels Sprouts


We expected way cold temperatures this morning- it was predicted in the teens. So I went out and cut the last of our lettuce, and a bunch of stalks of my awesome Brussels Sprouts (see post below). Since my last foray into cooking Brussels (boiling into oblivion), I've discovered a new method: roasting!

Eggs, where oh where are you?


Aren't our chickens beautiful? These lovelies are Barred Rocks, and in the middle of the pack is our rooster. He's a little lighter than the girls. They hatched in the beginning of June, when they were sent to us the same day. Apparently, they didn't get the memo about when to start laying their awesome, bright-orange-yolked eggs! They are supposed to start at 5 months old, which they are.... so where are my eggs? I hate to admit this, but I had to buy store bought eggs! Ugh. Pale, lifeless imitations of the awesome eggs I expect from my girls.
We feed our hens (and Roo, as I affectionately call him) only certified-organic chicken feed milled from local grains at a local, family-owned grain mill. They get to peck at kelp, which gives them micronutrients, and oyster shells, which helps to keep their eggshells nice and strong. And whatever extras from the garden we have. They loooove strawberries! I found an old bag of berries (one year I got the "great" idea to freeze them whole, and we never ended up using them- the juice after cutting them was very watery and yucky. Definately cut them before freezing) and I brought it out and sprinkled it in the pasture, and they ran around, gobbling them up.

Every day I go out and peer into their nest boxes, full of hope. And every day I've been disappointed when all I see are the wooden eggs I've put in there to convince them that the boxes are the right spot to lay their precious eggs. *sigh*


Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Tomfoolery in the country

Our farm is located on a sharp turn on a country road, with other farms all around. In one adjacent hay field, the farmer makes huge (300-pound) round bales from his hay, and leaves them in the field until needed. Well, some locals thought it would be entertaining to roll a couple of these out into the road, right at the sharp curve. We knew something fishy was going on when we saw several sets of brake lights early in the morning. I'm sure it took more than one person to roll these back out of the road. So far, we haven't heard of any injuries or damage to cars from these roadblocks.

You have to have a particular sense of humor to live in the country!