My M.I.A. Mea Culpa

I haven't been here much, which is lame. I haven't forgotten that I promised you all a giveaway, but I haven't gotten around to doing it just yet either, which is double lame.

But - I'm here for just a second to give you my paltry reasons why, or perhaps more fittingly, why not.

El numero Uno - Ta Daaaaaah! I'm opening a shop! Or, to be more accurate, Billy and I and two amazing business partners and fellow urban farm nerdz, are opening a shop! The amount of paperwork, legal filings and mandatory workshops that a new business owner has to complete are cray-zay NUTS, but we're getting 'er done, lining them up and knocking them down, etcetera, etcetera.

Eastside Urban Farm & Garden Center plans to open its doors to our farming, homesteading, and DIY'ing friends and neighbors in February 2014. (Hooboy does it feel nice to finally let that cat out of the bag!)

'Tis Bazaar Season - And I know you know what that means. It means I'm the lady who is fervently knitting dishcloths in the waiting room at the orthodontists office, scouring Pinterest for organic soap and sugar scrub recipes and wrapping bars of goaty-good soap waaaay into the small hours.

The Universe has been Ever-so-slightly Uncharitable this week past month or so - Lots and lots of personal craziness has been raining down upon our little family and the families of some of those nearest and dearest to us; more than there is any kind of time to go into detail about here, but suffice it to say that the old adage that "bad things come in threes" - Yeah, I wish. Bad/crappy/really, really, unfortunate things are coming in half-dozens at least, but we're still kickin'. I'm up all night rocking back and forth with worry (while knitting, wrapping soap), but still hanging in there.

And so, you know, ergo, my absence.

I'm going to try to check in more often, and I have a few new knitting patterns to post, I just have to carve out the time. Oh, and the giveaway - DEFINITELY still happening. :)

Thanks for your patience, mis amigos.

Fall Done Fell

In the space of a week we've gone from humidity, thunderstorms and 80 degree temps to falling leaves and pea soup fog in the mornings. Fall has arrived in Boggy Hollow, and with it, as ever, a nearly-endless list of stuff that needs doing, yesterday.

As a bit of strategery, I am posting my to-do list here in the hope that the threat of an on-the-record public shaming will serve as motivation for me to get my crap together and not, say, take a nap with my puppy.

Hope springs eternal.

Chelle's end of Summer/Fall To-Do list:

*Finish harvesting the garden - tomatoes, tomatillos, basil, lemon balm, garlic chives, runner beans, pumpkins, cylindrical beets, sunflowers, chamomile, calendula, breadseed poppies, Fall raspberries

*Forage - apples, crab apples, pears, walnuts, hazelnuts, hawthorn berries, rose hips, dandelion roots, mushrooms?

*Can/Freeze/Dehydrate - Spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, tomatillo salsa, pumpkin puree, hard cider (apple, pear, hawthorn, etc.), wine (rose hip, hawthorn, raspberry), egg noodles (using beets, basil, etc.), pumpkin ravioli, chamomile, lemon balm and calendula for tea and soapmaking, dandelion roots (for bitters), pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, beet chips, beet greens, compound herb butters (basil, lemon balm, garlic chive), Scarlet Runner beans, 3 "surplus" roosters, 2 tom turkeys.

*Ferment - Cider (for ACV), wine, sauerkraut

*Make - At least 2 more batches of soap - one with goat milk and one vegan, re-batch soap trimmings, knit at least 2 dozen more dishcloths and 6 pair of bike helmet earmuffs

*Set up/Organize - The new pantry/storage room shelving - oy. This will probably involve a trip to IKEA, better known in our family as the Yuppie Modular Cattle Chute from Hell. Uff da.

As if that weren't enough, in addition to my regular Mom duties, a friend and I are in the process of starting a new business that entails real estate deals, meetings with bankers, tons of market research, paperwork and spreadsheets out the wazoo and a big, fat, healthy dose of sheer panic. Good times!

So, there you have it. My next 12 weeks, chock-full of farm housewifferey (did I just invent that word?), lava-hot mason jars and self-imposed stress and deadlines. Hold my feet to the fire to get this stuff done, guys and gals, because that nap is looking better with each passing minute.

To Market, to Market

I've been running around today trying to put the finishing touches on my crafts, produce and what-not before getting up bright and early tomorrow to sell my wares at the annual Love our Local Fest here in Olympia.

I somehow got the bright idea to make a bunch of my homemade egg noodles, using our eggs and our produce, as if I wasn't busy enough. Now I'm looking at pulling late-nighter/all-nighter #3 in order to get all of this pasta rolled, cut, dried and packaged. Oof! But on the up side, isn't it pretty?

Egg noodles made with our Cylindra beets

As much as I look forward to going to and spending the day at the market, I gotta admit, I'll be a little relieved (and probably sleep for 24 hours straight) once it's done. August is already so busy around here, it'll be nice to get in quick breather before the school year starts up again.

Come and see me tomorrow if you're a local-yokel. ;) Olympia's Love our Local Fest

August Exhaustion

This morning I woke up to a fiery-hot pain in my shoulder. In fact, my entire right arm feels fit to fall right off. I think I've managed to figure out why...

...I've been knitting. A LOT.

...picking, washing chopping, slicing and grating dozens of pounds of squash.

...cutting and trimming up fifty-bajillion bars of soap.

...hand wrapping and labeling those same fifty-bajillion bars of soap.

Yes, my house is in ruins right now, but aren't my knits and soaps purty?! That 40ish pounds of squash that I put into the freezer last night is a different kind of purty. I feel very pleased with my level of productivity, but madre, my arm! :\

Get Ready, Get Set...

...commence freak-out about whether or not I'll manage to get my stuff ready in time for market day. :\

Either way, I'm all signed up to be a crafter/farm vendor, so whether I have 2 tomatoes or 200, I'll be there! Come on down and see me!

Timing is Everything

Blueberry season has finally arrived, coinciding with King and Pink salmon seasons, and our family's perennial favorite, crabbing season. That's a whole lot of seasoning.

Because we live at the base of a peninsula that is home to umpteen blueberry farms and salt-water boat launches, we get quite a bit of traffic whizzing past the house each day. And we're looking to capitalize on that. :)

We had a very quiet little grand opening for our bitty little Farm Stand this past Sunday. We didn't make a killing - by a long shot - but we did send some of our beautiful eggs and blackberries off to new homes, and hopefully got our name out there just a little as well. We intend to do the Farm Stand at least a few days per week, as long as the garden and chickens do their bit to supply us.

I'm also plotting a mega-grande garage sale to purge the odds and ends that we just don't need or use anymore. My girls have decided to let their Care Bear sheets and American Girl dolls go to some other lucky little girls. : \ So now it's up to me and Bill to do our bit, which entails sorting through bookshelves, drawers and closets, and those two dozen or so pesky boxes that have sat in the basement waiting patiently to be unpacked for, oh, three years. *gulp*

But I figure that if we can get our crizzap together quick enough to get this garage sale put together in time to take advantage of the blueberry and fishing traffic, and we manage to have the farm stand open for the day as well, we could do a fair bit of business. The staggering amount of sorting, and shifting and re-folding and moving... uhg. I'd rather not dwell too heavily on that aspect of the run-up to the sale of the century.

I'll post our plans for the sale/stand-a-palooza just as soon as we figure it all out. In the meantime, if you find yourself in North Olympia and in need of zucchinis or beets....

My monkeys can hook you up! 

Farmchick Fuel: The Mother Earth News Fair

Every year (though usually a little earlier than June) I need a farm chick mental rev-up; a little shot in the arm in the form of inspiration to really get me energized and excited about the upcoming growing season. Normally, I re-read something like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or just about anything by Gene Logsdon or Michael Pollan to get my juices flowing. This year though, I was off to a slower-than-normal start and needed a little extra something to get me pumped up about getting outside and playing in the dirt and slogging critter poo hither and yon.

This year it wasn't a book that got me going, but an event.

I spent the last two days at the Mother Earth News Fair at our state's fairgrounds in Puyallup ("Pyoo-al-up") attending some fascinating, exciting seminars and classes on everything from planting bee-friendly medicinal gardens, choosing the right heritage breed turkey and building your own cob oven, to quickly and efficiently processing your homegrown poultry. It was pretty dang awesome.

The folks in attendance were a very interesting mix of people, primarily composed of two camps - uber-liberal, crunchy granola types and the very conservative, dressed-in-their-Sunday-best types - and very few from the middle of the spectrum, a fact which I found fascinating.

We brought the kiddos along, one of whom was slightly less than thrilled to be going. But, after a day spent wandering through the poultry barn to check out some rare and beautiful chickens, eating local, organic ice cream and going home with a new, free German angora bunny, I daresay she actually really enjoyed herself.

The other kid and I straight-up drooled over some beautiful chickens, but somehow managed to resist bringing any home. My Bird Girl took the following picture of her favorite breed on display -

An Appenzeller Spitzhauben. Gesundheit!

I, myself, am madly obsessed with the Showgirl chicken. Which is essentially a naked neck Silkie. *swoon* Someday...

Tempted though I was to bring home some fancy new hens, I managed to just say no, and instead mostly binged on books. You're familiar with my obsession for reading-all-things-farmish, right? Did you also know that I'm a hoarder collector of rare and signed books? Guess who had the best day ever? 

This gal!

Seriously. I got to meet Joel Salatin and he signed my books. Farm nerd/book geek nirvana! I was so pumped, that even after spending 8 hours tromping from one end of the fairgrounds to the other and back again a zillion times, that I came home and went straight to work in the garden, planting another two beds of melons and medicinal and edible flowers. It felt great to take some of what I had just learned and put it to use straight away. 

Consider my farming batteries fully recharged. ;)

Craft-a-palooza!

With the much anticipated return of energy and mobility, following my knee replacement, came a big fat wave of crafting inspiration.

Being a very visually oriented person, I'm a major Pinterest junkie. Right now, it's all bent forks and blue mason jars over there and I'm digging it!

People have found uses for mason jars that never even crossed my mind - pendant lights, hand soap pumps, sconces - you name it. And all this time I though they were just for canning and for hosting my uber-grande ghetto macchiato.

32-ounces of Mmm, Mmm Good. :)

I, like everybody else, it seems, really like the old, bluish and greenish mason jars of my Grandma's era, which are quite a bit harder to come by. I priced a few at some local antique malls....GAH! $19 for a single pint jar. Has the world gone mad?!

So, I was super stoked when I saw/heard that Ball Mason was putting out a 100th anniversary edition of their blue jars. They are still a little hard to come by, but amazon carries them presently. I predict that once my fellow crafty folk get wind of these babies, they will fly right outta there, so, if you're so inclined, get some while the getting is still good!

So I did what any crafty hoarder would do, and ordered four cases of them. I have some pretty grand plans for these lovelies. If they turn out at all decent, I'll post pics and I *may* do a giveaway as well. Stay tuned!

Aside from Mason jar mania, I'm pretty excited to try one of these bent fork projects -

I bought some random, el cheapo, non-silver forks from Goodwill to work with in an attempt to hone my skillz a little before destroying serviceable silverware. We'll see how that pans out...

I'm just so, SO glad to have a shred of my former creative, happy energy back, following all of this downtime and pharmaceutical fog. Dare I say I feel somewhat optimistic and.... generally happy today?

Brace yourselves, people of Etsy/Pinterest/the interwebs - Mama's got a new camera and she's feeling mighty crafty. Yarn/jar/fork explosion forthcoming....

Early Spring Farm Checklist - Western Washington Edition

Technically, it's still winter for another eight days, but I've always thought of mid-March as Spring. Maybe it's because I've been seeing Easter stuff for sale in the stores since February 15th, or maybe it's just my boundless optimism? Either way, bring it on!

This list applies to my particular area (Zone 7B per the USDA's Hardiness Zone index), in this particular  year. The duration and severity of seasons never seem to be the same any two years in a row anymore. Luckily, this year seems to be bringing an early (or at least not late!) Spring. Temperatures have been fairly mild, and we haven't had hard frosts or monsoon-type rains for the past month, give or take, which makes this rain belt farm chick pretty optimistic that Spring will arrive on time this year.

And so, the Spring to-do list must be made, then tackled, one item at a time. We're trying our hands at a LOT of new and exciting projects this Spring, including honeybees, pigs and a brand new kitchen garden, so our list is rather mighty. Between the fair weather and my new knee, I have high hopes that we'll be able to pull this ambitious list off and have a super productive year. This will be our first year in which our little farm will be more than a hobby, but an honest to goodness, money-making business. I'm a big bundle of jangled, eager, excited nerves. It's a good kind of crazy. ;)

March To Do's

*Forage - Stinging nettles & dandelions
*Plant - Start lettuces, cruciferous veggies and hardy herbs indoors. Plant peas out as soon as a raised bed is available.
*Buy - Lumber and other building materials for building two Kenyan Top Bar beehives, a shelter for the pig pen, and at least half a dozen raised beds. Buy 3 weaner pigs.
*Sell - List our buck and 2-3 does with kids for sale, eggs
*Fix - Replace hoses that Rex destroyed, touch up paint job on the big coop, paint east-facing side of the coop with chalkboard paint so that eggs and other farmstand offerings can be advertised for sale.
*Clean- Pick up storm-downed tree limbs that have accumulated over the Winter (feed to goats), tidy up yard and porch. Pull weeds if time permits. Muck out goat houses and chicken coops.
*Build - Finish pig pen and shelter.  At least start beehives. Work on getting a few raised beds in for early veggies.


I know that I must be forgetting some stuff here, because this list looks way too manageable. Uhg. I need to be back up to speed, like, yesterday. Oy...

Squirrellin'

I'm really, really enjoying my Winter's rest this year. I'm in a post-bazaar, post-holiday, pre-Spring-freakout land of unscheduled bliss. Knitting what I want, as fast or slow as I want = heaven.

I'm also doing a lot more reading since I'm not on a production knitting regimen. Presently, my reading list is mostly made up of farm research material - garden layout, info on organically raising honeybees and pig pen design - I'm a real wild card!

At the moment, I'm mildly obsessed with learning every last thing I can about pig nutrition. I want to take advantage of the food waste streams available around us, like imperfect produce from farmers markets and grocery stores, and bakery outlet surplus, and possibly other food sources - foraged fruits/nuts/greens/grains/etc., that are considered sub-par for us humans, and possibly restaurant trimmings/leavings, within limits. I'm so jazzed about the possibility of raising some fantastic pork on a shoestring budget that I've gone slightly manic in my research and information gathering stage. I was up 'til 5 am googling "organic pig diet formulation". I may need help...

As my facebook friends now know well, every few months I land a bread windfall from one of our local bakery outlets. Look at what $20 can get you -

This is about 20% more than I usually get for my $20. They had quite a bit extra following the holidays. This was a really nice quality batch too, not a lot of donuts or garlic bread, which are both pretty useless to us in terms of critter food unless we want our eggs and milk to taste like deep fried onions. :P

Obviously, this is way more than our 17 (or so) chickens and 9 goats could handle, so we give some away to fellow farming friends, freeze some and dehydrate some. I have about 50 pounds worth of dehydrated bread and buns already, which I'll sock away for a rainy day for the goats' goatmeal or for eventually using for pig slops. I've had my dehydrator going 24/7 since I brought this haul home, and I feel like I still haven't made much of a dent. I must work faster than the mold can!

I'm also looking forward to using the packaging to make more "plarn" for my knitting experiments. At a minimum, I plan to wring every last penny out of this $20 investment and keep a few hundred pounds of plastic-encased organic material from ending up in a landfill. The fabulous goats milk, eggs and home raised pork will take a little more time to be realized, but the legwork I'm doing now will pay off deliciously...eventually.

I haven't forgotten...

...that I promised you all a sweet giveaway. I'm presently in the throes of Bazaar/Thanksgiving prep and half out of my head stressing over details. You guys are on my mind, though half-buried beneath a giant to-do list, you're still there. ;)

I'm doing a food-nerd favorite things/homemade goodies themed basket, so unless I sell clean out of them between this weekend and next, you can count on some soap, scrub and washcloths in there.

I won't tease you anymore. Just hang in there with me, friends. I'll get my booty in gear....eventually.

Chelle

Pickin' & Grinnin'

Over the course of the past week or so, it has become increasingly clear to us that the apples and pears were ready to come down. In fact, Scarlet and I would go and gather the windfalls each evening to add to our goats' rations, and were noticing a definite increase in the amount of apples committing hara-kiri each day. Picking time was nigh.

But picking apples from our non-dwarf, very old apples trees is not a task to be undertaken lightly. This is no picturesque, Pinterest-photo op. This is a bark-chunks-to-the-eye, ladder-teetering, crinked-neck, farmer versus tree, battle royale.

Apple to the cheekbone - coming up!

Our tallest apple tree is in excess of 15 feet high. And in the torturous way of many fruit trees, seems to grow it's biggest, most perfects fruits in the unreachable branches located 15 feet up, dead center. Basically, they're completely inaccessible, which isn't to say that we ever learn to just leave those apples alone. Nope, our cider-greed blinds us to the futility of our pursuit.

This year, we judiciously decided to throw in the towel (for now) after managing to pick and knock down 140+ pounds of cider and sauce-worthy apples, leaving another frustratingly impossible to reach 30-50 pounds still in the trees.

We also managed to collect another 13 pounds of smooshed, bug chomped or otherwise "imperfect" apples to share with our goats.

The goaties' share of the goods.

Our share! :)

As if our epic apple haul weren't enough, we also finally had a pear crop. Granted, at just 20 pounds, it wasn't huge, but when measured against our previous best-ever crop of one lonely little pear, we counted ourselves exceedingly lucky to end up so flush with fruit.

Aren't they purty?!?

With the picking being done, we now enter phase two of the fruit-a-palooza; washing, peeling and juicing. Hooboy!

With 160+ pounds of apples and pears that will need dealing with, I predict a busy week, filled with intense paring knife, apple peeler and steam juicer usage. I'll have to keep my eye on the prize - that first pint of ice cold homemade cider.

Like last weekend's jam-o-rama, this fruit-a-palooza may require a little external motivation to get through. Cue the motivational montage!

:)

The 4th Annual Jam-o-Rama

Someday I'll work up the courage to try "real" canning. By which I mean, using a pressure canner, rather than just a hot water bath to safely heat and seal my jars. After all, water bath canning limits you to canning higher-acid foods, since it isn't able to reach the intense temperatures that a pressure canner can. I've pressure canned salsa and a few other odds and ends before, but only with my Mom present. She has a dandy old pressure canner, which I happen to be terrified to use alone.

Firstly, because there is a right way and a wrong way to use a pressure canner. I have an inordinate amount of fear that I will miss a step and somehow manage to blow up my kitchen. After footing the bill from my car accident, I'm not sure that my insurance agent would be super keen to learn of my dabbling with super heated liquids encased in immanently breakable glass jars either.

Secondly, I'm not a huge fan of mopping my ceiling. My husband's beer brewing mishaps have seen well to that.

So, I'm primarily a jam kinda gal. In fact, my very good friend Jen and I have a yearly summer canning fest that we've dubbed the Jam-o-Rama.

This year, Jen got a great deal on a case of beautiful, locally grown peaches, so we're making three kinds of peach jam/preserves - Spiced Peach, Raspberry Peach and Earl Grey infused Peach. This jam-o-rama is definitely an all day affair, but sooo worth the trouble.

Our jammin' lasted a full 10+ hours this year, and resulted in a total of 78 jars of gorgeous, delicious jam.

My share of the goods

Spiced Peach, Raspberry Peach and "The Earl"

After four years of hardcore jammin', we gals finally seem to know what we're about. I daresay that "The Earl" is our best effort yet. Alas, because this was our first time trying our heavily modified/improvised recipe, we only made a double batch (as opposed to our usual, quadruple), and therefore ended up with just 9 half pints each. We'll definitely make a bigger batch next year, but after peeling and chopping 30 pounds of fuzzy golden orbs, I think we're all peached out for now.

Still on my to-do list: Blueberry, Hawthorn and Apple and maybe blackberry. We'll see how long this wave of enthusiasm lasts. ;)

Blog Posts from the Edge

Day 7 of my captivity:

Hand, foot & mouth disease has invaded our once peaceable kingdom, and during a 9-day forced togetherness fest they call spring break, no less. We've yet to experience this elusive "Spring" phenomenon, and there most certainly hasn't been any sort of break. I'm confident that I'm rapidly approaching a mental break. Does that count?

Sick, bored, itchy children abound. Planned excursions to the out-of-doors have been scrapped due to inhospitable weather conditions and a highly communicable virus. We grow steadily more weary of one another's company with each passing hour.

Worse still, living conditions are deteriorating rapidly. The inmates children insist on being fed DAILY, pushing the very limits of my once generous sense of hospitality. Dishes are accumulating faster than they can be dealt with, and other routine tasks are being neglected as well. An increasing amount of my time is being consumed re-directing children to find something to do and otherwise manually dislodging them from "my grill". Surely madness lies around the next corner?

I pray you, send reinforcements as soon as can be managed. Earplugs, chocolate, fortified liquor and calamine lotion by the gallon are our most immediate needs. Some sort of force field that separates the children from my person by at least 5 feet would be most welcome, but I am uncertain as to whether or not such technology yet exists. In lieu of that, perhaps a remote control mute button, or a spell that renders me temporarily deaf? Anything helps.

We have a minimum of 3 more days of incarceration togetherness before the large, yellow, multi-passenger transports return to whisk my charges away to their institutions of learning. May their journey be swift and unhindered, delivering not only my bedraggled younglings to their destination, but delivering me from a slow, soul-crushing episode of cabin fever as well.

Three more days, three more days, three more days.....

Plant sale suggestions, please!

I'm setting a personal goal to contribute 100 plants to our school's plant sale, and I'm wondering if you all could help me figure out what the people might want?

When you buy plants (indoor plants, ornamentals, edibles, trees, etc.), what are the top three types of plants that you look for at your nursery? Do you buy primarily bulbs, veggies, herbs, flowering plants, seeds, shrubs/trees or garden decor?

I have started a few veggies and plan to start more, but I want to know what the hot sellers are, veggie or otherwise, so that I can make the most of my time and effort on behalf of our kids. I want to send this year's plant sale numbers through the roof! :)

Our sale will be taking place in early May, which is typically when most folks in Western Washington start their veggie gardens. It's also good to note that our growing season is on the short side, meaning that some plants are more trouble than they're worth in a Pacific Northwest garden - peppers, melons, citrus and tropical-type plants just don't do well here. Our first frost date is often in October. So bearing all that in mind, please lend a hand - what else should I offer up?

I just bought a handy little book, called The Plant Propagators Bible that has inspired me to try things that I haven't had much luck with before, like rooting cuttings and simple grafting, so baby trees and shrubs aren't outside the realm of possibility. I also have some old garden roses that I'm considering digging up and offering for sale, since Rex is cracking off canes regularly for his own personal chewing pleasure, and when darting through the bushes to bark at startled cyclists. He takes protecting his charges from attacks by sinewy men in spandex very seriously. Would you buy a hand-me-down rosebush?

So please leave me your thoughts in the comments so that I can get to growing some goodies to benefit our little school. Thanks!

An Embarrassment of Riches

That's what my husband called the 15 pounds each of Asian pears and pomegranates that we "salvaged" from the free produce haul that we receive each week for our animals.

The content varies widely, so you never know if it's going to be an all cabbage week, or whether it's pumpkins and cantaloupes that will be the fuel for this week's eggs. It is a mystery, and it is incredibly interesting and very revealing of our flawed modern perception of food. We first-worlders expect our food to be impeccable looking, perfectly ripe/prime and always available. And when it's not, it's only fit for lowly animals or worse yet, dumped into a landfill. It is insanity.

My chickens will eat pomegranates, if you cut them in half so that they can get in there and gobble up the juice-filled capsules at lightning speed. And I did give them a few pomegranates to enjoy (they're heart healthy!) before deciding to keep the rest for myself. I opted to juice them, as everyone in the family enjoys pomegranate juice and/or grenadine (which was my back up plan in case the juice was blah).

I found out the hard way that juicing a pomegranate with a citrus juicer is quite a bit of trouble for not a lot of yield. We got about a quart of juice from our 15+/- pounds of pomegranate. Not much, but it was free.

Then I was left to ponder the Asian pears. In case you aren't familiar, these are the little guys that look like an apple and a pear had a baby, and you'll usually see them displayed in their own little styrofoam mesh swaddling. They are that delicate and prized. They also tend to cost upwards of three dollars each. (FYI - and average sized pear in my batch was 6 ounces, which means that these puppies can and do go for about $14 per pound.) And I had 15 pounds to work with.

So I did what I usually do when presented with an ingredient that I'm not used to working with, I googled. Try it for yourself. Google "juicing Asian pears" (quotes and all), and you will get precisely one result. That is how insane the idea of having that quantity of this fruit on hand and not having a plan for it is.

Not having had any help via googling, I made an executive decision to steam juice the majority of my pears. A steam juicer is a marvel. It can coax the juice out of fruits that are otherwise hard or messy to juice, like berries and apples. My kids go nuts for fresh juice, and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to taste the nectar of the fruit of Emperors. :)

Yet Another Project in the Works

You know, because goats and chickens and tween-age daughters aren't enough to keep me busy, I've decided to open an Etsy shop. :)

It's called Postmodern Milkmaid, 'cuz I am one of those, or at least I like to think I am. There is a blog associated with it that actually has more content on it right now than my shop does, so for the mean time, I'll direct you there to check out my projects in progress - A Postmodern Milkmaid.

My theme/mantra here is to use 100% recycled/found/landfill-bound materials, and to not have to purchase anything at all to complete my projects. All yarn will be leftover or reclaimed yarn, same goes for fabrics, etc.

I welcome your feedback and suggestions. Be honest, but, please, oh please, not too brutal. I need true feedback, but I am still a fragile wee thing (mentally) and can take uber-blunt feedback a little too personally.

Anyhoo, wish me luck. And thanks, as always, for reading my ramblings and coming back for more. ;)

Chelle

Obsessive Egg Watch: Day 3

Blood vessels! We have blood vessels!

AND - I think I'm seeing one heart in the double yolker. Fingers crossed that chickie #2 is just lagging behind a touch.

I'll try for some candling pictures tonight, when it's good and dark.

YAAAAY FOR CHICKIES! :)))

Greetings from the Land of L'oeuf

Put up, frozen, and preserved of the season's foody offerings this week so far -

*Spicy Pork Broth, 3 quarts, frozen
*Blackberry Fruit Roll-ups, 5 lbs worth
*Blackberries, 3 pounds, frozen
*Spinach & Goat Feta Pierogi (Pitaha), 45, frozen
*Rose Petals, Bachelor Buttons, Nasturtium and Lavender flowers - dehydrating them like they're going out of style, cuz they are.

If my back isn't still dogging me, I'll can some blueberry & blackberry jam next week. I also want to make up some traditional Pitaha, with some gorgeous potatoes that were grown by my friends Gabby & Daeg.

I also need to make another batch of feta, or else drown in milk. Same goes with the eggs. I might just be desperate enough to try freezing some, though that still seems weird to me.

I googled "recipes that use a lot of eggs" and got some interesting results. It seems like the suggestions fall into two categories -

#1 - The Dee-hhuuuurrrrs. Have you thought of making an omelet or some deviled eggs? Dear, simple, simple friend. OF COURSE I'VE THOUGHT OF THAT. The trouble, you see, is that I have six dozen eggs and counting, and if my family somehow did manage to muscle down 72 onion-laced eggs, the air quality in North Olympia would suffer a mighty blow, and no one wants that.

#2 - The "Butterified". Pound cake, custard, mousse. All yummy, and all calling for as much or more butter and sugar than eggs. There has to be a way to make something with these babies that doesn't give us diabetes or coronary artery disease, right?

So I guess that I'm going to make some more egg noodles to freeze, and maybe try drying some as well. We'll have scrambled eggs for breakfast and dinner a few times this week and see what kind of damage we can do to the stockpile. Maybe I can start whipping them at the psycho DB that flies by my house on his Ducati at 120 miles per hour?

Nah, he's not worthy of my juevos, only my seething contempt.

By the by, this evening will make 48 hours since the mega-clutch went into the incubator. I've been candling the eggs nightly, because I'm maniacally curious about their inner goings-on. I can't tell for sure, but I *think* I see some progress in their development. There appears to be a pencil eraser-sized spot of increased density in the middle of several of the yolks. No dead giveaways, like blood vessel development, but I think that might still be a few days out.

Here's a pic I took on day one of our one and only double-yolker in the lot.



I don't know what the odds are of twin chickies making it, but I'll keep candling and keep you informed about any "eggciting" developments. ;)

Sorry about that. I need to get out more.

Holy Hidden Huevos, Batman!

Each night at around dusk, we lock our chickens in the coop for the night. Walking out there, you never know what exactly awaits you. Will there be 10 hens roosted up in the rhododendron that you have to fish out, flapping and fighting, in the dark? Will this be the night that you come around a corner to see a coyote or a raccoon (God forbid!) making off with your favorite hennie? Will anyone have collected eggs yet that day, or will it be time for the lightning round of huevo-seek? You just don't know.

Well, with 23 hens, 18 of whom are new layers, we've been having to go the extra mile to track down and collect all of the eggs that they've been laying hither and yon. Those gals are crafty! They'll lay their eggs in the weirdest, most impractical places, just for a shot at motherhood.

Case in point, young Miss Huckleberry.

I knew that she was up to something, because each day when I went to feed the chickens their bread, she'd always show up a full 30 seconds after everyone else. Peeling out on her way in from somewhere down by the bog, doing the run-flap-fly-hop thing in an effort to reach the feeding frenzy before all of the goods were gone. I had my eye on her, but for the life of me, I couldn't track down the hidden nest that I knew must be out there somewhere.

But that's ok, I didn't have to, Bill did.

He heard a bit of clucking under some holly/ivy/who-knows-what bushes and stooped to investigate. Very well hidden among the greenery was our girl, Huck.



Gotcha!



Bill thought that we should go ahead and put her in the coop with the others. It isn't safe for her to be out all night. So he picks her up and...



ARE YOU EFFIN' KIDDING ME?

Eighteen eggs. EIGHTEEN EGGS. This little mama has been squirrelling these puppies away for half a month. Sneaky monkey...


The clutch, just before going into the incubator.

Bill & Liv collected the still-warm eggs, and quickly brought them inside where I hastily set up our incubator. Those 18, plus 2 more that I found in a separate nest on the other side of the chicken yard are now "cooking" away. We have no way of knowing whether or not these eggs are fertile, and if so, how far along they are, etc. We also don't know for sure who the Papa bird is. It could be Curlie, the white-crested black Polish frizzle, or possibly King Kong or Rockstar, our Australorp roos. Maury Povich, where are you when I need you?

So approximately 3 weeks from now, we may have the pitter-patter of little chicky feet in our hot tub room, once again. These chicks will either be Americauna/Polish or Americauna/Australorp mixes, so they have the potential to look... interesting.

I'm kind of hoping for a 'Lorp/Americauna mix, as you could have the best of both worlds in one chicky - great temperament, hardy as all get-out and a blue egg-layer. Ok, I'm a little excited now. :)

I've got a Lorp-A,
A Lorp-Acauna.
The coolest chick,
West of Botswana.
Got a Lorp-A,
A Lorp-Acaaaaauna.
Blue eggs,
and black legs,
and something else that rhymes here.
There's a Lorrrrp-Aaaaah...
down in, my boggggg.