Maple Sugaring Time!

     The long winter is winding down.  How do I know?  The maples are starting to flow!  This tends to be a tough time of year for many people.  The ground is covered with dirty snow which is not very pretty (besides, most people are probably sick of any kind of snow by now).  As it slowly melts, it creates mud puddles (the sign New England's 5th season, "mud season", is starting).  Even though the days are warming into the 40's, the nights are still very cold.  There is not much to look forward to at this time here in New England.  The skiing season is starting to come to an end, and it is too soggy and muddy for hiking.  Maple sugaring to the rescue!!  What better reason is there to be outside than to tap and collect sap from your maple trees and turn it into delicious syrup.

     Last year was the first time we tapped any of our trees.  It started as an experiment because my husband wanted to make birch beer (not the soda kind, but actual beer).  We tapped 5 birch trees and at the last minute decided to tap a maple.  Apparently, last year was not a good year for sap, but we still got enough sap to make about a pint of syrup.  The birches, by the way, started to flow later than the maple and once they started, they filled our 5 gallon buckets very quickly (one bucket per tree).

     This year, we tapped 9 maples (Red Maples and Sugar Maples).  When we collect sap, we bring it into the house.  Our house is very dry thanks to our wood stove, so the moisture from simmering the sap over a low heat is welcome.  We use a large pot (my canning pot) to simmer the newly collected sap until it is reduced, then we add it to our 2nd pot where we are collecting the first batches of the year.  When we have enough to fill one of our bottles, we will finish simmering this pot to an appropriate sugar level. 

     We are hoping to have enough syrup this season to make it through the year!

Winter Eggs

When I first started keeping chickens, I figured winter would be a problem for me.  Everything I had read said if you don't provide extra light (chickens need about 14 hours a day), they will slow down and probably stop laying for the winter.  My coops do not have electricity, so extra lighting is not an option.  Besides, who am I to fight nature?  It is natural for them to have a break in the winter- after all it is not a good time to hatch chicks (the obvious main reason a chicken lays eggs).

So, my first winter I kept waiting for egg production to continually drop.  I did notice my older hens did slow down, but would still lay an occasional egg (their eggs are bigger than pullet eggs).  However, my pullets continued to lay right through winter.  I kept searching for information on this and couldn't find much.  Finally in an issue of Backyard Poultry someone wrote in about their chickens and asked about their pullets- would they continue to lay through their first winter.  The response was that they very well could! 

This is my trick to continue to have a steady supply of eggs during the winter- I continue to have pullets who start laying in the fall and they continue through the darker winter months.

Winter is Here!

Here it is... another New England winter.  The snow has started flying (much to the dismay of my chickens).  The turkeys are tucked into the freezer and winter squash is in the cellar.  I have more time for relaxing indoor projects- I thought I'd get some reading done and maybe some baking.  Instead, I sit by the fire  consumed with studying seed catalogs and looking at hatchery websites.  The lists I have made keep getting revised with my plans for spring! 

I can't wait to start planting again.  This year I will be adding asparagus, horseradish, Jerusalem artichoke (in a confined raised bed), and rhubarb to the garden.  At least one more peach tree will be added to our orchard along with some apple trees which need to be replaced.  My husband and I have even thought about adding some nut trees (thanks to an article in the January/February 2011 Hobby Farms magazine and Fruit, Berry, and Nut Inventory from Seed Savers Exchange). 

Instead of just raising cornish cross chickens as our meat chickens, I would also like to try some colored rangers and/or kosher kings.  I also want to add more variety to my laying flock by possibly ordering some Salmon Faverolles, Dominiques, Buff Chanteclers, New Hampshire Reds, and maybe some Delawares.  I'll probably change my mind on a few of these breeds and/or add more on to my list as winter progresses- like I said the lists keep getting revised.

Chicken Hoarder

My husband calls me the chicken hoarder. This has nothing to do with buying, raising, or cramming as many chickens as I can into my coop. What he is talking about are the chickens we have stored in our freezer. In giving up on store bought meat, I take those chickens very seriously- they need to last us through the winter since I will not be raising anymore until spring. I have found a local source of beefalo which I have also stocked up on (but use more freely knowing I can always get more). In a few weeks, 4 of our 15 turkeys will join our frozen chickens as well.

Back in the spring, when I was trying to organize a list of who would like to order chickens, everyone gave me a hard time about my method. My parents-in-law, for example, wanted only 3 chickens- so I said I would order them 5 to be on the safe side. When they protested, I explained that they need not take all 5 if they all survived. I just was being overly cautious wanting to make sure everyone got what they wanted. We would keep whatever remained for ourselves. I then had the same conversation with both of my brother-in-laws.

Come processing time, I was glad I over ordered because my parents-in-law ended up taking all 5 of theirs. So did one of my brother-in-laws. My other brother-in-law only took his original 3 (which he now regrets and wished he took all 5). After losing 4 birds during an extreme heat wave, and giving a friend 8 he ordered, we were left with 14 chickens. This sounds like a lot, but it really isn't considering this was July and we will not process meat chickens again until May of next year.

This brings me to chicken hoarding. Even though I love eating chicken, I have only made 3 of these chickens with the rest still safely tucked into the freezer. My husband keeps asking when I will make another chicken as he can't understand why I am rationing them so carefully. Worse yet, he has also suggested that I should give my unfortunate brother-in-law (who only took 3 chickens) one of ours.

Raising these chickens was a lot of work and will be the only chicken I have available to me- they are like frozen, juicy, golden nuggets- much too valuable to give away. So, if this makes me a chicken hoarder- so be it. I am a chicken hoarder.

Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini

Anyone who thinks they kill every plant they own should grow zucchini or summer squash. They are the lowest maintenance plants in my garden! They just keep producing rain or shine, cool or hot! This is the time of year when my husband tries to convince me not plant zucchini next year. Everyday I pick zucchini and/or summer squash and (as usual) now that it is August, they are kind of played out. Not giving up the fight, I have been researching what to do with them. Here is what I am trying:

1) I bought a food dehydrator and made zucchini chips (garlic salt flavored and onion salt flavored).

2) All of my canning books have relish recipes which use zucchini instead of cucumbers. I tried the zucchini relish recipe on p.50 of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Home Canning, Freezing, and Dehydration. Since I am growing onions and peppers in my garden as well, all of the veggies in this recipe were homegrown.

3) I have blanched sliced summer squash and zucchini and froze them for use in soups and casseroles this winter.

4) The freezer is stocked with zucchini bread. I make a sweet zucchini bread (similar to a banana bread) and my breadmaker has a zucchini herb bread recipe (perfect for grilled cheese with tomato sandwiches).

5) Tonight for dinner we are having zucchini and summer squash Parmesan. I sliced them lengthwise, plunged them into boiling water for a few minutes, then layered them in a baking dish with sauce; mozzarella cheese; some sauteed onion, garlic, and kale (all from the garden); and tomato slices (also from the garden).

6) Ina Garten has a recipe on the Food Network website for zucchini pancakes (similar to potato pancakes). This will probably be tomorrow night's dinner.

7) Out of desperation, I am thinking of trying zucchini pickles.

8) Sauteed with other veggies, I have added zucchini and summer squash to pizza, omelets, egg wraps, veggie wraps, and pasta dishes.

As you can see, I am running out of creative things to do with zucchini and summer squash other than give it away. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Turkey Time!

At 7:00 AM on July 21st I received a call from the post office. The man on the other end of the line told me I had a package to pick up and I could hear them peeping in the background. I raced to the post office and picked up 16 very active turkey poults (I ordered 15 toms, but Meyer Hatchery rounded up and sent me 16).

When I got home, I put them into their brooding box. Most people would think they were chicks. They are yellow and downy, but they have longer necks and a bump in the middle of their head above their eyes which will become their snood (the floppy skin that droops down a turkey's face). They were very alert and energetic pecking at my rings each time I put my hand in the box. Everyone quickly learned to eat and drink, then eventually settled down for nap time.

The information on the box said they had hatched at 5:00 AM on the 19th. This means by the week of Thanksgiving they will be 18 weeks old. This is a little young for toms who are usually processed at 22-24 weeks old, but this is a fast growing breed (Broad Breasted Whites) who will easily become too large to fit into a regular size oven. This makes me think younger may be better. We'll just wait and see!

Frustration!

I don't like a lot of reality TV programs, but I have to admit I have been watching "The Fabulous Beekman Boys" on Planet Green. Recently, they showed an episode where Josh and Brent slaughter their two pigs. Actually, they couldn't do it themselves, so they had other people come to the farm to do it. Their philosophy about raising animals for food is very similar to ours- the pigs lead a happy, healthy life and were allowed to be pigs while they were alive. They were killed humanely on site as to not stress them out by removing them from their home. So, being a fan of the show, I decided to check out their website. This is where I was shocked.

What frustrates me is how many people commented on how disgusted they were by the pigs being killed (this wasn't the shocking part) and suggested that Josh and Brent should buy their meat in a grocery store (this was the shocking part)! It is just obvious that people are too disconnected from their food. How do they think that going to grocery store is better??

1) Guess what? It was still a living creature even if it was purchased as meat at a grocery store. So, these people have still encouraged that an animal be killed for food- they just didn't have to witness it.

2) That animal was most likely raised on a feedlot in miserable, filthy, and crowded conditions. Because of the filth and crowding, it was probably fed antibiotics as well. Don't forget the corn to fatten them up!! (Most animals would not choose to eat corn- it is not a natural diet for them)

3) The animals that survive this factory farm (yes, many die prematurely) are then stressed out as they are loaded up onto a truck and taken to a slaughter house. These terrified animals are then killed in filth.

4) You have less selection when buying meat in a supermarket. For example, all of the chickens are Cornish Cross since they are the most economical, fastest growing bird. You don't have the choice of getting a Jersey Giant or Orpington (which are slower growing, but tastier birds). If it weren't for small farms, many breeds of animals would disappear!

Therefore, buying meat in a grocery store may make someone feel better since they did not witness these things first hand; however, they need to be aware that it happens. By buying meat this way, they are in fact encouraging these practices to continue. This makes them just as guilty of animal cruelty as the companies raising and selling the meat!