Old Tools and New Chickens

It's been a sunny and warm week!  Excellent weather to get lots of stuff done.  One item was an inherited chunk of metal of dubious use.  Thanks mom!  What the heck is this?

It came with handles, and after finding the right bolts, and fabricating a few other cross pieces, here we go!

It's a Kentucky wheel hoe, that was apparently my grandfathers, then in use by my uncle, and now I'm tilling the soil with it.  Neat!

And the machine in action, probably 80 years after it was built.

Meanwhile, over at the cooler-in-progress,  I got foam board installed on all the walls.

And the AC unit is roughly in place.  No earthquakes please...
It just needs insulation for the interior roof, and a roof roof.  This is a rather odd order of building a shed, but it's an odd building to begin with.

Back in the field, porcupines have taken out my melons.  Grrr!  They first, ate melons, so I covered them with row cover.  Then they dug under the row cover,  so I buried the edges.  Then they realized it was flimsy stuff all along and chewed right through.  The arms race may not be successful for melons this year.  Next step, a big fence.  Or perhaps robot guards with giant pincushions to trap em.

Yeah, those are my melons this porcupine is serving.

I take solace in my Jalapenos though.  Gorgeous!

And the storage onions we pulled out today.  After a bit of curing, these will last well into winter.

Golly I love how Sungolds look in the hoop house.

Ah yes, new chickens have been added to the flock to keep up with egg demand.  This weekend a neighbor had a small flock of layers he was parting with.  Hooray! I'll take em.  However, this is a feisty bunch.  After introducing them to their new accommodations, several of them tried to make a break for it.  I could not find one of them for a while, but later I found it trying to hot wire my truck!

Maybe I'll train it to change the oil.

Whatcha Eatin?

Potato Salad

Adapted from NY Times, somewhere around 2008.  You have a bunch of the ingredients in your box this week!

Dressing:
1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
salt to taste
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 garlic clove minced or pureed
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil.  (low fat version: 1/4 C plain yogurt, 2 T olive oil)

Salad
~1.5 lbs potatoes
salt and pepper to taste
2-4 Tablespoons finely chopped onion, rinsed with cold water and drained.  (knocks down the raw onion flavor a tad)
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley

Dressing:
Whisk together all dressing ingredients except the olive oil/yogurt.  Then add the olive oil/yogurt.

The Potatoes:
Dice potatoes to 3/4" cubes.  Steam above 1" boiling water until tender, but not mushy, 10-12 min.  Remove potatoes from heat.  Toss with remaining ingredients and dressing while the potatoes are hot!  (then the taters pick up all the flavor).

Mojitos

You got a warm afternoon? just add Mojito.

5-10 mint leaves

1 Tablespoon Lime Juice

Lime Wedge

2 teaspoons sugar

1 oz Light Rum

Soda Water

Ice

Place the mint leaves, lime juice, sugar and rum in a glass and muddle. (smoosh the leaves with a blunt object to bruise the leaves and release the minty goodness to the rum).  Add ice and soda water.  Garnish with a lime wedge, and a pretty sprig of unmuddled mint.  You can even use the mint stem as a stir stick.

Chicken moving time

I got some good tractor practice this past week.  The big field where the chickens are located needed to be mowed.  Sign me up!  I had most of the field mowed with the old orange Kubota in two hours,... 20 minutes of which was spent getting the tractor unstuck from a mud hole...  Or rather, Austin came over and did a nifty bucket-lifting-the-front-end-and-putting-it-in-reverse move.  Thanks Austin!
The mowed field also let me move the chickens to new pasture easier.  The electro netting I use is generally fine to deal with, but it does get snagged on tall, woody plants.  Also, when moving chickens from one enclosure to the next there are a couple of feisty ones which hide out in the tall grass, and then explode out in the wrong direction when you try to herd them to the new enclosure.  It's a good raccoon survival instinct I suppose, but if they keep doing that, they'll have a stewpot to deal with!  Short grass = no exploding chickens.

Now, really, I should not be mowing at all.  The chickens should be doing most of it, and they'll move onto fresh grass that is not above their heads.  But if you're slow in moving the chickens to new pasture, the grass grows big, the chickens take a while to tramp it down/nibble on it, and then the next pasture area grows up too big.  So, mowing hits the reset button and I can try to get them moved along to new pasture more quickly this time.  Perhaps hoofed ruminants are in order!

Here are the chickens before moving to the new grassy area, and a nice sunset.

The chicks are being supervised by the broody buff orpington.

In non-chicken related news, I started digging up the potatoes this week.  The yields are not that great due to leaf hoppers and Colorado Potato Beetle, but it is still rewarding to dig through the soil and come up with a few handfuls of tubers.  We got some good root veggies seeded in the ground for this fall.  I'm still trying at beets darnit.  The soil seems a bit acidic for them, but they'll come along soon enough.  There are a few black radishes are in the ground, wait till you see those!

Whatcha Eatin?

You don't always have to cook kale!  This here is a cold recipe for the big leafy green.  Sorry CSA, no beets yet.

Kale Salad with Root Vegetables

-Large bunch of kale, chopped
-2 Tablespoons olive oil
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-grated carrots
-grated beets

Pour olive oil and salt over kale.  Massage the salt and oil into the kale for 2-3 minutes until the kale starts to soften and wilt.  Curious why you're doing this?  More info here.
Add the grated carrots and beets.

Dressing
-Juice of 1 lemon
-1 Tablespoon olive oil
-1 teaspoon honey
-Salt
-Pepper

Chickens in the Mist

With a nod to Gary Larson, oh and I suppose Jane Goodall.  I give you chickens in the mist:

Yep, foggy week.  Hot, and humid.

The hoophouse, a bed of kale, chard, a line of weeds, and tomatoes

We pulled the last of the garlic out this week.  And there is a beautiful row of basil there.  Basil next to garlic?  They've been scheming up pesto all season.

Meanwhile in the chicken coop.  The cute little chicks have reached an awkward adolescent stage.  Some feathers are coming in, others are falling out.  Some try to fly, others are still hiding under the food dish.

Whatcha Eatin?

If you still have some cabbage lurking around from last week, (we did!) this is awesome.  It comes from Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian Cooking.

Stir-Fried Green Cabbage with Fennel Seeds
[Bhuni bandh gobi]

The cabbage and onions get nicely browned and taste gloriously of fennel.  You could easily serve this with western-style sausages, ham, pork chops, or other roast meats.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs green cabbage (half a large head)
1-2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 medium large onion, peeled and cut lengthwise into fine half rings
1 teaspoon salt
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon garam masala (I learned this looks like cinnamon...)

Remove coarse outer leaves of the cabbage.  Cut cabbage into long fine shreds.  A bread knife works great.

Put the oil in a wide, preferably non-stick pan, and set over medium high heat.  when the oil is hot, put in the cumin, fennel and sesame seeds.  As soon as the sesame seeds begin to pop, put in the onion.  Stir and fry 3-4min or until the onion has browned  bit.  Put in the cabbage.  Stir and fry for about 6 min or until the cabbage too has browned somewhat.  Now put in the salt and cayenne.  Turn down the heat to medium low and cook, stirring now and then for another 7-8min or until the onions appear caramelized and soft.  Add the lemon juice and garam masal. Stir to mix.

Serve over rice.

Caprese Salad (variation)

A cup or two diced tomatoes
Handful of minced basil leaves
2-3 cloves minced garlic
a half pound mozzarella cut into 1cm cubes
2-3 T Olive Oil
~1 T Balsamic Vinegar
Salt to taste

Mix it all up in a large bowl

Serve a dollop on bruschetta if you're feeling fancy.  Wasa crackers if you're feeling down homey.  Or just chow down with a spoon because you can't find any damn bread products.

Spaceships

So I don't have any good pictures this week.  But a satellite with a camera way above earth does.  Check out the New satellite photo of Blue Bell Farm on Google maps.  Yeah, ahem, I called in a few favors at NASA, said I wanted to see what my field looked like and they sent one right over.  Gee, thanks guys!

Satellite went over May 19th.  From left to right, the hoop house with it's sides rolled up is packed with veggies.  There's salad under the row cover right next to it.  The light strip down the middle of the field is straw covering the garlic which is just starting to pop up.  There are a few empty beds, and then it's a 2 beds of snap peas.  Then there is an empty bed, and then one of kale and broccoli under row cover.  At the edge of the field are the sage, thyme and oregano under row cover.  The chicken coops are arranged in a trio a the edge of the brushy area.  Looks like they got done eating all the grass at this point and were ready to be moved.



Whatcha Eatin?


Taco truck carnitas


After living in California for several years, I got hooked on simple, easy taco truck style tacos.  Carnitas!  Usually around $1 each, and topped up with all manner of veggies.  Preferably eaten on a dusty roadside in the blazing sun from a floppy paper plate.  Mariachi music optional.

Pile of corn tortillas
~1lb meat  (ground pork works especially well with this, but we also substitute fish, or a can of black beans)

Spices:
2 cloves garlic, minced
~1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
~1/2 teaspoon cumin
~1/4 teaspoon marjoram
~1/4 teaspoon coriander
~1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 dry chili pepper minced, or red pepper flakes

-Mix ground pork with all the spices.  Heat up a sturdy frying pan to an irresponsibly hot level.  Sear the ground pork until it gets just the slightest bit of char (go Malliard reactions!)
-Similar with fish, but be gentler, and ease up on the spices a bit.
-Can o' beans, heat in a pot with spices.

Top with:
White onion, minced
Cilantro, minced
Jalapeno, minced
Cabbage or lettuce, shredded
Fresh Lime juice squeezed over everything. (key ingredient!  sorry, can't grow em here. yet)
Bottom shelf Herdez salsa verde.

Sauerkraut

What?  Sauerkraut land is on the other side of the world from taco land?  How do you think the accordian got into mariachi music?

Anyway, if you find yourself with an excess of cabbage or hot dogs without toppings, here's a summary of how to make kraut.  Courtesty of Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz.  http://www.wildfermentation.com/


If you've never fermented anything, kraut is the gateway ferment.  Easy. Tasty.  Experiment with this and when/if the pickling cucumbers arrive you'll be ready for your own authentic fermented garlic dill pickles.


5lbs fresh cabbage
~3 Tablespoons salt
A few caraway seeds celery seeds, optional

Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like it.  Place cabbage in a large bowl as you chop it.  Sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go.  The salt pulls water out of the cabbage, and makes the brine which the cabbage will ferment in without rotting.  The salt also keeps the cabbage crunchy by inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it.  Mix ingredients together (like a few caraway/celery seeds) and pack into a crock.  Pack just a bit into the crock and tamp it down hard using your fists or other sturdy kitchen implement.  This helps force water out of the cabbage.  Keep filling and tamping.  Cover kraut with a plate or some other lid that fists snugly inside the crock.  Place a clean weight (such as a glass jug filled with water) on the plate.  This weight is to force water out of the cabbage then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine.  Cover the whole thing with a cloth to keep dust and flies out.  Press down on the weight to add pressure to the cabbage and help force water out of it.  Press the weight down every few hours, or as often as you think of it until the brine rises above the plate.  This can take up to 24 hours.  If the brine does not raise above the plate in 24 hours, add salt water (1 Tablespoon to 1 Cup water) until the brine is above the plate.

Leave the crock to ferment on your counter at room temperature.  Check the kraut every day or two and press down the weight to remove air bubble that form during fermentation.  Make sure the kraut stays covered with brine.  Taste it every few days.  When you like the taste, put it in the fridge to slow the fermentation process.  (generally about a week or two)

Apply generously to hot dog or sausage.

Fermentation has some really cool science.  I heartily recommend getting Wild Fermentation if this sounds like a fun food project and you want to learn more.