It doesn't rain but it pours... I have years of no chicks when I wish for them and then, there are years like this. I want to down size but nay... Mother Nature and the Great Hen have other ideas. However, they are so cute, who am I to complain?
I know it's bad manners to just have these long, quiet periods but it is what it is, I guess. There is a crispness in the air I would not have expected for another month but there it is. As someone with who's mostly North Atlantic, in her recent ancestry, I certainly don't mind, though it's doing a number on the warm weather crops. I see green tomato something in my future. The squirrels are crazy busy too, dropping pinecones from the heights and running around chattering. But it's still the time of year when I can eat a bowl of fresh peaches for breakfast (so does not make me sad). Which reminds me, I need to grab more peaches after work. Canning, canning, canning. This weekend I need to deal with freezers and the cold room situation. In other news, my hens are thinking this is a good time to hatch out. I know what you're probably thinking - it was too hot before and now they're comfortable but you know, it didn't get as hot as that. No, I can't figure them out but right now I have teen aged chicks, brand new, hatched on the weekend chicks, and two mamas on a nest. In goat news, Athena kidded out at the end of May. As usual she had three (doe, buck, buck), got them out like a trooper, cleaned off and cared for, and well mothered. Ironically, I decided that we were taking a break from breeding. There are tonnes of wonderful things about breeding, the obvious: babies. But also there's a deeper excitement of new life, the potential for milk (I say potential because ever year I start off well intentioned but fade), and just the fun of watching the sillies grow up. The bad isn't all that bad either. Ok, it's bad in the moment but it's part of life and most definitely part of farming. You can't get away from it in farming, no matter how hard you try. So, why go on hiatus? I just can't part with the babies! I love them way too much. We neutered all of the boys so I'd have to pressure to move any of them on. I love this year's doeling, Hekkla, and have decided that if someone needs a doeling, I will sell her but I hate that part. So, for right now, we're taking a break. I also have a tonne of personal life stuff going on so, we'll take the next season off and see what comes. So, there's your update. See you sooner, than a couple of months, I hope!
Stock. Yep, so glamorous. So this is the result of a chicken carcass and a turkey carcass cooked for two days on the woodstove until this was all that was left. Carcasses + water and that's it. None of the "add carrots and onions" and so on. Just water and carcasses. But when you add the carcasses DO NOT fail to add the skin and fat. First of all, those are not unhealthy fats but even you're adverse to the them, they're where a huge amount of the flavour hangs out. So, cook the stock with all of the bits intact and then toss them after. And you can skim off the fat once it' cooled but again, that's going to impact the flavour. Of course, this not only made for the most delicious, "just add a pinch of salt and you're good to go" stock but also left us with chicken stew and dumplings, many meals for the faithful farm dog, and some love bone ash that's great for the garden and greenhouse. Just be sure you have an epically large stock pot for the cooking. It makes a huge difference to have lots of water and a long, slow simmer. |
AuthorI'm a 40-something writer and smallholder living in the wilds of BC with my family, our small herd of Nigerian Dwarf Goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats. Archives
August 2017
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