Adventures in Local Eating - Chicken

It's been 6 months since I watched Food Inc. and decided to make some big changes in the way we approached food and eating. I've found a wonderful local beef and pork raised on pasture. I've had a lot of fun making our own snacks and a lot of our own bread and rolls. Local fruits and veggies are pretty easy thanks to the huge farmer's market. The one missing food that I was having a hard time finding is locally raised pastured chicken.

I recently found a farm that raises their chickens much like Polyface farm. The family was very nice and I was happy with what I saw at their farm. I was excited to take the chickens home and enjoy the first chicken dinner that we had had in a while. It's gorgeous, right? Those are local potatoes in the bottom (stored from last year by the grower).

It looks beautiful and it tasted good (not over the top wonderful, but good)... but there was one problem. This farm raises "Freedom Rangers" instead of the widely used Cornish X broilers. A lot of homesteaders are starting to raise Freedom Rangers because they feel they're able to forage better since they don't grow as large and grow slower. The Cornish X's are a fast growing breed that we're used to seeing on the grocery store shelves. Some people will say that these birds grow so fast that they can't forage well but my sister's Cornish X's last year did very well free-ranging.

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So, I thawed my 5 pound Freedom Ranger and noticed immediately how different it looked from every other chicken I've cooked. The breast meat was about half the size and the legs looked scrawny. After it cooked and I was dividing it up onto our plates, I was disappointed to realize that this chicken would hardly make two meals for our family of four (the kids only eat half of a portion.. if that). I was planning to get 3 meals from this chicken like I do with most chickens I roast. Getting only 2 small meals from this one bird meant that each meal was going to be more expensive then our budget will allow.

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5 pound Freedom Ranger at $3.10 a pound = $15.50 / 2 meals = $7.75 worth of chicken per meal.

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Our meals usually cost less then $7 total for the entire meal. Spending almost $8 for just the protein portion of our meal isn't practical for us.

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So, I'll ration the 2 chickens I have left in the freezer carefully. My sister is very generously raising 25 broiler chickens for me this summer. I'll be helping her to process them in August when I go visit her in Maryland. We figured that with the cost of the chicks plus the cost of feed (they'll be on pasture too) the end cost will be about $6 per bird. Knowing that these chickens will be large enough for 3 meals makes them an incredible bargain! Thanks Katie!

Virtual Garden Tour

After having a hot, dry start to spring, the garden is really taking off thanks to some much needed rain the past two weeks.





I thought it would be neat to take a video of the garden instead of posting 20 pictures of each thing.



So, here is the main garden....




And here is the back garden..




I wish the video quality was a little better so you could really see the plants but this gives you a general idea.



This weekend I'm planning to finish the back garden (plant hot weather plants, stake tomatoes, back fill potatoes) and to mulch both gardens.

Strawberry Season

A week and a half ago, I bought 6 gallons of strawberries at the farmer's market at $8 a gallon (a pretty good price for around here). I'm glad I bought them when I did because it seems strawberry season is ending a bit early this year due to the early heat and lack of rain we had this spring.

I made 3 batches of freezer jam with about 2 of the gallons.



With most of the rest of the strawberries, I pureed them in the food processor and bagged them in 2 cup amounts and froze them. The strawberry puree will be used to make mixed berry jams when other berries are in season or to add to applesauce in the fall. I froze 10 two cup bags.



I saved one gallon of strawberries for us to enjoy fresh. And enjoy we did! This is Charlotte's strawberry shortcake. She told me exactly how she wanted it assembled and was very specific about only 1 strawberry on top.

I think she approves.

Chris's Tweed Cap

My brother, Chris, recently had his 24th birthday and I really wanted to knit something for him. It's tough to knit something for a 24 year old in the spring time. I settled on a lightweight beanie in colors that I thought would look nice with his auburn hair.
The pattern I used was the 1-2-3-5 Beanie from Ravelry. The pattern was easier to remember after a few rounds. The yarn is Silky Tweed in colors 5, 6, and 8. It's a DK weight yarn made of silk, cotton, merino extra fine wool, and viscose. It's soft but not too slippery and was nice to knit with. I love the flecks of color mixed it to create the tweed.

I didn't get the decreases quite right and found the directions a bit confusing but in the end, I don't think my mistakes are very noticeable. I'll just pretend I meant to do it that way.



My brother sent me a picture of himself wearing it. He loves it and the cookies I mailed with it.
Happy Birthday, Chris!

Salem Lake

On Saturday, Jon had the great idea to take a walk at Salem Lake. We got there around 7:30 (we're early risers).

It is one of the few large bodies of water in this area. Well, not large... it's small by most standards but it's big enough to fish in (can you see the boat in the picture below?).

There is a path/road that goes all the way around the lake. It's about 7 miles long. We did not walk around the whole path. We went in a mile and then turned around and walked back.

Do you see the blue heron in the center of the picture? He grabbed a fish and flew away.

The lake is so beautiful that it started reminding me of Kerr Lake where we have camped almost each summer since I was born. As we walked, Jon and I planned our our camping trip this year... the food we'd bring... the campfires... the swimming... Is it July yet?

The kids had fun running up ahead of us on the road. They got good at moving out of the way if a jogger or bike rider headed their way.





Then we came to my new home. Okay, it's just a creek but I think I want to live there. Do you think they'd let me?

The gently rushing water over those huge rocks sounded so peaceful. (Is gently rushing an oxymoron?)

There is a huge rock surface to stand on so you can get really close to the water.

Can you see our little cabin in the woods? No? I guess I was dreaming again.

If the kids hadn't gotten antsy, I think I could have stayed there all day.

What do you say, Mom? Want to go with me sometime and we can bring our knitting/hand quilting and some camp chairs? I'll pack the lunch and we can spend a day by "Becky's Babbling Brook". (I just named that body of water. I figured if I was going to live there, it needed a name)

It was a great morning.

Handprint Lilies

For Mother's Day, I did a project with my kids and daycare kids that is simple and adorable. I traced their hand onto cardstock and used that stencil to trace their handprints onto construction paper. While I cut out all the hands, they were painting their toilet paper roll "vases". I wrapped the base of the handprint around a pipe cleaner and stapled it into place.
I cut a green leaf and glued it on the stem. I rolled the finger tips back a bit by rolling it around a pencil.

I loved looking at the different sized hand prints from Charlotte's 5 year old hands down to our little friend who is 10 months old.

Whole Wheat Bread Version 2.0

My old stand by Whole Wheat bread recipe is still great and I'll still use it from time to time but this recipe is my new favorite.



This recipe, which I'll call Whole Wheat Bread Version 2.0, is more tender and holds it's moisture better. It also rises higher but I haven't figured out why.
It also makes killer cinnamon raisin bread but I'll get to that in a minute. First, the recipe...



Whole Wheat Bread Version 2.0



2 1/4 cups warm water
1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp. salt
2 packages of active dry or instant yeast
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 1/2 Tbsp. Vital Wheat Gluten (opt. but really helps it rise)
5 1/4 - 5 3/4 cups of flour (I usually use 1 cup of All Purpose and the rest White Whole Wheat but use whatever combination you like using Whole Wheat flour and All Purpose)

I use mostly the same technique that I detailed in my original Whole Wheat Bread recipe here.

Here's an abbreviated version though just in case you don't want to click on the link.

In a large bowl, mix together the ingredients one at a time, in the order they're written, stirring well as you go. Mix by hand when it gets too hard to stir. Dump dough out onto floured work surface and knead until you're too tired or bored to knead anymore (7-10 minutes for me). Put dough into an oiled bowl and cover with a damp kitchen towel and set it in a warm place to rise. When it's doubled, punch down the dough and divide it in half. Knead each half a couple times and then form into loaves. Place each half into a greased loaf pan and set in a warm place, covered lightly with a damp kitchen towel or plastic wrap that has been sprayed with Pam.

(Above: I doubled the recipe and made 2 cinnamon raisin loaves and 2 plain)

(This differs from the technique I used previously because I'm not letting them rise in the oven)When the loaves have risen to about 3/4" above the edge of the pan, preheat the oven to 350*. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the bottoms of the loaves are medium brown. Turn the loaves out of the pans and place them on racks to cool.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Start with the same dough as above but when it's time to shape it into loaves after the first rising, roll the dough out into a large rectangle. I roll it as thin as I can because I like a lot of swirls in my bread. I keep the shorter side the same length as my pan so it will fit after I roll it (9").

After it's rolled out, sprinkle the dough heavily with cinnamon (no sugar, just cinnamon). Then sprinkle heavily with raisins. Roll the dough into a log and place it into a greased loaf pan, let rise, and bake as directed above.
This bread made the most delicious toast. We finished it in record time. Well, all except for Charlotte who didn't want to try it because it had "chunks"....and Evan who just wanted to pick the raisins out of his and eat them. Maybe I should have Evan pick the raisins out of Charlotte's and then maybe she'd eat it. Hmmm.....

Incase some of you haven't visited the Wild Yeast blog before, check out their yeast spotting page. I've found lots of great recipes and ideas there!

Flower Shaped Felted Bowl

This year I've had fun knitting my family presents for their birthday. The added challenge is that my sister, mom, dad, and brother all have birthdays in the spring.... no sweaters, scarves, mittens, etc. Luckily a hobby of mine is searching Ravelry so the challenge was a fun one.


For my mom's birthday I knit her two flower shaped bowls and felted them (washing wool in a way that purposely shrinks it).
I used this pattern from Ravelry and I used worsted weight wool leftover from other projects. They knitted up looking like floppy hats but when you felt the wool it tightens up to form a bowl that you can shape as it dries.

I had some issues with this blue bowl. The outer edge was done with Jacob wool that I picked up at a local fiber festival. It didn't felt like the other wool.

See how you can see the stitches when you stretch the fabric? You shouldn't be able to see that. I washed it a second time trying to felt it further but it still looked like this. So this flower will have droopy petals.

They were fun and pretty easy to knit up (though I really can't stand K3tog!). I think I'll make myself a few of them one day.

My Hairy Siblings Come For A Visit

My mom and Mark got the chance to get away for the weekend two weeks ago so my three hairy siblings came for a visit. Oscar spent the weekend cowering and barking defensively even though Mom's dogs never gave him a second thought. I guess if I were 5 pounds, I'd be nervous too. Fern (black and white) and Phoebe (auburn) are greyhounds rescued many years ago after they retired from racing. They are so sweet and gentle. They ran a few laps around the yard then slept the rest of the time.

Mia is a jack russell/poodle mix. She's getting ready to bump that ball with her nose and then go chase it. The kids loved having her around because she's always ready to play fetch and run around the yard with them. She reminds me a lot of our old dog Penny when she was younger.

They all climbed up with me on the big couch while I knitted during naptime.

They're welcome anytime, Mom.

Mother's Day - My Weekend Part III Cake Edition

'nough said....

RIP Mother's Day Bowl

You were a good little bowl. I really liked having you in the kitchen. We only got to spend six days with you. I'm sorry I killed you by dropping a soy sauce bottle out of the cabinet and onto your head. I'm sorry that my first reaction was "thank goodness the soy sauce bottle didn't shatter when it then bounced off of the kids step stool and then onto the floor!"

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After the appropriate period of mourning I'll be visiting Back Porch Pottery again to find a new salt bowl.

What is the appropriate period of mourning for a handmade pottery bowl that you picked out for yourself at the farmer's market?

Mother's Day - My Weekend Part II

I've come to the realization that I take way too many pictures. This isn't really a problem until I try to decide which ones to upload into a post. I tend to want to share all of them. So, I apologize in advance for the ridiculous amount of photos contained in this (and probably every) post.

After we left the Farmer's Market last Saturday, we drove a bit further down the road to check out J&S Farm's new store. I mentioned two months ago that they were struggling but now they have their own store instead of a small retail space at the farmer's market! Email me if you want their address or contact information.

It's a small little store but they have it packed with great food. So much of it is local (meats, dairy products, much of the produce).
A big cooler case just for dairy and eggs. I wish I could afford to buy our milk here.

Here's the coolers filled with organic produce.... some local... some not.

Lena of Swedebread bakes for J&S and they have space to sit and have a snack before or after you shop. I brought these meringues and biscotti back to the van and we all finished them in record time. Yum!

I also bought 2 quarts of local lard from pastured pork. It was $3.75 a quart and well worth it. I'm not sure I'll go to the trouble to make my own anymore.

I also bought 3 little containers of cinnamon.

We all went home for lunch and nap time then we were on to our next adventure.

Our town had their annual Spring Folly Festival.

It's held in the little historic downtown area and the houses are gorgeous!

Jon wanted to take the kids in the Midway (aka: loud, hot, crowded, overpriced kiddie rides... can you tell I'm not a fan?) I've never liked carnival rides or the hustle and bustle around them. Since Evan seemed nervous about the thought of riding rides and the rides were $3-$5 a piece, I took Evan to the playground nearby and Jon took Charlotte on a ride.

Evan discovered the spiral slide and spent 20 minutes going down, climbing back up, sliding down, repeat about 100 times. I love free fun :)

The funhouse that Jon and Charlotte first went on was loud and not fun like they expected so Charlotte went on the little train and had a great time.

Then she got her face painted. Evan didn't want to have his face painted.

She left her butterfly on until the next evening. She loved the glitter.

Then there were fire trucks. Oh boy! Evan was in heaven! The fire fighter put Evan in the drivers seat and Evan started pulling on levers and pointing to buttons saying, "What that do? What this do?" The fire fighter tried to explain each thing as well as he could to an almost 3 year old.
Charlotte didn't want to take a turn this time.

Then they got to climb onto a fire truck from the 1920's. Charlotte loved this one and couldn't wait for her turn to "drive".

It was a wonderful, exhausting day. We stopped at Panera Bread on the way home for dinner which is a very rare treat for us. We all slept very well that night.