The Great Chicken Adventure: Week 19

Surprise! Surprise! After expectantly checking nest boxes every day for the last several weeks, I am SO happy to finally have collected my first eggs! Only two hens must be laying, because Ive gotten one egg per day plus two days Ive collected two. They are pullet eggs, meaning that they are smaller than the egg of a fully mature hen. I think its the dark brown hens that are laying, since that's who Ive caught sitting in the nest box. She lays her egg in the afternoon, as I haven't collected it before two in the afternoon. So now that some are laying, Im switching their feed to the laying mash, as soon as my scratch feed is done. Im very happy that they are laying in the nest boxes - sometimes birds wont use the boxes, and if the eggs are on the floor theyre more likely to pick up the habit of eating their eggs. Recently the roosters have been fighting more - the longer I put off butchering, the harder it is to decide who will have to go. They'll be well fed when their time rolls around though!

Produce Overload: Canning Applesauce

I made the mistake of not spraying my mellow apple-producing Melba tree this year, and the apples are unnecessarily wormy. The whole apple isn't wrecked, you just have to cut out the worm trails. So Monday I picked up a 5 gal. pail of windfalls, then again on Wednesday, then again on Friday and then again today! So Ive been chopping (with the wonderful help of my Ma) and making applesauce! Im onto 8 litres and 12 pints - and not slowing down.

Heres what I do:

Quarter your apples, leaving skins and cores on  
Put in a large pot and fill with water until about 2 inches from the top of the apples
Cook the apples until they are completely soft
Pour the apples and their juice through a food mill
Put applesauce into sterilized jars
Process jars in pressure cooker for 5 minutes at 5 pounds of pressure (see "Produce Overload: Canning Beans" for more pressure cooker instructions).

And enjoy - all winter long, without taking up all your freezer space!

*Don't worry, I didn't forget the step "add sugar" - because you don't. You can put your sugar on when its in your bowl!*

Produce Overload: Canning Beans

Sometimes smells tie you back to a memory - and the smell of canning beans reminds me of Grandmas kitchen in the summer. She taught me how to can beans, and after the way my plants are producing this year - Im glad Ive got something worthwhile to do with them all! After I finished tonights batch my grand total is 45L of canned beans! (My secret goal is to have a jar per week - 52). I don't think my bean plants will let me down either, theyre non-stop! If you buy from Veseys be sure to order Provider green beans and Gold Rush yellow beans, their names give them away. So first step to canning beans, don't waste your time with a boiling water bath - go buy a pressure cooker (I got my heavy duty second hand brute at an auction, for less than half the price of a new one, and its worth its weight in gold). Second step, pick your beans, snip them to inch lengths and wash them twice in cold water. Sterilize as many jars as you have beans (4 c beans per litre jar).
So my process for the pressure cooker is to get the water boiling in the pressure cooker, with the lid askew. I heat 7 litres of water to boiling in another pot. At the same time as I stick my jars in the oven to sterilize, I get my snap lids heating in some water too. Then when everything is boiling, I get my jars out, pack them, leaving an inch at the top of each jar. Put one tsp. of coarse salt in each jar. Fill the jar with boiling water and put the lid and ring on. Don't crank the ring on, just until it pulls firm when you twist it on. Then place them on your rack in your pressure cooker, get the lid on and fastened. Make sure you have your petcock open to vent the steam. When steam is pouring out, shut the petcock, let the pressure rise to 10 pounds and then hold it there for 25 minutes. Make sure to let the pressure decrease to 0 before opening the petcock. When no steam comes out, open up the pressure cooker, take your jars out and let them cool on a rack. And for goodness sakes, use oven mitts, those jars come out stinkin hot!
If you haven't used a pressure cooker before, watch a youtube video or something first, and don't walk away from it while the heat is on. And they usually come with manuals - which are good to read too.
Ive never had a jar of beans not seal for me before - when done in the pressure cooker. The flavor is far better too than frozen or store canned (blah!).

Produce Overload: Bread and Butter Pickles

Bread and butter pickles have to be one of my favorites! Now that the cucumbers are ripening (almost too fast to keep up with) - its time to do up some pickles. Here is the recipe I use, try it and enjoy. Im sure you wont be disappointed!


Bread & Butter Pickles

Scrub 30 medium size cucumbers and slice into thin rings.
Slice 3 medium sized onions in thin rings.
Soak the vegetables in ice cold salt water for 3 hours.
Drain.
Combine:
5 c. vinegar
5 c. sugar
2 tbsp. mustard seed
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. whole cloves
Bring to a boil.

Add vegetables and return to boiling point - but don't boil.
Pack into sterilized jars and seal.

Leave them on your shelf for at least a week before enjoying. They keep a good two years.

The Great Chicken Adventure: Week 17

Another couple of weeks have quickly gone by. The chickens are as full grown as they'll get I suppose. I was looking though my blog posts the other day - starting at week one, and its incredible to look back at how much the chickens have grown. Theyre on 100% chicken scratch now - which is a five grain mix. I haven't gotten any eggs yet, but maybe they'll start around the 5 month mark (3 more weeks to go?). Their diet has been heavily supplemented with fruit and veggie scraps from the garden - mainly apples and zuchinis right now. I cleaned the chicken coop out yesterday, and replaced the old bedding with fresh bedding, I just used a mix of pine shavings and hay. The old bedding was incredibly dry - so unlike cleaning a cows stall! All the chickens went nuts exploring their clean house. Now I shouldnt have to clean the coop again until late fall. Ever since we butchered Bernie, Racing Strip has stepped into the place of dictator. He does a good job too - bossing everyone and scaring the living daylights out of my poor hens. He's next to go. Im torn though, he's developing such beautiful colours its a shame to kill him. Now that his tail feathers are green, he's growing in BLUE wing feathers!! What type of chicken is he?! Well even if he ends up in the freezer - Ill save his feathers. Maybe Ill make a collage with them... Well here's some pictures!

 Chicken version of "The Wall" by Johnny Cash