Turkey Eggs

My neighbours turkeys were laying eggs, so much so, they game me an 18-pack to use up. They were so wonderful I went back 3 times for more, and will continue to do so until they stop laying. Most people don't even know that turkeys lay consecutive eggs, let alone that theyre edible! Upon doing some research I found out that commercial turkeys are butchered long before they reach laying age. If a farmer would keep a turkey until it was laying, the eggs are significantly more expensive from a production standpoint. Turkeys take more space to keep and eat more food than chickens. But then turkey eggs are also 2x the size of chicken eggs, resulting in 50% more calories and 4x more cholesterol (slate.com). If you are worried about the higher calorie count, turkey eggs are absolutely wonderful in baking! The yolk is double the size of the white and the yolk is very stiff. Turkey eggs are also great for scrambled eggs and apparently the shells are great for using in an easter egg display. Today I can finally testify that turkey egg whites make a beautiful meringue - double the size (as shown in my pie below!). If you have the opportunity to get turkey eggs from a local farmer, do so without hesitation. They're completely interchangeable with chicken eggs (except I think theyre better).

Preparing for Spring

I don't think theres a person around that doesn't appreciate the signs of spring. The earthy smell as snow melts, listening to the eaves dripping, feeling the suns warm rays earlier every day! Well, those lovely signs of spring haven't happened yet, but that's ok for now because as soon as they do, the work begins. This year, starting seedlings indoors, incubating chicks and tapping trees for maple syrup all collide at the same time. I cant deny that Im looking forward to it though. In the last few weeks before the thaw starts, Ive got to finish the last of my sewing projects (curtains for the chicken coop, my spring jacket), my knitting projects (a pair of adult slippers, baby slippers and a couple more dishcloths), purchase some new pails for collecting sap, finish the trim work on the chicken coop and do the last of my garden planning - to name a few. My wish list for this year also includes a couple muskovi ducks on the pond and a pig with a pen - both of which will probably be put off till next year, seeing that my garden is priority this year. The seed order will be in any day and when the weather is warmer, my 2 cherry trees and my strawberry plants will be shipped as well. I have been priveledged to have a smorgasbord of exquisite meats in the past couple weeks, supplied by my farming neighbours, including 2 plump tame partridge, a buff Orpington rooster, and 2 pheasants! The partridge were once again oven roasted with bacon fat, garlic and rosemary. The rooster will be turned into honey garlic chicken pieces and the pheasants will be roasted with an orange glaze. We eat altogether too well! Enough of the blogging and on with the projects, spring will "sprung" before we know it.

Monday is a Sausage Day

Well my long awaited adventure of making sausages was finally accomplished today! Everything fell into place to make it possible: I got my KitchenAid meat grinder and sausage stuffer for Christmas, I finally got around to buying some sausage casings, our freezer had an excess of pork and venison roasts AND I had a day off. There was also an extra pair of hands that were willing to help out! So that made today sausage day. Yesterday I got my meat thawing and my casings soaking in the fridge. I thawed 13 lb. venison and 7lb pork (ratio of 1/3 pork to 2/3 venison). The meat was still partially frozen today, but that worked out fine because the meat grinder works better with half frozen meat. I got everything set up - then set to work. I cut my meat in 1/2" strips then fed them through the grinder on the coarse plate. I put the meat through a second time to get it well ground. My extra set of hands showed up at just the right time. We added our spices, which ended up being: 1/8c. salt, 1 1/2 tsp cayenne, 2 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. sage, 1 tsp. paprika, 1 tsp. mustard seed, 1 tsp. black pepper and 1 tsp. oregano. Mixing the spices into the meat is a chilly job (which is a good thing - you don't want your meat getting to room temp. while your working). Its recommended that you use 20% fat in sausages, but since I was using venison they were much leaner. Pure pork sausages would have plenty of fat. Getting the casing on the horn correctly is important, the first batch got double cased because the first end had overlapped under. Any youtube video gives a pretty accurate idea of how to use the sausage stuffer attachment. I picked up on it quickly, you just have to go at the right pace and make sure your sausage is even. We didn't have any trouble with the casings breaking. We made a long "rope" of sausage, then twisted off the links afterwards. Its important that the links are twisted good before cutting so your casings don't ride up. We simply bagged the sausages and froze them - keeping out enough for supper. This batch made about 32 sausages. They tasted great pan-fried, with enough zip in them but not too much. They are a dryer sausage, but they slice through with no crumbling. I would recommend making sausages to everyone! Its very satisfying to know exactly whats in them and exactly where they came from! Now if only the bbq wasn't buried in snow...

                                                                           And Voila!

Christmas Gift Idea: Knit Cotton Dishcloths

I decided that I would go with homemade Christmas gifts this year, because that's what Im in to, and why not? So many people are interested in acquiring homemade everything (it always gets me how some people don't put two and two together and fail to make the "everything" themselves... instead they sacrifice hard earned cash for the goods). So since homemade dishcloths are really popular right now that was what I decided I would make. So a couple of downers with cotton dishcloths, you cant spin your own yarn for it (seems that cotton is a mite scarce in my neck of the woods), AND cotton yarn seems more expensive. We're looking at $1.75 (Michaels) for one ball of 1.5 oz. yarn, which makes one dishcloth. Fortunately after some looking around I found a larger ball for $10 which would have saved me $4 if I would have got that one in the first place. So enough babbling and on to the pattern:

Get some knitting needles, I used 3.5 mm and that was just because I like a tighter weave for these, I find bigger needles give the dishcloths such a ratty look.

R1: Cast on 4 stitches
R2: Knit 4
R3: Knit 1, yarn over, knit 2, yarn over, knit one
R4: Knit the whole row
R5: Knit 2, yarn over, knit the row except before knitting the last 2 stitches, yarn over
R6: Knit the whole row
Continue the stitches from R5 and R6 until you have 53 stitches
Now start to narrow the dishcloth:
Knit 1, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, continue knitting row until 5 stitches remain, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit two together and knit one.
Next row, knit the whole row.
Continue in this pattern until you have it narrowed down to four stitches. Cast off. There should be just enough yarn to finish the dishcloth.

* The yarn over throughout the pattern gives in the border along the outside. Please note that there is a hardly noticeable front and back side.

And here is the final product!

Recipes: Something local & Something imported

After the harvest is over, after all those hours of preparing and storing the bounty of the earth, its so nice to pull out a package of fresh fruits for a taste of summer. So, this morning I made a delicious batch of local raspberry and local blueberry muffins:

Local Berry Muffins

Mix
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. white sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder

In a 1 cup measure put
1/3 c. oil
1 egg
top up the cup with milk

Combine and fold in 1c. local berries.
Bake at 400oF for 20 minutes.


Then because sometimes I get a hankering for chocolate and that happens to be something not so local, I made some pinwheel shortbread cookies, using cocoa powder from the US and vanilla from the Dominican.

Pinwheel Shortbread Cookies

Mix:
1 c. butter
1 c. icing sugar
2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. water*

Remove half the dough and roll between 2 sheets of wax paper.

With remaining dough, add 1/4 c. cocoa and 1 tbsp. water* and combine.


*If dough does not resemble play dough/is too dry to work, add more water 1 tbsp. at a time.

Roll this dough between 2 sheets of wax paper as well, then layer onto 1st dough. Roll the two layers into a log, wrap in wax paper and quick chill in the freezer for about 15 minutes, or until solid. Unroll from wax paper and slice cookies off log at about 1/4" thickness. Place on pans and bake at 300oF for 15 minutes or until bottoms are golden.

The Chicken Song

Upon planning for our chickens next spring, I thought of a camp song we used to sing. I always forget the lyrics so here they are so I never forget them again;

Roofus Rustus Johnson Brown

Whatcha gonna do when the rent comes 'round

Whatcha gonna do and whatcha gonna say

When you can't pay the rent 'till the end of May

You know, and I know and everyone else knows

You can't pay the rent if you ain't got the dough

Roofus Rustus Johnson Brown

Whatcha gonna do when the rent comes 'round

C - that's the way it begins,

And H - that's the next letter in,

And I - that's the middle of the word,

And C - that you've already heard,

And K - that's the name of a hen,

And E - now we're nearing the N

C-H-I-C-K-E-N

That's the way you spell Chicken!

Can't "Flew the Coop" Now!

Another fall project that we've been working on is the construction of our chicken coop. We started last week by building the base (10'x12') with 2x6 lumber and chip board. We set the base up about a foot high on cement blocks. We also insulated the floor using Styrofoam insulation. We made the frames next. We made space for 4 windows, 2 in the east and 2 in the west. We made an insulated door that's 2'x6'. We got the chipboard hung on the outside and tonight we got the "rafters" in place and the chip board sheets in place on the roof. We still have to vapour barrier and insulate the roof as well as the walls which in hindsight could have been done in a different order... but, since the weather is getting colder and snow could be expected pretty well anytime, the roof needed to get on. We have to cut out the smaller door for the chickens, build the run, shingle the roof and trim and paint the building, but the main structure is up, which is the most important part. According to one estimation, a chicken needs 4 square feet, so with 120 square feet we could keep up to 30 birds! That would work out to a lot of eggs. We also have the run to build which will give them more space yet. Unfortunately the birds wont be free range, because of high traffic on the roads, but they will get rotation around the yard, and freedom in the garden in the fall. If only I had them this year, then I would have to manure my garden!

A Partridge in a ... Casserole Dish

The other day we went partridge hunting. We were only out for about 15 minutes and we got one! My husband showed me how to clean it off, its really simple. You split the bird and the breast comes off really easily. That's the only part that's really worth eating. When we got it home I washed it off really well. There were some feathers that were still attached and you've got to watch under the wings for feathers. I decided that Id like to try roasting it, so I braised it in bacon fat then roasted it at 325oF for about 35 min. I put the bacon fat in the casserole dish with the bird and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and basil. Every 10 minutes or so, Id take it out of the oven and baste it with the bacon fat. When it was done it smelled so good I could hardly wait for supper! At supper we chewed off every precious bit of meat from those little bones. It tasted a lot like chicken, but better! And did I mention that there isn't a drop of natural fat on partridge? So partridge hunting definitely isn't over for this year, we will go again!

Wonderful Wednesday

Well, no new projects in the last couple of days. I was out to the farm again this morning at 7:00am to milk some cows. I took home another 3 litres of milk and did the routine milk/buttermilk/butter thing (which after 3 times of doing can be justified as routine). It was a beautiful morning and again I felt displaced into a story book listening to the cows mooing and roosters crowing with the frosty air hovering around. Yeah, that frosty air... Even though I had mitts on this morning my hands were cold, and poor old bossy didn't like that. She kept moving around and trying the hide her teats. But the milking got done, nevertheless. I did some more double digging when I got home. My plot is now 12 feet by 12 feet. Officially 1/4 of the way done. So is my back, haha. I sorted my tomatoes and when I have the chance Im either going to pressure cook them or make some garlicky tomato sauce and try canning it. With thanksgiving coming up I have a couple of pies to make. Its hard to believe that winter will soon be here. Trying to get everything done before winter is like swimming against the tide!

That Classic Rag Rug

Last night I had a brainwave to try making a rag rug. I grabbed three old mens t-shirts, cut the shirt up the side seam and the armholes/neck holes. Then I cut a 2 inch width strip around the perimeter of the shirt, making one really long strip. Then after doing that with three shirts, I braided the shirts into a long rope. The braiding was a bit tricky, because the three sections kept twisting together. I eventually found what worked best. After each cross over, I moved the pile of that shirt so that the three sections didn't get tangled. I also put the start of the braid under a chair leg to hold it from flipping around. I used two black t-shirts and a white t-shirt and I came out with approx. a 15 inch wide "rug." I tied a knot at the end of the braid so that I can continue on as soon as I get more old t-shirts. What a great way to use up the rag bag!