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I need to let off a little steam

As if things in the small town that I am close too weren't bad enough, Wal-mart has been allowed to buy 200 acres of farm land, just so people in the town no longer have to drive 20 minutes out of their way. It is a sad day indeed for the small business man. Tomorrow I will be going into town and spending some of my money in the locally own stores. I need more knick knacks and movies, while I am at it, I think a take out order of home made burgers from the small dinner are in order.

And why did I say "as if things weren't bad enough". Monsanto has a research facility here. You can read about Monsanto and the evil they wish to release into the world here; Ban Terminator.

~sigh~ I really wish people would understand what they are allowing into their lives.

1 egg 2 egg, Brown egg Green Egg

Yesterday I found my first banny egg. It would be the smaller of the three pictured above. The one laying, is the same one that is sitting {the reason I bought bannies in the first place} She's a Red Cochin. {she reminds me of mother hen in the loony tunes programs}

It seems it might be a little hard to tell, but the egg on the far right is not white, it's a light green. I was very surprised when I found the first one. I have had nothing but brown layers. When I found the green egg, I came running out of the coop to find my husband, I thought maybe a wild bird had laid with the hens. Turns out that the hen I was calling Prairie {because she looks a lot like a prairie hen} was an Araucana. {looks nothing like the picture in the link} We have talked about getting more of these Easter egg layers, and selling them. But we have "talked" about many things.

I really do enjoy my chickens. The standard rooster I could do without. I love the fresh eggs, and the unique flavor that comes with them.

Speaking of eggs and flavor, I just had an article about Deviled Eggs published.

The Miracle of Birth, on my couch!

I know that I normally don't post here more than once a day, but....

Our Cat, Bobby, just gave birth to 3 kittens on my couch. Not just my couch but on my 2 year old while he was napping! I was in the kitchen doing dishes when I heard my son screaming in terror. I ran back only to find him standing next to the couch holding a wet black and white kitten.

My 2 year old's hand, petting the newborn

Bobby and 2 of her little ones

Preserving Food by Freezing.

pok choi

Over the last few days I have been chopping up more Pok Choi than I think I can use. I originally planted 3 seedlings of the Pok Choi, only two survived the 105f {40c}temperatures we have been having. For me, that's fine. I was successful. These plants are huge and take time to store. I filled a laundry basket with what I harvest. {my bushel basket has potatoes in it right now}

Pok Choi will go limp rather quickly, but it is still ok to use. Slice them up and blanch them for 2 minutes, run cold water over them to stop the cooking process, then dry them with a towel. Place a freezer sheet {or in my case wax paper} into your freezer. Scatter the slices on top and allow to freeze for at least 30 minutes before placing them in storage bags. {Spring roll recipe}
Most veggies can be stored in this way. Cabbage is best, when shredded first, while Brussel Sprouts, you leave whole. Most fruits will need a syrup before freezing. I try not to freeze most of my food items because I have yet to acquire a deep freeze.

I was asked about how do you make jerky. It has been years since I have done that one, and I cheated. I do not care for the taste of wild game {to answer your question alrescate, I don't hunt} and someone gave me a lot of deer meat for Christmas one year. I used a pre-made mix like this one,

Maybe one of my fellow Homesteading Webbloggers will be around to tell you how it's done.

I have been canning like a mad woman the past couple of days. I made 5 pints and 2 quarts {2 liters} of the Phelan Clan Irish Stew. If you like cabbage, you'll like this recipe.It does taste better than it looks.

More on the food dehydrator

My food dehydrator died last night. I was in the middle of drying spinach so that I could make fettuccini Florentine. Now I must attempt something I have yet to do, oven drying. I fear I will burn something. But as they say "nothing ventured nothing gained."

As for various recipes for the food dehydrator, I am the type of person that doesn't like to give out recipes unless I have tried them, fixed them, and repeated the end result with success twice. {I have been told I get that from my father} All the recipes that I have, do need to be tweaked in some manner, to reach my ideal of perfection. {Did I mention I am a perfectionist?} If you ask me for a recipe and I don't get back to you immediately, that means that I have yet to make something, and I am busy fixing it.

Various things to put in your dehydrator.

Tomatoes, sliced thinly and very dry, crush and add into your favorite noodle recipe.

Garlic, diced and very dried, crushed can be added with sage and rosemary to your favorite noodle recipe. Place into a container and keep as garlic powder and add to any of your favorite meals.

Onions, very dry and crushed can be added to anything that you like the hint of onion with. Uncrushed you can add the slices to any of your soups. Simmering them will re-hydrate.

Pok Choi, sliced and dried can be used as a replacement for celery in any soup, crushed into a powder it can be used to season your favorite chinese recipes. {Spring Roll recipe}

Just about any veggie and fruit can be dehydrated. The only fruit I have done so far is apricots, with those I made a Three-fruits Compote {If I give you a link to a recipe, it is a recipe written by me, off site yes, but by me all the same} Once I have a new dehydrator I will be trying some watermelon leather. I will post the results on that later.

Please feel free to ask any questions, I can make things seem harder or more dramatic than they truly are.

Preserving food by drying

In my previous entry, I talked about dehydrating my onions. I can't stand to waste my hard earned veggies, so before they can go bad, I will place them in a dehydrator and store them in a recycled mayo jar, until there comes a time that I can turn them into something else. Dehydrated onions can be used to make onion powder or thrown into your favorite soup recipes.

Besides my onions, I dehydrated tomatoes and sweet peppers. My orchard hasn't began to come in yet, but fruits will be on my list later. With fruits you can make fruit leather {fruit roll-ups} I thought about that while making strawberry jam one day.

For drying my herbs, I place them in a paper bag {something that I can reuse} and hang them up outside. As long as the threat of rain is non existent, I can keep the bagged herbs outside, where air can circulate until they are fully dried. I also store these in recycled glass jars.

Sun drying, I have attempted this and have yet to be successful. I tried it with my tomatoes, placing them on a try and covering them with cheese cloth to keep bugs and animals off of them. I brought the trays in a night to keep the tomatoes from re-hydrating, yet I still ended up with mold. Maybe it is too humid here. I will try again this year.

I was asked what does one do with beets. Beets? I have never really cared for them. Our second year at gardening, my husband accidently picked up a packet of beet seeds. He claims he thought they were radishes {I know he can read} We planted them any way, and got back more than enough for our needs. {As the confused husband is the only one that eats them} But for those of you that end up getting lots of beets and have no more ideas as to what to do with them here is a few recipes.

Beet Roulade

Borscht

Pasta and Beet salad

edited; 1/28/07 The beet recipe links are dead, if you want the recipes, please ask for them.


removed amazon link, I am no longer using them.

Storing onions part II

A Homesteading Neophyte: Braiding and storing onions {with pictures!}


I thought it fitting to go back and talk more about onion storage. It seems that a few people have been looking around here just for that information.

Different onions store better than others, or so I have discovered. Sweet onions do not last as long as the strong ones. If you are braiding them and storing them in your kitchen {as I am doing} check on them daily for wetness. If they are wet, they are no good. What I have been doing is checking the sweet ones for softness. If they have become squishy but not yet damp, I will use it immediately, either by cooking it up to eat, canning it as French Onion Soup, or placing it in the dehydrator to make into powder later.

I am sure that the book was right about the low temperature that onions should be stored. Unfortunately I have nothing that cool {except a fridge} here. I have hung mine in my kitchen, out of direct sunlight and where air can move freely around them. My sweet onions will not last out the winter in this manner, but the strong onions should.

Sometimes on has to be creative and compromise to become successful at homesteading. Just about everything you read will need to be tweaked a bit to work for you.

Urban homesteading

I was informed that people that live in the city can not be self reliant {homestead}. That is far from the truth. There are many things that a city dweller can do. So I thought about this and decided that every Sunday I could make one entry about Urban homesteading. There are simple things that can be done inside of an apartment to help yourself become more self sufficient.

If Urban Homesteading is something that would interest you, please let me know. And I will start doing Sunday posts on the subject.