It’s been several months since we started the orange wine. Why orange, you ask? Because there was a bag of delicious, juicy Valencia oranges in the refrigerator that were on the verge of being past their prime – often, what’s available is a key factor in the decision about which wine to make. Continue reading “Craft Country Wine: Valencia Orange”
Author: Carrie
Keeping Christmas All The Year
I’m still listening to the same Christmas tunes I started listening to in November of last year. Why? Because when I change my iPod to contemporary music, I feel annoyed…even lilting classical selections aren’t working for me right now. The Christmas melodies I’ve enjoyed over the holidays make me feel happy, so why should I stop listening to them, just because the holidays are over?
These aren’t, for the most part, (more) contemporary Christmas songs…George Michael’s “Last Christmas” is in the mix, and so is “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses, but the bulk are the real classics, like Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby”, Burl Ives’s “A Holly Jolly Christmas”, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”, and Gene Autry’s “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”. These songs just evoke that holiday feeling – a feeling so pleasant that it’s a shame that we willfully let it fade after the first of the year.
Pastured Rabbits And Snow
It snowed here a few days ago. It’s fun until the snow lingers, like it has, due to the cold. Walking on it packs it down, and the sporadic sunshine melts it a bit, so it becomes icy…which means it’s really slippery, and no one wants to involuntarily ice skate while holding a basket full of eggs. You might think that the rabbits need to come inside with temperatures below freezing and snow on the ground, but they actually do just fine in cold temperatures, if you take specific measures to ensure their comfort.
First, proper protection from the wind and rain is important. When we saw that snow and very cold temperatures were predicted, we “winterized” the rabbits’ houses. Continue reading “Pastured Rabbits And Snow”
What’s Better Than Homemade Bread? (not much)
One of our favorite ferments is our recently-resurrected sourdough starter. It began as a dry powder, but with consistent feedings, has become a reliable producer of delicious sourdough loaves – no yeast needed!
Making a loaf starts with mixing the starter, which should be bubbly and sour-smelling, with water, salt and flour. The stand mixer does a marvelous job of creating the right elasticity, and once properly mixed, the dough is poured out onto a floured surface to be shaped into a loaf. After filling the loaf pan, the dough is covered and left to rise. With the cold temperatures, we find that letting it rise on a heating pad on the low setting really helps. Continue reading “What’s Better Than Homemade Bread? (not much)”
I’m The Livestock Guardian Animal
We live in an area that is rife with predators, and have shared stories of losses to owls, foxes, and hawks. We’ve had close calls with loose dogs, too. This is what seems to be the most challenging time of year for protecting our free ranging poultry, so we have to stay on our toes.
Since our property is largely rolling topography, we can only see part of it from indoors (plus an outbuilding partially obscures the view). We keep a couple of sets of binoculars handy to scan the trees for aerial predators, and make a mad dash outside as soon as a hawk is spotted. There have also been strange dogs on our property from time to time; our house dogs alert to the presence of the interlopers and nearly go through the window. Just opening a door has been enough to send the dogs running away. Continue reading “I’m The Livestock Guardian Animal”
Making Scrambled Egg In A Pocket
No, this is not a recipe; unfortunately, it’s what happens when you know you shouldn’t put a freshly-laid egg in your pocket (temporarily, because you forgot to bring the egg basket with you) and the egg meets its demise in the confines of your coat pocket.
It all began with six eggs the girls had laid in their nest boxes. I put them carefully in my pocket, even though I’d had an egg incident last year under similar circumstances. I knew I’d just be going right from the coop to the house, where the egg basket waited. I walked carefully back to the house and started transferring the eggs from the pocket to the egg basket. No eggs were fumbled, none hit the floor. Once finished, I hung my coat back up – it’s a heavy insulated duck cloth coat with a pair of leather work gloves in the pocket, so it bounced off the wall when I hung it on the peg. Continue reading “Making Scrambled Egg In A Pocket”