Now the girls are free to move about the yard and check in on Mike while he works in the office. "Whatya doin in there and where's the corn?"
I finished my first year of grad school and have been given a little time off of school. And I quit my job in order to make time for my internship which starts in early Spetember. We had my work team over to celebrate summer vacation and to say goodbye as two of us are leaving to persue school. I made "dirt cake" (left pic) - yum. And couple weeks ago we built this canapy (right pic) to provide some shade for our guests- indespensable!
Good thing i have a couple weeks free because August means it's time reap the rewards of watering and waiting. My first week off I feverishly canned. Here's the list: 13 pints pasta/pizza sauce, 4 quarts of pickles, 4 half pints of zucchini relish, 5 half pints of salsa, 3 half pints of tomatillo salsa verde, and an assortment of jams in strawberry, plum, lime-blueberry, and fig flavors. Most of this came from our garden with a few additions from nearby friends' gardens for plums and when we ran out of garlic and onions we did purchase them along with citrus. Next year we will plant dozens more onions, garlic, and maybe plant a lime and lemon tree in a pot so we can take it inside during the winter. Hmmmm . . . . Oh, I also canned 10 pints of chicken stock which has NOTHING to do with our garden as our chickens are our dear pets. Jeezles- Mike won't even eat chicken from any source in any form!
Here's my recipe for all purpose red sauce which I use as lasagna, pasta, and pizza sauce: Place one rough chopped onion and a good pour of olive oil in a large sauce pot over medium high heat. When the onion are a little translucent I add a grip of rough chopped garlic (about 7 medium cloves) and a handful of italian seasonings, and some red chili pepper flakes. After it smells crazy yummy I add the tomatoes. You can use 1 large can but with fresh tomatoes (about 7 medium romas or early girls) I blanch them first by putting them in boiling water until the skin breaks, remove skin and the stem and the core. Let it all simmer for awhile. I usually get impatient at about 20 minutes and puree it all. I recommend an immersion blender if you do a lot of soups or sauces so you can puree right in the pot without creating another dish to clean or risk cracking the glass blender with hot sauce- I still pine over the best blender I lost this way :( As you can tell this is a very technical recipe so make sure you follow it exactly! The picture on the left is grilled heirloom tomatoes from the garden being grilled for salsa.
In other news- Mike and I got the opportunity to go salmon fishing. My father was so gracious to have us and extend the invitation to my dear friend Kate who has inspired my interest in food sustainability (her grocery bill is less than $50 a month for two persons!!!). Dad took us to Astoria, Oregon and we fished just off the coast. I caught one fish and Mike caught three but we could only keep one of Mike's due to fishing regulations. While Mike is quite the angler he is not a good salt as he spent much of the day feeling sea sick. Afterall he is the only human I know who takes Dramamine for lap swimming at our gym pool. A very special thank you to my dad for taking two days out of his busy retirement life to spend some time with us and taking us out. There are yummy lox and cream cheese on bagels in our future!! Maybe we'll get pics of that later . . .
Chickens lay eggs around 20+ weeks of age. So about a week ago we unofficially started an egg watch. We certainly thought Gladys would be first with her giant comb and waddles (the red stuff around her face) but it was our newest addition of Muppet who (at 16 weeks) left a perfect antique white egg which we found after a very long day of fishing! They will get a touch bigger in the next week or so but they will always be smaller sized eggs because she is a small breed of chicken. We are just so proud of her. She even layed in the nest box right where she is suppose to. I ate a lovely egg-muffin sandwich this morning for breakfast- O.M.G!!! best b-fast ever!!!
Lessons~ 1) If your interested in knowing how to can I recommend a local extension class or thorough reading online. It really is easy and simple but there are very important rules so you don't die of botulism. 2) When chickens are ready to start laying they let you know by doing the chicken squat. This is also their way of saying "Hey big boy I'm ready for you- wink wink." Makes sense right? Ready to to mate, ready to lay, ready to have chick-babies. So the squat occurs when you go to pet the chicken and they squat down with their wings a little lithe, do a little shake, and fluff their tail up to expose the vent. It is just the cutest thing!! Muppet started doing this about a week before her first egg. 3) Chickens bathe in dirt to prevent and rid themselves of mites and other parasites. Here is a video of Elinore and Muppet taking a dust bath- they really get into it!!
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