Another Quickie

Tonight, I am only up for another quickie. Why? It is late, and I have been going non-stop all.day.long. I am pooped. Seriously. Yet I come on here, knowing that my heart-of-hearts will guilt my creative spirit to no end if I don't post tonight. So here I am, and here you are. Forgive me for sounding a little list-y tonight, I am foggy brained and just want to sit and vegetate in front of a book while my creative juices simmer in the back.

Today started off with a bang and continuation of yesterday's festivities. Just before dark we picked out a pleasant looking fellow from the backyard coop and butchered ourselves a Thanksgiving turkey. He was a black slate (really a genetic mutation of the blue slates I believe), and a nice sized bird. We had just enough time to pluck and remove the inner bits before we were too chilly to continue as our solar heater was setting. We do all our processing outside to keep the house a bit cleaner, so we are a little more subject to the whims of Ms. Nature. Since the sun was already looking quite rosy and dim, we decided to continue the preparations after breakfast. Our friend had a good nights rest in a cooler filled with ice while we snuggled warm and cozy under the covers inside.

This morning we continued the preparations with choosing a second turkey from the pen (the smaller of the two slate toms we had remaining). We gave him our thanks for feeding our family, and spent some time plucking and butchering him. Jacob came out to help while Claire was inside pretending to be a moth flitting about with giant orange silk wings. When our second bird was all ready, he went to the ice bath with his fellow bird to rest. In the intervening time, we made pies, cranberry sauce, baked sweet potatoes, and prepped for the grande finale tomorrow. After the weigh-in today (17lbs even once fully dressed out!) we carted our first bird over to the neighbors house. We had offered them a holiday bird to be neighborly a few months ago, also figuring that it would help cut down on our feed bill just a little bit. These big turkeys can eat a huge amount in a day!

The bird we dispatched for ourselves was probably in the range of 21lbs, which is pretty darn good for a heritage breed! I certainly wouldn't buy a larger one at the store. He has a nice amount of fat, and his thighs are HUGE, so I am looking forward to seeing how he tastes tomorrow. It was only just a little while ago we popped our bird in the oven, for a night of slow roasting. Rather than try to cook him in one blaze of glory, I thought we would see what a cooler (275 degree) longer time in the oven would do to our heritage bird. I am sure he will be moist and tasty under his tin foil hat.

Anyways, I am tired and I know I haven't been super entertaining tonight so I will sign off. For those who celebrate the holiday tomorrow, have a fabulous Thanksgiving. For those who do not, I hope you have a wonderful Thursday in peace.

G'Night all!

What Are You Cooking?

Every year, I wonder if we should have something different to eat for Thanksgiving. It is such an American holiday, and I feel a particular pull to at least do some of the "traditional" fixings. In years past, I have had a variety of "non-traditional" meals. Duck breast, ham, beef, maybe even enchiladas, not counting my years after High School being poor and without family at all, where I ate whatever was around unless invited to a family meal by friends or co-workers. Then there were the many years of holidays spent on the Florida coast where we gorged ourselves on fresh shrimp and crab for the holiday. I always felt like such a rebel, consuming seafood when everyone else was downing turkey or ham. It was always strange, though, when my mother insisted on her rutabaga being included. As an homage to her own family traditions, she picked one up faithfully every November and December and cooked it. Even with shrimp. Truly an odd arrangement.

I used to plan alternate family dinners for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I talked about Indian, Mexican, and more. I championed sweet potato pie, black eyed peas, even my mothers' beloved rutabaga. Yet I kept coming back to the basics. I love the flavor of a good turkey, especially slathered with an amazing gravy made from its own juices. The rich saltiness of the gravy goes so well with the meaty texture and flavor of the turkey. Especially with a kick of spicy-tart cranberry sauce on the side. None of that horrid canned stuff for us. No, I get fresh (as much as I am able) berries and cook them with a cinnamon stick, some cloves, and orange or pineapple juice as a sweetener to counter the sheer tartness of the cranberries. Let it simmer for a while for the flavors to marry and it is the ultimate partner in my turkey-gravy-berry trio.

I then look toward the sweet potato for my next hit. And Yes, I think food can be a drug, and I am totally addicted to the exquisite flavors of a fantastic meal! This isn't the sweet potato casserole with marshmallows floating on top like some fruity tropical drink stuffed with 16 umbrellas, sprigs of mint, celery, and seven fancy swizzle sticks that I make. I prefer the simple baked sweet potato with pastured butter on top, and a pinch of salt. Sweet potatoes and yams are already naturally sweet, so why add the cloying stickiness of commercial marshmallows to them? I can't think of too many other foods that are more revolting. I would personally rather eat fried crickets than the sweet potato/marshmallow sludge. I like the contrast of the earthy sweetness of the potato to the salt and creamy butter. It makes me feel grounded and whole.

Speaking of feeling grounded, I think pumpkin pie (homemade, of course) deserves a spot at the table. I have tried pecan pie, even a chocolate version which was amazing, yet it wasn't quite the same. The best pumpkin pie is consumed about a day after it is made, to allow the flavors to fully generate. I am a crust lover, preferring mine deeply tanned, while Greg loves his custard. Together we leave not a crumb behind. I would love to add a tart cherry pie this year, but sadly they are not available. It would be a spectacular counterpoint to the meal. At last, this is the majority of what we are having. My in-laws have ordered stuffing and carrot casserole from Furr's Cafeteria (*shudder*). Greg has convinced me to make a healthier and better tasting version of the carrots, so I will add that to the list. I may even whip up a few white potatoes for them (we eat them maybe twice a year), but again I may not. Now all I need is a bottle (or two!) of wine and we will be set! Too bad the in-laws don't drink. Oh wait, that means more wine for me, Hooray!!

Thinking About Thanksgiving Dinner

For some reason I both love and hate planning holiday meals. I really love cooking and baking. I (often) enjoy doing it with the kids help. I enjoy cooking and baking with my husband. I like dreaming up menu ideas and making what people love to eat. For some reason, though, I find it tedious to go through my menu and make a list of the items and quantities I will need for a large meal. B-O-R-I-N-G.

However, since it is almost time for Thanksgiving, it has come time to start in the planning. So, as I dream about the fantastic turkey we will butcher in a few days, brine, and cook, I will also make a list of everything I need from the store. The biggest change this year is going to be our turkey. This spring we picked up several heritage turkey poults (baby turkeys, day old in our case). We bought Royal Palms and Slates, hoping to have several hens so we could eat most of the toms for the holiday and breed the others. Unfortunately, we ended up with way too many toms and only two hens. So now we have to figure out which toms we keep for breeding, which ones we will eat, and sell the ones that are left over.

Right now, Greg likes the appearance of the Slate Turkeys the best. I'm not attached to one over the other, and I am more than happy to keep looking for another breed we might like better. We are planning to get more poults, hopefully with a greater ratio of hens, this January or so. We want them to be grown enough to be put outside with the adults come spring. Since heritage breeds take longer to mature than the "traditional" breeds used in large farming operations, the birds should be ready to butcher by the holidays again.

As for this weeks event planning, I figure we will do the rest of our shopping tomorrow or Monday so we can avoid the last minute rushes of people. I hate, hate, hate having to shop when there is a mass of other folks at the same time. Makes me feel claustrophobic and twitchy. Then I can start cooking by Tuesday/Wednesday. Fun times ahead.

Chicken Butchering

Several years ago when we decided to get chickens, we knew that a consequence of having them would be that we would eventually have to butcher them. While we could have decided to keep them as pets, we felt it was important to acknowledge that while they were providing us eggs during their best years, they would eventually be a food source in their own right. After all that is an important part of our desire to be self-sufficient - being able to provide ourselves with fresh meat from the animals we have raised.

For years we kept the hens, talking about the eventual demise of some of them, and tried to find tutorials and information that would help us figure out how to most humanely butcher them. When we picked up the 25 roosters this spring, we both agreed it was time to figure it out and get past whatever was blocking us from doing the job ourselves. I have to say, while tutorials are reasonably plentiful online, it would have been nice had we found a mentor to walk us through the process. At one point several months ago, I thought we had found someone, but the moment to get together never occurred.

While a mentor would have been nice, when we finally decided on a day to slaughter our first chicken it actually wasn't as emotionally difficult as either of us had thought it would be. We decided to do one bird, and see how it went. I had read stories of it taking almost two hours your first time, because you don't know what you are doing. It seemed simple enough, though. Kill bird, pluck, eviscerate, clean up, cool/freeze/eat. That is pretty much how it went, too. As usual we split the work without really talking about it before hand. While both Greg and I are fairly sensitive people, we were able to deal with the whole chicken in about 30-45 minutes. We served him up for lunch the next day, and he was pretty darn tasty. I believe that Claire has decided that she wants nothing to deal with store-bought birds again as their taste was so poor in comparison. She turns her nose up at the paltry offerings from the fast-food place when her grandparents have offered.

Since that first time we have processed the rest of our extra roosters (we are keeping one who prefers to live with the goats), and all but two of our male ducks. We have plans to butcher a couple of the turkeys for the holidays coming up, which will be interesting. They are so much bigger than what we have handled so far, and considerably stronger. We also saved the duck down and feathers for making our own down pillow. I am so excited to be able to do such a project that brings a more well-rounded feeling to this whole experience!! I'll let you all know how that goes once I get the ticking for the pillow. But for now, goodnight.

Fowl Thoughts

Owning and caring for fowl can be really interesting, and I have learned a lot over the past 4 years or so. It really takes caring for a number if different breeds before you discover what you like and what you don't, as well as what you really want to look out at every day that makes you happy. I think I have come to a certain point where I can say what birds I really want to have on our farm of the future. So, here is our fowl story so far...

Several years ago we picked up a dozen chicks, after talking about it for a few months. We have always had an interest in heritage or unusual breeds, so we decided on some Dominiques (heritage breed) and Americauna (beautiful colored eggs) hens. We originally wanted Auracauna hens, but had discovered that they are super rare and expensive after doing a lot of research. The vast majority of hatcheries that supposedly have Auracauna chickens actually have Ameraucanas, which still lay blue, green and even pink eggs (they are also called "Easter Egger" hens, a name which I personally find irritating). The trait for the colored eggs seems to be dominant enough for the Ameraucana breed to stand alone. Plus they are a pretty bird with a wide variety of corporation and features that I find attractive.

We lived with them in our tiny suburban backyard for about 18 months, before deciding that we loved our chickens, but didn't want to live WITH them any more. They really needed more space than what we had, so we moved half of them to live at my in-laws place, on their half acre. Unfortunately, several months later, they were killed by a couple of dogs. It was so sad, especially because Claire raised them from chick-hood, carrying them in a sling like little babies. Truthfully, it was almost a year before I told her about it since I knew she would be devastated.

Some time later, we moved the rest of the chickens (and a few more we got from friends) to the in-laws as well, and reinforced the pen so they were more protected from dogs. Along the way, we picked up several other miscellaneous laying hens from a friend, as well as from someone who was moving and couldn't take his hens with.

Then, this spring we picked up a group of 30 chicks (Americauna and Barred Rock), supposedly all girls. Plus 25 free chicks (all boys, of course) that were Rhode Island Reds, some ducks (we adopted 3 runner ducks and their Buff duck buddy), and a group of heritage turkeys!!

Just a few birds around here this summer. Several weeks ago we started to butcher the extra boys (an altogether different story!), and I think I have a few tentative conclusions to make. I love my Americauna and Dominiques chickens. They are colorful, have good personalities, and are fairly mellow. Barred Rocks are ok, but the boys are a little loud. Rhode Island Red roosters are obnoxious - they are push toward the hens, and are rather mean to each other. However, they taste really yummy baked in the oven.

As for ducks, I love my little Runner Ducks. They walk upright and are sweet, but not really to have for a dual-purpose bird (eggs and meat). The Khaki Campbell are ok, and the larger Blue Swedish ducks are ok too, especially on the dinner plate for their size (the males, that is).

And I love my turkeys. They are hilarious to watch and listen to (and for the record, turkeys really do say "gobble, gobble".) Unfortunately we ended up with only two girls and about 8 boys!!!! So, obviously, several will be invited to join us for the holidays.

YUM.