Chickens!

First, before getting poultry of any sort (if you live within the city limits) make sure to check out the city codes for keeping animals. Even if you live in a metropolitan area you might be surprised to find out that you can legally keep poultry (although the number of which may be limited.) If you rent be sure to check with your landlord– because there’s nothing sadder than a homeless family and their little chicken.

For our city, the number is not limited there are specifications as to the distance we must keep poultry enclosed from the property line.

Because of our lifestyle the number of chickens we keep is limited to a single chicken, Elle, a gold laced Wyandotte. In exchange for food, shelter, love and devotion Elle provides our family with bug control, high nitrogen poop, hours of entertainment, and an almost daily egg.

Make a decision before buying a chick or chicken as to whether or not you’re going to eventually eat it. This will affect not only the type of chickens you may buy, but also how your family interacts with the chicken. Our family doesn’t eat pets, and even if Elle never lays another egg, she’s safe from the stew pot– therefore we feel it’s appropriate to bond with her as much as we would any other pet.

Also plan out carefully the living arrangement of the chicken. A single chicken can do quite happily with a medium sized pet carrier in the summer (so long as she has an enclosure to stretch her legs and forage around for tasty insects during the day) but in the winter she’ll need a heat source or insulated area to snuggle up on the coldest nights. She’ll also need protection from animals that want to play with her, eat her or eat her eggs. Make sure that raccoons, cats, dogs, and weasels can’t or won’t have access to her and that her enclosure is safe.

To prevent brooding take her egg out as soon as she lays it. If there’s no rooster to fertilize the egg it’s pointless to let her brood because the eggs will never hatch. Take the eggs and rinse them with cold water, put them in the fridge to enjoy later.

As pets, chickens are pretty straightforward. Training a chicken to come to its name, sit, or do tricks is no more difficult than training a puppy (actually, it is arguably easier) once you get over the idea of chicken as “livestock” and embrace the idea of “pet.” As with any bird, the more you handle a chicken the more comfortable with being handled and affectionate it will be.

Chickens can also wear a figure 8 halter (like those used for cats and rabbits) make sure it’s adjusted so that the large band goes under her wings, should you choose to leash train her. And, just as an aside– get used to the idea of people asking you about your hen or giving you funny looks (don’t worry, eventually the neighbors will quit staring.)

As for the cost of keeping a chicken, the amount you’ll save in insect spray, fertilizer (if you garden) and eggs definitely outweighs the food, shelter, and bedding costs of a chicken so they are very economical creatures to keep.

For more information about keeping chickens go to:

Backyard Chickens

Bird Hobbyist (pet chicken page)

Path to Freedom (Raising Chickens in the City Project)

Oregon, cost of living outpacing wages

I just caught a blurb of this study on the radio. My friend Google News supplied the link.

“Living wages has gone up seven percent… Cost of living has gone up14-percent and the health costs have gone up 37-percent,” said Rich Rohde of Oregon Action.

Read the full article.

Now, this definitely smacks of economic depression although unemployment (traditionally a major factor in a depression) was not addressed in the article. I don’t believe in fear mongering, but I do believe we should all have a realistic view of where we are, and where we might be heading. This is not the view I’d prefer to take,however I’d have to poke my eyes out to ignore it.

So what do we do? What are we going to do? How do we deal with this?

I know that having chickens in backyard and planting a smattering of corn is not ideal for everyone. I know sewing one’s own clothes or house linens is not for everyone. One man’s passion is another’s pain, and it’s very easy for some of us to forget that.

Apples!

I so love apple butter. There was a place just outside of Astoria, Oregon that had the most divine apple butter road side stand, when I was a kid we’d always stop by, leaving our money in a jar (it was honor system) and go home happy. I haven’t been up that way in years, I imagine that the stand is long gone and the orchard behind it has changed hands at least a few times.

But the taste remains. Small red pie apples, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.

I make my own apple butter now, usually from the green Granny smith variety of apples, a little honey, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s not complicated, and doesn’t take that much patience and is definitely worth the effort.

First, find a good deal on apples. If you aren’t familiar with the apples you’re buying don’t worry, you can always tweak the recipe with some sugar or lemon to come up with the flavor you most prefer. If you want to have some fun, mix different apples together for a unique treat.

I almost always start with a big bowl of ice water and a few table spoons of salt, peel and core the apples (ideally at least 1 pound.) Once that’s done you can start cooking down. In a large sauce pan simmer a quart of water (more or less doesn’t really mater), start putting apples in, and turn down the heat a little (just enough to prevent the sugars in the apples from caramelizing, as the apples turn to pulp and the water evaporates keep adding apples. Cook down as much as humanly possible without going insane (for me this is about an hour) have a book or crossword puzzle to entertain you. Take an ordinary table spoon and use your mixing spoon to drizzle a little sauce on it, taste. If it’s too bitter add sugar, brown sugar, honey or corn syrup; if it’s too sweet add some lemon juice or citric acid powder.

When the apple butter reaches the desired consistency season to taste with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Freeze or can according to preference.

Now, some people make apple butter so that it’s barely any thicker than apple sauce, I’m not going to say that’s at all wrong, because it is a matter of taste. However, thicker apple butter doesn’t make toast at all soggy, so the consistency I go for is rather thick. Thicker apple butter takes more time, so if you must leave the kitchen, just pour what you have into a crockpot and set it to low or medium. It should be fine while you’re away.

If you want to make your apple butter just a little less humble for gift giving, make a batch of caramel and alternate layers of caramel and apple butter. It’s extremely rich, and when heated makes a fantastic topping for baked cheese cake or ice cream.

Under pressure– cooking

Pressure cookers are usually thought of one of those things that grandma used, dangerous and intimidating as it seemed, to store her preserves and can her winter veggies. Not quite an appliance on it’s own, not just another pot or pan, the pressure cooker is a must have  device for any savvy and frugal cook.

Pressure not only injects fluid into the food and speeds up cooking time considerably, it also softens hard materials like seeds, bones, cobs, and kernels.

Not only will you have the assurance that you can store food for months, you’ll know exactly what went into that food. Things you may not have considered for canning: soup, stew, chowder, bone meal, sauces, gravy, sliced citrus fruit, salted meat, potatoes, carrots and homemade pet food are all good candidates.

And you’ll be able to prepare things like hummus, hominy, bone meal, berry syrup, and berry preserves on the fly (without hours upon hours of cooking and waiting) to store for a later date or to serve up the same day. You can also speed the preparation of foods for storage by giving them a run in a pressure cooker.

A few tips to get you started:

• Always read the manual before using your pressure cooker and follow the instructions for your model.
• Buy the smallest pressure cooker size that will accommodate your needs, filled with water and food they can be quite heavy.
• Do not try to recycle self sealing jar lids
• Keep extra jars, rings and seals on hand
• Look for sales on the produce your family prefers
• Pressure cook bones, cobs, shells, husks, pits and kernals before throwing them in the mulch pile (they will break down much faster)
• Pressure cook bones and corncobs for your pets to chew on (their teeth will thank you)
• Core and pressure cook apples and pears in a spiced or maple syrup for a sweet treat

Kitchen: Cast-iron

For those of us that use cast iron cookware it’s unimaginable to switch back to copper bottom frying pans and Teflon coated cookware, aluminum is simply out of the question.

My cast waffle iron consistently produces perfectly formed and cohesive waffles with so little effort that switching to a Teflon waffle iron would be a clear sign of mental illness.

Cast iron offers an even distribution of heat throughout the cooking surface and sides, non-stick properties, durability, and lightening fast clean up when it’s cured correctly and properly cleaned.

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I love it (Kitchen update)

We settled on the Magic Chef Model No MCBR415S and it’s love. We love it. The estimated yearly cost of running this 4.0 cubic ft. fridge is a paltry $24 and for less than $200- we paid cash.

In the picture (that I borrowed from the manufacturers site) you can see my only complaint, the door has a can dispenser. Since we don’t buy soda or canned juice I’m going to cut some plex-glas and form it into a more practical holder. I did rearrange the shelves and I’m happy to report that i can fit two gallon jugs of milk without cramming anything.

On top of everything– it’s super cute and it has a decent freezer compartment.

Happy Easter!

I will be spending the day with my family to celebrate. So tonight, I will leave you the warning not to leave unrefrigerated eggs out if you intend on eating them and my favorite egg salad recipe.

You’ll need:

• 6 hard boiled eggs*
• 2 tsp 7-Up (or generic version) soft drink
• 1/8 tsp dry ground mustard
• 1/8 cup diced mild pickled peppers
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise*
• paprika to garnish

It takes about 10 minutes to prep this salad and about 40 minutes to chill in the refrigerator.

Peel egg whites and set aside. Blend yolks, 7-Up, dry mustard, and mayonnaise thoroughly by hand. Crush egg whites, blend with peppers. Pour yolk mixure over the eggwhites and diced peppers and mix until evenly covered. Chill for 40 minutes. Prior to serving garnish with paprika. Serve as a dip or on fresh toast with tomatoes and lettuce.

*Vegans can replace the egg whites with firm tofu, the yolks with soft tofu, and mayonnaise with vegan sandwich dressing.

Please note that increasing the recipe will increase the time needed to chill in the refrigerator; adjust your recipe accordingly.

Ah-ha! And fried ice cream.

If you’ve ever had fried ice cream, real fried ice cream, you know that it really doesn’t make sense as a party dessert; it’s time consuming to make, it’s ugly, it’s so lack-luster unimpressive and unassuming. You scoop, freeze, roll, freeze, dip, freeze, roll, freeze, dip, freeze, roll, freeze ad infinitum– and all for a glorious 15 seconds in hot oil and sprint to the table for an ephemeral treat.

Websites are like fried ice-cream, at least at the moment that’s my best analogy. You can tinker with the guts, you can dress up the exterior, you can arrange it all nicely on the plate with a drizzle of caramel, but all too soon it’ll look dated, it becomes burdensome, the edges will sprawl out just a little too much and your guests will question your sanity in serving it up.

I think trying to cover up the melting with whipped cream and cherries is a bit excessive. On second thought– maybe it’s not excessive, just not my style. Instead, I’ll make fried ice-cream again and work on serving it faster the next time, and I take the same approach to websites, the changes are drastic, but I think if it improves the flavor and experience that it’s worth the extra work.