Tortellini - Won Ton

Lunch today was roast chicken
(with roasted carrots, onions, and potato wedges).

The bones are cooking for chicken soup.
But I couldn't wait - I decided to make a cross between
tortellini and won ton.

Using the food processor, I ground
chicken
onion tops
garlic
pepper
whole grain Rice Crispies
one egg yolk.

I used store-bought won-ton noodles.

Put a dollop in the center of each square.

Brush with egg white to help seal.

Shape like little hats.

Drop into stock seasoned with
onion tops
celery tops
black pepper
a hint of poultry seasoning.

Wait impatiently until they are done

and can be served.

Delicious!

Cider Taste Test

It's a cold, raw day.
Too unpleasant to play outdoors.
So D suggested it was time to test the cider.
There are eight batches using various yeasts, including one of wild yeast.

Isn't the variety of shades and clarity interesting!
Here they are lined up in letter order - G is missing, because it was not decanted earlier.

Chris gave us a sample sanitizer to use - worked well - you need to have killed all the wild yeasts before you add the wine or beer yeasts. He also gave us a siphon to get the liquid from the five-gallon pails to bottles. D siphoned these a month ago. At that time, they all tasted either beery or like regular cider - some yeasts work slower than others.


Some are quite fizzy!!! Others are still.
This one had to be opened and reclosed several times before we could safely pour it.


This was much more fun than playing outside today!

In case you are wondering, these are water bottles left over from the power outage during Irene .

Indian Summer Garden Grows

Who would think that we would be harvesting berries in October!

This is our third day of 80+ degrees.

A real Indian Summer.

``````

The raspberries are large and lovely.

This is Autumn Bliss.

It puts out a few in the spring, and lots in the fall.

The Mara Des Bois Strawberries are still bearing.

This is an ever-bearing type.

These fall berries do not have the complex flavor of the summer berries,

but it's a welcome treat.

D is harvesting the mangels.

These will feed the chickens later in the fall/winter.

Mangels are a type of beet used for fodder.

Look at the size of these!

To the left of the picture (above) is dinosaur kale.
We found it to be attractive, but strong flavored.

The chickens will love them.
Update - Spring 2012
The chickens do not like the mangels - whole, raw, cooked, chopped.
They tossed it around and did not eat it.

Low Tech Cider Making at Home

Last weekend we made 15 gallons of cider.

We saved out one gallon, and put the rest in the basement.

(That is a story for another day.)

But we have almost finished that gallon,

so we decided to see if it could be made in the kitchen.

We started with gemini apples.

(D has named all the apple trees - this is a twining pair.)

They are not very pretty, but they made a nice apple pie.

We chopped the apples and put them into the blender with a little cider.

Then we ground them to a fine texture in the vintage Osterizer.

The slurry was poured into a straining cloth in a colander over a pot.

The cloth could be cheesecloth, but I don't have any.

But I do have lots of old curtains.

A good wash, a brief bleach soak, and there you go.

It works really well.

In this case, it's folded over to quarters.

Once we had enough pomace, D began to squeeze.

Notice the before and after pictures.

This is the final squeeze.

After we were almost done,

D suggested we could have used the antique fruit press. . .

We'll save that for another time.

We got quite a bit.

We didn't pay attention to time,

but we think about 1/2 hour from start to cleaned up.

This will hold us until we do the next batch of cider this weekend.

This is a banner year for apples, so go pick some wild ones, and

do try this at home.

We recommend not using fallen apples

-

too much risk of picking up bacteria left by our wild friends.

Jelly Time

It's time to make jelly.

D picked two kinds of grapes.

The one on the left has a wonderful flowery flavor.

The other is like a concord, but green. . .

When I picked the last of elderberries, I started to brush off a leaf.

It wasn't a leaf!

It's a not-very-pretty butterfly.

Hurricane Irene and the Week without Power

Hurricane Irene

Well, we survived.  We weren't expecting any trouble - just figure out which way the wind will blow and move the vehicles so that a tree won't land on them.  Put aside some water - just in case.  Enjoy the weather.

Well, it didn't turn out quite like that.  Oh, we were safe.  The vehicles were not struck.   The 5.2 inches of water did not wash us away - did not even flood the basement taking out the hot water heater.

What did happen is that a tree - a half-mile away - took out a power line.  Easy fix. . . 

Except for. . .

The power company had deployed their crews to closer to New York City to be prepared for the hurricane hitting the urban area.  It missed NYC, but made a mess of the Catskills, 

so they moved their folk to the Catskills and the Albany area.

That meant no one was here to fix the lines.

We have a pump and well outside, so we had water - just had to carry it.  

After the first day, the power company provided bottled water and a bit of dry ice - one to a person - pick-up at the fire station in town.  As the outages continued, they did provide enough dry ice to keep the freezer frozen.  

That's where the fun comes in.

There was not enough dry ice for the big freezer - which is full of a year's supply of corn, peas, blueberries, chard, kale, etc. - and the kitchen refrigerator/freezer.  The result was that the kitchen fridge stayed cool but not cold - and when we were pushing a piece of dry ice into the kitchen freezer, a pint of elderberry juice popped out, and it demonstrated it was not frozen by spraying elderberry juice all over the hardwood floors.     And all over us.   What a mess.  While trying to catch the elderberry container,  a second container was dislodged, demonstrating that it, too, was not frozen.  Now we had a quart of elderberry juice on the floor.  I guess that will teach me not to procrastinate making jelly!

There is plenty to do even when there is no power.  Everything takes twice as long in the house - to bathe means heating and carrying water.   I needed to keep the ipod powered, so I had to go to the library every day to check email and the web and to recharge everything.

We used the time to pick the corn for the chickens for the winter.  The corn is Mandan Bride.  It is just lovely.So that is fun to do.

I also picked beans.

These are "Hutterite Soup Beans".  They are delicious.  The entire bean dissolves, so it makes a cream soup with no cream.  Adding garlic croutons and shrimp makes a spectacular dish.

Now that power is restored, we need to clean out the refrigerator.  Well, by not paying attention, I knocked the coleslaw onto the floor - and it opened - and . . .   At least we had water to clean with this time - and the chickens loved the coleslaw - and the leftover meats, cottage cheese, sour cream, and whatever else was there.

D is building a little house for making cider.  He couldn't get much done when we had no power, so he worked on expanding the strawberry and raspberry beds.  

And that is how we spent our week before Labor Day.

Garden, August 4, 2011

We are enjoying the fruits of D's labor.

The Mara des Bois strawberries have given us a generous bowl.

A friend was supposed to visit today.

She had to cancel.

Look at what she missed!

These berries taste best at room temperature and they do not keep.

I'll have to eat them myself!

~~~~

D enjoyed this bowl of raspberries as an appetizer before dinner.

And we have our first tomato.

It's a paste tomato - San Marzano - but it will be eaten sliced.

This is what we look forward to when it snows!

The gardens are producing!

We tried a new kale this year. It's called Dinosaur Kale, and it is just lovely growing. It is a blue-gray color. In the morning, the dew beads on the plants and sparkles in the sunlight. The nutrition information indicates this a super food. Lots of vitamins, lowers cholesterol, etc.

Today, I picked some leaves - the big ones went to the chickens. The "small" ones went to be prepared for freezing for soups. I removed the ribs and sliced crosswise. Steamed it.

Well, it makes cabbage smell delicious.

I think I can use it in a strong soup like Italian sausage and bean soup. Otherwise, I have no idea what to do with it.

If you want to try some, let me know.

~~ ~

The strawberries are yielding a generous portion a week

We have been able to keep the birds away by framing the beds and covering the frames with bird net.

We have protected some, but not all of the raspberries. The raspberries are here in the foreground, with strawberries in the background.

We get onion plants from Dixondale Farms each year. This year we had a wet spring, and the onions loved it. The copra onions are huge and are already done. The red onions are not ready yet.

July gardens

The gardens in July.

This is the corn on May 28.

And here it is in July.

Definitely as high as an elephant's eye.

The corn is an heirloom, non-hybrid.

The strawberries are covered with fencing.

That has bird-netting over it, and it drapes into the walkways.

It is easy to trip over.

In the foreground are this year's raspberries.

Beyond the dog is another garden with beans, watermelon, amaranth, chard, kale, mangles, beets, cucumbers.

The grape arbor frames the entrance to the first garden.

The far fence has beans on it. In front of the beans are tomatoes.

Beyond the fence is the strawberry/raspberry garden.

Standing under the arbor, straight ahead are a row of peppers.

Then a row of swiss chard and kale.

Against the fence are beans.

Tomatoes are in front of the beans.

Beyond this fence is the strawberry garden.

Looking back at the arbor.

To the right are peas.

Straight on is spinach, with lettuce, and a couple of tomatoes.

This is a great year for onions.

You will see garbage pails dotted in the gardens.

They hold water pumped by hand from the well then carried to the pails.

To the left of the arbor is the asparagus garden.

The asparagus is eating the lilies

Everything is being grown organically.

Most seeds are started at home from heirloom seeds.

Red Currants

I did the last picking of this year's red currants.

I'll make jelly with these.

I also picked the last of the black currants.

On the recommendation of a friend, I made currant pie.

We both decided you have to grow up with it to enjoy it.

While picking, this critter was seen.

No idea what it is. Interesting, though.
August 7 Update:  Flo tells me it will be a tussock moth.
Thanks!

Strawberries and Cream

I took D's advice and sliced and lightly sugared the berries.
Chilled for a couple of hours.

Added a dollop of freshly whipped cream.

M m m m m m m.

First Dish of Strawberries

Today I made the first dish of sliced strawberries.

I picked from one of the two beds (25 plants) and this is the result.

D suggested adding sugar and serving with cream.

I don't think it's needed, since they are so delicious plain,

but I'll try and let you know.

Mara des Bois Strawberries

Our first 11 strawberries.

Oh, my, are they ever good.

They definitely live up to their reputation.

The first flavor is strawberry sweet.

Then you notice a tang.

Marvelous!

They are ever-bearing, so we should have small quantities off and on all summer.

Mmmmmm.

June with Berries, Chicks, Garden & Dog

One of the broody hens has been sitting on eggs for over a month.

Another one had one chick.

A different one had two chicks.

But the third just sat and sat and sat.

We decided that her eggs were not viable,

so we went to Frog Pond and bought five pullets.

(Pullet is a girl baby.)

The fifth chick is probably under her keeping warm.

We were worried that she would not take to them - or them to her - but everyone seems quite content.

The dog enjoys the chickens, especially now that he has figured out that he can steal eggs if they lay them in the bushes. That's a disadvantage of keeping free-ranging chickens and dogs.

We tried never giving him raw egg so he wouldn't discover it,

but he's not as stupid as he looks.

~

The strawberry beds are caged in case the chickens get through the fence.

There are two hills of berries and one fallow area for next year.

They are just starting to turn.

The berries are a French berry, Mara des Bois, prized for its flavor.

They do not keep and they do not ship well.

Restaurants pay a premium because of the flavor.

There are none ready yet - sigh.

There is a great article in Smithsonian Magazine about them.

~

The raspberries are not ready yet, either.

Sigh, again.

But I could be picking Swiss chard.

Not quite the same. . .

June 18 - one of the gardens.

Happy Gardening!