Winter Harvest

,
originally uploaded by Crittercam.

As anyone still checking in may have guessed, not much has been happening down on the farm in the dark days of winter. However my wondrous chickens are all grown up and laying eggs every day. A dozen or two to the family with the new baby next door, and last weekend a delicious scramble to feed the pilgrims in town to celebrate my friend Val's birthday.

Snowbirds

Chilly chickens

We're having a wonderful, but unusually long, snowy season here. Fluffy white everywhere, and then the clear, cold, windy days that are a rare joy in the land of winter rain. The girls seem to be doing ok--with some extra winter steps. Their water freezes quickly, so they get warm water a few times a day. And each morning I make them oatmeal. Tomorrow I think I'll add some berries and share their breakfast. Spoiled? You betcha.

To each her own

Variations on a theme.

Thanks to the garden....

I've never had wonderful luck with pumpkins in my yard, but I try each year anyway. This year I planted a Cinderella pumpkin (Rouge Vif D’Etampes for you qui parle heirloom squash). The result was a single beautiful red fruit. It sat on the dining room table for weeks, waiting for the livery-clad mice.

No rodents arrived, so by Thanksgiving, I decided to try to make pie from my solitary squash. Chopped and roasted initially in a 400 degree oven until soft. However I noticed as I scooped it out of the skin it seemed a bit juicier than the old canned Libby's. Onto the stove it went, then 4 hours of simmering until one pumpkin yielded about 2 cups of pumpkin meat.

From that point, I followed the Libby's recipe for pumpkin pie (thanks chickens for the eggs). Of course adding more ginger and cinnamon than the recipe recommended(no supertaster, I) .

The result was delicious--creamier and with a fuller, earthier taste than my traditional pie. All eaten in warmth with new friends and old. Thanks Cinderelly!

Last harvest

It's Fall now. Walking the dog under the misty full moon this week, I heard the geese high above. It's been lovely-foggy mornings lazily giving way to blue skies and burnished leaves. The veggies are about done, though the remnants of the tomatoes loom. I found a recipe for curried green tomatoes, and the Oregonian had a great recipe for whole wheat pasta and green tomatoes that's on the list for this week. We'll leave out the bacon I think...

The chickens have been helping with the garden cleanup. I'd like to think they've learned their lesson with Minerva's dog encounter, but more likely the grass and weeds have had the chance to recover since they've been confined so there's more to snack on. In any case, I appreciate their help and supervised their work yesterday while sitting in the sun reading the sequel to Chocolat...

Incredible edibles

There are some delicious products of the garden that would never be accepted in the mass-produced, tucked in a box world of edibles that need to be shipped to market. Nooks and crannies and a jousting eggplant. Lovely on the table before and after cooking.

At Last!

I returned home from a lovely bike ride on Sunday to find this. Yeah Ruby! And she's laid another little perfect world each afternoon since.

General (Tso's Chicken) Hospital

So Sunday evening I was upstairs reading when I heard a great chicken commotion. I galloped outside to find one, two, three chickens....no Minerva. The Heathers were in the carport, so I herded them back into their run. Perfect Ruby was still in the yard. Apparently the wing trimming job I'd done was not short enough to keep them inside the fence.

After the girls were secure I started my search for Minerva. A big clump of feathers in the neighbors' carport. Hmm, not good--I've seen raccoons around and there were a couple of very interested looking cats hanging about as well. A walk up the block revealed ever larger clumps of striped feathers, ending about a block away. Finally. I heard a chicken! I walked back to find a very apologetic neighbor whose dogs had gotten out and had brought home a free range chicken dinner.

Amazingly, Minerva was still on her feet, though with a huge gash on her back and a couple of puncture wounds. I caught her and took her to work. "chicken 911" I texted, but none of my chicken medicine friends were still up, so I muddled through and sewed her up, gorked her with pain medications, and yet again set up a chicken house in the kitchen. The next day she was eating and pooping, and had a lot to say. She whistles like a teakettle now when she sees me.

Today, she's out in the tractor--those in the chicken know tell me that her chicken "friends" would be more than happy to snack on her wounds--eew. Once her stitches are out in a week or so, I'll try her back with the rest of the flock. And EVERYONE gets their wings trimmed shorter. In the meantime, I've hired a security service....

Ratatouille on the hoof...

Admittedly I have been a bit remiss in my harvesting this week. Today I decided to catch up, and this is the haul. Now to decide what to do. I'm thinking baba ganoush, chile relleno casserole, and yes, maybe more zucchini bread. The pattypan squash I've discovered, is crisp like an apple and a bit sweet. A perfect substitute for carrots or chips with salsa. There are also a mess of green beans under the chiles. I think stir fried with black bean sauce, eggplant, and tofu. Recipes welcome, as here's the garden post harvest: more to come!

Awash in squash

I have been busy out of the garden--chasing the errant chickens from my neighbors yard, out of town with friends, relishing the warm late summer days and nights. Lovely for me, however the zucchini situation is out of control. I've given it away, grilled it, made bread, fed it to the chickens, and still it keeps coming. The beautiful pattypan squash are now ripening as well. I will try my hand at freezing next, and must get out my axe this evening to challenge the monster that lurked unseen under the leaves and is now far larger than my tiny dog.

I will try for some savory zucchini pancakes this week. In the meantime, I have been making this:
Zucchini Bread (recipe makes 2 large loaves or one bundt cake)

4 1/2 cups flour--I use 2 cups wheat, the remainder white.
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
3 cups shredded zucchini
3/4 cups oil--my friend Xenia substitutes applesauce for some of the oil--I have yet to try this.
4 eggs.
1 cup chopped walnuts
Streusel--1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon. Combine in a bowl until you can sprinkle it.

Preheat oven to 350
Grease pans.
Mix all dry ingredients together. Mix all wet ingredients together. Mix wet into dry until just combined--will be lumpy. Add nuts if you like them . Pour into pans. If making bundt cake, pour half batter into pan, then streusel, then the remaining half. If making loaves, sprinkle streusel on top.

Bake in center rack 1 hour--test for doneness--may need additional 10 minutes or so.

Find willing friends/strangers/coworkers to take it off your hands!

July 25

The tour de coop--more to come.

The color of dinner

I picked a zucchini and cooked it up within 5 minutes of its trip indoors. It was sweet and fruity raw, then meaty sauteed with a bit of olive oil and pepper. I made this! And as I cut it I realized my bedroom is the exact, vibrant greeny-yellow of the gently dewy insides. I'll sleep well tonight with courgettes inside and out.

Chicken song

I love my friends! And I guess they love my chickens... I didn't even realize they'd been playing old timey music for the ladies until Val showed me this today.

Luna and Sol (aka The Heathers)

When I did all my research into chickens and breeds, Wyandottes came up again and again as a good choice. They apparently take to captivity well, lay through the short days of winter, and best of all are supposed to be lovely, calm, and very friendly.

So home I came with two Wyandotte chicks. From day one they hung out together, chased Ruby and Minerva around, refused to be picked up, and demanded first crack at any new food or outdoor adventure.

All this female cliquishness brought to mind one of my favorite movies of all time, Heathers. Though I can tell them apart, I just mentally refer to them as Heather 1 and Heather 2. If the guy from vector control comes to count my chickens that's the story I'll stick to--Minerva, Ruby, and Heather. The allowed 3 hens, and no sir, not one more. Maybe he's been drinking at lunch if he thinks there are 2 beautiful black and white birds.

Anyway, not wanting to give up altogether on this bossy pair, in the interest of redemption, they are more formally Luna and Sol--as babies, one was silver and black, the other the color of butter and black. They're lovely and ingenious, and the glamour girls of 4630. And for their sake, I hope none of the local raccoons goes by J.D. or Veronica.

What's this got to do with the price of eggs?

So this week, I can begin to imagine the fruits (vegetables?) of my labors. The chickens look huge now, and the Wyandottes are starting to get wattles and combs. Some very weird noises have been heard over the last week, but nothing I can, even with my urban ear, mold into a crow. Generally sounds akin to strangling and acute distress, usually the result of one of the four not noticing that the group has moved on and left her behind. WHERE are they? HOW can I find them? WHAT were they thinking with their tiny bird brains, leaving me here???

Sadly the group rarely cares, and the bereft lady is left to her own devices, or herded with much laughter back to the backyard by the wingless ones.

So that's a bit of a digression. In my chasing the ladies around the vegetable garden, I've finally noticed a first zucchini and some tiny tomatoes. Our single struggling basil is getting larger as well. In another month or so, the girls should start laying. At $4 a dozen for free range eggs, and $1.50 a pound for summer squash, we'll be rich and well fed. Bring on the fritata recipes!

a trip to the farmer's market

Minerva CluckGonnagal

Minerva is a Plymouth Barred Rock. She had a spot like the moon on top of her head as a baby.
Now as a teenager (in development, though not yet even in weeks), the moon has set and she's flecked like city snow. From pics, I guess her stripes will get more pronounced as she reaches her egg-laying age this fall.

Being a bookish type, I've read a lot about chickens in the past few months. Learning a few things that apply to Minerva. Barred means stripy in chicken lingo. So M Cluck is actually a Plymouth Rock that happens to be barred.

My friend Emily (my oracle of all things chicken) told me that her barred Rocks were always really friendly, and Minerva seems to be no exception. She stretched her neck up as far as it could go to see what I was reading in the garden this afternoon. And yesterday, we had breakfast together. I'm not sure she's a fan of Stumptown...

harvest

meet the Ladies

I've grown vegetables for years. However I felt no compulsion to write about it until there were critters involved. This is really all about the chickens. So, it's time for a more detailed introduction I think.

Ruby
Ruby was supposed to be a gold-laced Wyandotte, but once I did a little research, it was clear this was not the case. She then became known as the Mystery Chicken. That first night I thought she would end up what Val termed "overage"-- the extra that didn't make it, bringing my flock down to the Portland-legal number of three. Luckily she perked right up and wasn't a Wyandotte (we'll get to those ladies later). She's the most inquisitive, and the friendliest. Though she squawks a bit, I still pick her up and carry her around every day. My little gem!