Moving Day

Yesterday was moving day for our little chickies.

This is their new home.  A much nicer place than the old ladies big girls got, but that’s the breaks.  The old ladies caught word that the peeps were moving in and they began laying again.  Honestly I wasn’t sharpening my hatchet!

So much room to spread out and even take little flights of fancy!

All their little feathers are coming in and they look so cute.  I got the coop fenced in today with 1″ chicken wire and cut an opening into the yard where the old ladies big girls live.  I even made them a little play pen where they can play in a few days prior to being released to the big pen.  They have to get big enough to not squeeze through the 2″ wire that I used in the old ladies big girls yard.

How Do You Milk A Cow?

In A Pickle

It’s that time of year again when the cuc’s are piling up. We love making brined pickles following the recipe in Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. It’s a very easy and simple process and so much more healthy for you than vinegar pickles. They keep in the frig for….well let’s just say, our 3 gallons lasted a year! Don’t throw out the brine either. It’s full of goodness and is so yummy to drink! The garlic after being brined and sitting for a long time looses it’s bite and is very good to eat.

For 1 Gallon it’s basically: 6 Tbsp Sea Salt dissolved in water, 3-4 heads of garlic peeled, a couple flowering heads of dill, a bunch of grape, oak or cherry leaves, washed cuc’s and I use red pepper flakes instead of Sandor’s suggested black peppercorns. Pack them in a clean jar with the cuc’s on top of everything and then pour the salt brine water over them. If they need to be weighed down then place something on them to hold the cuc’s below the water line. Place a cloth over the top and leave in a cool place for as many days as you like to achieve the desired tartness. We like ours at 3 days.

These pickles are a hit. Ben always serves them up and tells his friends that these are the best pickles they will ever taste. Sure enough they can’t stop talking about them. They are so good!