The Chatelaine's Keys

Sharon January 19th, 2010

So the big event around here was the arrival of our Great Pyrenees puppy, Maccabeus.  He arrived along with six inches of snow the same color as he is yesterday.  He’s a very sweet dog – he already loves the kids and wants to be with them.  He’s very nervous, and a little sad because despite being six months old, he’s only just been taken away from his Mom.  He’s clearly looking for her everywhere he goes.  He is beautiful, affectionate and while a little nervous about the unfamiliar surroundings, astonishingly relaxed around people and animals.

The fly in the ointment has been Mistress Quickly, who has always been fairly mellow about other dogs, but is officially NOT PLEASED about Mac’s arrival.  He is already twice her size, so he mostly ignores her growling and snapping, but she’s convinced he’s a threat – every time one of us goes to pet him, she puts her body between him and us.  We’re working on reinforcing her positive behavior, and on softening her attitude towards him (there was a temporary truce when we did a little joint training, in which both dogs realized they had common ground – they both like cheese .)

So between Mac the Marshmallow whimpering at night without his Mommy (I finally slept downstairs with him, and he wedged himself between the sofa and me to get a Mommy substitute) and Mistress Quickly asserting herself as boss, things have been a little hectic and dog-centered around here.  We’re still figuring out how things are going to work, but it is, at least, exciting. 

I’ve also got a line on a couple of possible bucks for our girls, which is really exciting to me.  We have to work out timing and details, but it looks like our goat situation may be set to expand fairly soon, and, yay! no more “drive thru goat sex!”

Not too much else going on her, except that Mom was visiting and we were able to borrow her BJ’s card to actually get a couple of things that we can’t get as cheaply anywhere else.  I don’t think it is normally worthwhile to pay for a warehouse membership for us – we get most of our bulk materials elsewhere – but there are a few things that are a better price, most notably the pull-ups Eli has to wear to school and the dog food that Mac has been eating (we’ll shift him gradually over to our food, but we do *not* want a giant dog with an upset stomach!) .  So we did a little stocking up.

It took me a few days to really recover from last week’s workshop, and I’ve been focusing on the book as much as anything else.  I still haven’t finished my seed orders, which are one of the pressing issues for this week – since I want to do a lot of stratified things this year, and am planning on going to market with my plants, I need to get organized ASAP.  Otherwise, not so much going on here.

Plant something: Not this week

Harvest something: A few leaves of kale out from the snow during our thaw last week, as well as milk and eggs.  Got 5 eggs today (we don’t light) as well as finding a broody cochin hen, so spring will actually come!

Preserve something: I made some applesauce out of apples that were failing.

Waste Not: Nothing new

Want Not: Added more pull-ups and dog food to our reserves as well as a few other odds and ends (worcestershire sauce, old bay seasoning, nutella for the husband ).  Also picked up more cat food earlier in the week.

Eat the Food: Roasted vegetables wraps, stir fried kim chi and lamb in garlic sauce were highlights. 

Build Community Food Systems: A possible new project came my way, but has to be tabled until after the book.  Otherwise, nothing new.

How about you?

Sharon

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Sharon January 11th, 2010

It has been a while since I posted one of these – the frantic preparations for the workshop have been sucking up my time, as has the book, and I haven’t been doing much planting or preserving, although did do a little model-lactofermentation for my workshop, which we then forgot to taste.  Ah well, I’ll just have to eat kimchi and sauerkraut!

I’m about to enter the stage of book writing where I never look up from the computre, but I am allowing myself a 24 hour recovery period where I read a lot of seed catalogs and place a order for spices that I’ve been meaning to do for a month or two.  I’m also really, really looking forward to seed starting – it has now officially been winter long enough to make me crave dirt under my nails. 

There are important decisions to be made.  Will I grow cutting flowers to take to market this summer?  Which turnip is better?  How many cherry tomato varieties do six people really need, and how many will we actually be growing? (Note the distinction between these numbers).  What medicinal herbs will sell? 

I’ve also got to decide what bee start up I’m going to be working with – I’m exploring the merits of different approaches.  And then there’s the poultry order.  Isaiah and Simon are going to raise their own chickens for show and eggs for them to sell – they’ve picked Salmon Faverolles (Isaiah) and Birchen Cochin Bantams (Simon) and are already hatching (so to speak) small poultry empires in their heads.  Meanwhile we’re doing a homeschool project on how to keep records and calculate profits and expenses.

Two of my workshop attendees were rabbit experts, which was awesome, since I learned how to butcher them (hypothetically, we didn’t actually do any) and also a bit more about what to look for in rabbit stock.  We’ll be breeding the buns around the beginning of March – yay!  I’ve already made plans to donate some stock to a local urban community garden that is interested in adding rabbits for manure (and eventually encouraging interested participants to eat them).

It has been one heat cycle since Bast and Jesse were bred.  Bast went into false heat earlier this cycle, which might be a good sign (that she is knocked up) or might not.  Jesse’s not showing any signs (although she’s hard to detect.  The official verdict is…well, maybe.  I think Mina went into heat Wednesday, but I had no car and the boys were on their way to NY, so I’ll mark it down and hope for the next time.

We are starting to look for a buck – it is clear that with this many does, a buck is a needful thing, and we’ve got the space to house him.  So if anyone has a really good milking lines, Nigerian Dwarf buck to sell fairly in the greater Capital District or within a couple hours drive, drop me an email at jewishfarmer@gmail.com. 

We also now have ducks.  The ducks that magically appeared Christmas morning turn out to have been escapees from a ways up the creek.  The folks they escaped from didn’t have good housing for them and had assumed they were dead, and didn’t want them back.  So now our lone duck is joined by four more Pekins – I was planning on adding ducks to our snail patrol, and I’m feeling a little “ask and ye shall receive” about it .

The goats seem to be recovering from our attack of meningeal worm – Selene is still weak in the hind end, but she’s able to jump up on the stanchion consistently and is starting to push Maia (who was happy to take over as herd queen and was kind of a bitch about it ) away when food is on offer. 

All the animals agree with me that we should do more workshops, except Mina, who does not like strangers and thinks this is weird and that people should not be in our barn, except maybe me and Eric and only when we are feeding her.  Otherwise, the dog, the cats, the ducks the goats and other animals were thrilled by more people to love them, more scraps to eat and more attention. 

Most of all, though, it is time to write the book. I’m having a tough time with this one – my heart is in my farm plans and with my kids, not at the computer.  But there’s work to be done and I’m trying to get excited about writing a book that helps people find a way to live well with a lot less where they are and with what they have.  It does fill a need.  I do need to write it.

Ok, update:

Plant something: I stuck some garlic I found in pots, but otherwise, nada.

Harvest something: Eggs!  The chickens are starting to lay again – I got 3 one day, and have had an egg every day the last few.  Since we don’t light

Preserve something: Lactofermented kimchi and sauerkraut, canned some applesauce.

Waste not: Actually, I think I wasted extra.  In our cleanout of the house I found, ummm…a lot of scary things that simply had to be thrown away.  The usual composting and feeding of things to other things ensued, and I did manage to clean out some books and give them away.

Want Not: I can’t bring anything new in until everything goes into buckets like it is supposed to.  New resolution!  Oh, except my Penzeys order, which I haven’t placed yet, but which is forthcoming.  I’m out of chipotle powder, and that is not allowed to be.

Build community food systems – Does convincing 8 people that they want goats count?  I’m still doing a lot of radio, and will be doing some speaking in the upcoming months, but things have been busy. 

Eat the Food: Because I couldn’t get out shopping this week (car trouble) I had to pretty much feed everyone from my pantry, which worked out awesomely well (and my participants were incredibly kind and brought greens, cider, beer and baked goods to supplement - gotta love them!)  Singapore-style noodles with stir fried veggies were a hit, as was the chocolate banana bread pudding. 

How about you?

Sharon

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Sharon December 28th, 2009

The big projects these last few weeks have been taking place in the house rather than outside it - we’re rearranging furniture to make the better insulated apartment home for the winter.  We’re still hoping to eventually find housemates to take over the apartment and/or the two downstairs guest bedrooms, but for this winter, we might as well be cozy in there.   I’m also cleaning out.  The fact that 10 people are coming for an apprentice weekend here in two weeks is a compelling pressure to get this house cleaned up and marginally organized!

The big crisis is that Selene has meningeal worms, and Mina may as well.  These are parasites transmitted by white tailed deer that are carried by snails.  The goats accidentally eat the snails and the parasites end up in their spinal cords causing paralysis, blindness and brain damage, and eventually, death.  It is most common in the northeast after a wet year with an unusually warm fall – pretty much precisely what we had.

It isn’t contagious to people or other goats, but it is a nasty thing.  It can be treated by heavy doses of wormer – much heavier than are used routinely, but you generally only know about it when symptoms show up.  Selene is getting really large doses of wormer to treat it, along with anti-inflammatories, and seems to be recovering.  She’s walking well, although with a limp,  and she tried to jump up on the stanchion yesterday, something she hasn’t even attempted in days.  Still, it is a miserable thing to deal with.  We’re about to start treating Mina, who we suspect may be in the very early stages of the same thing, and are going to treat the whole herd preventatively.  I hate it when my goats are sick!

This means that I probably won’t be doing cheesemaking with my class of apprentices, which sucks, since I don’t think the milk will be clear of wormers.    It also means we have to think about strategies for reducing the snail and deer population near our pastures.  This means I’m more inclined that before to add another dog – keeping the deer far from our pastures becomes a priority.  I’m also thinking I need to add ducks, geese or guinea hens to keep the snail load down.

Otherwise, a quiet week here – lots of cooking and baking, lots of little projects.  Eli is on vacation, which is not his favorite thing in life, but he’s dealing ok so far.  He dislikes disruptions to his routine, and he loves school, so this is annoying to him, but he’s reasonably gracious about it. It helps that it is snowing today – Eli loves snow.  In fact, I looked out the window to see that he’d gone out in his pajamas and was swinging fiercely, a 9 year old in footie red pajamas with penguins on them, surrounded by a haze of white.  It was a lovely picture!

This week’s big project, besides more cleaning and rearranging and getting the book in order (It has to go to the publisher 3 months from tomorrow – let’s just say that I’d like to be a lot further along than I am) is the seed order.  The boys are excited to place their orders as well, and are also anxiously awaiting Murray McMurray’s chicken catalog, since they are allowed to select a bantam breed of chicken to raise to show at the fair this spring.  I’m also plotting the acquisition of bees.

Otherwise, it was a quiet and lovely week, such a relief to have Eric’s grading finished and a little time to pay attention to the house and to the family.  We’ve also had a lot of fun with friends – skating, movie nights, etc… The kids have already picked out movies for our staying-up-late New Years (we go to bed about 20 seconds after they do ) – Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush” and the Monty Python Alum version of Wind in the Willows “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” (which Eric and I saw in theaters when it came out, but which I have little memory of).

There’s enough snow coming down today to keep us comfortably at home – the kids are hoping for enough to build snowmen and sled.  There will come a time when we’re tired of winter, longing to get into dirt.  But for now, winter is welcome, pushing us inwards, getting us focused on home.  The snow is falling on the spruces, on the housetops, on the ice and the world is pleasantly at peace around us.

Ok, actual update:

Plant something: Nope

Harvest something: Some kale from under the snow, a few eggs

Preserve something: Nope, lazy week

Waste Not: The usual composting, reducing consumption and feeding things to other things. Made it through all of Chanukah reusing the same four gift bags .  Have been feeding the autumn apples (the ones that aren’t good keepers) to the goats and rabbits.

Want Not: Nothing, really. 

Eat the Food: Made dim-sum style turnip cakes from our turnips, which were extremely yummy.  Pumpkin gingerbread was a  hit at Eli’s school, although just a touch overly sweet for me, new cranberry bread recipe invented to use up sour milk was great. 

Build community food systems: Too sleepy from overdose of baked goods.

How about you?

Sharon

Sharon

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Sharon December 14th, 2009

We’re having an extremely welcome pause in the cold today and tomorrow, which gives us the time to do a bunch of things we really should have gotten to before, but didn’t.  I’ve still got containers out in the garden that weren’t brought in, and fencing to put away, and the last of the root crops to pull (at least the ones not staying in the ground until spring).  Much to do, all of it late – but that’s the story of our life.

The cold weather means moving over to winter management of the animals – we’re starting to dig into our reserves of home-grown feed supplements – sunflower seeds, pumpkins, corn and amaranth go to the chickens, the goats and the turkeys.  We’re not independent of the feed store, but we do what we can to reduce our dependency, and try and buy local and organic otherwise. 

Chanukah started earlier this week, and has been very pleasant.  We were supposed to celebrate Isaiah’s birthday and Chanukah yesterday, but bad weather and a minor (and now fixed) dental crisis involving Eli meants that we ended up rescheduling for next week, at least on the birthday end.  We had a quiet holiday celebration with two of the Grandmas and us and the kids, and it was lovely. 

It has been a busy week getting ready for the holiday and also making the shift over to winter – just over a week ago, it was 60, so many of the last minute winter things involving sealing and tightening really don’t get done until it gets properly cold.   With the start of the new blog and the end of Eric’s term with its flood of grading and exams, last week was rushed and we’re looking forward to a bit more quiet.  I feel like I didn’t get much done last week.

I’m starting to look at the seed catalogs and dream of the next garden.  I’m also plotting a low-budget, minimalist house rearrangement and some paint to pretty up two really ugly bits of my home.  We’ve got a room that has become a junk room, and I’m going to move some bookcases in there, get a couple of big chairs off of Craigslist, and paint it a decent color (I miss Eric’s grandmother, but not her taste in taupe and baby blue home decor ;-)), and make it a more pleasant place to be.  I’ve got bees on the brain and sheep as well, and am mulling over our farm plan. 

Of course I’m not really supposed to be doing these things – instead, I’m supposed to be single mindedly working on my book.  So far, this is not happening . 

Plant something: Nada

Harvest something: Some kale and turnip greens, and a few turnips.  Also rosemary, thyme and oregano from the windowsill plants.

Preserve something: Apple Quince Sauce, froze some fried cauliflower

Waste Not: Tried to make an eggshell menorah out of saved aracauna eggs.  Destroyed eggshells and failed miserably . Otherwise, the usual composting, feeding things to other things, using up scraps…

Want Not: Picked up a big order of wheat, oats and dried fruit. 

Eat the food: Latkes, latkes, latkes – yum!  They are best, IMHO, with applesauce mixed with some quinces for that incomparable fragrance.  We also made sofganiyot for the first time, filled with homemade jam – the raspberry is still the best, but the peach-almond was awesome. 

Build community food systems – still doing a lot of radio interviews for _Independence Days_ – also, working hard on pushing poultry on a lot of people – I’m your poultry pusherwoman!

How about you?

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Sharon December 7th, 2009

I haven’t done an ID update in a couple of weeks because of the Thanksgiving holiday (ie, I was gone for most of a week) and various other things, so this will cover a bit back. 

BTW, some of you may have wandered over from the new site, and be wondering what the heck this is all about – the Independence Days project arose from a quote of Carla Emery’s (she of the awesome _Encyclopedia of Country Living_) in which she suggests that people wanting to grow and put up food do as she does – try and plant something every day in that season, harvest something every day, do a little preserving every day.  We all know we’re not always going to do something every day, but the hundreds of people involved in this project are trying to do a little bit each day or week or month to get them a bit more food self-sufficient. Instead of staying home for a week and canning a truckload of food, and then saying “no, this is too much” we’re all just doing a little bit at a time.  What’s amazing is that it adds up – and here’s where you get to post your update (or a link to your blog) and tell us what you accomplished this week, and let us see how it does add up.

There’s no formal sign up process, you just join in.  We have seven categories, and obviously, not every one will apply in every season or to every person, but you get credit for everything you do:

Plant something: Whether seeds you are starting indoors or fall crops planted in your garden, you get points for everything you grow for yourself.

Harvest something: This covers things from your garden and wild foraged food and things you glean – this the food you take home.

Preserve something: This could mean a pantry full of glass jars, but remember, canning isn’t necessary to life.  It includes the cold spot you put your potatoes in and the sun you dry your strawberries in, the cool place you put up squash and sweet potatoes, the mulch you cover your greens with in the garden, the fresh pickles you have on your kitchen shelf…you name it.

Waste Not: Reducing waste in all its forms is essential.  Did you do something new this week – save something from the trash, reduce your own food waste stream, reduce packaging, mend something, compost or feed a creature with your scraps?  This is important stuff.

Want Not: For those of us trying to build up a reserve of food in case of an extended power outage or an emergency, a job loss or so you can help others, adding a little bit to your pantry at a time is important.  Tell us what you did, what good deals you found.

Eat the Food: What especially yummy ways did you find to eat the products of your garden, your freezer, your CSA, your farmer’s market? 

Build Community Food Systems: Everything from sitting down with your neighbors to talk about storing food to putting in school gardens, bartering in your community, starting farmer’s market, or just telling everyone how great the food is.  The more you do for this, the more resilient the system is!

We’d love it if you’d join us!

Right now things on the farm are quiet – the snow on the ground means a lot less digging around.  We had about 4 inches a few days ago, and we’re still living in fairy-land.  Unlike in populated areas, where the snow turns grey and dingy almost immediately, our area stays stunning until mud season in the spring .

We’re not yet cutting wood, really, which is the big project this time of year - Eric is too frantic with the end of his term for either of us to have time.  The big project is watching for signs of heat on the goats.  Since we don’t have  a buck (and I think a buck is definitely in our future, since this is a PITA with 7 goats to breed), any sign of heat means we whisk them into our car and drive off to our friends with the boys.  We thought that Bast, our adolescent goat, would come into heat this weekend, and had arranged everything to get her there.  She didn’t.  So we’re back to waving the buck rag (a piece of cloth that stinks of boy goat) past the goats every day.  Wheee.

The other immediate project is the butchering of the turkeys that weren’t ready by Thanksgiving.  If anyone in my general area (I’m about 45 minutes west of Albany, and could probably deliver to Albany or Schenectady) is looking for a heritage turkey for Christmas or Chanukah, I’ve got some – you can email me.  They were really terrific last year.

Once the turkeys are out of the barn, life will settle down a lot – 15 turkeys is just too many in a winter barn.  The goat babies are very excited about snow and its capacity for play, and so are the kids.  I’ve bark to collect for my herb projects and wood to cut for next year’s burning.  And once Eric is done with exams, we get to relax a little, clean the house, hang out and think seed catalogs. 

Chanukah starts Friday, of course, but the great thing about Chanukah is that it is a minor holiday.  The kids are excited, and there’s some minor getting ready, plus the kids like the decorations, but it really isn’t even remotely equivalent to the scale of Christmas for most Americans.  We’re having one bash – a joint birthday party for Isaiah and Chanukah party, and after that, we’re going to take most of the rest of December as easy anyone with kids, a farm and a blog can.

Ok, here’s my update:

Plant something: I did plant a few bulbs and a couple of heads of extra garlic I had lying around on the 60 degree day we had last week.

Harvest something: Kale, beets, parsley, sage, chard, arugula

Preserve something: Quince Applesauce, I attempted to mimic these great red cabbage/cauliflower pickles we had at Kathy Harrison’s house the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Time will tell if I have succeeded.

Waste not: Went through the garden looking for hiding carrots and other roots to be fed to either us or the goats or bunnies, sorted through the apple bins and fed the wrinkly ones to various creatures, collected scraps for the poultry, the usual composting, mending, etc… 

Want Not: Added oatmeal and brown sugar to storage, canned up a couple of pumpkins that were being discarded by friends after the holidays, began cutting up old fleece pajamas for a quilting project for the boys, collected Thanksgiving decorations from friends getting rid of theirs – the decorative corn was eaten by chickens, the pumpkins by goats.

Eat the food: Found a lovely spicy kosher sausage, and made a big pot of my favorite Portugese Kale soup with the greens, enjoyed our favorite cranberry-chocolate chip cookies, discovered just how often fresh chevre is with homemade raspberry jam on homemade sourdough. 

Build Community Food Systems: Approximately 47,000 radio interviews for _Independence Days_, agreed to teach a couple of food storage classes, am planning some new projects that will be unveiled soon.

How about you?  BTW, the next post up will have all the new blog info, but ID updates will stay over here, along with the food storage quickies! 

Sharon

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