Abuela's Frijoles Negros, or Grandma's Black Beans.

I endevour to own a shelf of home canned items.  It’s NEVER easy to do this with pressure canned items in my home, because they are time consuming and labor intensive.  I feel the hot water bath canning is much more achievable for a busy mom-preneur like myself, but alas,  I’m never much interested in what one can safely bathe in hot water!  I do a little of it here and there, but each year I get super excited about the process of Pressure Canning, which allows me to sock away soups, sauces, meat & broths and lots of things I used to buy off the shelf as convenience items!

However, home canning isn’t easy at all, it’s very detail oriented and precise.  It’s not safe to take ANY shortcuts and you must must must follow guidelines set forth the experts.  Its pretty easy to make a mistake and in the beginning, there are often many.   This is basically year 3 for me, and I only get to do a few batches each year because we run out of jars.  But just like I did, you will collect more and more over the years until you get here, where I am now.  I have a cabinet or two FULL of jars, some donated, some purchased used, others are reused from the ones I bought new.  All need a close inspection before use and due to a mishap in this very batch, I will also be pre-boiling jars, to be sure they will hold up.

The mishap, involved placing a quart jar of tediously prepared Cuban Black Beans into the canner and the bottom promptly popped right off.  🙁   This is really awful when it happens, because now all the contents of the jar are in the clean canner water, AND you can’t even eat the stuff, if you could salvage it because there MIGHT be a little glass in it.  It’s heartbreaking but, part of the learning curve I expect.  The only thing I can be great-full for is, that I choose to learn my process on inexpensive ingredients, and so while I’m out a lot of time, it’s only a little bit of money.  Last year I learned that I MUST MUST MUST use the freshest youngest ingredients when my pickles came out soggy and boring.  Also, pickling lime is a fantastic helper there too with that.  The pickles aren’t a waste, they make a decent relish, but still, there is a learning curve no doubt.

However, when your shelf is lined with a few of your own home canned items, and when the kids can reach for Grandma’s Black Beans & reheat them in a pot ready to eat, I just can’t say enough about how special that is.  Making your own convenience foods is really the best way to go.

This recipe will be available in my upcoming cookbook this fall.

Homemade Yogurt mixed up with some homemade Jam by Jenn! I guess you can call it a cup of 'Jenn Jam Yogurt'

Did you realize you can increase your yogurt supply exponentially by simply following a few steps?  It’s not overly complicated, it’s in fact pretty straight forward.  I think of the process like this.  Your going to purchase some high quality expensive yogurt at the store, the kind that might be too pricey for you to afford regularly… you know which container I mean.  And your going to bring it home, feed a little yogurt a lot of super yummy milk that you have prepared for it, put it in a sealed container so that it can eat it’s milk in privacy and when the yogurt is done eating, you will have a jar FULL of yogurt instead of milk!   Seriously!

This process can also yield soft cheeses and spread for you!  I’m certainly no expert at this and am just learning myself.   I followed the process used by a fellow BYC user Miss Prissy found here: http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=70639#p70639

Here is the secondary information I used, to further understand the process.  http://extension.missouri.edu/p/GH1183  By the way if you go to that link, notice how many AMAZING and informative publications they provide for free on low cost meals, meal planning, and home made goods.

The back garden is where we planted corn this year. Only the portion along the fence will be used for one of our winter cold frames.

We are still learning how to extend our growing seasons, and this year we will continue experimenting.  The plan for this winter is 2 cold frame structures.  They’ll both be ‘make-shift’ as are most everything around here, but based on last year’s information I expect to extend our growing season into next year.

Our climate here tends to be mild, even though we have all the potential to be snowed under, we usually aren’t.  And for 9 out of 10 of those years, we could definitely be growing through fall into winter.    Last year’s trials were just some plastic haphazardly strewn over some herbs & a tiny plastic tent over some spinach, so this year we’re going all out.

I prepared the bed by pulling the corn stalks and opening up the gate to the chickens.  In 2 weeks, what was a weed filled mess is now this (photo top) leveled, brown garden.  I pitchforked up the area I plan to plant and have been amending the soil.  Next I’ll bring in some mulch and close it off to chickens and put in the seed pots we had to start.  We

45 peat pots & cups with Spinach, Lettuce, Beans, Parsley & Cucumber - all 70 days or less on the growing cycle.

had to start them because Labor Day rains, left small lakes in most of the south eastern United States, including my yard.  No outdoor planting allowed, so we made do and got seeds started in cups.  Spinach, Romaine, Cucumbers (to see if they would produce), Parsley & Green Beans.  The Radish, Kohl Rabi & Carrots I’m also going to start need to be sown directly in the soil so I’ll have to wait on those.

To the left here are the fall seed cups, getting some natural rain today outside because at the end of Hurricane Lee here, we’re getting lovely light misty rain.  I can truly put them in the garden as soon as the flooding rains go away and the ground firms up a little.  I don’t wait on seedlings to grow up big & strong because around here, they do best if they grow up right outside.  When I have to take seedlings in and outside, they always have to have that adjustment period and I’m too impatient to do it properly.   When I put them right out, they have their good soil and are protected from washing away in rain because of the cup, and they learn to live right where they are supposed to.   Heck, I wonder if they even notice they are in a peat cup?  Well, I do it because without them, seedlings wash away, it’s difficult to know where to water exactly.  It’s win win like this for us.

Well, on that note, I’m off to get some things done on my cookbook!  It’s coming along nicely and I’m very encouraged.  I am running a week or so behind but I suppose that is to be expected to!

Thank you for reading and for all of your support!

Cheers!

Eating locally grown ONLY can often lead to undesired consequences.  Before Americans were able to truck what grows well in California, up to say, the folks in Maine, we were an unfortunate combination of vitamin & mineral deficiencies.  To me, saying you only want to eat locally, is like saying you want to live like the Pioneers did.  If you remember correctly, Pioneers often died at young ages of what we consider now totally preventable & avoidable diseases & food poisonings.

If you live in a climate with only 2 or 3 seasons, you might be able to do just that, eat locally and maintain a healthy balance to your diet.  But LOTS of Americans live in places where there are short growing seasons, long HOT dry seasons or too wet of a season to grow much of anything!  If you lived in these places, you would understand that you can NOT live on what is available locally if you hope to live a  long productive life!  The only point I am willing to concede here is that perhaps we should not be living in those places, where food varieties are limited by climate.    However, humanity does not understand the word NO, and we proceed forward toughing out even the most extreme conditions.

We adapt, and in America, part of adapting meant that a generation or two suffered or endured long enough to build an infrastructure on this land.    Infrastructure that would allow the transport of resources from one side of this continent to the other and one of our priorities was moving food by rail or road.  We became strong & fit, as a people and as a nation by eating food from all over our new land.  Our railways & roads, grew to reinforce farming & industry and brought life to the heart of our nation.   This is undoubtedly why we call our farming belt, The Heartland.

Farming put our country on the fast track to long term success, our ability to grow such a wide variety of foods, plant & animal, on one continent, all owned by one nation.   It is something that makes our continent & climate combination so desirable, and makes us lucky to be here.   You don’t think that a Russian Parsnip & Carrot farmer lingers a little too long sometimes on the idea that he too could have “happy cows” living in the  California sunshine? Or maybe he really longs to grow Artichokes, his favorite delicacy, because in Russia, they are a delicacy.    I certainly do and try to appreciate that when I go out to my own gardens to grow what I can.   Because like my fictitious Russian root vegetable farmer friend,  I adore Artichokes and am in no position to grow them in my climate either!

I don’t have romantic notions about gardening.  It’s hard, almost impossible to grow your own food even given the land & skills to do so, it’s STILL a ton of hard work.  I would rather buy most of my food at my local stores or markets, but like so many people, it’s just not available in the way I would like;  chemical free.  So I feel compelled to grow some things, like sweet peppers!  My goodness, peppers are $4 EACH sometimes here at the store!  Good grief!   But I digress, the grocery stores do offer variety I could NEVER get at home or in my neighborhood, like oranges, lemons, poms, starfruit, artichokes and so on!  And if I never bought those things, my diet would be lacking.  Farming, trucking, railway, packaging jobs would be lost if I only ate locally!  We NEED to eat beyond our region, because your body AND your country is depending on you.  Sure you can take a vitamin or mineral supplement, but why?  Why not just eat the orange once or twice a week from out of town, support a farmer, transport company & your health.   And what about those supplements?  How do you verify if THOSE are local?  You can’t.  Therefore in my common sense world, there is no way to eat ONLY locally and maintain or achieve optimum health.

We can work on our differences, our infrastructure, our morality as a country, but without a good diet, without good food and nutrition, we won’t be operating at peak efficiency.  And THAT to me is the number one reason to eat a well balanced varied diet to the best of your ability.   From there, with that good foundation, we can once again grow into health & fitness as the norm.

So what are you to do if you are now not sure about eating locally?  Eat RESPONSIBLY is my suggestion.  Get to know the companies who produce the food you want to buy and learn how they treat the planet and their employees.  Buy ONLY from responsible companies who are trying to give back, help the people or the land or who share your own moral and religious views.  ‘Know your farmers’ & food providers doesn’t just mean go to the local Farmer’s Market and talk to the vendors, it means use the INTERNET to learn about these companies and support the good ones!  If a company isn’t providing more than enough information online about their practices, send them an email and ask!  Most all the good responsible corporations are on board with complete transparency these days.

I often get email questions from readers, and new poultry owners who find me through sites like BackyardChickens.com.  I thought it might be fun to sometimes share the questions I receive as well as the answers I give in a new category called Questions & Answers.

Question:

“… this spring we ordered a big group of chicks from a hatchery to add to our flock.  We were supposed to get only pullets, but it appears that we managed to acquire a few cockerels too.  In fact, there are 3 new little boys who have recently started to crow.  I’m concerned that our main rooster will hurt them, and it’s time to start introducing the new ones to the flock so they can begin living together before winter!  Is it hopeless?  Will I have to try and find homes for these 3 little guys, who are adorable, or is it possible that maybe they could just live with the group?  The original flock is Big Daddy and 6 Buff Orpington hens, and the new chicks are Black Australorps, if that makes a difference.  Thanks for ANY advice you can give.”

Answer:

Dear Reader,

It sounds like you have quite the flock going on there now!  I first want to reassure you that nearly anything is possible with a little patience and hard work.  You didn’t mention the living conditions, which will likely make a BIG difference on the success or failure of merging 3 smaller breed cockerels with a large dominant adult Rooster.   If they live in confinement all the time, aka in a coop & fenced run, it will be very difficult, for them all to get along happily.   In a free range environment with all the space they could want, and a small group of chickens don’t require much more than half an acre or so of roaming space, they would do wonderfully.  You will probably want to try and find new homes for the new Black Australorp cockerels unless you do have the space they’ll need to work this out on their own.  It’s quite possible that what you’ll find is that the Australorps, male & female, will flock together and the older group will flock their own way.    We have several flocks ranging together each with a rooster or 2.  Chickens are good about establishing the pecking order and once that happens, the only time there is any trouble, is when someone gets too big for their britches, er um, tail feathers!

Good luck and please let me know if I can help.
Sincerely,
Dawn Suiter

Yesterday we were able to finish installing a 6′ tall chain link run for my breeding coop, who are not allowed to free range during breeding season. It’s wonderful to have that done, and now my dozen or so breeders will have a just over 100sf of indoor space (2 coops joined) and probably 80sf of outdoor run space available to them. It’s a big accomplishment and will help prevent any accidental babies by the wrong parents.

We were also able to settle on the plan for the new wood stove hearth. We are going with pavers/stepping stones available at Lowes. Fair simple installation, and a suitable look I think. I’ll get the free form shape I am after, and DH can have the stone/rock look he is after. As much as we would like to apply a treatment to the wall behind the stove, we are going to have to wait on that. If you didn’t know already, buying a stove is inexpensive. Installing a Chimney pipe carries a pretty hefty price tag; DOUBLE the stove cost for us. So we have to focus the rest of our potential savings on that so we can USE this darn stove this winter. 🙂

Today I have a steering committee meeting for the Newport Farmer’s Market, to help figure out where the market is going to go from here as we close down the 2011 season and look forward to 2012.

Taking advantage of the last couple days of great weather, was the best idea.  We got the coop raked out, and new perch system installed.  There are now 36′ of perch space in the main coop, which can accommodate up to 50 birds depending on size.   I’m VERY happy with how it looks and functions and I’m certain I will continue to.  Last night we purchased a power paint sprayer, so that we may cover each and every inch of exposed wood throughout the coops & our other exterior structures, first with a termite discouraging spray and then with paint.

After we changed the perching arrangement, we began putting the new Olive Egger flock into the main coop with the big kids.  Now they are only 4 months or so old now, but they get along grand with the big chickens.  They’ve been free ranging during the day together for about 2 months now, but sleeping in separate coops still.  We’ll keep placing them here at night for a few more nights after they go off to sleep and then we will lock them out of their coop and insist they move in to the Hen House.

As you can see, we still have LOTS of room to grow on!

We went to the Saturday Farmer’s Market here in Newport because we were told that the egg farmer sells out too quickly and they need more eggs.  I try to stick to Tuesday nights because there isn’t a lot of farmers on that night and on Saturday there is usually 2 other egg sellers.

Unfortunately, due to the devastatingly low prices the other main egg farmer sells his eggs for – 3 for $4, I am no longer able to sell many eggs at our market.   I asked him when he started at the market this year, “How much does it cost for you to PRODUCE a dozen eggs?” and his reply was that he had NO IDEA, and they were just retired people doing this for fun.  I explained to him that it costs me between $1 and $1.50 to produce eggs PLUS the cost of the carton, and he didn’t want to believe that, or rather my guess is he didn’t want to do the responsible math to arrive at a proper calculation on his own farm.

He continued to undervalue his eggs and sell out each day.  Even worse, now that he’s run out of “extra stock” I guess he accumulated over the winter in his fridge, he can not keep up with the demand he created for cheap eggs.  He’s only able to bring a few dozen now each market day.  Now, people come for cheap eggs, and there either isn’t any left because he sells out immediately and doesn’t stay around.  Or they view my Free Range Rainbow eggs as “overpriced”, even though they cost less than Cage Free eggs at ALL of our local markets.

So now, even though he did really well getting rid of extra supply early on in the market season, he’s priced himself of making any profit at all.  Furthermore, now our regular shoppers have come to expect a seriously low price tag, a STEAL of a price really and I can not compete with that unless I TOO want to not make any profit.  For nearly 2 years I’ve been selling my eggs for $3 per dozen and had no such issues with perceived values.  Now, one farmer comes along with no regard to the rest of the established markets example, refused to make a profit for himself and now NEITHER of us can make much money.  Such a shame how one’s actions can affect an entire market.

It’s discouraging now that I won’t be able to make much money for the next couple of months on egg sales, however, I will not be lowering my prices, because in doing so, I would be doing a disservice to myself and any other egg farmers who might come along.  It’s also no surprise that the low priced egg farmer in this equation has decided that NEXT season, he’ll have to increase his prices.

The 2 morals of this story are:

“When you undervalue your hard work, time & energy; you subsequently undervalue your neighbors, friends & in general humanity.”

and

“It’s important to remember, that the consequences of your actions are sometimes hidden to you, but not to others.”

Since originally building the Hen House, the perches, the boxes, the floor litter type, has changed at least dozen times!  The whole place has been so versatile during our growth over the years and evolution, allowing us to learn & change.  It’s a modest 9 X 11 and a simple bare shell of palette & wire, it couldn’t be more simple and more perfect at the same time.  And now, after 3 years I think it’s been, it’s time to go with a permanent setup.  I’ve chosen a standard ladder type system, 4 – 9 foot perches, to accommodate 36-50 chickens at night.

This is just step 1 of my plan for this years updates.  While doing the perches, I’ll be making the doorway more narrow & replacing the door at the same time.  We’re already planning on re-using the door panels as garden gates elsewhere.  The new more narrow door, will be one piece & still wire.

Next I’d really like to get the shelves installed for the nest boxes to sit on along the back wall.  I still want to use the plastic tubs I’ve become so fond of.  And finally, some kind of shutter for the tall open side, for use during storms.

So that’s what we’re working on, and in our spare time, I hope to be done in only a few weeks 😉

This summer my sister decided to upgrade her electronic and digital equipment, and bought a second hand iPad from an online auction site. My daughter goes over each year for a little summertime break, and my sister reasoned that this year she would have an iPad to help her chat along with her friends while she was away from home. I expressed to my sis my own interest in obtaining a “coffee table tablet” to ease up the demands on the computers here as well for simple chat and email review. We didnt really talk more about that, we just prepared for Lexi’s visit and about how she would have fun using the iPad. And so she did, Lexi chatted along with her friends, played games, and had a blast downloading apps on the iPad AND the new iPhone her aunt got her for a surprise. Anyway, after Lexi came home, she informed me that the iPad she had been using was on it’s way here so that I could enjoy it too, because my sister is already considering getting the newer iPad2.

A few days later a package arrives addressed to “The Coffee Table” c/o Dawn Suiter. Yep, my sister also has a good sense of humor. Inside is the first iPad or touch screen tablet, I have ever seen in person. I wasn’t really ready at that time to begin learning about it, after all my tomatoes were growing out of control and really needed my attention. But I really didn’t have much of a choice sfter a few days because I am officially the techie in the house and when hubby and favorite daughter Lexi began having trouble, it was up to me to fix it. True to form, only a few help files later and I became a bit of an expert on Henry and how he thinks. We have been inseperable ever since.

Since embracing him, Henry has helped me plan a wedding reception, get my blog back online without chaining me to a desk or chair, keep track of favorite daughter Lexi’s upcoming school schedule, allowed me to find great recipes while waiting during after school pickups, put me in touch with gmail on the road, provided my husband and I with HOURS of cost effective entertainment at our fingertips. We even can now find a nice place to park with a picnic and watch movies together, play video games from our childhood with amazing realism, or we can sit under the stars and track the International Space Station or listen to music. Henry has really changed my daily activities for the better!

If you don’t already have a Henry of your own, I think you might just be missing out on a fantastic relationship. Finally a device that ACTUALLY has the ability to enhance your life instead of detract from it as most tech gadgets do, in my opinion.