Mites!

Aaahhh!

Hubby brought the eggs in today, and on one of the shells I saw a tiny speck begin to move. Then I saw a few more specks moving. Aaahh! My chickens have mites!

Has anyone else ever dealt with mites before? I have ivomectin pour-on for my goats, so I can try that on the birds themselves. But what should I use for everything else (nest boxes, litter, etc.)? There are so many insecticidal sprays and dusts out there. What works best?

Aaaahhhhh!!!

Dreaming of dirt

My seed orders have been sent. My graph paper garden sketch is nearly complete. Now all I can do is wait until late March, when I can finally start a few tiny vegetable and herb seeds in my basement.

Following last year's success, I am enlarging my garden by 1/3, to 45' x 45' in size. My nine-year-old son has promised help with weeding (in exchange for a modest allowance, of course) and my husband has promised help with tilling and digging and fencing. I still need to find more steel siding for pathways, but I think I know where to get some.

Surrounded by 6' welded wire fence and interwoven with steel paths, my garden isn't pretty. But it is productive. Someday I will have a pretty garden, with brick-laid paths and raised beds and trellised vines. That day is far in the future. I still have to master the art of growing things. I need to learn about succession planting and cover crops, dealing with blight and mildew, how to improve the soil and manage weeds.

I need to learn, and learn fast. This year I am experimenting with a few new things. I am planting herbs for the first time: dill, sage, chamomile, basil, thyme, lemonbalm. I am planting cayenne and paprika peppers, to grind my own spices. I am planting lettuce and amaranth for the first time. And I am going to start a permanent bed of asparagus.

I hope I am not over reaching. To help with weed control I am going to experiment with some black plastic mulch. I have the plastic already, so I might as well use it. I am going to use Bt spray to control the creepy crawlies on my brassicas. I am going to make two plantings of my cabbage, carrots and rutabagas: one for summer eating, and one for winter storage.

Putting this all down on paper scares me a little. The best laid plans of mice and men, and all that. I have such high hopes--I always do. But that is what gets us through these cold and dark days of winter: the hopes we have for a warm spring, the dreams we hold for the rich brown earth.

All we can do is wait. And dream.


And swing!

Homemade crackers

Last fall hubby and I splurged and went to a bed and breakfast in Stillwater, MN. It was called The Elephant Walk B&B, and it was very nice. The best thing about it was the plate of goodies inside your room when you arrived -- various yummy artisan cheeses, grapes, pistachios, apples, and delicious homemade crackers.

Those crackers were so good, I asked the innkeeper for the recipe, and she happily obliged. I grabbed a piece of paper out of my purse and scribbled down the directions as she talked. I thought I had it all down. As you'll see below, I was wrong.

Tonight I decided to make the crackers. We're having company this weekend, and I thought the crackers would be nice to serve for an afternoon snack. The recipe started off with 'make a stiff bread dough.' So I made a white bread dough, and let my six-year-old help with the kneading. He took great delight in pounding the dough as hard as he could with his little fists.


It was here that I realized I was missing a vital piece of information. Do I let the dough rise, or not? I thought about it for awhile, and figured that since I was told to use a bread dough, then I should follow through with bread dough basics, and let it rise. So, I did.

After that step, my recipe said, 'using a pasta machine, roll it thick first and then as thin as you can.' So I did, and spread the pieces over my kitchen table. I only rolled a third of the dough, as my table could only hold that many pieces at once.


Then my recipe said, 'Place on parchment paper, on a cookie sheet. Brush with egg whites and sprinkle sesame seeds over top. ' So I did.


Then, 'bake in a 425 oven for a few minutes until lightly browned.' So, I did.


Whoa! Wait! What's going on here? What are those big air bubbles doing in my crackers? There aren't supposed to be any air bubbles! The B&B crackers were lovely and flat and evenly browned. If I get air bubbles, the crackers will puff up and the tops of the bubbles will get burned before the flat parts get browned.


Which is exactly what happened. Rats. What do I do now? I can't 'unrise' the dough. Too late for that. I still had a bunch of dough left, and I didn't want to start over. The only thing I could think of was to beat and flatten and punch the dough to within an inch of its life. Then use a rolling pin and flatten it some more. Then send it through the pasta roller. So, that's what I did.


The resulting crackers were a lot better. I also reduced the heat to 350, which helped even out the browning. Only a few smaller air bubbles. Not as good as the B&B's, but good enough to serve to guests. Note to self: don't let the dough rise!

I went to the grocery store today looking for some artisan cheeses to serve with the crackers, but was sorely disappointed. There was about thirty different brands and varieties of cheddar, Colby, hard mozzarella and Monterrey Jack. In desperation I bought the only non-block cheese I could find -- some soft Swiss and Edam. Never had Edam before, so we'll see what that tastes like.

Maybe if I have time tomorrow I'll whip up a batch of fresh mozzarella before our company arrives around lunchtime. Right after I help hubby clean the house, bake a birthday cake, make deviled eggs, plan party games, take care of the livestock, and do a bunch of laundry.

Yeah, right!

Just six easy steps!

Okay, now that you are all jazzed and jived about using lard, let me show you how you can make it at home. At least, I'll show you how I make it in my home.

Step One: Find some pig fat. The easiest way to do this is head for a butcher shop. Unless your grocery store butchers its own animals, they're not likely to carry the stuff in the store. Not a lot of demand for it, you know.

Find a butcher shop, walk inside, and ask for pork fat. Between five and ten pounds. The butcher might look at you strange and say 'Do you mean lard?' If so, nod your head and smile. Some butchers don't differentiate between rendered and unrendered lard.

If you're having your own hog butchered, ask them to separate the fat that's next to the kidneys and loin from the rest of the body fat. Kidney and loin fat is the most pure, and has less of an odor. Lard rendered from this fat is called 'leaf lard.'

The picture above shows the meat we got from the hog we had butchered last fall. All of the fat is stored in the two bags on the top shelf.

Ask the butcher to grind it up for you. This makes it a whole lot easier to melt. If they can't grind it up, expect to spend about an hour cutting it into little chunks at home.


Step two: Put the fat into a big pot. Turn the burner onto medium high heat. Add a few inches of water and put on the lid. Once it starts to boil turn the heat down to medium.

Some folks don't add water. That's fine. If you don't add water, I suspect you have to melt the fat over a low heat to prevent scorching. I add water because I want to use a higher heat to melt it more quickly. I also think that using water yields a better quality lard. But that's just my own theory, untested and unproven.


Step Three: Melt the fat. Now, in the picture above you can see some submerged, unmelted masses of stuff. This 'stuff' is extra bits of tissue and meat that got mixed in when the butcher was grinding up the lard. Obviously, this stuff won't melt. That's okay. It will strain out later. Some folks keep this stuff and fry it up to make 'cracklings.' I've never done this before. Anyone have any experience with this?

Warning: At this point you will begin to smell the melting fat. To an unaccustomed nose, the smell may be unpleasant. But it doesn't bother me in the slightest. That's because I'm used to it. Personally I find the smell of margarine to be mildly nauseating, but that's probably because I haven't used it in nearly ten years. Yeah, I'm an odd duck.

The time required for melting depends on the heat level used to melt the fat. If you're using low heat, it can take the better part of a day. If your using medium heat, it could take just a few hours. It's hard to tell when all the fat is melted -- use your best guess. When the unmelted bits look more like cooked pork rather than unmelted fat, you're likely done.

Step Four: Strain the melted fat. To do this, line a large colander with several layers of damp cheesecloth. Put the colander over a large bowl. Ladle or pour off the melted fat into the colander. The non-melted bits will be caught in the colander, and the melted lard will pour through.


Step Five: Pour the melted fat into a container.

If you didn't add water during melting: Pour the lard into one or more storage containers. I recommend using several smaller containers, rather than one big one. Recycled pint-sized sour cream or yogurt containers work well for this. Put them in the fridge to cool.



If you added water during melting: Pour the lard into a large plastic bowl (like an ice cream pail), and put it into the fridge to cool overnight. The next day the lard will have separated from the water. The lard will be on top, with the water underneath. Take the ice cream pail and dump it all out into a clean sink. It may take some thumping to get the lard out of the pail. Try running a butter knife around the edge. When it's out, wash away the water and scrape off any aspic. Cut the lard into smaller pieces and put them into one or more storage containers.

Step Six: Store the lard. Keep one container in the fridge for immediate use, and put the rest in the freezer. Lard will last longer if it's kept frozen.

Note on Aspic: After the lard cools there may be a thin layer of aspic at the bottom of the container, beneath the lard. It's harmless -- just scrape it away.


The picture above shows about half of the lard I produced from the large pot of fat I started melting above. Which is about half of the fat I got from the hog. In other words, the dinner plate of lard above represents about 1/4 of the lard produced from one hog. Obviously, this will vary depending upon the size and breed of the animal.

Depending on the quality of fat you've used, the lard will vary between yellowish white to nearly white in color. Leaf lard will have very little scent, while regular lard will have a distinct (but not overwhelming) scent.

Use only leaf lard in pastry. When I first started using lard I made the mistake of using regular lard in a peach cobbler crust. There was definitely some added flavor there. Not horrible, but not great either. Regular lard is perfect for frying -- potatoes, eggs, meats, etc. But leaf lard is preferable in pastries.

I sound like an expert here, but I'm not. This is just the way I do it -- I'm sure there are dozens of different ways to render lard. Feel free to chip in with your own techniques or tricks. I'm always hoping to learn something new.