Meet the family

Here are our children- Megan(9), Jonathan(5), Jami(7) & Alyssa (10).

This is our rooster. He is beautiful which is one of the primary reasons he is still with us.

This is our barred rock or "barack" seems very appropriate with our new president.

This is "Blackie." She is very funny, she will chase us when we come into their space. Its almost like she is playing tag. We have seen her do that with the cat too, who did not want to play.

We have three of these egyptian fayoumis which we called road runners from when they were little. They looked like the roadrunner from the cartoon, not anymore but the name stuck. The second picture if one of them in the nesting box being broodie I guess- she would screech and raise her feathers when ever we came into the coop- then she reminded me of the dinosaur from the movie Jurassic Park.

We had three of these buffed laced polish, they are the most docile and there fore the kids' favorite. They all had names- Butterscotch, Pumpkin and Cream. Unfortunately we lost Butterscotch to a predator, very traumatic for the kids, but they seemed to understand the circle of life that we tried to explain to them.This is my daughter Megan and her favorite Pumpkin.

Neither of these have names, but I think they are Adam's favorite.

We had three of these, but lost one to a predator. They are very pretty, and are a favorite of mine.

We started off with 12 of these. They are also very docile, but don't like to be picked up and held as the buffed laced do. We lost one of these to a predator, sold 9 and are there for left with two. One is named Trickey.

With the new chickens, only one got a name- Bolt, because it had a bolt shaped mark on her head when she was a chick. Now that they no longer have those same markings I would say they are all unnamed. There were too many of them at the beginning to pick any out in particular. Maybe now that we have only a few of each the kids will get closer to them.

We also have two cats- Mickey
and Minnie
two hamsters and a fish.

Christmas cooking

I think everyone does some kind of baking/cooking during the holiday season. I do a lot. This year I had in my mind to give out some of the things I had canned in the summer as gifts. For the teachers I decided to give cranberry themed baskets. They had a jar of cranberry apple relish and a small jar of cranberry mustard, a bag of cranberry chocolate chippers and a bag of Italian cookies (not cranberry but they were shaped like "s" and very cute. Two of them got cranberry hand soap and two of them got cranberry scented oil and a burner. I was very happy with how the baskets came out, I thought they were very pretty. I hope the teachers likes them too.

For our family I also gave baskets of jarred foods and cookies. I gave out 6 baskets containing lemon mint vinegar, blueberry basil vinegar, blueberry lime jam, kiwi strawberry jam, bread and butter pickles, dill pickles and cranberry mustard and cookies. I also did 4 bags with pickles, mustard and the blueberry lime jam and cookies.

I made probably 35 bags of cookies (I lost count) for the girl scout leaders, the mail woman, the special teachers, principal, etc. For cookies this year we made- mocha toffee truffles, Italian cookies, peanut and cashew brittle, peanut butter blossoms, cherry chocolate kisses, cranberry chocolate chippers, Reece's peanut butter cup cookies and peppermint crunch mix.

We also have a big party on the 23rd (Christmas eve eve) for which I usually go overboard with food- and this year was no exception. I do think this year I had the most left over food ever though, but with probably the most people 60-70. I had to over cook as there were a couple of guys that have been giving me a hard time since last year that I didn't have enough food. We had buffalo chicken wings, sesame chicken wings, the mini hot dogs in crescent rolls, chestnuts wrapped in bacon(this was a new one for me this year- I thought sounded gross but was told it was very good-they were right), scallops wrapped in bacon, a pesto and cream cheese layered spread, chipolte meatballs, honey mustard meatballs, shrimp cocktail, pot stickers, spinach prosciutto palimers, curried chicken salad, spinach triangles, and cheesy bread sticks. I also had many people bring food too which was quite helpful- thanks to all who brought food to be eaten at the party or treats for us to have later!!

We have a stocked bar but the drink of the day is the cranberry marinated vodka that I have been making for the last couple years. This year I mad a double batch and we still finished it all. It is certainly delicious!!

Cranberry Marinated Vodka

5 cups cranberries

2 1/2 cups water

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 cups vodka

Combine cranberries, water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Cool completely. Mix in vodka. Cover cranberry mixture and let stand two days at room temperature. Strain thru sieve into clean container. Cover and refrigerate. Serve over crushed ice.

I hate to let anything so to waste, so last year I found a recipe for truffles using the cranberry pieces I had strained out. This year I couldn't find that same recipe so I got a new one off the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association website. I got as far as making the truffle mixture and then ran out of time. It is still in a bowl in my refrigerator.

http://www.cranberries.org/cranberries/recipes_crantruffle.html

People love their chickens!

We got our second batch of chickens thanks to Warren at Old Stone Orchard- notice a pattern here? We had been without Adam for apple picking and they had ducklings and baby barred rocks. The kids thought they were so cute so when we went back, with Adam this time, we had to ask why we couldn't find them. Warren told us he had sold them- and that we wouldn't believe how many people wanted to buy chickens. Adam came home and ordered 100 chickens from McMurry!! Thankfully he was convinced by the rest of the sane world that 100 was far too many and he reduced it to 50- 25 Rhode Island Reds and 25 Araucanas. They arrived in mid October.

This arrival was not as smooth as the first. We did not have the coop ready in the basement. I was afraid to just put up the chicken wire without it being secure as I thought they would escape (imagine 50 chickens loose in the basement!!) So I put them into a large plastic tub with their food and water. Everything seemed to be going fine, Jonathan and I was up and down all day checking on them and moving the light up and down depending on their behavior. But, around 2 I checked on them and most of them were soaking wet and they were all huddled in the corner away from the light. I think they must have gotten too hot and tried to cool down with their drinking water? I don't know but that is my guess. Many of them- probably almost 10- were listless and looked like they were going to die. Now, its after 2, the girls get off the bus at 3 and they have a friend coming over and they are so excited about their new chickens, and I have a fifth of them looking like they are dying. not good. so I quickly set up the chicken wire and got them out of the box. the ones that were looking the worst I held (couldn't stand to see them falling down) and took turns dunking their beaks into the water and making them drink. I had them lined up down my arms and legs- I'm sure it was quite a sight. by the time the girls came home there was only 2 that looked bad, and they still looked so much better than they had previously. by the end of the evening they were all fine. thank goodness- talk about guilt!!!

We got a second coop from a relative that used to have chickens and put that down back near the other coop. They went outside much earlier than the first group. We had to, these chickens were so different then the first group. I think because they are egg machines- they went thru food and water faster that I could keep up with them. When we had the one gallon water bucket, I was filling it up twice a day, and really it should have been three times. When they got big enough, we put an add on Craig's list. Almost immediately we started getting emails from people who wanted to buy the chickens! Warren was right, and I couldn't believe it. I think in total we had over 20 people email with interest in the chickens. We sold 7 of the polish silkies and 18 of the ri reds & araucanas to a man all the way from New York! We sold 2 of the polish silkies to a woman and her daughter that wanted to add some friendly chickens to their flock. We sold 5 aracaunas and 2 ri reds to some women also adding to their flock. they came to get 6, left with 7 and would have taken more if they had room for them in the crate. They loved the polish silkies and even more so the buff laced polish (the kids forbid me to sell any of these as they are the favorites). They did not have a second cage to put them in and even briefly considered going home with the chicken loose in the back of the car- they decided against that option. We sold 7 of the ri reds to a woman also adding to her flock- 6 were for her and the last was for the neighbor that wanted one too if we had any extra. One woman came and got 2 of the ri reds to go with her other 2 ri reds that were full grown. she brought us an egg that looked more like a baseball than an egg. I can't wait for our chickens to be laying eggs like that!

the thing we found so interesting is how much people loved their chickens. we have thoroughly enjoyed having our chickens. We certainly think of them like pets more than food producers. And we are not alone. Most of the people who came were sure to mention that they would be getting good homes. We had a couple send emails telling us they had adjusted well and even some pictures.

So now we have sold all the chickens that we want to and our flock is back to its original size. We moved the babies in with the older chickens the day after Christmas and they all have adjusted fine. It is much easier manging one coop instead of two. But, I know there are plans on the horizon for the next round of chicks......

How it began

This all began for us after a trip to our favorite orchard, http://www.oldstoneorchard.com/, when we brought Adam to see the blossoms in the spring 2 years ago. They had baby chicks there, and yes they were very cute as all babies are. Adam said we should get chickens- yea right! The next spring the conversation came up again, yea right was still my idea about the whole thing. We do have 2 cats, but my only pet/animal experience growing up was my pet goldfish- so this was totally out of my realm of thought. Don't you know, the kids came down from the computer one day yelling that daddy had just ordered 25 chickens!!!


We got our first shipment of the "ornamental layer collection" from McMurray hatchery, http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/, on Easter Sunday (we were shocked the post office was open) of 2008. We had set up a coop in the basement the day before thankfully. It went very well, we did lose one after a week or 2- a runt, but other wise they were all very healthy and grew fast. The kids loved it, and were in the coop from the very beginning.

Since it was a mix- we didn't know what were getting for breeds. So we were on the internet looking at pictures of chickens and guessing what we thought we had. We ended up with 12 polish silkies, 4 buff laced polish, 3 egyptian fayoumis, one leghorn rooster, 3 golden campines, 1 barred rock, 1 crevecoeur and 2 old English game hens.

since their coop was to be built on the back of the garage, and the garage was not built, they were in the basement for quite a while. looking back on the pictures now, its hard to believe that they were okay like that, but they nor us knew any better at that time.





I think the pictures were dated June 2 when we moved them down the coop.

Destiny

Did you know that Little Compton was the original breeding place of the RI Red chicken? And the Little Compton has the only monument dedicated to a chicken in the whole USA? yup, pretty cool, huh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Compton,_Rhode_Island

kale soup

last tuesday i cam home to find my back steps covered by kale. we have a neighbor that randomly leaves things in our yard, so i assumed it was from him. he did go & tell adam about it, i guess he grew it & had too much. only in little compton.....
after an hour's worth of cutting- i put it into the fridge until i got all the rest of the supplies.


it was pretty coincidental because adam had been asking for Kale soup a couple weeks ago and if i had his grandmother's recipe- which i didn't. i did get it from his mother (or at least the general idea of it which is the best a portuguese cook can do as i don't think they ever measure) and i made it today.
it was a success- looked, smelled & then finally (and most importantly) tasted like nana's- yea!

Nana's Kale Soup- huge pot recipe

• 4 beef shanks
• 7 onions chopped
• lots of garlic (don't be afraid of it my m-i-l told me)
• big splash of vinegar (helps to get the bone marrow out- and it worked they were hollow when i took them out!)

cover with water and let boil for a couple hours. at this point most of the meat had fallen apart on it own, i broke up the big pieces and took out the bones & big pieces of fat. add:

• chopped carrots- lots
• chopped potatoes (i used young's new ri brand)
• 4 cans kidney beans with liquid
• more water to cover
• beef base to taste

boil for about 20 min. add kale (chopped into bite size pieces) and cook until done.

makes: dinner for 6, huge bowl full, and about 15 quarts to share/freeze for later