The Problem with Quail...

is that they lay a tremendous amount of eggs. These are just from about the last week. I have take a break from hatching so these have been collecting.

 Which would be a good thing if I didn't have to boil and peel them all to make those delicious little pickled quail eggs that we like. 

 

They are quite good added to salad or just eaten as a snack. 

 

The Backwoodsman

 

It wasn't me this time, Phil found this magazine and brought it home. The Backwoodsman is mostly geared toward the "survivalists", I think.  Lots of gun and knife articles and a few woodsy type articles about building shelters but there was a lot of good pieces in it for the self sufficientist as well. Right at the beginning of the magazine in the "Letters" section there were two really great self sufficient bits. One told how you could use sweet gum balls in the bottom of your pots for drainage instead of heavier rocks. We have two sweet gum trees here right by the house and one is huge so having a use for the balls they drop is definitely a good thing. The other letter was about how to make your own fishing sinkers. The directions were easy to follow and anyone could do it. 

After the gun and knife articles there are some boat building articles, one for a bull boat and one to show you how to make--to me-- a fairly complicated paddle. 

It had a good article on container gardening and how to make a self watering bucket planter.  

It also had a great article on chickweed. We have chickweed everywhere here and I knew you could eat it but have never tried it. I often pull some up for my chickens to eat though as they love it as well. The article was very good  and from someone who's family actually eats chickweed on a regular basis.

There are small inserts in spots in the magazine such as: how to make a pit fireplace, a water filter, a composting toilet, how to put corks on lures in the tackle box to keep them from getting snarled etc. 

At the end of the magazine there is a section called Backwoodsman Woodslore where there are several interesting recipes such as: Sugar Cane Wine and Golden Apple Beer (which are now posted on the forum), Potato Soup, Frito Chilli Pie Casserole, and Corn Chowder.

This magazine is definitely worth getting just for the fact that it has things in it that you might not think of making or doing. Nothing wrong with broadening your horizons a bit.
You can order the current issue or a subscription (6 issues-$23) here.

Leftovers!

We have to have a post on not wasting that leftover turkey. This is not a real problem in our house since Phil could very happily eat every bit of the leftovers himself, so I have to be quick to get any. However if this is not the case in your house, here are some ideas. You, of course could can the leftover turkey. Put it in a  pan with water, heat it to boiling, put it in the jars with the juices from the pan and can it 75 minutes (pints). These can be used later for almost anything.
You can also take some of the pieces of turkey and make casserole. Our casseroles consist of turkey, pasta, cheese, cream of something soup(chicken, mushroom, cheese and broccoli, celery, onion etc.) and a little milk.
Then there is soup. You can make your typical turkey noodle soup (turkey, stock or water, onions, salt, pepper, carrots, noodles) and usually I do that but today I made something more along the lines of my eating more vegetables so I made a turkey vegetable soup. Here is where you use all those dehydrated vegetables you have hanging around in pretty jars. To mine today I added: turkey, an extra butternut squash, onion, some dehydrated sweet potato, dehydrated zucchini, dehydrated celery, dehydrated turnip greens, carrots, garlic, salt and pepper.

 

I made 6 pints and then there was some lovely stock still left in the pot so I put it in a jar to can too. These are the last two jars so maybe aren't quite as full of vegetables as the first four are. I did taste it and it is absolutely wonderful. I plan to heat up a jar each day, pour it into my thermos and take them it to work for lunch. 

But that isn't all we will be using the turkey for today. This is supper in the crock pot:

Well it is part of supper anyway. This is turkey and Alfredo sauce. I put it in the crock pot because some of the turkey has gotten a little dry and if I cook it slowly this way, they will soften up. Just have to cook up some linguine later and dish this out on top, maybe a little garlic bread besides. 

Normally I would have taken the turkey bones and made a bunch of stock with it but Phil took the meat off the bones this time and was really thorough and I had nothing left but a pile of broken up bones afterwards. It's okay, I still have two more turkeys in the freezer. I just couldn't help myself with the price of them being so good. I will take those and cut slices from the breast for a meal and the thighs for a meal and then I will can most of the rest of the meat and make stock then. 

Here is what is left of our turkey. I would have just used it all up but Phil will want one more sandwich later I'm sure. 

Black Friday Canning

No it isn't turkey! It is the leftover roast and gravy that was in the frig from the other day. It won't get eaten now that there is so much good turkey to eat so I am canning it. No I don't have a specific recipe but it has meat in it and is in pints so it is being canned for 75 minutes. I have canned it several times before. No, there isn't a whole lot of it, just 3 pints but I only have as small canner and I don't see what difference it makes. The leftovers from such a good meal have to be saved and there is no room in the freezer beside if it was frozen it would likely not get used. We love leftover roast and gravy on eggs for breakfast and a jar of it is so much easier.  
That is not all that is happening here today. I have quail hatching again. Not many and that is my fault for not watching the incubator well enough. I really need a new one I think. It holds temperature real good for days and then one morning you wake up to 3 quail sitting in an incubator that reads 94 degrees. Not good. There are other pips in some of the other eggs but I doubt they will make it.
I also plan to get down to the garden, clear the old sour cherry bushes from in front of it and rake and pile leaves down there to start a spot of good dirt for the grapes to be planted in.

It is so nice to have more than one day to get things accomplished here this week!

Thanksgiving Photos

Nothing astounding, no great recipes (Betty Crocker), just food and more food...and maybe one plant.

 

My Thanksgiving cactus's first bloom on Thanksgiving--perfect.

 

Homemade cranberry sauce-perfect

Deviled eggs-gone so, apparently, very good.

The turkey of course

My plate- yup, I ate the whole thing. 

The pies--home canned pumpkin and local apples. Haven't gotten to try these yet, waiting for there to be room in my stomach.

The History of the American Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday at our house like it is at most people's houses. This year is our first year only having three people yet for some reason my menu is the same. We tend to still have a New England type Thanksgiving dinner instead of the Southern collards and macaroni and cheese. Our dinner tomorrow will consist of: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, turnips, squash, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, deviled eggs, pickled, a pumpkin pie and an apple pie and maybe some banana bread. 

To read the whole history click this link:

Thanksgiving at Plymouth

Thanksgiving at Plymouth

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer. Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary celebrations.

Good Day's Accomplishments

Good day bread

Good day pepperoni and cheese snacks

Good day pie shell. Every now an then they roll out nice and don't give me a bit of trouble. Today was the day. 

Good day custard pie. Not sure what happened to the center. Phil says it has a belly button, lol. 

I don't have a picture of the roast yet but it is ready and just waiting for mashed potatoes and supper time.

Going to Be a Good Day!

The pitcher I got yesterday at the thrift store.

Good morning everyone. It's going to be a good day. I don't have to go ANYWHERE! I can't anyway because Phil had to work today and I told him to just take the car.  

I got to sleep in a little (8:10).

I have a small beef roast in the crock pot with some mushrooms and onions. I will shred it later, make the juice into gravy and serve it over mashed potatoes.

I have bread dough rising in the oven. Nothing special just white bread.

I have a recipe here from another blog to make a snack for Michelle's lunches so am hoping to get that done and freeze the ones she doesn't eat.

And Phil has requested a custard pie so I will get that made for him later. 

Outside it has rained (good for the garden but the rain barrel is full and trying to fall off its blocks) and is still a bit dreary out but I am thinking it will clear up later.

Anyway, hope everyone's day is going as well as mine is so far. 

Turnips and "Greens"

So today I bought all the things that I had left on my list of stuff for our Thanksgiving feast (not much). This always includes turnips for us. We love the roots. Our local IGA always had turnip roots with greens still attached for sale but they go quickly here in the South as "greens" are a big thing here. There are a lot of misconceptions about people in the South and a lot of things that may have been historically true but are no longer true anymore.

I found it funny that Wikipedia said this about turnip greens in the South:

In the Southern United States, stewed turnips are eaten as a root vegetable in the Autumn and Winter. The leaves or "greens" of the turnip are harvested and eaten all year. Turnip Greens are cooked with a ham hock or piece of fat pork meat, the juice produced in the stewing process is prized as "pot liquor". Stewed turnip greens are often eaten with vinegar.

So let me set the record straight. Those of us in the South who love turnips eat the roots year round when we can get them and yes, "greens" are eaten year round too and it doesn't matter if it is turnips, collards or kale. It is cooked with ham hock or pork fat but I have NEVER seen anyone do anything with the juice (or call it anything) except drain it down the sink. They are almost never eaten with vinegar here. Butter is put on them if they need anything(ok, it is a place where fried chicken and bacon grease are staples, lol--because they are yummy!--you see my issue with trying to eat healthy?).
I knew right where to get my turnips today because IGA has them so often but I did get going early so that I could get some. They put about 6 in the bunch with an elastic around them. As I said, I wanted them for the roots as Phil and I aren't real fond of the bitter taste of the greens (well, I like them but he doesn't care much for them and even I like them better when they are young)  but I can't let the greens go to waste so I picked out the best looking of the greens and dehydrated them.

 

Turnips are quite high in Vitamin C, calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, and lutein.  I'll take my leaves and crumble up a little into the soups and stews I make to make them a bit more nutritious. You could even make a cream of turnip green soup if you wanted to. 

Boiled Peanuts

Yesterday I was given a bag of raw (green) peanuts.

Boiled peanuts are a tradition here in the South and I had never eaten them before I moved here. There are roadside stands and old men with little carts around who sell paper "sacks" of them though not as much as there used to be. They are sold here at the marina on the 4th of July along with sausage dogs. We always get a couple of bags. The bigger groceries stores sell the raw peanuts in bags but they are much better fresh like the ones I got yesterday.
No one knows when or why Southerners started boiling peanuts but it may go back as far as the Civil War when General William T. Sherman led his troops on their march through Georgia and the peanut was an important nutritional source for them. Soldiers roasted the nuts over the fire or boiled them.
Peanuts were originally thought to come from Africa but they actually originated in Brazil and Peru.

Boiled peanuts are easy to make. I put ours in the crock pot and just leave them for the day because they take about 4 hours when boiled in a regular pot anyway so the crock pot is just simpler.

Sort through your peanuts and take out any sticks, trash, broken nuts, shells etc. then wash them well. Put them in the crock pot and add enough water to cover (keep track of how much water you put in). Then add 1 cup of salt for each gallon of water you use. For this crock pot I only needed a half a cup of salt. I also added a good bit of cajun spice since Phil likes the spicier boiled peanuts.

By the time we get home tonight the peanuts will be ready to eat. You peel off the shell and the inside nut is soft like a legume.

They are usually eaten outside where the shells can just be thrown on the ground.

*On May 6, 2008 Governor Mark Sanford officially made the boiled peanut South Carolina's official state snack food.

What's Growing?

Today- and we raked it this weekend!

I know I tend to do too many posts at once. I have to do them when I have time and I have a little this morning. Scroll down to the other two posts I did today as well.
I took a few pictures of the raised beds today. They are growing so well! I am quite impressed though it could just be that we have had perfect rainfall and fairly warm weather that has made them grow so good and not the raised bed but I tend to think it is a combination of the two.

Red Cabbage and Broccoli (and a few stray squash or pumpkin)

 

More Broccoli, Spinach and Garlic

These are potatoes growing where the old compost pile was.

Here are some tomatoes in the raised bed in the back.

Egg Dog Food

This morning I collected 4 duck eggs, 4 chicken eggs and 13 quail eggs. That is pretty much the average although the ducks can be stingy and only give two eggs sometimes.  I tend to give quite a few to my neighbor and if they gave me things in return that would be self sufficient...but they don't -- not anymore... though they love me and are happy to take my eggs. Anyway, I have decided that I need to be a bit more self sufficient than that. Every single animal I have here can eat eggs! Why am I giving them away?
Normally I have to buy canned dog food for our shepherd. He is nearly 9 years old now and can still eat dry dog food but he prefers not to eat much of it so he gets canned now. He will however happily eat any bone, leftover or whatever you decide to bring to him. Today I brought him chopped up hard boiled eggs mixed with a little cat food. He was perfectly happy with that and it saved me a can of dog food.

The Plan

I have really been thinking about what to put in these raised beds as I have been filling them. Usually I don't do any kind of garden plan. I have actually been known to scoff at those people that do go all out and plan. However, my garden has not been nearly as great the last few years as I would like so I think that calls for a plan this year. Now, not all the raised beds are done yet, I still have two more that I want to put in that I haven't found "building material" for yet but here is how I hope it will look by planting time next spring. This first picture is the lower garden in the front yard (you will have to click on it to see it. I could not figure out how to put a Microsoft Word page on here so took a picture of my screen.).
This is basically the main summer garden. In the spring there may be a few radishes and lettuce in there somewhere but I really tried to restrain myself because my gardens have always been way too crowded and I don't want them to be that way anymore. 
The corn and sunflowers are just in their for experiment purposes. When I have grown corn here before it could never stay standing upright because as soon as the clay soil got wet and soft, it would fall over. I want to see if it can stand upright in the raised beds. As for the sunflowers. I have grown them here before but it was always by accident. I just want to see if they will grow in the raised bed.  So for that bed there will only be around 4 corn plants with sunflowers in between and the tomatoes in front.

Here is the backyard plan. Not much to see here. This bed will likely be used just in the spring unless lettuce and greens will grow in it all summer long since when the leaves get on the trees it becomes too shaded for other crops.

This likely is not where my planning will end. I am thinking of planting the grapes in front of the garden on a fence type trellis. I have seen one at a house we pass on one of the back roads to take Phil to work (or to my brother's house where he catches a ride to work). They have a wooden rail fence out front yard and on each post they have a grape vine and there are maybe 6 or 8 posts that they string across the two rails to the side of the grape plant. I like it a LOT and I WANT one! But I can't do that in the front of our yard so I will have to do just a two or three post fence in front of the garden.
I also need a strawberry tower. One of those nice round ones would be great right out in the middle of the lawn but I need to find something to make it out of first.
I also need another blueberry/berry bed too. Just not having any luck where I plant them even though I made sure to amend their soil last year. Perhaps now that we have cut the trees the garden on the hill will get enough light again for things to grow in it and the old strawberry bed is over there too. That would be ideal.
Anyway, these are the thoughts for right now. I am sure I will find somewhere else to put a few more beds before spring. 

Nothing

It seems like I did nothing today. I didn't bake anything, can anything, sew anything, crochet anything, make...anything! I basically just didn't feel like it. It was an absolutely beautiful day outside. Not too hot and not too cold. Just lovely. Phil did some more raking and I carried the leaves off in wheelbarrow loads. Some of them I put in the paths between the raised bed for mulch and some of them went into the compost pile.

I, of course, fed the animals and crammed another dozen eggs into the frig. Time to visit my friend Diane and give her some. Five and a half dozen is way too many. I would freeze some but the freezers are always full and now the chest freezer has a turkey and a ham in it. I would have gotten another turkey but knew it would never fit. I wish I had a bigger chest freezer.

Anyway, I do have something to show you. I bought these at a roadside stand this weekend. Some of these apples and tomatoes are absolutely huge! I should have weighed them before we started eating them but I didn't. The tomatoes were $6 and the apples $5. I hope the watermelon trailers come out soon. I'd like to get one or two.

Leeks and Parsnips

So I know I have mentioned on other people's blogs that I have never eaten leeks or parsnips. So the stores are getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas and this week I found....

 

this huge leek and this bag of parsnips. So now...what do I do with them? I'm thinking maybe soup? The temperature here dropped to almost freezing last night and 59 F today. In a few days it is supposed to be 80 F again. That is just the way fall and spring work here. Anyway, leave a message with some links to leek/parsnip recipes on your blog or any other blog if you know of any and I'll go search Mark's blog (when I have time, which I don't right now) since I know he has some. 

Eating Healthier

So lately I have gotten a bit more serious about eating healthier. I had done a few things like stopped drinking sodas (I do allow myself one now and then), eating whole grains whenever possible, and watching ingredients and trying to eat more naturally but here in our house we eat way too much meat (like every other American), then we have some kind of rice or pasta side dish and the vegetable is usually an "afterthought". Phil calls it my diet but it isn't really a diet, we are just going to eat more fruits and vegetables or at least I am; (and Michelle never has liked meat much so she is happy to eat vegetables), Phil can eat what he wants. Anyway the point of this post really wasn't to go on and on about what I am eating now or what I'm not. I started a journal for myself on the forum (on the Healthy Living board) for anyone interested but it is mostly for myself to keep track.The reason I really started this post was because my breakfast looked so good this morning. I have had 3 days of oatmeal and fruit so decided to switch and have some eggs today. But NOT like I used to have eggs; fried in bacon grease with some leftover meat or gravy on top with butter toast to the side; these were poached, with green onions and a grating of cheese on top. This cheese is a wonderful all natural Dutch smoked cheese called Goudan that I found at one of the local grocery stores. The two eggs were put over toasted bread but no butter.

It was excellent!

Another November Day

I woke up this morning to Phil getting ready to play..I mean hunt but went back to sleep and later woke up to the sound of peeping. I was pretty surprised since my incubator has had a lot of issues holding the temperature and has had some very bad high spikes and I really thought all the eggs would be dead. Apparently not:

Eight of them hatched in all but two hatched late and likely won't do very well. Normally with quail the ones that hatch all-together do well and the late ones die.
Their hatching meant I had a lot of work to do. Had to move the quail out of the outside brooder and it had to be cleaned out and it hadn't been cleaned for a while. I took it all down to the raised beds and compost pile. Then the chicks in the indoor brooder had to be moved outside. It was time anyway.

And the indoor brooder had to be totally cleaned so the quail could go in it. It was a lot of work but had needed doing for a while and I am glad that it is done now. One more chicken picture and I will move on to gardening. I love the look of this Easter Egger behind it are the Norwegian Jearhon and to the side is a cochin. They are caged, waiting until they are large enough for a pen of their own (or for a pen to become available--hopefully soon as the ducklings are growing fast and will join the flock when I feel they have grown enough).

 Ok, I wanted to show you a picture of the log raised bed, as I am calling it now. It won't be real deep but I think it will work just fine. The problem with the soil being pure clay here is that any improvements you make wash right off the clay in the rain so the raised beds, no matter how deep, should make all the difference.

 

As you can see the block bed has been filled. A variety of things went into it hay rakings, leaves, compost and manure from the pens. It should be a good bed by spring. I started filling the log bed as well today. 

  

I have started laying down feed bags in between the beds and hope to add mulch later to keep the weeds back some. I have lots of feed bags that I usually burn so might as well put them to good use. Shouldn't take long before I have it fully covered. The garden raised beds are made out of quite the hodge-podge of things but they haven't cost me a thing so far. I still have room for a few more.We'll have to wait and see what I make those out of.

Tree Cutting Day

 

In the picture you see the one tall branch left of a fig tree that is entirely too close to the house. Phil had already cut the other branches and got the top of this one off and then cut the trunk. We had two other trees, about the same size that were leaning towards the house, a maple and a mimosa; all growing very straight and tall but leaning (mimosas tend to lean anyway). So Phil got the buck saw and took them all down. I saved the long straight trunks to make another raised bed in the garden. It may not last forever but it will last a few years. I also saved some of the maple to try making spoons with. It will take a while for the wood to cure before I can attempt that. 

Besides cutting trees there was the brush clean up and raking to do. Phil raked up the small side of the yard. I got the wheelbarrow and saved the leaves from him since he was just piling them at the side of the yard. I put them in the compost bin. I want him to use the lawnmower on the big side of the yard since it has a bag to collect the chopped up leaves in. I might just put it in the compost bin or I might use it for mulch between the raised beds if there is enough of it. 

It was a beautiful day for outdoor work. Temps in the 60's with a slight breeze (something we almost never feel in GA).

There, of course, was the shopping to do and the animals to feed before the tree cutting. This is what I found under one of the chicken waterers.

I had never seen a slug this big in my life! Michelle and I looked it up and it is a leopard slug. Amazing but not a very smart slug since it had taken cover in the chicken pen. It was in the bantam pen though and I am pretty sure this slug would never fit down their throats but if it crawls to the duck pen, it will be dinner for some lucky duck. 

Banana bread is in the oven. Nothing exciting for dinner just spaghetti though I may make a pork roast tomorrow. It has been a productive day so far and I am hoping tomorrow will be as well.

Two Good Magazines

I think that it is possible that I have "issues" with collecting magazines. It isn't that I don't read them, it is just that I can't get rid of them after I do. They are so full of good information and I do read them again from time to time. Here are two new ones that I picked up at our local Tractor Supply that I found particularly useful.

Heirloom Gardener

Heirloom gardener has been published by Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company since 2003. I have their first issue here somewhere and at the time I bought it I thought it was going to be a really good magazine but at that time the subscription price was much higher and I couldn't afford paying what they wanted for just 4 issues.
I was pleased to find it at Tractor Supply this week and browsed through it. While the magazine is predominantly about vegetables there were also articles on canning, cheese making, and turkeys. As well as articles on growing fruit, wheat, roses and cover crops. I think it is an extremely useful magazine for anyone wanting to be more self sufficient. The best part is that the subscription price is now only $12 for 4 issues so I will be ordering mine soon. You can order a subscription at http://rareseeds.com/magazine/ .

Then yesterday I went to pick up some cat food and found this magazine at Tractor Supply:

 

This is a wonderful magazine for a vegetable gardener. It had all sorts of good articles. I especially needed to read up on growing cabbage and garlic since that is what I have growing now. It also had articles on staking tomatoes (which I always have problems with), making a hay bale raised bed, growing blackberries, dill, shallots, tomatillos, celery and asparagus. Plus it has regional seed picks and lots of great recipes. When I see a gardening magazine with recipes that look good and I really want to try, it makes all the difference to me. Unfortunately this magazine was a special issue from Fine Gardening but they do have a great website at http://www.vegetablegardener.com/  .

Freezing Bananas

I just wanted to do a little post on freezing bananas. Maybe everyone knows how to do this already but at one time I didn't know you could freeze bananas so I am posting it anyway. This week I got a bag of bananas for $2 and with only me, Phil and Michelle here they just didn't get eaten so this morning I mashed them...

with a little lemon juice added. I don't know exactly how much. I had 12 large bananas and probably used a couple tablespoons of lemon juice. I put a cup and a half in each bag because that is how much it takes to make banana bread and then I just put them in the freezer.