Microfiber sheets

Mustard's easy, I make lots of jars at a time. Same with jam. Mayo is so easy and quick - and so much better than anything off a shelf ...

I make a lot of lemon curd at a time when we have lots of eggs. We don't eat any of the other things but lemon curd shouldn't have any gluten in surely? I use eggs, lemons, butter and sugar.

As i said, I don't make them all because we don't eat them all. The things I do make are usually done in large batches - they're seasonal after all. The dairy products you list don't contain gluten do they?

We eat a lot of yogurt - I've made it but it's not as good as the best from the shelf. I've never made cream except one spring when we looked after a newly calved cow. I'd forgotten all about that until you reminded me :-)

Now I'm drooling !

Mary

Chickens seem to name themselves. At the moment we have Zen (the zebra hen), Gen (the ginger hen) and Rab (named for Robyn, a grand daughter, because she thought Gen was named for her sister Jennifer!)

We've had Eglantine and Alison, from Chaucer, Milady, Fang (who was so soft and fluffy she was a killer!), Stella who had a star on her head, Plops and his brother Charlie, Purslane who was small enough to get into that salading, which she loved, Josephine and Jaquette and - well, I've forgotten ... They each have their own character though, any poultry keeper will tell you that. And they're intelligent.

Mary

Dogs are said to be the best deterrent for fox. I have no experience of that, never having had a dog.

Mary

That must have been horrible, especially with you not feeling well (hope you're fit as a fiddle now:) I was thinking about getting a smaller dog (for a change) but I'm worried that coyotes might be a problem since we are right next to the forest. Every other week, there's another local story about someone's beloved pet being carted off. My husband won't want that problem on top of the darn deer. They literally stripped two of our young apple trees last week. Fortunately, he had netted the Montmorencies. We just have an arbor, not a farm. But I can imagine how difficult it must be for farmers to keep all the critters away.

Phae

Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net :

i don't know... the Silkies are pretty quiet. perhaps he takes the quietness as plotting behind his back? ;)

Kate is almost 6. she was Boo's very first hen. she came with a rooster, which we named Cogburn. unfortunately Cogburn became very aggressive & wasn't safe around a 4 year old, so we were planning on dispatching him. someone overheard & said they would take him, & they did. Kate was the only chicken that survived the fox incident, as well, so even though she rarely lays anymore (& is chief instigator of the other hens hiding their eggs around their range) we keep her on as head hen.

lee

Phae, try this link for a real easy lemon curd. I've made Lemon curd a few times and it's so good. I haven't used this recipe but it makes sense to try it this way. You can freeze it for a couple of months.

Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net :

much better thanks. i should find out next Friday if i need chemo, or just radiation therapy. the surgeon is quite sure she removed all the cancer & my sentinal lymph nodes were clear, so i should be just fine :) my biggest problem is not lifting heavy things or doing too much. that's *hard* when it's spring & the garden needs doing!

if you don't leave it out at night, a small dog should be ok. i have two barn kitties, that are the sweetest cats ever (don't tell my 5 indoor kitties that though), & while i do worry about them with the coyote, i also make sure that they have safe places that the coyote can't get into, like a hole under the barn, a garage door gap just cat sized, etc. neither Rugd or Fianna go very far from their barn or the garage anyway, unless we go out in the woods, then they will come with us.

i suspect the coyote problem is partly because we did a timber harvest last winter, making the woods more open & accessable for the deer (so they stay out of the pastures) & the wild turkeys. between making a good habitat for their preferred food & more building going on up the mountain where they were living, means that we have really annoying coyote in our backyard. a coyotes range is about 10 miles, & we do have neighbors that have lost cats to the coyotes. i don't know anyone that has lost a dog though. usually, if they go after domestic animals, they go for the elderly, ill, newborn, or cats that are accidentally outside (indoor only cats that get out are at a severe disadvantage over cats with 'outdoor smarts'). i am almost positive now that my sick llama that was attacked, was attacked by the coyote & my Malamute was defending her (but was blamed for the attack, poor Chief). if he wasn't afraid of the goats, i'd let him patrol the pasture. lee

Wow, that is fascinating. I'm sure no one would be surprised that I just loved the movie, Chicken Run.

My husband said something about having to put wooden eggs in the hen house. What is that all about?

I put up a great many things, even with pressure canning, but some things are simply impractical and cannot be duplicated well in the home. (We have a large deep freeze too) Not only that, but I'm the only one in the family who must not have wheat. Last year we had an extremely late freeze and lost all the tree fruit. We just finished the plum and strawberry jam from the preceding year. We even have horseradish which, of course, has to be ground outdoors. My plums are looking good... if we can keep the deer away. :) Come fall, we'll be planting another Damson and a Mirabelle.

Honestly, other than whole or fresh foods, there are few things in American stores that don't have wheat or barley in them. And after that, there's a list of thirty plus additives that are wheat or barley based. Most people just don't realize how ubiquitous wheat is in the food environment. It's used as thickener, binder, stabilizer, extender, for flavoring and even rye is used to grow many cheese mold cultures. Oats are almost always contaminated with wheat. All baked goods. Etc.

For example, tonight we had fajitas. I did not make my own tortillas though I have done so on occasion. If I did that kind of thing every day, I'd never have time to sew! The store had maybe 20 different brands of tortillas. Only one had no wheat and those were these horrible, cardboard corn things. So I had my fajitas on a wrap made from teff. I don't even know where I could buy teff flour! I love to cook but find it impossible to make everything from scratch and have a diverse enough diet.

Oh yes. You have to watch everything. More recently however, they've started to use guar and xanthan gum in cottage cheese and sour cream instead of wheat thickener. I buy organic whenever possible which is usually safe and made properly. Sour cream should be cultured, not thickened with flour and gums, for instance. Like I said, what passes for food in the US is utterly shocking to me.

You should get hold of some Greek or Middle Eastern yogurt that has active culture in it. These are *very* thick yogurts, if you haven't had them. And they are great to use as starter for your own culture. I don't know what yogurt is like in the UK but in the US, most commercial brands taste nothing like real yogurt anymore and cannot be used as starter culture. Homemade yogurt with some homemade jam.... oh my now you're talking.

I've only made butter in a large jar (the shaking method) to show my kids how it happens, though I've whipped cream quite too stiff a few times, with flecks of butter!

Phae

Phae

Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net :

you don't need to do that. just provide enough nesting boxes. hens do like to lay their eggs where other hens have, so when i do find one of the hidden outside nests there's usually a dozen eggs in it, but for the most part they are more than happy to go into the barn & use the laying boxes, even when they're free-ranging. the reason the hidden nests happen isn't because a hen just decides to plop an egg under the lilac bush, but because there is a shortage of nest boxes in the barn (like when a hen goes broody & refuses to get her fluffy butt out of the box so others can use it)... so the other hens look elsewhere for a nest. so if you provide enough, large enough, clean nest boxes, the wooden egg is redundant. you can leave one if you want, but you won't be fooling the hens any. lee

Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net :

my son likes plain yogurt with a tablespoon of sugar & some vanilla. it's *so* hard to find full fat yogurt. even Stoneyfield Farms is making 98% of their yogurt low fat or no fat (which require thickeners since there's no fat as a binder). they recently further reduced the full fat flavored 6 ounce containers to blueberry or strawberry. when they started up 30 years ago, all the yogurt was full fat (Jersey milk only!) & there was a choice of almost 20 flavors. the full fat quarts come in plain & vanilla. i refuse to but low/no fat "foods".

which reminds me that Boo wants to make some butter... i bought cream, but it's all super homogenized, which makes it really hard to either whip for whipped cream, or make butter from. see why i need cows? :) lee

Odd. My Total brand 0% fat Greek strained yoghurt contains only skimmed milk and yoghurt culture. No binders or anything, and it's as thick as cream cheese!

Our supermarkets have ailes and aisles full of yoghurts ov every sort, from the Greek strained to French set yoghurts, and all the types in between, full, reduced, and zero fat in plain and oodles of flavours. I much prefer plain myself, so I can add what I like to it. Some vanilla extract and a little honey is always good, or dolloped onto fresh frui...

I have great difficulty processing fats of any sort, so low or 0% fat is necessary.

Again cream comes in many sorts, from the 'extra thick double cream' which DOES have thickeners, down to half cream (which is really just thick milk - but great for making proper custard!). We get real West Country clotted cream and Normandy creme fraiche in full and reduced fat types. All very yummy, I do say.

I think in many respects we are lucky in the UK: being so close to Europe, and with easy comunications, it's easy for us to import these things. Cheap holidays to Europe also mean that we have created a demand for them. With influxes of migrant workers from Eastern Europe, we are also seeing more Polish, Check, and even Russian foods in places like Tesco and Sainsbury's, alsong with the Greek, Indian, and other influences. It makes choice bewildering at times, but also makes cooking a marvelous adventure when you can try all sorts of exotic vegetables, different types of cheese and olives, and so on. I love having the choice.

A good way to take a peek at what we have available is to look round somewhere like Ocado: here's their Natural Yoghurt page - 14 types in natural alone!

|731

A dozen... wow. That hen was busy! And here I thought maybe my husband was thinking of a misplaced darning egg. ;) Do they keep closer to the nests in the winter? Do they go outside at all in the winter? Or are you in a year-round warm climate? Do you need a vet who can deal with chickens or do they stay pretty healthy? Please excuse me if I am bothering you with all these (off-topic) questions but I'm just so interested (and ignorant). How I wish I'd asked my grandmother about keeping chickens. :(

Phae

Kate XXXXXX wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posted.plusnet:

yes, but you aren't in the US, land of non-food "food". UK & Europe have much tighter regulations on additives than the US. high fructose corn syrup is rarely used over there, for example.

if Britan wasn't careening toward Orwell's vision so fast, i'd really love to move to that side of the pond... who watches the watchmen?

i agree there are reasons for low fat & no fat to exist. my nearly 8 year old weighs 50 pounds. he doesn't need low fat.

lee

There's always grilled-cheese sandwiches and quesadillas if you need more milk fat.

The only time I tried Stoneyfield, it was mealy. I was shocked. I get Revolution in a pinch. It's decent if you like not-sweet yogurt. The Greek and Middle-Eastern yogurts are plain and come in quart size IIRC. I really never looked. They are vastly superior to the normal commercial brands. I have not seen Organic Valley yogurt; maybe they don't make it. But everything else of theirs that I've tried has been wonderful.

When we were first married and when the children were little, we were still able to get un-homogenized milk delivered in glass bottles. The cream was so thick, you really had to stir it vigorously into your coffee. No one even has a milk chute anymore.

Phae

Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net :

i have 18 hens that are currently laying, so finding a nest with a dozen isn't unusual. they like to use the same nests. if i remember what my grandpa told me about the wooden eggs (or milk glass ones if you were rich), it was that you put one into a new nest box so the hen thinks another hen used that spot, which means it's a nice nest. i don't think hens are that stupid. either it's a good nest box & they'll use it or there's some reason they don't like it & no matter how make fake eggs they see in it they still won't use it.

i live in NH, so how much they go out in the winter really depends on the weather. last winter we got a lot of snow, so they didn't go out too much. i did shovel out a bit of an outside yard for them though, & a bit of a path so they could at least get out to the driveway for a bit of air & exercise. on very cold (sub-zero) days, or very windy days below freezing i keep them shut in though, as they can get frostbite on their combs & wattles. they don't really like walking in snow over an inch or so deep (or hard rain in the summer either). chickens are pretty easy. i worm mine occaisionally, & keep an eye on them for lice & mites (which they can get from wild birds). right now i'm battling leg mites. those are really hard to get rid of, at least organically. i can keep them under control by dipping their legs & feet in baby oil every

7-10 days (at night, after they've settled to sleep is easiest). i keep telling them the baby oil will make their legs soft & sexy, but they aren't buying it ;) i do have a vet that deals with chickens, but i have heard that they are hard to find. lee