Mother

Little sister, I’m glad you got a chance to try out your stove and that it’s going to work for some cooking. Next time try some biscuits in a cast iron pan right in the stove top. You might have to flip them over to get them thoroughly done but I’ll bet that will work.

Euphrasyne, I didn’t follow your math too well but I’ve been involved in a lot of cookie exchanges and if each person brings 2.5 dozen cookies and six cookies go in the common snack to eat that still leaves 2 dozen mix and match they can go home with. Of course no one gets the same cookies as the next person, either to eat or take home, but that’s the fun of the exchange. You still get 2 dozen of a variety that you didn’t have to bake. Looks like you’ve been slaving over a hot oven. when set out for your own family. it is true that delicate cookies don’t travel well and it often ends up with a lot of leftover crumbs, which by the way, make good desert toppings. If you are hosting the exchange you and maybe one or two others, might want to consider contributing extra cookies for that possibility. As for containers to take cookies home they usually have the ones they brought their cookies into refill. Something our church has done for years with their cookie exchange is to have everyone bring 4-5 dozen cookies or perhaps a double batch. As normal they set some out to eat. Then each person chooses two dozen to take home. The rest of the cookies are plated and/or bagged/boxed in festive containers and later distributed to shut-ins, sometimes accompanied by Carolers, sometimes along with a nice visit. Such fun!

I’m sure you will find lots of recipes to make it but Labneh is just simply strained yogurt. I use a fine mesh cheese cloth/gauze that I buy by the yard at fabrics stores instead of the coarser kind often found at grocery stores as the yogurt can sometimes ooze through the latter. Pour the yogurt in the cloth, gather the four corners together and figure out a way to hang it to allow the whey to drip away from the yogurt as it will start to do. I like to put mine in the refrigerator to drip but it can sit in a cool place. I usually just tie my corners around the handle of a wooden spoon and support it across the rim of a container deep enough the yogurt won’t sit in the whey as it drains. That’s it. The longer it drips the thicker it becomes. You basically get greek yogurt first and then a rich thick cheese that forms a ball and peels off the cheesecloth readily. Labneh. The whey can be used like regular whey in baking of cooking or ?? You will find tons of ways to use the labneh (besides just eating it). I sometimes add herbs and spices and form it into small balls which I store in olive oil in the refrigerator. By the way, this can be made with store bought plain yogurt or plain Greek yogurt but be sure it doesn’t have a bunch of fillers or gelatins and sugars. They are made so the whey DOESN’T drain from them.

There is a product called Junket that was for making puddings and deserts. It is rennet and can be used to make cheese. It’s a whole lot easier than using a calf or kid’s stomach lining for sure. Have you made labneh with your yogurt yet. My family loves it. It makes a great cream cheese substitute. Yum! And that’s something anyone can make from pasteurized milk or even easier from yogurt or Greek yogurt.

You have a beautiful fall crop MM.

Actually, cream cheese and cottage cheese are different from the vinegar cheese, or quark as it’s called in some countries. Though cream cheese can be made in similar ways. Cottage cheese is most often made with rennet though it can be made simply by allowing raw milk to curdle naturally and the curd cut and heated to the right consistency, similar to what is done with some hard cheeses. Much like your sour dough bread or yogurt you can use specific cultures for different types of cheese or you can hope for a natural culture to inoculate the cheese to gain a certain taste or texture. Cheese making is way to broad of a subject to write about here but thankfully there is a ton of info on the internet. I will suggest that if you start by learning the basic of why and how milk becomes other dairy products you will be better able to utilize the milk no matter what the situation. Let me give you a small example. Cheese for the most part is curdled milk that is cut and the whey allowed to come out of the curd with a gentle stirring. Often the curd would be heated in the whey to the texture you need before using it fresh or pressing it for a harder cheese…. Many types of cheese uses rennet to coagulate the milk, The old fashioned way to get rennet was to kill a young dairy animal that has only had milk to drink and save the lining of the stomach. That was salted and dried and pieces of it were used in the milk to create curds. An alternative was to use certain plants, like nettles, though the curd might be different texture. That is the very basic but it will allow you to understand the reasons for different processes and additions. There really is a lot of homesteading that can be done without a farm. There is even ideas for urban and apartment homesteading and they can all be fun to learn. I started out many many mannnnnny years ago learning about the necessary skills and crafts of our ancestor’s daily life. I am still learning.

I have been wondering the same thing about my soil. Even inside that soil is not doing well. Wonder why? I hope you find a few sweet potatoes waiting for you. You did good even having a garden this year, Little Sister, with all the remodeling and all. At least you have things set up so you can garden next year if you choose, I call that a Contingency Prep. A JIC prep. 👍

Good for you, Joyfilled. I loved having our cows and coats over the years and learning to make all the wonderful dairy products you mention. Our jersey/guernsey cow used to give five gallon at a milking and even with a family of three teens and half a dozen of their friends I couldn’t use it up fast enough. Hard cheese, soft cheese, cottage cheese, all manner of cheese, yogurt, butter, pudding pies, gravy, and IN EVERYTHING! . Like you, learning and experimenting was half the fun. Please do take us on that journey with you. For me it will be like going down memory lane… Have you made vinegar cheese yet? It is sooooo easy. I make it still even with store bought milk ( but it’s better with fresh raw). Heat the milk to almost a simmer. 190° on a dairy thermometer or just to where it has a froth or tiny bubbles starting around the edge of the pan. Turn off heat and slowly trickle in a 1/4 cup vinegar stirring the whole time. Keep stirring. First the milk will be a bit thickened, then it will turn almost slimy and a bit ropy ( the kids loved watching this and going eeeewww) then curds will occur as the milk solids form the cheese in the yellowish liquid whey. You break them up with your spoon into cottage cheese-like consistency and then set the pan, cheese whey and all, into cold water in the sink. Stir often as it cools to ensure the curds don’t stick back together but if they do just break them up again. The slow cooling allows the curd to cook just enough to be a soft but firm consistency. Then you strain it through cheese cloth using the whey for making bread, or feeding it to the animals. ( note, this whey does not work well in fermenting pickles, etc like non vinegar cheese whey does) Salt the cheese if desired. We eat this like cottage cheese or mix it with herbs and Mayo for a spread or dip.

Becca Supervised is probably good, at least until you see how the run works. I’m surprised you can order that few chicks but it’s good to know. I love buff Orpingtons. They are big gentle and can be quite tame. I don’t recognize the Golden Buff’s but the Easter egg ( Americaunas I’m guessing) are fun to have. Do t be surprised though with only two that you only get brownish eggs. Not every one will lay the pretty greens and bluish and pinkish. I think six is a good number. 👍 Annarchy, I also like your set up. It looks neat and yet is made from ‘found’ items. I have to say I’m quite interested in the little niceties of some of the pictured coops. Window boxes and hanging planters could look really pretty yet contain veggies or even greens for the chickens themselves. A little paint and a theme and the coop could become a landscape focal point even as a front yard decor. The chickens adding interest as they go about their day. I can even see Christmas lights and maybe their own tree decorated with bird treats for them to enjoy. A small sleigh on the roof, a jolly elf or two? Oh wait!!! In Thailand they have ‘spirit houses’, many of which are miniatures of the house they are displayed at. Becca, I can see a coop built just like your house in miniature with porches and all….. Okay, okay, I’ll stop now!!

Sygnet. I hope your day was WONDERFUL!

Annarchy, that looks so nice. I’m looking forward to seeing it grow.

ahhh, chickens ((((((((((🐣🐥🐔🐓🥚))))))))))).

I used to make all my own compost but the last few years with it being difficult for me DH has been tossing our scraps on the bank behind the house. The critters love them. We have two big plastic compost bins but never felt they worked well but may do some research to see if they can be used in some way. We have mostly cow compost here and I’m not a fan of it. I like compost to be more vegetable in nature.

Well, we’ve had some freezing nights and our gardens are mostly done for the year. We haven’t put them to bed for winter as there’s a few things hanging in there we have hopes for. It won’t be long though before we will be pulling out old plants, mulching and generally planning/dreaming for spring planting. My deck farm was not nearly as productive as I’d hoped for. There was a constant hoard of plant hungry insects which we never won a battle with. We had lots and lots of cherry tomatoes from the plant that had been brought from the green house in spring. We had five or six meals of bok choy, about that many of green beans, and a wealth of chard, some of which is still producing. There were a couple nice big yellow peppers and various odds and ends of veggies. There was also a nice supply of herbs for both fresh and for dehydrating and freezing and I was also able to harvest a few pounds of ginger root. We definitely would have starved if we had been dependent on the produce from the deck. One thing it DID produce was an abundance of flowers. They grew with abandoned where the vegetables struggled and the deck was bathed in beauty all summer. Food for the soul. The soil was part of the problem and we will be amending it for next year. I will be planting any flowers in pots instead of the beds to leave more room for veggies. I will be putting up row covers to protect the plants and using netting where it’s needed. While the deck farm needs some tweaking the new tub area flourished. The three tubs of tomatoes were prolific enough to be able to make a few quarts of sauce, a couple of catsup and fresh eating too. The five tubs of yellow beans gave us picking after picking for fresh and for freezer and the edible pod peas are still trying to produce. The cucumbers, had we gotten them in earlier, would have produce really well but frost took them before they could do more than for fresh. The sweet potato bed gave us eight or ten medium sized potatoes for the five plants we put in. Not great but now we know what not to put in that bed. The established black tubs and old bathtubs struggled as did many other gardens this year but we got a few each of melon, zucchini, broccoli, and butternut squash and we are still waiting for the cabbage heads to grow bigger than baseballs and the Brussels sprouts to ‘sprout’. The plants are big the produce not. The kale never grew well but we ate them as microgreens. We were able to bring various and assorted small plants from the deck and yard into the house green house area and have hopes they will finally take off. We’ve consistently had trouble with pests in even that area and I wasn’t originally going to take more chances on outside plants but with so many small plants that had not had a chance to grow I gave in. If we do start having infestations we will just clear the whole area and start over. Besides the brought in plants we’ve seeded carrots, radishes, beans, and turnips and have a couple planters still to plant. We also have microgreens, pea shoots, Sunnies, sweet potatoes vines, climbing spinach, a variety of plants re-grown from the roots and ends of vegetables, sprouts in jars, and a few flowers and herbs. At our house growing foods never ends, it just changes from season to season. This year we seemed to be losing more than winning but I’m not ready to give up. Times are tough and I feel we are going to need as much food as we can produce. So, how did your challenge gardens grow?

I think they both look GREAT!!! 😋

EmeraldCat. ‘Civil unrest’ is probably the best way to refer to what we could be facing soon. It’s not political in intent or even content it is one of the threats we should be concerned about. I’m so glad you can talk to your Mom about being prepped. 👍

This is a GREAT thread, Dee. I love to make meals ahead and it’s so easy to premake all sorts of things. Recently I have found an even faster, easier way to freezer meal prep. I use heavy zip lock bags for most of these. I take frozen meat, not cooked, put it in the bag along with any ingredients I would normally cook it with, all raw but preprepped or even pre frozen. Then close up the bag and freeze. When I want to have them I thaw overnight in the freezer then open the bag and pour everything into a baking pan or into the crock pot and a fresh hot meal comes out later. These obviously aren’t heat and eat meals like precooked ones but they are so easy to do a dozen of them in one prep session. Here’s an example: We like pot roast so I put a frozen roast in the bag. I often buy peeled baby carrots on sale so I add a package or two in. I sometimes peel potatoes and add them or I buy small red ones and just scrub before adding. Both those really do freeze without blanching. I add some big chunks of onions and any seasonings I like. I like to add a marinade, or catsup, or sometimes V8 juice over all before freezing. I thaw in the fridge overnight, dump it in a roasting pan and cook as usual. I do pork roast with apples, onions, and a package of coleslaw mix the same way no cooking ahead but easy to cook later. I do brisket and ring baloney and so much more the same way. I also do lots of precooked meals like the rest of you. I make breakfast sandwiches with English muffins with eggs, sausage bacon or ham, and cheese. I wrap them in parchment paper and put them on a cookie sheet to freeze overnight, then into a gallon bag to store them. We just grab and heat them. One of my favorite freezer aids is the Souper Cubes. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=souper+cubes+1-cup&ref=nb_sb_ss_pltr-ranker-engagementacceptance_3_12 These are silicone cubes in various sizes and they freeze more than just soup. I’ve even used them for eggs. I freeze the food in them until solid then pop them out and put them in Zip lock bags to store. They have nice lids so if I don’t get to them for a while they keep nicely. I love the square shapes of them. Eight of the one cup size cubes fits great in a gallon bag and they stack neatly in the freezer. I try to store mine upright to make it easier to get out the bag I need, take out a cube or two, and slide it back in. I call that area my freezer library because they look like books on the shelves. Soup, meat sauces, fruit sauces, small raw meatloaf to get out and bake later, casseroles, deserts, cooked oatmeal or other grains like cooked rice, scalloped veggies, etc etc. I am a big fan of preparing once and eating often. I am loving all your ideas.

Those tunnels are very interesting. It says they are newly out this year and there is no reviews or anything on them. It shows two coop designs but says coop two design contains the corners. The box these come in is 44x24 but is only about three inches thick. These can’t be real sturdy. Also it doesn’t give the upper bar spacing which could be critical as raccoon in particular will reach right through them and grab them. It appears they are held together with zip ties and held down with staples. Those staples might not hold up to a determined predator. I have often used chicken tractors similar to these in our row gardens but have used PVC pipes and connectors as the frame covered with tot fencing which is sturdier than chicken wire. We had ends in ours and moved them as needed. We hung waterers and feeders from cross bars and covered part of one end with tarp for protection from rain or sun. We anchored them with large heavy duty garden staples and moved them as needed. We have also used the tot fence alone by bending it into a rounded tunnel the long way and devising doors for the ends. You could easily form corners with that. Also have you looked into rabbit cage suppliers. Rabbit cage wire might be cost prohibited (though would work well and be really sturdy and long lasting) but the hog rings and pliers for making the cages are invaluable for making chicken tractors. This is fun, thinking about all the innovated ideas for keeping chickens. For a couple years I’ve been trying to plan a coop that would be multifunctional and senior/disabled friendly. I’m starting to get new ideas.

Now that first link is one fine looking coop! Good pictures and directions too. Close to the garden makes it easy to toss the weeds and extra produce to the chicken. Lots of nice coops in the second link too and some good designs but I still like that first one. The one with the little grow bed goes with my idea of making a coop multi functional. However, seeing those neatly decorated coops did appeal to my aesthetic view. I’ve never decorated a coop and I had many. Why didn’t I? No one to see it but us probably but I would see it. Nice paint, hanging flowers, a cute plaque or two and the girls have a nice She Shed just for them!

Congratulations on your decision to have your own fresh eggs! My best advise is to FIRST set up your coop and runs. I could probably go on and on about the ‘ideal’ chicken coop and I want to write a book on it but truly the best one is what’s available in your area or what you can afford to build if you are inclined so. But there are sooooooo many designs available if you are going to build it. Just do your research first and see the wonderful innovations in home egg production, then decide. The first design I suggest you look for is a PERMACULTURE one. They combine garden, greenhouse and coop in a symbiotic relationship that is amazing. Built right it can save time and work and money. I do suggest no matter the design you have more than one run, all leading from the coop with their own small door leading into them and an outside walk in door for maintenance. Three runs are ideal and as big as you can make them even for only a half dozen or the fifteen allowed. The reason is this. Chickens can derive a lot of their own food from planted areas but they also can scratch up an area real fast, having it look like a barren hole filled moon scape if in a small area. If you have more than one run you can alternate them and move them to another before the run looks like that. While one is being used you can replant another if it needs it and/or allow time for the plants and bugs, a healthy part of a chicken’s diet, to reestablish. It is a simple matter of opening the small door into the run while keeping the rest closed. They soon learn to go in and out whichever door is open. By rotating the runs, maybe even weekly depending on the size, you allow the girls to forage for some of their own feed. As Dee said,,,,close them in tightly at night. Cats COULD be a problem but more for chicks, young chickens, or weak ones. More of an issue might be the raccoon, fox, and etc even in town. The fencing should be tall and the area covered if possible even if only by durable netting to discourage predators. People talk about ‘chicken hawks’ attacking their chickens but I’ve seen owls land in a run, walk into the coop via the small chicken access door and come out dragging a chicken almost it’s size and fly off with it. Of course you can use movable “chicken tractors” and have protection for them and a new fresh part of the lawn or garden daily but unless these will be easily maneuverable they are a lot of daily work. Still check the designs out online as that could be a cheaper option. I agree with Dee on the Red Star if you want eggs. There are other egg layers that do well but they are often useless for meat later as they have little but they do make excellent bone broth. For multi purpose birds I like Australorps, a lot. They are almost as good of egg layers as the Red Star and are also a great meat bird. The are a quiet bird, calm and friendly, forage well, and make good mothers. A super great all around chicken. But here’s a thought or two. If you start with chicks you will have at least five months to wait for egg production to start and longer for them to get to full production. If you want only a certain breed and they aren’t available as adults locally why not get your coop and runs ready and then find already laying birds locally, any breed. They are usually more costly than chicks and you have to be sure they are laying well but once they get used to their new home they should give you eggs much sooner. In the mean time you can order and raise the chicks of your choice to replace the older ones. Becca Anne, I am so excited for you and am looking forward to reading about your journey. Please continue to share as the path unfolds.

And if a person is remembered they aren’t truly gone.

Good suggestion, Jeepers. I think there might be a feed store near us that ‘used’ to grind feed. It would be worth while to find out if they still do or at least still have the ability. We used to buy oatmeal and whole corn there for us to store and eat. But then we learned that they sprayed pesticides and had rats that ran all over the bags. Not exactly considered human safe after that but as prices get worse I bet people consider doing it again. We have a new community of Amish in our area. They have a small bulk food store now and hope to build it up soon but no mill yet. I have seen pictures of Amish kitchens that have nice big mills on their countertops. They usually buy the best when possible. The Wilder books made the bases of some of our homeschool lessons. I have always loved them too. That was the very picture I could see with DH and I grinding…..

Thanks for reminding me Jeepers. I have a couple of those antique coffee mills too. I can just see DH and I setting in the evening grinding little drawers full of flour to make a few biscuits or a loaf of bread! Ohhhhh, but I just now remembered that the GS has a nice burr mill that is run with the tractor. It is normally used to coarse grind feed for animals but we tried it once set finer and it worked. We had to sift and regrind it to get it fine enough but I was thinking even if we coarse ground the grain it would make it easier to put through a hand mill. And if we can still get gas, our old Alice tractor will start even after an EMP as we have parts stored safely for it. Phew, now I feel more confident we could have bread. IF I have the grain. Let’s see. We have lots of acorn, some nice amaranth growing near the pasture, curly dock near the timber, lamb’s quarter is really prolific here, and there is normally corn and soy beans growing by the acres around us. Occasionally there are fields of wheat, triticale, oats, and rye nearby too. It would all be work to harvest and prepare by hand but all those would stretch the grain.

I was thinking that too, Annarchy.

We no longer grind wheat. I have been gluten free for 10 years but DH is not so I’ve been thinking of storing wheat berries again for him. However, we have used an OLD A&P grocery store coffee grinder for years. DH found it could be adjusted to grind a variety of things and we’ve used it for all kinds of gluten free grains as well as wheat. We are cautious with oily seeds and nuts and use an old Corona (clamp to the table) hand grain mill for them or a blender or food processor. The Corona will do wheat and corn too but gets pretty tiring after a short while. If we have electricity we can always use my equally old Vita Mix for grain of all kinds. Jeepers, I would like one of the big wheel mills too. They are supposed to be easier to use. Ideally though I’d have a combination hand and electric mill to cover all situations. I have a couple of twelve volt blenders ( one is quite powerful) and a 12 volt coffee grinder but it would be faster to use a Mortar and Pestle or better yet a metate. Hmmm, now that I think of it I might have one of those packed away somewhere. Does anyone store other grain besides wheat and corn? I have a fair amount of almonds and coconut stored in the freezer. I’ve tried storing nuts in buckets but I didn’t find they stored well, at least long term. Dried beans of all kinds do store well as does white rice, brown not quite as long but still pretty well. I’ve been thinking of sorghum seed.