Bountiful Blessings

After having such a short growing season last summer, it's been such a blessing to have the garden producing so well this year.

(Almost) Free Heat

Even though it's the hottest month of the year we are thinking about keeping warm. Before we know it the snow will once again fly. So, before it gets cold enough to the point we need to heat the house, we need to collect 5 to 6 cords of good firewood.

We used to purchase North Idaho Energy Logs which are like a giant version of the wood pellets one would run through a pellet stove. They were a good deal in comparison to running our electric forced-air furnace but in the last few years the price was driven up along with lumber prices during the building boom. Curiously though lumber prices have dropped the price of these logs has not.
Fortunately for us a couple years ago our neighbor had 50 acres of his land partially logged which left huge piles of downed trees that were deemed "unmarketable" by the logging company and left to be burned. Also, the logging equipment damaged some trees which eventually resulted in many "standing dead" timber. He was going to hire a crew to have all of this cleaned up and burned.

Maybe it was a little opportunistic of us but we suggested that he let us do the clean up and our pay will be the firewood we salvage. This will be our second year harvesting and in this slow economy it has been such a blessing to have access to all this firewood.

Like the title suggest, this wood heat is not exactly free. The material cost are obvious: chain saw oil, gasoline, the oil that is mixed in the fuel and this season a new chain for the saw. It is also very time consuming. Thank God we don't have to spend more than a couple minutes drive time to get there since it adjoins our property. It's takes around 4 hours to collect a 1/2 cord of cut wood if nothing goes wrong with the chainsaw

It is hard work to say the least. Greg cuts and I load the truck. Usually this involves me using a wheel barrow to get the wood to the truck so I can load it. Even Emma and Bentley are tired from playing in the woods by the time we finish a half days work.

Yes, You Can Can!

I know, it sounds a little too much like Obama's campaign slogan for my comfort, too. But in this case I'm referring to canning not "hope and change". I want to make this country a better place not by redistributing the wealth but by encouraging you to try canning. With this tough economy folks are getting back to basics by trying to be more self-reliant, growing their own food and finding things to do that bring the family together without costing much money. Canning your own jam is a activity that fulfills all these things.

We first took up canning well over ten years ago. I bought a dozen Kerr half pint canning jars, read the instructions and suggested uses that came with them, got scared, and promptly placed them in the pantry and forgot about them. I start a lot of new activities that way unfortunately.

The next year though we were fortunate to have a friend that invited us to come and pick raspberries at their place as much as we wanted while they were on a two week vacation. Needless to say, we picked a lot of raspberries, gallons of them. But what to do with all of these berries? We were eating bowls of them and there are only so many pies and desserts you can make so close together in such a short time.

Suddenly I remembered the jars that I had buried in my pantry and opened them up again to read the information that came along with them. I was amazed at how simple it was to make jam. We could do this! And so can you! I'm not going to post specific recipes for canning jam because all you need to do is purchase a package of pectin (my favorite brand is Kerr) and open it up. Inside is all the recipes and step-by-step directions for making homemade jam and jellies. Ball has a great site for recipes and all their canning products.

I'm going to break down the steps in this post and give you some tips that I have learned from over a decade of canning. Here we go:

1) Prepping your jars and lids: Check the edges of your jars by carefully running your finger around the edges. If you find any chips on the edge do not use them because you may not get a proper seal or vacuum in your final product. Wash all of your jars, lids and rings thoroughly in soap and water or run it all through the dishwasher. Either way is fine. I always prepare one more jar than the recipe calls for. If you yield a little more than expected you'll have that extra jar all ready to fill.

2) Sterilizing and heating your jars and lids: The directions in your pectin box will tell you to heat your jars and lids submerged in water at 180F degrees but do not heat your lids in boiling water. You can float a candy thermometer in the water to monitor the temperature. I am using a large stock pot with a canning rack in this picture but a large Dutch oven works as well.

Your rings do not need to go in this water bath since they will not be coming in contact with the food. Keep your jars and lid in this hot water until it's time to fill them with jam or jelly.
3) Prepping your fruit and adding the pectin: Depending on the fruit, the directions will vary but do follow them. Most fruit will require either chopping or crushing and some will require the addition of lemon juice, too. You will be adding the pectin at this point if you are using a powder pectin. Stir it in. If using a liquid pectin the addition order will vary somewhat but do follow those directions that came with the pectin!
4) Cooking the fruit: In most cases the recipe will require that you heat the fruit over medium high to high heat while constantly stirring to a full boil and then add a specific amount of sugar. It is helpful to have the sugar nearby, premeasured in a container such as a bowl instead of adding it to the boiling fruit and pectin mixture cup by cup.
5) Cooking the jam: Now with the heat still on medium high to high, stir the sugar into the fruit/pectin mixture and keep stirring. To reduce the amount of foam that forms you may add a 1/2 teaspoon of butter at this time. The mixture will quickly return to a boil. Keep on stirring and time one minute. As soon as one minute is up, remove it from the heat. Skim any foam that may have formed on the surface of the jam.

One word of caution, during that minute that the jam is boiling be careful of what splatters out of the pot. I generally have on long sleeves and something on my feet. This is definitely NOT the time to any youngsters underfoot.
6) Filling the jars: Now you can start filling the jars. It is very helpful to have a canning funnel like the one pictured here. Using kitchen tongs, lift out one jar out of the hot water and fill it to a 1/4 inch from the top. Using a clean damp cloth, wipe the top of the jar so there is no residue of jam. Place the lid on top of the jar and place on the ring and hand tighten.
7) Processing the jam: Once you have all your jars filled, sealed and sitting on the kitchen counter, heat the water to boiling. After a rolling boil is achieved gently return the filled jars to the water using the kitchen tongs to lower them in. If the water level gets too high bail some of it out until the jars are covered with an inch of water. Now that all the jars are in the pot back the heat down until you have a gentle boil. Place the lid on the pot. Most recipes call for 10 minutes of processing for jams and jellies but you may need to adjust for the altitude you live at by adding time. There is a chart for this in your directions that came with the pectin.
8) You're done!: Once the processing time is completed carefully remove the jars to cool on a towel on the counter. As they cool you will hear the buttons on the top of the lids pop. This is the sound of success! After they cool completely run your finger across the buttons on the lid to make sure they are pushed in by the vacuum formed in the jar. If you have any jars with the buttons protruding on the lids, place those jars in your frig and use them first.

I do hope that everyone gives canning a try. Jam and jellies are a perfect place to start. Before you know it you will want to try pickling which really isn't any more difficult than canning jam.

Huckleberry Hounds

One thing that I didn't even know existed until I moved to North Idaho was the mountain huckleberry. It's not the same huckleberry that grows east of the Rockies but is actually a wild cousin of the blueberry which also grows in the wild in addition to being domesticated. As far as I know the mountain huckleberry that grows in the western parts of North America has never been successfully cultivated to produce its fruit in commercially large scale amounts.

Huckleberries are very much part of the culture here. Even our Costco carries huckleberry jam! I have two cookbooks both written on the huckleberry and how to use them. Go to the local farmers market and a one gallon zip lock bag full of these little gems is going to set you back $30 to $40 because picking them is so labor intensive
But they do deserve the attention because they are so extraordinarily good tasting. Huckleberries are a blueberry with an attitude. They are tart and sweet at the same time and will leave you calling their domesticated cousins "blawberries"! I make batches of huckleberry jam to ship out to my family in California and though they have never tasted a huckleberry before I have no doubt in my mind that they are going to love it. It's so good that they hide it from others and ration it out!
The huckleberries that grow here in North Idaho generally occur in altitudes above 3000ft. We usually take a drive up the local forestry roads to check on their progress ripening in late June but these last two winters have had such great snow totals we have been able to wait until early July to check on them. In contrast, during hotter summers following a lighter winter, we have completely all of our picking before the 4th of July.
Of course the higher in altitude or further north you travel the later the huckleberry season begins. We have seen grizzly bears in Glacier National Park feasting on ripe huckleberries in mid-September. On the subjects of bears, it is a good idea to carry a can of bear repellent when picking huckleberries because they like them, too. Some of the best huckleberry picking we've experienced has been in grizzly country over in western Montana.
Huckleberry picking has become a tradition in this household for over a decade. I think the only season I missed was when I gave birth to my daughter the summer of 2002 and still a great neighbor was kind enough to bring us a half gallon of them. This year we added another picker to our team, Bentley, our new boxer pup who after tasting a few huckleberries began picking them off the bushes himself. I'm not too sure if that is a good thing because who needs the competition?

Sunday Morning Pancakes

As with many families, Sunday morning breakfast is a much loved ritual. Sunday breakfast in our household means either pancakes, French toast or eggs with sausage or bacon. After playing around with a few pancake recipes we came up with our own healthy, hearty whole grain pancake recipe that we just love and I'm going to share it with you.

Our Pancakes
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax meal
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
6 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups milk

Mix the dry ingredients first with a whisk.
To the dry ingredients add the eggs, oil, vanilla and whisk into the dry ingredients. Slowly add the milk and whisk together until mixed but do not over-mix. Let the batter rest about 15 minutes before cooking in a greased pan or griddle over medium-high heat.
Cook until lightly-browned then turn to brown the other side. Once browned on both sides you are ready to serve and top with butter, maple syrup or whatever strikes your fancy. Enjoy!

Look! A Moose!

We went huckleberry picking today in the mountains just east of Coeur d' Alene, Idaho and we were fortunate enough to see this beautiful bull moose.

Meet the Meat Chickens

Hello everybody! I know it's been a while since my last post. We have been shopping for new puppy and it seems like all my time on the computer has been dedicated to this quest. I'm not the great multi-tasker I once was and it seems like all other interests are abandoned for a short while then soon revisited and put once again in the forefront of my mind. I think I must just be getting older.

Anyways, I wanted to share with you all my first experience raising a few meat chickens. Yes, all chickens are made of meat but the bird of choice for the poultry industry and backyard farmers is the Cornish Rock Cross. They are a hybrid of the Cornish bred to the Plymouth Rock and from what I have learned so far is that parents of these crosses are specifically bred themselves to produce the desired qualities looked for in their hybrid progeny.

The purpose of these Cornish Rock birds is to grow fast...really fast. To be a nice frier/ broiler size within 6 to 8 weeks from hatching. Along with this fast growth comes the risks of their body weight growing faster than their legs can suppose them.

I really wasn't planning on getting meat birds this year but I was thinking about it. I was especially inspired by the wonderful blog The Deliberate Agrarian . It's a great place to not only learn about raising and processing chickens but also living self-reliantly in a spiritually inspired way.

My buying three meat chickens was a little of a impulse purchase though all three cost about the same as venti mocha at Starbucks. I was at the feed store the first week of June when they had their last shipment of chicks arrive. They were all pre-sold meat chicks but in one of the brooders they had 3 big one-week old meat chicks and they were available for $1.30 a piece so I bought them. I figured it was an okay deal since they had an entire week of feed and heat lamp already invested into them.

My goal for these three birds is to raise them to roaster size which is a little larger than a frier/broiler chicken. So, I'm experimenting with allowing them to grow at a slower rate by feeding them a layer food and taking it away at night. They do have interesting personalties though. Very calm and docile birds but they seem perfectly comfortable with pooping while still laying in front of their food dish! Definitely couch potatoes!
Currently I get my friers either from Costco (already processed of course!) or from my extra roosters that are a byproduct of hatching our own heavy brown egg layers. Here's one pictured above. I slaughtered a couple yesterday that were Buff Orpington crosses. These birds are young and tender but do not have the broad breast the Cornish Rock Crosses possess. I'll probably end up slaughtering some of my Cuckcoo Marans roosters, too. They are supposed to be a good table bird and they mature a lot faster than the Buff Orpington crosses.