Thursday, April 16, 2020

Some days Founds and Mackenzie dig really big holes and run all around the chicken yard and some days they do nothing at all.  They are hard to catch and can hide in small spaces. They dig on sunny days and stay indoors in the fog.  They like fresh grass, but in general are pretty shy.  They let you pet them if they are really hungry and you are holding their food.  Mackenzie digs more and is more active and more hungry than Founds.  They both like to be out at night, and are outside when I come to close up their pen for the evening. They are super soft to pet.

My gardening gloves got wet in the rain. I hung them on the top of garden fence by putting them over the rebar fence stake. The rebar stuck up through the middle finger.  They were like that all week.  When I went to put them on, slipping my hands inside, they rained down earwigs, baby earwigs. We call these pincer bugs in our home because of the big pincer-like back ends. I shook them out and was amazed as hundreds poured out onto the ground.  Before shaking any more, I took my gloves to the chicken yard.  What a wonderful snug home my gloves had made for all of those earwigs, hundreds and hundreds of earwigs.  It took me quite a while to shake them all out.  The chickens were most helpful and excited.  Earwigs do really well in our area, and if you are not careful, in large numbers, can do damage to a young garden.  They like to live in and under things, in the dark, and under garden litter, so I keep my garden free of wood, pots, stones, bricks and I rake out the rows between plants.  I use oyster and abalone shells in my paths and around new plantings because earwigs, rollie pollies, slugs and snails won't cross the sharp shells.  In other parts of the country, I would routinely mulch my paths with plant material, or use wood, bricks and stones to line my beds, but not here, not in earwig country.

Tonight was soup night. I made black bean soup using the bone broth from the rack of lamb from Tuesday night's dinner.  Bone both not only gives the soup lots of healthy vitamins and minerals, but also gives the soup richness and umami.  You can make bone broth from any bones.  It's easy to do, but it takes a while and is smelly.  After Tuesday meat night, it takes 2 days for me to make bone broth for Thursday's soup night.  We have to close off the kitchen at night so the smell doesn't fill the house.

Bone broth

1. Collect bones after eating and extra bits of meat and fat in a large pot or crock pot and cover with water.
2. Add a few tablespoons apple cider vinegar.  The vinegar helps to break down the bones, and release the collagen.  Any acid will work.
3. You can add onions, salt, garlic or other spices here if you like.  I leave mine plain.
4. Bring to a boil, then simmer 6-8 hours or overnight.
5. Add more water as needed
6. When the bones are soft, crush them with a potato masher.  Chicken bones soften quicker than beef or lamb.  I find I need to cool and then crush the larger bones by hand before returning to the pot.
7. Simmer for several more hours.  I simmer my broth for days, but some people make theirs in one day.  I have heard also some people who have a pot always simmering on the back of their stove to add bones to as they get them and to use as stock base for all of their savory dishes requiring water, like rice, soups, and mashed potatoes.
8. Strain while hot; otherwise the collagen can get strained out when it cools.
9. Freeze in ice cube trays and store in the freezer.  Using ice cube trays, you can easily add 2 tbsp of frozen, concentrated bone broth to any dish. Because they are concentrated, these cubes need not make up your entire stock, but just your stock base.

Farmer Ladybug 🐞