Tuesday, April 7, 2020

The spring storms did bring a new migratory bird to the yard, one of the most special kind, Selasphorus hummingbird!  We call them Selasi's. Several were using our bottlebrush and Echium flowers all day.  They were hungry!  There are two species of Selasphorus, and they are almost identical. It's hard to tell them apart even when you hold them (which I have been lucky enough to do, since I spent many, many, years banding birds before I was Farmer Ladybug).  The two species are Allen's and Rufous.  The Allen's spend their summer here, but Rufous flies inland off of the coastal highway to breed where it it warmer.  Many Rufous will spend some of the spring on the coast to refuel before moving inland. Both are bright orange and in certain light can look golden. The male's and older female's have a gorget (throat patch) that is ruby red.  They are smaller than Anna's hummingbird, our year-round resident hummingbird, and their wing whirr sounds like an insect buzzing- bzzzzzzzz.  You can usually hear that high pitch buzzing before you see them, if you spot them at all.

Not all of our winter birds are gone. There are still quite a few Golden-crowned Sparrows hopping around the chicken yard, acting like chickens. They, along with their cousins, the White-crowned Sparrows, who flock alongside in winter, will eventually fly to Canada and Alaska to breed.  I used to have these two on my garden animal list because they can make winter gardening very difficult.  They travel in big packs and eat all the seeds and emerging seedlings.  There are a lot in our winter garden at school.  I cover our winter beds with chicken wire to keep protect our seedlings from these large mixed flocks of sparrows. Sparrows aren't really noticed much though because they are brown and hide in the bushes, so students had a hard time talking about them in the Spring.  They also leave pretty quickly at class time with so much activity and loud voices around.

In the spring of Cob-weaver's 3rd year, when I told her our sparrow friends would leave for the summer, she cried and cried and was inconsolable for days.  Mosquito did the same when she found out for the first time, at about the same age, that the monarchs would leave.  We do miss our winter garden friends, but also can look forward to their return in the fall.  But, that is a hard thing to understand when you are only 3.

We harvested our first home fava beans today.  They are ahead of the school garden beans because they were planted lazy-style, that is, by themselves, so they came up earlier.  We had only 10, so I added them to our dinner, which was a Southern-Middle Eastern mash-up, chicken and biscuits.  The chicken was spiced Middle Eastern style, from Ant's side of the family, and chicken and biscuits are definitely Southern, from my side.  When I was making the biscuits, I realized I had no milk, so I quickly whipped up some oat milk.  There are many ways to make oat milk.  This style is last-minute, lazy.

Oat milk

1 part whole oats
2 parts water
1 date or handful of raisins (optional)

Blend not more than 30 seconds.  Strain through cloth, or if in a hurry, use without straining.  You can eat the solids, ferment them or add them to pancakes, breads, or other baked goods.

Garden math: If I used 1 cup (1 part) of oats to make oat milk and I need 2 times (2 parts) the amount of water for the recipe, how much water do I use?

Farmer Ladybug🐞