Delaware hen and her chick

A Surprise in the Barn

Delaware hen and her 15 chicks

The hay loft in the barn has been full of hay since the second cutting of the pasture in August.  We've only had to climb up there to retrieve hay for the goats so I hadn't noticed that there was a hen laying on a nest.  One morning last week I went in the barn and heard a distinct cheeping sound coming from the loft.  At first I thought it was from the bats that have colonized the rafters of the loft.  I climbed up the ladder and saw lovely sight: one of the Delaware hens was moving around the barn pointing out things to eat to her brood of chicks.

 I ran immediately into the house and shouted, "There be chicks in the barn!"  The kids came out with me, we grabbed some chicken scratch, and we sat up in the hayloft watching the hen and chicks running around for at least a half hour.  None of us had ever seen this before because most of our chickens up until now have not had the inclination nor the space to brood their own chicks.  Having the hen raise her own chicks certainly makes more sense than humans doing it!

Two weeks after the chicks were discovered we decided to move them out to "The Chick House", which is a small henhouse not big enough for our 35 laying hens.  We put a fence around an area where they can forage bugs and plants but not be bothered by the other chickens and turkeys.  Below is a video that I took of them outside with their mother.

Selena and Lena, the goat

Lena and Inés are our Nubian dairy goats.  In the video Selena is hanging out with the goats, turkeys (Bourbon Reds) and chickens (Delawares).  In the background you can see how green the garden was this year.

Homemade Yogurt

When people hear that I'm going to get milk from my goats they usually ask me what I'm going to do with all of the extra milk.   Well,  I have to admit that I am always a bit surprised by this question because to me it is too obvious that one would drink it and make yogurt and cheese with the rest of it.  We've been buying raw milk from various sources for the last 4-5 years and I always buy extra for making yogurt and kefir.  The best yogurt that we've had this summer has been the blueberry yogurt with honey added for sweetener.  It's really not that complicated and you don't have to buy anything complicated or fancy.  I use an old cooler and a heating pad to keep the yogurt warm.  And then I use a small thermometer to keep it around 95-100 degrees.

I usually use at least a gallon of milk for making yogurt; might as well make a large batch because it gets eaten very quickly!   I always use raw milk (unpasteurized, nonhomogenized) from a clean dairy that I trust and from a healthy, grass-fed cow or goat (maybe some day I'll milk some sheep!)


 So, to make yogurt, gently heat the milk to 180º F using a candy thermometer.  Don't let the milk boil or curdle on top.  It might take awhile for the milk to get to this temperature so put on some relaxing music or have a conversation with your kids!  Once it has reached 180º take the pot off of the heat and bring the milk down to 110º F.  Sometimes I have put it outside if the temperature is cooler than indoors for a couple minutes but don't let it get too cool.   Stir and check, and recheck the temperature of the milk which may take quite a while.  Don't rush it.  I look at slow cooking like a good friend that is telling me to slow down and enjoy the smells and textures of food. Hey, this is another opportunity to hang out with the people you love!

Stainless steel or glass container 

When the milk has reached 110ºF stir in the plain yogurt.  For every quart of milk add a tablespoon of full fat, plain yogurt (either a good product from the store or some yogurt from the previous batch).

Once you have stirred in all of the yogurt and it looks like it has dissolved in the milk pour it into quart or half sized mason jars.  You can use any glass containers but I prefer mason jars.  Don't use any kind of plastic because you will be heating up the containers to close to 100º for quite a few hours and there is crap in the plastic that will seep into your yogurt.  And, yuck... food in plastic tastes like plastic!  I avoid plastic all the time anyway.

Pour the milk/yogurt mix into mason jars

Cover the mason jars with a lid with place them in a warm place at 95º-100ºF for about 8 hours, or overnight.  Like I said, I find that the easiest way to keep the yogurt at a constant temperature is using a cooler with a heating pad.  The first hour or so I monitor the temperature to make sure it is neither too hot or cold then I leave it.

Cultured milk:  yogurt

After 8 hours check it to see if it's "set".  The smell texture of cultured yogurt is unmistakeable!  It's lovely.  Although, on a side note, my son gets nauseated by the smell so I guess it doesn't affect all people in the same way.  

Cultured milk produces whey which is the whitish, filmy liquid that collects on top of the yogurt.  If you don't mind runny yogurt then do nothing more.  Whey is very nutritious so there's no problem eating your yogurt without draining the whey ª.  But whey can also be used to aid in the fermentation of vegetables and grains.   My family likes a thick yogurt so I usually drain the whey and use it for other things in the kitchen.  Below is one method to drain the whey, especially if you want a thick curd.  Get cheese cloth and hang the yogurt curd in it for a couple hours.


Of course, put a large bowl beneath it to catch the dripping yogurt.

Yogurt curd in cheese cloth

You might only want to drain it slightly and get a runny yogurt.  Once you have the consistency and taste that you like, eat it the way it is or add fruit and/or a sweetener like honey or stevia.  I've tried both and prefer honey as a sweetener.  If you like the taste of stevia it is certainly healthier that sugar.  We love blueberries and it adds a lovely bluish tint to the yogurt.

"The Good Stuff"
@
The Good Farm

ªWhey is high in minerals and has been used for therapeutic purposes going back to the ancient Greeks.  It has been "used to cure dyspepsia, uremia, arthritis, gout, liver diseases, anemia and even TB ingesting up to 1500 grams of whey per day" (Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions)  according to, Whey Beverages by V. H. Holsinger.

With Grandpa

Xavier must have been 2 or 3 years old when I caught him and grandpa sitting together outside on the porch at our Ham Lake house.  I wish the photos were of better quality because I love these photos.  For me it captures the comfortable and quiet way that my dad could just "hang out" with the kids.  Note: in the background of the 2nd photo is his famous red truck!

Here is another one of my favorite photos of Selena with her grandpa.  This was in 1992 at a vacation resort in Perham, MN.

Jacques & Tomás, Barn Kittens

I've read that barn cats are the canaries of the farm.  If you have healthy cats you have a healthy environment for the rest of the animals, and for the humans as well.  I don't know how true this is but I do watch the kitties to get a sense of how healthy it is in the barn.  Anyway, in late spring we got some very young kittens from Duskwind farm and both Selena and Xavier take care of all of the cats on a daily basis. They are very sweet, lovable cats and are well socialized, which goes to show that barn cats do not have to be wild and skittish.  In March I plan on neutering them with Camp Companion that will do the operation for barn cats for a very low price.  I don't want them reproducing any more unneeded cats in the vicinity.  Having them neutered will also keep them closer to home and they will be safer if they are not roaming around looking for action!

Jacques

Tomás

"Gray cat" is a stray that arrived here, from who knows where, late last spring.  At first he wouldn't let us come within 25 feet of him, but after leaving food out for him he slowly warmed up to us.  Now he is a very friendly cat who has taken up an interesting friendship with Karl, our Pygmy buck.  Gray likes to lay underneath Karl or right by him.  Karl even shares his food with the cat.

 Poor Mathias is the original barn cat who lived here before we moved to the farm.  He's a very nice cat but he is pissed off that so many other animals have moved into his space.

Jacques, enjoying the winter sun

The MacPhail Guitar Quartet's Radio Debut

Above: Henry Johnston, Xavier Jara, Luke Banchy and Austin Wahl

This week Xavier's quartet is featured on the program "String Theory" with Kevin Barnes on Jazz 88 FM. It airs again on Saturday, June 10 at 2:00 p.m. but can be listened to online at: Jazz 88 KBEM

The Program:

Quartet Live In Studio- Allan Johnston Director

Ensemble Performances Scottish Fantasy by David Crittenden
Bach Brandenburg Concerto 6 Movement 3 Allegro- J.S.Bach
Solo Performances-
Luke Banchy- Mazurca Choro by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Xavier Jara- La Joia by Vincente Asencio
Henry Johnston-Chanson From Sonata 3 by Manuel Ponce
Austin Wahl-Schnee In Istanbul by Carlo Domeniconi
Brouwer Cuban Landscape

Austin Wahl

The quartet with Kevin Barnes (on the left) in KBEM studios at North High School in Minneapolis

The Gentle Executioner

A gentle executioner, that's me!   If I want to butcher the animals that I raise for meat then I want to do it as humanely as humanly possible.  I want to be the executioner that my chickens would request to do the job if they had the option to choose.  My friends laughed when I said that my goal was to be the gentle executioner, they thought I was joking.   But no, there are good ways and bad ways to do it and I did my research on the various modes of operation.   There is the chopping block (removing the head with an axe) hanging the chicken upside down from the feet (with wings flapping and chicken squawking fearfully) wringing its neck and, the method I preferred in the end, the use of the killing cone.

A cooling tank with thermometer and a stainless steel cutting area with sink

Death can't be easy for any one creature on this earth but I want to be skilled at bringing it on as quickly and painlessly possible as well as minimize fear and trauma.  Wringing its neck is instantaneous death as long as you are skilled in doing so.  The other drawback to this method is that the chicken is not bled out (the blood isn't drained from the carcass).   The same goes for chopping off the head; you will have too much blood in the meat.  So, it seems that the most humane and practical way to butcher a chicken is by using a killing cone.  It snugly holds the the bird's body in an upside down position so that the chicken remains calm  and still.  Because the bird immobilized within the cone it does not flap around and injure its wings, which can result in bruise spots on the meat.

Killing cones attached to building, propane tank for scalding and chair for plucking
AND
a cat looking for chicken morsels!

Cones can be purchased for about 45 dollars each or you can make them yourself from traffic cones as I did.    Here's what I did:

Things you'll need:

• traffic cones
• Sharpie magic marker
• screws and screwdriver
• Heavy duty scissors
• (optional) Two 5'-8' posts
• (optional) “Support board”: 8 feet long 2X4 plywood
• (optional) rope

*Purchase plastic traffic cones at Home Depot or Menards. These cones are usually bright orange made in a soft and pliable plastic. You want your birds to be comfortable and calm till the very end so, in this sense, plastic is better than the steel cones .    Also, determine the number of cones you'll need according to the rule of “pluckin' & coolin'”; the number of birds that are ready for cooling down in ice water in one hour equals the number of cones you'll need.

*Cut 2”-3” off of the narrow end of a cone. Determine if this is the right width for your birds by placing one in the cone and gently pulling its head down through the opening. Make sure that its neck (the jugular area) is accessible. If the cone is still too narrow at the bottom make more cuts off of the cone until the opening is the right width for your chickens.

*Cut the remaining cones at the same width by drawing a line around each with the Sharpie marker. Are all of your birds the same size? If not, make some of your cones wider for the whopper sized birds. To butcher turkeys you might have to cut down the cone by half.

*Mount the cones on a support board with screws attached through the upper part of the inside of the cone. To make things easier pre-drill a hole through the support board. Make sure that the screw is long enough to go through both the cone and the board. In the photo above I attached the cones to the side of an old lean-to. The height of the support board is ideal at 4' off the ground. There is enough room under the cones to place a large bucket to catch the draining blood from the chickens.

* Now, I suppose, the next step is to prepare for butchering.  I spent quite a lot of time watching Youtube videos and reading books on cutting the jugular vein in the right place.  Here is a good site to visit to butcher a chicken.  

This year we butchered only 12 chickens but hopefully by next year we'll have a chicken plucker and some more experience under our belts.