It’s a Wrap
We finally came up with an idea for our Christmas card. If possible, we like to incorporate something significant from the year into our cards, this year, moving to Maine was fairly significant. We thought and thought, trying to incorporate it into our cards in some way. Then it hit me, moving boxes. For the past 6 months our lives have been filled with many boxes. Thus, we decided it would be fitting for them to grace our Christmas card.
I was joking with Mr Chiots that we should just set up a Christmas tree of boxes. Then a lightbulb went off in my head – that’s what we’ll do for our card.
The back looks like this, we added our new address on it and a box for addresses in photoshop. And off to the printer they went. No doubt, next week I’ll find myself at the kitchen table addressing all my cards to friends and family. If you would like to receive a Chiot’s Run Christmas card, message me your address with the contact me form to the right.
Do you enjoy getting holiday cards?
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Duck Potatoes
If you remember, we added some ducks to Chiot’s Run back in October. When we traveled back to Ohio for Thanksgiving, we left them in a heated room in our garage. They still weren’t fully feathered and we hadn’t trained them to the electric fence, so we figured it would be the safest place to leave them. When we left they were still ducklings, we arrived home to BIG DUCKS!
Not only were they big ducks, they had gotten lazy in their cushy indoor days. When I would open the garage door to let them out to forage, they wouldn’t leave the garage. After two days of this, I finally decided it was time to withhold their food. A hungry duck is one that will go outside in search of food. Low and behold, it worked! Now they’re out and about much of the day eating dandelions and clover in the lawn.
The good thing is, they have now been trained to see an indoor place as a safe place and a place to sleep. I think this will be greatly help in our efforts to keep these guys safe from predators. I don’t have to herd them inside at night, they go in on their own. If they start trying to stay outside, they’ll be herded inside. We’ve already been working on our herding with them, it’s really quite easy with a flock of ducks!
They’re not quite fully feathered and they’ll still get bigger than they are now. Muscovies are pretty large ducks. The good thing is that they’re very hardy, the cold doesn’t seem to be bothering them at all. They’re so entertaining, we really get a good laugh from them quite often. They seem quite curious and love watching us working outside, here they are paying close attention to Mr Chiot’s coffee roasting to see if they can pick up any tricks.
We’re still in the process of building our duck house, we’ve been slightly busy with our work after taking a week and a half to travel to Ohio. Hopefully they’ll be living in their new digs by Christmas.
Have you ever had to deal with lazy pets?
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Cultivate Simple 9: Random Musings
In this weeks show we discuss some random thoughts and musings that we have been having lately and some of the things we feel have made us successful in cultivating a simple life.
Mt Rose Herbs Tea
Traditional Medicinals Teas
Heirloom apples and other Edible Plants
Books of the Week
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:43:17 — 71.6MB)
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Quote of the Day: Robyn Griggs Lawrence
Preparing food is an ideal way to hone your creative flair and bring sense of beauty into your home. You have to do it every day, anyway – and if you stop to recognize the simple majesty of the objects you bring home in grocery bags, making dinner will be a lot more fun.
Next time you unload the groceries, particularly the produce, do so mindfully. Notice the fine white hairs protecting the carrot’s flesh, the squeaky wax binding the cheese wedge, the chunky shapes or fine straight bands of different pastas. How can you make the most of crisp spring greens, plump August tomatoes, golden fall pumpkins? You can toss them, mash them, and spice them up for consumption, of course, and you can also use them to add seasonal grace to the dining room table.
Robyn Griggs Lawrence (The Wabi-Sabi House: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty)
There’s nothing I love more than heading to the farmers market each week to see what each vendor will have. Fresh sheep’s milk yogurt, honey, cheese, carrots, kale, cabbage, apples and a few other goodies made it into my bags on Friday. To me, it’s all about relishing the fact that time moves forward, seasons change, the sun rises and sets, and food changes as this happens.
Meals shouldn’t be just about eating, they should be about appreciating the distinct flavors of the seasons. The more food I grow in my garden and the more wild foods I learn to gather, the more I appreciate each thing at the height of it’s flavor. The longer I eat seasonally the less I want to eat things that aren’t fresh and at the peak of ripeness. Asparagus picked a few minutes before eating is so much better than some I’ve pulled from the freezer in late November. Not only is the flavor not as good, but it seems wrong to eat it when the skies are gray and the earth is settling in for it’s long winter’s nap. This time of year apples fit the bill better than asparagus.
This doesn’t mean we have to learn to cook new things each season, often we can learn to make one dish and adapt it for different flavors. Crepes are one of those versatile dishes that everyone should learn to make. They’re quick and easy to make and you can stuff them with anything sweet or savory. In June you’ll find them on our plate stuffed with strawberries, in late winter, with kale, eggs, bacon and cheese. You can even use different types of grains to make them even more flavorful!
Yesterday morning we enjoyed homemade crepes of freshly ground wheat flour, eggs from our chickens, milk from a local farm and local butter. Instead of adding water to the recipe I used apple cider since it was in season and my crepes were going to be stuffed with cooked apples. For the filling, I combined apples, more cider, butter, molasses, cinnamon, ginger and allspice. Each crepe was smeared with some sheep’s milk yogurt then stuffed with the apple filling, and chopped crispy walnuts. A little drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkling of cinnamon topped it off perfectly. The perfect brunch on a saturday in December!
What would you choose as your favorite crepe filling combo?
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Relaxation and Research
Mr Chiots and I have a lot of big plans for great new things for the blog, including some kind of internet TV show of sorts. We do videography as part of our business, you might remember some of those Ethel Videos I made, like the one on how to make the perfect pie crust. Here it is:
Our new show will be all about gardening, cooking, local food, and other things we find interesting. We’ve been doing research on these types of showing, gathering ideas for filming and topics.
We also have been watching all the River Cottage Series of videos (links to the seasons below). If you love gardening, cooking and local eating, you’ll love this series from the UK. Most of them are available on Amazon for a great price. There’s nothing I love more than seeing other people encouraging others to grow their own and eat local. There are many seasons, lots of great commercial free entertainment for only a few dollars! It certainly has been nice to spend a little time sitting and relaxing, even if it is research for a future job.
What kinds of topics would you be interested in seeing in a Chiot’s Run TV show?
Escape to River Cottage
Return to River Cottage
River Cottage Forever
Tales from River Cottage
Beyond River Cottage
