Earning Their Keep
We’ve had a bit of a warmup here in Maine, it’s been in the 40’s the last couple days. I’m not complaining as the inch of ice finally is almost melted off the driveway. I’m not so happy to see the snow melt, it’s provides valuable protection for the garden during the winter. With this warm weather, the risk of predators also goes up. Thankfully, Tara is very aware of this as well.
She’s been patrolling the perimeters and is more alert than usual during the day. Yesterday she spent a lot of time standing on top of the tallest snowbank sniffing the air. Dexter has also been spending the days outside, hunting along the rocks walls in the gardens, rustling up his own meals of tasty little rodents.
The Sweets, our garage cat, is also working hard, though she’s nocturnal so I don’t see her very often. I have spotted her up under the chickens several times late at night when I take Tara out. Thankfully she’s keeping the mice out of the coop and away from all of our outbuildings. Working animals are very valuable when you have a place like ours. It’s great when you can use an animals natural instinct to help you out! They certainly make our lives much easier and do a great job with their appointed tasks.
Do you have any working animals, or have you been around working animals?
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Cultivate Simple 61: Fermenting for the Flock
In this week’s episode we discuss fermenting your own feed for your chickens and other animals.
Why should you consider fermenting chicken feed?
- it increased availability of nutrients for the chickens
- it actually increases the amount of vitamins in the feed and produces new vitamins
- makes the food easier to digest because it’s soaked and soft
- provided beneficial probiotics to help chickens absorb more nutrients from their feed and keeps them healthier
- decreases risk of diseases like salmonella and healthier digestive tracks
- decreases the amount of feed chickens are consuming and they produce less waste
- makes poop small and less stinky (I know amazing).
- egg yolks are bigger and shells are stronger.
- your chickens will be healthier and happier!
Here’s a post from Scratch Cradle with all the scientific studies linked – etc.
In fermented feed phosphorus levels are increased and sugar level decrease, fermenting the feed also increases protein content in the feed by about 3%.
There have been studies to show that hens fed fermented fed develop more villi in their intestines and thus absorb more nutrients from their feed making them more efficient at feed conversion.
Books of the Week
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:31:01 — 63.2MB)
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Quote of the Day: Tamar Adler
“If we were taught to cook as we are taught to walk, encouraged to first feel for pebbles with our toes, then to wobble forward and fall, then had our hands firmly tugged on so we would try again, we would learn that being good at it relies on something deeply rooted, akin to walking, to get good at which we need only guidance, senses and a little faith.
We aren’t often taught to cook like that, so when we watch people cook naturally, in what looks like an agreement between cook and cooked, we think that they were born with an ability to simply know that an egg is done, that the fish needs flipping, and that the soup need salt.”
Tamar Adler from An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace
I loved this quote when I read this book. Many people aren’t taught how to really cook, to cook like you create any other kind of art. Cooking is definitely a skill that you learn, one you learn by really tasting the food you eat. Every time you eat you have the potential to hone your cooking skills.
I love to cook and I’ve been honing my skills for my entire life. Creativity has always been one of my strengths and it really comes out when I cook.
What kind of cook would you say you are?
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Nothing Wasted
I mentioned earlier this week that I was going through my seed stash and being ruthless about weeding out old seed. Last year, I did a few experiments with seed for the same vegetable from differing years (seeds were from the same company). The fresh seed germinated much quicker and the seedlings were much stronger and were more resistant to stress induced issues (like too much sun, not enough water, etc).
After my experiments, I decided it was worth it to start each year with seed that is as fresh as possible. Some seeds stay fresher longer than other, brassicas and tomatoes are among those, thus I’ll keep those seeds for a few years. Onion seeds on the other hand really shouldn’t be saved from year to year. I will no longer be pushing the dates for viability of seed, it’s just not worth my time to risk things not germinating or seedlings not thriving. For a downloadable seed shelf life chart head on over to this post and download the PDF.
The seeds could have been thrown in the compost pile, but I decided to sprout them for my chickens instead. Of course you could sprout them for yourself if you don’t have chickens. I knew these hard working ladies would appreciate some lovely green sprouts in the middle of the winter, they’re still laying so well, I decided to give the sprouts to them instead of eating them myself. They’ll give them back to me in the form of big, beautiful eggs.
Sprouting seeds is as easy as can be, and you don’t need any special supplies. A glass jar and a piece of cheesecloth will do. Simply soak seeds for a few hours or overnight, drain out water and set jar upside down, tipped slightly in a bowl to drain excess water. Rinse several times a day when you remember, draining the water each time. Rinsing is important to keep mold away! In a few days sprouts will start to appear, when they are to your liking – enjoy!
What could be easier than that. This is also a good way to watch how seeds germinate and to monitor the different germination times with different vegetables.
What do you do with your old garden seed?
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It’s Official
Well, I guess we’re finally official Maine residents, we went and switched our license plates to Maine plates yesterday. It’s a lot of paperwork here in Maine, there are forms to fill out by hand with carbon copies – CRAZY – I haven’t seen those since doing paperwork in Colombia 10 years ago.
It’s all rather a lot of work here in Maine, there’s excise tax to pay at the town, registration fees, you also have get an inspection as well. It’s also not done according to birthdays either, so your plates need renewed whenever you got them originally. In Ohio, it’s all done according to birthdays, so you know your plates expire on your birthday, so much easier to remember. You can also renew on-line, and for 2 years if you want in Ohio, and they send you a letter in the mail telling you it’s time. It’s definitely not a streamlined process here in Maine, a little old fashioned I suppose. I fell sorry for the town clerks that have to do so much paperwork every year for car registrations! Perhaps it’s only Ohio that streamlined and easy, maybe other states are just like Maine.
What’s the car registration process like in your state?
