Dear Delilah… Get well soon!

Ever since the vicious attack on poor little Delilah, the Wallingford Hen House has been abuzz with activity. Taking care of an ailing chicken has proven to be quite the time suck.

I’m happy to report that Delilah is doing much better than she was a week ago. Since we separated her from the flock and set up some emergency chicken housing in the basement, she seems to be on the mend. Not without constant veterinary attention, I might add. And no, it’s not like we changed our minds and decided to find the best chicken vet in all of Seattle – we’re the vet.

Beautiful Delilah... the side without the gaping hole. I'd also like to point out that she's standing up, which is a big improvement over the last few days.

After getting some sound advice from the very knowledgeable Chicken Man, we’re confident that Delilah is slated for a full-on recovery. You know the phrase keep your friends close but your enemies closer? I think it should be amended to read, “Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and Chicken Man the closest because when your chickens get sick, you’re going to need to call someone, and sick chickens have a tendency to freak out friends and enemies alike.” Get better little chicken!

Our makeshift emergency chicken housing unit. That's a mouthful.

Crisis at The Hen House: Delilah Fights for Her Life

Where do I even start?  The past couple days have been rough.  Really rough. It all started on Monday. Before I left for class that afternoon, I had to stop by the house really quick and I thought it would be a good idea to check on the ladies.  With the low temperatures we’ve been keeping a very close eye on them.  When I went out to the coop Delilah was laying down, which they all do often, but this time Athena was pecking at her.

I walked up to the coop and as usual, Athena jumped around and ran to me, looking for treats.  Delilah continued to lay still.  I looked at her, and her eyes were open, looking back at me.  That’s when I saw it.  Blood and feathers.  Delilah had a hole in her, about three inches wide and one inch deep.  And that hole is exactly what Athena had been pecking at.  I ran inside the house, grabbed a towel, and wrapped Delilah up in it.  When I picked her up she went limp, and her little eyes closed.  I think my heart broke a bit and my stomach turned when her  eyes closed, and I was pretty sure she was dead.

Delilah and her turkey friends on the day that we got her... pre-attack.

At that moment I had to make a mental switch from pet-lover to urban farmer.  What would a real farmer do?  A real farmer would take reasonable measures to care for the animal, and be tough when it came to making a decision about the chicken.  So that’s the plan we put into place.   At that point Delilah still seemed to be breathing.   Bre was home, and she helped me get Delilah into an old guinea pig cage.  I put Delilah down on some fresh shavings, with some water and food around her.  I put a light over her to keep her warm, and watched her shallow breathing for a few minutes before I left  for class.  Skipping class did not count as a reasonable measure, so I went even though I really wanted to stay back and watch over the poor chicken.  The pit in my stomach went away, and I knew that Delilah may very well die in the next few hours, and it would be OK.  That’s just how it goes.  Don’t get me wrong, I would be sad about losing our sweet little lady, but since we had decided to do the farm animal thing, we had to take it seriously and we couldn’t treat our chickens totally like pets. If one is sick we’ll try to make her better, but if that doesn’t work, it’s time to move on. We have a ‘no vet’ policy for our chickens, so the best we can do is to solve the problem with our own resources and skills.

After I put Delilah downstairs, I talked with Britt and filled her in on everything. Britt came home that night and did what she could for Delilah, which unfortunately  at the time was not a lot, as she wouldn’t eat, drink, or even be responsive to noises or movement.  Her little eyes stayed closed, and she continued to breathe shallowly while she lied down.  After Britt spent some time on the chicken forums, she had the brilliant idea of emailing Chicken Man and we’ve been following his advice since then.  We’ll share Chicken Man’s thoughts in another post, and you can read how we spent the next day caring for an almost-dying chicken.  For now, Delilah continues to hang in there. She’s been eating, drinking, and even moving around, so we’re hopeful.  We’ll keep you updated as we expand our urban farming skills and try to figure out if  Delilah, and the rest of our flock, can be saved.

Thanksgiving Adventures: Making Turkey Stock

I have been doing some reading lately, mostly on urban farming, local eating, etc. and have been coming up with new ways to expand our urban farming venture.  My most recent attempt occurred approximately two hours after the sacred Thanksgiving meal, where I peeled myself off the couch and rolled on into the kitchen to start a new project.  My mission you ask? To use all the leftover pieces of the 15 pound bird to make turkey stock to be used in soups, rice dishes, casseroles, and who knows what else.

Gravy is just one of the delicious menu items you can cook up with turkey broth.

After my dad, Chicken Coop Man, picked all the usable pieces of meat off the bones, I popped all the cooked leftover pieces of the turkey into a gigantic turkey deep fryer pot. A turkey deep fryer pot is just a giant pot.  Specifically one that you could deep fry a turkey in.  It is also conveniently big enough to make large amounts of turkey stock.   Are you wondering what leftover pieces entail?  Let me put it bluntly.  The turkey carcass, which is really just a whole lot of bones, the kidney, heart, and gizzard.  Are you gagging a teeny tiny bit? So was I.  Sometimes animal organs just get to me.   Despite what my gag reflex tells me,  the reality is that these parts of the animal have something to offer.  Adding these pieces of the animal to a stock make it more flavorful and add to the immune-boosting power of true homemade stock, so I’m learning to deal with it.

The turkey deep fryer pot. This pot was large and in charge.

This is probably a good time to share some of my shameful past with all of you.  I used to be a vegetarian.  For about four years.  Prior to the four years of full vegetarianism, I ate all meat besides chicken, for about two years.  That makes a total of six years of my life where I chose to be this weird selective meat eater.  After I got pet chickens while in elementary school, it was like some kind of light bulb came on.  This beautiful bird who I love and loves me back, is the same thing I drool over at the dinner table? Meat made sense to me – I liked it, I thought that I should eat it (and I still think this), but at the time I just couldn’t bring myself to eat it.  After years of tofu and beans, a bigger light bulb turned on, and I came back to my destiny as a meat eater and haven’t looked back since.

Back to the stock.  In this giant turkey deep fryer pot I threw in all the leftover pieces of turkey, about two handfuls of baby carrots, one large onion chopped into a few chunks, two handfuls of celery,  about six garlic cloves, some sage and thyme from the garden, salt and pepper.  Then I added all the drippings form the turkey roasting pan.  I filled the pot up until the water was about six inches above all of the ingredients.   Lucky for my parents, I was visiting their house for Thanksgiving, and they got to take part in all the fun.

Veggies and herbs sure do make a turkey carcass look pretty!

When it was finally time to get cooking, I brought the water up to a full boil, and then I let the pot simmer with all the ingredients for about 17 hours.  As I am slightly afraid of burning the house down, I got up a few times to check on the simmering stock while it sat overnight on the stove.  To my surprise it all looked just fine.

Simmering never looked so good.

After the long simmer, I tasted the broth, and did something most organic cooks  would shame me for.  I added some chicken bullion.  Gasp, I know, but it just needed a little more flavor.  Next time I make broth I know to add less water.  After I had the broth tasting delicious, I brought it back up to a boil for about 10 minutes, and then let the stock cool while I got my canning ingredients ready.  I sanitized all my jars and lids that I would be using to preserve the stock by washing the jars in the dishwasher and boiling the lids and rings in water for about ten minutes.  I also sanitized a couple straining items by boiling them in water with the lids, or by running them through the dishwasher.

Some of the quart jars ready to go.

To can or freeze the broth, you  have  strain it from all the ingredients that made the stock.  The strainer of your choice must be very fine.  You are not going to be seeing any pictures of my straining process.  The mess that resulted from my straining of the broth into the cans was a serious disaster.  My parent’s dog practically bathed himself in broth as I spilled it all over the floor.  The counter and floor appeared to have about in inch of standing water, which was really just broth that I was recklessly spilling all over the kitchen.  Seeing my desperation, Cowboy Casanova stepped in and came up with this genius ideas of holding a pair of pantyhose up to each jar, and straining the broth through,  making a funnel type thing.  Once again, no pictures – sorry.   When broth is pouring everywhere, it’s hard to pick up a camera.   Maybe next year I will appear a little more graceful in the kitchen and feel like documenting the adventure.   This is the truth about urban farming.  The good, the bad, and the just plain ugly.

A nice supply of turkey stock goodness.

About ten pots, three pairs of sterilized pantyhose, two strainers, many spoons, bowls, measuring cups, and a roll of paper towels later, I was ready to pop my jars of broth into the pressure cooker.  Now if you have freezer space, you can strain this broth into plastic baggies or whatever you want, and keep it safely in the freezer.  I have roommates. Translation? No freezer space.  I decided to can my broth using a pressure cooker, so I can take advantage of the huge cellar in our rental home.

I followed the directions on the pressure cooker and ended up with 13 quarts of turkey stock.  Yep, that’s a lot of stock.  When my stock settled, I could see the fat seperate from the stock.  All I have to do is spoon this off the top of the jar before I use it, to give myself a low fat homemade delicious cooking ingredient. Am I proud of the mess I made? Not so much.  Am I proud of the end product? You bet.

Urban Farm Trade

Calling all urban farmers! Anyone wanna trade? The Wallingford Hen House would like your goods! We want to see what other people are making around the great city of Seattle. We’ve always got a fresh supply of eggs, so let the trading begin.

Items we’re always on the prowl for:

• Fresh milk to make tasty goodies
• Locally grown meat
• Baked goods! One of our friends traded us a homemade pecan pie for six fresh eggs. Good trade, if ya ask me. Plus, it made Delilah, Athena and Manola feel very important.
• Homemade crafts. We’re big fans of things like Popsicle stick Christmas ornaments, and with the holidays coming up, this could be your ticket!
• Whatever else floats your boat. Get creative!

Also, let us know if you have a good recipe that we should try, or other ways to expand our little urban farm.

Four eggs. Three chickens. One day. Talk about winter productivity!

HEN UPDATE: The other day there were four eggs in the nesting box again. WOOHOO. This is reason to celebrate.

Brew Updates

We most certainly have been busy here at the Wallingford Hen House.  We’ve all been strolling into work with glossy eyes and a ginormous cup of coffee after several late nights.  Even Sadie has been snoozing for a few extra hours in the morning.  No, we weren’t at the bar too late …. we were in our kitchen, brewing away, to build up our inventory of liquid gold, a.k.a. beer.

Don't be fooled by the soup look-a-like. That's beer in the making!

About a week ago, the three humans of the house (under the watchful eye of Sadie)  grouped together for a giant beer making festival.  We made three batches, or 15 gallons of beer, in one night!  We made 10 gallons of cherry wheat, and 5 gallons of Belgian white.  We made the Belgian white beer from a recipe that is designed to be a clone of Blue Moon.  But that’s not all.  A few weeks before our kitchen  brew fest, we bottled a delicious strawberry hefeweizen. A week ago we had our first taste of the strawberry brew, and it was decent.  Not our favorite, but definitely drinkable.

Last week we had a small taste of our cherry wheat ale when we bottled, and it made us hopeful.  We should be having our first real taste in about two weeks, so we’ll let you know how it goes.   If you are curious about how to make your own beer at home, click here to read full instructions about making beer at home. Happy Brewing!

Delilah Takes Flight

As I was tending to the chickens this morning, I realized that it’s been quite a while since we’ve provided an update on recent hen happenings. So here’s what the lovely ladies have been up to.

Athena: Athena continues to be a ravenous beast when it comes to eating treats. All the ladies love their mid-day veggie snacks, let’s be real, but Athena stands out as the most enthusiastic, by far. We’re a little worried that those carbs will add up and she’ll lose her nice figure.

Athena sprinting toward me with the hope that I had some lettuce in my pocket. I didn't have any. She was quite upset.

Manola: Manola is still her timid, cautious self. While she has stopped roosting on the watering can (a big improvement),  she has a tendency to take a very long time to lay an egg. Like three hours. Sometimes we wonder if she’s in there treating herself to a spa day.

Manola taking a dust bath. Among roosting in strange places and taking forever to lay an egg, this is another one of her favorite pastimes. Dust baths help chickens keep their feathers clean. Another reason why we think Manola enjoys the spa.

Delilah: The brain of the flock, Delilah is always learning new tricks. A couple days ago I was outside picking some lettuce because Athena was harassing me (big surprise), and on the other side of the yard I heard a bunch of flapping. A little startled, I turned and saw Delilah mid-flight on her way to the top of the chicken coop. Being the protective chicken owner that I am, I sprinted to the coop and immediately started screaming obscenities at her (actually they were more like whisper-obscenities… we are in a neighborhood, after all).

Since I still had some lettuce in my hand, I started throwing it through the air at her. I have no idea why I thought this would help. Once she safely made it to the peak of the roof, Rogue Chicken just stared at me. My eyes pled with her to come back down to Earth. You’ve got to understand that until this point, the ladies had never flown anywhere except inside the chicken coop to roost. It was really not OK that Delilah had taken the liberty to take such a monumental step without consulting the flock nor her humans. After about three minutes and 37 seconds, Rogue Chicken tiptoed down to the edge of the roof and gracefully flew back to Earth. We’re hoping this behavioral outburst isn’t a preview of what’s to come.

Delilah sneakily foraging in the garden. I bet she was loading up on carbs to prepare for her big flight. It all makes sense now.

Seasonal Produce Update

You know what makes me feel happy?  Seasonal produce.  Yep, seasonal produce makes me happy.  Here is a list of what is growing in Washington State until the end of November.  Maybe some of your Thanksgiving menus include some of these yummy items.  If anyone has a recipe to share, send it our way!!! Happy eating!

• Apples
• Asian Pears
• Beans
• Beets
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Celeriac
• Celery
• Chard
• Collard Greens
• Cranberries
• Garlic
• Grapes
• Hearty Greens (Bok Choy, Kale, Mustard Greens)
• Jerusalem Artichokes
• Kohlrabi
• Leaf Lettuce
• Leeks
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Parsnips
• Pears
• Potatoes
• Pumpkins
• Radishes
• Raspberries
• Rutabagas
• Shallots
• Spinach
• Turnips
• Winter Squash

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Farm Communications

As amateur urban farmers, we’ve always got something going on. Beer is brewing. Cheese is setting. Eggs are cooking. Chickens are exploring.

In order to keep our farm operations running smoothly, there are a few things that we NEED to remember to do on a daily basis … and it’s easy to forget. For instance, when we’re brewing beer, the bathroom light needs to stay on with the door completely shut, otherwise our liquid gold won’t ferment at the right temperature. When the chickens are out, Sadie needs to stay on a leash, otherwise our beautiful flock will turn into blood and feathers, to be quite frank. Anyway, over the last few weeks we’ve devised our very own communications strategy that serves as a gentle reminder to do the things we need to do to have a happy, thriving urban farm. Drum roll, please…

Alert! The chickens are outside! Keep Sadie on a leash!

Paper signs taped to the wall! Don’t laugh. Although this sounds pretty rudimentary, it works. How else are three urban farmers going to communicate throughout the day when each one is on different schedule? Exactly. Unfortunately, there is one drawback to our paper sign plan. It doesn’t look good. Our house has started to look a little hodgepodge-y and we’re not so sure that’s kosher.

Hmm, the beer must be brewing.

So we made cuter signs. See the creative fruits of our labor below!

Aw, shucks.

You also might notice that our blog is easier to find now … you can access it by simply typing chickencluck.com into your browser. We give a hearty shout-out to Big Green Tractor for being so tech-savvy. Muchas gracias!

From Farm to Table: The Pumpkin

The life of an urban farmer is shaped by space.  No, I do not mean planets and stars.  I am  talking about square footage.  What to grow, when to grow it, and how many animals to own are mostly square footage-based decisions.  Sacrifices must be made when space is limited, which means that this year, I did not grow pumpkins. I wasn’t willing to give up any of my summer garden space for large fall crops.  The upside of my square foot shortage is that I have the opportunity to find great fall produce on other farms. This fall, I will be seeking out real farmers, with a lot of space, to supplement my little plot’s production.

Summer in the garden. No room for pumpkins this year!

When we went to pick pumpkins this October, we made sure to get a baking pumpkin so we could use it to bake something tasty. The round, cute little pumpkin was the beginning of our farm to table adventure.  We’re going to try and  pick  fruits and vegetables right out of the ground, off the vine, bush or tree and make something delicious from it.  Straight from the farm, and onto our table.  We do realize that its winter and the growing season is coming to an end, meaning this probably isn’t the best time to start our farm to table venture.  Anyway, we’re willing to get creative.

 

This post will teach you how to make your own pumpkin puree (from a real pumpkin!) that you can use for cooking .  Homemade pumpkin puree makes the difference between crazy-good  pumpkin food, and just O.K. pumpkin food.  I am traditionally a canned pumpkin user, but now that I have tasted the difference  and experienced the process, I will be a homemade pumpkin puree maker for life.  If you’re interested in how you can take a pumpkin from looking good to tasting good, read on.

Part 1: Get a Pumpkin.

Step 1: We picked our pumpkin at Two Brothers Pumpkin Patch in Carnation. It was a lovely Saturday.  We came home with about eight pumpkins and five gourds for around $17.00.  Good atmosphere and good prices.  You can get pumpkins at grocery stores and fruit stands usually from September through December.   For cooking you want a “pie pumpkin”.  These are smaller, sweeter, and less grainy then the typical jack-o-lantern pumpkin.   Look for a pumpkin that is firm, with no bruises, no mushy spots, and bright orange in color.

You know you're on the right path when the first step of your recipe puts you in a field.

Part 2:  Get Your Pumpkin Ready for Cooking.

Step 1:  Rinse the pumpkin with water.

Our beautiful pumpkin. Ready for cooking!

Step 2:  Cut the pumpkin in half. Be careful! This is risky business and you can get hurt.  A sawing motion and a serrated knife is the safest way.   Cut the stem and the brown bottom off of the two halves.

Step 3:  Scoop out all the stringy insides and seeds so you can have two clean halves.  I just used a regular spoon, but an ice cream scoop works well.  Save the seeds for roasting if you are a pumpkin seed fan!

The inside of a clean pumpkin. Ready to cook!

Step 4:  Now that you have two clean halves, you can cut the pumpkin into quarters, and then eighths so all the pieces can fit into a microwavable bowl.

Step 5:  Put all the pieces into a microwavable bowl, add an inch or two of water to  the bowl, cover the bowl, and put it in the microwave.

Part 3: Cook the pumpkin.

Step 1: Cook the pumpkin on high for fifteen minutes, and then check to see if the pumpkin is soft enough to scoop the inside out.  Cook the pumpkin a few minutes at time, checking it to until it is soft enough to scoop out the pumpkin insides with a spoon easily.  It will be mushy enough that applying light pressure on the pumpkin will push all the way through to the skin.  This takes about 20-30 minutes on average.

The steaming pumpkin after being cooked.

Part Four: Remove the Skin.

Step 1: Wait for the pumpkin to chill out until it is cool enough to carefully touch.  Using a spoon, you can easily separate the skin from the inside of the pumpkin.

The pumpkin skin will peel right off once its cooked all the way through.

Step 2:  Toss the skin in the garbage and put the pumpkin insides into a large bowl.

Part 5: Get The Pumpkin Ready for Cooking or Freezing.

Step 1:  Puree the pumpkin insides. You can use a hand blender or a regular blender.  It takes about two to three minutes with a hand blender.

The pureed pumpkin. Mmm, tasty.

Step 2: Once the pumpkin puree is smooth, you can put your pumpkin mixture into Ziplock bags.  Pop those bags right into the freezer, and use them for delicious recipes as the year goes on.

The pumpkin puree bagged and ready for freezing!

Our first recipe? Click here for the recipe that we followed for some delicious pumpkin bread!  Seriously, I think that this is the best pumpkin bread recipe that I have tried! If anyone has other pumpkin recipes, send them our way! We still have about 12 cups of pumpkin sittin’ pretty in the freezer.