There’s a bunny in the hutch!
More about her soon. Start thinking up names!
Monthly Archives: June 2013
Meet Owly and Beatrix
The Araucana is a old, purebred chicken from South America that lays blue eggs. They have short rump feathers and muffs on their cheeks. The Ameraucana is mixture of the Araucana and other breeds. They also have muffs, but some have fluffy beards, too. They have normal chicken tails. They have an infinite number of feather patterns and colors. They’re sometimes called Easter Eggers because their colorful eggs look dyed. Some lay blue eggs, but others have the brown egg gene, as well, and so lay a range, from olive to turquoise. You never know what you’re going to get when you order Ameraucanas from the hatchery. I got four in my box from McMurray. I’m keeping two.
Beatrix is a classic Ameraucana. She is gorgeous.
Beatrix has the loveliest caramel-colored feathers, with black lacings. Her muff is fluffy and sets off her attractive dark eyes. She’s also aloof, which is a typical Ameraucana trait. I hope that her eggs are as pretty as she is.
Her sister, Owly, is not typical at all. From early on as a chick, she looked ahead and she looked up. Here she is at two weeks. You can see how she got her name. Notice the flock behind her.
A few weeks later, here is Owly, again the forward one of the group.
And here she is two weeks ago. Looking up.
Owly is a clown. I really don’t care what color eggs she lays.
Fruit Crisp
I do enjoy making (and eating!) desserts, but I’m not one of those precise bakers who construct architecturally correct cakes. Nor do I like pure sweetness. What I love are fruit desserts that balance acidic tartness with sweetness, and that have texture and bursts of flavor. Although I’m a pie baker, for everyday quick cooking I make crisps because they fit into my crazy schedule – I can bake one up on a whim right before dinner. I make up a large batch of the crisp topping and what isn’t used in that first crisp goes into the freezer and is pulled out whenever I want to make another. I rarely use a recipe, but this week I made crisp and I wrote down what I did to share it with you.
This is rhubarb season, which makes me do a happy dance, because it is my absolute favorite fruit to put in a pie (I know it’s not a botanical fruit, but I use it as a fruit, so I call it a fruit!) The rhubarb that I planted three years ago is finally mature enough so that I can get a good harvest from it.
The leaves are not edible, and are, in fact, poisonous, so before I bring the stalks inside, I lop off the tops right into the compost bin (the one that the chickens cannot get into).
Once washed, I chop the rhubarb into 1-inch pieces. I like to add another fruit to the crumble, and I happen to have tree-ripened peaches in my freezer (bought from a local orchard and vacuum-sealed last fall.) I defrost them just enough to break them apart so they’re no longer in a block.
I’ll need 6 cups of fruit to fill a pie plate. Half rhubarb and half peaches is good.
Here’s the rest of the ingredient list for the crisp filling:
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup of sugar, preferably coarse organic (better flavor than pure white sugar)
1 tablespoon of quick tapioca or instant clearjel (to thicken the juices)
Universal Crisp Topping:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (less if using salted butter)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup sugar, preferably coarse organic (better flavor than pure white sugar)
2 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger (optional)
1/2 cup nuts of choice (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a baking dish or pie plate with non-stick spray.
2. Combine the fruit and egg in bowl. In a small bowl, mix the 1/2 cup sugar and thickener, then stir into the fruit.
3. Put the fruit into the baking dish.
4. Put all of the topping ingredients into a food processor and pulse until the mixture is coarse and crumbly.
5. Evenly distribute about 1 cup of the topping over the fruit.
6. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the crisp is bubbly and the topping is lightly browned.
This is delicious plain. It’s excellent for breakfast with yogurt. I happened to have a bit of heavy cream in the fridge, which I whipped by hand (which yields a better texture than when done in a mixer) and had it for dessert.
Now I have enough crisp topping in my freezer for another three crisps. If I’m able to harvest my strawberries before the birds get them, I’ll be having Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp soon. Let me know what combination of fruit you put into a crisp.
Meet Veronica
Cuckoo Marans lay dark brown eggs, the color of a Hershey’s bar. Despite the fact that the eggs don’t actually taste like chocolate, they’re very pretty, and a good enough reason to have a Cuckoo Marans in your small flock. But, I’m discovering that there’s an even better reason to put this chicken on your list of breeds to have one day – what a wonderful personality!
I’m keeping one Cuckoo Marans, (the other has gone to the nursing home) and I’ve named her Veronica, after a story-telling hippo in a favorite book. Like her namesake, she’s a talker. Veronica chatters in a low, bup-bup-bup voice. She follows me around, constantly commenting on her world. What I really like about this chicken is that she is calm and yet out-going. When the chicks were two weeks old she was one of the first to try the baby roost.
At a month old she ventured higher up the big girls’ roost than anyone else.
And now, at 2 1/2 month of age, she is confident and yet not bossy to others in the flock. Veronica is the only pullet not intimidated by Edwina and even eats near that Grande Dame hen. And yet I’ve never seen Veronica challenge Edwina or any other chicken. So, Veronica is proving, early on, to be a personable, even-keeled leader, something that all flocks (and societies) should have in their midst.
New Home Construction
The window box on the porch outside of my office is thriving. This is the first year that I’ve planted a hanging cherry tomato plant and I’m looking forward to snacks while working!
There’s a lot of bird life in the front yard. I frequently see bluebirds, and a hawk perches in a neighbor’s pine. The other day, though, I saw more activity than usual. I stopped writing and stepped onto the porch. A robin yelled at me and flew at my head. I hurried back inside. Robins were building a nest between the petunias and the tomato plant.
After several hours their beautiful home was finished.
However, once all of the work was done, the robins looked around and decided that they didn’t like their new neighbor. She had been there throughout construction, but somehow the robins had overlooked her presence. Lily had ignored all of the construction hubbub, but she was still gauged by the robins to have brought down the value of the neighborhood. All of their work was for naught. They decided to relocate. As they say in the real estate business, it’s all about “location, location, location.”
