All The Critters Update

Well, here we are three weeks later and it has been a most trying week filled with alot of emotions. Last Sunday we lost our turkey hen Tomasita. And we are really not sure why, just found her dead when we went out to feed. Very strange really, never really sure why these things happen.

On Wednesday, Meara lost her battle with a condition known as "fatty liver" caused by her being so overweight most of her life. We had been giving her a buch of herbs and a steroid to see if we couldn't turn her around. Plus the Doc had been here a couple of times to do an IV and also to tube her to get something in her stomachs and hopefully jump start them but she just couldn't get past it I guess and we lost her. It still hard to go out and feed because I still expect to hear her complain that I am not moving fast enough for her or she wants to go to the pasture. I really miss her a bunch.

But the life cycle never stops around here. Also on Wednesday we started hatching out chicks. It is the most fantastic adventure I have ever been witness to. I did my part...three weeks of keeping them warm and humid and rolled 3 times a day up to the last week and then I just stood back and held my breathe while I waited and watched ...never really sure this was even going to work. And then it happened...one egg started to peep! There was no cracks or holes but you could hear the chick peeping before it even started on the egg. It was amazing to find this out and then to watch as they work so hard to get out of the shell.

I would see the beginning of a hole and then a crack and then a wing or leg and then there they were...all wet and just exhausted from the hours of work to get out. And I mean hours, Frederick and I would go to bed at night and there would be a couple of eggs just starting to crack and when we come down in the morning the chicks are still wet so we know they haven't been out of the egg more than just a few minutes. We now have twenty more of the cutest mouths to feed you ever did see. In fact I am sitting with the newset on my lap while I type this.

These chicks have gone from the comforts of the kitchen where we could keep an eye on them and make sure they get ever chance to survive, to the bathroom where they are now kept warm under a brooder light in a nice wooden box. Once they get feathered out and it warms a bit they will then move to the small coop when George once lived so I can still keep on eye on them but they won't be "parfuming" the house. And then once they get big enough to defend themselves they will be moved out to the "nursery". This a small section of the coop yard that is fenced off from the rest of the flock in order to introduce them to the rest of the family without fear of injury. It works pretty good, they get used to seeing each other and when I let them all go at once the other chickens are so overwhemled that they usually won't bother the new ones too much.

Well, I guess that is all for now. I need to give Frederick a hand will the night feeding and then get him feed. And I supose this chick is probably ready to meet the rest of the family. So until next time....

ALL THE CRITTERS

Hi Ya'll! Deliverance here with news from the farm.



We are trying to hatch them beautiful eggs this spring. I have 40 eggs in the incubator and we are at day 7 of 21, so right now it is just a matter of turning them 2-3 times a day and making sure there is enough water in there to create some nice humidity. I am very eager to see how many I can hatch this way. I have a couple of hens that don't mind "sittin'" but that is usually after the weather warms a bit more. Right now they are just interested in the two rooster I have left after killing time.



I had 6 roosters thru the winter, they were young and didn't bother the hens too much during the colder months but once it started to warm up a bit it seem like they were "hell bent for glory" and chased everything that moved!! Well, you know, after a while the hens started to show the wear and after one of my setters got hurt and died that was all she wrote for them. So now we are down to two roosters. Stumpy is a white and black Easter Egger, very large, good looking rooster that got hurt when he was just a chick and Frederick (my better half) nursed him back. He walks with a slight limp but that don't slow him down none. And then there is Woody. Woody is a Spanish Gold that wears a very large head of feathers that go in every direction. We call him the "Rock Star" because of all the feathers and if he ever grows his tail feathers back he will be a beautiful bird (and look more balanced as well). It would seem that all those roosters were a bit jealous of Woody plummage and made sure it didn't stick around long, even his headdress is looking better these days. Woody and Stumpy are very happy without all the competition and they have all those pretty hens!! Hopefully they are fertile roosters and we have a bunch of babies this year.

If you will all remember back to the first blog that Willfull posted, you will recall a rooster by the name of George. George is no longer with us on the farm. He has moved to greener pastures as they say. I raised George from a hatchling, carried him around in my bra or pocket when I was outside working the garden or what have you. He had become quite a large part of life around here and I do miss him a bunch. I don't hear the other roosters in the morning as well as I heard George because George had his own house up on the back porch. He was a very well cared for bird. And now he is gone. I had given one of the neighbor boys a couple of hens last year, they were sisters and were always together. Well one of them past away a few weeks later and "Goldie" was left to be alone thru the winter and of course being raised the way he was George couldn't be put in the regular coop with the rest of them birds. He wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes in there. So he has moved in with Goldie and could not be happier. Yeah, I know, it is silly to miss a bird with as many as I have around here but I just got used to him crowing at 4:30 in the morning and all day long for that matter! It got so I would have to take him out of his house in the morning and put him in the garden during the day so he wasn't digging up all my flower beds. And now with spring coming on I need the garden, of course, so I was going to have to find a place for him anyway. This way it is a win all the way around. George gets a new home with Goldie and I get my garden back. I do miss him talking to me all day tho! But he and Goldie are doing well and we are hopeful that they will start their own flock!



Well I had better get this day started, it is almost day break and there are chores to do. I hope that you have enjoyed this conversation with me and will be back soon. Willfull and I do enjoy the farm and sharing it with you. Willful, I hope you are having a great time and hurry home from your adventure. I miss ya!! Until next time....

Chocolate Pie, PS

Hi Y'all! The chocolate pie is amazingly tasty, but it doesn't hold together too well when you try to cut it. So only serve it to forgiving company that will happily tuck into little piles of pie.

Chocolate Pie!

Hi, Wilful here.

I'm about to leave the country for twelve days and go to Argentina. You know what that means! Chocolate cream pie time! Actually, it's pretty much always chocolate cream pie time around here.

Here's a recipe that will knock your socks off. If you don't want pie, just make the filling, refrigerate it and call it chocolate pudding. "Hey, Chocolate Pudding! Come over here so I can eat you!" Ha ha, "call it", get it? Err, never mind . . .

For crust

• 1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
  
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup sugar

For filling

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 large egg yolks
• 3 cups whole milk
• 7 oz chocolate, melted (you can use a combo of bittersweet and unsweetened or all bittersweet)
  
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For topping

• Whip cream! Either out of a can or whipped from scratch.
  

Directions:


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the ingredients for the crust together and pat them into a pie pan. Bake until crisp, about 18 minutes. (The white spot in the middle of mine is a lump of sugar that didn't incorporate well. It's not mold. I promise.)


Mix the sugar, cornstarch, salt and egg yolks in a heavy sauce pan. Whisk them until it forms a big lump in the middle of your whisk. That's what it did for me anyway. Then pour the milk in a steady stream, whisking all the time. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, whisking all the while. When it's boiling, turn the heat down to low and cook for one minute, still whisking. it will be very thick! Turn off the heat.



Then pour in your melted chocolate, add the butter and vanilla and whisk until smooth.

Put a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the filling so it won't form a skin. Set the pot in a bowl full of ice water until the filling is cool. This will take about 45 minutes. Pour it into your prepared shell. Taste it too. It's REALLY good.


Ok, stop tasting it! Smooth what's left in the shell until it looks like chocolate pie. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set this in the fridge for 6 hours or until your company comes, whichever happens soonest. Top with whipped cream and serve! My whip cream is coming with my company, so I don't have a pic of that. I'll post one later if I can.


Share and enjoy!

More Room for the Good Stuff

Sometimes things don't go as planned, even on the farm.

This morning I made chocolate cupcakes for my grandma's 92nd birthday. I carefully altered the recipe to account for high altitude by adding more liquid, less baking soda, more flour, less sugar and by increasing the baking temperature by 25 degrees. However, despite my best efforts, the cupcakes all sunk in the middle and turned into cavecakes.

This doesn't bother me too much because the little hollows can be filled with frosting. I think Deliverance would agree with me that the whole point of cupcakes is that they are a vehicle for frosting. More room for frosting = a good thing.

Deliverance and I like to see the positive side of everything.

Here are some pics with the final recipe for the cupcakes at the bottom. I'll post the frosting recipe later.

Sad looking cavecake, longing for frosting:

Happy cupcake, topped with strawberry frosting, a strawberry heart and two mint leaves:

Chocolate Cupcakes With More Room for the Good Stuff
This recipe is courtesy of Cavleen and includes high altitude changes.

Ingredients
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup boiling water
1 cup + 4 Tbls. buttermilk
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups minus 4 Tbls. sugar
2 cups + 2 Tbls. flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions

1. Mix cocoa and boiling water. Set aside to cool.
2. Mix buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla together.
3. Mix dry ingredients together.
4. Mix dry ingredients into buttermilk/oil mixture.
5. Mix in cocoa mixture.
6. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit in lined cupcake pans.
7. Bake until tester comes out clean, approximately 15 minutes.

Makes about 24 cupcakes.

About the Farm

If you follow the railroad tracks out of Santa Fe and keep following them far, far to the south, you might notice a small farm just off the side of the tracks. Approaching this farm your shins might be scuffled by an aggressive but beautiful rooster named George, or you might be followed by a limping cat named Zippy who's meows sound a bit like a goat. If you were to walk around the back of this farm you might see a garden (teaming with tomatoes and marigolds in the summer) and a brambly blackberry patch (watch out for those thorns!). If you do find this magical place, congratulations! You've found The Farm.

A lot of cookin' and cannin' takes place here on the farm and a lot of shenanigans. Deliverance and I would like to share them with you. My name's Wilful and I hope ya'll enjoy our bloggin'.

Deliverance and I are related by blood, but what holds us together the most is our love for cooking, our passion for gardening and a certain zany insanity that may or may not be hereditary.

Remember that aggressive rooster George? He was abandoned by his mama when he was just barely hatched. Deliverance found him, nursed him back to health and carried him around in her shirt until he got big enough to fend for himself. Now he's turned into kind of a nuisance but we haven't decided to eat him. At least not yet . . . .