The ducklings are here!

Some people have asked me why Muscovy ducks are different. The fact is, from what I can tell, that they are not true "ducks" but were classified as such due to their duck bill and webbed feet.

Muscovys are quiet birds, the males making a hissing noise and wagging when excited, and the females almost entirely quiet unless softly peeping to their babies. They don't need water, they make excellent duck mothers, even being used on farms to hatch other eggs. They will roost in trees if left alone, but ours have learned to put themselves away at night into their coop area.

They eat less than other birds, forage really well (they are very wild genetically still), they're true lap birds, enjoying the company of people they trust. In fact, my George waits eagerly at the gate each morning for me to let him out, which I always do first, and then he follows me around while I do my chores. When I go back into the house, he hops up the steps after me and waits patiently while I go inside to get him some treats, which he gobbles up and then hops down the steps to start foraging for his own treats.

Their meat is purported to taste like pork and be indistinguishable from steak in appearance, and to have a lot more white meat than other duck. We will find out soon enough, I suppose. They are used all over the world as superb meat ducks, as one pair will yield up to 100 ducks annually. In Asian countries, they are mated with Peking ducks to make a good meat bird, which is in high demand. This mating yields mules, as they are not entirely the same species, the offspring are sterile.




Martha is now the proud mommy of 12 beautiful ducklings. We have pics, but will have to post later as we have company tonight.

Dinner Tonight

We were so revved up for the "challenge" of eating 25% of our food over the next three months as wild foraged foods that we decided to start tonight with a preview.

For dinner, we made pizza, admittedly with purchased flour and oils, but using my garlic scapes to make a pesto. The recipe was a handful of garlic scapes, a mixture of olive and walnut oils, some of my dried hot peppers from last year, some parmesan and sharp provolone, and topped with sharp cheddar. It was delicious.

For vegetable we had cat tails with garlic butter. Yummy, yummy, yummy! And dessert was elderberry flower fritters dipped in sugar. The consensus was that we should try to sell them.

OK, so there was a lot of purchased components in that meal... but it was delicious, for sure. I think next time we would use honey or maple syrup to sweeten the fritters. The oils have to be from our food stores since we don't have a way to produce it. If food production were shut off, we have to find a substitute, I guess it would be butter and animal fats again, with some small amounts of nut oils.

I will try to post pictures later, as all that wading in the marsh has us tired, and our full bellies are making us go to bed soon.

Wild Edibles and Medicinals Introduction

We’ve decided that we will go one week each in July, August, and September and eat only foods that we either grow or wild harvest, with the exception of meat and dairy foods. Tune back in to see how we’re doing and find any recipes I’ve come up with. Anyone with preservation methods for any wild foods and medicines is welcome to send that information to me and I’ll post it here with your permission.

I’d love to see the medicinal and food usage of “wild” or non-cultivated herbs, vegetables, nuts and fruits come back into popularity. Wild edibles are simply incredible in both flavor and nutrient concentration… and the low cost is an added benefit. Many people would be so happy to have you come to their property to dig dandelion and burdock roots they’d invite you back each year. (Just be sure that they don’t use chemicals on their property, which can concentrate in the root crops)

Yesterday, we ate some of the not yet opened flowers of our intentionally planted milkweed. Boiled for 8 minutes until tender and bright green and served with a little salt and butter… yum yum!

Today, on the way home from work for lunch, we stopped to pick some of the not yet opened flowers of the cat tails from the swamp. Boiled for 10 minutes and served with garlic butter, they have a mild taste and are just superb. I’m surprised that these foods are not found in the gourmet and health food stores.

One of my absolute favorites is daylily flowers. I adore them in place of lettuce in salads, but they do have a mild laxative effect. You have to eat a lot to have any issues, but last year, I kind of over did it. I also enjoy them stir fried with a little garlic butter. Try to keep it to a couple of cups a day. Sometimes we’ll just pass some on the road and whoever is driving will pull alongside and the passenger just picks and we eat as we drive slowly along. Talk about nutritional powerhouses, they have huge amounts of antioxidants. Here’s an article about the antioxidant properties, and apparently they are best eaten when first opened. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6R-4TVTJWR-6&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=75c09b1fae156f89c009f459bd606153

One of our goals this year is guerrilla gardening, but with local natives. We have a pond near us and this will be the second year we will be attempting to plant cat tails there. We’ll be planting ground nuts, milk weed, elderberries, daylily, Jerusalem artichokes, pig weed (wild amaranth), stinging nettles and burdock in a field nearby. And watercress in the brook next to the field. All of these are plants that grow near us and therefore won’t be doing anything to any micro ecosystems. We’re just moving them closer in one location so that we can have one stop shopping, so to speak.

For those of you who don’t know or haven’t tried these delicious foods, please look them up and make a point of trying some soon. Please email me at waggingtailsfarms@yahoo.com if you want more information.

Part 2 of raising chickens

Hi, all, here’s the rest of my post on how to raise chickens.

I raise my chicks organically, so I use molasses and apple cider vinegar and garlic in my water to help them stay healthy, fight disease and pasty butt. (that’s where their butts literally “paste” up and they can’t release their wastes and die) It’s given at a rate of 1 tablespoon of molasses and ACV and one clove of garlic to a gallon of water.

When your chicks are going to arrive in the mail, call the post office and let them know where you can be reached that day. They will likely call you and let you know when they are in. Some post offices will put a post card in your mail box, so find out what they will do before the chicks arrive. You want to be available to get them home ASAP so you can get water into them. When they arrive, I put the heat on in my car as hot as it will go, so they don’t get a shock of cold and then hot. Probably not necessary, but I like to feel like it makes a difference.

As soon as you get them home, you must take each one out of the box and dip it’s beak into food and then water (or else the food will stick to their beaks). They have enough food in them for about 3 days because they absorb the yolk, however, it’s imperative that they drink. This is one of the number one ways you’ll lose chicks. Make sure to dip each one’s beak and then watch to make sure they start to drink. (Note: turkeys often have to be shown several times over the course of several days)

You’ll want to get them mash for the first few weeks, which is just grains ground to a fine grind, a little coarser than whole wheat flour. You’ll also need to get them starter grit, but they won’t need it right away. Chickens “chew” their food by grinding it with rocks that they swallow, so your chicks will need you to provide tiny stones for them so they can properly chew their food.

I grind my own grain, and I use Ronda’s chick starter recipe #3. See here for more information. http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/ChickStarterRecipe.html. She has a great website. I also give them scrambled eggs, yogurt, and kefir.

After a few weeks, they can begin to eat grit, worms and diced greens.
They can also go outside as long as they have started to “feather out” and it is warm. Think about the temperature they have in their brooder box, it should not be much cooler than that. Provide them a warm place, like a box, for them to get out of any wind, and do not leave them alone out there. I like to garden while they are enjoying their first days outside, so that I can keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t get chilled.

At about 3-4 weeks of age, you’ll notice a fine dust all over your house. At this stage, they are ready to move to a bigger container, perhaps one that is not in your house any longer. This year, we used an extra large wire dog kennel, created a false floor by putting strips of wood across the horizontal wires running along the walls of the kennel, and topping it with a stiff piece of hardware cloth. We also give them perches at this age as they really want to be up as high as they can get. The false floor makes it nice because at this age, they’ll be pooping a lot more and you’ll be getting sick of cleaning. With the false floor, you can just scoop under them and bring it out to the compost bin. I also go up a feeder size and a waterer size at this point.

If you wish, you can also bring them outside into their permanent chicken coop at this age, as long as you are going to give them a source of heat.

Once they are fully feathered out you can bring them outside and let them start to free range. They will learn after about 2-3 nights where they live if you put them away for the first three nights and lock them in. My chickens always go away as night approaches, and I just have to go out and shut their door. They peep at you contentedly and let you know that they appreciate you.

Chickens are so much fun to watch, and you get to learn about their little games and personalities. I never knew until I started keeping chickens how much fun they are to share your life with. For instance, keep away is one of their favorite games, which is where one gets a worm and begins to peep loudly. She’ll run around and the other chickens chase her trying to get the worm from her. The other fun thing we really like is when one hen is laying a particularly large egg, she will cluck, and the others will “cheer her on” by clucking in chorus with her.

Feel free to email me or leave a comment if you have any questions.

How to raise chickens

It’s been raining for about a week now, with just about no end in sight. This is great for my vegetable garden, but the turkeys were moved to the greenhouse and are already messing up the joint. They have to be kept clean or they’ll succumb to disease. The idea was to keep them in the greenhouse during the night and move them to pasture during the day. They’re too young yet to become chilled in the rain, so they’re confined to the greenhouse, with the windows open so that it does not get too moist in there for their breathing.

The chickens have been moved to the large dog kennel inside, which was the turkey cage until they out grew it. They’ve enjoying their new digs, but are clearly going to have to be moved or at least separated into two batches within the week, as they’ve already out grown the kennel. The nice thing about the set up we have with the dog kennel is that they are up on wire so any waste falls through to the bottom tray and can then be scooped and cleaned without the birds coming into contact with the waste material. Anything that can be done to minimize the work involved in keeping them healthy while still keeping us from losing our minds from lack of sleep is wonderful.

Martha is still sitting on eggs. She should have hatched them by now. We are going to give her another week and then decide that they are not fertile. We really were looking forward to baby ducklings. Ah, well. She may have been laying more eggs and we may have our timing off.

Anyway, we’re heading into financial territory where the Great Depression is one of the most searched terms on Google. People are unsure of how they’re going to live, where they’re going to get their food from, how they’re going to be able to sustain their lives. I’m here to tell you that not only can you sustain your family, you can do it well. NOW is the time to start, and we’re going to start with food production. Chickens are one of the most popular ways to raise food for your family. They don’t eat much, can forage for some of their own food, don’t take up much space, and will provide eggs, meat (if you choose), fertilizer, and pest control.

This is my how to raise baby chickens blog, which will be in two parts for space purposes. Anyone can do it. If you live in the city, check, it may be illegal to keep “livestock” but legal to keep up to a certain number of “pet” chickens. If it’s not legal at all, maybe you could share the duties with a friend that lives in an animal friendly area.

I order my chicks as day old (newly hatched) chicks from a hatchery. There are many good hatcheries around. You can also order from your local feed store, such as Agway, or Tractor Supply. You can often find chicks them on Craigslist – look for listings under Farm and Garden – and you may find a chicken swap around where you can buy from local people. You can raise your own from chicks, but you’ll need a broody hen (one with a mothering instinct) or an incubator for that, plus some fertilized eggs.

Before I receive my chicks, I prepare a Rubbermaid tote for them. Line the floor with cardboard and paper towels so that they don’t slip. If they do slip around, they can get permanent leg deformities. I like to put them in my living room because it’s warm and sunny there. Believe it or not, natural light seems to help them grow and thrive, just like plants. They’ll need a small feeder with a cover (or they will poop in the food) and holes around it. I use the kind that is round and screws to a Mason jar. This allows you to go longer in between feeding chores. I also use a waterer that has the Mason jar screwed onto it. You’ll need a heat lamp for them, which is cheaper at a big box store like Home Depot rather than at the feed store. You’ll want an infrared light at 250W and a fixture with a wire protector in front of the light so it won’t fall on them and burn them. You’ll also want a way to keep the light above them and move it up each week as they grow their feathers. Chicks want it very warm as they are born cold blooded (unable to regulate their own temperature) They need it to be 95 degrees for the first week. After that, you’ll want to decrease it by 5 degrees each week. You’ll be able to tell how your chicks are doing easily, though. If they are all huddled under the light, they need it warmer. If they are huddled far away from the light, it’s too hot. If they are spread all over the brooder box, its’ just right. Later, I’ll post the rest of this two part series.

What have you done BECAUSE it is right?

I have a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. on my wall at work, and I look at it every day and think to myself, what have I done today that is "right."

Here it is for those of you that care to read it.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?
Expediency asks the question, is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, is it popular?
But conscience asks the question, is it right?
And there comes a time that one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.

Without getting into politics too much, I believe we have come to a time in our country when we must begin to do MORE things that are right. We must get to know our neighbors, be the one who looks in on an elderly person in town who's family is too far away, teach others what we know about self sufficiency. I'm not talking here about forced "volunteer service," I'm talking about reaching out, forming a community, being there for one another. Who of you knows your neighbors, or people in your town? Where would you go in a crises if you needed help? Are you prepared physically and mentally for the emergencies that may arrive in your life?

During the ice storm this past winter, I had the pleasure of being prepared enough that I was able to provide for some of my extended family that needed help. It wasn't life saving help they asked for, but it was comfort. A warm house, warm food, a hot shower, and some supplies to take with them back to their house so they could cook. We had visitors coming and going all day, but I still feel as if I failed because I never thought to check on my neighbors. Now, I didn't think of it because they are prepared as much as we are, but anything could have happened and they could have been in need and unable to reach out for help.

I don't know where we are heading in this country, all I know is that for several years now, it's been laid on my heart to prepare for hard times. Now it's being laid on my heart to prepare for others as well, and to teach wherever and whenever I can. How many of us know the Constitution? When is the last time you read it? Maybe some of you may think I'm being a romantic, thinking we can get back to a "simpler" time, but I truly believe that we can turn this country around, and people are waking up all over the place. There are reasons why each and every one of those things were put into our Constitution and Bill of Rights. There were debates, the Federalist Papers were written to take the debate public. Our forefathers knew the dangers of big government and of not taking responsibility for yourself. Well, here we are now.

Where could we be right now instead of this mess - if we all took responsibility and did the right thing - because it is right?

Photo essay / tutorial on how to make butter

My family eats a mostly traditional food diet. Mostly organic, but not 100%. Mostly meat grown by a friend of ours who has a wonderful grass fed meat CSA www.chestnutfarms.org – and we are raising our own poultry this year, but still strive for 100% “healthy” meat. I have begun roasting my own meats for the kids to slice for sandwiches at school, and have found some recipes for homemade salami, so we are getting there. And mostly raw milk, but not 100% as I am still learning cheese making. I have made some great cheeses, and cheddar is next. My stepkid’s Mom has been very tolerant of this weirdness and I’m grateful that she’s been so understanding in this regard. I hope she knows I am going to these extreme efforts for the health of her children as well as the health and longevity of everyone who eats under our roof. We are strong Weston A. Price followers and believe this is how the Lord has designed our bodies to function at their best.

In any case, this is my first informational blog. I hope it is a clear picture tutorial on how I make butter. I culture my butter, but you can leave this step out and just make sweet cream butter instead. Please forgive the format, I am still learning how to use this blog format and when I enter it, it is formatted in an easy to follow manner. When I post it, the pictures move around. I will try again when I am not so tired to get this right.

Materials needed:

-Crème fraiche to inoculate the cream

-Cream

-Food processor

-Cheesecloth

-Colander

-Large bowls (3)

-Very clean kitchen counters and sink

First step is to culture the cream. I put in a heaping tablespoon of crème fraiche (found in health food stores, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, etc) into a half gallon of cream. Stir it up good and get it all mixed up. Then just leave the cream on your counter. We use raw cream, but this can be done even with pasteurized cream. About 2-3 times a day, shake the jar and then loosen the lid to release any gas buildup. The cream is cultured when it is thick and you need a spoon to remove it. There is no set time for it to be done, if it’s very warm, it can happen in a half a day, if it’s cool, it may be 2-3 days before it’s finished. I know that in my house at 70 degrees, it takes 1 ½ days to be fully done.

You are now ready to make butter. First, put a colander over a large bowl, and line it with cheesecloth. Take out a rubber spatula, and have another large bowl ready in your clean sink with very cold water. Ice is not a bad thing to have in your water, but I don’t use it.

Now, empty the cream into your food processor so that it’s half filled. For my Kitchenaid, it takes a quart of cream at a time. I can process a half gallon at once, but it seems not to clump up the way I like and is harder to wash, so I just do a quart.

Turn your food processor on and wait. In my machine, it takes approximately 1-2 minutes from cream to butter. If you do it often enough, you’ll actually become good enough to hear when it changes to butter. It starts off sounding normal and then swishes (for lack of a better descriptor) and finally becomes a high pitched swish. If you’re watching it, you’ll first see the sides of the processor bowl showing little tapioca sized pieces of butter rubbing against the sides. This is the first sound change. Then you’ll notice the entire bowl seems to be moving as one big lump, this is the second sound change. At either of these stages, you can stop it and proceed to step 2. I prefer to let it go all the way to the end as it’s easier to pour off the buttermilk and to wash it if the butter is more clumpy. If you let it go too long, it will become more like cream again, only greasier, so stop it once it’s clumped up well.

Put the butter into the cheesecloth lined colander, and if you are impatient like I am, you can gently squeeze the butter to drain the buttermilk. You can move on to your second batch now if you are making more, or move on to washing.

Next come the washing step. When you have squeezed all of the buttermilk into the bowl, you put the lump of butter into the very cold wash water. Simply squeeze the butter in the water until it looks very cloudy and nothing else seems to come out. I save this first wash water and call it “dog water,” although the chickens also really enjoy it. Either way, it’s healthy and full of active cultures.

Then I simply wash the butter under running water until it runs clear. It’s important to wash out all of the buttermilk or else your butter won’t last as long, and can mold if left out on the counter. When you think the buttermilk is all gone, wash it once more for good measure.

What I do from here is I package it up into 4 oz packages each, which is equivalent to a stick of butter from the store. I put four of these into a freezer bag, which is a pound of butter, and freeze it. We do all of our spring butter this way to last throughout the year. It’s the early spring cream from the cows eating the quick growing grass that has the most color and vitamins, so yes, butter can be a health food.

The buttermilk can also be frozen and is wonderful not only in cooking, but in smoothies. Mix some strawberries, bananas, a little maple syrup and the buttermilk – umm, yummy!

Pictures of the farm and news from the children

Here is our young farmer socializing pigs at a friend's farm. The pigs are being socialized so that on open barn days, they will be friendly with the children that visit. Michael says she is socializing WITH the pigs. "How about giving me some sugar!" Needless to say, this little one followed her around after that. Look at the cutie in the back waiting in line for the next kiss.

Today Brandi had to go on an Easter Egg Hunt... again. One of the downfalls of free ranging chickens. We're holding a few eggs back from the fridge to give back to Hope once we get enough in the hopes that she will go broody. If we can convince her to behave, we may try to let her raise some of our chicks.


Good news, George is going to be a Daddy! This is our one year old Muscovy duck, George. Martha isn't coming out of the duck house as she's setting on about four eggs right now. She may have laid more since we checked. She's a bit flighty, so we're not going to push it by checking on her frequently. We don't want her abandoning the nest.



Here is our pretty girl Samara. She's a livestock guardian dog, an Anatolian Shepherd. She's 4 months old now and 50 pounds already. We got her from a very nice, kind woman in Georgia who traded us for finishing off her barn. She's guarding the "livestock" here - the chicks and turkey poults.

Oh, watch out! Don't want to get on the other side of that maw. Samara is a bit more vocal than our rottweilers. OK, a LOT more vocal. But we love her, and she's learning quickly to become part of our pack.









Here's one of Tyler's ladies taking some nectar from my herb garden. Sure do hope sage blossom honey is tasty, because the way they work those flowers, that may be the predominant flavor.

Life on the small homestead farm

This blog is being created today, 06/08/09 in order to create a record and share my family's experiences at homesteading on a small (1/2 acre) farm.

We've added gardens this year and amended our silty soil. Unfortunately, we're also raising chickens, and they have decided to rearrange our garden three times. So, here it is already June, and we're planting our gardens yet again.

Our stated goal is to raise 50% of the food we need this year from our little humble homestead, which will be hard as the fruit and nut trees are too young to bear just yet.

Currently we have 12 laying hens, and one cute little roo named May May. We have 6 more layers being raised, they're 2 weeks old now, and 30 heritage meat birds. We also have 12 heritage turkeys being raised, they are 1 month old, and George and Wanda-Martha, our Muscovy ducks. Martha is setting on eggs right now, and we expect babies in about a week. Oh, and three beehives currently active and buzzing. We make maple syrup in the spring, and I've taken a cue from Herrick Kimball and raised my own garlic this year. Yummy, I LIVE for garlic.

For those of you worrying that this is too much for our little homestead to comfortably handle, our land is bordered by conservation land, so our little friends forage plenty during the day. Everyone is and will be free range, and our other animals, two rottweilers and one livestock guardian dog (an Anatolian Shepherd) protects the flock. Not to mention that cute little May May can be quite fierce when his girls are threatened.

We are a foster home for rottweilers currently and we've been active in rescue for 15 years.

We'll post pictures soon. Looking forward to hearing from all of you. Please feel free to email me at waggingtailsfarms@yahoo.com