It's August, and it's Still Hot. Call Captain Obvious.

I have a Summer cold & a fever at the moment, and yet it is still cool in comparison to how hot it is right now. 105°F outside. Yikes! I've been wearing a bandanna over my face while doing critter care, so as not to breathe in any further irritants, and (potentially) protect the critters in case there's a chance of human-to-animal transmission.

My ears, throat, sinuses & head hurts *grump*. Ruh-roh, better call the whaaaa!-mbulance!

Independence Days Challenge: August 10, 2009

Forgot to update last week's challenge, but didn't have much to report anyway. This week, pretty much the same:

Plant something: Nope! If I can shake this cold quickly enough, will get raised beds ready this week for Fall planting. Maybe I'll finally get those seeds ordered.

Harvest something: Eggs, of course! The chickens have another non-coop, clutch-in-the-wild going (ahh, the joys of free-ranging chickens), gotta find it else next week's co-op sales will be mighty paltry. Snagged some basil out of the garden to add to the "preserve something" below...

Preserve something: Made herb infused olive oil with basil. Most of the basil was from CSA & co-op orders, but some from our garden.

Reduce waste: Experimented with having geese & chickens weed our small veggie garden bed. Except for the chickens eating the tomatoes, they all did a bang-up job. Made first-ever batch of goat milk yogurt - estimate I'll save over half the cost of store bought, and cut down on all those plastic containers. And it was dang tasty, to boot! Oh, and there was the bicycling to the co-op adventure (see blog entry "Hills Be Not Proud") - although it wasn't a planned event, still saved gas.

Preparation & Storage: Bought shelving for additional storage - will store little-used kitchen equipment on extra shelves in bedroom closet, freeing up more space in the kitchen pantry for canned goods.

Build Community Food Systems: sold eggs through the co-op, and purchased vegetables through same.

Eat the Food: Yep. Last thing eaten was home canned chicken broth. This morning will be muesli that's soaked overnight in homemade yogurt.

You can play too! See Sharon Astyk's Independence Days Challenge.

[Pic: Specklebutt with her chick, seven feet high up the cedar tree. Chick was not amused.]

Herbed Oil

It's a weekend of culinary experimentation. I'm trying my hand once more at kombucha (last effort was naaaasty), canning paste tomatoes, and making herbed oil. I'm using the oil recipe* from A Self Sufficient Life (love the nom-de-plume of the writers!).

One thing's for sure: it takes a heckuva lot of basil to make up 250 grams (per the recipe). Even though I had two huge bunches of basil, it was only enough to infuse about a cup and a half of olive oil. I'm thinking about contacting the CSA to see if they have any bulk basil they're willing to sell. I definitely want to make enough of this oil to give away as gifts this Yule, when fresh herbs are scarce and we all could use a bright taste of Summer.

Some ideas for using the oil: a dip for bread, "caprese" burgers (thanks JMM!), salad dressing base, marinade base, popcorn topper (instead of butter)... lots of cool stuff. It'll be three weeks before the oil is ready to strain & try, but I'll let you know how it goes. The Dirty Boots gang claim the oil can last for a year on the counter, but for safety's sake, I'm going to recommend folks use it up within a few months. I've never known cooking oils - once opened - not to go rancid outside four months. The good news is that this oil can be refrigerated or even frozen! Will keep you posted on how it turns out.

In the meantime: what's your favorite homemade gift to make? Or receive?

* You can find a grams-to-ounces on-line calculator here.

[Pic: the experiment.]

Hills Be Not Proud

I left my car keys in Spouse's vehicle, and he went on his merry way to Houston. No spare key in the house. Nice guy that he is, he called to ask if I wanted the keys overnight mailed. Unfortunately, he called while I was napping, so all I heard was "spare key" (as in "do you have one"), and mumbled "no". "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I'm sure *mumble-mumble*"...

So, no keys.

Today was delivery day to the Bountiful Sprout Co-op. I also put in my first order of other's goods - a produce basket, some ground pork, and five pounds of Roma tomatoes for a small canning experiment. "No problem", I thought, "I'll just ride my bicycle there. It's only two miles."

Nice thinking, Tex. Too bad you didn't consider that #1, you haven't ridden your bike in almost three years, #2 you'd also be carrying extra weight in a backpack filled with eggs, ice, and produce, #3 it's over 100° F today, and #4 you are aerobically challenged.

I huffed. I puffed. I wheezed. They don't call this The Hill Country out of perversity. It's the reason why hard-core cyclists like to train here. It's why Lance Armstrong, for goodness sake, lives in this area. It WAS uphill both ways, I sh*t you not!

I got to the co-op delivery site and collapsed. Water out of the tap never tasted so good. Cindy let me hang out with her in the air-conditioning while the rest of the deliveries came in. As soon as my ordered goodies were available, she let me take them. Then there was the ride home. Oh, gawd, the ride home...

I wasn't completely stupid on the return trip. I got off the bike and walked it up the biggest hills, although I rode for as long as I could.

So, am I proud? Hard to say. Ask me tomorrow after the pain sets in.

[Pic: chickens asking "are you alright? Yes? You have food for us, then?"]

Who Laid This Egg?

To the far left is a size Large egg, from one of the Ameraucanas. To the right of the Large egg is a teeny, tiny egg - see how it compares in size to a quarter? If I'd found it on the ground, I might have mistaken it for a particularly plain-looking quail egg. As it was found in the laying coop, I'm thinking it came from one of our teeny, tiny Sicilian Buttercup hens. These hens are far from mature, but I heard one doing that particular "ugh, I think there's an egg coming through" cluck a day or so ago, so it might be from one of them.

Then again, the Jersey Giants are starting to do that same "ugh!" cluck as well, but since they're as large as the Ameraucanas at this point (despite being the same age as the Sicilians), I'm thinking probably not.

[Pic: the elusive Sicilian Buttercup. It's rare to get a photo of them that isn't a complete blur. They're so twitchy & flightly, you'd think we ran around beating them all the time. Wonder why the Sicilian roosters we had before weren't like this?]