Sunday, April 10, 2011

Updates

Well, I'm guessing you all are dying to hear updates on project homesteading. I believe someone made a Portlandia comment in regards to my new meat requirements. Yes, I have become just like the Portlandia 'Ordering a Chicken Episode' and it's a bit ridiculous. But let me just state for the record, that I DO NOT go to restaurants and ask where my meat came from. I may worry about it, but, really, that would be embarrassing.

Anyhow, I have been (well, twice now) cooking whole chickens. The first chicken was good. The second chicken was pretty much amazing! (It was so good, I had to hold my mom back, as she was trying to deprive me of leftovers).

And, twice now, I have made chicken stock. The first time it's didn't work so well. I ended up feeding the stock to the dog until it went bad. Then I threw it out. The second time, I actually followed a recipe and then froze it (yep, the happy homesteader). Last night I made soup with my stock. Yes, soup from my very own stock!! It is the first time I've ever made soup without dumping stock out of a can. Last night I thought my soup was okay. But I forgot that soup gets better. Today, my soup was the very best thing ever eaten on this planet. Can I mention that cooking a whole chicken, then making stock, then making soup is essentially 3 major projects. This takes a lot of time and effort. It's a good thing the food is tasty. As I told a friend this week, I will make someone a fine wife. (Well, at least I would have made a fine wife in the 50s - well maybe 1850s. Now guys will probably just think I'm crazy.)

In other exciting news, the vegetables are growing. Well, most of them are growing. The beets are on the back porch and they are just starting to sprout. The walla walla sweet starts have survived the deluge of rain we had this week and seem to be doing quite well also. Everything else is inside in the 'professional' greenhouse and doing okay. The broccoli family (kale and broccoli) grew a bit too quickly and are now all droopy. The purslane, which for some reason I'm extra excited about, is doing a lot of nothing. Pepper, onions and basil are good. Everybody is getting excited about their trip outdoors. However, given that I am still wearing down coats and gloves, it may be a while before they get that adventure. Though they did move to the window today.

That's all I got.

A rather blurry picture of Daisy guarding the veggies in the glory days,
before the broccoli family got droopy.

Droopy Broccoli in it's new home.

Complete gratuitous but insanely cute picture of my friend's
new puppy, Penny (+ tween hand).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Chicken stock from scratch? Wow! Maybe someday I’ll be brave enough to try this (and I’d better get a dog in case things don’t go well). Your veggies are looking good. This is a tough spring for starting things from seed, so hang in there. My peas are finally poking up through the sodden soil. I’ve been enjoying leeks this week that were planted last fall- got to love the cold weather crops!