Our Backyard Homestead

My New Garden Friend

I was working away pulling weeds in the garden when I heard this loud chirping today.  I looked toward the new chicken coop and thought maybe one of our new pullets had made its way to the garden.  More chirps.  It sounds so close, maybe it's a bird on the other side of the fence.  Several chirps later, I am about to go check on the chickens, when I glance over and see this cute little frog just hanging out a few feet away from where I am working.  Uh-oh, I hope I didn't just destroy his habitat!

He didn't seem to be scared of me and let me get quite close to take his picture.  After I returned to work, he stopped his chirping and disappeared.  Oh, no, he was probably trying to tell me that I was destroying his habitat.  Sorry little froggy, but the weeds really need to go.

A little googling reveals that it is a Green Treefrog.  They prefer swampish areas, so not sure why it is hanging out in my garden.  Though I do have two pails filled with the "brackish" water where they are said to be found on occasion.  I guess I won't dump those pails just yet.

I made some pretty great headway in the garden.  I got a huge section of weeds pulled.  Why does it look so small in this picture?  I moved half of the pile of mulch.  Enough that the mower can now make it to the front yard.

I am putting a thick layer of cardboard under the mulch.  The worms love it and the weeds hate it.  Recycling at it's finest!

Scenes from the backyard

Tis the season for spending time in the yard and soaking up cooler temps before another hot Texas summer is upon us.  Sadly, March temps have felt more like May.  However, I have been telling myself for months to expect 100 degree temps by Easter so that I won't be disappointed when we have a warmer than normal next six to nine months.  I am not planning for a big season in the garden because with very severe watering restrictions in place and the potential for another scorching summer, I just don't think it is worth it.  I am thrilled with the outcome of my cool season garden and will work harder in the fall to have a better planned winter garden for next year.  We have been harvesting lettuce since January and if I had put in kale in the fall, I think we would have had a bumper crop.  The Swiss chard has been amazing and the cilantro that I planted in February is providing quite nicely.  If anyone has suggestions on drought tolerant ideas for the garden, I would love it if you leave a comment with your ideas!

I have quite a bit of work to recover from the fact that I ignored the weeds in the garden for the warmer half of the summer and fall.  In an effort to be completely "real" I thought I would post a picture of the true state of terrible mess the garden was in before we went to work on spring clean up!

Last spring, I mulched the other side of the garden with the chipped mulch of a Bradford pear tree that we had taken down.  I ran out before getting to this side and the thin layer of mulch I had down was no match for the likes of Johnson grass and other invasive weeds.  We lost another Bradford out front (no loss as it was planted much too close to the house) and I now have another pile of mulch to put to use on this half of the garden.  I also requested that if the tree service needs a place to drop off another pile of mulch, I would be quite grateful for one more load.  A little extra effort to prevent weeds and make my space pretty is what I am all about!

It appears that I might be evening up the score in my kale wars with the rabbits.  It makes me a little nervous that I may be jinxing myself to post about it, but thus far the rabbits have left my new kale plants alone.  Unfortunately, at the rate that spring is heating up, the growing season left for kale will be very short.

In other exciting news, we bought a new mower for the homestead.  We were quite appreciative to benefit for several years from a riding mower passed on to us by my father in law.  It was a great mower, but it has been in use for at least 15-20 years and we were finding that every spring we were putting enough money into fixing it up and keeping it running that we could have nearly paid for a new one of the same model by now.  Our kind neighbors previously let us borrow their John Deer when our mower was in the shop and it was amazing the difference.  With the new mower, Hubby was able mow our yard in about half of the time that the old mower took!  We planted winter rye and with our warm and wet spring, we are beginning to get a taste for why many people are quite against winter rye.  Given the right conditions, it grows amazingly fast!!  Now that we have the new mower, hopefully our neighbors won't be hating us quite as much. 

But this reminds me, I must get off of the computer and go move my pile of mulch.  Not thinking, I had the tree service dump it right in front of our gate.  There will be no further mowing of the front yard until I get that pile moved!!  It is only about 100 wheelbarrows worth....no need for the gym this week!  Hopefully, there will soon be pictures of a much improved, deeply mulched and weed free garden.

How to Build a Cedar Garden Box

I built two new raised beds this past weekend and took some pictures so I could share how I put mine together.  My first three raised beds have been in use for four seasons and the wood is holding up quite well.  Cedar is more expensive, but will pay off over time.  Whatever you do, do NOT use any form of treated wood as you do not want the chemicals in the wood potentially spoiling your soil.  I wrote another entry about building the raised beds, but took couple pictures and thought I would share a few more of the nitty gritty details.

The Cost - $39 per box

• Each 4x8 box consists of 3 2x6x8 cedar boards from Lowe's at a price of $10.24 per board.  I had the nice employee at Lowe's cut my third board exactly in half (free!).
• The only hardware I use is 3" corner braces, with screws included.  There are 4 in a package so 2 packages are required per box at a cost of $3.77 per package 

Tools Required

An electric screwdriver was my only tool.  The wood was soft enough that I didn't have to pre-drill, I just screwed the screws right in!  If you don't have an electric screwdriver, I think they could be screwed in by hand, but you might want a partner to help speed up the process or consider pre-drilling the holes.  I used 32 screws per box.

The Process

I simply laid the boards out on the most level spot in our cracked up driveway that I could find.  I held the brace in place while using the electric screwdriver to drive the screw in.  I used two braces per corner, though best I could dig up in a corner of one of my old beds, there are some I only used one brace on and they are still holding together beautifully.

The Time

I couldn't believe how quickly I managed to get the first box put together so I decided to time the second box.  Using the electric screwdriver did allow for this speedy work!

I was a little surprised at how fast it went.   Granted this is the fifth box I have now built, but even if you add on a little extra time for learning curve, they go together quickly!  The trick is to let the lumber store cut the wood.  That step alone would have stopped this little project in it's tracks until the hubby was home to help.  I now feel like I can conquer the world with the electric screw driver/drill, but I have not graduated to sawing skills yet!

Replenishing the Flock

We brought home 8 new chickens on Saturday.  2011 was a rough year to be a chicken in our backyard.  Our first year and a half we didn't have a single chicken tragedy but windstorms, hailstorms, and the hottest summer in Texas history made for lots of tears from sad kiddos!  We went from an even dozen chickens at the beginning of the year to only four that were with us to ring in 2012.  Here is hoping that our new flock fares a little better!

The new girls are supposed to be just 4-6 weeks from being ready to lay eggs.  Adolesecent chickens are such awkward looking creatures!

We set up our chicken fence to keep the new chickens segregated from the four hens we have left.  Our last batch of chicks had quite the wild tendencies and figured out how to fly over the fence quite quickly.

Of the eight wild chicks we added in the spring of 2010, Big Ben is the only one we have left.  She has finally relented on laying her eggs under the neighbors cedar tree. 

Of the original five that we started with in spring of 2009, we still have our three Barred Rock hens.  At three years of age (when hens typically cut down on egg production) they are still laying fairly reliably and have been the best chickens of the many varieties we have had.  Unfortunately, the farmer that we bought from did not have any Barred Rocks that were closer to laying age.

We ended up with seven Buff Orpingtons and one Americana.  It was our only choice if we wanted the older pullets.  We shall see how the Buffs measure up to the other breeds we have tried.  And even if they are a big flighty, who can resist the awesomeness of a blue egg from an Americana!!  I would have loved to have a few more of the colored egg layers, but maybe we will venture into chicks again so that we can pick the breeds that we prefer.

The Tornado guarding the new chickens that were transported home in cardboard boxes.  Oh how much we appreciated having a truck to transport them.  The first five came home in the back of the mini van and that was a stinky endeavor!  The next batch came to use by way of the US Postal Service as day old chicks.

The Garden Girl taking her box out to the backyard.  Is it obvious that it was QUITE windy on Saturday?

The Chicken Whisperer doing her thing with the chickens!  The kids have the other four hens trained to come back to the coop with barely a call.  I was quite amazed when I asked them to round up the chickens and they had them in the coop in a matter of seconds.  It might take a while before the new batch are trained this well!

 

Pumpkin Pie Custard, It's what's for Breakfast

Pumpkin contains starch, though of the winter squash family, appears to be lowest in starch content.  We have not eaten much of it in the past few months as we have tried to be quite strict on a no starch diet.  However, after 2.5 months of very careful avoidance, we are cautiously attempting small trials.  With four egg yolks to use from our delicious pot pie last night, I got to wondering about making a custard type breakfast.  Pumpkin custard just sounded like it would be yummy. 

Of all of the meals that have required reinventing, breakfast has been the easiest and yet the hardest.  Eggs.every.day is not my love.  While we are getting creative in how to eat them, I grew up on cereal, and I miss variety at breakfast.  I don't want to use almond flour on too regular of a basis (because of high ratio of omega 6s) and am not sure how well coconut flour is being tolerated, so muffins, pancakes and the like are not something we do regularly.

This morning's custard was just the variety we needed.  Eggs very much in disguise and with delicious pumpkin.  Perfection!  I made it with the yolks because they needed to be used, in the future, I will attempt with 4 whole eggs.

Pumpkin Pie Custard

• 1  1/4 cup pumpkin
• 3/4 cup coconut milk, canned
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 freshly ground nutmeg (so worth the effort of freshly grinding!)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract

Mix pumpkin and spices.  Mix in coconut milk, syrup, vanilla and almond extract.  Whisk eggs in separate bowl and mix well with pumpkin mixture.

Place 6 ramekins/custard cups in large Pyrex pan.  Fill cups with custard mix. 

Add very hot water to larger Pyrex pan, filling about 2 inches or to the same height as the custard.  I waited to add the water until I had my pan in the oven.  I used my electric kettle to fill with almost boiling water.

Bake at 325 for 45-60 minutes until firm and a knife inserted comes out clean.  Cool and enjoy hot or cold!

On a somewhat related note, I just have to mention how impressed I was to have purchased some new Pyrex cups and discover that they are still made in America!  Not often do I find a product stamped "Made in USA" and it makes me thrilled to support Pyrex!  I have since checked every Pyrex item that I own and it appears that every last thing is made in the USA.  As much as I would love to go out and find some cute ramekins, I think I will stick with my American made Pyrex cups.

 

 

Chicken pot pie - Starch free style

In honor of Pi day yesterday, we ate all things pie.  We started with one of my old childhood favorites, Impossible Pie.  While a fun way to start the day, this recipe will require some more tweaking to convert it successfully into our grain-free, starch-free lifestyle.  I will be sure to share if we have a success.

We decided that dinner should be chicken pot pie, though I had no idea how we would accomplish this to fit within our dietary needs.  After checking out a few Paleo recipes, I took inspiration from a few and guessed a bit as to how we could make it without starch.  Our results were lovely and enjoyed by the entire family!  I used veggies that I had on hand and was a little afraid that the Swiss chard might be too strong, but it was a wonderful addition.

Starch Free Chicken Pot Pie

Filling:

• 3 carrots, sliced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1.5 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 onion chopped
• 4 cups chopped Swiss chard, stems included
• 2 cups cooked chicken
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. dried thyme
• 3 tbsp. coconut oil
• 3 cups broth
• 2 tbsp. coconut flour
• salt and pepper to taste

Crust:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 4 egg whites
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2-1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Instructions:

Saute all veggies in coconut oil, minus chard leaves.  If using chard stems (which I highly recommend) add stems with other veggies.  Saute until soft, 10-15 minutes.  Add chard leaves and garlic, saute for additional 5 minutes, covered but stirring often to keep garlic from burning.  Add thyme, salt and pepper.  Stir and add broth, leaving about 1/2 cup to mix with coconut flour.  Simmer until broth is hot.  Mix remaining broth and coconut flour well and slowly add to pan, stirring after every addition.  Simmer until broth reduces, was still a bit runny.

Pastry Topping:

While broth is simmering, mix up the topping.  In a bowl, mix coconut oil, almond flour, soda and salt.  In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites and vinegar.  Whisk egg whites mix into flour mix.

Transfer filling to oven safe pan, or use oven safe pan to saute in like I did.  Spoon topping gently on top in small batches and then spread to cover the top. 

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until topping is golden brown. 

Notes:

• Be sure to save the extremely nutritious egg yolks for use in another recipe.
• If starches are safe, using arrowroot or some other form of starch would help the filling be a little thicker/creamier.  The coconut flour worked and the taste was great, but there are some things that starch free cooking just can't recreate to perfection.
• We served with green beans sauteed in bacon fat.  Add in a few cloves of minced garlic in the last few minutes of cooking for a delicious touch.  Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt and enjoy!

 

 

An Amazing Story; How your diet impacts your health

A few weeks ago, I came across the TED video of a physician that was nearly crippled by multiple sclerosis.  She had the very best medical care and was taking the latest and greatest drugs, yet her health was continuing to rapidly decline.  Whether you suffer from migraines or much more serious health problems, I urge you to make the 18 minutes to watch her inspiring story and the very simply laid out diet that she recommends.

Our family has been trending much closer toward the diet she recommends over the past year and we have seen a huge change in health.  I was having frequent migraines but since going wheat free, have had one!  I believe that the one that I had was directly related to a wheat cheat.  I also had frequent acid reflux for as long as I remember.  Since changing our diet, it is gone.  I have energy levels that I hadn't seen since I was in college.  Chronic pain, GONE!  The list is long of improvements, and that is only me.  My child that has inspired every baby step away from the Standard American Diet that we have taken is a entirely new child! 

What kind of Juicer

A very common question I get is what kind of juicer we have.  After much research, I went with a Breville, but right now am not loving it.  When life is a little less busy next week, I need to call them to see what is wrong because it is leaking all over the place.  I don't think that is right for a six month old juicer.

It has always done a great job with things such as carrots and celery, but greens required tightly packing and even then, the results are less than fantastic.  Overall, the Breville is a good choice, though I would not choose the more expensive model again.  I have used the more basic model and I felt it honestly worked better than mine.  I choose this one because I wanted less plastic and larger capacity.  I also liked that it had a wide variety of speeds.

I am hoping to be able to update with a positive report on the customer service from Breville and love my juicer again.  In the meantime, if anyone knows of an industrial juicer option, please leave me a comment!

Why Green Juice?

I don't know about other families, but I am certain it would not be possible to get my family to eat this much produce in one day.  It might seem like a deceptively small amount in the the above picture, so I added a dinner plate in the mix to give a little perspective.

It's possible that we might eat a dinner plate worth of carrots, but we would be pretty sick of them by the end of the day.

What about a big bunch of purple kale?  There is zero chance that I am going to get my kids to eat that, especially raw. 

About the only thing that would be no problem to have disappear in the course of the day would be this plate of apples, minus the lemon and lime.

We were doing well with making green smoothies, but when I attempted to improve the veggie to fruit ratio, the taste of greens such as kale, swiss chard and celery required too much fruit to allow for a truly power packed option.  When I finally broke down and bought a juicer, I was shocked by how "sweet" the greens are all on their own.  A little lemon and lime will cover a multitude of greens!  Because I am juicing for the kids, I also add a minimum amount of green apple and carrot to add some sweetness.  Adults juicing to loose weight or for health reasons will want to consider the sugar and carbs that juicing fruit adds.

I don't follow any recipes for our juice.  I make about 1 gallon of juice a few times a week.  I wish that I had time to make it daily, but making that much requires at least an hour.  If I were just making a single batch for myself, it would be a much faster process.

A batch of juice typically contains curly kale, purple or green, lacinato kale, cilantro, celery, cucumber, swiss chard, carrots, lemon, lime, zucchini, apple, and romaine lettuce.  If I can't find any good kale, I will sometimes use spinach, but of all the greens, I find that my juicer handles it poorly.  In the above pictured batch, I also included a beet and the greens from a few beets.  I also like to sneak in parsley.

I was thrilled to make a batch this weekend that contained cilantro, swiss chard, lettuce and kale all from my garden!  If the evil rabbits would leave my kale alone, I would have plenty right now, but sadly, there were only a few small pieces that I could add.  Thankfully, it seems the more we harvest the swiss chard, the more it grows like crazy!  This time I got brave and even added in the stems.  I was really afraid that the flavor would be too strong to overcome, but the whole family drank it with no complaints.

I cannot begin to describe the amount of energy I have or how great I feel on the days that we have fresh green juice.  If I go for more than a few days without it, I seriously start to crave it!  I held out on buying a juicer for a long time because I just didn't think I would stick with it.  We have been juicing since August and I can't imagine giving it up!

A half gallon jar of the above pictured veggies.  This is what was left after the family each had a glass and the remainder of the other half gallon was stored in another container.  Usually the carrot is mixed in with everything else, but the carrot juice is so pretty, I wanted to be able to take a picture of it.  A gallon lasts no more than 24-48 hours at our house.

 

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

Sometime this summer, Netflix kindly suggested this oddly named documentary for me to watch.  Out of curiousity I started watching and within minutes I was hooked.  Of all of the food documentaries we have watched, and there have been several, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is far and away the best.  I do, however, wish that it had a different title.

Rather than me typing out a lengthy explanation of the story, I think this trailer does a much better job:

While Joe's story is wonderful, it is Iowa truck driver, Phil, that made the movie truly inspirational.  Whether it is simply improving your diet by eating more vegetables or needing to loose some weight, we all have something to gain from watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.

Our family had been gluten free and eating radically different from the Standard American Diet for several months when I watched the movie this summer.  I was immediately inspired  to attempt to add more greens to the smoothies we were drinking a few times a week.  After seeing a huge energy boost, I started looking into buying a juicer.  Since we were already doing green smoothies, I really wasn't convinced that a juicer was necessary, however, then I read a great blog post that showed just how much more vegetables you could consume when the fiber was extracted by juicing. 

When I did finally spring for the juicer, I was shocked at just how amazing that glass of green juice tasted!  Once the pulp was removed, it took very little sweet, to completely cover the flavor of a large quantity of amazingly healthy things like kale, cilantro, parsley and celery.  All vegetables that I would never sit down and eat in large quantity!  When we were making the green smoothies, it took a significant quantity of berries to cover the flavor of a smaller amount of greens.  Now my ratios are very heavy on the greens and light on the fruits.

Next up, I will  share pictures of our juicing experience.