Ditch the Meal Kit Delivery Services, Friend a Farmer Instead

I keep getting ads on my Facebook feed for various meal kit delivery services, which ship ingredients for meals right to your door. Aside from the fact that I live on a farm and am working hard on producing much of our own food, these services bother me for a number of reasons.

Buying meal ingredients such as vegetables, meats, and fruits from your local farmers is healthier, and you can source foods which are raised organically, humanely, free from nasties you don't want in your food, and you can bask in the glow of knowing you're supporting your neighbors. We're out there, and you can find us easily on Facebook, other social media, or via the Local Harvest website.

By buying locally you're reducing your carbon footprint, because your food doesn't have to be hauled for hundreds of miles by trucks which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions (don't get me wrong, I love my OTR trucker friends, but every small step can add up in a big way.)

These services really take the creativity out of planning and cooking your own meals. Meal planning can become a family activity, sit down and do it once a week and get your kids involved. Too many people, adults and children, really don't have any idea where their food comes from. Having it magically arrive in a box at your door removes you and your kids even more from the process and your local farmers.

These services are really harming farmers in your areas who do CSAs, Community Supported Agriculture. Your local small farmers need your support, and you need them! Do you really want all your food grown by huge monoculture factory farms, some in other countries? Many CSA's now include recipe suggestions for the food you purchase from them, and allow you to tailor your order to include or exclude things to fit your needs.

There's no way you're saving money with such services. They wouldn't be doing it if they didn't have a huge profit margin. Studies show that spending just $100 a year locally has a measurable benefit to your community.

So while these services sound really cool in theory, the bottom line is, not so much. Support your local small businesses, the farmers, the processors, the feed stores, the garden stores. It really does make a difference. And you'll love the food, I promise.

Happy World Egg Day!

Breeding poultry being one of the things we do here, we eat a lot of egg dishes. Heck, some days we have as many as 16 dozen eggs in the fridge! So we've learned to be creative with recipes that use a lot of eggs. Here are two of my favorites. They'll use a total of a dozen eggs; one uses 12 egg yolks, the other 12 egg whites.

Golden Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

12 egg yolks
3 cups cake flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp lemon extract
1 cup cold water

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Sift cake flour and sugar (separately) once before measuring.
- Sift together three times: flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In mixing bowl, beat egg yolks on high until very fluffy and thick.
- Gradually beat in sugar.
- Beat 2 more minutes on high and scrape bowl.
- Turn to #2 speed (low) and add vanilla, lemon extract, and cold water.
- Then gradually, but quickly add sifted flour mixture while beating on #2 speed, scrape bowl. Beat only enough to blend, about 2 minutes.
- Pour batter into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan.
- Bake 1 hour or until golden brown.
- Invert cake to cool.
- Loosen sides with spatula or knife and remove from pan.


I make the sponge cake first since the yolks don't have to be room temp.

Angel Food Cake

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups egg whites brought to room temp
1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar
1 cup sifted cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
1 ½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp almond extract

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Sift powdered sugar and cake flour separately once, measure for correct amount and sift together four more times.
- Place egg whites in a large bowl, add salt, cream of tartar, vanilla, and almond extract.
- Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form.
- Gradually add sugar 2 Tbsp at a time.
- Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form, but not dry peaks.
- On lowest speed add powdered sugar and flour.
- Take off of mixer and finish mixing by hand with a rubber spatula folding over easy.
- Pour (spoon) into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan.
- With a knife or spatula, carefully cut through batter in circular motion 6 times to release large air bubbles.
- Bake at, on lowest rack in oven, for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.
- Invert pan until cool. Loosen with spatula and remove from pan.

The Animals Will Tell You, If You Listen

This morning as I took the dogs out, I heard Old Crow. He was sitting atop the big Black Locust tree in the west pasture by the barn, cawing like mad. I knew he was upset about something, but couldn't see what it was. Sometimes it's just me, or me and the dogs. But today his voice was particularly strident, and sure enough, out from behind the barn sauntered Coyote.

I reached back in the house and grabbed my husband's rifle. Loaded, cocked, shot, missed. No surprise, it's not my gun, and I'm not used to the sighting system. Coyote ran off down to the east pasture, where he sat on his haunches and looked at me, bold as brass. Far too far for me to hit, but I tossed another shot at him anyway, just to run him off. Into the woods he went.

Looked down and two dogs were by my side, the third missing. I hollered, I called, I yelled. No Jethro. So I brought the other two inside (who all but knocked me over to get in), and then went to the front door. There he was! Jethro doesn't think much of shooting.

I then went upstairs so I could look out A's bathroom window, which shows the west pasture much more clearly. And the horses told me where Coyote was, slinking through the woods to the southwest of them. I didn't see him again, but watched the horses until they began to eat once more.

The animals will tell you, if you listen. That's all you have to do.

The Dog Who Wants To Be A Cat

Flower Jellies in the Spring

Today as I drove into town I saw that the Redbud trees in our area are starting to bloom. And I remembered the delicious jelly I made from them, and later from the Black Locust trees on our farm. Redbud trees in full bloom are gorgeous. They are a member of the Legume family, which means their flowers are edible, and because of their lovely color, make a gorgeous jelly!

I cannot tell a lie, I did not develop the recipe I used myself, I found it online here:
Frugal Like Grandma

Clearly, this blogger has her stuff together, and not just because we have the same taste in blog backgrounds.

At any rate, I went out last spring and spent quite a long time picking redbud blossoms (the most tedious part is the picking and cleaning of the flowers.) I rinsed them and then followed the recipe exactly.

I am lucky, I have a large water bath canner left over from the days when we had dairy goats and used it to pasteurize the milk.

Once finished, the jellies were a gorgeous shade of pink. I will note however, that even in a dark pantry they lost their pretty color by Christmas time (I had saved some to use as gifts for loved ones), so use them sooner rather than later.

Once I got started and did more research, I found you can make jellies from any number of flowers and trees, who knew? I then made some jelly from our Black Locust trees, which have a pretty white blossom and which make a lightly yellow-tinged jelly. Equally delish, of course.

Later this year I want to branch out into even more floral jellies. I found another blog which listed a whole host of things that can be used to make tasty jellies, the only limit is your energy and time. This has Sixteen Flower Jellies listed. (No, I am not a "prepper" but that's a pretty cool list, so check it out anyway.) But in the meantime, consider making some of these pretty and tasty jellies.
You'll be glad you did!

Tips for Aspiring Beekeepers

Last year was our first year keeping bees. We did pretty well (knock wood) and made it through winter with three out of three hives. We have two hives of Italian bees, and one of Carniolan.

We had four hives at the end of summer, but lost one to robbing in the late fall. Italian bees tend to rob a lot, and I learned from the experience, so won't let it happen again.

A number of people are interested in getting into bees it seems, so I put together this list of tips for the aspiring "beek."

In no particular order:

1) Order your supplies/hive components in late fall. This will allow you to assemble and paint etc. with plenty of time. If you haven't ordered things yet, do it right now, this minute.

2) Plan on having at least two hives. That allows you to compare them and their progress, which will help ensure your success.

3) Order your bees in Dec/Jan, depending on your location. Don't wait until spring when bee supply houses are crazy busy. Again, do it now if you haven't done it already.

3) Get at least one good book (I liked Beekeeping for Dummies.)

4) Watch videos on YouTube! You can't watch too many, really.

5) Join a local beekeeping club, take a class, see if you can find a local mentor. They will be invaluable when you have questions and need to see things hands-on.

6) Having done both, I suggest buying a nuc. Packages are slightly cheaper, but nucs will put you farther ahead in less time, and are more than worth it.

7) Plan your apiary location based on local weather. You want some basics: facing east/southeast, easy to work around, raised to keep predators at bay (skunks and the like). Far better to get the location right the first time than have to move the bees.

8) Learn when your local main nectar flow is. Ideally, get your bees well established before it is over, if you can.

9) Learn about what trees and plants provide nectar in your area. You'll want to think about planting some (especially trees) if you can.

10) There are a lot of good online groups and forums about bees, many of which are filled with helpful people. But also, be aware of the adage "Ask ten beekeepers a question and be prepared for at least twelve answers."

Good luck to you! I have found this a wonderful project, and bees fascinate me.

Birder Ethics and Etiquette

I'm in a very bad mood today. Yesterday something happened that I had feared would happen for about a week.

Last week a Snowy Owl was seen in southeastern Ohio, and the birding community in the area was hugely excited, naturally so.

While Snowys aren't really rare, they are unusual to find this far south, and when they are it's called an irruption. Irruptions of birds are when they're found outside of their normal range. When there is an irruption of Snowys, it typically is linked to the availability of their usual prey, lemmings.

When the lemming population booms, adult Snowy Owls will raise more young. That means more juvenile birds competing for food and territory when winter arrives. Which leads to them ranging further south than they normally do, and some lucky birders getting to see them who normally would not.

As well, being a huge, gorgeous raptor, these birds have major eye appeal, and that's not even taking into account the popularity of Hedwig, the owl from the Harry Potter series.

So it's natural that people are excited when a Snowy is spotted locally, and birders will "twitch" to see the rarity. Twitching means dedicated birders will travel quite a distance to see the bird which is out of its normal range. Often distance, money, and time are no object to the Twitcher, with the goal being to a) add the bird to a Life List, and b) take a fabulous photo (which you can then post online and earn the accolades of all your friends.)

I have been interested in birds since I was a young child. I have early memories of lying on the floor of the living room of my childhood home, listening as my mother played records of bird songs so that she could learn to identify birds by their songs alone. My mother was an avid birder ever since I can remember, and she and I both come from a long line of conservationists.

As well, my grandfather was known for his love of owls, (he had one as a youth), so much so that over the years, all anyone gave him were owl-themed gifts, and he even named his country cottage Owl House.

So the owl as a genus is near and dear to my heart, even more so than other birds. And when I heard there was a Snowy in SE Ohio, the message filled me with dread rather than joy.

Why? Because I knew that Twitchers would be coming from near and far to photograph the bird and view it. I knew that despite the best efforts of responsible birders, the bird would likely be harassed. You see, these birds who are far out of their normal range are usually under or malnourished, and need to be left alone so that they can hunt in peace. Every time the bird flies it's using energy that could be saved, and over time this can lead to illness and even death.

This is not an unknown problem, especially among birders. I mean, even the Huffington Post did an article about this just six days ago. So my fears are far from unjustified.

Did I go see the bird (which would have been a lifer for me)? No. Did I go to photograph it (I am a professional photographer, among other things.) No. Why? Because I felt my very presence would have the potential to harm the bird. In science, the term Observer Effect refers to changes that the act of observation will make on a phenomenon being observed. And so I decided not to go join the crowds who were observing the bird, despite wanting to see it very badly.

I also took one further step. I am the founder and an Admin of the Kentucky Birders group on Facebook. As such I posted the link to the article above in the group, and told members that I did not want posts giving the location of Snowy Owls in the group, as I didn't want to add to the throngs already doing so in other Facebook groups. And I didn't want photos being posted in a competition of sorts, to see who could get the best close-up shot of the bird.

Yesterday, to my extreme dismay, what I and others feared came to pass. The owl was killed by a car. Now, no one can say for sure that it was killed because of all the people who were watching it day after day. It may just have been a young, dumb bird which roosted and flew about in a dangerous place. That's Nature, and I get that. But we do also know that on Sunday there were people who were harassing the bird, getting too close, and ignoring other birders who pleaded with them to stop.

Is one bird dead really a big deal in the overall scheme of things in the world today? Of course not. But the intense desire of humans to capture a trophy (photo) and bragging rights of seeing a "lifer" does disturb me. There was quite a lot of discussion online about it last night, and I finally wound up leaving one group because my point of view wasn't overly popular, and I didn't feel like having to defend myself. I hope that if nothing else, I was able to get the Admins of that group to consider their policies about allowing posts and photos of this type.

I don't really know what the answers are. Do I think everyone should have an opportunity to see a magnificent bird outside of its usual range? I will answer with a qualified yes, because clearly we can't all control the environment, and ultimately the bird pays the price when things go wrong. People can post teary emoticons all they'd like, but that doesn't bring the bird back.

Perhaps all birders, new and experienced, need to think long and hard about their ethics and behavior, and consider Cornell University's eBird's Guidelines For Reporting Sensitive Species. It's what I follow, and I encourage other birders to do the same. I think we should all consider whether adding a life bird to our list is worth endangering the bird itself's life. I know I don't think so.