Yesterday’s sky

I was on my way into town when I had to pull over to capture this one! It was noon.  The sun isn’t very high in the sky this time of year.

Kefir and Butternut Peanut Soup

Homemade kefir

I have been looking for kefir or kefir starter for ages!  Ready to eat kefir is not available in the stores anywhere here. I finally found some starter!  Actually hubby found it when we were out together. I was so excited! I don’t have raw milk to make it with but if it’s as good as I’ve been reading, even made with store milk we should see the benefits.  Eventually I would like to make it with raw milk.  You can read here about the difference between kefir and yogurt.  I have some questions, though.  How is making kefir with the starter different than with grains?  The kefir was ready this morning, I gave it a stir like the directions said.  It looks really good, thick and smooth, but there’s no grains.  It tastes good, a lot like plain yogurt.  My youngest son likes yogurt but said ‘bleh’.  I gave him half a glass and he drank the whole thing.  Maybe first thing in the morning wasn’t the best time to get him to try it.   

Butternut Peanut Soup

The other new recipe I tried was Butternut Peanut Soup. Doesn’t the name sound yummy?  I have quite a few butternut squashes from my garden this year so thought I’d try this different looking soup.  I didn’t follow the recipe exactly because there were a few ingredients I didn’t have and don’t normally so I adapted it to my pantry.  The recipe posted is my adapted version.  It’s very good and filling too.  I think I’ll try it with turkey stock next time.

Marg's Sandwich Spread

I promised to share my sandwich spread recipe so here it is.  It turns out a lovely creamy-yellow colour.  Yellower than the picture. The next batch I may experiment with adding different ingredients to this base recipe.

Marg’s Sandwich Spread

2 egg yolks
½ tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. raw honey
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. dry mustard mixed with a little water.

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a blender. With the blender running, drizzle in olive oil very slowly. Mix the dry mustard with a little water to make a paste and add to the blender. Keep refrigerated.

Yield: approx. 1½ cups

This post is part of Tuesday Twister hosted by GNOWFGLINS.com

More winter prep

Working away

11 more like this!

Hope the goat, salt block and fresh straw

It’s been an exceptionally nice October 31st but there’s still so much to do before snow comes.  Some years we’ve had a snowstorm on this day! Today I worked on cleaning out the goats. (finally!)  I think it got overlooked last year because Oy! what a  job it was!  I thought I’d be working until sunset but it really wasn’t that bad, only a couple hours.  My back is feeling it, though ~ 12 wheelbarrows full!  But it’s looking good.  The goats are acting like their salt block is new…??  It’s always been there.  I moved it outside while I worked and they were all licking it.  They also kept sneaking out of the gate.  Too many times I was shooing them back in, I had to get my son to man the gate for me.  Such trouble-makers they are!

I’m feeling good… this is the kind of work that is very satisfying for me. There’s a couple more things I want to do but I know the goats will be able to bed down and be warm.

Fay the goat

Fay

Fay was giving me some concerns for the past 5 days or so.  I noticed she was doing a lot of mouth movements the first day.  I thought she might be chewing her cud.  The next day the movements were more exaggerated and there was a lot more licking.  She was off her food that day but she was still drinking.  The third day I tried feeding her, she’d take a bit of sweet feed, roll it around in her mouth and then shake her head.  She wouldn’t take anymore.  I am convinced something was wrong with her mouth.  If it was her throat or stomach(s) she wouldn’t be drinking, right? She was interested in food so she was obviously hungry. I tried giving her cooked oatmeal with a little molasses.  I thought she might take it because it’s soft.  She licked it a bit but didn’t want any more than that.  By yesterday I was really getting concerned!  I tried looking in her mouth a few times.  Not an easy task, I can tell you!  I couldn’t see or feel anything. I was beginning to think I might need to get my family in on this, hold her down and really get a good look inside her mouth. 

It doesn’t look like any of that is going to be necessary because she’s doing so much better today!  No licking and she’s eating again!  If you asked me what I thought it was, I would say it was probably a sliver and it worked itself out, like slivers usually do.

As a side note, I got Fay from a neighbour and never really knew how old she was.  Looking inside her mouth and seeing her teeth, I think she’s a lot older than I thought!  Or maybe time flies quicker than I think…  probably the latter.

Mostly poultry

Here’s a look at the real food that’s been cooking in my kitchen this week.  I didn’t realize we were eating so much poultry until I put this post together! Ha!

Turkey breast

Curried Turkey Over Rice

Turkey Stock

Greek Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

Fresh Tomato Soup

Marg’s Sandwich Spread

Roast turkey – I cut the legs and wings off one of our homegrown fresh turkeys, put them in the freezer for another time and roasted the rest, breast side down. Cooking it breast down makes it very moist. I removed the breast and sliced it for a meal and for sandwiches.

Curried turkey – We loved this! It’s also a good way to use bits of meat you get from different parts of the turkey. It can be made with any kind of leftover meat. The way I used to cook it called for canned cream of mushroom soup, but this time I made it with real ingredients only and it was so much better! I served it over brown basmati rice.

Turkey enchiladas – not pictured. This was a new recipe I tried and it was very good! Filling too and we hardly knew it was turkey. Which was nice since we’ve been eating so much of it lately.

Turkey stock – The bones were so big, I had to cook it in my canner! It made lots of yummy broth.

For a turkey that had the legs and wings removed, it fed us for a lot of meals. I picked the last bits of meat off the bones, (another pound!) and froze it for another meal at another time. Hopefully that’s the end of it for a while!

Greek Roasted Chicken and Potatoes – I make this fairly often. It’s a family favourite. I especially like it because you can adapt it for feeding more or less people.

Fresh Tomato Soup – A soup made with chicken broth, from the leftover roast chicken. I used up the last of my tomatoes from the garden. The picture doesn’t show that there are chunks of tomato, green pepper and chicken. I also used up the last little bit of cream I bought earlier in the week even though it didn’t call for it.

Sandwich Spread – I won’t buy Miracle Whip anymore and mayonnaise isn’t zippy enough for my family so I’ve been experimenting with a sandwich spread recipe. I don’t want to call it Miracle Whip because I’m not trying to copy the taste but make my own. This one turned out pretty good. They’re eating it in their turkey sandwiches so I guess it’s okay.

This post is part of Tuesday Twister hosted by GNOWFGLINS.com

Winter preparations

Chopping wood

Snow fence

Chicken coop

It’s been a very busy week, since we got snow.  Thankfully it all melted and it bought us more time to get ready for when the ‘real’ snow comes and stays for the winter.

~There’s firewood to be split.  We have some but not enough for the winter.  It’s been cold enough for a fire in the woodstove everyday.  We are waiting on a large delivery, 7 cords more.  The logs will be 8 foot lengths so they’ll need to be cut then split.

~We got the snow fence up.  Not really necessary but so great to have.  It helps keep the snow from drifting on the driveway. 

~I cleaned out the chickens and dumped the manure on the garden.  This will be the last time they are cleaned before winter.  They will be shut in for several months once it’s cold enough, the next time they are cleaned as thoroughly will be in the spring.  I add fresh straw throughout the winter.

~I’m still working on cleaning out the goats.  I did some but it’s a big job.  I’ll get it done though!

~Other years I’d also be putting up the storm windows on the house.  We’ve been slowly replacing the windows so this year it is so nice not to be putting up those old storm windows!

Cream of Turkey Soup

I’ve got lots of rich turkey broth simmering these days, especially this year because we raised our own turkeys.  Broth made from homegrown poultry doesn’t taste like store bought or canned.  It’s hard to describe except - how broth should taste!  One thing I love is turkey soup,  and this recipe is at the top of my list of favourites. It’s simple and easy, it makes use of the wonderful broth available to me and the carrots that are still freshy harvested from the garden. It’s rich, creamy and delicious.

 

Cream of Turkey Soup

 

Cream of Turkey Soup

1 turkey carcass
4 quarts of water
1 large onion, chopped
5 carrots, chopped fine
1/4 cup uncooked brown rice
1 pint (500ml) heavy cream
3 cups diced cooked turkey
½ tsp. sage, if desired
sea salt and pepper to taste

In a large kettle, cook turkey carcass with water to make 3 quarts stock. Remove bones; reserve meat for soup. Strain the stock; set aside. In a saucepan, combine onions, carrots and rice with 1 quart of the stock. Cook for 40 minutes. Add vegetable mixture, turkey and seasonings to taste to the remaining stock. Add cream and heat slowly to serving temperature.

 

Check out the Gallery of Soups at GNOWFGLINS.com for new fresh soup inspirations.

 

Back in business

New sign

I’ve got eggs for sale again!  The chicks I got this spring are now laying very well.  I took down the old worn out sign and hung up this new one.

Eggs are $2 a dozen.  Come by call or by chance.  Please bring empty egg cartons when you come.

Processing our homegrown turkeys

Dunking

Cleaning

Chilling

This weekend we processed the rest of our turkeys. We had some wonderful friends offer to come help! I’m so grateful! With 6 of us working, the job was done in no time.

We used a galvanized garbage can as the dunk tank. I heated several large pots of water on top of my stove and when they were just about boiling and we were ready to start, we brought them out and dumped the water in the garbage can. I tied a candy thermometer to a string and tied the string to the handle of the garbage can so I could check the temperature of the water. This worked very well for us. We had to add a couple more pots of boiling water near the end but otherwise it seemed to stay hot enough.

We didn’t use the plucker for the turkeys like we did for the chickens because they were too big. When we put the turkey on the plucker, which took 2 people to do anyway, it would stop turning because it was too heavy! We found them just as easy to pluck by hand, much easier than chickens. Once we were done plucking and eviscerating (I’d like to report that I have learned to clean a gizzard!), we put the turkeys in large plastic garbage cans filled with cold water. I left them there for several hours to make sure they were chilled to the core. Then we bagged the giblets and put them inside the turkeys and bagged the turkeys. We left them inside the garage for the night to chill. The temperature was just above freezing so it was as cold as a refrigerator.

Today I shuffled things around in my deep freezer and was able to fit 5 of them in. One, I decided to keep in the fridge and cook this week. How often do we get fresh turkey? We aren’t sick of turkey from Thanksgiving yet. I have so much planned for this one bird, it will feed us for several meals. They all dressed out around 24 lbs!

If you’ve been keeping track, you will know that I started with 10 turkey poults in the spring.  I lost one early on.  We had one for Thanksgiving, one I sold to my neighbour and one we gave to the friends that helped us butcher.  Our friends didn’t want to accept but hubby and I were so grateful, we could not take ‘no’ for an answer.

I really enjoyed raising the turkeys, they are interesting birds. I don’t think we’ll have a problem eating this much meat, though I think I’ll butcher a little sooner next time so they aren’t all quite so big!  I’d like to do it again next year.

The CSG (The voyage)

The money our author, Catherine Parr Traill refers to in her the book, The Canadian Settler’s Guide, is the old British currency which is different than it is today. “s” is for shilling and “d” is for pennies. You can read more about old English money here.

Emigrant ship

The Washington steamer

As we continue our discussion, the author offers advice on the voyage to America, provisions and what to expect when you arrive at port. Her advice on choice of vessel with which to embark for Canada is… if you can afford it you will find better accommodations in the steamers that go between Liverpool and Quebec than in any of the emigrant ships. The emigrant ships my charge less but the difference in comfort, health and respectability will more than make up the difference in price. The usual cost is 5 or 6 pounds per person.

As for bringing furniture and iron-ware across, don’t burden yourself with these things. By the time you reach the port of destination, the freightage, warehouse room, custom-house duties and damage to them would not be worth the trouble. Besides they would not be as suitable to the country as things sold in the towns in Canada. Good clothing, shoes and boots are the best things to pack and for personal luggage you will not have to pay freight.

The ships provide provisions to each passenger, fourteen years old and up.

British Law
3 quarts of water daily
2 ½ lbs of bread or biscuit weekly
1 lb. wheaten flour weekly
5 lb. oatmeal weekly
2 lb. rice weekly
1 ½ lbs. Sugar weekly
2 oz. Tea or 4 oz. coffee or cocoa weekly
2 oz. salt weekly

American Law
3 quarts of water daily
2 ½ lb. navy bread weekly
1 lb. wheaten flour weekly
6 lb. oatmeal weekly
1 lb. salt pork (free from bone) weekly
½ lb. sugar weekly
2 oz. tea weekly
8 oz. of molasses and vinegar weekly

In every Passenger ship issues of provisions shall be made daily before two o’clock in the afternoon, as near as may be in the proportion of one-seventh of the weekly allowance on each day. The first of such issues shall be made before two o’clock in the afternoon of the day of embarkation to such passengers as shall be then on board, and all articles that require to be cooked shall be issued in a cooked state. This excellent Parliamentary regulation is often evaded. – Each passenger is entitled to lodgings and provisions on board from the day appointed for sailing in his ticket, or else to 1s per day, for every day of detention and the same for forty-eight hours after arriving in America.

In her voyage from Liverpool to New York, it took 37 days and she took along the following extras, which she found quite sufficient:

• 1 ½ stone wheaten flour
• 6 lbs. bacon
• 2 ½ lbs butter
• a 4 lb loaf, hard baked
• 1/4 lb tea
• 2 lbs brown sugar
• salt
• soap
• bread soda for raising cakes

These extras cost 10s 6d and she also took the following, with prices as follows

• Tin water-can holding six quarts – 8d
• Large tin hooked-saucepan – 6d
• Frying pan – 8d
• Tin wash-basin – 6d
• Tin tea-pot – 4d
• Tin kettle -  9d
• Two deep tin-plates – 3d
• Two pint-mugs – 3d
• Two knives, forks and spoons – 9d
• Barrel and padlock for holding provisions - 1s 0d
• Straw mattress – 1s 0d
• Blanket, single – 2s 0d
• Rugs – 1s 3d
• Sheets, each – 10½d

The handles and spouts of the tin-ware should be rivetted as well as soldered. Families do well to take out a covered slop-pail and a broom. The bottoms of the chests and trunks should have two strips of wood nailed to them to keep them from the damp floor. In addition to the extra stores, a cheese, a few herrings, with some potatoes and onions may be added. (The eyes or shoots can be destroyed by drying the roots in an oven after the baking heat is off, for a few minutes; or they may be rubbed off with a coarse cloth from time to time.) Preserved milk is also a good thing; it can be kept good for some time.*

*Fresh milk put into a close jar and set in a pot of water, kept boiling for six to eight hours, and when cool bottled and corked with waxed corks, will keep some time. An ounce of white sugar boiled with the milk or cream will help to preserve it; and just before bottling, a small quantity – half a tea-spoonful – of carbonate of soda, may be added.

Upon landing, emigrants should not linger about the ports and suburbs but go at once to the interior. Your chances of getting a job in the ports is 1 in a 100. If you have young daughters old enough to work, be very cautious with whom you put them to service. Be careful when you enter into low families such as low boarding house keepers and taverns. Don’t allow your family to get separated in strange places. Families have lost all traces of their fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers.

I found this blog of Bartley Quinn’s Journal about coming to America interesting. It’s brief but you get an idea of the hardships the Irish faced coming here. This also reminds me of the movie “Far and Away” with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Have you seen it?

I think I’d be scared to take the voyage!  The provisions look meager by modern day standards not to mention boring.  I’m beginning to understand just how hard it would have been! 

How would you feel about taking the voyage on a ship for perhaps a month?

Other posts in this series
Looking Back
The CSG (Household servants)
The CSG (The home)