Rooster

Here's Mr. Rooster, strutting around.

And playing tallest chicken. But this was his last day. He'd been injuring the hens, and he had to go. As Joel Salatin says, he had a good life and just one bad day.

Rick brought over the stove, and we put a big pot of water on to heat.

Rick C. wrung his neck, and we bled him out. Here he is, dipped in hot water, and ready to be plucked.

Catherine helps with the plucking. She and I are official cock pluckers!

Here he is half plucked.

And here he is all ready to roast. I brined him for about 8 hours first, then rubbed him with olive oil and a mix of oregano, pepper, salt, sage, curry powder, and cumin. I put a few sprigs of rosemary in the cavity.

I didn't truss him properly earlier, so his legs stuck out. I put foil on to shield them, and popped him in the oven.

Here he is all nicely roasted.

We brought him to the farm to share with everyone.

Unfortunately, it ended up being the hottest day of the year. It was 107 degrees! Rick C. couldn't stand to come out after working in that heat all day, but the rest of us enjoyed a hot, but delicious feast. Catherine brought bread and cucumbers, and I made some pesto pasta and roasted garlic. Rene and Cindy came over and had a bite also.

And today, he's in the soup pot.

Last Week

Ok I know I'm waaaaaaay behind on posting. Katinka, I apologize! We'll raise a glass to you today :) Here's the catchup, and I'll post the newest stuff soon.
The beans are going crazy, putting out lots of beans that we're trying to pick daily. These are the dragon tongue.

These are the baby Maxibel, which are perfect for making dilly beans.

So Ricky's been making and canning dilly beans! Here's a test jar next to the tomato harvest.

The sink is all finished out, at least for now. It works great! We just have the hose hanging in it with a nozzle that turns on and off. Farm grade!

Rick wanted to arrange the perfect shot of the day's harvest. This was from last Wednesday.

Doesn't it all look lovely? Those are zucchini muffins, which are delicious. And that little book that Sarah and Gen gave us is just perfect. It's become a really nice resource.

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What We're Eating

Jalapenos stuffed with shrimp and cream cheese! Mmmmm!

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The first Tigger melon ripened.

Rick takes a bite.

And the rooster shows off. Take a good look....

Deviled Eggs

The girls are going nuts with the eggs, so I made deviled eggs, liberally laced with jalapenos!. I'll be serving them today (Friday) at the farm, so don't miss it!

More Sinkage

On Tuesday, Rene and Cindy came over. Rene helped Rick with the sink.

After they got the legs put on the framework, they moved it into place, then brought the sink over.

And lifted it into place.

Voila!

The beans are just starting to bean up. These are the Baby Maxibels. They are the thin filet style beans, so we need to make sure to pick them frequently.

The Tigger melon is setting more fruit.

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Weather Note

It's continued to be unseasonably cool, and even cloudy. My sunflowers look more like cloudflowers.

We've had temperatures in the mid 80s, which is unheard of for August in Chico. We've even had the AC off, although that didn't last long. It's slated to be in the mid 90s the rest of the week.

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Sink and Sunflowers

I feel like I'm behind at getting seeds started, but I put in 14 more starts of broccoli, all Belstar Hybrid, on 8-6.

My yard is totally taken over by squash. I put my foot here for scale. This Boston Marrow is 19 inches long and 33 inches around. It's not even the biggest one!

And my crazy triamble pumpkins are climbing the fence.

We got some more work done on the big sink. Rick works on the framework. We're using old fence boards of course.

Rick and Buddy carry it into the shade for fitting.

It's going to work just fine.

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What We're Eating

Chile Relleno Quiche!

I singed the Anaheims and Big Jims over an open flame, and then steamed them. Then I peeled and seeded them, chopped them, and added them to a regular quiche recipe along with some fresh mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. Delicious! Rick and I ate one pie, and I took the other to the farm.

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Our sunflowers have just started to bloom. These are our Mammoths and Tarahumara whites.

 If you look closely, you can see a bee heading for the flower on the right.

The carrots in the box are finally starting to fill out. I hit them with fish emulsion a couple of times, and it really helped.

Harvesting Continues

We are continuing to harvest tomatoes, peppers, zuchs, and eggs daily. The girls laid 9 eggs yesterday! Rick looks happy with his basket of ripe tomatoes.

Catherine gets silly with her tomato harvest.

Everything is a little behind this year because of the cool weather. The tomatillos are just starting to fruit up. The ones at the farm had a pretty rocky start, but they've come back and are doing well.

I made a big pot of jalapeno paste from the peppers I picked the other day, and I gave Buddy a little bottle of it. This is very concentrated and will go a long way.

And the hot flowers are just gorgeous. The Queen Sophia marigolds, Bright Lights cosmos, and Old Mexico zinnas were real winners.

Rick got going on another modification for the chicken pen. The straw bedding was just being kicked out between the wires, so Rick cut some old fence boards...

 ...cleaned the pen....

...and installed the boards along the sides to keep the bedding in.

 Bill came over to have a beer with us.

I got brought some plant starts over to set on the potting table. I wasn't sure if they needed shading, but they did. That spot gets a ton of sun, and after the first day, the starts got pretty droopy.

So I put the shade cover up. Rick helped me cut some pvc to make it stand a little taller so I could reach under it to work. This works pretty well, but it will have to be cinched down somehow before any wind or weather comes up.

Sunday, we planned to go to the pub with Karen and Glen, but when we arrived, it turned out they were closed. We were so disappointed. We racked our brains for another option. What we really wanted was to sit on the patio, eating pizza and drinking Sierra Nevada beer. So we finally decided to grab a pizza and drink on our patio. Karen and Glen went and got the pizza, and we poured pilsner. We added fresh tomatoes, basil, hot peppers, and parmesan to our pizzas, making them much better.

After that we racked the plum wine. It tasted good, with no off flavors. It was pretty chunky, however, and we'll need to rack it again, this time into a smaller container. I'll need to go buy a three-gallon carboy, but for now, we just used the five-gallon one, and topped it off with CO2, put on an airlock, and stuck it in the basement. We'll rack it again in two months, then bottle it and age it. It should be ready in April. I had to look back in the blogs, but the plums started blooming in Feb. So this wine won't be ready for plum blossom time, but it will certainly be done before the next harvest.