Spring Break!

with the spring comes warmth and rains, so trees begin a-budding
and fowl, freed from coop constraints, go merrily a-mudding
to seek and ingest grass and seeds with eager scratch-and-pecks,
while drunk on pollen from the weeds are slow-flying insects.

the sun climbs back from southern climes a little more each day,

giving light for longer times, inspiring hens to lay.

finding four eggs in the nest is common happenstance;

the rooster preens his feathered breast and struts his mating dance.

the coop was scrubbed, vinegar-spritzed, and stuffed with brand new hay,
we held a household/closet cleaning blitz the other day.
springtime zephyrs whistle by and tease all windows open;
out the doubts of winter fly to make way for new hoping.

yesterday's experiment was mini pita bread.
puffed pocket bites were what i meant to get; i got instead
a kind of tender flatbread, small in size, and good with dip--
i cannot escape hummus and its culinary grip.

and that's the word from 'round the TUF. happy spring break all!
here's hoping hope and weather hold; we'll spring it up 'till fall!

Winter. Break!

i always look forward to this time of year so hard. school's out for a restful moment, some nights get down to freezing, people put up lights and make plans and give presents.  and make food!  the days blend into a warm and fuzzy blur, and round about december 28th i have the following thoughts:

1) xmas is already over? whoa!
2) the YEAR is nearly over? WHOA!
3) what all just HAPPENED??

And that final question, my dear reader, i hope to answer here--mainly for myself, though i deeply appreciate all y'all out there who pursue a mild interest in the various TUF antics.

now for starters, let's push all the holiday warmth and romance aside and talk chicken issues.  i spend a fair amount of time discussing the cute and fluffy aspects of urban chicken keeping, and haven't had to explore too many ugly or less desireable topics so far.  until the foul Fowl Pox!

that's right, people get chicken pox, chickens get fowl pox.  it's a virus spread by mosquitoes that is also communicable between chickens, so it gets the whole flock.  it causes little gross dots on your birdz. (here's more info from the backyard chicken peeps, if you are interested.) they can only get it once, thankfully (just like people chicken pox! ......what?) and it isn't too bad and goes away after awhile.  but it was GROSS, and it caused the ladies to be less lay-ful.  which was really just as well, because the good people at callahan's recommended we do a round of tetracycline antibiotics to prevent secondary infections.  and, of course, when they're on the antibiotics, you don't eat the eggs!  fowl pox is totally the worst!

anyway, we are recovering, and egg production is coming back slowly but surely.  all the ladies look better than ever, and seem to frantically enjoy the sunshine we've had for the past couple of days.  i'm sure there will be a fancy chicken photo shoot in the near future.


on to more pleasant things:  my 31st birthday came and went delightfully, thanks to my amazing family and friends. the most TUF-related treasure i received was this MARVELOUS ceramic egg tray! it fits perfectly in the egg compartment in the fridge.  i love how the eggs look in it!

this year the TUF hosted our first xmas banquet, gathering family from near and....well, mostly near.  san antonio and austin o'neils and camerons were present, and our brother-in-law-to-be braved the long and squishy drive from houston.  the normal TUF living room was transformed into the Banquet Hall, and we were a merry bunch, all 8 of us!  i made ugly-but-tasty cabbage, roasted carrots, mashed potatoes and cloverleaf rolls; our auntie brought a green salad, grilled asparagus and bread puddin'. gwen brought key lime pie, killer cheezcake and the cameron traditional Christmas Salad. and dad--oh holy night!--brought the Beef Tenderloin.  the wine flowed like.....um, wine!  the bread was broken!  seconds were had! deliciouscity ensued!

image credit: jb o'neil

and gifts and hugs and kisses were exchanged, as befitting a proper xmas.  but then, after all the anticipation and cooking and present-hiding and aromas and unwrapping, it's over!  december 26 comes, and everything goes back to normal.

....except not QUITE, ever, here on the TUF.  we happened to have a pheasant thawed on this weeknight-after-xmas, and some organic butternut squash.  that's right, a pheasant!  ha! why not!

we treated it just like we treat most birds headed for the rotisserie, as discussed before...rubbed and trussed, and rotisseried for about an hour.  this time we stuffed it with half a squeezed-out lemon, a carrot and some garlic cloves.

i threw the giblets in a pot with some water, more carrot, the other half of the squeezed lemon, some spices/garlic and a frozen leftover roast chicken...um...carcass (sorry) to make a quick broth for gravy.  i know, totally ridiculously un-necessary, but it's a pheasant, it should have gravy. i don't know why.  it smelled DELICIOUS.

while the bird roasted and the broth bubbled away, it was time to deal with the two tiny butternut squash.

dan cut the tops off, hollowed out the bulbs, and diced the flesh to stuff back in the center later. the shells went in the oven first, at 350 degrees, for about 15 minutes.

we sauteed the chopped up fruit from the necks and bulbs for a moment, to soften and garlic them up before replacing them in their native gourds to finish cooking.  then dan decided that these squash had faces.

without further ado, the squash guys were carved and stuffed with more of themselves and some shredded cheddar, much to their apparent displeasure.  they finished baking while the pheasant, rice and broth turned, boiled and bubbled away toward dinner.  everything cooked for just about an hour.

though FAR too much food for even us totally urban farmer types (ha!), it turned out to be an amusing and deliciously fancy dinner.  note to self: no matter how tiny you think it is, ONE BUTTERNUT SQUASH is all you need for two people!  just one!  see how grumpy they get!





anyway, new culinary and farming adventures await in 2012....new egg layers!  massive compost production! the fabled garden?  who knows!  i can't wait to find out. and i also hearby resolve to try not to let so many weeks go in between posts again. it results in long and blithery posts like this one!

as always, Gentle Reader, thank you for your time and attention.  stay tuned!

November Random Ramblings

remember this?  these two tiny chicks?  back in june i regaled you, Dear Reader, with pictures and anecdotes about our brand new fuzzy fluffy chicks, and wondered who they would become and what they would look like.  not surprisingly, they became grown up chickens.  it has been fascinating to see their progress, and i look forward to their first egg probably toward the middle of december!

tumblr now!

tumblr then...

twitter now!

twitter then...

tumblr has grown into a very fancy chicken, her feathers a riot of shiny greens and subtle yellows, bright oranges and dark reds.  twitter has matured into a lovely soft-plumed blue marans, with the rather odd dual effect of being an attractive bird and looking a bit like a buzzard.  they aren't quite full-grown yet, but they are truly coming into their own as full-fledged (literally!) members of the TUFlock.  i can't wait to see what their eggs look (and taste!) like.

speaking of eggs, sammo/bolo/pearl/ninja have been laying like gangbusters, and i was able to create a whole mess of delicious egg salad finger sandwiches for a recent family dinner party.  there is something quite satisfying about hard-boiling a slew of home grown eggs!

the laying ladies have slowed up a little with the time/season change, it would appear, but i'm sure they'll be back to normal eggliferation soon.  i deeply appreciate their contribution to our household and, indeed, my psyche: one recent tuesday night, i was feeling a bit sorry for myself after a hard day at work.  it seemed that nothing could lift my spirits, that i was glued to the couch by the potent adhesive combination of lonesome and lazy.  then, i had a sunny side up idea...

...that i promptly made into huevos rancheros!    the evening was saved by the chicken(s) and the egg(s).  amazing how home-made good food can change one's perspective in an instant.  another case in point: dungeness crab and asparagus, prepared by TUF chef dan one recent evening in which we had the fortune to eat together at home...

granted, no eggs here....only my FAVORITE seafood item, and one of my FAVORITE vegetables.  i'm just going to go ahead and say a few things about dungeness crab: 1) it's better than lobster 2) it's better than any other crab, including king crab 3) it's one of the most ethical seafoods out there.  (that's right, i said it's better than lobster, cuz it is!  and it's cheaper!  why are you not eating it right now?  why am i not?)

Spot, helping make copies

handy Hairelena

in other news, it's thanksgiving break!   i have so much to be thankful for, and so much to look forward to.  the science class pets, Hairelena and Spot, have come home for the break, so they have added their ranks to our veritable home zoo.  other members of the household have barely noticed the newcomers, preferring to focus on the recent addition of a new fuzzy blanket to the living room couch:

or hope that something awesome is going to fall out of the sky:

at any rate, the holidays approacheth, and my favorite time of the year is upon us.  an important school long haul is over, and we are settling into our new schedule. last night i woke to the sound of Big Rain, and today was coolish, sunny and windswept.  this week there will be family, friends and food...more on that, and other adventures, to come!  november on the TUF in the ATX!  i am giving thanks!

Grocery Store Adventure Part Deux--Double TUF

i know i said that the next post would be the bread post, but i recently had another important Grocery Store Adventure that i have to discuss first before i forget.  this one was a combo GSA--i went to a new grocery store this time knowing the following things: a) we would be making a trip to the downtown farmer's market the following weekend; b) between the grocery and the farmer's market, i needed to make an Epic Shopping Trip, replenishing all aspects of our usual stockpile.

usually, this would mean going to the big box, grabbing whatever i need without even thinking about it, then shuddering while swiping a chunk of my checking account away at the register on decidedly non-TUF stuff.

today's adventure would take place at Wheatsville Co-op, a longtime austin institution of local and ethical/organic grocery shopping.  like my first GSA to the natural grocery by vitamin cottage, this would be meticulous: calculator out, everything accounted for, sticking close to a prescribed budget.  i was interested in spending no more than half of the most i'd ever spent on a big box grocery run, taking into account both our low larder level and our planned trip to the farmer's market.

wheatsville has really done a great job with the inside of their store!  i hadn't been there in years, and it used to be a little scruffy-lookin', but these days it looks great.  they have a wide variety of produce, much of it locally produced, and many different all-natural and organic products to choose from on the aisles. they also boast a fish/butcher counter, a deli, a fancy cheese section, and an extensive bulk section.  it definitely has that expensive natural grocery store smell, and i shrunk a little as i walked in....how was i going to get a hefty haul at a good value from here?

BUT.....i did.  i went right up to my budget, but i got EXACTLY the produce, frozen vegetables, dry goods, dairy and seafood that i wanted--too many to bore you with a list!  now, i didn't get the free stuff and rather attentive treatment that i enjoyed at the natural grocer--wheatsville ain't new in town, and they don't have to scramble to impress all the curly-clectic austinites that pass through there.  but i did bring all my own re-usable bags this time (another TUF first!), and they gave me a nickel back per bag, which i was then able to donate to their charity of the month.  all with friendly, chatty service!  i will definitely be going back to wheatsville!  (and shhhhhh, i totally liked it better than the natural grocer, even though those guys were REALLY NICE.)

now for the second part of the Epic Shopping Trip, enacted at the downtown farmer's market.  if you haven't been to your local farmer's market, please do go just for fun sometime.  saturdays here in the ATX, all the people and kids and dogs are out with the fruits and vegetables and tacos and vendors, and it smells great and looks vibrant and that cantaloupe rosemary lemonade is so delicious....

and you get to take home amazing food!  we have been getting all of our non-seafood meat and poultry from the farmer's market, which is expensive, but worth it.  and why buy cheap factory beef from the big box when you can get...

--ethically-raised bison (ground and steaks)
--free-range organic chicken (whole)
--grassfed lamb (chops)
--ethically-raised pork (chops, ribs)

...all from less than 150 miles away, and so flavorful you can taste the wildflowers that animal ate. as far as produce, we also got: peppers, chilies, rainbow chard, rainbow carrots, garlic, pickles, raw sauerkraut (SO GOOD), a snow leopard melon, and some zucchini.

final financial assessment: farmer's market meat+produce+wheatsville co-op food run = (a bit) less cashola than the most i've ever spent at the big box on an equally Epic Shopping Trip.  and we have full meals for weeks!  another Grocery Store Adventure affirming the original purpose of this TUFsperiment.  whoopeee!

now for real this time: THE BREAD IS COMING. stay tuned.

TUF Chicks and Other TUF Stuff

we've been experiencing some Totally Urban Farm growth and expansion lately.  sometimes growth and change can be a bit harrowing, and it can make you feel less cute and fluffy and more awkward and scruffy lookin'.  (twitter demostrates this rather well at left there.)  but it's all worth it, because you learn new stuff and get more experience, and continue on the path to mature chickendom. or urban farmerdom.  or whatever path you find yourself on. and though there will always be periods of growth and learning, the awkward doesn't last forever.  we promise, twitter.

the chicks have been growing so fast, and at 4 weeks old seemed ready to meet the big girls and start living in the coop.  we set up a piece of pegboard as a temporary partition, so that the silkie ladies could meet their new coop-mates via sight and smell for awhile before having actual physical contact.  also, the young 'us have to stay on their chick food for another few weeks or so before graduating to big chicken layer food, so we're keeping it all separate for now.  we set them up in the coop on july 3rd with no obvious complaints from the big girls.

twitter and tumblr immediately started running around, checking out their new digs...though not dissimilar from their cardboard box environment, this definitely was bigger and smelled way more interesting!

existentialist twitter eyed the surroundings critically, ensuring she was aware of the food and water situation before beginning to cautiously beak around.  tumblr, par contrast, began to flutter-run and peep recklessly, getting the lay of the land on wild exploratory missions.  all observed behaviors were within normal limits, and we left them to start their chicken maturity lessons, checking up on them over the course of the day.

however, the next morning (independence day, and ninja's birthday!) we discovered a near-disaster...tumblr had taken some kind of tumble, and was flopping around pitifully as though she couldn't walk!  twitter was fine, but clearly concerned about the plight of her sister. i collected the compromised chick and whisked her into the house for some time in the improvised hospital box (actually a sierra nevada 12pk, perfect size!).

that first day, she really had me worried.  i know nothing about chicken medicine, but it really seemed like the little darling was in pain.  she wanted to eat and drink, which was a good sign, but otherwise seemed droopy and sad. she couldn't stand up, and just generally looked pathetic.  i let her rest and occasionally tried to help her stand up, and frantically asked for advice on the (extremely friendly and wonderful!) Back Yard Chicken Forum.   i watched and waited.  my poor little wounded revolutionary!

the next day (yesterday) she had noticeably improved.  she was distributing weight more evenly on either leg, and she looked like she felt a lot better.  she also figured out that she was all by herself in a beer box, and that the huge face/hand (so revolting and terrifying before) was now the only option for company and comfort.  having ascertained these two facts, she began to request that the huge face/hand be present at all times except for brief napping periods, and that the huge face/hand immediately report to its station after the napping for company/comfort/eating moral support/treat distribution/finger snuggling/cheek scratching etc.  her method of requesting the presence of the huge face/hand:

PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP

(i think there is an easter-related brightly colored marshmallow candy reference that goes here, but it escapes me at the moment)

at any rate, i felt terrible that i had missed Ninja the black silkie's july 4th birthday due to the wounded revolutionary, so since tumblr was feeling better, i had to make it up to ninja.  and we had a cantaloupe/yogurt themed birthday party in the run!

ninja celebrated her 1 year old birthday...our friend michelle (whose chicken momma i am, or maybe she is mine?) watched her hatch one year ago this past monday.  and now she's a beautiful silkie with a stellar egg-laying career.  good on ya, Ninja, and here's to many more!  thanks for all the eggs!

even twitter got to get in on the action, even though she's not old enough to party in the run yet...she got to try some yogurt for the first time.  it seems totally bizarre to me that chickens would go nutzo for yogurt, but they do. go fig. 

poor twitter has found herself within limited sight and unlimited smell of the other two chickens, but she is, in essence, alone.  and chicks HATE to be alone.  i think this has given her a chance to do some soul searching around her existentialist philosophy, and has decided that the huge face/hand is worth caring about...it provides treats and comfort, and so why shouldn't it be worshiped? (nietzsche would be proud!) she now approaches the coop window every time we come out, excited to see and interact with the huge hand/face.  her expression of existential adulation:

PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP

i think pearl and ninja are like, GEEZ, it's just the giant, borrrrrring.  they cluck at her youthful zeal.

anyway, things have been going good here at the TUF.  today tumblr continues to improve and demand attention, i am confident that in a few days she'll be lit-rall-y back on her feet again.  other news, in brief:

--we need another grocery store adventure soon

--i made freakishly good carrot cupcakes from a magazine that turned out to be exactly my recipe for zucchini muffins, in which i replaced the zucchini with finely shredded carrots (about 6) and iced 'em with supersimple cream cheese frosting (half of this recipe.) this exercise also reminded me that, though the word 'muffin' somehow sounds healthier than 'cupcake,' really same diff. (sorry.)

thank you for reading, Gentle Readers!  more soon.....stay tuned!

Grocery Store Adventure!

one of the main reasons we began this TUFsperiment was to become more aware food consumers--more simply, better grocery shoppers.  taking steps to produce some of our own food is good progress--pilfering the neighbor's garden, the daily egg, dreaming of our own vegetable patch-- but grocery shopping will always be a major part of our food consumption. so i'm in the market for a non-big box grocery store.  the saturday farmer's market is awesome, but it's not saturday in the middle of the week!

another factor: non-big-box grocery stores are not cheap.  that is to say, big-box grocery stores ARE cheap, but for all the wrong reasons.  i expect to pay more for ethically- and sustainably-produced food, because the production costs are not masked by mass factory food practices.  i also find myself spending SO much money anyway on any given big-box run, and i realize that i rarely check prices on anything....i just fill up my cart, wince at the check out line and assume that i've gotten the everyday low price on everything.  that's not being a very conscious consumer!

so i decided to scope out a non-big-box grocery store, and i decided to set a reasonable limit and stick to it: $150, calculator out, every item in the cart accounted for.  i was going to try to do a 'normal' kind of big box grocery run at a non-big box 'fancy' store for $150.  hypothesis: i can get way more than i think at the non-big-box for a reasonable about of cash.

procedure: i headed straight for Wheatsville Food Co-op, but the parking lot was full.  undaunted, i carried on down guadalupe in search of The Natural Grocer, a small store i had noticed before but hadn't ever really thought about.  its full name continues, "...by Vitamin Cottage," which i always thought was strange.   but there were parking spaces, so i went for it.

i always notice the smell of places first thing, and the natural grocer had the smell of a fancy grocery store...i always imagine this particular scent to be a combination of wheat grass and bulk grain and dirt, and it's distinctive to non-big-box fancy schmancy grocery stores.  i kind of like it, but it smells expensive.  i selected a wheeliebasket, got out my calculator and began exploring.

shortly, a casually-official looking gentleman approached me and asked if i was finding everything all right, and had i ever been here before?  i said no, this was my first run at the natural grocer, and that i was getting my bearings before the real shopping began.  he said he was Robert, the general manager, from denver!  he was here to check out the newish austin store, and he asked  if i had any questions about anything.  i said, how much of your produce is locally-sourced?  he said that since the natural grocers by vitamin cottage was based in denver, they worked with many farmers and artisens in the denver area and from around colorado.  but he realizes that people in austin really like to support their local community, and that he was actively looking to work with local growers.  i thought that was a pretty decent answer, and robert seemed like a nice fellow.  i said, what's the deal with 'by vitamin cottage?' he explained that they had started as a natural vitamin and supplement outfit, but that the business really started growing when they started selling organic/natural groceries.  he said the natural grocers took pride in being 100% organic.  (i have some questions about the systems that label things as 'organic,' but that bears some more research.) at any rate, he seemed sincere.

we spoke for a bit about the fact that food that is ethical and sustainable is more expensive than mass-produced food, and he pointed out the fact that the grocery store had no fancy displays or deli/meat counters or anything like that, and this was in an effort to keep prices lower.  he also showed me that there were a lot of different items on specials or sales in the hopes of offsetting the higher price of natural/sustainable/ethical foods.  i explained my $150 experiment, and he said he would be checking up on me over the course of my grocery shopping to see how the store was holding up to my expectations and budget.  i was impressed that he seemed genuinely interested in my experience (and experiment!).

i acquired the following items (all organically grown/produced, according to robert):
lettuce/spinach/red cabbage/broccoli (colorado)
2 tomatoes (from gonzales tx!)
onion/garlic/red potatoes (colorado)
avocado/lemon/lime (?)
cantaloupe (colorado?)
fresh mozzerella cheez
lambchops/sirloin steaks/chicken breasts/ground buffalo/pork chops (meat = VERY EXPENSIVE for good reason)
frozen broccoli/peas
canned green beans
bottled juice (2 lemonades!)
sliced provelone (horizon farms)
salsa (local)
chips (garden of eaten or whatever)
pickels (bubbies?)
pasta sauce

for just under $147.  i was impressed!  this represented a significant grocery run for a very reasonable amount of cash at the non-big-box-all-fancy-natural grocery store.  hypothesis, first trial: confirmed!

over the course of my rounds, robert and the other store employees did check on me and were extremely helpful. i ended up chatting with them for a little while, and found i could have a source of FREE organic vegetable odds and ends for guinea pigs and chickens--all i had to do was call!  at check out they boxed up all my groceries (they don't use plastic or paper bags--just left over boxes) and even gave me a free re-useable grocery bag.  i kind of felt like a celebrity or something, actually.  it was very pleasant.

at any rate, my grocery store adventure at The Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage was educational and validating.  just the act of keeping a close running total on the contents of my basket was enlightening, and discovering i could do a real grocery run at an expensive smelling store for a reasonable amount of cash was encouraging.  plus everybody was super nice and i got free stuff out of it.  so the moral of this story is: i will probably go back there!