A Kansas Country Garden: The Back Third

This faithful cultivator has seen generations of use and has not been improved upon.

Welcome to the back third of our property. I don't often take you there because that's where the vegetable garden, barn and chickens reside and personally I don't find it as attractive as the flowers. Not everyone agrees I know. Also it is the domain of the hardworking guy shown in the photo so I really can't take credit for much of what you see although I do play a small role in the planting and harvesting with a larger role in  preparing and preserving of the bounty. The weeding, though, is all him and an admirable job he does. 

There is beauty in the vegetable garden.

A Dozen Egg Yolks: French Vanilla Ice Cream

The recipe for French Vanilla Ice Cream follows a brief "Chicken" story.

I am married to the chicken policeman. You might not think that chickens need a policeman. You might be right. Nevertheless our chickens have one. Is someone picking on the other chickens? Banish them to another pen. Have they quit laying eggs? That might result in banishment, too. Are they roosting on the nests? Not allowed; all chickens must roost inside the barn on the roosting rods. 

This spring Mike purchased about 20 chicks. They were all supposed to be pullets (females). They began their life with us in a box in the garage where they were kept warm and toasty with a heat lamp. After they grew from tiny puffs of fluff to feathered youngsters they were moved outside where they had access to both a pen in the barn and the fenced outdoors through a tiny chicken-sized door. It was time to learn the rules. 

The pullets seemed to enjoy their new surroundings, especially their outdoor pen where they could scratch in the dirt and hunt for bugs. When evening came they settled down on the ground outside to sleep. Chicken infraction in progress! Mike sprang into action. By banging on the pen, prodding them with a pole and a little hollering, they got the idea that they needed to go inside for the night. The next night a similar event occurred. Within a week they were so well trained that anytime either of us would walk by the chicken pen, regardless of the time of day, they would simply line up and march into the barn. I don't call him the chicken policeman for nothing!

The new pullets in the foreground have now begun to lay tiny brown eggs.

Eating fresh greens gives the yolks a vibrant yellow coloring.

 We don't have chickens just to keep us entertained. We love the wonderful eggs. Eggs are nutritious and vital in the kitchen for baking and cooking. Egg yolks especially are packed with vitamins and antioxidants. According to the American Egg Board, "egg yolks are an excellent source of choline, an essential nutrient that contributes to fetal brain development and helps prevent birth defects. Choline also aids the brain function of adults." Need I say more? Is that enough to justify making French Vanilla Ice Cream? I think so!

Separate the yolks from the whites. Be sure to keep the whites yolk free if you're going to use them to make Angel Food Cake.

French Vanilla Ice Cream
(for a printable recipe, click here.)

make one gallon

12 egg yolks
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 quarts whole milk (approximate)
6 tablespoons good quality vanilla
half and half or cream, if desired

In a microwave safe bowl (I use an 8-cup measuring bowl) mix together 4 cups milk and the sugar. Heat for 4-5 minutes in the microwave until milk is hot and sugar is dissolved. In another bowl lightly beat the egg yolks. Temper the yolks by slowly adding a portion of the hot milk/sugar mixture while whisking vigorously. Then slowly pour the yolk mixture back into the milk/sugar mixture while continuing to whisk. If you do it right, you'll won't have any bits of cooked egg in your mixture, it will still be a liquid. Return to the microwave and heat for 5 more minutes at 50% power until very hot. Microwaves will vary. You can't go wrong by using an instant-read thermometer and cooking until you get a  reading of 160 degrees, but most recipes recommend cooking until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Now I usually place the mixture in the refrigerator to chill, but if you're in a hurry it is possible to go ahead and freeze for ice cream at this point.

When ready to freeze ice cream pour egg mixture into freezer canister, add vanilla and half and half or whipping cream if desired. Frankly, Mike and I are perfectly happy using only whole milk. With the egg yolks, its certainly rich enough for our taste. But feel free to use as much half and half or whipping cream as you desire. Fill the canister up to the marked line (you've got to leave at least an inch for the ice cream to expand) with whole milk. Give the dasher a quick swirl to combine everything together and place the lid on the canister. Freeze as desired.

This is the point where I hand the canister over to Mike and let him do his thing. He always sets up on the patio where he sets the ice cream maker in a metal pan to contain the salty water. He adds layers of ice and rock salt in about a 6 to 1 ratio, turns on the machine and just about the time dinner is ready, so is the ice cream!

He replaces the lid and covers it with ice until we're ready to eat. Some recipes recommend allowing the ice cream to "ripen" for four hours. We could never wait that long. It is amazingly wonderful!

Wondering what to do with your left over egg whites? Make Angel Food Cake! It uses a dozen egg whites. It is the perfect companion to the ice cream. Click here for my recipe for Angel Food Cake. 

You'll find this blog featured here.

In Praise of the Lowly Onion

What is your favorite vegetable? Did you say onions? No? Well, why not? Poor onions. They are either taken for granted or despised. Many a child has picked through their dinner to remove even the smallest piece of onion. Some grown ups think they'd like to do that, too, if only it wasn't so impolite. Not me. I love onions. Always have. As a child, my mother could always tell when I had raided the garden by my onion breath. I'm afraid childhood was not the last time I've had onion breath. But that's fresh onions. Cooked and caramelized onions are even better. I have to believe that most people's objections to onions have more to do with texture than flavor. Because the flavor is quite wonderful. Without onions your savory dishes tend to be vaguely bland. Something just seems to be missing. If you're leaving out onions because of an onion objector, try chopping them very finely. You may find them remarking about how good it tastes!

 

You might not think of onions as a nutritional powerhouse, but they are high in Vitamin C and a good source of fiber. According to the National Onion Association they contain quercetin, a flavonoid (which is a category of antioxidant compounds)  that may offer some disease prevention and health benefits. 

“Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time; And sometimes you weep.” -Carl Sandburg, American poet

No vegetable garden would be complete without onions. They are easy to grow and one of the first vegetables to go into the spring garden. By mid to late March we'll be popping little onion sets into the soil. In recent years we've been planting "Candy"onions, a variety that we order from Dixondale Farms. They grow large and sweet in our Kansas soil and they store fairly well, too. We also grow a variety that keeps longer to get us through the holidays. Just as last of last summer's crop of onions, stored all these months in our basement, is used up or has sprouted and been tossed, the Dixondale Farms Catalog arrives. It's time to think of a new crop of onions. 

Our fall and winter menu always includes Baked Barbeque Chicken at least a few times. Spicy and tender, it is an often-requested comfort food. And onions make it good!

Begin with a large onion and coarsely chop it.

Saute chopped onion in 1/4 cup of butter until tender, but not brown. (While onion is sauteing, you may want to prepare the chicken, but I am going to continue with the BBQ sauce recipe in the interest of continuity.)

The sauce ingredients: missing from the photo is the Worcestershire sauce which I was out of and so didn't use. But I missed it and would definitely recommend using. If I have canned tomato sauce from the garden, I use that, but if purchasing tomatoes I prefer crushed tomatoes to tomato sauce.

To sauteed onions, add:
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon mustard
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
 Gently simmer for 30 minutes.

Prepare chicken:
8 meaty pieces of chicken (I often use thighs)
1 egg
2/3 cup milk (approximate)
1 1/2 cup flour (also approximate)
salt and pepper to taste

Spray a 9X13 pan with cooking spray. In a shallow dish lightly beat egg and add milk. In another shallow dish mix flour with salt and pepper. Remove chicken skin if desired. Dip chicken pieces one at a time into egg mixture, then roll in flour mixture and place in prepared pan. Bake chicken in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes (while sauce is simmering.) Turn chicken and cover with barbeque sauce. Bake an additional 30 minutes. 

I always serve Baked Barbeque Chicken with fried potatoes. After pouring the sauce over the chicken I quickly rinse out the pan and fry the potatoes which are done about the same time as the chicken. The barbeque sauce is great on the the potatoes.

For a printable recipe click here.
Recipe adapted from Christian Home Cookbook, recipe contributed by Mrs. Leo Classen

Parenting Problems

Nestled under some brush, a determined Edna sits on her eggs.

The desire to reproduce runs strong in most animals. Hank and Edna, our resident guinea fowl are no different. Each day during the spring and summer Edna takes time out of her busy day of eating bugs and seeds to lay an egg. It is a light tan color and slightly smaller than a chicken egg. She returns to the same place day after day. The place is of her choosing, not ours and it’s her secret. She looks for an out-of-the-way spot, because she wants to sit on those eggs and hatch them.  Eventually she will have a clutch of fifteen to twenty-five eggs. It will take around four weeks for the eggs to hatch once she is sitting on the nest if all goes well. But for Edna it has never gone well.

A guinea fowl sitting on a nest day after day and night after night is vulnerable. While the male will stay close during the day offering an element of protection, a loud warning if nothing else, when the day becomes dusk, he heads for the roost up in the pine tree. It is a noisy parting. It almost seems that Hank doesn’t want to leave Edna on her nest on the ground, but his instinct to roost in the trees is as strong as hers are to sit on the nest. In the house, her humans are also turning out the lights and crawling into bed leaving her with no real protection from the unknown nightlife in our neighborhood. We can hear coyotes howls on some nights and we know there are raccoons and possums in the area, but we can only guess what is prowling around in the dark of the night.

Edna’s first nest was in the middle of a poison ivy patch in our neighbor’s yard. She was almost impossible to see as she sat immovable among the green vines. We kept a respectful distance, but a predator had no such inhibitions. One night he moved in. Edna was able to escape but the predator destroyed and ate the eggs.  This did not discourage our guinea pair. It only meant that she would locate a new place for her next batch. We make it our business to try to discover just where the next nest is in hopes that we can somehow prevent another disaster or at least save some of the eggs. 

The Bantam hen was a gentle mother to the little guineas.

A nest right next to the neighbor’s shed, but very near our barn, didn’t seem like the best location. Since she left the nest at least once a day, Mike decided to remove a few of the eggs when she was away. There was a bantam hen in the chicken pen that was showing signs that she would like to set on eggs. Since there is no rooster in the chicken pen, it would be an exercise in futility to set on chicken eggs, but she was more than happy to set on the guinea eggs. She settled in on a nest that was placed in a pen in the barn and sat. And sat. Chicken eggs hatch in three weeks, while guinea eggs will take another week. We wondered if she would give up after three weeks. She was persistent and four keets were hatched. She was a dedicated mother, guiding, nudging and teaching her active hatchlings. The fuzzy keets had orange legs and had interesting combination of their parents coloring. At first it appeared that were just like their  Pearl father with spotted gray and black feathers. But no, they also have white feathers on the lower part of their bodies. After a few months, the young guineas were sold to a farmer.

Waiting on a woman

Edna's clutch of eggs in the day lilies

Last summer Edna found a spot to nest right in the middle of the daylilies that border the vegetable garden. As far as locations go, this one wasn’t too bad. Almost completely hidden in the tall green leaves, it seemed quiet and remote. Hank often waited on the fence while Edna laid her daily egg. Still, we knew that odds were not in her favor and after consulting with a knowledgeable poultry expert, we decided to attempt to move her and her eggs to a safer place inside a fence. The recommendation was pretty specific. Sometime when she was off the nest we were suppose to move the eggs and nesting materials into a container. Mike chose a large plastic tub and made the change. Edna settled right back on her nest without a problem. The next step was a little more difficult. In the dark of the night a blanket should be thrown over her and the nest and mama could be relocated. Alas, things do not always go as planned. Especially when the all-important blanket, so vital in any abduction, was neglected. From the house I heard the unmistakable squawk of an unhappy guinea. Then came the report that during the move she had flown away. Once off the nest, she did not return. To make the best of a bad situation, Mike recruited a red hen from the chicken pen. She too, was eager to set on some eggs. And that's just what she did. During the worst of the brutally hot summer, she sat until four little keets were hatched. 

The red hen was a ferocious mother (which makes photography difficult).

The young guineas now share a pen with several young chickens.

The red hen was a ferocious mother. Come too close and she'd peck you. It was hard to even see the keets because when anyone was close to the pen, she would call her babies to the furthest corner. After a few weeks, the young guineas could take care of themselves and so Mike decided to move the hen back with the other chickens in the conjoining pen. But both the hen and the youngsters made such a racket, that Mike, tough guy though he is, returned the red hen to her charges. 

Can you see Edna under the cedar branches?

Tonight, Edna is again on a nest. This time it is under the one of the cedar trees bordering our property. Autumn is here. The weather is getting colder. This cannot possibly have a happy ending. I have a little talk with Edna. "Edna," I say, "Let it go." She is not listening.




 


Want to read more about Hank and Edna? Click here.
Or here. Or here.

A Dozen Egg Whites: Angel Food Cake

An egg is a beautiful thing. Smooth ovals in shades of browns, beiges and whites contain a wholesome array of essential vitamins and minerals. It is a protein powerhouse. In the hands of an experienced cook, they are useful in dishes savory as well as sweet. In the hands of an inexperienced cook, you can't go wrong with scrambled eggs! 

  

Celebrate Squash!

It's "Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Porch" Day. Let's celebrate! I understand it's a national holiday. Whether you're the one sneaking or the one finding a grocery bag of the lovlies on your porch, surely you'll be serving them today! Right? 

The chickens think too-big squash is a yummy treat.

In our garden which has been hit hard by scorching temperatures and drought, the zucchini and crookneck squash continue to thrive. Thanks to our resident guineas, Hank and Edna, there are no squash bugs attacking our plants this year.