From Skilled Hands » Chickens

My Town Monday: Spring in the Valley

fromskilledhands — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:04:41 +0000

It has been such a full week. My time and energies have been with my family, so this post will be some scenes of Spring coming to the Village of Peninsula, population 602. Have a cuppa and enjoy. What’s it like in your neck of the woods?

This bridge carries the Towpath Trail over the Cuyahoga River.

Yellow will be peeking out in a day or so, I think.

I couldn’t resist taking this photo; the hen, however, did not share my enthusiasm.

A lovely early Spring evening in the Valley.

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For links to more My Town Monday sites, visit Travis Erwin. He’s taking time from moving into his new home to post links to bloggers’ sites all over this planet.

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Gratitude: Musings on My 200th Post

fromskilledhands — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:53:34 +0000

Somehow it seems rather fitting that this is my 200th post. I have so much for which to be grateful, and my awareness is acute on this day.

It is Spring. The birds singing; the quality of the light; buds swelling on the old apple tree outside my kitchen window—-all these things are reminders that there is a cyclical nature to our lives and the lives around us. The goldfinches are sporting yellow feathers; each breeding male hoping each female will see his coat as the one for her. The cats are losing their winter coats and bulk. This was a long winter, and they needed it all.

The chickens. Bless the chickens and the eggs they are giving us, and the manure that will help our garden grow. I am grateful for their clucks and sounds that let me know they are there.

Two of the dogs have had their Spring grooming. No more winter dirty dog smell. Lily the Toy Poodle will be next—when the weather warms up a bit. Lily is really a farm dog. She has no idea she is small, tipping the scales at 8 pounds. She has herded the chickens and taken on the cats.Then she curls up in a little ball and goes to sleep.

And #1 daughter has been home this week, gracing our lives with her presence. It has been a good week, full of conversation and relaxation. We’ll be leaving for the airport soon. It is a bittersweet time for both of us.

Seeing my children grow and spread their wings reminds me that we, as parents, are really gardeners. We create as rich an environment as we can, providing love and care. We place the seedlings in what we hope is the best place, letting them harden off before we put them outside to grow on their own. We do the very best we can with the tools and information we have at any given time. But we don’t make them grow. They do that all by themselves. It is an amazing process to share. And for that, too, I am grateful.

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Wordless Wednesday: On My Mind

fromskilledhands — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:16:05 +0000

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Food for Thought: A My Town Monday Post

fromskilledhands — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:28:37 +0000

photo courtesy Laura Weldon

I have known Laura Weldon for a pretty long time. We don’t see each other all that often, and talk infrequently. There’s a connection. We see many things similarly, and know that the choices we make are political statements. We both remain optimistic in the face of adversity and challenge; we share an idealistic spirit; and we cherish the time we have with our families.

Laura does many things. She and her family live on a farm in rural Ohio. Bit of Earth Farm is a lovely place. Eggs and beef and amazing honey come from her family’s farm. You can have a taste of some of Laura’s writing here, and her blog, here. You won’t be sorry.

At our Food Coop distribution, where she was on time and I was not, we talked about the need to support our local economies. If you live in the Medina County area of NE Ohio, you can find out about the Medina Food Coop here. I asked Laura to share her thoughts about conscious, healthy and economical meals. This is what she wrote:

Six Ways to Save Money on Healthy Meals

Concerned about sacrificing your healthy diet because of today’s difficult economy? According to the International Herald Tribune, “The Department of Agriculture forecasts that food prices will jump by 4 percent or 5 percent in 2009, compared with 5.5 percent this year. Some predict much steeper increases.” This is the largest increase in food prices in over 15 years. But there are changes you can make to your daily and weekly routine that will help you maintain a reasonable food budget. Advance planning and networking with others can result in bountiful rewards for your taste buds, your wallet and your commitment to sustainable meals.

Try these six tactics.

1. Eat at home.

*A recent issue of Progressive Grocer reported that meals consumed at home cost about a third of those purchased away from home. That choice alone saves $66 of every $100 in the food budget.

*An analysis presented at the Southwest Human Development Services showed that when in-home meals are made without convenience foods the savings are even greater. More importantly, the nutritional value of meals made from scratch is higher than those made from prepared foods or mixes. The difference extends to fresh ingredients as well. The report noted, “The bagged salads keeps growing in popularity even though they cost nearly 5 times as much as buying and washing your own head of lettuce…Compare the volume in the bag that is edible to what you get in one head of lettuce, you are left with a price difference of about $1.50 but about three times more edible lettuce from the head of lettuce.”

*Eating at home allows you to be more innovative in food selection than in any restaurant. You can eat beans, tomatoes, avocado and salsa for breakfast if you choose.

*Learn the time-honored methods of frugality your grandmother may have used. For example—advance meal planning; creative use of left-overs (one day’s entrée served over a salad the next day); using pricier food items as garnish rather than main focus of a meal; using healthy staple foods in a variety of ways; making home made sauces, drinks and cereals. And chances are grandma’s generation ate those well-balanced meals while conversing at the table, considering food eaten standing up or listening to media chatter as the height of rudeness.

2. Take it with you.

*Pack your lunch. Surveys indicate that two out of three employees pack a lunch at least once a week. The main motivation is to save money. Nutrition gets a boost too, because packed lunches generally have fewer calories and smaller portions.

*Bankrate.com offers a Lunch Savings Calculator at http://www.bankrate.com/brm/calculators/savings/lunch_savings_calculator.asp

Plug in numbers for how often you plan to replace lunch out with a brown bag meal, finding out what your savings will be in a few years. The example given at the site shows that replacing lunch out during the workweek for four years results in savings of nearly $4,000.

*Always have healthy snacks available. Avoid single serving packages and convenience snack foods, even the healthiest versions are expensive. Instead, pack your own in reusable bags and containers. Keep a bag of almonds in your backpack, a jar of pumpkin seeds in your car, some granola in your briefcase. This helps avoid impulse buys when you, your children or companions are hungry.

*Don’t leave the house without something to drink in a reusable container. It takes a few moments to fill it with water, juice or a quickly blended smoothie.

3. Share the cooking

*Create a lunch club with co-workers. This is an excellent antidote when boredom or time considerations make packing a daily lunch difficult. Two, three or more colleagues can take turns bringing homemade lunches for the others. This saves time several days a week for everyone.

*Set up a potluck group with friends or neighbors. Get together on a regular basis either at one another’s homes or at the local park. This is a great way to try new foods, exchange leftovers and enjoy companionable dining without the expense of a restaurant meal.

*Create a cooking night cooperative. Such a co-op allows people to swap chef duties in exchange for upcoming “catered” meals. For example, if four couples set up a cooking night cooperative for Tuesdays, each couple would take one Tuesday in the month to cook and deliver a meal to the other three couples on “their” night. On the other three Tuesdays a homemade meal would be delivered to them as each couple took a turn.

4. Buy wisely.

* According to a report titled “Food Without Thought” produced by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, U.S. consumers spend more than half of every food dollar on ready-to-eat food items. Most of these prepared foods are high in sugars, fats and additives. Processed foods, including frozen and baked goods, claim over 40% of total supermarket sales while fresh fruits and vegetables represent 9%.

*Pay attention to regular prices so you can gauge the validity of “sale” prices. Buy when on sale. If product must be used soon, make double batches of recipes to freeze or share.

*Buy in bulk for savings if necessary, splitting items with friends and family. Store food safely. Glass jars with tightly fitting screw top lids provide excellent storage for grains, beans, seeds, spices and teas.

5. Eat seasonally

*The “Food Without Thought” report indicates that U.S. farm policy has skewed pricing of foodstuffs in a profoundly unhealthy direction. It states, “…the real cost of fresh fruits and vegetables has risen nearly 40 percent in the past 20 years. The real costs of soda pop, sweets and fats and oils, on the other hand, have gone down.”

*Purchase locally grown produce items in season. Learn to can or freeze them for out-of-season use, if you choose. A Saturday spent with friends or family to pick apples, make applesauce and “put up” the results in canning jars can be a memorable yearly tradition.

*Grow your own. Even a small yard can produce a substantial produce yield. Urbanites can choose community gardens, container gardens on windowsills and balconies, plus growing sprouts and herbs indoors.

*Connect with area producers. Patronize farmers markets, join a CSA, visit local farm stands. Along with the fresh food purchased you’ll also gain invaluable insight about the people who tend the land and the meaning of locally raised products.

6. Join or start a food-buying club.
*These cooperatives can be formed with fewer than a dozen people interested in purchasing food directly from distributors. Many operate using simple guidelines to share the work of sending in orders, unloading the truck at delivery time and splitting bulk food if chosen without any need for a central location or regular meetings. Lower prices on such items as Fair Trade coffee, vitamins and healthy foods make the effort worthwhile.
*Check with individual distributors for sign-up details. Also check to see if the distributor delivers in your area, provides a listing of existing buying clubs and has a minimum order amount. Here’s a partial list of buying club distributors:
United Natural Foods Buying Clubs http://www.unitedbuyingclubs.com/

Frankferd Farms Buying Clubs http://www.frankferd.com

Frontier Wholesale Cooperative https://wholesale.frontiercoop.com/

Atlantic Spice Company http://www.atlanticspice.com/

Sometimes a difficult economy causes us to rely more on ingenuity, thrift and community-building interdependence. We learn to pay close attention to what really matters in our lives.

Sources:

Food Without Thought http://www.iatp.org/iatp/publications.cfm?accountID=258&refID=80627

International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/20/business/food.php

Cost and Nutrition Analysis: Convenience vs. Homemade Foods
http://www.cacfp.org/2006ConHandouts/CostNut.Analysisoverheads.pdf

Progressive Grocer
http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progressivegrocer/content_display/features/fresh-foods/e3i38341e9ec9b07206ef2a2437f38ee32b?imw=Y

Reuters.com
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS210949+10-Sep-2008+MW20080910

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Travis Erwin, the Main MTM Marauder is busy getting ready to move into his new house. This week, Jenn Jilks is collecting links to bloggers who wrote about their towns. Wander on over there and check it out.

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My Town Monday

fromskilledhands — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:05:08 +0000

It’s been hard not to talk about the weather this winter. Today is the first day in I don’t know how many days that the temperature has been above freezing. The sun has shown itself, too, a welcome respite from the gray we’ve seen for so long. Icicles are melting, a constant drip drip on the metal roof. Temperatures are expected to fall again, so the melted ice will morph back into it’s former state, but horizontal rather than vertical.

The quality of the light is changing, a sure sign of progressing seasons.

Chickens are laying, another sign of longer days.

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Travis Erwin is the conductor of the My Town Monday symphony. Check out the links to other MTM players.

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My Town Monday: In a Word: COLD

fromskilledhands — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:38:06 +0000

We got 6 inches of new snow yesterday—on top of the 18+ inches that already blanket the ground. Last week’s respite from the cold, a balmy 40 degrees F, a promise of spring, is now a sweet memory. I know that under all this snow, nature is working her yearly miracle.

The birds know it, too. Spring songs cut through the cold air, punctuating the silence with their glorious sounds. The goldfinches are back—early this year—and are already showing hints of yellow. It’s hard to keep the feeders filled since the whole neighborhood seems to know that dinner is always served here.

The chickens are aware that the seasons are changing, too; they are laying again, and their eggs are a welcome addition to our larder.

The quality of the light has changed; the sun rises more toward the south. The willows have the golden cast that precedes Spring’s arrival.

I am still cold, and have been for months, it seems. The weather report is for more of the same, with snow. But we are at the half way mark for winter. It is good, yes?

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Here’s a welcome back to Travis Erwin, My Town Monday’s chief cook and bottle washer. Travis is back after a hiatus, both planned and unplanned. Take a look over there for links to other My Town Monday Marauders. You’ll learn much and have fun, too.

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A Wintry Day

fromskilledhands — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:37:10 +0000

Snow has been falling since yesterday afternoon, the fine wet stuff that accumulates quickly and silently. We’ve had about a foot of snow so far, and my accu-window forecast is, for once, the same as the weather gurus’: it is still snowing.

I seem to have left my camera at the studio yesterday, and since we’ve decided to stay home today, I’m not able to take photos for you.

There is a sweet silence about days like this, and the white that blankets the earth muffles sound. Sounds come from and disappear into silence. I like it like that.

I’ve been out to care for the chickens, working my way to the barn through snow that is nearly up to my knees in places. The chick-a-biddies seemed glad to see me, since I had scraps from last night’s dinner and today’s grazing. They have already presented me with 4 eggs, accompanying the other 7 dozen that are residing in my refrigerator.

Omelets, anyone?

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