L-modern side table, originally uploaded by jalexstudios.
6 Ways that Starting to Raise Meat Rabbits Will Make You More Self-Sufficient
Posted on August 30, 2010 · 21 Comments
Tiffany S. is what some might call a meat rabbit guru and she’s certain that no matter how cute and fuzzy they are, when it comes down to it, you will be able to do what’s necessary to put food on the table. You can find her over at Raising Rabbits for Meat, a blog appropriately titled since it’s all about how to get started and keep things going if you are interested in raising meat rabbits.
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I know you’re probably thinking that the idea of raising rabbits for meat in-and-of-itself is already a very self-sufficient thing to do. And you’re not wrong. But there are actually even more reasons why raising meat rabbits is an incredibly smart thing to do.
1. First and foremost, growing your own healthy meat in your backyard is without a doubt the number one reason why people start raising their own rabbits. What could be more sustainable than that? You breed your rabbits, let them raise their young for a few weeks, cull the young fryer-sized rabbits and start over. You and your kids can get attached to the breeders, there is very little maintenance compared to other small livestock and you rarely have to get your hands dirty when litters arrive.
2. You’ll not only have a nearly endless supply of meat for yourself, but you’ll also have lots of innards and such for your pets to feast on. I know I’m personally not a huge fan of things like liver or loins (although some would consider it a delicacy), but my dog goes ballistic for that kind of thing. Don’t want to feed it to them raw? Make some liver treats…your dog will never leave your side again!
3. Now once you’ve successfully started providing for your own family, you can also start helping other families put food on the table, either by selling/bartering rabbits to butcher or kits for breeding. Depending on how many you sell, you should be able to cover your own costs and possibly even turn a profit. And trust me, people are getting more and more interested in raising meat rabbits every day…especially with all the outbreaks of disease that keep erupting in the US food chain.
4. Oh, did I mention that these bundles of meat are also covered in lovely fur packages? Make hats, vests, jackets and other clothing out of them…or sell/barter the pelts to others so they can do something useful with them. I hear that Boy Scouts troops are often looking for pelts for various projects they do…so don’t think you have to be a huge supplier to find someone to sell to. And besides, the number of pelts you have will add up quickly.
5. Rabbits absolutely love garden waste and yard clippings…although you do have to be careful what you give them. You can raise healthy, happy rabbits strictly off of your scraps although they won’t be the protein powerhouses that you’re probably used to. During The Great Depression, it was extremely common to raise meat rabbits and that’s exactly how people fed them. You can even feed them twigs and branches from some of your trees (and actually should) so they can wear down those teeth that never stop growing.
6. And let us not forget, what goes in must eventually come out. And when it does, you will have some of the most fabulous fertilizer ever. If you want to be really adventurous, you can raise worms in tandem with the rabbits, feed the worms the droppings and end up with the most incredibly rich fertilizer that will NEVER burn your plants (and with very little work.) Plus it’s free!
So have I convinced you yet that raising rabbits is an incredible way to become more self-sufficient? If you’re thinking about raising rabbits (or already raise them), hop over here and get a free cheat sheet of safe and unsafe foods for rabbits from your own garden. Know exactly what to keep out of reach if you let them hop around your garden…or what you can give them from your table and yard waste that will help them thrive.
Broccoli-Cauliflower-White Cheddar Soup
Posted on August 29, 2010 · 5 Comments
There’s nothing so fulfilling and comforting on a cold winter’s day than a steaming bowl of thick, creamy, cheesy soup. While the wind is howling and anyone who’s got two brain cells to knock together has bundled back up in their blankets and put on their bunny slippers, a hot bowl of soup can make everything right with the world. Soon there will be Christmas lights to put up, presents to wrap…
…wait, it’s not winter? It’s August? Could’ve fooled me – it’s freezing out today. The chickens are huddling under the coop to get out of the wind, and the house is dark and dreary. It’s like we never got quite past that crepuscular dawn/twilight hour.
So what does one do when it’s supposed to be summer and it’s just…not?
One makes comfort food. Naturally.
On the menu today? A cream of cruciferous vegetable soup with lots and lots of sharp white cheddar cheese, fresh black pepper, and a healthy splash of white wine. Apparently my CSA is having a bit of a cold and wet year too, since they’ve been sending me heads of broccoli and cauliflower in the weekly box, right there along side of the corn and heirloom tomatoes that they are somehow coaxing out of the ground (we’ve had a few ears of sweet spring corn from our backyard, but so far only a tiny handful of cherry tomatoes have made it to ripeness).
The result is a thick and luxurious soup guaranteed to warm you up from the inside out. And if you are one of the lucky sort who are actually having a summer right now (with SUN and everything), well, it makes a great lunch served cold with some parmesan-garlic croutons or some diced tomato.
Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Soup
serves 6-8 for a soup-course…or 4-5 for a meal
1 large head cauliflower, cut into manageable pieces
1 large head broccoli, same
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 c white wine or sherry
1/2 c flour
1 1/2 c veggie stock
1 1/2 c milk (I use nonfat)
1/2 to 1 c sharp cheddar cheese (shredded, crumbled, or diced)
salt and pepper, to taste
note: if you like your soup very smooth and the veggies in it very soft, try steaming the broccoli and cauliflower a bit before adding them to the recipe. Personally, I like when they still have a little life left in them.
In a large pan over medium heat (I like a deep sauté pan, but any stock pot will do just as well), melt the butter and the oil and sweat the garlic and onions until translucent. Add the broccoli and cauliflower and cook until the broccoli is bright green and the pieces are barely starting to brown. Add the white wine and allow it to steam until the wine is nearly all cooked off.
Sprinkle on the flour and stir to coat all the pieces evenly with the sticky mess. Then add the stock and stir, melting the flour into the liquid (don’t worry too much about lumps – the whole thing is getting blended). Let this simmer until the mixture starts to thicken.
At this point, the broccoli and cauliflower need to be pureed. You can do this with an immersion blender, a stand blender, or a food processor (my Cuisinart makes fast work of steamed veggies and works just fine for me). If you like a more rustic soup, I suppose you could also mash the soup with a potato masher or run it through a food mill.
Add the soup back to the pan (unless you have used your immersion blender, you lucky gadget-haver, you), and stir in the milk. Allow everything to come up to a simmer and thicken a bit, and then stir in the cheese, giving it time to melt into the soup.
Season with salt and pepper, and serve hot.
With more cheese.
And bunny slippers, of course.
And some awesome person to help with the dishes.
Barn Raising!
Posted on August 28, 2010 · 2 Comments
I just realized that I never posted how we built our goat barn and chicken coop back in March. Our old chicken coop just wasn’t going to cut it anymore since we had gotten goats. They needed a lot more space than what the chicken run could provide. So we scouted out the largest open area in our yard. Well, along the back fence we had a mostly open space. We would have to move a couple of fruit trees, but they were young so it was definitely doable. We moved an almond tree and a pear tree.
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| Barn Location Marked out with String |
Our yard is long and narrow. The width is about 50′. Plenty of space for chickens and Pygmy goats. So I drew up a plan of the barn.
The plan was to attach it to the fence on one side. The area adjacent to the fence would be the storage area for feed. The center room would be the chicken coop and the two other spaces would be the goat area. As it turns out the goat area ended up being just one large room with no divider. But with any informal building projects, the structure always changes in the field.
We first started with putting in pier blocks for the structure to rest in. We didn’t want to do a permanent foundation because we didn’t want to have to worry about getting building permits. Instead, this structure is basically floating on the pier blocks. It is essential to line up the tops of the footings and ensuring they are level.
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| Partially Buried Pier Blocks |
Next we started laying out the posts and beams. Anything that was close to the ground and was for structural purposes was pressure treated wood. Redwood or cedar are also options, however they generally cost a lot more.
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| Posts and Beams are up! |
After making sure everything was plumb and level, it was time to put on the roofing joists.
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| Starting to look like a building |
That was really the hard part – getting everything level and plumb. With everything connected it was now incredibly sturdy. To make it even more sturdy it was time to add the siding. All of our siding was from re-purposed wood from old fences and just old lumber we had come across. It still needs to be pressure washed and painted, but it’s not a top priority right now.
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| Siding going up |
We then framed the doors.
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| Two of the doors are framed |
After framing and adding siding to the doors and finishing the roof, interior walls and adding wire over openings, the barn was complete. We were able to build it in one weekend. The yard we fenced with chainlink fence and barbed wire posts. So far it’s held up really well to the goats who have discovered the ecstasy from rubbing against it back and forth.
The Outdoor Brooder
Posted on August 27, 2010 · 7 Comments
We’ve tried raising chicks several different ways. We’ve let a broody girl take over as mom – which, in my opinion, is the best way to do it as long as you’re not dead set on having hand raised birds. Our hen raised birds are not friendly, but we don’t mind that. And we’ve also raised chicks in a brooder. We don’t really have a place in the house to set up the brooder (cats!) so we set it up in water tower. Now, I won’t get into the exact setup and how to do that exactly, but you can find the information here.
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| Our Indoor Brooder |
It worked well for us, but as the birds got older and needed to be introduced to the flock we ran into some problems. The first was getting everyone to, well, get along. The older girls were bossy and didn’t like these newcomers at all! They would chase them around the yard every chance they got. And this was even after we kept them in the brooder, in the coop for a week to get used to everyone’s smells. The second problem was that our chicks all ended up coming down with coccidiosis. The treatment had to go in the shared waterer which meant for 10 days we couldn’t use any of our hens’ eggs.
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| Our Outdoor Brooder |
This time we decided to keep the brooder outside in the chicken yard. We also decided to keep the bottom of the crate that we use open so the chicks could scratch the soil as needed. We did add some hay though to soften the ground a bit and plywood around the sides to keep heat (and chicks) in. After a couple of weeks we created an opening in the brooder that the chicks could get in and out through the hens and any predators could not. This of course led them to having full run of not only the chicken yard but all the garden. We noticed a significant decrease in any aggression shown to the chicks by the adult hens. Most were curious about the chicks, but there was no aggressive pecking or chasing. We also have had no issues with coccidiosis. After researching how organic poultry raisers deal with the disease, litter management and early exposure seem to be an effective control. Because we exposed the chicks early on to soil, which can harbor the organism, but in an area that wasn’t highly used by the hens, they have remained healthy. We also use the deep litter method in the barn, which appears to help as well. From the above link:
“Poultry-house litter becomes significantly anti-coccidial after about six months’ use, as organisms that eat coccidia start to thrive and knock down the coccidia population… By never removing more than half the brooder house litter at a time, it can keep its anti-microbial properties indefinitely.”
For us this new way of management seems to be successful. Only time will tell, but as the chicks get older (they are now 7 weeks old) they will be less likely to get sick. Since chicks are most susceptible between 3 and 8 weeks of age they will hopefully come out of this 8th week free and clear.
How to Rotate your Beds
Posted on August 24, 2010 · 3 Comments
B from the blog Epona Report asked a great question about how to rotate through your crops.
Do you do a crop of fall veggies? Or do you just let everything go fallow over winter?
I live in Florida, zone 8b, and I feel it just gets too hot too quickly for some of my favorite veggies during the spring.
My plan is to plant my brassicas, peas and other cool-weather crops in the fall, but I’m nervous about turning around and replanting the same areas for my spring/summer veggies.
I’d love to hear if you have any advice for me.
I do both. I don’t have every square inch planted at every moment. This not only allows the soil to rest, but it also allows any compost you add to continue to break down and become less hot, which is important when adding chicken manure like we do.
I also live in Zone 8 so I can understand it getting hot so early. Fortunately for you, it means you can actually plant Spring Veggies in the Winter. You can determine the timing if you use my guide on scheduling plantings.
But with super long seasons there is definitely an overlap, which makes it impossibly to use every square inch of ground if you want seasonal plantings. So what I do is plant my spring crops in half of my beds and then when it warms up plant the rest of the beds with summer crops. When the spring crops are done allow the ground to be fallow until it’s time to put the fall crops in. When the summer crops are done allow that ground to remain fallow until it’s time for the spring crops to go in. The cycle for one bed would then be:
Spring —> Fall —> Summer —> Spring
This also ensures that you will have a proper crop rotation as well. Good luck and happy planting!
Flickr of inspiration- Beauty in Leaves
Posted on August 24, 2010 · Leave a Comment
random green leaves, originally uploaded by *omnia*.
Monday’s Guests- Chalkboard Pots
Posted on August 23, 2010 · 5 Comments
Today’s guest post is a D.I.Y. from , Going Home to Roost, one of my favorite handmade life blogs. Bonnie, the blogger of Going Home to Roost, ”lives snuggled back in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina and gathers endless inspiration from living a simpler way of life. Over the last seven years, she’s become a knitter, a gardener, a candle maker, a cook, a jewelry maker, a wife, a yoga instructor, a blogger and a keeper of chickens! She would love for you to join their journey in finding out what’s next!” Follow her amazing blog at www.goinghometoroost.com. There you will find many amazing posts on organic gardening, creating an indie business, recipes, simple living and diy.
We are so excited to share with you diy chalkboard garden pots!
it’s such an easy peasy, fun project, and it uses the same technique for custom color chalkboard paint that we used for our pantry door. budget friendly and finished in less than an hour, this project is an easy way to pretty up your home, patio or garden!
materials:
- terra cotta gardening pots (unglazed)
-1 cup flat latex paint in your desired color
- 2 tbs unsanded tile grout for each cup of paint (avail. at your local hardware store)
- sponge brush
- tape
- paper
- exacto knife (or scissors)
- chalk
- label template
-1 cup flat latex paint in your desired color
- 2 tbs unsanded tile grout for each cup of paint (avail. at your local hardware store)
- sponge brush
- tape
- paper
- exacto knife (or scissors)
- chalk
- label template
instructions:
1. download the label template and cut each shape out into rectangles that will fit onto your pot (you can increase or decrease the label size for varying pot sizes).
2. using an exacto knife or scissors, cut the templates out from the inside to create your stencil. tape the stencil to your garden pot along the outside edges.
3. in a cup or bowl, mix one cup flat latex paint with 2 tbs unsanded tile grout, then stir well until all of the clumps dissolve.
4. dip the sponge brush into your ‘chalkboard’ paint and begin painting inside you stencil using brush strokes from the outside in. fill in the stencil, being careful not to get paint under the edges of the paper. let paint dry (about 15 minutes) and apply a second coat.
5. once the second coat is dry (another 15 minutes) remove the tape and stencil to reveal your chalkboard design!
6. once fully cured ’season’ your chalkboard by rubbing the entire area with a piece of chalk and wipe clean with a damp cloth. now you’re ready to write away!
Lemon Blueberry Scones
Posted on August 22, 2010 · 3 Comments
I’m a morning person. Always have been, since I was a little girl. Once the sun was up, so was I – tearing around the house like a maniac (or a herd of elephants, as my parents liked to describe it), and impatiently awaiting…
…well, SOMETHING. I was sure something was about to happen. And I wasn’t going to miss it.
My best friend at about that time was definitely NOT a morning person. We were fabulous friends, and spent most of our time together. She lived out a long dirt road in a big house surrounded by trees with her mom and her grandparents. They had lived there FOREVER. We would spend our days picking wild grapes and chestnuts and sorrel from the land around her folks’ property.
Our sleepovers at her house weren’t the kind you see in those touching coming-of-age movies. You know – the ones where the girls stay up all night talking about boys (what creeps they are), movie stars (totally going to marry them someday), or Ms. Cabbage-schnozz the third-grade teacher (and her terrifying hairy mole). Oh, I’m sure we talked about those things plenty, but not really at night – nights were basically her staying up reading magazines or playing video games or drawing…while I passed out at 10pm. I couldn’t help it. THIS herd of elephants had had a busy day, and needed some shut-eye.
In the morning, of course, it was the opposite: I’d wake up all bright-eyed and ready to greet the day (controlling as best I could the urge to elephant around her VERY large house), and would play Sonic the Hedgehog or fold her laundry until I couldn’t stand it anymore, and then I would tiptoe down the hall to the kitchen where, without fail, her grandma Wanda would be pulling a fresh batch of currant scones out of the oven.
I never had grandparents around growing up. But hanging out at my friend’s house, I became aware that having a grandma was like having a maid and a chef and a tailor and a chauffeur and a scapegoat all at the same time! (I was quickly informed that no, having a grandma was NOT having any of those things, and I’d be wise to remember it). But it sure seemed that way.
And really, it was amazing – SCONES. From SCRATCH. Not just on holidays.
I felt like I had wandered into some sort of fairytale – like if I made too much noise or said something frivolous on those crisp, quiet mornings in the woods, Grandma and her scone making would just -POOF- disappear, leaving just a faint hint of baking butter hanging in the air. So I would slide into the nearest seat at the kitchen table and just watch as she carefully transferred the steaming wedges to a cooling rack and went out to the pantry to grab some butter and some jam. Later, I would help her water the garden (the first “real” garden I ever helped out with) and feed the dogs and the pony.
Life is hard.
My friend (when she finally awoke around 11 or so) wasn’t into scones the way that I was. I always secretly thought it was because she missed that magic time when they were fresh – the time when you have to decide how willing you are to burn your tongue because they are SO HOT but also SO GOOD. Maybe it was because she’d been eating them at least once a week for her whole life, I dunno.
What I do know is that those mornings are some of my favorite memories of that age: waking up early and having scones with Wanda while the sun was peeking through the trees and just beginning to wake up the rest of the world.
I’ve never asked Wanda for her scone recipe (I really ought to). When I found this recipe while researching things to do with lemons (Tyler Florence is one of the few Food Network cooks whose recipes I trust), it transported me back to Wanda’s tiny kitchen, and I knew I’d found a winner.
(and then, of course, I changed everything, fickle baker that I am).
Lemon Blueberry Scones
makes 8 large scones
5 Tbsp butter (I use salted), chilled, cut into small cubes
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional )
2 Tbsp sugar (or light evap. cane juice)
1 c unbleached white bread flour
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
juice and zest of 1 large lemon
3/4 – 1 c heavy whipping cream (plus more for brushing on top)
1 c fresh of frozen blueberries, huckleberries, or currants
(or up to 1 c dried currants, cranberries, etc).
1/4 c coarse sugar (to sprinkle on top)
Note: if your berries are very fresh and soft, toss ‘em in the freezer while you make the dough. It will make the process much easier if they are a little firmer.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and butter (you can really use just about any kind of flour here, but I like the chewy flakiness I get from using half whole wheat flour and half white bread flour. If you use ALL whole wheat flour, add a little more cream to the dough, and let it rest for 5-10 min before forming the scones). Using your hands, squeeze and pinch the bits of butter into the flour mixture until the whole mixture is crumbly. It should feel fairly dry, but all of the large chunks of butter should be fully incorporated.
Add the lemon zest and juice and mix thoroughly, making sure the zest gets evenly dispersed. Finally, add the heavy cream. This is tricky, because you only want as much as it takes to *barely* hold your dough together. Add a small splash in at a time , working the dough as little as possible, “tossing” the crumbles with your fingers to mix in the cream. If you are using dried berries, add them in at this point as well.
When the dough is ready, it should have the consistency of pie dough – somewhat crumbly, but held together fully when squeezed or pressed. At this time, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
Shape the dough into a large “wheel”; about an inch high and 14 inches in diameter, carefully pressing the berries in as you form it (this is easier if they are slightly frozen, as I mentioned before). when the wheel is holding together well and all the berries are in place, cut it into 8 wedges.
Transfer these wedges onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, placing them as shown in the pictures: point-to-point, then back-to-back. This allows the scones to cook more evenly and encourages convection in the oven.
Brush the scones liberally with cream, and sprinkle them with coarse sugar (sometimes I sprinkle poppy seeds or more lemon zest, too).
Bake them at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until they are slightly firm and beginning to brown on the edges. Let them cool on the parchment paper, or transfer them to cooling racks – keep in mind that they are very fragile while they are still hot.
When they are cool, they should be stored in an air-tight container (like a large tupperware or pyrex storage container) where they will keep for up to a week.
Enjoy these scones warm or cold – they don’t need any toppings, but are pretty killer cut in half, toasted, and smeared with fresh butter.
Also, hide them from roommates or significant others if you expect them to make it until tomorrow. They’re that good.
Life and Death
Posted on August 21, 2010 · 4 Comments
This week has been very up and down. We have two new lives to watch over but also lost two.
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| The kits are buried under all the fur |
The good news is that Lucy kindled! She had 3 kits, but unfortunately one didn’t make it. The two that survived are healthy so far and quite active. Of course I’ll worry about them for at least another 10 days (they are 3 days old now). I was actually quite surprised at how large they are. Since a rabbit has such a short gestation (averaging 31 days give or take a day or two) I was expecting the kits to be very small. Nope, they’re huge! OK, not “huge” but they are much bigger than expected. I would say they are about the size of a hamster. Only difference is they are blind, hairless, and have the cutest damn ears! Lucy, like a good mom, is very protective of them. I’m a little extra cautious about this litter as it is not only my first but also Lucy’s and rabbits are known to abandon their first litter. So far so good though.
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| Chicks trying to find a way behind plywood |
The other sad news is that one of our chicks was killed. They had been going into the garden every day to forage and we had found that they were trying to spend the night out there. So we put up more chicken wire along the chainlink fence to keep them in the chicken yard. Well, our chicken yard shares the back fence with our neighbor. The fence is a chainlink fence with vinyl slats for some privacy. We also have plywood up against the fence, but the chicks have been finding a way between the plywood and fence. The chicks were tormenting her dog – who can see through the fence – and one got a little two close and the dog grabbed her through the hole it had dug under the fence. The hole has been fixed, but my neighbor was very upset. We reassured her that we were OK with it. Dogs will be dogs and the chick should have never gotten that close. Stupid chicken. I told her not to feel bad because we were going to eat it anyways. The look of horror on her face made me realize that I probably shouldn’t have said that.
Raising livestock is not for the faint of heart. I’ve learned that no matter how many precautions you take, you will always lose one occasionally. Sometimes you may lose your whole flock/litter/herd to unforeseen circumstances. This won’t make me stop doing it though. Even with all the downs there are so many more ups.
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