Giveaway: Win the Ultimate Fermentation Kit (seriously)

It seems that I am on this winding path as I continue my food journey. The latest fork in the road has led me to cultured foods and soaking grains.

Culturing your garden goodies provides you with a live, enzyme rich food. Canning or pickling requires high temps and lots of work that in the end rob your food of it natural nutritional value.

My first batch of cultured pickles. They are so good. They taste just like a kosher dill pickle that you would get in a jar but are still a live food thanks to the greatness of culturing.

I have made two batches of cultured spicy green beans but one jar went moldy on me. I may have not added enough salt, but there has been tons of rain and I have been pulling food out of the fridge that is less than a week old and it is moldy. The batch that did turn out are yummy and not lasting very long. Once my tomatoes turn red, fermented/cultured salsa here we come. I don't expect it to last long since we have people in this house that eat salsa with a spoon, never mind using a chip or veggie stick.

The give away from The Nourished Kitchen is AWESOME. The Prize ($107 Value!) ■Half-Gallon Vegetable Fermentation Master ■Quart Vegetable Fermentation Master ■Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz ■Mandolin Slicer ■Caldwell Starter Culture for Fresh Vegetables ■Celtic Sea Salt

I would be in food heaven if I win this. Even if I don't I will be saving my pennies (literally) until I have the cash for it.

The other exciting find of the day from The Nourished Kitchen is a recipe for home cured corned beef with out using nitrates. I love corn beef and cabbage, but I refuse to eat it because of the nitrates used to make it. I can not wait to try this out. I can't wait to try out several of those recipes.

Grrrrr....

...something is stealing our chickens. My husband IS NOT HAPPY. Spicy, our big red hen and one of the Light Brahmas are gone that we know of for sure. I apparently, am going to learn how to shoot the 22. Wish me luck. *Normally I am all for the co-habitation of woodland creatures and farm creatures as long as no one is in danger. My hens are in danger of being EATEN. I know for a fact that there are plenty of rabbits and other critter around, the chickens are just easy pickings. Hopefully we can just scare whatever it is off.

I Really Want Chickens...

Light Brahmas I have heard this statement several times over the last few month, especially when people learn that we have chickens. It is not really as hard as one would think. During the first few weeks they are a bit time consuming, you need to check several times a day to make sure they have fresh water and food. After a month, I only check them twice a day. Once in the morning to let them out and give them fresh food and water and once at night to shut their door. They do not have to have an insulated coop as adult birds, even way up here in Northern Minnesota. When it gets really cold we turn on a heat lamp to help them out. We had a few get frost bite on their combs this winter, but they were fine. The part that was frostbitten just fell off and they are less likely to get frostbite again.

This was our first coop. It is the remodeled play house (the one that dad never really finished but was loved anyway). See the little chicks. We used this as our brooder house this year. When the chicks were big enough to free range they went out with the big chickens. With the addition of 65 chicks and 11 ducks this year we need to make a bigger coop. We are still in the planning stages for that project. This is our very simple summer hoop coop. We could winterize it but we want all of the chickens together for the winter. This was made for last years hens so that the baby's could have the other coop.

This is the inside of our hoop coop. There are four boxes in the back with a trap door at the back of the boxes so we can get at the eggs without having to go in the coop. My husband cut down some iron woods for roosts which are attached at the top of the hoop. These next shots are of my little sister coop. They have back yard chickens. This coop is perfect and houses 12 adorable little red hens. It is 4 x 8 with a little run. The coop is split into a top and bottom section. The roof is a clear green house plastic. When it is hot my sis props the top open to let the air circulate. It is light enough to be movable so in the summer months the chicken can always have access to fresh grass. This is a great option for backyard chickens because they will eat all of your landscaping and plants and this way they won't poop in your neighbors yard.

Some cities will allow you to have backyard chickens as long as they are all hens. Four to six little hens will give you a nice supply of eggs. They are great at helping along compost pile with their natural willingness to pick and scratch. So, if you really want chickens, check out city ordinances, find a little chicken house (a used dog house would even work, I have even heard of some people using old entertainment centers) and get some chickens. Beware, they can be addicting.