COOKING WITH STEW HENS AND ROOSTERS.

Culling ("removing animals from the herd") is part of raising chickens. It's not fun, but if you want to keep a healthy and affordable flock, it's a necessity. Sometimes it's an old hen who is no longer laying eggs (but is still eating feed). Sometimes it's one (or EIGHT) too many roosters, or even an aggressive rooster. Now, these birds are not like the chicken you get at the store. They're often fattier, with less meat on them, but tasty nonetheless. This week, it was a rooster that had to go (not as fatty as stew hens usually), but he didn't go to waste. The offal went to Wendell and the meat went into a soup. If you don't keep chickens, ask your farmer for a stew hen or rooster. I'm sure they will happily oblige.CULL CHICKEN SOUP RECIPE(makes 1/2 gallon of stock, 1/2 gallon of soup––serves four)Cook time: the longer the better (at least four hours)1 whole cull chicken cleaned3-4 medium size carrots, large diced2 medium size onions, large diced1/2 large bulb fennel, large diced4 quarts of veg stock or waterHerbs in bouquet garnis (recommended: thyme, bay leaf, rosemary)2 cups wine (optional)Mushrooms (optional)1/2 lbs of Pasta (penne is our favorite) or 1 lbs of potatoes (chopped)2 cloves garlic (chopped)Olive oilSea SaltGround pepperPut a large pot on medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil or lard. Once hot, sear the whole chicken until light gold on each side then remove whole chicken with tongs and set on plate. Add onions to pan and stir and cook until translucent. Then add fennel and carrots and stir and cook until all veggies are soft. Add whole chicken back in, then if you are going to add wine, add it now. Once the smell of alcohol has boiled off, about one or two minutes, add stock until chicken is covered. Place on lid and let simmer for several hours. Often, we'll cook the soup over the course of a whole day. If using a fatty stew hen, you may need to skim off some of the fat collecting on the surface. A little is OK. Before you add potatoes, and before you take the meat off the chicken bones, but after several hours of cooking, remove half the soup and freeze for chicken broth for another day (we always try and cook for at least two meals, or in this case, a possible sick day). Add potatoes two hours before serving, or pasta thirty minutes before. Add herbs and garlic an hour before serving.When serving, carefully remove chicken and herbs. Meat should fall off bone easily, and stir meat back into soup, leaving the carcass out. Serve warm when potatoes or pasta is soft but not mush. Enjoy!- Jesse.

MODERN FARMER.

Modern Farmer Magazine, now on it's fourth issue, is also well on its way to becoming one of our favorite publications. Hannah and I read a lot of magazines and subscribe to more than a few, but when we found Modern Farmer we discovered a farming magazine that combines farm technology and design with insightful journalism in a way that has been, at least for us, somewhat lacking in our regular deluge of print media. And not only is the magazine itself a consistently good read––which one does not remotely have to be a farmer to enjoy––but they have an awesome website worthy of regular visits, especially if the reader is as interested as we are in an objective view of farming. They even have a live Hamcam! Anyhow, please join us in supporting this great new magazine, and subscribe here.- Jesse. 

GETTING OUR HANDS DIRTY.

And just like that, its spring. One day I am complaining about the brutal winter, and (truly!) the very next day, we are busy planting and preparing beds and starting soil blocks. How wonderful to have our hands in the dirt again, sun on our bare shoulders, sore muscles at night.We planted peas in our own garden and started cabbage and broccoli in soil blocks. In the big gardens, we prepared beds by spreading compost (with the trusty golf cart) and planted onions and lettuce with the Smiths while the children picked chickweed.What are you busy with in these early days of spring?- Hannah.   

FOREVER WINTER.

We are getting a little tired of the winter around here. This past week brought us more snow and ice and freezing temperatures, and we are just OVER IT. It is stressful. The piglets are way too big to be living indoors, but after a day of freezing sleet and snow it just seemed cruel to make them sleep outside. So inside they come, trailing chaos in their wake. During a freezing downpour, I was forced to chase escaped goats all around the garden, one of them with a profusely bleeding head where she had broken off a horn. And of course, we are running out of firewood. WINTER! You are the worst.But of course, the sun is out and today is beautiful. The goats are fine and the piglets are back outside. And it will warm up. And then we will be running like crazy to contain the explosion of spring, missing these days of winter. I know this. But seriously, I do not know how you people up north do it.- Hannah.