Cut up and combine in a saucepan several of the following. I like to use some dried fruit, either apricots or prunes, and some fresh, berries or apples etc. Frozen is fine too.
1-2 pears dried or fresh
1-2 apples or unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup raisins
2-3 prunes
7-8 apricots (dried)
blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants
mango
Add 1/2 stick cinnamon, 3-6 whole cloves, star anise if you like.
Simmer with some water to keep it from burning until all fruit is soft but not necessarily mushy.
Add 1/2 cup sherry or marsala wine.
No sugar is needed in this as the fruits are quite sweet. I recently made this with canned pears and used the syrup - wow it was reeaaally sweet.
Serve warm or cool on cereal, ice cream, yogurt, or use your imagination. Also good alone with a touch of heavy cream.
Can be served as a chutney with a meal.
Visiting Dad and Mary Anne, it was lovely and spring-y. Warm with so many flowering trees and shrubs. But so different from here in the east where the flowers are meted out in doses, Seattle has a veritable cacophany of colored shrubbery. Delightful. This is only the view out Dad’s kitchen window into his yard and beyond.
We went to a farmer’s market in Ballard, rich with sights and sounds, on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon. Dad had delicious thin crusted pizza. I bought fruits for a compote.
On my last day there we went to the Henry Gallery, part of the U of W. We saw exhibits that ultimately left us drained and exhausted, but not in a good way. There were few highlights but here are a couple. Kiki Smith, a sculptor, was exhibiting photography which showed much more of her dark process, maybe views, than I really wanted any part of.
Here’s Dad taking a little breather and watching some youth moving through the lobby.
Then in another gallery a selection from the museum’s permanent collection. There were a couple of items worth photos, but this poster struck me. A commentary on native americans’ mixture of historic and current culture. The apple reference is to people who are red on the outside and white on the inside.
I like the contrast of elements: ink drawing of dogwood, traditional art in upper right, brushy ink figure, graphic poster.
I went to New York City last weekend to dance in various locations. Here’s a performance at the Brooklyn Museum of Art on Sunday afternoon. We were the first of 14 teams performing.
Our other standard size rooster, an Araucana, has the blue legs and the rose comb. But his comb is not as wide and he doesn’t have the goofy, sticky-up feathers on his head. Which further supports my thought that Punky is the son of a silky.
Here’s Papa silky. He came right at me today when I tried to catch one of the chicks raised by our white mama. Very paternal!
This is my first attempt at oat cakes. They came out pretty well as a drop biscuit.
Preheat oven to 415 degrees F.
These measurements are approximate. I have the habit of putting ingredients into the bowl by eye.
Combine in a bowl:
1-1/2 c. oat flour
3/4 c. almond meal
2 Tbsp. tapioca flour
1/4 c. chia seed
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. light cream
1/4 c. sunflower oil
1/4 c. water
Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes +/-.
I can get very excited this time of year, at least for a little while, about the brightness, the longer days. and the energy it brings me. I can already see some buds getting a little fatter. Birds begin to sing a different song: titmice and chickadees notably, sing spring notes that have not been heard for many months.
The white throated sparrow still had his little squeaky “old sam peabody, peabody” in a snow storm or two this year. and a few weeks ago there were a dozen red-winged black birds at my feeder. I thought they left for the winter, but they were unmistakable of course. Half were females, seldom seen in the spring when they busy themselves with domestic topics.
The hens are laying up a storm, but also are antsy to get out and roam as the warming days promise thawed earth for dust bathing and scratching. Hawks notice and visit with fair regularity. We have what I’m becoming more sure is a Cooper’s hawk as well as a red-tail who’re regular customers. the spitzhauben chickens are not as well equipped to see a hawk coming.......
Here’s the Punk Rock. Son of the lovely Big Barred Rock and our favorite white Silky Bantam hen. Hence the goofy topknot here on this rooster. And he has a comb more like a Silky.
At least I think he’s her son........well really I am, because we let her hatch her own eggs that time.
Tonight for dinner I made an adaptation of the recipe I found in “The Healthy Hedonist” for Indonesian Corn Chowder. Yum!
It starts like my usual recipe: an onion, carrot, celery chopped and sautéed in oil until soft. I used “cultured carrots” - stored by shaving in the food processor and brining, then adding some chopped fresh ginger, garlic, onion and a tiny bit of hot pepper. Lacto-fermented, these have a little tang and are salty. A nice soup starter.
The recipe calls for fresh ginger, lemon grass stalks and a hot pepper cut in chunks and put in cheesecloth to infuse spicy-ness into the soup. I added frozen corn and this mixture of spices and simmered for about 25 minutes, partly covered.
The recipe calls to blend the soup and strain it. I used an immersion blender and just did some. Added a can of diced tomatoes with basil and garlic. Then instead of the recipe’s fresh cilantro and chopped garlic, I added some cilantro pesto....
I also steamed some potatoes, and so I ate the soup over some of those.
Died yesterday, cause unknown, no fowl play suspected. He was a good guy, not unkind to his ladies, never rude to us. A gentle bird. Rare in rooster behavior. And he was handsome. We miss him.
We are quite excited about our new coop! It has lots of ventilation for hot summer days and lots of window for winter solar gain and happy light for chickens. While only 4’ x 5’, this coop is higher than I’ve built before and will offer more roosting options.
Still to be added: nesting boxes, chicken door & ramp, covered “porch” and fenced yard.
Three days and lots of sunshine have gained us much of a new chicken coop. We’ve built the floor w/legs and the wall panels. Today I leveled the site and set the cinder blocks. It remains to assemble the walls and to build the roof framing panels, get some roofing, hang doors. And then details: nesting boxes, doors w/ramps...... and the “covered porch.”
It’s summer and we’re in the chicken business! Even though we’ve had babies hatched by a hen (late April), bought a few from the local store, and bought others from another small farmsteader..... I succumbed to the temptation to order from the hatchery. So 40 chicks came today in the mail: 12 bantam Old English (Red Pyle coloring which funnily is white with a little reddish hue around the head), 12 Araucanas (always a favorite), 12 Golden Buffs (sort of Red Star or Rhodie cross somebody white...), and topknot chickens!!! - 4 Spitzhaubens. These last are an alpine (Swiss) breed and so hardy where surprisingly the Polish with the fancy hats are not. I love getting chicks.
Today’s batch of bantams are a little challenged, some needing a little remedial care - one in particular was really floppy and getting walked on. I gave her some sugar water and put her in a little bowl with bedding so she has support for her body. She’s improving and I expect will make it - for a while I had my doubts.
Some are goofy sleepers, they’re okay, really, just enjoying the warmth! Added later: well actually the goofy sleepers were stressed out and didn’t make it. 9 of 12 died- ouch!
I work at a garden center tucked in between to patches of swamp. Today we had a little warbler inside the store for a while, probably the Kentucky Warbler, lovely simple coloring, black mask but I think the eye was visible unlike the Common Yellowthroat, and there was not the white patterning such as the Yellow-throated Warbler.
Anyway, I finally caught the poor frightened thing by hand and released it to happy freedom.
When I have this sort of close contact with a tiny bird-being I usually feel as though a fairy has been sent to bless my day. How sweet life can be.
I made this with rye flour and caraway seeds which give a little savory zing and offsets the fruit sweetness nicely. You could substitute any combination of flours to suit you.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl combine:
1 3/4 cups flour (1 c+ rye, 1/2 c corn, some oat)
2 tsps. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 tsp. caraway seed
In a second, larger bowl mash
3 ripe bananas
Add to the bananas
2/3 cup shortening: (2-3 tbsp. melted butter, 2-3 tbsp. olive oil)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
beat until well blended, small banana lumps okay.
Add flour mixture to wet ingredients in 3 parts mixing well after each addition.
Pour into a well greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour.
A lovely warm afternoon, I walked the dogs east along the pond at a leisurely pace. As we advanced into the little vernal puddle in front of the house a woodcock flew up and away northeast into the scrub beyond the vegetable garden. I think I might have seen one thereabouts once before. It was probably getting worms in the thawed ground around the puddly place.
There have been robins around for more than a week, snacking on any left over crab apples and the like. Mine crab trees are long ago depleted. I think I cannot grow too many of those to feed the birds. Also a red-winged blackbird came to the feeder the other day during the snow. Must have been Monday. I keep looking for the winter wren in his spot over by the bridge into the woods across the pond. Perhaps he has a cozy spot for a few months in deep winter, although I must have seen him in late December.
I never did see a red-breasted nuthatch this winter. Sad to say. But knowing one nested here last spring gives me courage that they’re here somewhere. More suet feeders.
The song sparrow and carolina wren have been regular visitors to the feeders this winter. Otherwise nobody too exotic. Not many purple or house finches. Although plenty of goldfinches have been regular.
I play sculpturally with wood, paint and fiber. Otherwise I spend time on carpentry, web/graphic design, gardening, volunteering, folk dancing or schmoozing with pet llamas, goats and chickens.
