Duck, Duck, Goose

Sorry about the corny title, but I couldn't resist.  Back in March we received a pair of Pilgrim Geese and a dozen Khaki Campbell ducks. A couple of months ago some good friends gave us seven Muscovies. We let these foragers roam over most of our quarter acre. We mowed the lawn back in March just before the ducks and geese arrived, and haven't had to mow since--they have done a great job keeping the grass cut! We do trim the edges, just for looks.  In addition to not having to mow our bit of lawn, we also do not have to provide very much extra feed. Finally a use for Bermuda Grass!

 About six weeks ago, one or two ducks began to lay eggs.

Ducks lay their eggs very early in the morning. We would find one or two on the ground each morning as we headed out to do the morning chores. This went on for a couple of weeks. Then, nothing. No duck eggs. We looked in all the usual places we had found eggs before--nothing. We looked in places we hadn't found eggs before--nothing. Someone remarked that this must be how the traditional Easter Egg Hunt began. We were happy that the eggs we were looking for were white rather than brown or some other hard-to-spot color--not that we actually spotted any. We wondered if the ducks had just quit laying, or if some critter had come into the yard and carried of the eggs. In the last couple of days one, just one, egg could be found in one of the usual places each day. What of the others?

Yesterday, we found a clutch of eggs under an antique "Old Blush" rose bush. White eggs are kinda hard to see when they are under a rose bush and there is a khaki colored duck covering them! No wonder we couldn't spot them. There are about 20 eggs in this clutch. We didn't want to disturb the nest so we just counted what we could see.

Mama Duck

We are very pleased that we may have a broody duck to incubate eggs and brood ducklings. The jury is still out, though, because she could still decide to get off of her clutch before they are ready to hatch. But we are hopeful. Typical of the Internet, we found websites that say the Campbells are not very reliable brooders, while other sites tend to claim the opposite. We'll be watching our Mama Duck closely, and if she decides not to sit on her clutch, we'll have the incubator ready to receive the eggs. Hopefully we can get at least a few to hatch this way if we have to.

We know that chickens who are brooded by their mothers tend to make good brooders themselves. We are confident that these ducklings (if Mama Duck will see it through) will be good brooders also, reducing the number of eggs we'll have to incubate and ducklings we'll have to brood ourselves. This will save us time, energy, and feed costs, but mostly it's just fun watching God's creation at work.

Buttercup, our Pilgrim Goose

We're also looking forward to our first clutch of our Muscovy Ducks, who are typically good brooders and tend to lay huge clutches. Probably we'll have to wait until the Spring since our Muscovies are young. We have harvested one of our Muscovy drakes. As noted in an earlier post, the meat is tender and tasty.

We'll also have to wait for Spring to get eggs from our geese, Wesley and Buttercup. More on that when the time comes.

Storing Seeds

What if you don't use all of the seeds in a packet you bought for this year's garden? Should you listen to the advice of the seed companies and toss the extras and buy fresh seeds in the Spring next year? Nope. Seeds will remain viable on average about three years, maybe a little longer if you are careful to store them in ideal conditions.

Conditions a seed needs for germination--moisture and warmth--are the very things that can shorten the life or viability of a seed in storage. Dry and cool conditions will extend a seed's shelf life.

We store most of our seeds in jars with tight-fitting lids to keep moisture away from our stored seeds. Plastic food storage bags will work, too.

The refrigerator is the best place to store seeds. In order to dry out the air in the jar and seed packets, place your seeds in the fridge with their jar or other container open for a few hours (even over night). Remember to put the lid on tightly once the air around the seeds has dried out. Avoid storing your seeds in that really cold spot in your fridge that sometimes freezes.

You could also place a desiccant packet (silica gel; from vitamin or medicine bottles, etc.) or you could make a small packet of powdered milk wrapped in three of four layers of facial tissue. Replace this every six months or so.

When you are ready to plant your stored seeds, take them out of the fridge, but don't open the container until the seeds come to room temperature. This is to avoid condensation which will make your seeds stick together (those little seeds are hard enough to control when dry) and may reduce shelf life if you store them again for next year.

If you are gathering and storing seeds from your own plants, let them air dry on a piece of paper towel or newspaper for about a week before putting them in cold storage.  They will probably stick to the paper, so you may be able to simply roll up the paper towel, fold over the ends, label it, and store it. Keep good records: variety, date, etc.

Even though you are careful to do all the right things to store seeds, some will not germinate the next year. Some varieties (corn, some onions, parsnips, for examples) have notoriously low germination rates. Some seeds may only store well for a year at most (onions). To make up for the lower germination rate over time, plant a few more seeds in each row or hill.

Roasting Summer Heat

We've had some HOT days on the farm the past couple of weeks. High temperatures have been over 100 degrees, but have mostly stayed in the 90's.  Some of our fruit trees and crops got a little wilted and a few leaves were even scorched by the heat even though they had been watered well. For example, our kiwi vines suffered some scorched leaves even though they get the “duck pond” water every morning. Our “duck pond” is a 20 gallon wash tub. Each morning we empty the water that is left from the day before out under one of two kiwi vines growing nearby. The water is yummy for the plants, since our birds “hop in” for a quick swim a couple of times a day leaving behind, well, their “leavin’s.”

A Khaki Campbell a few days old.

Because of the heat, our chickens have slowed down their laying, but our young (Khaki Campbell) ducks have just started laying for us! We’re getting an egg or two per day right now, looking forward to the days just ahead when we’ll be getting a  dozen per week. What do we do with duck eggs? Well, so far we have used them just like chicken eggs, although their taste is just a wee bit stronger. The duck eggs so far have been about the same size as the chicken eggs, but the yoke is bigger and the white is proportionately smaller.

We roasted a Muscovy drake a few nights ago for dinner. On a Muscovy, the meat is all dark meat, tender and tasty. We had heard that it tastes somewhat like beef, a fact confirmed by our children. One of our more finicky eaters exclaimed, “That’s goooood!” Therefore, Muscovy is definitely on the list of keeper livestock. They are a good meat bird, and don’t make any noise to speak of, unlike our Campbells, and like our Campbells, are prolific layers.

In the garden and “potting shed,” we’ve been seeding for the fall crops--broccoli, beets, lettuce, cabbage, chard, peas, etc. Still have some more to do, and should have been finished with this last month.

Because we have had terrible “luck” trying to grow veggies in containers (can’t keep the soil in the pot moist enough, for one thing), we made some “self-watering” containers out of five-gallon buckets to grow some tomatoes and peppers on our patio--maybe with some protection from the cold, we can extend the growing season a little. (Fresh tomatoes at Christmas, anyone?)  The water we’re using in these containers is nutrient-rich water from our aquaponic system.

This drawing is from the book, Urban Farming (pg. 142), which contains some great ideas for growing things in small places.

We’ll report in a month or so on how this container experiment is turning out, and offer some instructions on how to build and use one.

Easy Sauerkraut

We like sauerkraut, but we don't care for the vinegary, mushy, stringy kind found in the market in cans or jars. Store-bought, canned sauerkraut has been pasteurized and therefore, the good bacteria (probiotic) and enzymes have been destroyed as has the vitamin C, and other goodies.

We make our own for the better nutrition, but mostly because we like it. It is a little bit sour, and the cabbage is still crisp and tastes like cabbage. If you like sauerkraut at all, or cabbage, once you see how easy it is to make, you'll want to try making some yourself. Once you taste this sauerkraut, you'll want to make some more.

At harvest time, we make a big batch in a crock, but we also make small batches in quart jars when we can find good, organic cabbage (on sale) in the market. Non-organic cabbage that has been sprayed to kill insects or weeds may be slow to ferment or not ferment at all. We use either green or red cabbage or a combination of the two.

All you need to make your own small batch is a head of cabbage, some sea salt, a quart jar with a tight fitting lid, a sturdy bowl, and something with which to pound the cabbage, like a wooden meat tenderizing mallet.

Here's a simple recipe from Nourishing Traditions (page 92):

Sauerkraut

Makes 1 quart

1 medium cabbage, cored and shredded
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoons whey (if not available, use an additional 1 tablespoon salt)

In a bowl, mix cabbage with caraway seeds, sea salt and whey. Pound with a wooden pounder or a meat hammer for about 10 minutes to release juices. Place in a quart-sized, wide-mouth mason jar and press down firmly with a pounder or meat hammer until juices come to the top of the cabbage. The top of the cabbage should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage. The sauerkraut may be eaten immediately, but improves with age.

Notes: We don't always add the caraway seeds. You can easily make your own whey and in the process, sour cream, or cream cheese. See Making Whey.

Here is an excerpt from a great little book on making sauerkraut and other lacto-fermented veggies we recommend:

"Attention was focused on the nutritional importance of sauerkraut when, in the 18th century, sailors often suffered from scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency. Captain Cook sailed around the world, carrying barrels of sauerkraut, not losing a single man to scurvy during his three-year voyage"

From Making Sauerkraut and Pickled Vegetables at Home: Creative Recipes for Lactic Fermented Food to Improve Your Health (Natural Health Guide), pg. 9.

Remember:  Unlike some others on the Internet, we will never, ever, ever recommend a book, product, practice, or process that we ourselves have not purchased or used consistently and with good, consistent results.

Making Whey

Use homemade yogurt or quality commercial yogurt--be sure the label says "live" or "active" cultures, or "cultured in the cup." Line a large strainer with a dish towel and set it over a bowl. Pour in a quart or more of yogurt and let stand at room temperature for several hours. The whey will run out of the yogurt into the bowl. What you have left in the strainer is thicker yogurt (Greek Style). If you tie up the towel (careful, don't squeeze the yogurt!) and suspend it over a container and let it continue to drip, soon you'll have something close to sour cream (we use it just like sour cream), if you let the bag drip until it stops dripping, you'll have cream cheese. In the fridge, the cheese will keep for a month and the whey will keep for six months. We always eat it up long before that.