The past several days have been a flurry of fun and exciting food options. We finally decided to tackle the adventure of backyard chickens. In these times it's really quite common. The decision was made to get fully grown, already laying hens so that we could enjoy the benefits of eggs right away.
These ladies are extremely calm, tame, and just love to be around people. Which is unusual to us since our CA chickens were very skidish and you couldn't get close to them.
There were millions of them just clustered up like grapes.
You can sit down on the ground and they'll just come right up to you and jump on your lap. Autumn and Will have already named them. Let's see if I can remember them all - Checkers, Ruby, Crow, Fish, Carmel, and I think the last black one is Raven.
This is where we found William yesterday morning. Quietly communing with the hens. When asked what he was doing he said, 'chicken love'.
Obviously they needed a place to live, not just roaming our yard.
So Tim and Autumn set to work on making them a fenced in yard and
sheltered coop. This coop was put together in a couple of hours with
completely free and collected wood. Not a bad deal for the cost of some
screws.
Yesterday we headed up to Emmett for cherry picking at Rocky Point
Orchard.
I can't even describe the excitement I had when I saw the
hundreds of cherry trees just overloaded and dripping with
bright red cherries. It was awesome and I felt like I had
died and gone to heaven. I just wanted park myself there
and live in the cherry trees.
There were millions of them just clustered up like grapes.
Don't you know that the couple who picks together stays
together???
Until one of them gets distracted by an abnormally shaped
fruit.
Then all bets are off and harmoniously picking fresh fruit is
forgotten about while said person attempts to dispose of the
poor misshapen fruit.
ANYHOW - Will and Autumn were loving the cherry picking
experience. Autumn had tried to stay home, but we made
her come along and she was happy she did. The little cherry
clusters were perfect picking for Will because so many of
them were right at his height.
I think we've found another annual event. Apple picking in
the fall and cherry picking in the early summer.
We ended up with about 25 lbs of cherries. One of the best
parts? A little more than a dollar a pound! The stores sell
them for a minimum of 2.50 - 5.00 per lb. I also got a
cherry pitter so that I can freeze a bunch of them for later on.
I have been searching for a little while for a local raw milk source.
Not an easy task. It takes quite a bit to get a license for to
sell raw cow milk. I finally found it. Saint John's Organic Farm.
To say that I was excited was an understatement. Since we were
already planning on going to Emmett for cherries, we called
and asked if we could come by their farm to see what they had.
I'm so glad we did. Take a look at their website. It's a family
run farm. They raise all of their cattle from birth to processing
on a purely grass fed diet. She said that their cows have not had
grain for the past nine years. She graciously offered us a sample
(of 2.5 gallons!) of their raw milk, some soup bones and a sirloin
steak. They have a 'buyers club' that we could get involved in
and I think we will try and work that out.
So, last night I made ice cream with our milk and cream
skimmed off the top, egg yolks from our backyard hens,
cherries we picked, pecans and pure maple syrup. It tasted
like REAL ice cream. Imagine that.
The fun didn't stop. This morning I took Autumn and Will
to the Kuna farmer's market AND the huge Capitol city market
in downtown Boise. Check out my bounty.
im so jealous your guys summer is so packed with fun hahah
im just stuck at home
Posted by: jords | June 20, 2009 at 04:16 PM
Let me tell you people, that ice cream was GOOD! and no sugar added! That property with the cherry orchard was unreal.
Posted by: Tim | June 20, 2009 at 04:52 PM