Here are the chickens — they’re so goofy looking right now, they seem to be in whatever passes for eighth grade in chicken-dom. Their feet are enormous, and while their feathers are coming in, they’re still not really feathered out (look at their funny tails). But they’re getting little chicken-y personalities, and they like to torment the dogs by flapping their wings. I took the chooks outside for a little air last week, and here’s Raymond watching them. He spent the entire afternoon out there, occasionally running inside to whine at me that there were birds! birds! out there. In…
-
-
Here are my first two baby camemberts. I made them last Thursday — and while the recipe was not difficult at all — it’s the same basic cheesemaking skills — heating milk, adding cultures, waiting for a clean break, cutting and separating curds from whey, and molding the cheeses. It’s not difficult. Where the magic seems to come in is in the waiting. The cheeses are in the fridge, in their mini-cave made from a plastic storage box, and I’m waiting for the mold to form on their surfaces.I’m a little concerned that they are not entirely smooth — there…
-
The weather has turned glorious, sunny and warm with intermittent rains — the lawn has greened up overnight and there are daffodils and crocus blooming in the foundation beds. I’ve been up to all sorts of fun. I made a couple of camembert cheeses that are ripening in the fridge, the chickens are getting big and we’re planning to build them a coop out of a packing crate in which a friend had some family things shipped over from England, and I planted lots of cold weather crops in the garden over the long weekend. And perhaps the happiest of…
-
Blogging is sort of on hiatus for a week or so. “My” kids are back in town from LA for Easter break, there’s so much going on in the garden that I can’t keep up, and there are some other happy developments here at LivingSmall. So we’ll be back next week with lots of fun news.
-
Hop on over and check out my recent piece on Culinate: “Rethinking our food priorities: No more cheating on my egg lady“
-
Here are the chickens, after a big week in the shed. This week they kind of sprouted up a little — they’re not so round and fluffy — they’re getting kind of tall and chicken-y looking. You can’t see it from this photo, but they’re starting to stand up and crane their little necks. They survived a couple of really cold nights out there in the cardboard box in the dog crate, so that was a triumph. On Saturday, I built them a bigger box — taped two boxes together so now they have the whole 3’x2′ dog crate —…
-
It’s raining today — a nice soft spring rain, so I took the poor scraggly herbs from the Winter Herb Garden and put them outside the back door. The rosemary seemed particularly crunchy, but it did it’s job — it didn’t die. The thyme has been remarkably successful — the last few weeks it’s been sending out delicious little soft green shoots. I also got my act together last weekend and organized my seeds. As you can see — my “system” is nothing fancy. A couple of cheap bins from Pamida and a paper bag — but by the end…
-
Took the storm insert out of the front door today and replaced it with the screen insert. Temps in the mid-50’s, sunshine, and with the kitchen window and front door open, had a chance to air the house out after a long stuffy winter. Despite the light cover of melting snow on the ground, hung laundry on the line, put the leggy over-wintered mint outside the backdoor for a little real sunshine, and in general, felt like the big blue ball has once again turned on it’s axis. Spring is in the air. Tulips and daffodils are beginning to poke…
-
The sun has come back. We feel like pagans here in MyLittleTown, ready to thow a party and rejoice. We were not forsaken! The sun came back! It’s been light before seven in the morning and until nearly six at night. It’s like being let out of jail. And so, because the evenings have not come slamming down at 4:30, and because it’s been sort of mild and pleasant out, I’ve fired up the grill again. My new friend Sabrina came for dinner mid-week, and I marinated some local lamb chops in yogurt, lime juice, olive oil and spices, then…
-
There are mornings when you just can’t quite summon the will to proceed, mornings where you’re groggy, and dreading your job, and feeling like it’s all a long treadmill of the same old same old and here you are again. On those mornings, sometimes all it takes is a good egg. A nice piece of toast with some butter, and a three minute egg you bought from your local chicken farmer. I buy mine from Isabelle, my milk lady, and while they are very expensive — about six dollars a dozen, they are really great eggs. I say this as…