PROBIOTICS for you and your chickens

[AndreaS]

Want to share your sangria recipe? I've never made my own!

We've been eating out of the garden too. Grilled our first corn last night, yum!
I've been canning, freezing and fermenting like a mad woman and I still can't keep up with all the produce!

We're going to try really hard to keep a winter garden going this year. I've been reading Eliot Coleman's four season harvest and am motivated not to let my growing season end in October this time around.

I know both the chickies and I would enjoy some garden fresh greens this winter!

 

[GoldenSparrow]

Thanks

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
Have you considered sprouting grain for your birds to supplement their probiotics?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=437115&p=1

ETA web page.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
I usually have kale and swiss chard till almost Thanksgiving. Sometimes lettuce. I am hoping to have a hoop house before long and have more greens longer, then sooner in the spring. Yum! there is nothing like fresh greens. I LOVE bok choi!!Since you live in NC, you should be able to do a better winter garden than I can in upstate NY. If I can get greens till December, I'll be happy!

Now for my sangria.....I am not fussy. I buy cheep (I mean cheap) sangria. I will chunk fruit(lately watermelon or pineapple) but peaches strawberries, raspberries..anything really. I put the chunked fruit in a jar-size dependent on how much fruit and/or sangria you are making. I have put grand marnier, coconut rum, triple sec, or peach tree schnapps over the fruit. sometimes I let it "marinate" in the liquor, sometimes I just top it off with the cheap sangria. It all depends on taste. I like it all. I do refrigerate it , some people don't. When it gets this hot out I happen to like a cold beverage upon arriving home after work!

I let my 4.5 week old chicksters out for the first time today. They are ssooo happy!

 

[AndreaS]

Quote:
Have you considered sprouting grain for your birds to supplement their probiotics?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=437115&p=1

ETA web page.

GREAT idea! I sprout some grains and beans for myself. I'm sure the girls would love some as well!

 

[AndreaS]

Quote:
I usually have kale and swiss chard till almost Thanksgiving. Sometimes lettuce. I am hoping to have a hoop house before long and have more greens
longer, then sooner in the spring. Yum! there is nothing like fresh greens. I LOVE bok choi!!Since you live in NC, you should be able to do a better winter garden than I can in upstate NY. If I can get greens till December, I'll be happy!

Now for my sangria.....I am not fussy. I buy cheep (I mean cheap) sangria. I will chunk fruit(lately watermelon or pineapple) but peaches strawberries, raspberries..anything really. I put the chunked fruit in a jar-size dependent on how much fruit and/or sangria you are making. I have put grand marnier, coconut rum, triple sec, or peach tree schnapps over the fruit. sometimes I let it "marinate" in the liquor, sometimes I just top it off with the cheap sangria. It all depends on taste. I like it all. I do refrigerate it , some people don't. When it gets this hot out I happen to like a cold beverage upon arriving home after work!

I let my 4.5 week old chicksters out for the first time today. They are ssooo happy!

I made some today with peaches and raspberries. Delicious!

I love Bok Choi too, it's definitely going in the winter garden this year!

 

[vmdanielsen]

I did not have bok choi until a few years ago. It has become one of my favorite veggies! I only wish it was more versatile. I wonder, can I freeze it? It makes a nice light chicken soup with some stringy rice noodles. mmm I really love food!!

 

[Tracydr]

Hello! I just started making kefir two weeks ago. I've been going through a quart a day! Mostly for me but about one cup for the batch of baby chicks I'm raising ( mostly broilers). Tomorrow, I'm going to split the grains and give some to my mother and brother. Today, I'm going to have to go without my nightly kefir, as I'm trying to make kefir cheese out of whole cream for our get together. Has anyone tried this? It's already thick after twelve hours! I'm going to give it another twelve hours, salt it and drain it. Hoping for a sort of cream cheese type of thing for bagels.
I'd love, love to try kombucha. Can the starter be shipped? I'd pay somebody shipping if they could ship me some.
I also make sourdough bread and sauerkraut, plus other lacto-fermented veggies. Looking forward to using my kefir whey to jumpstart my veggies. I'm making sauerkraut and maybe some other lacto-ferment veggies next week, now that the weather is supposed to be cooling down yesterday, we were still 107!

 

[galanie]

Tracydr, your "cream cheese" should be really tasty! I've been using homemade yogurt for the same thing but making it the way you are sounds delicious too.

I finally got some good organic kombucha yesterday and am trying to get a scoby from it. At the same time, I also got some kefir grains and some raw milk, so you know what's on my countertops these days! Kefir over here, ACV in the pantry, and kombucha over there. Mealworms in the computer room, and baby chicks in the den. But there's nothing living in the bathroom (I hope!).

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
Try making your own mother for kombucha. You can grow your own by purchasing a PLAIN active kombucha (like GT's), putting it in a very clean wide mouth jar with paper towel or cloth covering(with a rubber band to hold it in place) and let it sit. It can take up to a month to grow, but it really should grow a mother. You can add a little sugar for the culture. Also, when you go to make your first kombucha with it, put the entire bottle of kombucha with it as an inoculate. The next thing you know, you'll be giving scobys away!
Ginny