Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[ronott1]

Good looking bread Ron... If I hadn't already had dinner I'd be in the kitchen figuring out how to bake that bread... minus the starter

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just fed the chickens. I'm thinking that one of my SFH is going to end up blind.

Got 9 eggs. My Icelandic, "Kola-dos" laid her first egg in over 3 weeks. YAY.
By this time next year I'll be rolling in Icelandic eggs.

DS#2 is living in Orem with his cousin for a month. I hope my son will be an influence for good with him. My nephew is a decent kid, he just wanders off track every now and then.

DS#3 who should be in Mexico on his mission, didn't get his visa so he left the language training center in Provo and he's in South Salt Lake until his visa comes through!

Bator is back up to 100. YAY.

Well, we have over 101,000 views on this thread now. By next week we will have broken last years record for posts. We should also pass the Old Fashioned Broody Hatch thread in both posts and views by next week.

And while some of you say you can't keep up, I have read EVERY SINGLE POST in this thread.

And it wasn't easy!!

It's past time for a nap!! There is your Mahonri update, like it or NOT!

Luv y'all,

M

Substitute 3/4 of water for the sourdough and add another tsp of yeast--It won't taste the same but would be good

 

[ChooksChick]

Let the horn-honking begin!!

KU is in the Final Four again!! Rock Chalk Jayhawks!

See, Dar, you'd have done well to put us in your brackets.

14th time in the Final Four...very nice.

I suppose I'll pay attention to my eggs later tonight when it's dark out. I'll candle. I haven't even looked at the temps in there, and hope I didn't let them all cook with the warmer days in the past 48 hours.

Ah, yes. There it is now...the sound of a ton of tipsy college kids honking horns, driving around yelling, "Wooooooooooooooo!" and now, police sirens. Not to forget the fireworks and helicopters.

When a town of 100K is made of a 60% 18-30 year old population, sports celebrations can get nutso.

 

[debs_flock]

Wild Yeast Baguettes

They look great!

I've made truly wild yeast bread in the past. You can capture yeast right out of the air. You just make your slurry, cover it with cheesecloth (to keep out bugs) and set it outside until it gets going. Sometimes you'll capture a yeast that tastes nasty, just throw it away and start over. Generally you'll just get a nice tasty, tangy, yeasty starter. It's kind of fun to start from "nothing". Yeast spores are everywhere in the air and on every surface.

Where would one get sourdough starter?

See above, you can look up the directions on the internet. Just type in something like "starting a wild yeast culture". Also, King Arthur Flour is a favorite of mine. They carry lots of specialty flours.

I am amazed at how often incubators get unplugged

I was thinking the same thing when I read that.

And while some of you say you can't keep up, I have read EVERY SINGLE POST in this thread.

Me too!!!! Even when I've been tempted to skip.

Your can buy it from King Arthur Flour

I could send some of mine to you.

Yup, I'm a big fan of KAF. I bought my sourdough starter from them several years ago. At the time I dried some and put it in the freezer. It will keep literally forever. I kept it as a backup in case I let my active culture die. It's simple to dry them and store, then reactivate. To dry some you just spread a thin layer on waxed paper, let it dry, pop it in a ziploc and put it in the freezer. You can find directions on the internet to reactivate.

Deb

 

[chevynova]

Just poppin' in for some updates.

- The latest candling revealed yet more chick-less eggs. I'm down to 3/8 polish and 5/6 yokohamas. The remaining 8/12 turkey eggs seem to be fine.
- A bit late for Easter, but I've added eight cuckoo silkie eggs from swheat to the 'bator to fill up some of that depressing empty space.
- I have my first outright jerk chicken - less than a month old and yanking fluff out of everyone else's faces even though they're already crying uncle. I hope it's a rooster. Mean roosters are the yummiest.

- I had my very first loss to predators last night. I had finally gotten those stinky, messy, abysmally cute ducklings outside earlier that evening. Got 'em a 6'x8'x4' high chain link kennel and a lovely dogloo (which they refuse to acknowledge). This morning, I went outside to find one duck outside the kennel. There were no holes, gaps, open doors, no place it could have gotten through... at least, not on its own. Another duckling was missing and there were tell-tale signs of an assisted exit courtesy of one of those raccoons I hear chittering in the trees at all hours of the day. So I covered the bottom half of the kennel walls with regular chicken wire and considered myself blessed to have learned that lesson with only one bird lost. Meanwhile, my dad set up multiple light sources around the kennel and took the screens out of our windows in preparation for what I'm sure will be a lovely firearms demonstration. Golly gee-whiz, I hope that coon comes back tonight!

 

[ChooksChick]

Just poppin' in for some updates.

- The latest candling revealed yet more chick-less eggs. I'm down to 3/8 polish and 5/6 yokohamas. The remaining 8/12 turkey eggs seem to be fine.
- A bit late for Easter, but I've added eight cuckoo silkie eggs from swheat to the 'bator to fill up some of that depressing empty space.
- I have my first outright jerk chicken - less than a month old and yanking fluff out of everyone else's faces even though they're already crying uncle. I hope it's a rooster. Mean roosters are the yummiest.

- I had my very first loss to predators last night. I had finally gotten those stinky, messy, abysmally cute ducklings outside earlier that evening. Got 'em a 6'x8'x4' high chain link kennel and a lovely dogloo (which they refuse to acknowledge). This morning, I went outside to find one duck outside the kennel. There were no holes, gaps, open doors, no place it could have gotten through... at least, not on its own. Another duckling was missing and there were tell-tale signs of an assisted exit courtesy of one of those raccoons I hear chittering in the trees at all hours of the day. So I covered the bottom half of the kennel walls with regular chicken wire and considered myself blessed to have learned that lesson with only one bird lost. Meanwhile, my dad set up multiple light sources around the kennel and took the screens out of our windows in preparation for what I'm sure will be a lovely firearms demonstration. Golly gee-whiz, I hope that coon comes back tonight!

So sorry about your loss- I'd like to help you avoid learning Part 2 of that lesson, which is that raccoons can still reach through chicken wire. You need to use 1/4" hardware cloth to prevent it from happening in a more gruesome fashion. There are many horror stories to back up my claim, so block them in the dogloo tonight and put up hardware cloth tomorrow.

 

[kvmommy]

x marks the spot....and I've never baked bread in my life. Now I want to try. I had homemade bread for the first time last year. My MIL begged FIL for a bread machine. She made some awesome bread for about a month. Hasn't touched it since!

 

[chevynova]

So sorry about your loss- I'd like to help you avoid learning Part 2 of that lesson, which is that raccoons can still reach through chicken wire. You need to use 1/4" hardware cloth to prevent it from happening in a more gruesome fashion. There are many horror stories to back up my claim, so block them in the dogloo tonight and put up hardware cloth tomorrow.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeek... And here I thought I had everything figured out. Thank you so much for the advice! I will act on it ASAP.

 

[Arielle]

While we are waiting for the Bread Recipe Book to show up:

Wild Yeast Baguettes



Wild Yeast Baguettes

These crackly-crusted baguettes feature complex flavor, thanks to the addition of sourdough to the dough. While not particularly sour, their taste is rich and compelling.

View by: Volume Weight

* 1 cup sourdough starter, fed and ready to use
* 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
* 1 teaspoon instant yeast
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 5 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour


Directions

1) Combine all of the ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough. If your sourdough is thin (thinner than a very thick pancake batter), you'll probably need to add more flour.

2) Allow the dough to rise, in a covered bowl, for 1 hour; then refrigerate overnight, up to about 18 hours.

3) Next day, divide the dough into 6 pieces.

4) Gently shape the dough into six 12" baguettes, and place them on two lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheets; or into baguette pans. Cover and let rise until very puffy, about 3 hours. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.

5) Spray the loaves with lukewarm water.

6) Make three fairly deep diagonal slashes in each baguette; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here.

7) Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it's a very deep golden brown. Remove the loaves from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Yield: six 13" baguettes.

THe aroma of freshly baked bread . . . .


DH left for work tonight rather than tomorrow morning so that hw can make a lemon tart for a bake sale. Using aobut 12+ eggs from our girls. It's a bakes sale to raise funds for MS. So he's gone, the kids will be in bed in about 20 minutes AND I have the bread book . . . .

 

[ronott1]

x marks the spot....and I've never baked bread in my life. Now I want to try. I had homemade bread for the first time last year. My MIL begged FIL for a bread machine. She made some awesome bread for about a month. Hasn't touched it since!

I make my bread by hand or with my Kitchenaid mixer. One of my greatest joys in life is eating bread right out of the oven. Bread machines make ok bread, but they don't make enough for me. I can make three loafs with the 5 quart mixer. I freeze two of the loafs. The baguettes posted here will be frozen and we will eat one each with dinners. Better than Costco bread!

I just baked the baguettes and am cooking pot roast. The cooking smells are driving me crazy

Quote: I could go on and on about sourdough but this is a chicken forum

. When I said I made mine, I meant that I made it from yeast in the air. I put the plain yogurt mixed with milk and flour in a back room. I followed directions from a book(no internet in 1984) and the first two tries did not work. The third worked and I had sourdough.

Sourdough starter picks up the yeast where you live. The yeast starter that Deb got from KAF has changed and has become Starter from her house. This stuff is like magic and for me goes right along with hatching your own chickens.

Sorry for the digression.

 

[ronott1]

Yup, I'm a big fan of KAF. I bought my sourdough starter from them several years ago. At the time I dried some and put it in the freezer. It will keep literally forever. I kept it as a backup in case I let my active culture die. It's simple to dry them and store, then reactivate. To dry some you just spread a thin layer on waxed paper, let it dry, pop it in a ziploc and put it in the freezer. You can find directions on the internet to reactivate.

Ok, I had to add, If you look closely at the bread picture, you can see the KAF(King Arthur flour) logo on the pan. That is one of their signature sheet pans.