Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours today. Wet morning, dry afternoon.
I struggled to get motivated today. I did the cleaning and feeding and then let the chickens onto the field and sat and thought about Henry for a while. I miss him. The ground was too damp to bother working on anyway.

Chickens were well behaved in not heading for the plots, except mine where they know they are allowed and sticking to the orchard side of the field.

Here's someone else who is missing Henry. Being the most junior the other hens boss her about. Henry used to be very kind to her and I think she's missing some of that kindness. She's jumped on to my lap every day now since Henry died. She doesn't stay long but she is asking for some attention from what I can tell.

Hardly out of the gate and they're eating the grass.

 

[notabitail]

She says she eats the finest junk food. She is also tax for any previous posts.

 

[fuzzi]

Two and a half hours today. Wet morning, dry afternoon.
I struggled to get motivated today. I did the cleaning and feeding and then let the chickens onto the field and sat and thought about Henry for a while. I miss him. The ground was too damp to bother working on anyway.

Chickens were well behaved in not heading for the plots, except mine where they know they are allowed and sticking to the orchard side of the field.

Here's someone else who is missing Henry. Being the most junior the other hens boss her about. Henry used to be very kind to her and I think she's missing some of that kindness. She's jumped on to my lap every day now since Henry died. She doesn't stay long but she is asking for some attention from what I can tell.
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Hardly out of the gate and they're eating the grass.
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Is that Tull on your lap?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

You wrote a few posts back that you don't like bland food. Well, there's a cook who sells a range of branded goods in one of the UK supermarkets with the slogan taste the difference and I can't in the few I've tried. I did feel the burn in my wallet at the prices though.

I like my food and like you I don't like bland. I can taste the difference between the Mutti tomato products and the regular supermarket stuff. You can buy a pack of six four hundred gram tins for around five pounds at the internet shop I better not mention in case BDutch has a melt down.

If it’s the internet shop I’m thinking of, I just call it “Darth Bezos.”

 

[Mother of Chaos]

@Shadrach @Perris (and anyone else, for that matter) - do you ever can what you grow? “Can” meaning preserve in glass jars via heat or pressure canners, a linguistic contradiction that hurts my poor Asperger-y brain.

If you have access to full-flavor ripe non-gassed tomatoes, especially paste-type tomatoes like Romas and San Marzanos, you can cook up a few gallons of your own perfect sauce. There are some canned (tinned) tomatoes and sauces that I mostly like, but there always seems to be the slightest metallic taste. I’m guessing that the acid in the tomatoes reacts with the metal can, something that doesn’t happen with glass jars.

We started doing this during Covid and still do, although we mostly can (glass jars, grrr) tomato salsa, pickles, and chow chow, which I guess is sort of a Southern US veg chutney. It’s classically made with unripened tomatoes and other vegetables that need to be picked when the first fall frost hits.

 

[MrsNorthie]

@Shadrach @Perris (and anyone else, for that matter) - do you ever can what you grow? “Can” meaning preserve in glass jars via heat or pressure canners, a linguistic contradiction that hurts my poor Asperger-y brain.

If you have access to full-flavor ripe non-gassed tomatoes, especially paste-type tomatoes like Romas and San Marzanos, you can cook up a few gallons of your own perfect sauce. There are some canned (tinned) tomatoes and sauces that I mostly like, but there always seems to be the slightest metallic taste. I’m guessing that the acid in the tomatoes reacts with the metal can, something that doesn’t happen with glass jars.

We started doing this during Covid and still do, although we mostly can (glass jars, grrr) tomato salsa, pickles, and chow chow, which I guess is sort of a Southern US veg chutney. It’s classically made with unripened tomatoes and other vegetables that need to be picked when the first fall frost hits.

We just started canning last year. My grandmother and great grandmothers all canned, but I was always a little afraid that I would mess it up and create some toxic abomination. We made various pickles and canned and froze tomato sauces, I love the San Marzano variety for my sauces. We used the hot water method as opposed to pressure canning, like my grandmother used. I completely agree with the metallic taste to tinned foods. I need to get olive trees so I can make my own olive oil and our Italian dishes will be perfect. LOL

 

[Mother of Chaos]

We just started canning last year. My grandmother and great grandmothers all canned, but I was always a little afraid that I would mess it up and create some toxic abomination. We made various pickles and canned and froze tomato sauces, I love the San Marzano variety for my sauces. We used the hot water method as opposed to pressure canning, like my grandmother used. I completely agree with the metallic taste to tinned foods. I need to get olive trees so I can make my own olive oil and our Italian dishes will be perfect. LOL

I have a pressure cooker, but I prefer the hot water method, too! Pressure cooking seems to create mushier results.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who fears killing off beloved relatives with my canning, lol. I started feeling better about it after finding a can of Cento tomatoes that had bulged at the top (not just a dent.) My jar lids have lovely depressed dimples, thank you very much!

 

[Perris]

do you ever can what you grow? “Can” meaning preserve in glass jars via heat or pressure canners

I don't know anyone in the UK who cans in the American style. More trad preservation methods seem to be the norm here, for the few who have the kitchen or other space for lots of jars.

veg chutney

Yes I make these, though using vinegar, salt and sugar as preservatives.

There are some canned (tinned) tomatoes and sauces that I mostly like, but there always seems to be the slightest metallic taste.

I completely agree with the metallic taste to tinned foods.

Lining tins with plastic coatings is supposed to stop any chemical reaction with the food therein, but that might turn out to be just another source of contamination of our food https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12976
I think it would be better from that perspective if the food industry used glass jars like home cooks. They are endlessly recyclable.

Tax for off topic chatter: matriarch coming to say hello, causing broody to inflate, with chicks in the hedge bottom (as viewed from the bank where I was snapping off bracken shoots ) with roo watching from the edge of the shade in the distance (another example of how the open grass is empty and all the chickens are round the edges, which is how it is for most of the day)

 

[Perris]

She's jumped on to my lap every day now since Henry died. She doesn't stay long but she is asking for some attention from what I can tell.

and I'm sure she gets it from you. Give her a big hug from me.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I don't know anyone in the UK who cans in the American style. More trad preservation methods seem to be the norm here, for the few who have the kitchen or other space for lots of jars.

The "canning" we are referring to is with glass jars, but space is a premium. There is a method where a pressure cooker is used but the jars can be prone to exploding. I have never liked the idea of shards of glass and molten hot sticky jam or veggies, so I and @ChaosMom opt for the water bath method. https://www.theseasonalhomestead.com/water-bath-canning-a-beginners-guide/

That reminds me, my grands and great grands all had root cellars, the canning and veg like potatoes, carrots, swede/rutabaga and such would be stored down there and it all lasted most if not all winter. Modernization may not be all it is cracked up to be.

Lining tins with plastic coatings is supposed to stop any chemical reaction with the food therein, but that might turn out to be just another source of contamination of our food https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12976
I think it would be better from that perspective if the food industry used glass jars like home cooks. They are endlessly recyclable.

I definitely prefer glass. I may be showing my age, but we used to pay a deposit on things that we bought is glass bottles like fizzy drinks, then you would take them back, and you would get your deposit back. The bottles were returned, sterilized and reused, not dumped in landfills or the oceans and funny thing, we never got sick from it.