AAAh it is that time of year again - I like to start baby chick season with this video:



I especially like the tasteful way they address the chicken waste issue.

Found a few places in Nashville to get your chick as well - they are listed in this article I wrote for Examiner.com as the
Nashville Country Living Examiner.

        

A big new federal food-safety bureaucracy being proposed in Congress could impact how small and independent American farmers do business, and not in ways that promote viability and growth, worries the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.

Read more on examiner.com.

        

With Nashville-based Plumb Good Food out of business, and for those who do not live near the Green Hills' vegetable buying mecca, getting a taste of farm fresh country produce can be a challenge.

CSAs can link city dwellers with country fresh foods. Spring harvest is just around the corner, so now is the time to set up your CSA subscription while there are still available slots.

more at examiner.com...

        

Examiner.com just made me the Country Living Examiner for Nashville!

        

A few weeks ago, Melissa and JP came out to the holler for a quick visit. We had a great time and Melissa advised me through my first home made pasta adventure with my Kitchenaid.

The food was fabulous!

Melissa also brought a brown rice salad that was to die for. Here it is on her cooking blog!

http://www.strawberryberet.com
/2009/03/brown-brown-rice.html

        

Nicole Sauce Holler Homestead Update

Spring is in the air in Tennessee. But wait - be careful. It can still freeze. This weekend, with the sunshine and gentle breeze, it was difficult not to put out a bunch of seeds and starts, but we resisted. We did work our soil, spread some cow SH** around, and we contemplated risk.

In the end, we decided that it was worth the risk to plant peas, transplant half the cabbage and broccoli, and put down carrot and chard seeds. The leeks will wait another week for transplant. Onion sets will probably make it at this point so long as we don't have one of those late April week long deep freezes.

And trees. Trees like to be planted in February, but we ran late and got them in last weekend: Peaches, cherries, figs and plumbs. Heck, in five years, we might actually get some fruit around here. We are thankful that somebody planted what is now a giant pear tree years ago. I wonder if it was "Old Man Kruse" or the people who lived in that old shack we had to tear down?

Why We Bother

All of this work is worth it if you love to cook. We have been living off our home canned tomato sauce, apple sauce, pears and pickled okra all winter long. It turns out that home canned tomato sauce is so much better than even the highest quality tomato sauce at the store that we may never ba able to go back. Mark adds spices and cilantro for salsa that tastes better than fresh tomato salsa and I make pasta and pizza sauces. We figured out that if we only eat a quart of it a week, we can eek through to Mennonite tomato season.

I am jealous of the Mennonites' abilities in the garden. They get bigger, better tomatoes in less time than we do here. But our tomatoes are good too and well worth the effort.

Soon to Have Hot Chicks

That's right. The incubator is on the way since none of our 10 hens is feeling motherly. Today, I gleaned 6 good eggs for hatching and will throw them in an incubator tomorrow or Thursday.

Farmers' Market?

We found a great place nearby for a farmers' market. Now we need to find someone to run it and people to sell things. I wonder what the TN regulators think of such things? Do they seek sales tax on roadside stands? EGADS.

http://valueaddedag.tennessee.edu/resources/farmersmarkets.htm

It is annoying that you can't just set out a table and go for it. No. You are supposed to get liability insurance in case someone sues you, check local zoning laws, etc, etc, etc - Oh yeah and apply for gov't funds to finance the selling of food to people. WTF?

        

Driving to the store for a carton of sour cream is not economical when the nearest store is 12 miles away. Yet green chili rellenos (baked from the frozen stock of the summer) just don't taste as good without the creamy additive in the rice. 

        

Bestbyfarr.wordpress.com brings us this recipe for bacon mayonnaise. Why bacon mayo? Well, from my country perspective, I can see this happening on the old Homestead when we run out of oil and only have animal fat...

I think Ryan Farr did it for flavor. Or shock factor. Most will think that this is so unhealthy it is not worth a try, but since mayo is already fatty, who not add pig lard?

http://bestbyfarr.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/bacon-mayo-the-new-black/

My favorite quote: "Render till all fat has clarified."

        

Mamma Sauce wrote "My curiosity is killing me: Why does one want Velveeta if there's real cheddar on hand?"

It's simple, really. We live off the land out here as much as possible. We even make our own sour cream these days. Heck, I have a series coming soon on home cheese creation and would have a healthy supply of home brew if I could just find a darn GLASS carboy or two to use.

With all that, there are still days when all I want to cook for dinner is a box of mac n cheese. A good work around to this is boil noodles and use Velveeta- BUT- the additives, oh the additives.

Thus, I was thinking, make homemade Velveeta without the additives and freeze it in ice cube trays and you're good - right?!

Well, really, time will tell. I still need to buy the ingredients next time I happen by a store.

        

This video has it all - food, politics and even a chicken reference! H/T to Liberty on the Rocks' video crew.

        

The easy process of getting eggs in the chicken coop has turned challenging. Every morning I make sure the flock is happily pecking about outside and then go into the coop. Lately, our flaboyant, friendly rooster has taken to coming in and attacking me. He's 1/10 my size and just goes crazy!

It turns out this isn't so odd. Spring is in the air. The ladies are thinking about setting their eggs. Soon we may have some babies around. He's feeling protective of his girls.

That is all well and good, but if he keeps at it going into summer, I am likely to replace him with new blood - and make yummy chicken n dumplin' stew.

        

A pack of dogs in the region chased down and killed a deer. Now, this can put a person in a conundrum because it leaves a dead animal, with 20 pounds of meat, and no legal way to use it. Instead, we are forced to bury 20 pounds of food to keep the coyotes away from the area.

A few years ago, because of outcry from hungry country folk, it became legal to butcher fresh road kill so long as you report it within 48 hours. Perhaps it is time to legalize dog kill too?

        

        

        

Well, the Thanksgiving Menu just got expanded - and it's a good thing. Looks like some neighbors might stop by.

We got our hands on a free-range turkey - the kind that is not only allowed to go outside, but also gets to run all over the place living off bugs and grass with no grain suppliments.

Know what that means? I think I do - TOUGH MEAT.

That's right - I've cooked a rooster or two from our farm this year and I know what happens when you let poultry run around and eat lots of underbrush. They get tough as nails, only good enough for stew.

Actually, that's not true, but you can't handle them the same way as store birds. First of all, they have excellent muscle definition. Think of that muscle chart you had in biology class. Chickens and this turkey look like that chart when you remove their skin. Why remove the skin? We started doing that this year with the large number of roosters we had to harvest and discovered that we LIKE poultry without the skin and it is better for us. Win-win.

Back to the bird. When I researched free range turkey recipes folks just recommended that I roast the bird. But I know better. Free range meats often have less fat, and I can tell that this little guy or gal was in really good shape. I realized it was probably more like a wild turkey than a store-bought free range one, so I looked into those options and found lots of advice:

• How to cook wild turkey on ask a chef is a forum conversation with a person who is worried about a gamey taste. Not my worry, but there are some cool looking recipies there.
• Cajun Deef Fried Wild Turkey - when in doubt fry it - not for me, but sounds yummy.
• Braised Wild Turkey looks pretty good.
• More discussion on wild turkey cooking advice - ok got it - truly free range turkey and wild ones are apt to be dry.

With all this in mind, and  Jewish guest coming over (thus eliminating the option to bacon-wrap the bird), here is my plan, an adaptation of my Roasted Old Rooster recipe.

Slow Cooked Wild or Free Range Turkey (AKA Tough Old Bird)

Brine

• 1.5 cups salt
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• Water
• 1 cup Sorghum

Disolve above ingredients and let mixture cool. Place turkey in a large pot and cover with mixture. Add additional water until turkey is covered. Place in fridge for 48 to 72 hours.

Thanksgiving Day Cooking Instructions

• 1 Free Range or Wild Turkey (Or tough Old Rooster from the Yard)
• 4 sticks Butter or other fat
• 1/4 cup Rosemary (Fresh is always best)
• 2 Apples
• Onion
• 1/2 bottle Dry White Wine
• Sorghum

Rub the turkey inside and out with half the butter and rosemary. Preheat oven to 425. Roast bird uncovered for 30 minutes - should get golden colored.

Remove turkey from the oven, rub with more butter and rosemary. Stuff with apples and one onion. Place breast down in huge crockpot, dutch oven, or anything big enough to enclose the bird.

Pour wine in the cooking pot. Slow cook until done - you can do this in your oven at 350 (make sure the bird is very tightly covered), in a crock pot, or on your wood burning stove.

30 minutes before it is done, uncover the bird and place it breast up, drizzle with sorghum.

Make sure you cook your bird to the proper temperature - safe handling is very important with food!

        

I had a conversation last June in New York with a self-declared Marxist. I have thought of this conversation on and off over the last few months because she got so very upset by our talk. Today, I realized why.

I kept saying to her things like "You and I want the same things - a better society, better education for our kids, fewer starving people. We just disagree on what it takes to do this - I think that parents should be able to send their kids to any school they like, not leave those decisions in the hands of a chosen few. If the kids get a better education, who cares if they have a corporate or personal sponsor, get home schooled or go to a public school? I just don't want poor kids stuck in inner city schools getting beat up for being different."

At one point, she started explaining commodity fetishism in retort. I honestly got confused about the connection and eventually we all went our separate ways, but now, I FINALLY GET IT.

It turns out that she and I don't want the same things. I want better education for kids, she wants to control how those kids develop philosophically. In other words, she actually cares more about how we get there than ever arriving.

All these years, I have been facilitating research about solutions to public policy problems and it turns out that the disconnect is not how to make the world better, it is a fundamental difference in philosophy. I want to make the world better - my enemies want to control how we make the world better, even if that means we never actually change a thing.

Sadly, my enemies dominate both viable parties in the US. Third party anyone?

        

Well, my blogger buddy Lannae Long emailed me late last week and mentioned that there is a new winery in the state. They had their opening festivities last Saturday and it just so happens that they are right around the corner from my house in the country!

Del Monaco Winery is already producing wines, though not yet from their own grapes. Now, this will sound snobby, but I usually dislike Tennessee produced wines. They are usually way to sweet for me - or too "boxed winey" tasting. I think it is just a difference in preference - from my perspective, the dryer the better.

Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to find both a white and red option that I liked. The Cabernet Savignon is very dry, not quite as full bodied as many cabs, and has a pleasant finish. (Meaning it doesn't stick around with you for 20 minutes, reminding you why you might have been better off with a beer.) They have a white blend that is good table wine and not a Chardonnay. (We all know that Nicole Sauce dislikes Chardonnay - it's my tequila, so to speak.)

The bottles cost $20 and $15, respectively, and if you return the cork with your next purchase, you get $1 off your bottle, limit one cork per bottle. I did not ask about case discounts.

The really special part of the day came when Lannae introduced me to one of her coworkers who volunteers for the winery. We got to meet the vintner and tour the wine making facilities. We even got to taste some of the wines pre filtration. It was a huge treat for me - usually I am relegated to the wine room in a winery, looking slightly bored. Del Monaco has a few interesting wines coming up including a Shiraz and a Gewurtztraminer and I look forward to tasting them!

The winery itself boasts a custom carved cement floor that is beautiful and the facilities are stunning. This would be a good place for a wedding, anniversary celebration or higher end party. Better yet, when the weather is nicer, they will have outdoor tables overlooking the grapes for folks like me to use for a wine and cheese visit with friends. Looking forward to spring at Del Monaco!

On an unrelated note - is anyone else really pissed off that the state of Tennessee STILL hasn't given trader Joes their liquor license? Rumor has it that it would compete with local stores too much. I think the government is missing the point: Folks like me who don't usually buy wine in Tennessee would start buying it here instead of driving to the show me state! The tax revenue alone should get their interest.