Thanks to all who supported us this year. We really appreciate your encouragement, more than you know.
xo,
The Mactutis Family
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Merry Christmas!
Thanks to all who supported us this year. We really appreciate your encouragement, more than you know.
xo,
The Mactutis Family
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Gingerbread Granola
In an effort to reduce the use of boxed cereal in our diet, I make Farmer Mike's granola from a recipe his mom developed when he was young. It was so kind of her to share that because it is his favourite thing on earth for breakfast.It dawned on me one day that gingerbread spices thrown in with a homemade granola recipe might just be the perfect marriage of Christmas tradition and breakfast cereal. And best yet, if your low on eggs, as we are around here, there's none required for this recipe. Which makes it a sure thing for food gift giving that we tend to do this time of year. To make this even easier, we tend to make up batches of just the dry ingredients and store them away, so it's even quicker to make up a batch of homemade granola. I suppose the dry ingredients could be packed in a jar, and given like those popular soup or cookie in a jar gifts.
Gingerbread Granola
8 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oat bran
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon allspice
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1 Tablespoon powdered ginger
1 Tablespoon cloves
(spices are highly subjective--more or less is up to you.) :)
1 cup oil of any kind
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup honey
1/4 molasses
1 to 1.25 cups of water
Mix all dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients to the top. Note with the water, that you'll want to use just enough to make the oats clump together. Spread on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 225 - 250 degree F for 30 minutes. Then use a spatula to break up the clumps and turn the granola over. Bake for another 30 - 60 minutes, until the clumps are rather dry and toasty. Let cool.
Storing: At this point, you can make your homemade granola more nutritious by adding nuts, seeds, or dried fruit. Add as little or as much as you'd like. We tend to store it simply as it comes out of the oven, then we dress it up as we like on an individual basis.
You can't even imagine how good this tasted for dinner last night with chopped pecans and eggnog, instead of milk. It was like having dessert for dinner. :)
Friday, December 20, 2013
A Lesson Learned
WARNING: this could be a highly depressing post. This is the story of the real deal, nitty gritty side of farming. Especially nitty gritty when it deals with living things. I will try to lighten the mood a bit with a picture here and there. However, those extremely sensitive to untimely deaths of sweet cuddly creatures may wish to end their reading here, and come back tomorrow when I post a recipe from some Christmas baking.
Exasperating doesn't even begin to describe the recent family of chickens we purchased back in July. If we weren't so committed to well grown food, addicted to "fresh from the nest" eggs, or so blamed stubborn, we might just be giving up the ol' farming dream and moving somewhere where we could walk to decent organic market or bike to a few local farms.
In July, we adopted the largest flock of chicks we've ever had. 50 chicks, give or take, purchased from a small, local breeder. We were dreaming of chocolate colored egg shells of the Black and White Marans, such a cute breed with their sweet little feathered feet. We were mesmerized by the beautifully mottled patterns on our Salmon Faverolle roos and hoping they would be friendly enough to keep around to father plenty of babies. We dreamed of all the fattened roos that would eventually become table decorations. In actuality, what we've found is that our commitment to keeping our dollars local might not have been the best idea for a main flock of chickens that was intended to keep us in eggs all winter and add a little pizazz to our cartons come spring and summer.
After a couple months, our chickens started succumbing frequently to something that looks like Marek's disease. It is like a Herpes virus in humans, yet presents like a lymphoma, is very prevalent, and is believed to be incurable. Our flock seems to be affected by the neural form of the disease, which eventually leaves them paralysed. Mortality rates in infected birds are usually 100%.
It's been hard living with the possibly of total defeat. It was harder looking out the window to check for the latest victims.
Farmer Mike has been dealt a heavier hand, as I am proving too much of a "girl" to actually assist the bird into it's afterlife. Sadly, if the birds aren't assisted, they starve to death because they are unable to walk to food or drink. We don't think that that would be very respectful of the animal.
So, to date, we have 27 chickens left between 20-24 weeks old, including a handful of roos. Farmer Mike estimates that we have about 17 laying hens so far.
After all this loss, we've felt like maybe we shouldn't put ourselves out there and try to be part of the food movement by helping produce food. We may just be too green for that kind of responsibility. Maybe we should just focus on growing food for ourselves and thereby only be accountable to our own hunger pangs.
Then, something happens like yesterday, when a gentleman called up looking for eggs. Although we don't even have enough eggs for us right now, I was still able to talk with him and help him find alternative farms, owned by friends and neighbours, producing the wholesome eggs he was looking for. Which reminds of how supportive our farming friends have been and how kind and eager they have been with insights and advice.
We know how much better we feel when we eat real food from small farms, and we enjoy helping others discover better health too.
So, what this does this mean for the future?
From this day forward, any chick that arrives at our door will be vaccinated for Marek's! Unfortunately, it seems the only way to responsibly and humanely raise chicks on our land, knowing that it could be a death sentence for them if they don't have a little poke.
Our plans for entering a farmers market may need to be put on hold, depending if we can get a new batch of chickens this January.
And in the short term (for the next month), eggs will definitely be out of stock on our farm. The elders had been laying one egg a day over the course of weeks, so they have been dispatched to freezer camp. These past few months without homegrown eggs has been completely maddening!
Small eggs are just starting to trickle in from the new gals, at a rate of about 1 to 2 per day, so here's hoping the news only gets brighter from here, along with the days getting brighter after the Solstice.
There. You've been warned. The rest is up to you. :)
.JPG) |
| Salmon Faverolle roo |
Some of you have probably been wondering what the deal is here at the farm. Where's the eggs? A refrain similar to a beloved Wendy's commercial of my youth. Well, it's a long story, so long it feels as if it could qualify as an epic story. As with all respectable epics, this one has its moral of the story as well.Exasperating doesn't even begin to describe the recent family of chickens we purchased back in July. If we weren't so committed to well grown food, addicted to "fresh from the nest" eggs, or so blamed stubborn, we might just be giving up the ol' farming dream and moving somewhere where we could walk to decent organic market or bike to a few local farms.
In July, we adopted the largest flock of chicks we've ever had. 50 chicks, give or take, purchased from a small, local breeder. We were dreaming of chocolate colored egg shells of the Black and White Marans, such a cute breed with their sweet little feathered feet. We were mesmerized by the beautifully mottled patterns on our Salmon Faverolle roos and hoping they would be friendly enough to keep around to father plenty of babies. We dreamed of all the fattened roos that would eventually become table decorations. In actuality, what we've found is that our commitment to keeping our dollars local might not have been the best idea for a main flock of chickens that was intended to keep us in eggs all winter and add a little pizazz to our cartons come spring and summer.
After a couple months, our chickens started succumbing frequently to something that looks like Marek's disease. It is like a Herpes virus in humans, yet presents like a lymphoma, is very prevalent, and is believed to be incurable. Our flock seems to be affected by the neural form of the disease, which eventually leaves them paralysed. Mortality rates in infected birds are usually 100%.
 |
| White Sussex and Salmon Faverolle hen |
It's been hard living with the possibly of total defeat. It was harder looking out the window to check for the latest victims.
Farmer Mike has been dealt a heavier hand, as I am proving too much of a "girl" to actually assist the bird into it's afterlife. Sadly, if the birds aren't assisted, they starve to death because they are unable to walk to food or drink. We don't think that that would be very respectful of the animal.
So, to date, we have 27 chickens left between 20-24 weeks old, including a handful of roos. Farmer Mike estimates that we have about 17 laying hens so far.
 |
| White Maran with her sweet little feathered legs |
After all this loss, we've felt like maybe we shouldn't put ourselves out there and try to be part of the food movement by helping produce food. We may just be too green for that kind of responsibility. Maybe we should just focus on growing food for ourselves and thereby only be accountable to our own hunger pangs.
Then, something happens like yesterday, when a gentleman called up looking for eggs. Although we don't even have enough eggs for us right now, I was still able to talk with him and help him find alternative farms, owned by friends and neighbours, producing the wholesome eggs he was looking for. Which reminds of how supportive our farming friends have been and how kind and eager they have been with insights and advice.
 |
| White Sussex roo |
We know how much better we feel when we eat real food from small farms, and we enjoy helping others discover better health too.
So, what this does this mean for the future?
From this day forward, any chick that arrives at our door will be vaccinated for Marek's! Unfortunately, it seems the only way to responsibly and humanely raise chicks on our land, knowing that it could be a death sentence for them if they don't have a little poke.
Our plans for entering a farmers market may need to be put on hold, depending if we can get a new batch of chickens this January.
 |
| Salmon Faverolle hen |
Small eggs are just starting to trickle in from the new gals, at a rate of about 1 to 2 per day, so here's hoping the news only gets brighter from here, along with the days getting brighter after the Solstice.
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