Heirloom Pepper Jelly

Zach and I went to the Clarkston Farmer's Market last weekend and tasted some of the most delicious produce, pasta, cheese and bakery items. Clarkston has a beautiful market on Saturday mornings, 8am through 12 noon, June through October in the parking lot across from Depot Park.

While we were there we picked up some beautiful purple heirloom peppers. I used some for some fresh Gazpacho (along with some heirloom tomatoes, it made the most cheerful, colorful soup!) and the rest we made into jelly.








We modified the recipe that came with our pectin. 

We started by washing the jars, lids, bands and all canning tools with hot soapy water. Then we processed the jars in boiling water for ten minutes.

While we waited for the jars to boil we chopped the peppers into fine pieces. This is my favorite part, I love to use a knife in the kitchen, there's something relaxing and methodical about chopping up beautiful vegetables and piling them in a pot. All the colors and smells, sometimes I work on being fast, curving my knuckles towards the knife, sometimes I work on the size and uniformity of the pieces...too many hours of watching Food Network I guess.

I'm a bit sensitive to Jalapenos so Zach chopped those up for me. If you are sensitive to hot peppers wear latex gloves, or marry a blacksmith with leather hands to do you chopping for you. We used about 3 cups of peppers. You can change the ratio of sweet peppers to jalapeno depending on how spicy you want it.

When we had the peppers chopped we added cider vinegar and sugar and brought it to a rapid boil that couldn't be stirred down. Then we added the pectin, brought it to another rapid boil and boiled for one minute.
We ladled the hot tangy jelly into the clean jars using our canning funnel. We wiped any drips from the tops of the jars to ensure a good seal. Then we put on the lids and the bands and boiled the jars of jelly for 10 more minutes (check you local elevation for processing times)
The sound of the jars popping always makes me giggle a little inside. Pepper Jelly is delicious with cream cheese on crackers. It also makes a great dipping sauce for fried chicken, pork chops etc. Enjoy!!!

Self Sustainability Night

On July 23rd, 2010 Zach and I participated and co-sponsored the Beats, Beets and Eats Self Sustainability Night. The whole event was designed to encourage hobby farming, re-skilling, community growth and of course, self sustainable living.

We shared a booth with our good friend Liz Waters and through joint effort, we collaborated an assortment of hobby farming information and products. We brought our handmade baskets and blacksmithing items, fiber, roving and hand spun yarn and my portfolio of animal portraits, (the horse is shown framed). We also brought the hand carders and let people try out carding.

Liz gathered a collection of hobby farming articles, magazines and best of all...

live chickens! They were of course, a big hit with the kids!

The evening was filled with laughter, farm stories and delicious food. The dinner served that evening was grilled bar-b-que chicken, potato salad and ice cream. Yum!

Some of the other vendors included Porter's Orchard located in Goodrich. They had delicious frozen apple cider slushes, sweet cinnamon sprinkled dougnuts, amazing apple sauce and containers of fresh blueberries, among other things. Visit their website at http://portersorchard.com/ They have a variety of events to offer like pick your own apples, petting farms and fall festivities.

There was also a Dulcimer Band who played a beautiful assortment of Folk/Renaissance type music. It softly floated through the open summer air and gave the whole event a sense of old fashioned, simpler time spirit. 

There were also several people with farmer's market type booths selling local produce.

One of my favorite vendors of the evening was the Milford Spice Company. 

They are a wonderful on-line company who provide the freshest hand ground spices and seasonings. They explained that they try to get spices that are as locally available as possible then work their way outward, as some spices are only found in certain parts of the world. Let me tell you, you can smell and taste the freshness!

We purchased several of their spice blends to use in the smoker. We made a Brisket the other night using their "Pontiac Trail Pig Powder" (which you can also use on beef) and it was delicious! I'm particularly excited to try their "It's a Mad Mad Mole'" on steak. Mole' is a sweet/salty seasoning used traditionally to flavor meats, it includes the unique flavor of cocoa which lends a particularly interesting twist.

Visit their online store at http://milfordspice.com/

Finally, our last vendor that I will talk about is a very talented young man named Ty who welds his own lawn ornaments. He uses recycled metal objects to configure adorable animals, plants and other decorative and useful objects. The amazing thing is that he's only about 13 years old, but has been welding since he's been six!







To view the Beats, Beets and Eats summer schedule visit www.downtownortonville.org

Fiery Friday - Black Iron Days at Hartwick Pines

Hello Everyone,

I know it's been a long time since I have been able to post for Fiery Friday. I've been swamped with orders and working overtime at my regular job so free time is hard to come by. Anyway, I wanted to share this weeks post with you earlier, but better late than never. I wanted to show you one of our last trips to Hartwick Pines Black Iron Days at (Hartwick Pines State Park, Grayling, MI). This is a wonderful event in the middle of the forest where you can see dozens of blacksmiths forging and selling all sorts of items. Being the fourth weekend of August every year, Black Iron Days is tomorrow. If you are looking for something fun to do this weekend I highly recommend the event.

Here is one of the blacksmiths booth. I'd love to give them credit, but I can't remember who's it was. This is just a few hand forged items you will see there.

Another great thing they have there is a steam tractor powered saw mill. I absolutely love these old machines.

That is a massive saw blade. They have this machine running pretty much all weekend. I'm not sure if they still do, but at one time they sold the lumber they made here to the public.

Here is a nifty conveyor with scoops on it to keep sawdust away from the machine. I could have stared at this thing for hours.

I would love to get my hands on that pile of fresh rough cut lumber. That would be great for making an old fashioned blacksmith shop.

A Night of Patriotism

A couple of Fridays ago Zach and I attended the Beats, Beets and Eats, Desert Angel Packing Night, sponsored by the OUMC. Local businesses donated items like toiletries, snacks, candy, books and movies to put into care packages and ship to the soldiers over seas.

There was at least 6, 8 foot tables lined end to end piled with donated items. People lined up with their empty box, and went down the line choosing items to send to their soldier.

Then we were encouraged to write a letter to our soldier, telling them what was going on in the States and thanking them for their hard work, dedication and sacrifice.

We were especially excited because Zach's soldier got in touch with him a few weeks after the event.

The sense of community was amazing!

There are still a few nights of Beats, Beets and Eats left to attend. To check out the event schedule visit the June 14th Post, Beats, Beets and Eats 2010 or visit the DDA website at http://www.downtownortonville.org

Wild Wednesday, Furrow Orb Weaver Spider

This is a Furrow Spider which is part of the Orb Weaver family of spiders so named because they're webs are flat and "orb" shaped as opposed to a funnel shaped web.
We have always had Furrow spiders in large quantities around our home. We've always just let them be because they are such an interesting spider. They make beautiful large webs that are quite strong, some have made a web in a single night that fills a whole window.

Making Egg Boxes

Fall is coming quickly and with the coming of harvest season, we will not only be gathering squashes and pumpkins, but also eggs. Most people think of Spring as the egg production season, and while this is true with already laying hens, much of our flock are teenagers and they will be coming of age fairly quickly. So we will see a short rise in egg production as all of our little girls become hens, then it will dwindle down again as the days get shorter. I can't wait for the day when I go down in the coupe and see that first Black Copper Maran egg, they lay a dark chocolate, mahogany egg. An Araucauna/ Ameraucuana egg would be almost as exciting as well, they come in blue, pink or green...we will see...

With all of our girls layng eggs soon, we needed to accommodate them with a comfortable place to take care of their uniquely feminine needs.
We built this inexpensive egg box system for around $30, it yields 21 boxes.

We used 3 sheets of inexpensive 4x8 plywood. We cut 4, 8 foot strips 16 inches wide, these are the floor and the ceiling pieces for each layer of boxes. Then we cut 8, 8x14" pieces from the remaining boards. These are the cross, vertical boards. Zach notched out 5 inch slots every 13.5 inches, then did the same to the vertical boards, but only 4 intervals down.

The tongue and grove system fit together and eliminated the need to screw each individual box.

We fitted the cross pieces together and screwed the whole thing to the already existing chicken coupe wall. Then we reinforced the bottom with a 2x4 to prevent sagging over time.

We then screwed 4 staggered screws into the floors of each layer, about 1/2 inch in front of each box, but not all the way. Then we cut a 3" by 8' board of plywood and slid it behind the screws. This board can be removed for easy clean up, I simply sweep the dirty wood chips out with a hand broom, then replace the board and fill each box with fresh chips.
Because the floors are 16" wide but the sides are only 14" deep, this gives the chickens something to land on as they fly up and choose a box. They can carefully walk along this edge as they find an empty box.

We also raised the boxes up off the floor 2 feet, this is a short enough distance to where our Silkie and Frizzles can still reach, but it doesn't cut into the floor space of the overall coupe. Plus, I think chickens just like to lay eggs up high. Our good flyers always choose the highest boxes.

Dying Wool with Kool-Aid

I've been experimenting with dyeing some of our Mohair and Angora. I started researching natural dyes and while I was thinking onion peels and berry juices there is a lot of people out there who use Kool-Aid of all things. Kool-Aid is a permanent dye that is fairly non-toxic and there is enough acid in the mix to where you don't have to use a mordant.
I tried a few different things, I dyed spun yarn, roving and raw fleece. All took the dye extremely well. I mixed a few packets together because I was looking for more of a warm rich color so I blended two packs of Black Cherry, with two packs of Orange to get this rusty red color. Interestingly, the Angora picked up more of a blue pigment than the Mohair.

I sat the yarn in a couple inches of water and slowly heated it on the stove top just before the boiling point. Then I added the packets of Kool-Aid and kept it at a simmer for a minute or so. Then I covered the pot and left the yarn for 30 minutes. When I checked the pot the yarn had absorbed all the dye and the water was clear.
Then I left the yarn soak in the pot until the water had cooled to room temperature then I rinsed the yarn and squeezed it gently.

Then I laid it on my drying rack to dry.

I feel like a lot of the process is trial and error but the basic principles are the same. There is a really good website that gives examples of the colors you can achieve with each flavor of Kool-Aid. http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html
You can also use food coloring to dye yarn but you have to use vinegar to add acid to the dye to give it more sticking power. In the future I would like to start using plants and berries. My friend Camille gave me a magazine with many suggestions using herbs and wild plants. When I try, it I'll let you know how it went.

How to Make Smokin Snack Sticks, Part 2

(Read How to Make Smokin' Snack Sticks, Part 1, August 17th, 2010 Post) 

After we let the snack sticks cure over night , it was time to put them in the smoker. We washed our smoker thoroughly and plugged it in for 3 hours before using. We read that you should run your smoker before putting food inside because it burns off any fumes from the manufacturers materials such as paint, chemicals in the metal etc. You don't want to penetrate your food with carcinogenic smoke.
The heating element sits on porous coals, which in turn, heat as well and create the smoke effect.

We then soaked the hickory chips in water for about 30 minutes. There are many different "flavors" of wood chips you can purchase. I saw Maple, Apple, Hickory, Mesquite, and even Jack Daniels. They also have barrel chips that you can purchase that were once oak barrels that stored whiskey. The pan that's shown here can be used in the smoking process as well and it makes more of a smoky steam.

Then we laid the chips on the coals next to the heating element.

We purchased a Jerky Rack to lay our snack sticks on. This prevents the sticks from deep frying in their own seeping juices. The delicious oils and flavors drip through the rack, hit the hot coals then evaporate into smoke and rise to re-flavor the meat, so it continuously cycles with deep smoky flavor. Needless to say it smells wonderful!

We let the sticks smoke for a couple hours, don't peek for the first hour or so or your beautiful cooking smoke will fly out the lid and you'll have to wait for the temperature to build back up. then inserted a digital meat thermometer to see if a safe temperature had been reached for a beef product. It had!

At this pint you're supposed to let them cool before eating, but we couldn't wait and broke off pieces of the delicious snack sticks, burning our fingers, but just a little.
Even Ceddie had some, poor dog, he kept asking to go outside all day, and he'd wander around the garage sniffing the smoky meaty air.

(Just a note, we also made beef jerky that day, which is the same process only instead of piping the ground meat into smoked casings, you use a flat fitting on the jerky press and pipe it in strips along your Jerky Rack, everything went in the smoker together.)

Wild Wednesday, Dark Fishing Spider

We found this large beauty on our living room wall one day, I caught it and let it go in the pine tree outside our garage. I know spiders get a bad rap, and granted, I'm not thrilled with the idea of them biting me, but I have to say that they are fascinating and beautiful in their own delicate way. This is a Dark Fishing Spider, probably a small female or a male, and while this particular spider was a little over an inch, I've read that an adult female can grow to around 3 inches. It is the largest spider in Michigan, and are found near ponds and marshes. They can walk on the surface of the water and have been known to kill small fish.

The largest wild spider I've ever seen in person was a Huntsman Spider. We used to find them all the time while my parents were building our home. One got in our house and it was so large and black that at first we thought it was a mouse. They are more tarantula like where the Fishing Spider is more streamline.