Making Carrot Souffle'

I can remember as a kid going to a cafeteria in Lake Charles, Louisiana called Piccadilly Cafeteria.  They had a kid's plate that, if you ate all of your food, you would be able to see pictures on the bottom of the plate.  If I remember correctly, it was a white plate, with something like a spaceship in one compartment, and two other pictures on the other ones - maybe it was called "The Dilly Plate."  The incentive was if you 'cleaned your plate,' you'd get to see the pictures on the bottom of the plate. The old stick and the carrot routine!

Speaking of carrots, one of the things I remember Piccadilly Cafeteria being famous for besides the different colored jello cut into squares and their egg custard with nutmeg sprinkled on top, was their carrot souffle. It was so rich and sweet and delicious, it was hard to imagine it had a vegetable in it - which I think was the point. Anyway, my Aunt gave us a cookbook from Dallas, called "Tuxedos to Tailgates" and it contained the Carrot Souffle recipe that tastes like the one from Piccadilly.

I had just harvested the last of our Atomic Red Carrots and Tricia whipped up a batch of carrot souffle the other night and captured the process for your viewing pleasure. Here's what you'll need to make the Carrot Souffle of Piccadilly fame and Tuxedos to Tailgate Cookbook:

• 1 lb carrots
• salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and wash and slice your carrots.  These are Atomic Red Carrots, but this dish could be made with any carrot.

Cutting the tops off the carrots

Cook the carrots in salted water until they are tender and drain off the water.

Cooking the sliced carrots

Put cooked carrots and butter in a food processor and process until the mixture is smooth.  Then add vanilla, eggs, sugar, flour, and baking powder and process again until all the ingredients are blended well.

Putting all the ingredients in the processor

It should look just like this after processing:

Mixed and Ready

Spoon it all into a 1 or 2 quart baking casserole dish.

Pouring into a casserole

Ready to go in the oven

Put into the oven for 45 minutes.  The souffle should be firmed up on top when it is done.  Here's a look at a forkful of carrot souffle.

Fork View: About to go into my mouth!

If my plate would have been a 'Dilly Plate,' I would have seen the space rocket on the bottom very quickly. Carrot souffle is the bees' knees.

Planting Sugar Peas

Sunday afternoon before the rains came, I took advantage of getting our sugar snap peas planted on a 30 foot row.  We love these things.  It is the closest thing in the garden to candy.  They are sweet and even kids love them.  To me, they are best raw, but steamed in butter ain't half bad.  I have a cattle panel that I use for a trellis and they will send out little tendrils that grab hold of the trellis as they grow upward. They'll bloom beautiful sweet pea blooms that smell great and attract bees.

So if you want to plant, you've got to get your hands dirty.  Nothing wrong with that. Here's Benjamin holding up a handful of rich soil.  In fact, we love dirt around our place.  It is no coincidence that the dirt forms a heart shaped pattern in his hand.  If you could look closely, you would see the dirt is teeming with tiny organisms, root hairs, organic matter.  It's healthy.  It's ALIVE!

We love dirt!

Another sign of healthy soil is when you find one of these boogers in there.  In the past, we couldn't find an earthworm.  Now you can't dig a hole in the garden without finding them.  It is a testament to not using pesticides and herbicides and using compost and organic matter to amend the soil.  The worms come, dig, feast on good things in our soil, aerate the soil, lessen compaction, enhance drainage, and then poop and their castings fertilize our crops.  What a deal!  I don't have to pay them a cent for all that work.

Not a gummy worm

So Benjamin and I made quick work of digging a trench 30 feet long and 1/2 inch deep and got some seeds out that we've stored in the freezer.  I also used some open pollinated seeds that I saved from our crop last year.  Seeds are cool in that they're essentially dead - dormant, but miraculously, if put in the soil and watered, they'll awaken (sometimes after years) to produce good food for you.

Pass the peas, please

I dropped them in the dirt about two inches apart and then got ready to cover them up.

Let's get ready to rumble...

The little roots you see are from neighboring shallots, garlic chives, and cilantro that are all growing nearby.

Our roots run deep.

In fact, you can see the garlic chives and shallots to the left.  Those are hard to beat in an omelet with some fresh eggs.  In the bottom right you can see some cilantro that came up on its own from last year's seed. That is great in pico de gallo or cooked with eggs as well.  I have a ton of cilantro seeds, if anyone is interested. When it warms up, cilantro bolts (flowers and goes to seed) quickly, so you want to plant them and eat them fast.

If you notice that red thing in the middle of the photo below, I have a story about that.  I was running around like a chicken with his head cut off the other day looking for my Leatherman pocketknife as I needed to cut some baling twine.  A gentleman pulled into the driveway and asked what I was doing.  I told him.  He said that he had the perfect thing for me.  He grabbed an eight inch butcher knife out of his truck that had red duct tape wrapped around the handle and told me that he wraps red tape around all his tools so he can find them easily.  I told him, "Good idea!"  As I handed it back to him, he said, "It's yours."  He told me that he paid 10 cents for it at the Goodwill Store and he knew I'd make good use of it.  AND I DID!  I used it to dig the trench for planting our peas and it worked like a charm.  And since it has red tape on it, I won't be losing it!

Lets cover 'em up

I don't want to disturb the soil structure so I try to no till as much as possible.  The red-handled long knife was the perfect tool for planting peas and the gentleman's timing for coming up my drive was most fortuitous. In fact, in about 68 days when these peas are ready for harvest, I'll repay him for his kind deed with some sugar snap peas.

Rains on the Plains

 "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" - song title from the musical "My Fair Lady"

I don't know about rains in Spain, but around here lately, you could re-write the lyrics of that song to be: "The rain around Hathaway falls each and every day."  Not really, but it sure feels like it.  We actually live on the border of Hathaway and Jennings, but I couldn't think of a word that rhymes with Jennings.  It has been an unusually long, cold, dreary winter and I have cabin fever.  I'm ready to get outdoors in the garden and take on a few projects that I have on my (ever-growing) list.  But the rain keeps falling and falling...

I got out and raked the leaves out of the shallow ditch that flows through our property to allow the runoff to make its way to the roadside ditch.  This drainage didn't exist when we first purchased the property and any rain transformed the land into a muddy mess since the neighbor's rainwater all funneled through our land, so we dug a slight watercourse to channel the water off the property quickly.

Runoff from Sunday's 2.3 inch rain

The water was really rolling under the bridge turbulently, especially once I raked the leaves out of the way.

This photo illustrates the point about the water backing up on the property, turning the pasture into a swamp. See what I mean about it being dreary and grey and gloomy?  I wouldn't be overly concerned about it, but...

We have all those meat birds out on the pasture.  They don't like cold weather and they don't like to get wet.  97 wet birds standing in the mud and other unmentionables don't smell nice.  If they get wet AND cold, they start dying.  In fact we lost two today to the rain and the cold, so we're down to 95.  I'm a couple of weeks away from butchering them and I don't want to lose any more of them now.

If this was a Scratch 'n Sniff picture, you'd be gagging right now!

Enough of the dreary, somber, dismal talk.  If you look hard enough, you can always find something bright and cheery, even on the most overcast day.  Take a look.  In our flowerbed, I spotted this hyacinth that popped up for the second year in a row. Very pretty!  The fragrance it throws off is very strong.

Beauty

Here is another flower, but this time from a tree in our yard.  No leaves on the tree, but the bare branches are loaded with pink blooms.  Can you guess what it is?

Raindrops on blooms

These are blooms on our peach tree.  You are looking at the makings of a future peach cobbler that will be topped with some homemade ice cream.  We have several of these planted around the yard that have grown from seeds in our compost pile. 

Peach blooms

Here are some blooms off another bush in the yard that are about to open.  Raindrops cling to the blooms.

What are these?

They are blooms on our blueberry bushes.  We have 12 bushes in all and each year they've produced more and more.  A warm blueberry muffin right from the oven is heavenly.  That would be tasty right now, but I've got to be patient.

So while we wait for things to dry out, we can look forward to crops that we'll plant and vegetables, fruit and berries that we'll harvest and consume in just a few months.

Robin Hood

We don't have cable TV at our house and really don't spend much time at all in front of the TV, but we were given a free subscription to Amazon Prime which includes Unlimited Videos, so we've been selectively watching a few movies as well as some TV series.  One of the shows we watched was a TV series, "Robin Hood" that the BBC did. I think the series went on for three seasons.  Watching them like this cuts out the commercials, so you can watch an hour-long episode in 42 minutes.  Over the winter, we watched all three seasons, sometimes watching 2 episodes in a night.  It was a fun, family friendly diversion that we looked forward to.

There was action, adventure, suspense, silliness, and even a little romance thrown in with Robin and Lady Marian.

I'm sure you remember the story, but if not, here's a brief synopsis.  King Richard the Lion heart was away in the Middle East involved with the Crusades in battling Muslim invaders.  While gone, a power vacuum enabled an evil, lawless Sheriff of Nottingham to come into power and he imposed exorbitant taxes upon the people in order to enrich himself.  Townsfolk were kept in poverty and endured really hard times due to the sheriff's tyrannical rule.  Robin Hood and his 'Merry Band of Thieves,' a rag-tag group who lived in Sherwood Forest, robbed the sheriff's treasury and gave the proceeds back to the people from which it was stolen in an attempt to provide some semblance of justice while awaiting the King's return.  Robin Hood and his Merry Band of Outlaws did their best to provide justice to the oppressed during an evil, lawless rule while the King was away.  Does this plot and storyline sound vaguely familiar?

It was an enjoyable watch, light-hearted, funny, and had an interesting and new storyline each episode, but one thing struck us while watching the program was the striking similarities to our spiritual reality.

For Believers in Christ, our King is away as well.

John 14:2 NASB

2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

and while He's been away, an evil taskmaster has assumed leadership and he's a cruel taskmaster:

John 10:10 NASB

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

While He's away, the Word of God has given believers directives on how we should live and what we should do while we await the King's return.  (No, we aren't supposed to steal!!)

                Titus 2 NASB

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness andworldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and theappearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

And we can rejoice in the fact that King Jesus will return and justice will prevail!!

                John 12:31 NASB

                31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this                               world will be cast out.

Oh Glorious Day! 

Calcium for the Laying Hens

One thing we've come to understand is that hens need to have a balanced diet (just like humans), in order for everything to work right.  In the Spring and Summer months, there is variety in the pasture and the hens are quite adept at seeking out bugs, worms, grass, seeds, frogs, etc. to satisfy their bodies' nutritional requirements. The animal kingdom is such that they know what they need.  As a side note, Tricia noticed that Maggie was licking her arm.  We purchased a salt block and Maggie licked it like there was no tomorrow.  Animals know what they need, but I digress.

In the winter months we have noticed that there is not much variety at the hens' buffet table, so we've begun to supplement with 17% protein laying pellets.  In just a few short weeks after supplementing with just a little bit of feed, we've seen the egg production skyrocket from 5 eggs a day to 48!  Now causation doesn't equal or imply correlation, but we feel pretty positive that the birds were lacking in nutrition and I remember from biology class that the first thing the body shuts down is the reproductive cycle when nutritive needs aren't being met.

One other thing we've learned sounds just like common sense, but might not be something that you'd think about.  A hen's egg is almost 95% calcium.  A barred rock hen will lay almost an egg every day (they will average about 1 egg every 36 hours). If you think about that they are depleting a lot of calcium from their bodies' stores every time they lay an egg.  We have a container of crushed oyster shells that we leave out in the hen house for them to eat, cafeteria style.

Crushed Oyster Shells

We purchase this from the feed store.  I checked the bag and this oyster shell comes from Mobile, Alabama. It is interesting to me that a company has found an outlet for all their waste.  After harvesting the oyster itself, the company has marketed the shell as well.

As we were discussing earlier, animals just know what they need.  As I added some oyster shells to the container, Ol' Sally walked up and started pecking at the oyster shells.

Sally working on her calcium deficiency

Adding adequate calcium to the hens' diets will enable them to continue laying beautiful eggs with hard shells. In an on-going cycle, we collect the eggs and eat them and then compost the egg shells.  That same calcium that assisted the hens in laying eggs for us to eat, will in turn be worked into the soil via compost and will produce healthy vegetables for us that will provide calcium for our bodies too!

Bully's Nose Plate

Bully is our registered Jersey Bull that is Daisy's "little boy."  We didn't give him an actual name because we intend on selling him.  We don't have room for him on our little farm and don't really prefer to have all the drama that comes with having a bull with the cows full time.  We need to put him with the rest of our cows temporarily, but we don't want him to get our milk.  He's a big fella for a little bull and he could drink all Daisy's milk in no time flat.

We use a little device that we call a 'nose plate' to help with this dilemma.  It probably has an official name, like a Weaner or something.  As you can see below the plate has two appendages with red, rubber balls that are inserted into the calf's nose.  The rubber balls make it somewhat comfortable for the calf - at lease as comfortable as you can be having something in your nose.  One of the appendages slides to the left and right and can be secured in position by tightening the wing nut with a pair of vise grips.

Nose Plate

This picture shows how it would look in Bully's nose.  You would push the balls close together in the nose and tighten the wing nut in order to hold it in place.

Nose plate in 'tighten down' position

On the back-side you can see that the plate has pointed pieces poking out.  The nose plate hangs down in front of the animal's mouth.  If the calf was to try to nurse on his momma, the pointed pieces would poke the cow's udder and cause the momma cow to kick the calf away. 

Points on the nose plate

I held Bully and inserted the nose plate and tightened the wing nut once the plate was in place.

Unhappy Bully

I'm lifting the plate up so that you can see how it is fastened in place.

You may be wondering how the calf eats with this thing in his nose.  Good question. At first it is a little tricky as you can see below.  When the calf tries to eat, the plate gets in the way.

How do I eat with this crazy thing in my nose?

It won't take the calf long to learn that he must extend his neck out to eat and then pull back.  This lays the plate out flat and enables him to grab hay or grass with his tongue and pull into his mouth.  In no time Bully had mastered the process.

Figuring out how to eat with the nose plate in his nose

I just have to keep a close eye on him.  Calves are industrious and notorious for figuring out how to wedge the plate into the fence and pull the nose plate out and then go rob our milk from Daisy.  

I thought that he walked on water

Country music singer Randy Travis sang a song back in 1990 called "He Walked on Water."  It is a very sentimental song about a young boy who looked up to his great-grandfather.  I'd like to talk about this song a little bit, so I've posted the video below that you can watch if you click the arrow.  The lyrics follow below the video so you can read the lyrics if you're not familiar with the ballad, but come back once you're finished watching as I talk about men who I thought walked on water.

                                                "He Walked On Water"

He wore starched white shirts buttoned at the neck,
and he'd sit in the shade and watch the chickens peck.
And his teeth were gone, but what the heck,
I thought that he walked on water.

He said he was a cowboy when he was young.
He could handle a rope and he was good with a gun.
And my mama's daddy was his oldest son,--
and I thought that he walked on water.

[CHORUS]
If the story's told, only heaven knows.
But his hat seemed to me like an old halo.
And although his wings, they were never seen.
I thought that he walked on water.

Then he tied a cord to the end of a mop,
and said, "Son, here's a pony, keep her at a trot."
And I'd ride in circles while he laughed alot.
Then I'd flop down beside him.

And he was ninety years old in sixty-three
and I loved him and he loved me.
And lord, I cried the day he died,

'cause I thought that he walked on water.

[CHORUS]

I really like that song.  The song, to me, is a song about heroes - men you look up to. Now, I'm not talking about fictional super-heroes or the Hollywood-cast figures that aren't authentic.  If you notice, the songwriter's great-grandpa wasn't much to look at and didn't really do anything exceptional by the world's standards, but what he did do was spend time with his great-grandson - and his great-grandson idolized him for it. Have you thought about men who have played a large role in your life and really meant something to you?  Maybe something that they did or said, in some form or fashion, that shaped your life and made you into the person you are today?

My Dad and both of my grandpa's are those people to me.  My Dad is a retired rice farmer.  He taught me the value of hard work and the value of loving one woman and how to be a Dad.  Farming is tough business, especially rice farming as you always have wells running and water to check.  Farming is not a Monday - Friday 9 to 5 job, but my Dad found a way to be there for me by being an involved dad, taking us on vacations, disciplining us, and teaching us how to be men.  I helped him on the farm as a young boy and he taught me a strong work ethic and the ability to appreciate and relish a hard day's work, how to be a one-woman man, and how to be a servant-leader by being involved in a local church. Later I was blessed to be able to work alongside him farming for a few years in some of the best days of my life, back when work was 'fun'. In short, he modeled the example of the dad that I've tried to become, the worker and Christian man that I've tried to emulate.

Fishing for Memories

My Grandpa on my Dad's side was named McKinley and folks called him Mike.  He was a farmer as well and I attribute my love of growing things to him as he took time to help me work up the soil and make a garden for the first time when I was probably 11 or 12 years old.  I've been hooked ever since.  He also took time to take us fishing and we caught many stringers of Bluegill Bream from the cool, clear water of Toledo Bend Reservoir while drinking assorted flavors of Shasta soft drinks from a cooler in the boat and eating grandma's homemade oatmeal cookies.  If I close my eyes and concentrate I can still feel the 'sliminess' of the fish in my hands and the 'fishy' smell that I experienced on those outings.  He loved to have fish fries and I inherited the platter that held those golden brown filets of deliciousness and french fries.

A platter that matters

My Grandpa on my Mom's side was affectionately called Poppy by the grandkids. Poppy ran a grocery store in our small town.  He offered charge accounts to townsfolk where people could charge their groceries. He trusted people.  There were no credit checks.  Your handshake and your word were your bond.  I remember how he would go every Sunday morning and pick up a disabled man named Charles and bring him to church in  his 1973 green Ford Bronco that was 3 speed and column-shifted and looked exactly like the one in the photo below.  He transported many loads of groceries and delivered them to needy folks around our little town.  People loved Poppy.  He taught me how to treat people and about having integrity.  I can remember him telling us grandkids many times, "You're the best kids in the whole world."  Of course we weren't, but he made us feel like we were and that stands out to me.

My Dad, my Grandpa and Poppy would be embarrassed being described as heroes and they would all unequivocally state that, "There's only One Who can walk on water," but the influence they've had on my life and the time they spent with me definitely make them larger than life to me.

2014 Meat Birds at 7 Weeks Old

Weigh in time for the Cornish Cross meat birds tonight as Friday marks the 7 week age point.  Sometimes things just don't go as planned and I can tell this is one of those times.  The birds just aren't putting on weight despite us feeding them four times a day.  Normally we butcher them at 8 weeks, but many times we go an extra week. This time, however, they just seem smaller than normal.  We'll have to see.

We brought Black Eye into the garage for weigh-in

I zeroed out the scale with the bucket on it and then placed the bird in the bucket. He's getting taller that's for sure.  This past week we added a couple of 16 foot panels to extend the area that the birds can move around in.  I also added another gutter feed trough to give them all room to eat when I feed them.

They are certainly drinking lots of water.  The bell waterer that I have has a 5 gallon reservoir and we have to fill that several times a day.  It has warmed up into the 70's so the birds shouldn't be burning an excessive amount of calories to stay warm any longer.  For some reason two birds have died during the last week so we're down to 97 birds now.  It is not out of the ordinary to lose a few from time to time. 

The Biggest Loser

So zooming in we see that Ol Boy weighs 3 pounds 3 ounces, meaning that in the last week he's gained 6 ounces and that is a reduction in the rate of growth that he'd been experiencing.

We're patient, though, and we'll check next Friday.  In the meantime, we will continue feeding them as much as they'll eat and will push the chicken tractor once a day so that they are on fresh grass as the grass is juuuuuuust starting to grow a little bit.  If it takes until 10 weeks to the butcher date, then 10 weeks it will be.

Suppertime!

When I go out to milk the cows I always get a kick out of all the attention I get.  Tricia and I joke around and ask each other, "Do you think the cows, chickens and goats like us, or do they just like the fact that we feed them?"  The answer, of course, is that they view us as objects that give them food.  I like this picture below as it shows the many animals depending on us everyday.  It is a responsibility and one we take seriously, but we enjoy the animals as well.  It's not just a job.

As you can see, there is lots of diversity in our barnyard with Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, Aracauna, Black Star and Cornish Cross chickens roaming around anticipating the rice that I'm going to throw to them. Can you spot the different breeds in the photo?  They get right underneath the feet of the cows sometimes. A three or four pound chicken is no match for an 800 - 950 pound cow.  From time to time we'll have a hen that limps around for a week or so because they didn't move out of the way quick enough.  I'll hear some squawking and I'll have to go push the cow off of the poor bird.  They aren't even aware that they are standing on a hen.

Bosses of the Barnyard

Rosie and Daisy are waiting for me to open the gate, but if you look in the background, you can spot Magnolia back there by her glowing eyes.  We milk Daisy and Rosie twice a day - at 5 am and again at 6 pm.  Maggie is in milk, but she's serving as our nurse cow and she's providing milk to Lily and Amy.  Tricia thought of that idea to keep us from milking all three cows and it has worked out nicely.

Hurry up and open the gate!

We feed them very little in the Spring and Summer as they are grass-fed milk cows, but in the winter when there is no grass, we feed them a little Dairy ration with a square bale of Bermuda hay broken up over it and then we also have round bales of hay out that they always have access to.

Speaking of hay, it was time to climb up in the loft and take inventory of our remaining stock of square bales. In the summer, the boys and I will hoist 100 square bales up into the loft and stack it for use in the winter months.  As I climbed up into the loft last night, I counted 9 bales left - 3 rows of 3 bales.  We had anticipated the hay lasting us into March and our estimates were accurate.  The 70 degree weather hopefully will get the green grass growing again for the girls.

Dwindling stores of hay

Looking back in the other direction, you can see the emptiness of the hay loft.  You can also see the 2 x 4s that I repeatedly bang my head into as I'm walking to the trap door with a bale to throw down.  I probably need to paint them bright red or wear a hard hat when I'm up there! 

The empty loft

The loft will stay empty until this summer when we'll fill it back up again.  An empty loft is a good thing for a couple of reasons.  When it is full of hay, the hens like to make nests and lay eggs that we never find until they are rotten and stinking.  All the hay up there also makes a perfect habitat for rats, although we've waged war on them pretty good this Fall/Winter and have put a serious dent in the rat population.

Update on Annie's Horns

A few weeks ago we posted about our experiment using a band castrator to dehorn Annie.  Annie is Nellie's little girl and she's got some 3 1/2 inch horns that are pointed and dangerous.  Dangerous to your eyes as she is always curiously darting back and forth and could easily gore you in the eye if you're not paying attention and then dangerous to her as I've had to rescue her from being caught in the fence.  She could have hanged herself if I wasn't around.

So as we showed in this post that you can read about if you haven't read it already, we used a band castrator to apply thick rubber bands around Annie's horns to remove the horns slowly.  This morning I noticed something looked different about one of Annie's horns.

One horn is leaning over

I got close to Annie and Lili as they were munching on some Bermuda grass hay to inspect Annie.

Annie's left horn is about to fall off

Her horn has been almost cut in half and is leaning over.  Although it is about to fall off, I read that you are NOT to pull on it or attempt to break it off as this would cause bleeding.  You've got to be patient.

Finally a close-up of the horn.  No blood.  The band has constricted the horn and has almost cut it off completely.  In a few days it should fall off.

One horn almost cut off - no blood, no mess, no pain

After I took this picture I checked on her right horn and the band was well inside of the horn.  I estimate it will start leaning over and will fall off in another week or two. Annie will look a lot different and it will be hard to tell her and her mom, Nellie apart once she's 'horn-less.'