You just never know who you are going to work with I tell you. I deal with a number of people each day and not one of them has ceased to surprise me. We oftentimes forget that outside of 9am to 5pm our colleagues are people too; hobbies and all.

One of the IT guys I work with and speak to on a regular basis got to talking to me one day about the kind of potatoes we grow here. When I mentioned Russet’s he insisted on sending me a recipe he favored. And while I have yet to prepare it or pass it to Pan to give a shot at, I am sure it is going to be fantastic. So I thought it only right to share my buddy Alan’s recipe with y’all. Bon apetit!

• Preheat the oven to 425
• Cube either 2-medium size Russet potatoes or 4-red skinned new potatoes
• Each Russet should yield 24 or so cubes
• Mix cubes with 1 tbsp. of EVOO in a large-size bowl
• Toss the potatoes to coat
• Add 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• Add 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
• Toss the potatoes again to coat thoroughly with the salt and pepper
• Add 1/4 teaspoon each of dried Oregano, Rosemary, and Parsley
• Spread parchment or wax paper on a baking/cookie sheet
• Spread out potato cubes on the sheet making sure they only make one solid layer
• Bake for 25 minutes
• Remove and flip over
• Continue to bake for 15 additional minutes
• Just before they are finished, remove and grate fresh, Parmesan cheese on top with a microplane grater
• Put back in oven on Broil for 2-3 minutes until cheese is just melted

This past year I have been fortunate enough to write for several publications including Farmers’ Almanac online. My work there led to an invite to write for the 2011 print edition; American and Canadian editions. And now, as of Monday, my article will be on newsstands everywhere.

The article, 5 Gardening Trends for 2011 and Beyond, is three pages of advice, trends, and tips for the upcoming year in the garden. I can hardly remember what I wrote, to be honest, but I am sure that one day soon I’ll make myself sit down to reread my thoughts.

Published every year since 1818, the Farmers’ Almanac is the go-to source for inspirational and useful tips. Time tested and generation approved, each edition of the Farmers’ Almanac is a compendium of knowledge on weather, gardening, cooking, remedies, managing your household, preserving the earth and more.

And to celebrate the publishing I am going to be giving away a copy of the American edition. To be eligible you need only:

• Comment on this blog post
• Post about my entry on your own blog (and provide me a link)
• Promote this contest on Twitter (and hashtag it with #farmersalmanac
• Post a status update on Facebook (and tag me)
• Send me a personal email including your social security number, bank account number, and PIN

The winner of my most recent give-away (remember…it involved a book and Ball jars?) was my dear blogging friend Tara Wagner. Some of you may know her as The Organic Sister either on her blog or on Twitter.

Tara – along with her husband Justin and her son Zeb – are nomads, if you will. They currently live full-time on the road out of their 22-foot, veggie-oil powered, solar driven, Winnebago. Why, you ask? They travel for two reasons: 1) To find a place that feels like home, and 2) to absorb what they can along the road.

Well just recently Tara announced that she is now selling her photography. While she freely admits she is not the world’s best photographer, I think she has quite an eye and always comes across with beautiful shots of life – as it happens and where it happens. One of my favorite prints of hers is also the header image for Justin’s blog. It’s called ‘The Open Road’ and her version (for sale here) features a wonderful quote by William Least Heat Moon.

To celebrate her new passion (and form of income) Tara is hosting a give-away here.

She wants to share her prints with TWO lucky winners:

• The first winner will receive an 8×12 laminated print: you choose your fave photo and border color.
• The second winner will receive a collection of each of my cards: you choose either postcards or notecards or a combination of the two!

If contests aren’t your thing though you can simply view and purchase her photography by visiting her RedBubble site.

Congratulations Tara on sticking with your passion and finding a market for it. May you have many successful sales!

Today brought about a bittersweet time at the raised beds.

For the last week I have spent a little bit of time each morning before work weeding a little, clipping dead growth, and outright pulling tomato plants. This morning I pulled the last plant and I have to admit I was a bit sad as the spring/summer season has been extremely good to us in terms of toms and bell peppers (both planted in the raised beds).

But as all things tend to go, the old had to make way for the new. So by 10am or so Pan and I had finished weeding the beds, turning over the old dirt, adding in some Black Kow topsoil, putting in a little organic plant food, and laying in new seed.

The three beds are now home for what will be a great harvest of Georgia Creole Collards, Lolla Rossa Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Kale, and Beets.

What about you? Have you planted for the fall yet? Are you still harvesting spring/summer crops? If so, what are you planning for the fall?

Congratulations to Tara Wagner (otherwise known as theorganicsister or @OrganicSister) who is the winner of the 100th Ball Blue Book® Guide to Preserving. Tara’s name was picked randomly from all the entries submitted.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Organic Sister (as well as her husband Justin and her son Zeb) you should take a look at her blog. The Wagner currently live full-time on the road out of our 22-foot greened-out Winnebago. Tara blogs about living “beyond green”, mindful parenting, and the adventures of living simply, radically, authentically and in full embrace of Life and all its offerings.

Tara, just email me and let me know where I can send the book or if you want me to hold it until y’all are “docked” somewhere or even if you want to “regift” it directly.

Thank you to each person that entered. More give-aways are coming. I like giving things away!

It is safe to say we have all heard the Disney anthem Circle of Life. Though not quite so lyrical, life on a small farm is quite similar.

When you raise chickens for meat, the logical endpoint of the aforementioned circle is, of course, the processing and butchering. When you live in a more rural setting it seems you have two choices about how this will be done: by you or by someone else. Pan and I (as well as my daddy who is always a part of our adventures) decided 14 weeks ago when we purchased ten Buff Orpingtons to kill our chickens ourselves, and the book or two I own as well as the ‘net sites I have read on raising chickens  all assumed that that is what we’d be doing.

In preparation I even took to Facebook asking my ‘friends’ how they felt about killing chickens and if they had any tips for us. I got over 35 responses of people remembering how their grandmother’s did it or how I should just become vegetarian. Whatever the case, Pan and I felt confident come this past Saturday that we could do what we had set out to do – only more humane than our homesteading predecessors.

One thing I noticed in my research is that most seasoned chicken farmers and even the authors of my books on the subject have been raising chickens for some time. They are qualified. They are even good at it. And they write in such a way to make chicken raising seem both enjoyable and something easy enough for anyone to do. The same goes for their take on processing (I refuse to say slaughtering in any context.) And sure, it is easy enough in theory. But there are a handful of small’ish’ things that come up which I think should be outlined for those reading and perhaps thinking about beginning their own agricultural circle of life.

For our purposes we chose the ‘killing cone method.’ A bird is placed in the cone headfirst to restrain it during the killing process. Our cone was nothing more than sheet tin purchased at the local hardware store. It is quite easy to build and is much cheaper than the metal cones available commercially. We chose this method because the cones restrain the bird better and prevent bruising of the carcass as the bird convulses (if they even convulse).  The cone also exposes the head and the area beneath the cheeks which will be the points of knife insertion. Simply chopping their heads off is messy, antiquated, and inhumane, in my book.  Blood goes everywhere and can be aspirated back into the lungs.  It also makes it hard to restrain the birds, and it flopping around can bruise the meat and even break wing and leg bones in the process, leaving an unappetizing appearance.

Our cone was nailed into a telephone pole at our back gate at a height convenient to us. We also placed a 10-gallon bucket under the cone to catch the blood.  After the first bird I got the idea to put an inch or so of water in the bottom of the bucket to prevent the blood from coagulating.

As we delivered the first bird to the cone I encountered the first of my small hiccups. No book had adequately covered how difficult it is for a caring human being to kill a chicken. I guess the authors of my books have become used to it, or  don’t want to discourage readers from following through. Fair enough! But there should be some warning about the eyes. A nice, big, caution logo should be mandatory in every book and on every website that deals with this topic. May I offer this? Once the chicken is dead, do not dwell on its eyes.

There also is no warning in regards to the feel of that first chicken. You catch him, pick him up, and hold him steady, ready for the end. Since you rarely get this close to a chicken, you look her over. You’ve done well as a neo-homesteader. She has been a good chicken and is really healthy looking. I recommend holding her by her feet as soon as you can. You will feel her squirm a bit but for the most part she eases into her role. I can guarantee that you will want to hold her close to you – like a pet, even – and pet her.  You simply can’t though. This is an age-old process and you knew 14 weeks ago that it would all come to this. This creature is food. I admit that as I pulled each chickens head through the cone I quietly told them they had been a good bird and that it was okay to fulfill their role.

Taking the life of an animal is a responsibility. It should not be taken lightly.

Do not prolong the process though. That is when inhumanity sets in. Dip the bird into the cone, pull out the head, hold underneath the tendon attachment for the beak and tongue and sever the jugular vein and carotid quickly and smoothly. Make sure you have absolutely sharp knives for this process.  The sharper the knife, the cleaner the cut and the bird will bleed out faster and more completely. At this point we allowed the bird to bleed out long enough to die. We then severed the head and removed the carcass from the cone. A simple slipknot around each claw and the bird was ready to be hung from the hanging post with the breast of the chicken facing us. We then allowed them to drain – beheaded – until all the blood had drained. At this point we were ready to skin the chicken.

Our first cut was around the yellow part of the leg joint but only deep enough to separate the skin; not deep enough to cut the leg tendon.

We then pulled down the skin from the leg, cutting just deep enough for the skin to come loose from around the meat. A firm pull down, laterally to each side allowed us to cut away the other skin to reveal the leg meat that would be cut off later. We then continued to cut and pull the skin all the way down and backwards around the upper thigh. At this point the process became pull, cut, repeat. The skin came off quickly and will keep us from having to de-skin our chicken before or cooking or even worse after cooking when all the flavor has been absorbed by it.

After all the skin was removed we untied the claws and laid the naked bird on the butcher table ultimately removing its feet and butchering it as we would a whole chicken purchased at the grocery store.

I don’t think killing chickens will ever get any easier, per se. I started by going after the smaller, weaker birds before going for the alpha male and his #1 hen-friend; each one destined for their circle to be completed. Each time from here out will become more systematic, methinks, but never easier. The trick, I now feel, is the respect shown the bird and the humility in the killing. It doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t make you feel powerful. In fact, it made me feel quite weak and almost draconian. But I followed through and complete yet another step in pursuit of a self-sustained lifestyle. My flock was good. They will continue to be good as they will put food on the table for what we figure should be nearly 10 meals.

What experiences do you have processing chickens? Do you have your own backyard flock? If not, would you consider one now? And what about the killing experience? Did you find out anything that “the books” simply don’t tell you? Share your experience with us.

This season has been full of canning and jarring.

Pan and I have made and “put up” everything from Apple Butter and Blueberry Jam to snap beans, butterbeans, and homemade salsa. None of it would be possible though without the good ‘ol mason jar!

A mason jar is nothing more than a glass jar used in canning to preserve food. They were invented and patented by John L. Mason in 1858. They are also called Ball jars, after Ball Corp., a popular and early manufacturer of the jars; fruit jars because they are often used to store fruit; or generically glass canning jars. The Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company began manufacturing the fruit jars in 1884 in Buffalo, New York. While largely supplanted by other methods for commercial mass-production, they are still commonly used in home canning.

In modern usage, the terms often refer specifically to jars featuring a two-piece cover: An inner, flat, metal or glass lid, covered by a screw-on ring. The ring holds the lid in place during the canning process, which creates a partial vacuum, sealing the lid until opened. The lids are sold separately so that the jars and rings can be reused.
Mason jars are made of soda-lime glass, and come in a variety of sizes including pint, quart, half-gallon, and cup sizes, as well as in wide-mouth and regular mouth shapes.

It is important to also note that Ball and Kerr are both made entirely in the USA and are currently based in Muncie, Indiana. The plant was moved there after a destructive fire in the Buffalo plant before the turn of the century (20th, that is).

The most common US brands of Mason jars are Ball and Kerr, both brand names now part of the Jarden corporation.

DID YOU KNOW: The safety pin of hand grenades would be pulled and the grenades would be placed in glass Ball Mason jars which would hold back the safety lever. The safety lever would release upon the shattering of the jar and the grenade would detonate. This particular Improvised Explosive Device was popular with chopper crews in Vietnam, who would use them as improvised anti-personnel cluster bombs during raids. They were easy to dump out of the flight door over a target, and the thick Ball Mason glass was resistant to premature shattering in the air.

AND NOW FOR THE GIVE-AWAY: That’s right, anotherkindofdrew.com is having its first give-away. All you have to do is answer the question, “What is your favorite way to use the Ball jar?” It can be a beloved recipe, or some sort of craft project, or even as a button collector. Whatever the case, you have 4 chances to have your name put into the ‘ball jar’ for a chance to win. You can

1. Answer the question in a comment here
2. Comment on Facebook under the appropriate status update
3. Tweet about the give-away (to shamelessly drive traffic my way)
4. Blog about the give-away

If you choose one of the last 3 options, just email with the appropriate link.

HERE’S WHAT YOU WIN: The winner (chosen by random.org) will receive a copy of the 100th Anniversary Edition Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving packed with over 500 tried and true recipes and step-by-step instructions, in the mail.

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Top image: Ball Jar Museum courtesy and ©Brandy Shaul 2006

In the last post Scissors & Drumsticks suggested we try Dilly Beans. It occurred to me that everyone might not know what they were talking about. So, I thought I would post the recipe ©allrecipes.com

This weekend seemed a bit excessive. We took the car out 6 times and 4 of those were to the grocery store. We ended up having a bit of a canning-palooza and found ourselves needing more supplies than we could remember when we even wrote our list. So what did we do to offset those trips as much as possible? Well, considering we were only picking up 1 or 2 items at a time, we opted to “Just Say No” to the bag(s). Even though the less-than-excited check out guy tried to put our pickling salt in a bag and then our white vinegar in a separate bag, I quickly spoke up saying, “You know what? We’re cool. We don’t need the bag.” He asked if were were sure and we shook our heads.

So my little tip for the day is to “Just Say No” the next time you are in the store without your reusable bags. Is two or three items really too hard to handle?