Strawberry Jam

My momma always made the best strawberry jam. It was one of her specialties. I haven't had REAL strawberry jam in over eleven years; since I left home. Now I have a real house with a real kitchen, and I'm gonna have me some jam!

I started my quest for jam by going to my former local U-pick farm. They wanted $3.60 a pound, and you pick them yourself! I nearly fainted!!! They are $1.50 a quart in the grocery store right now, and there's about a pound and a half in a quart! I refused to pay that much. If necessary, I'd wait until my own plants are big enough to produce. Last Tuesday I asked around my new town for contact info on a U-pick farm for strawberries. The next day, one of the ladies I visited with gave me a call. She knew of an Amish family who might have some. She gave me their telephone number (Amish...telephone...?) and I called. The Amish wife and mother had a traditional Amish sounding name. It was so neat. She spoke with a very thick Dutch accent. They do more of a truck-patch style farm, and don't normally allow others to come and pick. They do the work themselves. However, the berries were so sparse, it wasn't worth her time to pick them anymore for the season. I asked if she would consider allowing me to come and pick myself. I didn't mind if it was harder picking. She told me there were so few that she didn't know if I would be able to find enough to make the 12 quarts I wanted. I told her I was okay with that. I'd take what I could get. She agreed that I could come as long as I understood I may not be able to find as many as I wanted. We arranged for me to arrive at their farm at 8:30 Thursday morning. I arrived ten minutes late, because even with directions, it was hard to find. It's one of those places where you can't get there from here. She was so gracious and not at all put out with my tardiness. She had five children, and I surmise one on the way, even though she looked to be around 18 herself. (I know she wasn't, but she looked SO young!) They were all so sweet and friendly. From what I've read about the Amish I expected the children to be somewhat fearful of outsiders, and the adults to be standoffish. That wasn't the case at all. She and I talked a mile a minute the whole time I was there. She had gone out the night before and picked 12 quarts of berries for me, because she was worried I wouldn't be able to find enough, and she only charged me $2.70 a quart for them, "Because they're so scrawny." I was thrilled! I plan to return in the fall for sweet potatoes, and feel I might have made a friend.

It was so interesting to get to see a real Amish home and see how they REALLY live. They didn't have any electric outlets or light switches. They had gas lamps every where, but they had a refrigerator. I expected everything to be plain, no frills or anything to lend prettiness. She had curtains at the windows, not just blinds, and she also had flowers on her canisters and tea kettle. There was a picture on the wall, too. I can't say enough about what a positive experience it was.

I canned 12 pints of freezer jam, seven pints of canned jam that can just sit on a shelf, and then froze a gallon freezer bag FULL of berries to be used later.

I'm SO tickled!

I just learned that I am eligible to be a patron of the county library. You just have no idea how huge this is to me! I've not been able to have a library card in over nine years. Imagine- a teacher who doesn't have a library card. That's just WRONG!!! My plan is that I will come to the library once a week (it's a 40 minute drive) and check in. We are limited to one hour per day on the computer, though, so I don't know how much of that hour will need to be spent answering e-mails and doing research, but at least there's hope for my blog. :)

Home Grown Chicks

My little cochin hen has hatched a fine bunch of chicks! Believe it or not, there are six babies under her! Here she is with the babies, already teaching them to eat bugs and seeds, and they are only one day old!

These chicks are not biologically hers. She was so determined to set, and I had not been saving eggs for her to set, that I got some from the local farmer's market.(She quit laying because she wasn't eating enough or getting exercise.) Their father is a brown leghorn rooster. I can't remember for sure what the mothers were. I think they were buff orpington, production red, and maybe barred Plymouth rock. It will be interesting to watch them grow and see what they end up looking like.

One of our goals is to get to the place where we can raise chicks with real mommas and never have to utilize a hatchery unless we want to try a new breed.

Special Iris

I bought my iris four years ago. The first two years they didn't bloom at all. Last year they attempted to bloom in the fall without sending up the stalk the flower is on. The blooms were down in the leaves where they couldn't open up very well. It was weird! This year, though, they must like our new home as much as I do, because they are blooming beautifully! I wish I had bothered to keep track of the names of them. This one is so dark purple it's almost black:
I call this one purple splash, for lack of a real name:

And these are the ones that were already here when we moved in. They were such a pleasant surprise! I fully expected them to be that plain, light purple that all iris seem to revert to over time. They are so pretty! Once they quit blooming I will clean out the bed and separate them.

The Chicken Coop

This is our chicken coop. It's a remodeled rabbit hutch. It's approximately 4' wide, which allows plenty of roost space for my flock of 14 semi-mature chickens, since I have two rungs for them. One of my many summer projects will be to give it a good scrubbing and a fresh coat of paint. I'd also like to put a tin roof on it.

Here is a front view with the lid up. This allows for easy access for cleaning and taking care of the chickens.

Here is a side view with the lid up. We added another wall instead of wire to help block the westerly winds.

This is looking down into the coop. We used broom handles because they were cheaper than wooden dowels. One was free! It was in the barn when we moved here, and the straw was all rotted off it. I would have preferred to harvest some green tree limbs, strip the bark, and allow the chickens to roost on them. I think it would be healthier for their feet, but the small size of this coop requires the uniformity of the broom handles.

This is another side view to show that the entire thing (except the back) is fully enclosed with hardware cloth type wire. I've heard of raccoons actually grabbing a chicken's leg and pulling it out through the wire and chewing it off. I hope we've used good enough wire that this will never be a concern for our birds!