How NOT to Grow Potatoes

Sometimes my inner voice says I'm too preachy about things. It is true that I share a lot more success stories than mistakes. So far, our potato growing has been nothing but missteps and I'm ready to share so we all can learn from them. Here are all the ways I do NOT recommend you grow potatoes. 1) Give potato buckets only a little drainage. Last year we tried growing some seed potatoes in old buckets. I washed them and Alex added a row of holes near the bottom. I said "Don't we need holes on the bottom and up the sides?" But he insisted the single row was enough.

It wasn't. The potatoes grew but rotted before they set new tubers.

Because we still have the buckets and they aren't useful for much else now, I will drill drain holes all over the things this year and try again.

2) Plant potatoes near the pets. Our chickens and dogs conspired against us to destroy the potatoes planted in dirt. Just as they do all over the yard, chickens dug around the potato bed. We gently covered over the exposed seed potatoes and they did continue growing.

In late summer, Devie caught drift of the tubers. What spuds the chickens didn't peck, she gnawed on. That dog will eat anything.

3) Harvest too early. One day at our community garden plot, we were overanxious about harvesting potatoes. The first plants we dug had only tiny tubers. After waiting for several more weeks for the plants to truly die back and leaves to wither, the harvest was much greater.

4) Believe the potato tower myth. For two years now we have operated under the promise of harvesting 100 pounds of potatoes from a few pounds of seeds. We set up our potato tower, added soil, and waited to harvest. Both years we harvested 10 pounds for our one pound planted.

Like One Straw, we found no evidence that potatoes are sending out new tuberlets each time they are covered. The idea that perpetuates the potato tower myth seems to be truly false.

There are still several advantages to the tower.The harvest was dead simple because once the sides were removed the potatoes were visible. It required no digging.

Our animals had no way to get to the tower potatoes. Drainage and watering were not a problem in the open bottomed tower.

Good ideas:

• Space potatoes at a foot or so apart.
• Plant in a mix of soil and straw, hilling up with more soil and straw as the tuber grows.
• Remove flowers when they appear. Legend has it that Marie Antoinette like these flowers for her hair and they are very beautiful.
• Allow potatoes plants to be totally spent, i.e. very yellowed and hanging over, before harvesting.
• Elevating or containing the beds make harvesting easy.

There is one modification to the tower idea that might allow greater harvest in a four foot square area. After the potatoes shoot up 1 foot of stem, train the stem out the side of the tower between planks. Place another layer of soil and seed potatoes on top and allow those to grow as normal. One could be growing two crops on top of each other. We will experiment with this idea this year.

Good luck fellow spud growers! Share your challenges and solutions in the comments.

PS. Don't forget about my free basic gardening ebook, Grow Your Garden! Plant something edible soon.

Added to Simple Lives Thursdays 33.

Eggs in Winter

Our backyard chickens are surviving well through this winter's ice, snow, and feather-burning bulbs. They look plump and healthy and even brave cold feet to come clean up around the base of our bird feeder when there's no active participation. But they aren't laying well. We are collecting an average of two eggs a day from our four hens in comparison to last summer's four eggs daily.

We miss the abundance of yolks and whites. We lament cooking scrambled eggs for breakfast and frittata for dinner, knowing another dozen eggs would come our way in just three days. Surely our family misses the excess we shared with them.

Chickens lay fewer eggs in winter because they are not exposed to as much sunlight and their bodies are consuming more calories to stay warm. Some backyard chicken raisers use light bulbs to stimulate production but rarely achieve the same abundance as in summer.

We are already expending energy to heat the coop on very cold nights with a heat lamp and don't want to add more to that bill. Of course, we could just buy extra eggs and we did during the holiday baking season. We agreed that it felt strange to eat someone else's eggs.

This is the reality of seasonal eating. Without electronic intervention, there are naturally fewer chicken eggs in winter.

Perhaps it's healthier for us to have fewer calorie rich eggs at our disposal during these slow winter months. When spring returns and we are digging, mowing, and otherwise working hard, our bodies will need the dense nutrition of eggs. Our taste buds will better appreciate the abundance after a period of slim pickings too.

More physical labor and eggs in summer, less in winter: a seasonal cycle that satisfies the homestead.

By the way, ever wonder what happens to laying hens when they age and aren't laying well no matter the season? Frijolito Farms, a humane chicken operation in Columbus, is considering how to have a sustainable egg laying population. Farm Wayne has come up with a generous and just solution to the problem of the ne'er laying hen.

We Killed and Ate a Backyard Chicken Today

Some may find pictures in this post graphic. Sometimes you have one idea in mind and the day takes a totally different direction. Today was such a day.

A fellow chicken-keeping family called around 10 in the morning and said this was the day they wanted to kill one of their hens. Speckles, a Speckled Sussex like our Sussey, wasn't laying eggs and wasn't following the flock. They invited us to participate. After a quick read of the Hip Chick Digs method for slaughtering a backyard bird, we headed out for our first chicken kill.

Alex held Speckles and we all said goodbye to her. Hanging her upside down by the feet and covering her eyes, Alex yanked the neck to break it. She was dead in less than five seconds.

Our friend cut the head off and Alex held the bird as about a quarter cup of blood drained away. The chicken's body seized and wings flapped, natural post mortem movements.

A large pot of sub-boiling (140 degree) water was brought outside and Alex dunked the body in for twelve seconds to loosen the feathers. A stench not unlike singed hair filled the air.

We carried the body inside and everyone went to work removing feathers. This job was less tedious than we expected, though many hands contributed. Many feathers were saved for the kids to explore and craft with.

Alex started the butchering by removed the neck bones. Then, he carefully cut a 'Y' shape on the lower abdomen, cut between the cloacha (anus) and tail and pulled out the entrails. We were all fascinated with the chicken anatomy.

The two children were interested in all the body parts so while two adults rinsed and chilled the bird, others dissected the heart, observed the intestines, cleaned the liver, and cut open the stomach. Later Alex found the crop, the stone filled sack chickens use to partially digest their food.

Already we would sense that this bird would be different than any we had tasted. Under the skin and around the organs were huge masses of yellow fat. The leg muscles (drumsticks in culinary terminology) were small in comparison to the body size.

Once fully cleaned, our friends invited us to share a lunch of roasted Speckles with them. Alex trussed the bird with skewers and we surrounded her with onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes, all covered with salt and lemon pepper.

The bird cooked quickly. The flesh was chewier than a broiler bird but very mildly flavored. We did not consume the copious fat, leaving most on the carcass to roast with the bones and make stock.

For some reason, the kids attached to the feet. Each wanted one to preserve for 'making into a tree for the train set' and 'making into a halloween decoration'. We are salt curing ours to draw out moisture and then we'll dry it. Even these oft-discarded parts are finding uses.

Like when we slaughtered the pig, I feel like this was an honest end to this chicken. We killed her humanely. Her flesh fed six for lunch and will provide at least one if not two meals for our three friends. Dissecting her body provided an anatomy education for all of us. The children experienced empathy towards animals, one of many lessons to be learned by witnessing an animal slaughter. Once again I conclude that to know a meal from backyard to plate is immensely satisfying.

Friday Five: Loving Home

It has been one strange week here. On Sunday I was awash with disappointment as the chance to travel to California with Alex slipped from our hands. On Monday, I made no plans. Good thing, because the next three days were spent nursing an ill Lillian and surviving the ice storm. She tested positive for strep and has a viral cough on top of that. Today she is still home from play dates and school recovering with a low fever and icky cough.

Amazingly, I am not stir crazy. Instead, this week gave me five new reasons to appreciate my simple life and home:

1) Chickens: Our girls and their need for care in the winter motivated me to step outside the house each day, something I admit I might not have done otherwise. I slip-slided my way to their coop to refill water and give treats at least twice a day, absorbing sunlight and breathing fresh air as I went.

2) Real Chores: To keep the fire going, I moved wood in the house. I washed dishes, did laundry, and cooked real food. Though they may seem like simple tasks, when addressed mindfully, keeping house was rewarding for me.

3) Food stores: We have a lot of food in this house. Dozens of jars of home canned fruits and vegetables sit in the basement alongside pounds of flour and a freezer full of meat. Though icy branches creaked and breakers burst, I knew we could stay inside and eat well for many days, probably even weeks.

4) Warmth: In the afternoon each day this week I started a fire in our wood stove. It wasn't easy because our most recent delivery of wood is entirely big pieces and the ice prevents me from splitting it. But I did get fires going, leaving me confident that even if the electric power failed in the ice storm I could keep Lil and I warm.

5) Support: Friends and family overwhelmed me with offers of assistance this week. There were phone calls, facebook and twitter conversations, and food delivered. I am so grateful for the virtual and in person encouragement.

Alex was the only thing missing this week and he returns this evening to complete our loving home.

PS. Are you on the Hounds in the Kitchen newsletter list? There's a simple sign up form to the right. I'm making a big announcement there next week!

Wordless Wednesday: Iced Homestead

Mystery of the Missing Feathers

This is our chic Australorp hen, creatively named Austra. I like to call her the queen of the chickens and generally regard her as a bit more intelligent than the rest of the flock. She is the definitely the most responsive to our family's actions, coming and clucking gently when we call her.

I was naturally concerned when I noticed the tips of feathers missing on her right wing a few weeks ago. They were not removed down to the skin. It looked almost as though something took a bite out of the feathers.

Yesterday I saw that a whole half of her tail feathers were gone. Ack! I panicked a bit until I considered the shape - vaguely circular. A little like the shape of the ceramic heat bulb we turn on in their coop at night when it is very cold.

Inspecting the bulb revealed feathers burnt and stuck to it. Mystery solved. Apparently our 'smartest' chicken cuddled so close to the heat source that it singed off her feather tips. Thankfully she seems to be surviving the cold without them. We are moving the lamp so the bird-brained chickens can't de-feather themselves anymore.

PS. Notice the shadows in the picture? Today is our one alloted day of sunshine per fortnight in the Ohio winter! I'm soaking it in; I don't even care that my pictures look goofy because of the direct light!

2011 Resolutions

I am a suggestible self-controlled perfectionist.  Therefore, new years resolutions are usually successful for me.  Of course, I help myself out by creating reasonable and measurable resolutions.  Let it be resolved that in 2011, I will: 1. Fix my headbone. I've been fairly quiet about it here, but since September I have suffered from sinus infections and pressure. I finally had a c/t scan that revealed turbinates and bone blocking normal sinus flow. Surgery to remove the offending tissue is scheduled for the end of January unless I can get in earlier.

2. Make crackers regularly so that we no longer buy them.

3. Find a source and purchase local and/or organic chicken feed.  Our current feed from Purina is a travesty to the local food movement and probably not the greatest for the girls either.

4. Learn to edit and publish videos with less frustration.

5. Hike at least once a month. Backpack and camp at least three times.

6. Budget more towards savings. We want to travel a lot and money seems to be the constant excuse for why we cannot. If we budget more for savings, it follows that we will have more savings to spend on travel.

7. Return to a feel-good weight and tone. The sinus issues have knocked me out of my healthy eating and exercise routines. I want to lose a little weight and regain strength. I'll share my tips and tricks for doing so in the next few weeks.

8. Practice being content. I so enjoy bettering myself and my surroundings that I am rarely satisfied to be still. I want to work on being thankful for where I am.

How Are The Chickens?

"How are your chickens?," I am asked frequently. The follow-on question is, "Are they ok in the cold?"

We chose backyard chicken breeds specifically for cold hardiness.  Indeed our Orpingtons, Australorp, and Speckled Sussex seem to be surviving quite well, though they are not clucking and cooing with pleasure as they did in the summer and fall.  Maybe they miss their visits from Lil, far more infrequent in the cold weather.

Winter Chicken Keeping Tactics

We took pity on the girls when the high temperatures dropped below freezing and installed a ceramic heat lamp in their coop.  This gives enough heat to melt snow on top of the roost lid.

We frequently add layers of bedding so they can nest in dry spots.  The biggest risk to chickens is frostbite on their combs and feet.  We are checking their health daily and thus far see no evidence of harm.

We change the water as often as three times a day to prevent it from freezing. 

We refill the feeder every two days.  The hens are consuming a lot more dry feed than they did over the summer when we filled every three or four days.

Lil and I are growing sprouts for them to eat.  They love the greenery and sprouts provide great supplemental nutrition.

The chickens free-range in the yard very little, seemingly fearful of the snow.  We question whether they are smart enough to return to the coop when their feet are cold, so we limit their snow play to an hour or so at a time.

Winter Egg Laying

As we expected because of reduced daylight, we are collecting far fewer eggs.  Our current average harvest is 10 eggs a week whereas in summer we were collecting 25.  Sussey the Speckled Sussex seems to be molting and not laying at all while she regrows feathers.

The eggs we do collect are more precious than ever.  We use them for dishes where egg quality is most noticeable, such as sunbread and breakfast scrambled eggs.  As much as it pained us to do so, we bought eggs from the store this week to fulfill our holiday baking needs.

Thanks to all who have asked about our girls!  We love to talk about them and are very glad they are doing well so far this winter.

Added to Simple Lives Thursday.