Chicken Stock

Why is chicken soup superior to all the things we have, even more relaxing than 'Tylenol'? It is because chicken soup has a natural ingredient which feeds, repairs and calms the mucous lining in the beginning or ending of the nervous system. It is easily pulled away from the intestine through too many laxatives, too many food additives....and parasites. Chicken soup...heals the nerves, improves digestion, reduces allergies, relaxes and gives strength.

Hanna Kroeger, Ageless Remedies from Mother's Kitchen

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If you don't know, that natural ingredient that she mentions above is gelatin-rich meat stock...and in this case, chicken stock.

Since it is close to stewing hen time, I thought it would be a good time to post a recipe for chicken stock. Chicken stock can be used for more than making chicken soup, of course, and by doing so, we can get more of this gelatin-rich broth into our system to bring about healing and health. Use it in places that call for water, like stir fying & making rice.

Making stock isn't hard (the stove does most of the work), it just takes a little bit of time....but it's time well spent!

The best (easiest) way to make stock is to make a big batch and then freeze it into freezer bags in the size amounts that you use most. If you have a really big stock pot, you can double this recipe.

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CHICKEN STOCK

Farm-raised, pastured/free ranged chickens give the best results. Many battery-raised chickens will not produce stock that gels.

6 lbs chicken scraps *
4 qts. water
3-4 carrots, peeled & coarsely chopped
1 med onion, coarsely chopped
2 leeks, including green part, coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, with leaves, coarsely chopped **
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs parsley
7-10 peppercorns
2 Tbs. salt
3/4 cup dry white wine (or 1/4 cup vinegar) ***


Place chicken into a stockpot and add water. Bring to boil, removing scum that rises to the top. After scumming subsides, put the rest of the ingredients into the pot and bring everything back up to a boil.


Reduce heat to simmer and cook covered for 4-24 hours. The longer you cook the stock, the richer and more flavorful it will be.

Remove from heat and cool some.
Remove the chicken pieces and big chunks of veggies from the stock with a slotted spoon.
Strain stock through several layers of wet cheesecloth over a strainer.
Reserve chicken meat for soup or other uses. Discard everything else but the liquid.
Refrigerate.


The test to whether your stock contains good amounts of gelatin is done by chilling the broth. It should thicken, and thicken to the point of jelling completely like a bowl of jello, when refrigerated.
The whitish stuff on the top is the fat, scrap it off and discard.
Scoop out the amounts needed and put into a covered container or freezer bag.
Use immediately, refrigerate (for up to several days) or freeze.

* Chicken scraps can be bones, necks, backs and other scraps (chicken feet are loaded with gelatin so don't be afraid to use them!). If using whole chicken, cut it up into pieces.
** Using the center of your celery bunch works well as that is where the leaves and the 'not as pretty' stalks are. If a bunch of celery is going bad before you can use it all up, put it into the freezer and when you make stock, pull it out and use that.
*** Don't be tempted to leave out the wine/vinegar thinking it is not important; you need this acid to pull out the minerals from the bones.

One Big Egg!

Since we have some older hens, we are getting some jumbo and x-jumbo eggs. As the hens age they lay few but bigger eggs. The other day John brought in one that was the biggest I've seen. I got the tape measure out to see just how big it was.


Now aren't you glad you didn't lay that one!?!?!?


I put this x-jumbo egg (really it's almost a double jumbo) next to a reg jumbo egg and a quarter just to compare.


Then a few days later I got another one. It was almost the same size but not quite as big, but both were a handful as you can see. I believe this eggs is coming from the same hen as the shell types are the same.



So I decided to make breakfast out of that one really big egg. I usually do 2 regular eggs (if I have any regular ones to eat as we usually keep the really big ones, really small ones, cracked ones or the weird shaped ones for us so regular isn't something we have often in the frig) or I could use 4 small ones or a combo of 1 big and 1 small.....but I thought that this time the 1 super big one would be enough. Sure enough it was! I was wondering if it would be a double yoker. Notice the color of the yokes? The bright orange color comes from the grass that the hens get to eat. You won't see that in any store egg! I cooked it up with our grass-fed, nitrite free pork bacon.


Time to eat!
The toast has homemade strawberry/blueberry/red raspberry jam made from our organically grown strawberries, blueberries and red raspberries using the pectin we sell that allows me to choose the kind & amount of sugar to add to it, so it is low-sugar mixed berry jam. The toast is a bit darker than I would like but everything was yummy just the same.
A great start to a busy day.

Survey winners

We have mailed out our farm newsletter, order form and price list for the 2011 season but this we included a local food survey. If you filled it out and returned that survey to us by April 30, you could be included in a drawing for a $10 gift certificate for Fair View Meadow Farm. There were to be 3 winners and today is May 1.... so the winners are:

Ann Wakefield
Dennis Livchak
Helene Lain

Congratulations!

Thank you for taking the time to fill this out and share your thoughts with us. Also a thank you goes out to the others that took the time to fill it out and send it in as well but didn't get their name pulled.

Smoked Ham with Apple-Maple Glaze

Just in time for your Holiday meal.

We have the smoked ham and the maple syrup, all you need to supply is the butter and apples. How easy is that! Our hams (and bacon) are smoked and cured the traditional way without the use of nitrites. Enjoy!

Smoked Ham with Apple-Maple Glaze

serves 6 to 8

3 to 4 pound, semi-boneless cold smoked ham

1 to 2 large tart baking apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped

2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 to 3/4 cup pure maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 325º F.

Rinse the ham well with cold water and pat dry. Place in a baking dish or roasting pan large enough to comfortably hold the ham, and cover tightly with foil.

Bake the ham until completely heated through, about 20 minutes per pound. About 10 minutes before the ham is done, melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat until it begins to foam. Saute the apples in the butter until tender and golden, about 5 minutes, and add the maple syrup. Increase the heat slightly and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the syrup begins to thicken. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Remove the ham from the oven and increase the temperature to 350º F. Carefully pour the juices from the ham into the skillet with the apple/maple syrup mixture and stir to combine. Spoon the glaze back over the ham and return to the oven. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 15 to 20 minutes to glaze the ham, basting it every 5 minutes.

Remove the ham to a cutting board and allow it to rest for about 5 minutes before carving; reserve the glaze from the pan. Carve, spoon the glaze over the slices and serve.

Recipe variation: Want to try this but don't want to get a big ham? There is only goint to be 1 or 2 of you eating at this meal? Why not try some of our ham slices and put them in a baking dish, cover and then bake. Add other ingredients as above and drizzle over your slices. You won't even need to cut it up with this version.

FarmToons

I thought I'd share some farm/animal cartoon that Jacki Palmer-Boyce sent to me a few days ago. I, by far, like the first one best. By sharing, it brought a smile to my day so I thought I'd pass some along to you. Thanks Jacki!

The Exodus

Last night and today we've had a good size snow storm come through. I just measured the stuff on the sidewalk and so far, as it's still snowing, we've gotten 9" of the heavy wet stuff.

Ye Olde Cow Path, Watch Thy Step......

Have you heard that saying before? It's true, cows do have paths.... and ours are no different. They are creatures of habit. Ours have a path from the pasture barn to the bigger pasture area where John feeds them everyday when they can't get to the grass themselves. We can see them walk this path from our kitchen window. We've seen them do this many times but today was rather unique. It was 11am and still snowing but apparently they were tired of waiting for us so they made the trek out themselves hoping we'd notice and bring lunch. Sometimes these guys act just like children!



Gabriel (our bull) lead the way this time plowing through the snow for the crew...and it really did look like he was plowing. I missed getting a pic of that before he went behind the trees. Everyone is in single file with their heads down headed for the food area.....moving no faster than the one in front of them.
This is what they call herd mentality....one leads and the rest just follow--following and not really thinking about what they are doing.



Still coming.....



First part of the herd coming out from behind the trees on the left with the tail end still on the other side.



Coming into the area where they get fed.




Still coming.....

Then they stood there waiting for the food to come. If we opened the window, we could hear them calling us. John when out a bit later. They will munch for a while then, as they usually do, make their way back to the barn using the same path that got them there.

It a Boy!

Well, we knew ahead of time it was a boy but now it's official.

Our 4 generation farmer (we hope he enjoys farm life) has finally arrived! He was 11 days late and it took 36 hours to get him here....mom and dad were exhausted. Owen's debut was Jan 19th, weighing 8 lbs 2 oz.


A proud mom and dad



This one cracks me up as when Chad and I arrived at the hospital the 2nd day, we found him wrapped up tight like a mummy. The look on his face almost says "help me"---'AH... Grandma, finally--get me out of this straight jacket!'



So, of course, we had to help....and we let him go free. Seems happier doesn't he?!?!

He was actually quite interactive while we were there. It wasn't long after freedom that he found his hand, fingers and thumb, then he tried to get them into his mouth. Uncle Chad helped coach him though the process in getting the thumb in there and not the knuckles. He did OK for a beginner but still needs practice.


Then it was time to leave, so we had to give him back to dad. I think after we left, he then got that mummy wrap again. We hope he enjoyed his time while being out and about.