Busy, Busy, Busy



Remember Renegade chicken? The one hen we couldn't keep in for the life of us? Well, she was very busy elsewhere - she came out of the woods yesterday followed by 5 very cute surprises! I feel so bad for all those times I tried to catch her and put her back in the coop! Our last rooster must be the dad - I hope these new girls grow up to be colored egg layers! Since mom is not very popular with the rest of the flock, she and babies are shacked up in the rabbit hutch for the time being...

The ketchup turned out well, and the one half filled jar is quickly being consumed, mostly on eggs :). If you go ahead and make it (recipe is here - I used all granulated sugar since that's all we had on had, and of course, instead of the tomato paste I used about a gallon of crushed tomatoes from the garden, cooked down forever!), I would go light on the onion and garlic powder - just a pinch. I wanted a really "plain" sweet-sour type ketchup, and this one is a tad too oniony for me - just personal taste though, it is very good! Definitely use a crock pot - I simmered it down (you have to reduce the tomato puree by at least 50 percent) for literally days, b/c whenever I was in the kitchen I would turn it on to reduce for an hour or two. Crockpot cooking this one is definitely a better idea.

We went ahead and made an offer on the house/farm below - nerve-wracking indeed! We're in the middle of negotiating the offer - making progress, but I'll be happy when we know we've come to a final compromise and it's ours (if it passes inspections of course :) Everything is in place now with money and mortgage, so if the hunt resumes, we'll be ready! I know Silver Forge Farm will find a permanent home this year.... exciting changes afoot. I want to post this pic too, as I just love it, especially how the feather texture stands out against that downy baby head!

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Posted: Wed - September 15, 2004 at 10:15 PM        

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