crafting | Wendy Welch: Books, Yarn, Cats, Opioids

Jack getting his guest post in on time is a rare event – – –

Some regular readers will know that we have chickens free-ranging in our backyard, four to be precise. Two (Thelma and Louise) came in March and settled in easily, exploring their new surroundings and quickly began laying an egg each per day.

Then, more recently we received another two – retired government workers! They had been employed to track any evidence of West Nile Virus by having their blood tested regularly. After their stint is finished these chickens are re-homed to people who must promise not to eat them. They quickly settled in as well and within days had become good buddies with the original two. We christened one of the newbies ‘Elissa Hirple’ because she was limping when she came and the other one ‘Kathy’. But we didn’t see any eggs from them! (Also Ms. Hirple overcame her limp.)

Being novice chicken owners we did some research on their laying and found that it’s related to the amount of daylight they experience. When the days get shorter and darker they are likely to stop and about a week ago that seemed to have happened. I stopped seeing eggs in the usual corner of the coop I’d converted from an old outhouse.

When we stopped seeing the usual two per day we resigned ourselves to not getting any until Spring. When we were getting eggs regularly, Wendy preserved a couple dozen using a method involving pickling lime called ‘glassing.’

I still checked each day just in case they might provide an occasional egg, but nothing, and we began to talk about when we would break into the glassed eggs. Then yesterday as I refilled their food and water, I happened to look in a different corner of the coop and to my astonishment there were fifteen eggs. So they hadn’t stopped at all and it is almost certain that either Elissa or Kathy joined the production line!

So we now have two large containers of glassed eggs sitting on the counter, and we are still enjoying three-egg days.

Jack scrapes in under the wire again – –

Things have become a bit strange during the continued pandemic lock-down, to the extent that simply having a few friends meet with us on our back deck (suitably distanced of course) becomes an occasion for celebration. So it was last evening when Kirk, Nancy and Dawn joined us on a late October day when the temp was in the mid 70s (Jack is proud of not putting a possessive apostrophe before the plural ‘s’).

As well as enjoying the balmy night and the wide ranging conversation we also tucked into one of my curries. Wendy is a spice wimp so it’s always good to have others on hand who are into hot foods.

For some time now I’ve made big batches of basic Indian restaurant style sauce and then bagged and frozen it ready to bring out a bag as and when necessary. The recipe is easy and can be found on-line.

This sauce should be thought of as a blank canvas on which you will paint the finished picture. It’s fairly bland and I usually add onions, red and green peppers, and any other veggies going spare. I also decide what additional spices are needed to get to the desired heat (“hot or Indian hot, sir?”). I usually saute the chopped onions in some ghee, then minced garlic, ghost pepper powder and hot curry powder and finally add the sauce and veggies.

Then it’s time to decide what protein will go in, if any. I sometimes just leave it as a veggie curry, but also often add chicken or shrimp. I cut chicken breasts into bite sized chunks then marinade them overnight before grilling in the oven and adding to the curry. I use a chicken tikka spice blend in the marinade. Shrimp is easier but shouldn’t be added until late if it’s already cooked and pink or it will be tough and chewy – in fact I often serve it separately for folk to add if they want or not as they choose.

Just lately, instead of freezing the basic sauce we’ve been canning it – mainly because we have access to a pressure canner and Wendy has become skilled at the process. Personally I find the whole thing pretty scary, as I have never experienced it. In fact I don’t really understand why it’s called canning when it actually involves glass jars!