How does the end of the era of cheap food affect Maine? (Hope: coops, university)

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

You need chickens.

A few chickens and all of those salamanders, newts, frogs, and spiders would be gone.

But with any luck, maybe those salamanders might taste like chicken.

[pc-not]

Originally Posted by tarragon

PC, when we were kids, my mother use to let us have our own little row in the garden to plant whatever we wanted and we had to tend to it. And the beautiful preserves. We use to go wild strawberry picking which is something that doesn't happen anymore around here!

Thanks. I had forgotten about those wild strawberries. We had seven acres of mostly fields that our dairy farmer neighbor would cut hay from. Every spring those fields were loaded. When we lived downeast, the blueberries were the best in the world.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by tarragon

PC, when we were kids, my mother use to let us have our own little row in the garden to plant whatever we wanted and we had to tend to it. And the beautiful preserves. We use to go wild strawberry picking which is something that doesn't happen anymore around here!

Some people still pick wild strawberries! I have a patch in the field and have my breakfast out there on the stone wall when they're in season. I have my cereal, milk, a cup of coffee and wild strawberries fresh picked. It's a nice treat!

[Maine Writer]

We still pick wild strawberries. They're much better for jam than any cultivated berries I've picked.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

You need chickens.

A few chickens and all of those salamanders, newts, frogs, and spiders would be gone.

FB, we have a couple of roosters and a hen at work, (we've gone through a few...alligators and snakes sometimes take them), and I've learned to actually really, really like chickens. We have one rooster at work that would probably die of disappointment if he ever realized he was a chicken and not a human.

Anyway, what do you do with the chickens in the winter time? I suppose people eat them but I'm not looking to eat any chickens I might have, I would have them there for pets and to take care of the critters that you listed.

Down here, it's pretty warm all year long, and if it does get cold, that doesn't last long and they huddle up in the bushes but what about where it gets cold? How do you keep them?

As for wild picked berries, there was a tourist that came in not too long ago, said she was from Maine so I, of course, grilled her about Maine. (poor thing)

She told me about the blueberry fields...are there any in the wild as well as strawberries or are they all on someone's property? I agree that wild picked berries are tasty. Another flash back to growing up. We would take mini vacations to go out and pick berries and mushrooms. I can, to this day, in great detail, remember a photograph of my mother standing in front of blackberry bushes in the wild, getting ready to pick.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by GatorMama

... Anyway, what do you do with the chickens in the winter time?

They are in coops, I feed them low-protein high-caloric feed mix. With shortened daylight they generally stop laying anyway. We could put lights on timers, heat and egg-producing feed; but we prefer to give them a break from laying [and save $ on electricity]

We get them laying in the spring, do lots of incubating and brooding through until mid-summer. To build up the population of each of our flocks to as large as we can get them. Then in November cull off the extras down to just the minimum of what we want to winter-over.

Chicken carcases in stock-pots on a low boil will loosen the meat right off the bones. So the entire skeleton can be lifted out of the stock-pot mostly complete. My Dw cans the meat, then cans the broth separately.

... We would take mini vacations to go out and pick berries and mushrooms. ...

We have lots of wild berries and mushrooms

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

They are in coops, I feed them low-protein high-caloric feed mix. With shortened daylight they generally stop laying anyway. We could put lights on timers, heat and egg-producing feed; but we prefer to give them a break from laying [and save $ on electricity]

We get them laying in the spring, do lots of incubating and brooding through until mid-summer. To build up the population of each of our flocks to as large as we can get them. Then in November cull off the extras down to just the minimum of what we want to winter-over.

Chicken carcases in stock-pots on a low boil will loosen the meat right off the bones. So the entire skeleton can be lifted out of the stock-pot mostly complete. My Dw cans the meat, then cans the broth separately.

We have lots of wild berries and mushrooms

So in the winter, they are just in their coops but there's no heat running? Is it warm enough that way? I suppose the nesting would keep them warm, yes?

What about the rooster(s)? Do they stay in the coop as well? Florida has a lot of chickens, roaming about, freely so I have no idea how to house a chicken. Nonetheless, you reminded me that I did want to have chickens when I get up there so I'll have to learn.

As for "culling", I can't do it. I get too attached to the animals that are in my care. I would never make a good farmer. I eat meat, my pets eat meat, I have no problem with getting meat but I can't cull, so to speak, one that has lived with me.

I will eat the eggs, though.

Gonna have to read about chicken raisin' as well as my canning and preserving....I really, really should have paid attention while growing up.

I suppose there's also a book out there somewhere letting me know which mushrooms and berries are edible and which ones are not, in Maine, correct?

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by Kristin85

If you love potatoes and want them to taste "right" after unfreezing, be sure to put only boiled/baked unmixed potatoes in the freezer. Mashed potatoes will taste too milky if you freeze them after adding milk/butter and au gratin potatoes don't hold up well after the sauce is poured on them. This may be common sense, but I've made these milky mistakes before.

I once replicated Schwan's frozen mashed potato nuggets by boiling, mashing with only a little of the cooking water, and squeezing them out into 'nuggets' with a piping bag (although a zip loc baggy clipped off at the corner will do in a pinch). I piped them onto a cookie sheet and froze them.

When they were frozen, I put them in a freezer bag and used them when I needed them. I microwaved them and then added the butter, garlic, milk, etc.

It took a few tries to get the consistency right when I mashed them for freezing, and it takes a block of time to do it, but they're great to pop into the microwave when time is short, or potatoes are on sale.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by GatorMama

So in the winter, they are just in their coops but there's no heat running? Is it warm enough that way? I suppose the nesting would keep them warm, yes?

Our poultry are not exposed to wind nor rain. Otherwise most animals can get used to a bit of chilly weather.

I have provided nest boxes before, but they like to roost on the top edges and fill the boxes with droppings. Most of our chickens do not 'nest'.

They like roosting, so I provide steel pipes about 4 foot off the ground that they roost on. They lay eggs on the ground and roost up high.

Two years ago we had one flock of white bantam leghorns, a section of their coop collapsed from snow load and they got out. While I was fixing their coop most of them flew up into the tops of surrounding trees, where they stayed.

The cool breeze at night froze them solid and they fell out of those trees, landed head down in a snow bank with their feet sticking straight up in the air. Chicken-icles

... What about the rooster(s)? Do they stay in the coop as well?

Roosters are a lot like goat bucks, sheep rams and pig boars; they pretty much stay where ever the girls are.

Never focus on fencing in a rooster, buck, ram or boar. Just tend to the ladies and the fella will stay close by.

Always gotta tend the ladies.

That and remember that fast ladies are sterile. Only slow hens give fertile eggs.

... As for "culling", I can't do it. I get too attached to the animals that are in my care. I would never make a good farmer. I eat meat, my pets eat meat, I have no problem with getting meat but I can't cull, so to speak, one that has lived with me.

I have heard of that problem.

... Gonna have to read about chicken raisin' as well as my canning and preserving .... I really, really should have paid attention while growing up.

There are groups that can help you with that.

... I suppose there's also a book out there somewhere letting me know which mushrooms and berries are edible and which ones are not, in Maine, correct?

There are usually a few workshops offered each year at the Common Ground fair that focus on those topics [and more].

We attend the fair every year, and usually make it to at least one workshop on mushroom foraging as well as berries.

You really should plan on attending the Common Ground fair September 23, 24 & 25.

[221B]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Two years ago we had one flock of white bantam leghorns, a section of their coop collapsed from snow load and they got out. While I was fixing their coop most of them flew up into the tops of surrounding trees, where they stayed.

The cool breeze at night froze them solid and they fell out of those trees, landed head down in a snow bank with their feet sticking straight up in the air. Chicken-icles

Sorry, but the "optics" on this are just too funny! Hopefully you were able to bake, fry, and can these guys and recoup some of your investment!