Turkey In The Jars...

I think I should have weighed the carcass before I tossed it, but that thirteen pound turkey yielded four pints of meat, and two and a half quarts of broth. 

One thing though. This bird had been in the bottom of the freezer for a while. If any of the meat looked like it had even a wee bit of freezer burn, I didn't use it. Even so, I was a bit surprised that I didn't get more jars. I processed just over four pounds, and that meat looked perfect. That means a pound of meat per pint, which is just the right amount for two people.

Once all the meat was trimmed off the bones, I placed them into my pot along with carrots, onion, celery, whole peppercorns and salt. I topped everything off with spring water and let it come to a boil. Then, it simmered for about an hour and a half before I triple strained it and put it into jars. It really is beautiful.

The jars are labeled and in the pantry now. I'll be able to make soup, pot pies, or Thanksgiving casserole with the contents, so I'm happy with the effort.

Next up? I have a fifty pound bag of potatoes I got last time I was over in Portage. I spent $15 for the entire bag! I'll be dry canning at least twenty five pounds, and then put the rest in a cool, dark cupboard in the pantry. The outside wall isn't insulated, so it will preserve the potatoes while we use them this winter for baking, mashing, or in stews. 

As soon as my jelly roll arrives with the two strips I need for the bluebird hanging, I'll finish that, but for now, I'll be happily adding more to our pantry stock.

Today's Agenda...

I have a lovely frozen turkey that I refrigerator-thawed over the last few days. Our sons have gone to their in-laws' homes since we lived in Florida, so they set new traditions. I'll likely roast a turkey breast for us, rather than do a whole bird. 

Sooooo, today I'm pressure canning a thirteen pound turkey. I plan to can some of it for soups and stews, more for pot pies, and the rest in spring water to use in other ways later. Once I've cut all the meat off the bone, I'll take my saved vegetable trimmings, spring water, and the carcass to make a lovely bone broth. 

Work went well yesterday (thank you compression stockings!), and I'm up and at 'em today, raring to go. I'll be back tomorrow with photographs of my efforts. I plan to "make hay while the sun shines", and the sun is shining brightly today. See you tomorrow!

October Craft Day...

 

Saturday we gathered for another craft day with girlfriends, old and new (this time). My girlfriend, Linda couldn't attend due to a back issue, and her sister-in-law Linda P. had another commitment for the same date. Kim was also absent, attending a child's soccer game. So this time, it was a group of five. L-r: Sarah (one of Marie's friends from church), me, Nancy (Adrienne's mother-in-law), Marie and Adrienne (our hostess). The theme for this month was to create a one-of-a-kind piece using a wooden turkey base purchased from Dollar Tree.

 

Marie was ahead of the game as she decorates and sells these at craft fairs in their area. She had a couple others that were already finished - all different, but really cute. This was one she finished ahead of time. She was still working on hers from the get-together, but it wasn't complete enough to share.

Adrienne chose embellishments that coordinated with the colors in her recent wedding. The "B" initial embroidery I just completed was their wedding gift. They opened it together, and Adrienne said it needed to hang in their family room, as that's where they spend the most time. Her turkey had actual fluffy, maroon feathers on it!

 

Nancy and I used the same napkin as the center of our design. I love her green painted turkey body, and all the colors went together so well. I love it!

I'm sharing a photo of my turkey, too. I decided to add flowers on the head of mine, rather than an eye like some of the others. I loved the shades of tan and gold in the leaves I used for the tail, and placed berries from the leaf picks to embellish the edges of my decoupaged napkin. The only thing I haven't added yet is an acorn to hang from the cord around its neck.

It really was a fun day, and I called Linda on my way home to make sure she was okay. She'll be seeing her doctor today to figure out exactly what's going on with her back. I could tell by her voice that she was hurting, so I really promoted the idea of her making an appointment first thing today. I'll catch up with her in the next day or so to check on her. 

I stopped at the local farm stand close to Adrienne's before coming home. The nice gentleman loaded fifty pounds of potatoes (only $16 for the whole bag!!!) into the back of my Explorer, and my youngest sister, Jan is going to come down during the week to help me can most of them. More food for the pantry shelves!

We got the girls moved into the barn yesterday, so they've got even more posh accommodations this year than last. I fed them there last night, so now they know meals won't be on the porch for a while. They had fun checking out all their sleeping spots, and checked the place for mice. Thankfully for the mice, they were unsuccessful in their hunt. Tag told me he'd like to share photos tomorrow of this year's setup, so I promised to help him pull that off. If you come back tomorrow, I'm sure Mr. Smarty Pants will fill you in as only he can. For now, I'm going to join Handsome for our morning coffee. 

Don't forget to keep entering the Gratitude Giveaway each day. It ends on October 31st, leaving you lots of time between now and then to get multiple entries in!

More Kitchen Time...

Three of our local grocery stores are running sales on turkeys this season (Piggly Wiggly, Meijers, and Pick & Save). The birds are actually lost leaders - meaning they lose money on the price, but draw you into the store where you make a minimum purchase in order to get the sale price. Thankfully, there were other things I needed anyway that met their required purchase, so I bought an eleven pound bird for only $7.00. 

I pulled another bird out of the freezer from this spring and spent part of Sunday morning removing the skin and cutting up the meat to put into jars in the pressure canner. By 3:00 in the afternoon, I had processed all the readily available meat into five pint jars - three with white meat, one with dark meat, and one of turkey thighs. 

When I finished with the pressure canner, I placed all the bones and remaining meat scraps into a large pot, along with carrots, onions, garlic, spring water, and seasoning to cook down into stock. 

We had a retirement party to attend in the evening for the current music director for the Fond du Lac Symphonic Band, so I set the pot into our sufficiently cold back entry (uninsulated, I might add), and I'll finish that today.

Right now, I have all this canned turkey which I can easily turn into homemade turkey pot pies, turkey with the "fixings", or turkey casserole. I have another fourteen pound bird in the freezer, and I think I'm going to get one more to can. Once the stock is cooked down, I'll strain the contents of the pot, can straight stock, and then stock with the meat that fell off the bones during cooking. That will make a good starter for turkey soup this winter. I can serve it with biscuits or top it with dumplings when we're ready to use it.

The canning shelves are full in the pantry, but I'll definitely find more room as I need it.I keep repeating that the best thing I've done lately is teach myself to use a pressure canner. I get so excited about using it, and really, the goodness just keeps on coming. It's the gift that continues to give. 

Tag will be back tomorrow. My sister, Di is arriving today for a few days. We're planning to be baking and canning while she's here. I wish you could at least smell the kitchen as we're working together. I think you'd love it. As that's not possible, I promise to share photos so you can see what we accomplish. See you Wednesday!

Turkeys In The Straw...

Brynwood Needleworks - Turkeys In The North Field

 

Well, not exactly. They're actually in the winter wheat that our neighbor planted last fall. These three big boys showed up late day, and by the time they were finished dancing, there were a total of six hens enticed to the pow wow.

The hens actually had quite a nice, late day feast, pulling tender wheat shoots up as the males danced. Shortly afterward, they all sashayed into the fence row and disappeared for a little late night romance. Just as well. I mean...get a room, already!

This is the first group we've seen around the farmhouse since last fall, with only a few singletons in the past week. We think they spent most of the winter in the woodlots to the north of us, so it was really nice to see them again.

I spent the day stitching on Wooly Critters and am getting close to finishing. More photographs of that project in the next day or so. I'm thinking the top will be finished tomorrow or Sunday, and then I'll be ready to choose the backing and decide on how it's going to be quilted. We'll see how it goes.

Enjoy your Friday, and weekend! Wisconsin's "safer at home" restrictions were lifted two days ago. First thing I did was make an appointment for a haircut (and overdue doctor's appointments). If your state is still under restrictions, I hope you find something creative to occupy your weekend. 

 

Keep Calm and Carry On.

 

Our Thanksgiving...

Web Image Thanksgiving Turkey

Happy post-Thanksgiving, friends. We don't observe Black Friday at the farm. We stay home...grateful for what we have, rather than going out to vie for deals with frantic, post-tryptophan, early bird shoppers. It's never been our thing, and I'm still not sure I even get it.

Grazing on Facebook last night, I saw an entry from our hometown police scanner saying that 15-20 people were already fighting in a local Target parking lot! Craziness, I tell you.

Anyway, I do have a story to tell you about our day. After decades of always bringing home a frozen turkey, and placing the shrink-wrapped bird into cold water to thaw, this year I did something different. I decided to refrigerator-thaw the bird according to Jenni-O "safe-thawing" recommendations and guidelines.

Handsome and I were spending Thanksgiving on our own, so I found a nice, small 11 pound bird. Jenni-O said putting it in the fridge to thaw on Monday would give us a bird that was ready to prep and roast for Thanksgiving...so that's what I did.

I took it out of the fridge today to find a rock-hard bird! Seriously! I told Handsome it was a darn good thing we weren't expecting company! I took the bird, double bagged it in plastic bags, filled the sink with well-water cold water, and declared that we'd have our turkey dinner today, instead of on Thanksgiving Day. (Thanks, Jenni-O. sigh)

I had a delicious English beef roast in the refrigerator, so I made a wonderful shepherd's pie instead. Believe me when I say we sure didn't suffer. It was just right for the blustery Thanksgiving we had yesterday.  The menu change left me with a lot of spare time, though.

Brynwood Needleworks - Hickory Hill Farm Hickory Syrup

 

I decided to make up a new batch of Hickory Hill Farm Hickory Syrup. and that was finished mid-afternoon. I mentioned it on my Facebook page, and nearly sold out of it! There are still a few bottles available through my Brynwood shop (HERE).

Then, I even went up to the studio, set up my ironing board and got caught up on all the ironing I've put off for way too long. Got every bit of it done! I'll be able to head into the weekend without thinking about still having to manage that task.

Today, our new upright freezer is being delivered. I'm especially chuffed (tickled) that my sales last weekend financed the purchase. (Thanks again to everyone who purchased my creations at the Kewaskum Holiday Craft Show - and since!) 

As soon as it's plugged in and up (down?) to temp, I'll be transferring food from our crammed kitchen freezer down into the new one. Am I silly to be so excited?

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you what else I manage to accomplish. Enjoy your Friday, and if you're a Black Friday shopper, be careful out there!

Tuesdays With Tag - Turkeys...

Yard Inspectors

  Hi, Everybody!   When you read my headline today, you were thinkin' I meant us, weren't you? Actually, I meant wild turkeys. The fat, feathered kind.
 

The Culprits

They started grazin' down the field out in front of our house. It's owned by our farming neighbor who lives east of us. (North is to the left of this picture. South is to the right.) They marched north to south, lookin' for stuff to eat. 

Bella actually saw them first. We heard her growlin', and then barkin' from our livin' room. I had to run in there right away to see what the ruckus was all about. There she was...up on the sofa. The hair was up on her back, lookin' out the front windows. She was peeved. 

I couldn't let her carry on alone, so I may have tossed in a warnin' bark (or two) of my own, while I was decidin' what to do next.

I jumped up to see what was botherin' her so darn much. and it took me a second (man, she's got good eyesight!), but once I saw the movement, I knew what her problem was. There were those birds.

They're pretty bold

They even crossed our road and headed up the hill. Actually, the bird over there in front was the only one that crossed over. He was headin' up the road, nibblin' on grass and seeds on his way. He realized he was alone about the time he was a quarter of the way up the hill. He stopped, turned around and scurried back down to the rest of the group. He was really fast! (Of course, he wasn't as fast and Bella - or me!) Mom laughed out loud.

Ahem!

 

There was other interestin' stuff last week, but this is the story I picked for you today. It's time for breakfast, so I have to leave you for now. Corgis don't ever want to miss a meal, and I have to admit I'm 'specially peckish this mornin'. 

 

"Come on, Mom. Bring on the Fromm, please."

 

I'll see you again in seven. 'til then...  

"Chase A Dream - Or A Squirrel".

Tuesdays With Tag - Hickory Hill Farm Turkeys...

Pouting Taggart

 Hi, Everybody!

Hope all the moms out there had a nice Sunday. I know Mom will tell you about ours later this week.
I want to tell you about some of the other residents here at the farm...turkeys!

Hickory Hill Farm Turkeys

We've had turkeys hangin' around for weeks. Mom said that the boys are chasin' around the girls...and it's also huntin' season, so they're dodgin' hunters, too! So far, they're doin' pretty good, too, 'cuz they are stayin' away from where the people are sittin'. They are cagey birds!

Hickory Hill Farm Turkeys

Around sunset on Mother's Day, we saw these guys in the north field.  There were three hens movin' across the corn stubble, and this showboat was bringin' up the rear. He was movin' low and slow, and then, all of a sudden he'd flare up his tail feathers and dance around a little before followin' the girls.

Hickory Hill Farm Strutting Tom

He looked just like a Thanksgivin' card model! Mom kept sayin', "Where are Dad's longer camera lenses?" Married to a professional photographer all these years, and she can't find all the lenses that were packed for the move! sheesh

I think this is pretty good, though. You can tell it's a big ol' Tom Turkey, right? Of course, you can! He's at least a 22 pounder!

Well, these certainly aren't the only turkeys we've seen around here. There are at least a half dozen more birds...and then, there's this one...

 

Liljegren's Suncoast Bella - A Turkey In Her Own Right

 

Bella was just hangin' out on Sunday, watchin' Mom and Dad workin' in the yard. I'd love to say what a turkey she is, but I really can't. I'm glad she's around. She's fun to play with (we ran our back legs off all weekend!), and she's not hard to look at either.

 

Truth is, she's actually a great lookout, too! She loves sittin' on the sofa (yup. We're allowed.), lookin' out onto the north field. She can see turkeys, deer and cranes before I even know they're around. I've heard Labradors have great eyesight. I think it must be true. Who knows what she'll see next? Whatever it is, you can count on me to tell you all about it.

 

I'll see you again in seven. 'til then...  

"Chase A Dream - Or A Squirrel".