Aaron really wanted to catch a chicken. He went under the bushes to the chicken’s favorite hiding spot.

Full of determination, he tried to track them down.

Later his grandpa taught him that it is much easier if you let the chickens come to you.

As Lori mentioned, I have been experimenting with pie making. Rhubarb is my major inspiration since we have a large patch right outside and it is delicious.

I have lots of fond memories of rhubarb. My grandmother was culinary genius when it came to that plant. I can still taste the rhubarb sauce that she used to make. At the time, I did not realize how special it was. That and her dill pickles!

As the summer progresses, I am looking forward to gooseberry pies and raspberry pies as well as savory pies; perhaps with morels??? I made a beef pie a few weeks back - it was not bad.

The real challenge in pie making is the crust; which basically comes down to managing water and fat which manages gluten formation. Gluten forms rubbery sheets.  In a pie crust, those sheets are shortened and held apart by a solid fat such as butter,  shortening or lard. The dough must be kept cold while it is being made to keep the fats solid. When the dough is cooked, the fat melts and layers of flaky pie crust are formed.

At one time lard was the perfect pie making fat. But the war on saturated fats pretty much destroyed quality lard production in this country. Although lard is available, it usually has off-tastes. The holy grail of lard is “leaf lard” . Regular lard is made from waste fat on a pig. Leaf-lard is made exclusively from the internal fat that surrounds the kidneys. How could that not be better? If you know of a source, near Madison, let me know.

Managing the amount of water in the crust is critical. Too much water creates too much gluten which makes the crust tough. Too little water and the crust is difficult to work with and it falls apart. This partly why the fat in the dough is not just butter; butter contains water.

My secret “fool proof” method for making pie dough comes from Cook’s Illustrated. The secret ingredient is vodka. Vodka provides a liquid that helps hold the dough together and it all evaporates during cooking. The final cooked pie crust has no lingering taste of vodka.

I am not going to give the details to the dough recipe. Cook’s Illustrated does an impressive amount of research to come up with these methods. A one year subscription to their web site is about $30. Please support them. Also their bi-monthly magazine is wonderful. No ads - just pure cooking joy.

Of course the vodka is what gets the chickens drunk. When I combine the top layer of the dough with the bottom layer, I trim the edges, which produces leftover dough. I know I could sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar and make a little treat. But usually at this point I am ready to leave the kitchen. So the ladies get the scraps.

The ladies love to eat. And they especially love raw pie dough. Its got butter and sugar and flour and booze. It’s soft and gooey. It’s way better than chicken feed (I know, I have tried their feed, but that’s another story). It’s even better than worms.

So if you like pie and tipsy ladies, you know where to go.

Seven quail were up for adoption from the School of Veterinary Medicine. These quail were not used for any strange science, but only to teach the future veterinarians of the world on how to hold and care for birds. I thought adding a new group to our flock would be interesting. People would tell me how fun quail are to watch and how intelligent they are. So we figured, what the heck.

We read up on quail and learned they came from the pheasant family. We knew they would be smaller than our large chickens, but a mid-sized bird. We learned they are proficient layers and their eggs are a delicacy. We didn’t read enough.

Meet our quail. We figured out these very small birds are White Button Quail. Their eggs, smaller than a quarter.

We put them in the chicken tractor so they would have a protected environment.

There was a lot of interest in these new farm friends.

Even the ducks had to come up and examine this new flock of feathers.

They laid a few eggs and then found comfort hiding in some hay.

Here is a quail egg, not exactly a farmer’s breakfast.

Here is the quail egg next to a duck egg.

I added a chicken egg for my three egg breakfast.

We haven’t seen an egg since the first day we brought them home. Rather than having the box house as show, we gave them a bunch of hay to burrow in. We hardly see the birds as they live deep in the hay. I can’t say much for them being interesting, intelligent or proficient at laying eggs. Perhaps as the weather warms, things will be different. Until then, we will care for our new little feathered friends.

Chuck is trying to build a warm, loving relationship with the ladies. They think he tastest a lot like chicken (this is Chuck - hi, just to clarify, that chicken that I am holding had just pecked me in the back of my hand. They have surprisingly sharp beaks.).

But they do enjoy his attention, especially if it comes with food.

Just hanging out with the ladies.

This past week has been beautiful. We pulled out the chairs and table from storage and have spent most of our evenings outside. It feels wonderful to be able to hang out with the chickens and ducks again. I really missed that.

We named this particular chicken Millie. When looking at her, we can’t really tell her apart from the other Dominique chickens we have, but we can tell her apart by her personality. She really likes to find out what we’re doing, or more importantly, what we’re eating.

By far, she is the friendliest of the flock.

Every now and then, one of the chickens lays a really big egg. It is usually a double yolk. This one was so big, I thought it might be a triple.

Here it is compared to a normal large egg. Chickens will lay double yolks more often when they first start laying eggs.  Their reproductive system is still trying to figure things out. Sometimes genetics play a role and a chicken will lay double yolks on a regular basis. Now that our chickens have been laying eggs for awhile, it is rare for them to lay a double yolk.

When the neighbor’s offered Chuck their older hens for slaughter, he didn’t hesitate. The big question was: what do you do with old chickens? His plan—sausage.

Michael Ruhlman, the author of “RATIO, the simple codes behind the craft of everyday cooking” says this in his chapter on sausage:

“The Noble Sausage

Sausage is one of the culinary glories when it’s made and cooked right—a package of inexpensive trim, some fat, some seasoning that can be unparalleled in its deliciousness, in its ability to satisfy. A technique born of economy that results in the sublime. Truly, my respect for sausage knows no bounds.”

Who would have thought?

We are rediscovering many techniques born out of today’s economy. Our great grandparents would smile as we yearn for their knowledge. We buy local. We pickle, can and freeze.

As I flip through the seed catalog to plan my garden, Chuck heads up the hill to gather more of the neighbor’s chickens. This time—chicken soup. After listening to Lynne Rossetto Kasper on Splendid Table talk about mature chickens, she said, “You have got the chicken that will make a soup, the likes of which, you will be on your knees weeping with joy.” Sounds like it will be good for our souls.

We still learn something new everyday. One thing we learned this weekend is a chicken’s need for a dust bath.

As we were cleaning the coop, we left the door open to the upper coop. The upper coop is divided into two parts, one where the chickens live and another area that is loose dirt and rock.

For the chickens, it was cause for celebration. They all joined together in a dirt bath.

According to some sources on the Web, chickens use dirt baths to prevent lice and mites.

They sure seem to enjoy this. From now on, a dust bath will be part of their regular routine.

We use the Deep Litter Method for cleaning our coop. The idea is to keep adding bedding and just stirring it up weekly to keep the coop clean. There really is very little smell and the birds seem just fine. Normally you would keep the bedding in the coop until spring, but our ducks have made a water mess of the place and when the temperature goes below freezing, the bedding becomes ice. We took advantage of the nice weather and decided to clean out the wet bedding and start new. Chuck set up the waterer so dumping water onto the bedding would not be as easy. I will post a photo of this soon.

The objective is to get it from the coop to the garden.

We transport with a sled, which makes it pretty easy.

The combination of bedding, chicken and duck poop should make some nice compost for this spring’s garden.

The horses keep watching me walk back and forth from the coop to the garden. After reading more about putting this in the garden as compost, I realize I may have to compost it further. Some of the bedding was ready for the garden, but the top layers need a little help. I think I will set up a compost area by the garden and add other materials to help break it down.

If I were building a nest, I can’t imagine anything better than making one with feathers.

The bird that built this nest sure knows comfort.