Devonviolet Acres

[Devonviolet]

Well, its been 7 days since I started fermenting the pickles and Jicama.

We tasted them last night at dinner. They are both yummy! The pickles are a bit softer (in the middle), than I hoped they would be. But, they still have a nice crunch.

The Jicama is just a bit less firm, which is a good thing. It still has a nice crunch and has taken on the pink color of the sauerkraut juice culture, with a tiny bit of effervescence.

ETA: When I made the pickles, on inspiration I added some coarsely chopped onion. We were pleasantly surprised at how good the onion was! I will definitely be adding larger pieces of onion to pickles and cultured vegetables, in the future.

 

[Baymule]

Your KC's are sure cute! They are good layers and I think you will like them. When you get your garden in, you can irrigate with duck poo water, AKA "duck soup".

 

[Devonviolet]

We already use "duck soup" on our fruit trees.

 

[babsbag]

The ducks are adorable. I have my 4 Rouens... two hens and two drakes and the drakes never go to the pond. I took them there once, it is about 50' from the coop, and they were out of there and back to the coop as fast as they could waddle. I raised the drakes with chicks so maybe that is the deal. Just strange. They all free range together and the hens are in the pond a lot, but not the boys.

 

[Devonviolet]

That's interesting, @babsbag. All of our ducks took to the pools like - well, ducks to water! In fact, I cracked up the first day we got our Pekins . . . I had put one of the round, 1 gallon waterers, with a trough around the tank, in with the chicks & ducklings. One of the ducklings had managed to get it's left foot into the trough and was drinking water. As it drank, it was slowly paddling its foot, like it was on a pond. I just cracked up!!!

 

[CntryBoy777]

My Rouens will dip in their tub and get out....the KCs will jump in and out and back in all day long....and many have the look that they wish they had room to swim, especially Lil Bit, she likes to swim under the water....

 

[babsbag]

My pond is about 30x30 and probably 12" deep in the middle, maybe more; definitely more in the winter. The hens spend hours down there being ducks,mucking and splashing. I should take the drakes again now that they are grown...maybe they just aren't very smart and don't realize that there is a pond. They all sleep in the coop at night so perhaps there is an identity crisis going on.

 

[Bruce]

Yeah, chickens don't swim real well.

 

[Devonviolet]

We finished drying & cleaning Elderberries, today. We ended up with 2-3/4 lbs of dried Elderberries. I figure that would have cost me $41 on Amazon.com.

So, we went from this:

To this:

That will make several GALLONS of Elderberry Syrup! And there are still green berries, that will be ripe, and we can harvest in the next week or so. These are going to be easier to reach, so, we won't have to work so hard to get them.

 

[Bruce]

What do you use the elderberry syrup on/for?