Posts Tagged: chicken
Manure--Gardener's Gold.
By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County This is the time of...
Chickens. (brett-jordan-unsplash)
Chicken coop, source of chicken manure. (blog.gardenloversclub.com)
Even manure from herbivores can be contaminated. E. coli bacteria photo by David Mack. (fineartamerica.com)
Backyard compost should reach 140 degrees F. (reotem.com)
Turn uncomposted manure into the soil 120 days BEFORE PLANTING. (etsy.com)
Be extra careful washing vegetables from gardens containing uncomposted manure. (gardeningknowhow.com)
Burned leaf tips may indicate high nitrogen in the soil. (laspilitas.com)
Herbicide contaminated compost can result in distorted growth. Usually plants grow out of it. (extension.umd.edu)
It's generally safe to put uncomposted manure on flowers (unless you plan to eat them!) (stella-de-smit-unsplash.)jpg
Remember that Previous Pickle post? Here's info on using leftover brine--
I read "That Leftover Pickling Brine" at Preserving Food At Home by the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP), hosted by the University of Georgia. A good tie-in to our last pickle post, no? This article has good info on using up leftover brine from quick pickles (non-fermented) pickles, refrigerator or hot-pack and processed.
Did you know that you should NOT re-use leftover to make more hot-pack processed pickles? This article explains why—the solution becomes less acidic after use on vegetables in a recipe.
Other explanations of when and where you can or cannot use leftover brines are given and explained. In addition, links to pickling fact-sheets and, pickled product, and canning relishes are given. Check it out, read and brush-up your pickling education.
In any case, you could always use leftover brine to make this fried chicken sandwich recipe: Pickle-Brined Fried Chicken Sandwich at TastingTable.com. Looks good to me!
https://preservingfoodathome.com/2018/06/26/that-leftover-pickling-brine/
https://preservingfoodathome.com/
https://www.tastingtable.com/cook/recipes/pickle-juice-brine-fried-chicken-recipe
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Got Backyard Chickens? Get Their Eggs Tested for Free!!
Advice for the Backyard Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Californians who raise poultry outdoors are invited to get their eggs tested for contaminants.
To find out if harmful substances on the ground that are eaten by hens get passed along in the eggs they lay, Maurice Pitesky, UC Cooperative Extension poultry specialist at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, is providing free egg testing.
"We're trying to understand the connection between the environment that backyard poultry are raised in and the eggs they are producing," Pitesky said.
Pitesky's colleague, veterinary toxicologist Birgit Puschner is testing eggs for different types of contaminants, depending on the county the eggs are from. Eggs from counties recently affected by wildfires will be tested for chemicals, building materials and heavy metals that may have been carried in the smoke and ash. Pitesky and Puschner are also looking for lead and PCBs in eggs from certain regions of the state.
The UC Cooperative Extension poultry specialist will share individual egg results with each poultry owner. At the end of the study, all of the results will be summarized and made available to the general public.
Pitesky describes the project in a video produced by CropMobster for UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. You can watch the video at https://youtu.be/3ZlytlUIS3I.
For more information about the study and how to package and ship eggs, visit http://ucanr.edu/eggtest.
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers and educators draw on local expertise to conduct agricultural, environmental, economic, youth development and nutrition research that helps California thrive. Learn more at ucanr.edu.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer our gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523, although we will be moving this spring. We will notify you if/when that occurs. We can also be reached via telephone: (925)646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (//ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/)
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A sale, a Sale! I took advantage of that sale. . .
Home-canned chicken is wonderful. And the broth/stock that forms in home-canned chicken is worth every penny you spent on the chicken, jars, pressure canner. . .
Oh, man-oh-man, do I love a sale BIG TIME! Caught a local market with fresh, name-brand chicken thighs, drums and split chicken breasts on sale for 67 cents a pound!. I had not seen any fresh chicken at that price for a very, very long time--so of course I bought my limit of thighs--they have so much more flavor than breasts. I rushed them home and they sat in the coldest part of my fridge for a day, waiting for me to pressure can them.
These thighs were fresh--Great! Wide mouth pint jars were dug out of storage, washed and made ready. Lids were rounded up and cleaned for sealing. National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP)/USDA canning instructions checked for time and weight at my altitude. The chicken was rinsed, cleaned, skinned and de-fatted in preparation for loading into jars. However, I found that I had not considered the size of the thighs when I purchased them. I mean, how big could they be, right? After all they are chicken thighs, no?
. . .At the last minute I dug out wide mouth rings. . . I don't have too many of those, and some were of questionable roundness. . .
Surprise! These were monster chicken thighs. This is good, because big chickens equal larger thighs, and larger thighs have more connective tissue and more meat. The chicken juices would have plenty of gelatin, making for great flavor and smooth, rich feel in the mouth.
BUT -- the thighs were so large that I could only fit 1 full thigh and maybe a little more. So as I packed the thighs I cut chunks off of other thighs to fill each jar. Some jars had one thigh bone, some had two. It worked. The good stuff I wanted, all that good gelatin at either end of the thigh bones, was preserved.
Lids and rings were applied, the canner was loaded. I checked the canning directions again. The canner was sealed and vented appropriately, loaded, and brought up to weight-jiggle. The processing went great, the weight jiggled just right, all was well in my little kitchen. After cooling, jars were unloaded, merrily boiling.
But wait! THREE of those jars were not boiling. Remember those rings I mentioned? Alas, three no-seals and I think it was because of the "funky" rings--or maybe it was the old lids? Into the fridge they went--what a pain! Note to self: Buy a whole bunch of boath regular and wide-mouth lids WITH rings, regularly, like every year. The unsealed jars went into the fridge and my husband was very happy with his chicken stew with dumplings the following night.
(BONUS--My tip for today: When you find a deal on lids, DATE each box! AND inspect all of your rings regularly for rust and roundness.)
Any way, the thighs jellied up very nicely, so I am thinkin' about canning up a bunch of chicken foot broth. Chicken feet can be purchased at the local 99 Ranch store (chicken feet are called chicken "paws" there). They would look pretty funky up on a shelf--but they'd make GREAT stock to go with some great home-canned chicken!
Now hie thee to thy kitchen and give the following a try. It's easy-peasy, really!:
UC's Backyard Chicken Census
Advice from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County
Besides editing this portion of the MGCC's HOrT COCO blog, I'm something of a blog junkie. I probably subscribe to about a dozen of the UCANR blogs as well as others either directly and indirectly. Luckily, most don't publish that often. I used to be an avid book reader, but I'm finding that I'm now using my former “reading” time indulging in web blogs.
One blog I follow on the UCANR server is the IGIS blog. GIS basically being information gained from aerial and satellite mapping has always fascinated me. GIS came too late in my work career to really indulge, but the IGIS blogs on the various uses of GIS I find fascinating and informative.
I'd also recently heard anecdotal concerns that some backyard chicken raising wasn't quite as well-done due to lack of knowledge, and that shortfall could potentially impact the whole poultry community. Apparently from similar concerns, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the UC Cooperative Extension want to assess and remedy this concern and have embarked on a census of the California backyard poultry community. Quoting from their opening statements about the census on http://ucanr.edu/sites/poultry/California_Poultry_Census/
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Note: As veterinarians at UC Davis our interest is in working with Backyard poultry and their owners to improve poultry health. The data in this survey is strictly for outreach purposes. We want to work with you. We are a university, not a regulatory agency and, therefore, our focus is on outreach and education and not regulation and enforcement.
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If you are part of the backyard poultry/chicken community, you are strongly encouraged to participate in the UCD census. It's only 2 minutes of your time and the benefits for you and you poultry/chickens are significant… cluck… cluck
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County (SIM)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (//ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/blogroll.cfm).