The newest member of Dirt Foot

On August 21st we added another member to the Dirt Foot crew.

Izola Mae Hoernig Patton was born in Hayward at 11:26 pm on August 21st. She came in at 20 inches long and 9 pounds, 8 ounces.

Welcome to the world Izola.

Canning frenzy!

This summer has been an active one for canning and preserving our harvest. Take a gander at the tasty stuff we've been making:

Pickled Dirty Green Tomatoes

We picked green cherry tomatoes and pickled them with garlic, onions, rosemary, and white wine vinegar. Really good and perfect for a bloody mary.

Spicy Pickled Green Beans

Purple, yellow and green beans from the yard, pickled with cider vinegar, dill, garlic and thai chili for some zing.

Homegrown Strawberry Jam

Just strawberries from the garden and sugar. Awesome.

Double Berry Jam

Strawberries and Blackberries from the yard, and sugar. Katie's favorite.

Ginger Lemongrass Pickled Beans

I opted to try something other than dill for pickling these guys. We ended up with beans from the garden pickled in rice vinegar with lemongrass, ginger, nori (sushi wrapping seaweed), basil and garlic with hot pepper.

Quite good and different from other pickled beans I've tried.

Petaluma Pear Butter

Kim brought us two huge boxes of pears from the tree in her backyard in Petaluma. We probably had over 50 pounds total. We cooked the pears in apple cider, then added maple syrup, vanilla bean, brown sugar, and lemon juice. After cooking for hours and hours, the result is a light and mellow spread.

Pear Chutney

We also used Kim's pears for this chutney. This time we cooked them in cider vinegar with crystallized ginger, golden raisins, onion, garlic, serrano pepper, and mustard seed. This stuff is crying out for a pork chop.

So that's what we've been cooking up. We've got a lot so contact us if you want to get your hands on some!

--Ian

Chickens update!

Lot's of chicken news:

Blackula's murder has been solved. Canela, the awful chihuahua downstairs, did the deed. We found out when she tried to return for more chicken blood, but we were able to fend her off, because she is a little shit of a dog.

Also, Cindy, our Silver Laced Wyandotte, died on Thursday of non-chihuahua related causes. She'd been sick with some kind of respiratory thing since the spring, and finally went to the big hen-house in the sky on Thursday morning. We buried her in the raspberries. RIP, Cindy, RIP.

And lastly, we got four more chickens on Friday from Leras Family Farm in Santa Rosa. They've got a really cool operation going on up there: hundreds of chickens, turkeys, dairy cows, and a ton of vegetables. Michael, the guy that runs it, makes cheeses, and sells milk and eggs on Wednesday nights in Berkeley at Three Stone Hearth.

So here are the new ladies:

In the front is Buffy, our Buff Orpington. She's big and friendly, and lays light brown eggs.

On the left is The Bard. She's a Barred Rock (though she might be a Cuckoo Marans, based on the color of the eggs we're getting-dark chocolate brown vs. light pinkish brown). On her right is Princess. She's a Blue Andalusian, is hard to catch, and has taken to jumping over the fence into the garden.

And last we have Reba (on the right). She's a Rhode Island Red and is very friendly. On her left is Red, one of the OG Dirtfoot Chickens, a New Hampshire Red. They must have a back east rivalry going because they don't really get along all that well.

So that brings us up to eight chickens total. We have tons of eggs, so if you have any good recipes send them our way!

-Ian

Freak Egg!

WTF?

Sadie laid a freakishly small egg today. Unless a quail snuck into the coop, but that seems unlikely. Behold:

Preserves and Pickles

We've added a food preservation page to the website because we're doing a lot of it these days.

I'm going to try to keep the page updated with the latest jams and other tasty stuff we're cooking up. If you're interested in tasting some goodness, send us an email.

Here's what we've got currently:

Myrtle Street Plum Butter 7.11.2011

Ingredients: Plums, sugar

Karuna called and told us about the plum tree dropping tons of fruit into their backyard. We went over to check it out, and after an hour or so climbing around, we ended up with 30 pounds of super-ripe plums. We let the fruit cook down overnight and ended up with a deliciously tart and plummy thick butter. We've been eating it with creme fraiche on baguette french toast. Mighty good.

Tilden Wild Blackberry Jam 7.25.2011

Ingredients: Wild blackberries, sugar

Lauren and I went up to Tilden Regional Park to pick the berries for this jam. We collected about 10 pounds, from three different locations, and ended up with 14 jars worth. We'll be back up there later in the summer for another round.

Berkeley Hills Wild Plum Jam 7.25.201

Ingredients: Wild plums, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, and lemon

You're wild! Lauren and I found the fruit for this jam while we were looking for blackberries in the hills above the Berkeley campus. I climbed up into a tree and harvested a gallon of cherry-sized plums. We took some to the Berkeley Botanical Garden along with a branch to confirm they weren't poisonous. They told us that the plums had most likely "escaped" and some point, and were now just growing wild on the hills. We made the jam using mostly brown sugar instead of the white stuff, and also added vanilla and lemon juice. The result is a smoother, sweeter plum flavor with hints of caramel and vanilla. We ended up with only 3 jars of this goodness, but we're already planning a return trip to the hills for more plums.

Dirt Foot Farm Homegrown Strawberry Jam

(coming soon)

Dirt Foot Farm Double Berry Jam

(coming soon)

We're looking for fruit

Howdy folks,

Lauren and I went up to Tilden today to pick blackberries for jam and came back with 10pounds of awesome fruit. We also found several wild plum trees whose fruit we'll return for soon. More on that stuff later though...

While we were out there we got to thinking that there is awesome fresh fruit going unpicked all over the Bay, and that we would pick it and use it if we knew where to go. So, if your neighbor has an apple tree or there are plums falling all over your yard, let us know and we'll come harvest the fruit and share the tasty goodness with you.

Oh, but no lemons. Fuck a lemon.

Thanks,

Ian

Plum Butter

We got a call from Karuna last week saying she had hecka plums, so on Saturday, we went to Karuna and Evan's house last week to pick some.

After an hour climbing around in her trees, we ended up with about 30 pounds of fruit.

The plums were slightly larger than ping pong balls and very sweet, with tart skins. We decided we'd make Plum Butter.

The first step is to cook the plums a little bit so they start to fall apart. The recipe called for cutting them in half, but we had literally hundreds of them and weren't about to do all that. We just put a little water in the bottom of the pot and let the heat take care of the rest.

Periodically we'd smash and stir them until they were all pretty mushy. At this point we ran them through our new food mill to separate the pits and skins.

The result was a juicy, pulpy slush. We poured it back into the pot and saved the pits and skins for the chickens.

For each cup of pulp we added a third cup of sugar, then we cooked (and cooked, and cooked) until it thickened up. Once it reached the right consistency we were ready to can it.

After ten minutes in the hot water bath it was ready to go.

It turned out very well. It's tart and plummy, and is great on french toast with creme fraiche.

One piece of advice for all you would-be plum butterers--don't start this process at 7 at night. We didn't finish until 5 in the morning.

--Ian

Summer Harvesting

Quick roundup of what we've been up to out there:

Garlic--we've got tons of it.

Once it comes out of the ground it needs to be brushed free of dirt.

Then it needs to cure for a few weeks. We've been hanging it in the kitchen. It smells great and seems to be keeping vampires at bay.

The onions are also coming out of the ground. We didn't have the best luck this season because of the wacky winter. The combination of lots of water and periods of warmth then cold caused the onions to flower early instead of forming bulbs. We still got quite a few though:

The strawberry plants are loving the hot weather and producing heavily. We're in the process of saving enough to make some jam. We're getting close--Lauren probably picked three pounds of berries today.

The potatoes are ready as well. I pulled out 40-50 pounds today of three different varieties:

All told it was a big harvest today. We got some beets as well.

We also planted winter squashes, watermelons, eggplant, peppers and basil. Oh, and a whole packet of sunflower seeds. The ones we plated earlier are getting pretty tall and some are starting to flower. If all goes according to plan we'll have a forest of sunflowers in the fall.

So that's what's been happening lately. Hope you're enjoying your summer.

--Ian

Blackula R.I.P.

Pronounced dead at 10:56am, on Monday, May 30, the chicken known to few as Blackula lived a short but comfortable life in the Dirt Foot Farm run.

Fowl Play?

The circumstances surrounding her demise remain unclear, but these are the facts: She was found outside the coop with her neck broken and head covered in slime and ants, suggesting she may have met her end sometime Sunday night. The inside of the coop showed signs of a struggle, and whatever killed her did not stick around to eat her.

Theories and speculation about her death her are now running rampant. We've had a possum intruder in the coop before, and it seems a likely possibility that it could have returned to finish the job. But if that's the case, why wouldn't it have eaten her? The same goes for a raccoon. Lauren prefers to think that Blackula heroically fended off an animal intruder, but succumbed in the end to injuries sustained. This, I suppose, is possible, but still does not explain why whatever animal did the deed did not then feed. I have my doubts about this theory.

Another potential suspect is the chihuahua that lives downstairs. It seems possible that it could have killed her, but it's mouth was so small that it couldn't eat her. This also seems unlikely based on the limited chihuahua on chicken encounters I've witnessed. Chihuahuas are the wussiest of all dogs, and Blackula was easily thrice the dog's size.

Some have suggested that some street person came into the side-lot and stomped her head, but this also seems unlikely based on the estimated time of death. Also, generally, the crackheads have gone to bed by early morning, when the deed was presumably done.

Also, Blackula was the only European breed of chicken that we have, so it's possible that it could be an anti-immigrant hate crime. Also possible is that Bloomfield or Alec enacted a personal vendetta against her for some perceived slight. Lauren and I were camping and thus have air-tight alibis.

An attempted coup?

The theory with the most legs seems to implicate Lenore and possibly one or more of the other chickens in Blackula's death. It goes like this: We got the two new hens, Whitey and Blackula, in early April, causing a disturbance in the coop's pecking order. Fights ensued and Lenore retained her top dog spot, but Blackula remained jealous--brooding over the fact that she got punked by a smaller (but much smarter) hen.

Fast-forward to late May--Lenore is now broody in the most textbook of ways; not leaving the laying box, pecking at our hands when we try to get the eggs, not eating, etc. Blackula sees her chance.

With Lenore occupied with her broodiness, Blackula tries to drum up support for a takeover. She claims that Lenore is unfit to lead, that she's depressed and unstable, and that Lenore is less beautiful and buxom than Blackula and thus should not be the alpha hen. Certainly she had a point on the buxom issue, I mean check out those breasts. Critically though, she underestimates both Lenore's intelligence and the other chickens' loyalty to their leader.

Blackula should never have made her intentions clear--a classic case of counting chickens before they hatch. Eventually, word gets back that Blackula is planning a coup in the coop, and Lenore must take action. She hatches a plan with the other hens to kill Blackula without leaving any evidence of the deed. She covers her tracks well. Perhaps she allowed the intruder into the coop under the cover of darkness, after warning the other ladies to retreat to the safety of the nesting boxes. Maybe all the hens banded together to slam the coop door on Blackula's neck. There are many possibilities.

One thing is certain though--there was no chicken on chicken fight. A close inspection of the avian suspects turned up no evidence of direct violence. What we do know is that the coup was averted, and the coop was not big enough for the two black chickens.

This is, of course, the most plausible of many theories, but wouldn't hold up in court for lack of evidence. Perhaps you have a theory? Any tips leading to the bringing to justice of the culprits will be rewarded with jam/pickled goodies.

Aftermath

Upon our return from our camping trip, Lauren and I surveyed the scene of the crime, which unfortunately had been disturbed by Chris, who has apparently never seen CSI. We gleaned all the pertinent details we could, inspected the body, and dug a grave amidst the raspberry plants.

Words were spoken, mostly about how pretty a chicken Blackula had been, how big her breasts were, and how she was really scared of humans. Then we buried her where she will fertilize our raspberries. May she rest in peace.

So long Blackula, sorry you went out the way you did. I wish we'd had the chance to eat you.

--Ian

In other news...

Our band, The New Thoreaus, was on The Bottleneck Cafe radio show on Thursday. We had a great time talking to Mike and playing some songs from our upcoming album. You can listen at either link.

We also have a string of gigs coming up:

Next Friday, April 15th, is The New Thoreaus Tax Day Spectacular! We're returning to the Connecticut Yankee in San Francisco to headline a show with The String Slingers and are hoping to pack the house once again. The show starts at 9:30 and the music will go until late so come ready to party as we shake off fiscal year 2010.

On Sunday, May 1st, we'll be at Milk Bar, in the west bay, in the Haight. The first of 3 bands goes on at 3:00, but we don't play until 7:00, so come early and check out some other local bands. This show is part of the Bluegrass Sunday at Milk Bar. They have free Bluegrass and Americana music from 3:00-9:30 every Sunday throughout the summer so go and have a Sunday afternoon cocktail while supporting local music.

And on Saturday, May 14th we'll be headlining a benefit concert for the The Wild Equity Institute, at The Grant and Green Saloon, in SF. The fundraiser goes from 9-1 (That's 9am, btw), there are three bands, and we play last, probably around 11:30am. The Wild Equity Institute does a lot of cool projects involving land preservation, environmental justice, and protecting parkland in urban areas, so come and support a great cause!

Hope to see you sometime soon!

--Ian