Georg Trakl

"I drank the silence of God from a spring in the woods." - Georg Trakl

Roy Bean

"And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin' brown and golden under a sinkin' sun." - Roy Bean

Roast Muscovy

The other day, Abe butchered one of the young Muscovy drakes.

He made himself a poultry kill-cone, to make the nasty part as quick and easy as possible (for both the animals’s and his sakes). It worked really well, and definitely minimized any trauma. He then skinned it, which he said was pretty tricky. Next time, we’ll try plucking it, to be able to compare the two methods.

For our first recipe attempt, we decided to do a traditional roast. We wanted to keep it fairly simple, so that we could really taste the meat and decide what would go well with it. It was very akin to roast beef in both flavor and texture. Leo ate about four helpings!

So far we are extremely impressed with the meat. We have a long learning curve ahead of us, on both the butchering and cooking front, but our experiments promise to be very enjoyable. We have plans for smoking, disco, fruit glazes (especially with prickly pear syrup), and many more.

The one thing we noticed about our drake that differed from our expectations is that he didn't have much fat. Muscovies are supposed to have a layer of fat, similar to pork. However, our ducks love to fly, and they also walk back and forth to the pond at the bottom of the property. Maybe the added exercise has affected the meat, as they certainly eat plenty of food, of all kinds (from grain to weeds to viscera), and usually have some left over.

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Roast Muscovy

Margaret Mead

"We won't have a society if we destroy the environment." - Margaret Mead

Isaac Bashevis Singer

"What nature delivers to us is never stale. Because what nature creates has eternity in it." - Isaac Bashevis Singer

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

"The Amen of nature is always a flower." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Inside Garden

The grey water from our shower and sinks goes into two 10 ft long wicking beds inside the house. The water passes through a drainage pipe which has holes in it, and seeps into a gravel bed. There is then high quality soil on top of the gravel bed, which, along with the plants’ roots, wicks up the water.

We used to have cherry tomatoes, New Zealand spinach, rosemary and citronella planted there. However, there were two problems with these choices. Firstly, they all, except for the spinach, grow super tall and cover the whole windows and their beautiful views. Secondly, we had an infestation of white flies. For the past couple of years, I have been constantly battling this pesky little plague. Several times, I thought I had won the fight, only to have them return again.

So, I dug up the whole garden. I then put a thick layer of compost down and covered it. As it heated up, any remaining white fly eggs were (hopefully) killed. I then stirred up the soil and planted some new foliage. We now have thyme, oregano, parsley, basil, and some flowers. None of these grow tall, so we get to keep our views, and I can go and pick the herbs I need while I’m cooking. I still have to go outside for things like sage, rosemary and mint, but that’s OK.

So far, not a single white fly...

The post Inside Garden appeared first on VelaCreations.

Inside Garden