Chicken!

A few months back I heard about a company that purchases large quantities of food, trucks that food to pre-determined areas, and sells it.  I also heard that they were coming to my neck of the woods. 

So, I plunked down (via the internet) my $67 for forty pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  This is "natural" chicken-- no additives, hormones, or artificial ingredients.

On pick up day my sister and I drove to the designated location with our receipts in hand.  We pulled up to the semi that was waiting, told him what we had purchased.  He checked our names off his list, and loaded up two big boxes (80 pounds!) of chicken into our trunk for us.  We drove away, and that was that.

My sister dropped me off at home, and the challenge began.  What to do with 40 pounds of chicken!  )(Hands down, these were the largest chicken breasts I've ever seen.  Very little fat.  Nice, plump, and juicy.)

I froze some of it for skinney-dippin' chicken.

I made some of it into chicken strips.

I cooked some of it and froze it in casserole form.

We ate some of it.  (Yummy!)

But I ended up dicing most of it and canning it in pint jars.

Someone's sick and needs some of Mom's chicken noodle soup... open a jar.

Want to add some chicken to that casserole... open a jar.

Want to make a quick stir-fry... open a jar.

Want to make chicken salad sandwiches... open a jar.

You get the idea.  It's been absolutely wonderful to have jars of good, already-cooked chicken breast on hand.  That's why, when I heard that Zaycon Foods was coming back to our area, I purchased another 40 pound box of chicken.  Yes, it takes awhile to cut it up and get it in the canner, but it's "oh-so-worth-it!"  In addition to the chicken we ate, I ended up with over forty pints of diced, cooked chicken!  Yummy!

If you've never heard of Zaycon Foods, check them out.  They also sell ground beef, bacon, turkey, pork, fish, and fruit.  (It all depends on what they can get inexpensively to pass along to their customers.)

And no, I'm not getting any kick-back for writing a review of this company.  It's just that I've been so pleased with my purchases from them that I wanted to share them.

What I'm Reading - Raising Chickens for Dummies

Yeah. Enough said?!? A few weeks ago we brought four little chicks into our lives. I had done a lot of internet research on how to raise chickens, and so I thought we were ready. And we were, but then I heard about this book, "Raising Chickens for Dummies," and I saw that it had receieved high ratings on Amazon. So, we welcomed yet another book into our home! ~smile~

I was really looking for a book that included blueprints for building a chicken coop when I noticed this book. I never did find what I was originally looking for, but "Raising Chickens for Dummies" will be a very valuable book as time goes on.

I haven't read the whole book yet. (Since we have just three week old chicks, I'm not worried about breeding them!) I've just read the pertinent information, and, as with all the dummy books I've read, it's thorough and well-written. It includes everything I was looking for in a basic chicken care book.

If you're just getting started with chickens, this will be a book you'll at least want to browse through. And, while you could probably find a lot of the same information online, there's just something cozy about being able to snuggle up with a book. And so, this book will be on the table next to my tub for awhile as I continue to glean information from it.

What I'm Reading - Square Foot Gardening

While we were on vacation recently I stopped by the local Dollar General. They often carry inexpensive books, but I rarely, if ever, see anything worth purchasing. However, there was a book that caught my eye this time. I knew the first edition was sitting on my shelf at home, and I also knew I had learned quite a bit from that first edition. But this one didn't appear to be just a remake with the same text and updated color on the same photos. It appeared to have new content. New ideas. Better ideas.

And since it was only $5, I put it in my shopping cart. ~smile~
I'm so glad I did. I have thoroughly been enjoying Mel Bartholomew's "All New Square Foot Gardening." I can't even begin to list the major improvements over his first book, and I enjoyed that one! He has learned a lot since he wrote his first book, and the new one is much more simple. The directions are easy-to-follow. The diagrams make sense. And the concepts seem basic enough. It made me wonder why no one thought of this eons ago.
Mel's gardening method involves making raised beds 4' by 4'. And then, instead of filling these raised beds with regular dirt or topsoil, Mel has a special "mix" that he recommends using. It's composed of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss all mixed together. The advantages of doing it this way are numerous. One of the biggest advantages being that it's the perfect mix, so you won't have to worry about testing the pH. Another huge advantage is that you'll be starting with a weed-free garden. The only weeds you should have will be the ones that blow in.
Of course, the book goes into much more detail than I can here. Mel describes how to do plantings, how to arrange your garden so that it functions better and so that it's more pleasing to the eye. He describes how to keep pests at bay and how to train vegetables and fruits (even watermelon) to grow up on a trellis-type thing.
If you've never gardened before, read this book first. You won't need a tiller or all the big fancy gardening tools. Just a few things you can easily pick up at the dollar store. If you already garden, you will also appreciate Mel Bartholomew's "All New Swaure Foot Gardening." It is likely to seriously change the way you approach gardening!
Here's a link to his book on Amazon. I don't get a kickback for this, but this way you'll know what the book looks like and you'll know what other people are saying about the book:
http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267044936&sr=8-1