Back with New Posts Tomorrow!

Hi guys!
We went back home for a long weekend so I've had some catching up to do round here.  I will be back tomorrow with all the posts I missed and one about the grandparents 50th anniversary party that the family put on for them Saturday. We had a great time and I have a lot to share about the trip.
 Thanks for your patience!
Emily 

Keeping Rabbits in Hot Weather

The title really should be keeping rabbits alive in hot weather. 
Dogs and heatstroke are tied as the number one rabbit killer in my book. Rabbits can handle some extremely cold weather with only an increase in feed consumption, but if you have lops you really have to worry about their ears getting frost bite


Hot weather on the other hand can trigger molting, make bucks infertile, make mamas act strange, puts them off their feed and in the worst case scenario, can cause heatstroke and death.
  Rabbits don't sweat and don't pant, usually, unless they are extremely stressed or going into heatstroke. They would naturally be in their cool burrow if the weather got too hot for them. Their major ways of cooling off are simply rapid breathing and normal heat loss, especially through their ears.

I consider hot weather a big enough concern to warrant moving or rethinking your entire rabbitry. 

My ideal rabbitry for hot weather is:

-Inside a covered insulated building
-Has good air flow through it
-Faces north and has trees plants to the south to block heat

Obviously, that isn't always a realistic option. There are a lot of things you can do to make the situation better for your rabbits during hot weather though.
 

Keeping your rabbits cool:


-Put the cages on the ground during hot weather, its cooler down there
-Put stone or tile resting pads that will stay cool for the rabbits to lay on.
-Run a sprinkler on the roof of your hutch or rabbitry * provided they have a solid roof*
-Cover the cages with or put in the cages for the rabbits to lay on : wet fabric, sheets, burlap, feed bags  * remove any string the rabbits could chew*
-Set up fans on your rabbits
-Freeze bottles to put in the cages
-Add ice cubes to their drinking water
-Change the water so it stays cold throughout the day
-Offer ice, frozen or even fresh fruit or veggies to encourage water consumption
-Wet your rabbits down  in the hottest part of the day
-Set up a misting system over your cages
-Avoid any stressful or movement encouraging activities until it's cooled off in the evening
-Check your water bottles, do they leak? Is the water flow too slow, too much work for your rabbit? I am really picky about water bottles, here are some types that I like, a large rabbit water bottle and a regular size water bottle .


When Heatstroke Strikes

Once you have seen heatstroke you won't mistake it for anything else, as it progresses the signs will get more pronounced,
 which includes:
-Rabbit laying as flat as possible, often in an odd position
-Heavy panting, visible heavy breathing
-Wetness in their fur especially in body areas that are usually warmer
-Ears hot, more than warm to the touch
-Not interested in food, water or special treats
-Non-responsive
 -Odd behavior, such as staggering.

 Your rabbit can be hot and breathing pretty heavily and still not have heat stroke. But it does mean they are hot, you should make sure they still have cold water and are interested in food and water.  Feel their ears; if you do this regularly you will be able to tell when they are extra warm. If my rabbits are at this point I usually wet them down if there is still the hot part of the day to come and change their water if it's not cold anymore. 
It's much better if you can act preemptively by putting wetted things and/or ice bottles in their cages, setting up a misting system or fans and sprinklers on the roof.

If you do have a rabbit with heat stroke you need to act quickly. Bring them into an air conditioned place, even if the only place that you have is a car. Wet them down thoroughly with room temperature water. Don't use cold since it can send them into shock. Offer food and water but don't try to force them to eat or drink. It's a great idea to call a vet but quite frankly it's very unlikely you will have enough time for them to do anything if the heatstroke is very far along.
Your best bet for dealing with heatstroke is to prevent it.

What advice do you give about keeping rabbits when it's hot? 



This post is participating in the Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #82, the 122nd Homestead Barn , From the Farm, Share Your Cup Thursday and The HomeAcre Hop #32 & #75 head on over to find other great blogs like ours!

Grandma's Pie Crust and Creeping Blackberries


 We were able to pick enough wild blackberries last week to make a nice little pie. These real natives come on earlier than the introduced ones and their berries are small but packed with an intense blackberry flavor that will probably surprise you. If you can find enough of these guys to justify a pie or batch of preserved don't pass it up, they are truly memorable!



Blackberry pie is one of my favorite desserts, well I love any pie really! I learned to make pie from my grandma Judy and use her crust recipe religiously. It makes flaky, flavorful crust, almost every time. Even when I have an off batch and it's a little harder,tougher or less flaky it's still pretty dang good. 
One of the most important thing about making a good crust is the fat you use. It affect the flavor, texture and color. Many people use vegetable shortening but I think it makes a sad crust and it's not any better for you than any of the other fats you could use. I use a mix of lard, coconut oil and butter for my crust ( all of which you can find at Wal-Mart so not being able to find them is no excuse to use vegetable shortening!)
You can make crust with just coconut oil or just lard but I find replacing even a few tablespoons with butter yields a better color, texture and flavor. You want your fats as cold as you can and still be able to work them into the flour, it makes a flakier crust. If you decide to use all coconut oil be aware it has a very low melting point. In hot weather or if you handle the dough a lot that can mean you will actually need less fat to get the crust right. Just work coconut oil into the flour in small portions, that way you can stop adding fat if it doesn't need more instead of having to add more flour to make up for extra fat.
It's also important to have your liquids cold. This, along with the fat, helps prevent gluten strand formation. Gluten is what gives bread that chewy texture. Warm water will encourage gluten formation and result in a tough pie dough. 
*unbleached all purpose flour is probably going to be your best choice for flour, cake or bread flours will be your worst*



The filling

 You can use this crust with any filling you like
This time our pie was a small blackberry. I sweeten to taste and add about a 1/3 of a cup of flour to thicken the juice.

 Grandma's Crust

4 cups flour (more for kneading and rolling)
 1 1/4 cups fat
dashes of salt
1 egg +  1 tbs vinegar + water, to make 1 cup of liquid
 Baked at 375 °F




Sift or whisk your flour and salt together. Then cut in the fat with a pastry cutter or a fork and your fingers. It should make a course crumb, if the flour already feels greasy you need to add more flour or the crust will be crumbly not flaky. Beat your egg, add a cap or tablespoons of vinegar and cold water to make a cup worth of liquid. Beat the egg, vinegar and water together well.



The liquid should make a course soft dough. If there are crumbs that didn't get water add a little more to just wet them. Be careful about adding more water, add very small amounts until you reach a soft course dough.




 Flour your work surface and portion half your dough out, this will be your bottom crust. Now you gently  knead the dough. You are just trying to make a little texture, work the stickiness out and make the dough a cohesive lump. Once it seems like you will be able to roll the dough out in one piece you can stop kneading. 



Lay down more flour and flour the dough. To get a circular crust, rotate the dough and the angle you are working from, to get a square crust work in mostly north-south east-west and only rotate it 90 degrees at a time. If at this point you realize your liquid/fat/flour ratio was off and the dough is not working like it should, sticking or crumbling; just stop and refrigerate the dough. It will harden the fats back up and stop more gluten strands from forming. Once the dough is chilled you can try again.

 I try to eyeball how big the crust needs to be by comparing it to the pan. We prefer a thicker crust so you should experiment to see what you prefer, our crust is between an 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch thick.







Press your lower crust into the pan and add your filling. If you have a more floured side remember to put that facing in towards the filling, the flour will help thicken your filling. My grandma always adds butter on top of the filling and the top crust as well, I don't do that, but I do use butter in my crust which grandma doesn't always do.


Take the remaining dough and do the same as you did with the bottom crust. Gently knead and then roll it out to covers the pan and is the same thickness as the bottom crust.



There are a million ways to do the next two steps, so have fun with attaching your crust and making vent holes. I attach the top crust by pinches the overlay of both top and bottom crust off the edges. Then I press the top crust down into contact with the filling, roll and tuck the edges so it's below the edge of the pan. 




I used a meat fork to poke vent holes this time, I think the pie looked very pretty.




Since this pie was small I had about another single crust left over. Pie dough freezes lovely and can be refrigerated, in a cold fridge, for about a week before you use it. It works best if you freeze extra pie dough in flat disc.
I bake my pies, generally, at 375 °F unless the filling needs a different temperature. I never try to time them, which makes my husband crazy, It's better to go by when the filling and crust is finished. Just check your pie often!




That's about it Folks! 
Try to temper your appetite long enough to let the filling set up before cutting into your pie. 

What's your favorite pie?

This post is participating in the Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #82 Blog Hop , HomeAcre and the 122nd Homestead Blog Hop, head on over to find other great blogs like ours!

A Brief Overview: Cooking and sprouting legumes so they won't cause gas (or kill you)


 Ahh... the days of naive bean consumption!  We would put dry beans in a crock pot, add water and cook until done. Hours later when we were bloated with gas after dinner we would bemoan the random affects that eating beans sometime caused. Little did I know, we were poisoning ourselves with improperly cooked beans.

Legumes are plants in the fabaceae family (previously known as legumaceae) they have a flower that is self-fertile and enclosed, produce seeds inside of a pod and form symbiotic relationships with soil bacteria that fix nitrogen. This post is about cooking legumes so I won't go any further into the botanical side of legumes. As a food they are highly nutritious, rich in protein, carbohydrates  and minerals. However, the legumes used for food also contain toxic compounds that need to be deactivated by soaking and cooking.

This is because mature legumes contain complex sugars called oligosaccharides and toxic proteins called lectins. Most mammals and birds cannot digest the oligosaccharides, they are part of the reason why eating legumes can cause gas and bloating. Your gut bacteria can digest those compounds. Your bacteria get really excited about the feast you just sent them and eat a whole bunch, making an unusually large amount of gas.  

Lectins and other enzyme inhibitors are more of a health concern though.  They interfere with normal digestion and metabolism resulting in food poisoning like symptoms. Long term consumption can lead to protein deficiencies weight loss and general poor health. Lectin poisoning does have the potential to be fatal. 

 Depending on the species and variety, every bean will have a different amount of those compounds. They are either all together absent, or in very very low amounts in the beans you normally eat raw as immature pods; so you don't need to cook your green beans. As the beans mature they start to develop the compounds.  If you have beans that are beyond the green bean stage but can still be eaten fresh, they might contain some of the problematic compounds. I haven't found anything that specifically addresses that issue so I would just cook them a little longer than green beans and make sure they are fully cooked before serving. Kidney beans are about the highest and lentils are one of the lowest for the problematic compounds. That doesn't mean kidney beans are unsafe, you just need to make sure you cook them in the right way to deactivate the dangerous compounds.
The "safe five" that can be eaten without cooking still have those compounds but they are able to be deactivated/ digested to safe levels by sprouting.
All others for safety, and health benefits should be soaked for 12 hours, then boiled uncovered for a minimum of 15 minutes, then simmering until fully cooked-tender.  Some legumes once the pod and bean start to mature become toxic and inedible but are safely eaten when young and tender. Many other legumes are toxic regardless.  Castor beans for instance, are a legume that can be deadly poisonous. My point is, Don't assume a plant that makes a bean is edible.
For ease of reference I've organized them by how they are safely eaten. The common name's all link back to their Wiki page in case you want a little more general information about any of the legumes mentioned. I only have pictures of a few so I also provide a link to Bakers Creek Heirlooms. This is an awesome seed company, they have cooking and cultivation information, not to mention pictures, for most of the plants they offer seed for. I also include a few resources that go into a little further detail about the possible health risk of undercooked or improperly cooked legumes.

 Baker Creek Heirlooms
-Beans
-Cowpeas
-Peas


Living with Phytic Acid -Weston A. Price
FDA on poisoning by undercooked beans

Effect of Soaking and Cooking On the Oligosaccharides and Lectines in Red Kedney Beans. This PDF doesn't show up online but it works fine when downloaded.

Dry legumes that must be cooked:

Soaked 12 hours, boil uncovered at least 15 minutes then they can be finished in a crock pot or any other way.


 Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) 
 Also known as: snap beans, string beans, field bean, flageolet bean and haricot bean. "Green beans" and the dry beans you usually eat are in both this species. All the immature pods and beans of this species are safe to eat.
Some common varieties: pinto, white, black, kidney, cranberry, Kentucky wonder, wax, blue lake...there are many more varieties.

Tepary Beans (Phaseolus acutifolius)

Lima (Phaseolus lunatus)
Some varieties of lima beans have a cyanide compound so you should always cook lima beans thoroughly.

Soy Beans (Glycine max)
Soy beans have some especially nasty enzyme inhibitors and should never be eaten uncooked or fed to any animal in a raw form, even if they are green they should be thoroughly cooked or fermented. 

Cowpea
        Black Eyed Peas  (Vigna unguiculata unguiculata)
*update*: I just found out the leaves are edible and high nutritious, if you would like to read more check out Edible Cowpea Greens by Emily over at "Not Dabbling In Normal"
         Long Beans  (Vigna unguiculata  sesquipedalis) These are regularly eaten as young pods or dry beans

Runner Beans (Phaseolus coccineus)
These are a perennial that's usually grown as an annual. Their root as well as young pod and dry bean can be eaten. 

 Broad Beans -fava beans (Vicia faba)
The pod and outer seed coat of immature fava beans are tough, and generally removed before eating, it will already be removed in dry fava beans.  Parboiling the beans for a minute allows the seed coat to be easily removed *it's fine to leave the seed coat on if feeding to companion birds*  People who make a lower than normal amount of enzymes needed to metabolize two proteins made by fava plants suffer from Favism. If they consume fava beans or breath the pollen, their red blood cells are damaged.  Essentially causing the same physiological traits as someone who has sickle-cell anemia. Favism does provide protection from malaria, as does sickle-cell anemia. People susceptible to favism often react very negatively, even fatally so, to anti-malaria drugs. You are most likely to have Favism if you have ancestors from malaria prone areas such as the Mediterranean. * Birds have nucleated red blood cells, unlike mammals. I suspect that would affect their likelihood of suffering from favism but I have been unable to find any primary literature on the subject so far. At the moment I would consider it safe to feed your birds fava beans in small amounts, but still be vigilant for any odd behaviors or change in their stool after eaten fava beans* 

 


These are either long beans or runner beans I didn't check when I took the picture.

Can only eat immature beans/pods

 There are some species that are edible when the pod is young and tender and become toxic as they mature. I don't have personal experience with these kind of beans, if you eat or grow a bean like this let me know and I will add it to the list.

Moonshadow hyacinth bean, red leaved hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab)




  Dry legumes that are safe to eat when sprouted

 
 Lentils    (Lens culinaris)

 Mung Beans  (Vigna radiata

Adzuki  (Vigna angularis

 Chick Peas   
A.K.A. garbanzo beans  (Cicer arietinum

 Peas   (Pisum sativum)
            




















How to sprout:


In order for legumes to be edible raw they need to soak, at minimum, overnight. As water soaks all the way to the center of the seed it becomes enzymatically active; breaking down lectins, enzyme inhibitors and complex sugars as the seed starts to sprout. When you can see a tail, the radical, you know the seed is active and growing so it has probably ( if it's one of the safe five for sprouting anyway) deactivated most of the harmful compounds. 


You will need a container that is at least three times as large as the amount of dry legumes you start with. Before sprouting, or cooking for that matter, you need to look over the beans for nasty ones, dried out shriveled ones that will never be tender and rocks or other foreign objects that might be in the mix. Then rinse them vigorously with cold water, drain, and fill the container with more cold water. It's best if you can change the water while soaking. It moves the beans around, keeping them from getting compacted and hard to get out later. It will keep whatever you are sprouting from souring in hot weather and potentially could help get more harmful compounds out faster. 

After the overnight soak you can keep the little guys around for quite a while if you treat them carefully. You should rinse them as often as possible and keep them in a normally lighted area. Not in hot sun or dark shade since either can make the sprouts mold and or die. Make sure they have good airflow and are drained well between rinses. There are these nifty mesh lids you can buy and even whole little gadgets for sprouting. Or, you can use bowls, mason jars and mesh colander like I do and not buy anything but the beans! At minimum you should rinse two or three times a day. People add all sorts of things to the sprouting and rinsing water. I don't think any of that is necessary and more likely it could cause harm than anything. What you might add could leave potentially harmful residue or encouraging microbial growth by inhibiting sprouting or harming the sprouts. If you simply practice good sprouting technique and keep an eye on your sprouts for mold or any other spoilage- use your nose here folks!- I think you will have the best results.

Maybe you are wondering what the heck anyone does with bean sprouts? well, if you haven't tried them you are missing out! They are yummy in stir-fries, salads and I have this crazy Lentil Cake recipe that's made with sprouted lentils and mung beans.  * you could totally make these for your birds just leave out the salt, garlic, onions or any other onion family ingredients and cook them in a dry pan or with a very small amount of bird safe oil.  My cockatiels like them and it's not hard to take out a little to cook for them before you add the human ingredients.*

I hope this post was informative and if there's anything I missed or you think I should add; please let me know!

What's your favorite way to eat legumes? 

This post is participating in the Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #82 Blog Hop , 122nd Homestead Blog Hop, HomeAcre Hop, Real Food Wednesdays From The Farm and Healthy Tuesdays, head on over to find other great blogs like ours!

-Week 5 in Review-

Wow, sorry this is so so late!
I got busy with everything but here's a sum-up.
*WARNING* 
This post contains photos of a horse giving birth; just thought you might want to know in advance.

The wild (real native species Rubus ursinus) blackberries were just coming on and we discovered an awesome patch right on the farm. We picked enough that day for a delicious blackberry pie. These little berries are so packed with flavor it's ridicules, without ice cream they are almost too potent. We also picked another day and frozen those for later.
 



















The squash are just getting going so there's an excess of male blossoms right now.  I made stuffed blossoms with our breakfast, it's pretty delicious!







I made two batches of birdie bread and started working on making bird toys with shells I snatched from the memorial. AJ made me a little do-hicky to drill hole in the shells. I just need to get some natural fiber and I can start making toys!


The kittens are getting so big! They are starting to taste kibbles and are running around like crazy. Their personalities are really starting to show now. I'm sorry the videos are such poor quality, you can sort of tell how cute they are.





We also welcomed a sweet new filly to the barn! She was a little confused about were milk came from and tried some knee sucking before finding her way back to the right stop.












































The filly was, what's referred to as, "wind blown", where they lean like they are facing into a strong wind.  You can clearly see what I mean in the side pictures. I'm not sure if she is "actually" wind blown or not since its a term applied to a extremely wide of range of conditions and I've never talked to a vet about its real definition. Wind blown foals can naturally correct themselves, or sometimes be mechanically/surgically corrected, I'm not familiar with how they do that or when it is or isn't possible to correct. As far as I can tell, this little girl is already all straightened out on her own.

















let's see, what else... 
Well the cows got into the rabbit area, popped some cages apart, ate half a bale of hay and a few pounds of rabbit food. No one was hurt and we caught all the escaped rabbits. Our "new" fridge is just as bad as the rest. The only difference is that this ones likes to freeze my veggies. I'm about this far from buying an ice chest and writing off fridges for good. I think that about sums up last week.  Hopefully I can get back on schedule, I promise I'm trying!
Kindest regards,
Emily