For most folks, when friends come to visit for a couple of days they’ll send a little note of thanks when they get home. When your friend is a garden blogger, they’ll blog about your garden.
My friend and English garden tour travel partner, Layanee, did just that, posting about my garden here on her lovely blog Ledge and Gardens.
The Woodland Garden and, we hope, future Moss Garden
It’s very interesting to see someone else tell the story of your garden through their eyes with their camera. It was Layanee’s first visit here, although she has seen many photos of my garden over the years on this blog. As we walked around the winter devastation she said more than once, “I haven’t seen this view!”
I particularly appreciated Layanee’s view of what we are currently calling the Woodland Garden. Our hope is that over the years moss will cover this area to create a serene and green woodland setting. On Layanee’s advice, we cleared the underbrush and hauled in and spread about 10 tons of stone dust. (Well, “we” didn’t do it. My 6’4, 180 lb 20-year-old son did it.) The stone dust will keep down the weeds and provide a surface for the moss to grow.
It’s nice to have friends in the horticulture business who can give you free advice! By the way, you can get your own free advice from Layanee and her radio partner, Sam, by calling into their Sunday morning radio show, “Garden Guys.” You’ll have to find your own strong 20-year-old to do the heavy lifting.
Winter is not the best time to visit my garden, but Layanee kept reassuring me that she could see the “bones.” I do hope that she returns when things are growing and green. Better yet, come visit around July or August when I could use an extra pair of hands weeding it all!
Layanee with my little dogs, Sarah and Sophie
Thank you, Layanee, for a wonderful visit and such a kind thank you note.
Robin
It was a sad week here at the homestead. It started when my most beloved three-year-old rooster, T. Boone Chickens, developed a serious abscess on his big chicken foot.
I hauled him off to the veterinarian who anesthetized him and examined him more closely. According to the vet, because chickens don’t have significant blood circulation in their feet, it’s difficult for a major foot wound to heal.
“Robin, you need to put T. Boone to sleep,” advised the vet. “He’s not going to get better. In fact, he’s going to get a lot worse. And he is in pain.”
Now, if you haven’t ever had pet chickens, you might find it odd that I was reduced to a puddle of tears at hearing this news. Even some people who have pet chickens might consider the fact that I spent the better part of the afternoon weeping an overreaction.
But I raised T. Boone from the time he was a baby fuzz ball in my palm, which may account for part of why he was so tame.
I bought T. Boone and two other baby chicks from an Amish farmers market. I was assured that all three chicks would grow up to be fine hens. So we called him Olivia—for a while anyway. Two of the three chicks survived and both were roosters. (So much for the chick sexing skills of the guy at the farmers market.)
T. Boone was second rooster around here for a long time. In fact, he was at the bottom of the pecking order and the hens never hesitated to shoo him away or punish him by pecking at him. The big chicken on campus at that time was Johnny Cash.
But when free ranging in the yard, T. Boone still patrolled and protected the hens who disrespected him in the coop.
Two years ago T. Boone, Johnny Cash and the hens were on walkabout, searching for bugs, stretching their legs and enjoying the unseasonably warm February day. I didn’t see what happened, but it appeared that the roosters fought off an attack by one—or possibly two—hawks or eagles. Johnny Cash was carried off and never seen again. There were two huge pools of T. Boone’s white feathers about 200 yards apart. Could T. Boone have been attacked, dropped and attacked again?
When we finally found T. Boone in the woods it was clear that he was gravely injured. He was dazed and couldn’t walk. He let me pick him up to examine him and I found he had huge puncture wounds on both sides of his body under his wings.
I was certain that he wouldn’t live until morning. I didn’t know of any veterinarian at the time who would even euthanize a chicken but I didn’t have the heart (or the nerve) to break his neck—even to put him out of his misery. Neither my husband nor my son would take on the job.
We put him into the coop where he crawled into one of the nest boxes to hide. Well, he thought he was hiding, but as you can see, he didn’t fit. T. Boone was a very big chicken.
Days went by and T. Boone kept hanging on. I gave him water, put salve on his wounds and prepared myself to find him dead every morning I went into the coop to greet the chickens for the day.
Instead of dying, T. Boone crawled out of the nest box and tried to stand! At first he couldn’t hold his head up or walk. He did a lot of standing around. I positioned him near the food and water so he could help himself whenever he was thirsty or hungry. After a month or so, he could stand upright again, but he walked. With a limp.
Nevertheless, he had cheated death—that time.
Without Johnny Cash in the role of leading chicken, T. Boone stepped into the job. Whenever the hens were on walkabout, T. Boone would be standing guard. He knew full well what dangers the hens faced outside the safety of their coop and chicken run. The chickens would hunt and peck for bugs. T. Boone would stand nearby warily eyeing the sky and the woods. Any time there was a sense of danger, T. would begin honking in alarm, sending the hens scrambling under the shrubs and into the trees.
He also fulfilled all of his roosterly duties (if you know what I mean).
Some people have had bad experiences with aggressive or mean roosters. I have seen both sides of the rooster behavior spectrum and T. Boone was definitely one of the kinder, gentler roosters. He always greeted us and would follow me around begging for treats. His favorites were corn, pizza and any kind of baked good—cake, muffins, biscuits, bread. He would even show up at the back door to peer in and beg.
“Is this where you keep the cans of corn?”
I love my hens. But they don’t have the bold personality, the larger-than-life appearance or the endearingly quirky habits that T. Boone had. If you can love a chicken, I loved T. Boone.
Rest in peace, T. Boone. You were a good and brave rooster. I hope you’re in chicken heaven where the sun is shining and where there is an endless supply of corn, pizza and baked goods.
Robin
Do you ever wander through the grocery store, pick up a package of prepared food and think to yourself, “I can make that?”
I’m not talking about some pathetic box of pre-made pancakes or a frozen Lean Cuisine. I’m talking about pantry staples, such as…well, such as crackers!
At my local grocery store the cracker selection is, shall we say, minimalistic. There are the saltines, the Ritzes, the Triscuits. Beside them are a host of scary cracker combinations with ingredient lists that read like a foreign phone book. A gal with my taste for a crispy, savory, crackery treat is much disappointed.
The offerings at places such as Whole Foods are better. In fact, my favorite store-bought cracker is Dr. Kracker. I’m in love with Dr. Kracker. (Don’t tell my husband.) The crackers I’m talking about are cellophane-wrapped in bundles of about eight crackers, heavy on the pumpkin seeds and cheese. I dream about these crackers. I will make these crackers someday because, much as I love him, it takes me an hour to get my Kracker fix. See, I live in the country and the nearest Whole Foods is an hour away.
I’m on a quest to make the perfect cracker. I have read approximately 50 cracker recipes to understand cracker psychology. Yeast or no yeast? Cheese or no cheese? Seeds? Definitely.
Do you like nigella seeds? No, they have nothing to do with that beautiful, buxom bombshell on the Food Network. I’m talking about the little triangle-shaped seeds used in Indian cooking. What? You don’t have them available at your local Piggly Wiggly? I don’t either. So I buy them from Penzy’s.
Nigella Seeds
This recipe is based on a recipe from Robert Sinskey Vineyards. These crackers combine these wonderful, black, smokey nigella seeds with poppy seeds. And what’s a cracker without cheese, right? Throw some right in.
Cracker making isn’t nearly as difficult as you might think. Set aside a couple of hours. Make yourself a nice glass of cinnamon iced tea. Turn on some music or an audio book and work away. Heck, you can even take a leisurely nap while the dough is rising. So give these Peppery Cheesy Crackers with Nigella and Poppy Seeds a whirl.
Hand-Crafted Peppery Cheesy Crackers with Nigella and Poppy Seeds
These crackers are wonderful with a roasted rustic tomato soup. They are also hearty enough to pair with an artichoke dip, baba ganouch or hummus.
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup grated cheese, such as cheddar, monterey jack or combination
2 teaspoons nigella seeds
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened at room temp
olive oil
coarse-grained salt
corn meal
1. Mix warm water and yeast in a small bowl and set aside for 5 minutes.
2. Mix flour into a stand mixing bowl equipped with a dough hook. Mix in yeast and water combination at low speed until the dough forms into a shaggy dough.
3. Add cheese, seeds and soft butter and pepper and continue kneading until the dough is a fairly cohesive, but not tight ball–about 5 minutes.
4. Gather dough into a ball with your hands and place into a large, very lightly oiled bowl. Place the bowl in a warm place and cover with a towel. Because our house is fairly cool in the fall and winter, I often use a heating pad set on medium. Let rise for about 90 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
6. Punch dough down. Divide into three working sections. Taking one section, roll it into a ball. Then, using a rolling pin, roll it out until fairly thin and about 10 – 12″ x 10 – 12″. There is no need to flour the work surface. Turn the dough over a couple of times to get an even sheet. Using a knife or decorative pastry cutter, trim the rolled-out sheet’s edges so you have a rectangle or square. Cut the rectangle/square into sections about three inches square. Gently transfer the pieces onto a baking sheet dusted lightly with corn meal. Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
7. Bake the crackers for 8 to 10 minutes, flip and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes. The crackers should be golden brown and crisp. If not, cook until they are.
8. Cool crackers on a rack and proceed to work the remaining two pieces of dough in the same fashion.
9. Cool completely before storing in an air tight container.
10. Eat.
Robin
