Dried goodies for chickens and ducks during the winter

 In the Garden

Last year, we grew lots of herbs, flowers and vegetables.  All summer and fall, we would harvest and dry some to keep for the girls to use during the winter.  There are lots of benefits to feeding herbs to poultry.  

1. Herbs can provide vitamins and minerals that may not be in their feed.  

2. Herbs are aromatics and this helps to deter pests and make the coop smell better.

3. Finally, herbs and other dried treats can make your poultry happy and happy hens lay more eggs!  

Here are some of the items we dried.  Here are bins of yarrow leaves, kale/swish chard, and comfrey.  I also had a good amount of parsley to add...it may be in with the yarrow.  These were basically the "greens".  Comfrey is a dynamic accumulator so it has lots of micronutrients.

Once the greens were crumbled up, it just filled the bottom of one tub.  Then, I added some dill... 

After that, I cut up some yarrow flower heads...

Added some lavender...

Then, some dried vegetables...mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, and celery.  I had already kept what we needed, this was all extra that we had grown...

Next came some sage, nasturtium flowers, echinacea and marigold petals...

Now, some fruit, apple and plum...also some carrots and beets...

I did my best to mix this all together...

Then, I divided it up among smaller boxes so we could use one each week for the winter.  

I put it into a rubber tub and let the girls pick at it.  Usually, it's all gone in a couple days.  It is a great boredom buster for them to have something different to pick through...

Here are a couple pintables I found in a blog post by timbercreekfarmer.com about using herbs to keep your chickens healthy.

Here is a pic of Mark collecting comfrey leaves out of the air drying baskets...

Last week, I made a dust bath for the replacement chicks and put some of the herb mixture on top to encourage them to explore the dust bath.

I am still working to grow even more herbs to add to the collection.  I would like to have more oregano for the girls.  Also, I read that chickens love to eat dried rose petals.  We have a couple rather large yellow rose bushes so I want to make sure to collect and dry some this year.

Have an eggcellent day!

~Denise

Kombucha Christmas gift

 Christmas gifts

This year all my family got a "Make Your Own Grape Soda" kit for Christmas.  It was really grape flavored kombucha.  I thought it would be a fun activity for my nieces and nephews to make.  

I started making kombucha for myself a few years ago in an attempt to reduce my Diet Coke habit.  Kombucha is fermented tea that originated in China or Japan.  It is made by adding bacteria, yeast and sugar to tea and allowing it to ferment.  The bacteria and yeast is a living symbiotic colony and is called a SCOBY.  Some bacteria gets into the kombucha and provides probiotics in the drink. The tea is also rich in antioxidants and other nutrients.  There are lots of benefits to drinking tea.

I have a a continuous brew system.  I take out the brewed kombucha from the bottom and add fresh sweet, tea to the top each day (the sugar in the sweet tea helps to feed the SCOBY).  Then, I add flavoring (which is usually left over jelly/jam) and put the kombucha through a second ferment in a closed bottle to make it bubbly.  Here is a pic of my set up.  I keep it on top of a water heater so it stays warm.

Every 3 months, I clean out the whole system and re-start it.  I cut up the SCOBY and usually just feed it to the girls.  They love it!

This time, I cut the SCOBY up and distributed it to my family in their Christmas gifts!

 

 

I also put together a kombucha starter kit to go along with the SCOBY.  I included a jar for brewing the kombucha, tea, funnel, brush, grape juice and bottles to complete a second ferment.  Of course, I gave them directions on how to make the grape soda too!

There are limitless ways to flavor kombucha by using herbs, fruits, or even vegetables.  One of my favorite flavors is grape so I thought it would be a good gift for family.

Here is another gift I gave out this past Christmas.  Eggnog truffles!  I thought they looked cute in the little egg carton!

Did you make any homemade gifts this past Christmas?  I have already started some for this next Christmas but need some ideas for 2022...

~Denise