successful foodtimes!

This past Monday I had lunch with a BGSU history professor to talk about projects her students could eventually do in class to help the farm. It turns out she was thinking more long-term, whereas I had thought she meant next semester, but we’ll work something out eventually.

Our volunteer guys have been building two wooden wheelbarrows, to replace our modern one, so that the obvious plastic won’t be ruining the ’30s look. The first one was finished (and really nice – removable walls!) Tuesday, except it needed more ‘stain’ to help age it – steel wool in vinegar creates a gross liquid that can be painted on and makes wood darker/older looking (and, if you ever try it, know that it darkens over the next year or two).

Once the volunteers were gone Tuesday, I headed to Walmart to get a bunch of ingredients, then came back to the farm and brined most of the chickens that we’d butchered back in October. (Last week I moved them from the freezer to the fridge, but they were still kinda frozen – no prob.)

I also talked to Jim Tuesday, and he’d remembered the paperwork that ends my probationary period, so I guess that’s done now. Woo, made it longer than the last girl!

Wednesday Alyssa rolled out the extra batch of cookie dough we’d made for the holiday party and baked and decorated the cookies, plus made 2 pound cakes – actual pound cakes, where it is 1 pound of everything (except some lemon zest), which is an intense amount of eggs. I can’t imagine beating those egg whites to stiff peaks entirely by hand!

While she was doing that, I boiled and then shredded all the chicken (so slooooow, these were tough ol’ birds), made gravy, made mashed potatoes, grated and cooked some carrots, and grated a pound 1/2 of cheddar.

We also moved some of the applesauce I’d canned in the fall into the fridge.

Thursday all the food came together – the carrots went into the mashed potatoes with egg yolks, followed by beaten egg whites, and were baked until crisp on the top, for a ‘carrot souffle’ (’30s recipe’s name, not mine!).

The shredded chicken was layered with peas, carrots, bread crumbs, and the gravy for “Chicken (for dinner party)”.

We heated that chicken with some chicken and biscuits Jeff had also made with another bag of our chicken.

We also threw together chicken salad, using the chicken I’d canned with Sandy last month, and pickled cranberries/the juice from the cranberries, and it was GOOD.

Ned, and Operations guy, had given some venison to the director, who turned it into chili.

The pound cake was served with the pineapple cranberry conserve I made a month or two ago.

Buuuut, most importantly, the meal started off with Cheese Dreams, a delightful mixture of tons of cheese, a bit of egg, and some spices, topped with a slice of bacon, and warmed. Real friggin’ nice!

After the Cheese Dreams came out of the oven, I gave a couple minute talk about the farm, cuz many people in the park district kind of don’t know what we’re up to out there, had no idea we’d shifted, over the summer, away from a petting zoo attitude, or what any of our future plans were, so it was good to give them an idea, get them excited about things too. Then the rest of the food was out, and people hung out and played games and did a gift swap, and it was nice.

Friday Alyssa and I cleaned up the bit that hadn’t gotten cleaned Thursday afternoon (30 people don’t fit easily in that house!), and otherwise it was a quiet day. It was, sadly, the end for our fairly long-lasting potato scarecrows.