WEEK 7: Chickens, rabbits, and seed pots OH MY!

This week we had a day that was fairly mild (hovering around 0 Celsius) so we decided to place the steel roof on the chicken coop, along with some some 1/2 inch galvanized wire mesh on the window and on the back of the coop.

Steel roof now placed on the chicken coop.  The orange flagging tape was so that Aaron would stop hitting his forehead on the sides of the chicken coop...which he almost did twice...he managed to do it only once.

The east side of the chicken coop that is right next to the shed.

Now we can open the window in the summertime to keep our chickens nice and cool :D

 



We also have had a lot of cottontails on our property since we can remember. They frequently feed underneath the bird feeder just after sunset with up to 5 individuals seen at one given time. Aaron took full advantage of the situation and shot 2 cottontails to cook up before the season ends.

A brace of coneys!

Aaron has had experience with cleaning mink, so he went to cleaning the pair of rabbits like a pro.  However, there was the question of how to cook them?  In the end we decided to make hossenfeffer. 

Here are the steps we used:

-soak in water and salt for 24 hours
-drain the water and rinse the rabbit
-quarter the rabbit
-soak in pickling brine for 24 hours (vinegar, salt, pepper cloves, onion, garlic and mustard seed)
-rinse and dry rabbit
-dredge in flour and pan fry until golden brown
-transfer to the pot and cover with reserved pickle brine and simmer for 1-4 hours (we did an hour)
-remove from heat and stir in some sour cream
-serve with mushrooms and rice...yum!

Straight off the stove we were not sure if we like it or not, as every bite seemed to taste a little different. The next day, after reheating individual servings in the microwave, the flavour seemed to be evenly distributed in the meat and we really enjoyed it!

Out of both bunnies, we only saved one hide as the other one was very thin, and was falling apart while skinning the rabbit

The only other activity this week was making more seed pots.  In 2 weeks we are going to begin propagating in the basement :D