Ms. Jeannie was sad to hear that I’ll Have Another will not be running in the Belmont tomorrow due to a swollen left front tendon. Such a shame! She was looking forward to seeing history in the making. Poor guy…Ms. Jeannie hopes he’s back up and running soon.
Here it is, my dears, just over 2 months from original plant date and we some fruit from all of our labor!
The jalapenos are almost ready for picking!
The cherry tomatoes were a surprise! The seedlings were given to Ms. Jeannie as a gift by a farmer at the farmers market, who had under-estimated his seedling growing abilities. Ms. Jeannie, at the time, didn’t think to ask him what kinds of tomato plants they were, assuming, most likely, they were some sort of traditional red summer tomato. But to her surprise, one plant turned out to be yellow cherry tomatoes! Always such a pretty choice in summer dishes! The other plant is growing much bigger tomatoes so we’ll just have to wait and see what those develop into! Since she was so forunate with the yellows – Ms. Jeannie is secretly hoping the others are a purple heirloom variety!
Bell peppers are growing bigger every day! Ms. Jeannie is holding out for red ones so she has to fight the urge to pick them early!
And a red sunflower nestled between stalks and leaves just opened up yesterday. He’s in a tricky little spot so it’s hard to get a good picture. Perhaps he’s a little shy!
Coming soon: English peas, Mexican sunflowers, snow peas, sweet potatoes, mystery tomatoes and many many many more sunflowers:)
It has been a weekend of birds for Ms. Jeannie. While others may have been grilling or swimming or relaxing in a hammock , Ms. Jeannie was chicken sitting. Well actually, Ms. Jeannie managed to swim and grill and relax in a hammock too, as it turns out there really isn’t that much to chicken sitting, but responsibility is a responsibility so tethered to the feather she was. This was her flock of 18…
There were 16 hens and two roosters.
There is not really too much to watching chickens other than to make sure they have food and water every day and to collect their eggs. This group is temporarily housed in a vintage cow trailer that has been outfitted with chicken wire and nesting boxes.
It has a lot of different levels in it so that the chickens can scamper about, look out the windows and catch the afternoon bugs. It sort of reminded Ms. Jeannie of those hippie buses from the ’70’s, with people poking in and out in all directions.
This housing arrangement is only temporary, as soon, the chickens will be grass-side and able to forage on their own. In the meantime though, they remained caged in. Ms. Jeannie’s friend had a dog named Tex who was a little too enthusiastic about having chickens around the farm. He wanted to herd them, he wanted to protect them, he wanted to eat them. As you can imagine, this was all most unsettling for the chickens.
Miraculously, like a cowboy drifter, Tex, moved on. To a new farm where he knew was needed to hered large animal livestock, many miles away from the chickens that tormented him.
It was the talk of the chicken coop all weekend, with much nodding and bobbing for emphasis! The other big bit of gossip was the state of Flossie’s hairdo (or comb as it is officially called). Take a look…
Ms. Jeannie thought this might be some sort of defect in the chicken as she’s the only one of the gang that’s floppy headed. But actually, it is quite normal in female chickens. Some combs stick straight in the air, some flop over, it is just the way it is. Ms. Jeannie learned that there are actually eight different types of combs, all varying in shape and size. Who knew?!
Incidently, Rooster #1 has a pea comb.
Another thing Ms. Jeannie didn’t realize about chickens, was how beautifully human-like their eyes are. Rooster #2 even looks like he has eye lashes…
Chickens eye color, like people, come in all shades from green to blue to gray to brown, yellow and even red (not so humanlike). They can also actually see more colors than people can, due to highly sophisticated retinas that allow them to see all colors at once from all parts of their eye.
Domesticated about 8,000 years ago from the wild Red Junglefowl, a breed that can still be found in Southeastern Asia, chickens now number 24 billion in population today. To Ms. Jeannie the male J looks a lot like an old english chicken. The female Junglefowls look very pre-historic, almost like buzzards.
Ms. Jeannie did great with her brood on Days 1 and 2. She brought them kitchen scraps from the previous nights dinner preparation, which they seemed to like. Lettuce leaves, mango stones, banana peels, blackberries, garlic paper all seemed to be a big hit. On Day 1 she collected 13 eggs in a variety of shades from light brown to dark brown to white. On day 2, she collected 10 eggs. But on day 3, just as she went to fill her basket, one of the roosters (#2) attacked her.
Not quite sure what do about that, Ms. Jeannie left the bus and went home to research the situation. It seems that the rooster had mistaken Ms. Jeannie’s rubber boots for another rooster and was trying to show those boots just who exactly was boss.
Hmmm…
These are Ms. Jeannie’s boots. They don’t look very chicken-like to her! But saddled with this new information, Ms. Jeannie went back to the chickie bus and plied that silly rooster with more blackberries which seemed to keep him happy while she collected the rest of the eggs in peace.
In the next few days, the chickens will move out to the grass. Ms. Jeannie’s friend is thinking about building a permanent chicken house before the winter sets in. That way, the chickens will stay nice and warm in the cool weather.
As it turns out you can pretty much design a chicken house anyway you like from grand to provincial. Tori Spelling’s coop is an elaborate affair…
While maryesggs is wonderfully cozy…
Ms. Jeannie has often entertained the idea of having a couple of chickens of her own. And now that she has a little experience under her boot buckle, she just might go ahead and take the plunge. One of the great things about watching the chickens over the weekend was that she got to keep all the eggs. Nothing taste better than a farm fresh egg!
Ms. Jeannie is currently reading a wonderful book called Tessie and Pearlie: A Granddaughter’s Story. It’s a memoir about the lives of author Joy Horowitz’ two grandmothers, Tessie and Pearlie, who were at publication time, both in their 90’s.
Tessie’s husband, Izzy Horowitz was an egg candler in Brooklyn in the 1920’s. Brooklyn and farm fresh eggs are two things you’d never think would go together. But alas, here there are in history! It was Izzy’s job to inspect the eggs by candlelight and discard any that were bloodshot. This is a picture of an electric egg candler from the 1930’s. Clearly a more sophisticated machine then an ordinary candle!
We have Christopher Columbus to thank for bringing chickens to the New World in the 15th century. At that time, chickens were more prized for their eggs then their meat.
Gaining mass popularity in the early 1800s as a valuable farm crop commodity, chickens were raised in larger and larger numbers on family farms for both their egg and their meat attributes. Following World War II, commercial egg production soared due to significant advances in breeding, feeding and housing chickens.
After seeing a disturbing documentary on PBS about modern-day chicken houses, Ms. Jeannie opposes the inhumane treatment of chickens in today’s commercial poultry industry. So she only buys organic, free range, humanely treated chickens and eggs. The eggs taste much better and the yolks are always a vibrant orange-yellow, instead of a pale butter color. Ms. Jeannie thinks it is because they are “sunnier” chickens – happy to be eating a natural diet and running around in a natural environment. Why not encourage as much happiness as you can!
The new trailer for the upcoming remake of the Great Gatsby was just released. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jay Gatsby. Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan are playing Nick and Daisy.
The movie doesn’t come out until late December, so we have a long way to go yet, but it will be fun to follow the progress of the film from now ’til then. This version was directed by Baz Luhrman, which means it comes with a lot of pomp and circumstance and big stage dramatics. Ms. Jeannie can’t wait!
Hopefully my dears, you had the chance to watch the Preakness on Saturday.
It was nail biting all the way down to end, when I’ll Have Another won literally by a nose or a neck, depending on your vantage point! How exciting to watch him barrel down the last quarter stretch neck and neck with Bodemeister, only to summon that very last bit of “umph” to guarantee himself the winner of the Preakness!
It was cute to watch him saunter around the track afterwards like it was no big deal. Just another day of racing!
If you missed it, here’s the race in full…
I’ll Have Another’s jockey, Mario Gutierez sang the praises of his talented partner. Here’s what he said:
“This is not about me. We talked about it with Mr. Reddam and Mr. O’Neill. We wanted to be a little bit closer to Bodemeister this time because normally that horse runs a huge race. My horse has a tremendous kick in the end. He has been proving that in the last three races. He didn’t disappoint again today.”
“I want to put the pressure a little bit on the side because the credit he earned all this. He has proven a lot of people wrong. I just have to prepare because I want to be at the same level as him. He’s an amazing horse.”
Such a humble pair those to are! And now it is on to the Belmont. If I’ll Have Another wins the Triple Crown, he will be the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to hold that honor, proving how rare and spectacular an athlete all the Triple Crown horse winners really are.
Last night Ms. Jeannie had a craving for a little dessert. So she pulled out her recipe books and flipped through the pages to see what jumped out at her. As luck would have it, she discovered she had all the ingredients on hand to make Whoopie Pies, one of Mr. Jeannie Ology’s favorites.
If you’ve never had a Whoopie Pie, it is kind of like a cross between a homemade oreo cookie, an ice cream sandwich and cake. Here’s a picture of one from Ms. Jeannie’s batch…
It is essentially a whipped peanut butter cream filling sandwiched between two chocolate cake mounds. You can use all sorts of different types of filling (sweet cream, mint, maple cream, etc) but Mr. Jeannie Ology is such a nut for peanut butter, she decided to surprise him with a little sweet treat.
Originally made famous by the Pennsylvania Dutch, Ms. Jeannie first learned of whoopie pies when she visited Amish Country in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania years ago.
While flipping through Martha Stewart Living magazine some years later, Ms. Jeannie came across the recipe. So that’s the one she uses. You’ll find that version of the recipe listed at the bottom of this blog post.
Sources trace the first whoopie pie back to the early 1920’s. Named from the sheer delight of discovering such a treat, eaters of the delicious dessert often said “whoopie” when they were offered one to enjoy.
Both Maine and Pennsylvania are the state leaders when it comes to the commercial production of the whoopie pie. Maine loves them so much they are considered the official state treat.
Labadie’s Bakery in Maine has been making whoopie pies in the same location since 1925!
And every September in Pennsylvania, in the heart of Amish Country, occurs the Whoopie Pie Festival, where people participate in all sorts of challenging feats like the whoopie pie treasure hunt, the whoopie long shot, whoopie checkers, whoopie yell off, whoopie pie eating contest and more!
It’s an easy dessert to make and a fun project for little ones., since they can help spread the filling and make the “sandwiches”. Etsy has all the equipment you need to make your own batch of wonderfully delicious whoopie pies. All you need are the following…
Two mixing bowls:
One hand held mixer or stand alone electric mixer (this one comes with both!)
One wire whisk:
One large baking tray:
One wire cooling rack:
One spatula:
Or for those that aren’t the baking sort, you can buy them already made in a variety of flavors!
From original…
to red velvet…
to vegan pumpkin cinnamon…
to lemon buttercream…
to tropical…
Either way, whether you decide to make them yourself or by them already prepared you are in for a sweet treat!
Here’s the recipe that Ms. Jeannie used. Many thanks to Martha Stewart for incorporating the peanut butter:)
Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies –
Makes 18 Cookie Sandwiches
Ingredients
BLOG UPDATE! A lovely reader wrote in to say that Maine has its own Whoopie Festival too! This year, the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival is held on June 23rd from 10:00am – 4:00pm in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine.
Like the Pennsylvania Whoopie Pie Festival, there is a bevy of themed activities, but one of the most creative is the Whoopie Pie Trail which takes you on a tour of several bakeries in the Dover-Foxcroft area. This sounds like one delicious way to spend an afternoon!
Oh my darlings, today is a celebratory day. Ms. Jeannie is pleased to announce that there has been a birth! A petite little beauty greeted the day. Here she is…
This was from the Botanical Interests Autumn Beauty seed packet, which all have red, orange or gold petals with brown centers. It’s supposed to reach heights of 5′ to 8′ feet tall but this little gem is only about 2.5′ feet tall. She must be an early bloomer:)
You can see her height best in this picture…
In the midst of all this excitement Ms. Jeannie did experience a little set-back this week. It appears some sort of war rampaged in the garden. Ms. Jeannie lost 3 of the troops…
Ms. Jeannie is not sure what happened. Her first guess was deer, thinking they bit it right off. Here’s another angle…
This is the second stalk that was tampered with…
And the third…
Whatever it was, deer, worm, bug…it didn’t eat the tops of the leaves. Ms. Jeannie found two in the dirt inside the beds and one in the grass next to the trough.
All the destruction occurred in the same section but not with stems right next to each other. It is a bit of a mystery as to what happened. Ms. Jeannie was a little ruffled at the scene. If a deer ate the sunflowers for nutrition, then fine, but just to bite it for no reason and then leave the tops to wither seems wasteful and unnecessary.
Ms. Jeannie is hoping that the stalks, which are still in hearty shape, might recover, and grow new leaves. So she will leave them be to see what happens.
She also consulted her handy dandy Bug Book that’s for sale in her Etsy shop…
In case it is a bug of destruction, they recommended spraying a solution of Dawn dish soap, water and rubbing alcohol on the sunflowers to create a sticky environment. So Ms. Jeannie sprayed all her garden with this and so far there has seemed to be no other damage.
If it is deer, that are eating the sunflowers, Ms. Jeannie is not quite sure what she will do yet. If you have any suggestions. Please let her know!
Ms. Jeannie’s neighbor has a lovable little dog named Belle who has taken, on her own accord, to come visiting Ms. Jeannie everyday.
Ms. Jeannie loves seeing her furry little face at the door in the morning, especially because Ms. Jeannie’s beloved border collie passed away this winter, and she has been dogless since.
Belle is a blue heeler, which means she is incredibly smart, just like Ms. Jeannie’s border collie was. She is a herder by nature, so Ms. Jeannie’s two cats now get a little more exercise than they did before!
Ms. Jeannie can’t help but wonder… was Belle brought into her life to help “heal” the sense of sadness Ms. Jeannie felt over losing her border collie? Ironies like this in life seem like lovely reminders that, perhaps, everything does happen for a reason!
Belle likes to lay in the sunshine next to Ms. Jeannie’s garden and keep her company while Ms. Jeannie weeds and putters about. Ms. Jeannie always keeps a couple dog treats in her pocket too – you know, in case Belle gets a little snacky.
Belle lives with two other dogs, both boys, so Ms. Jeannie thinks she likes to come over to get a little girl time in. Like a mini vacation layered in peanut butter.
Blue heelers, also known as a Australian Cattle Dogs were originally bred by homesteaders in the Australian outback. They needed a durable type of dog that could withstand harsh weather conditions and austere environments.
Their first attempt at creating such a bred was to cross the Smithfield collie with an Australian dingo to see if that would produce good durable offspring.
A typical Smithfield dog looks like this…
And an Australian dingo looks like this…
Unfortunately this match produced red pups that were a little overzealous in the biting department and wound up killing their herds instead of just rounding them up.
The next attempt was to cross a rough coated collie (the Lassie dogs!) with the dingo…
But this union just produced dogs that barked so much they stressed the cattle to the point where cows were losing weight instead of gaining weight.
In 1840, Englishman Thomas Hall bred a blue smooth coated collie with a dingo and deemed it a success, naming his breed Hall’s Heelers.
But brothers Jack & Harry Bagust thought that they could still improve upon the Thomas Hall’s creation, so they bred a Hall’s Heeler with a dalmation.
This turned out not to be quite the right mix either, as the dalamtion/heeler mix lacked a level of skillmanship that the original breeds had. So next they bred a Heeler with a Kelpie …
A little more breeding with dingos produced the blue heeler and the red heeler we see today.
Ms. Jeannie suspects Belle might contain a little Welsh Corgi also. They have similiar markings and a long body shape, and while Belle is taller then a typical Corgi – Ms. Jeannie thinks their faces are similiar. What do you think?
All in all, at the end of the day, Belle’s genealogy looks a lot like Ms. Jeannie’s, a little bit of everything from here and there!
Blue Heelers have there own presence on Etsy too. The following are some of Ms. Jeannie’s favorites. Click on each picture to find more Heeler themed items from each artists shop!
We have a bud, ladies and gentlemen! That’s right – one sunflower bud is on it’s way to flowering!
Funny enough, this is one of the little guys that sprouted long after the others. It’s only 14″inches tall while most of all the other sunflowers are now 3″ feet tall.
Do you remember Ms. Jeannie’s other garden patch project? The one that involved the hard to make, impractical but so so beautiful twig fencing? Well, Ms Jeannie discovered that yes indeed – it is definietly hard to make a twig fence. Hats off to all of you that have the paitence to muddle through such construction.
Ms. Jeannie fears that she is a tad short in that department!
After what seemed like a thousand trips into the woods to find perfectly straight, not too big, not too little sticks, Ms. Jeannie discovered that she had only gathered enough to build about 1/16th of her fencing. Goodness gracious!
So the fencing plan was modified just a smidge.
Ms. Jeannie wrapped her garden in 1″inch strips of hardwood and heavy duty steel wire instead. It is still impractical and won’t keep any sort of small critter out, but Ms. Jeannie loves it’s rustic look! The twigs were re-purposed as a little decorative barrier at the front and back of the garden.
Ms. Jeannie clipped some wild thistle and hung it at the entrance for a little early color. Mr. Jeannie Ology found a buzzard feather that same day, so added to the bouquet it was!
The vegetables and herbs don’t seem to mind that the fence is sort of quirky. They just keep growing anyway! Both tomato plants are already flowering!
Ms. Jeannie also had to make some amendments to the garden after a cutting worm or two came to enjoy some sprout salad. Ms. Jeannie has filled in the bare patches with cosmos flower seeds and peas around the garden edge.
Besides the bin of three feet tall sunflowers, Ms. Jeannie also has two other water troughs full of sunflowers. They were planted a couple of weeks later then the initial batch of sunflowers to help stagger the bloom time, so they are just getting their soil legs now, so to say. This morning they were just peeking over the rims of the troughs.
After learning so much about the starlings, Ms. Jeannie is on the watch for other birds in her garden. She’s delighted to find that a woodpecker now comes to visit every morning! He sure is a handsome thing…
A family of european singers has moved in with Ms. Jeannie!
Tucked into the side porch – they chose to reside in a rotted out hole on the underside of the roof eave. Ms. Jeannie didn’t even know there was a vacancy there until she heard these vocalists warming up one morning. It started with two of them, but soon after came three babies chirp, chirp, chirping.
All black with bright yellow beaks and iridescent feathers, Ms. Jeannie identified these singers as European starlings with her handy bird book.
They are one of the most common birds found in the US, with over 200 million of them occupying all 50 states.
Interestingly enough, starlings were first introduced to America by Eugene Scheifflin in 1890. Eugene, a lover of all things Shakespeare, wanted to bring all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays to America. The starling is mentioned in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1:
“I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ and give it him
To keep his anger still in motion. “
Eugene released all the birds in Central Park in 1890, but only the starlings survived. Wondrously 30 pairs of starlings turned into 200 million just a hundred years later. Simply amazing!
If you want to read more about Eugene, a great book about his life and membership with the American Acclimatization Society is detailed in Tinkering With Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America by Kim Todd.
A fascinating documentary was also done by Penny Lane about Eugene and his flight of fancy, called The Commoners. Here’s a clip from youtube…
Some people think that starlings are irritating because they are so vocal and can mimic many different types of birds. But Ms. Jeannie loves her new roommates. They can be destructive in the garden- pulling up newly planted seeds, but luckily Ms. Jeannie’s garden has remained untampered with so far.
The average lifespan of a european starling is 5-7 years but the oldest one on record in the US was 15 years old and in the UK, 22 years old. In general, they can lay up to 10 eggs a year. The babies get kicked out of the nest when the mom deems it appropriate so that they can learn to fly, forage and protect themselves on the ground for up to 5 days before they fly off.
Both parents teach the babies how to survive during this time. Not all babies make it though. Since they can’t fly yet when they are kicked out of the nest they become vulnerable to the initial fall, predators like snakes, house cats, etc or they succumb to dehydration or malnurishment. It is definitely tough to be a baby bird. Knowing this information now, it seems EXTRAordinary that birds ever even make it to adulthood.
Once starlings reach maturity, they are acrobatic flyers, reaching speeds up to 48 miles an hour. They can be aggressively territorial and dive bomb other birds if they feel threatened.
Male starlings choose the nesting sites and then go in search of a mate. The male starlings are also the primary nest builders, but the females like to come in at the end of construction and look the nest over before settling in. The females will even remove certain types of nesting materials if they don’t suit!
The poet, Mary Oliver, wrote this beautiful poem called Starlings in Winter…
Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly
they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,
dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,
then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can’t imagine
how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,
this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.
Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;
I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want
to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.
Ms. Jeannie found some gorgeous starling art on Etsy. Take a look…
Starlings are cavity nesters. If you want to attract some starlings in your yard, Twig & Timber offers several styles that starlings would love…
Or if you want to start identifying the birds in your yard, these items might be helpful…
If you have any starling pictures from your yard, send them in. Ms. Jeannie would love to see! Until then…happy birding!
In the Vintage Kitchen: Where History Comes To Eat 