Saturday, November 15, 2008
It's been a busy week!
So much for relaxing with time off, ha!
It's been a busy week and then some. On the home front, I have managed to get the first batch of cranberry ketchup done (for those who are scratching their heads....its basically like a dipping sauce and nope, you probably would not use it for french fries, lol, it's rich and flavorful) the sauerkruat is safely in jars, and I am in the midst of canning the smoked salmon this weekend. I also tackled some indoor chores that have been bugging me for a while now, and now that those are done I can give some thought to better office organization.
On the horse front, the Princess seems to have recovered fully, yippee!!! I have started her on a very soupy small mash nightly, and she adores her messy treat very much. Right now, it is just beet pulp and senior, with v/m sup, on Sunday everyone gets their weekly bran mash too. Reba is not thrilled with mashes, which I find rather odd-but she sure loves getting a handful of "grain" in the feed pan every evening. I have been cutting back and cutting back on the hay and I have to tell you, I think I bought a true air fern-not a horse! The recent snowfall has softened the ground of course and now she romps and trots, showing only minor tenderness from the deep bruising of a couple weeks ago. Another couple of trims will help a bunch, and I have one scheduled this morning.
We still have to make it over to pick up the horse trailer, which should be in the next day or so. Hopefully, they are all plowed out over there and it won't be an issue getting it home. We are plowed here too, and I am delighted that I have some good snow cover for the arena. Yay for finally getting snow, lol (And yes I must be certifiable, but honestly-no snow until mid November? What's up with that?)
In other gossip-I have heard some curious things this past week, really.
First, there is our old buddy Mark. I have been asked repeatedly what happened to Bullseye Feed, and for a couple months I couldn't provide an answer. Then I heard that they moved to a new location, which is seriously a death knell for a feed store. Since they stopped advertising, no one knows where they are (hunh??) and not only that, he is not above calling to complain to anyone who brings up hay as being his "competition" and can even be pretty nasty on the phone. I am pretty sure he is still advertising on CL, trying to peddle his inventory, instead of spending a few bucks on advertising and doing it right. The way he treats what he views as competition is surely shooting himself in the foot-who wants to do business with someone like that? I surely don't, and I buy feed pretty regularly just like other horse owners up here. Besides, you have to be in the know, to know the new location, lol!
Then I have had a couple people call up to brag how cheaply they managed to get hay here from outside. Sigh. Ok, and your point is? lol, I know it's comparing apples to oranges, the difference in quality. It's no skin off my nose if they want to do all the work and shoulder all the risk from an unknown supplier on unseen hay. The $64 question would be: Why would anyone want it? Stemmy and over mature with totally blown seed heads-this I could get easy too. But it is a far cry from what people have come to expect to see me unloading. I am just amazed that boarding operations would compromise quality of diet for cost-but of course this is happening all over the US, not just here.
As prices continue to rise, margins are shrinking and cuts must be made somewhere. That penny or two a pound difference must work out to a lot more on the bottom line than it would seem using a calculator ;) Of course to make up for the lesser quality, they usually feed more grains-and that is not something I personally am willing to do. I feed all horses in my care very generously when it comes to hay-and very little when it comes to what goes in the feed pans. To each their own, but it works for me :)
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8 comments:
Your canning sounds like yummy stuff, any chance you would share the recipe for the cranberry ketchup?
Around here we get the type of people who are on about their cheap hay,all I can say is quality costs . I would rather not have to supplement with gosh only knows what to replace what is not in the hay. In the long run I don't see where they save unless they just feed the crap hay and let the horses go downhill.
fernvalley, here is the cranberry ketchup recipe, just for you :)
6 lbs cranberries.
Keep in mind, I use wild high bush cranberries which are not sweet in the slightest. In fact, a person knows it's time to pick them when the woods start smelling like, um, dirty sweat socks. (Yep, no kidding!) This is about the time the leaves are mostly yellow and starting to drop.
1 and a quarter pounds sweet white onion.
Here again, there are seldom any sweet onions about the time I am inspired to make the ketchup. Maya, Walla Walla or Maui's will do, but if there aren't any, a good white onion substitutes.
3 cups water
3 cups mild white vinegar
6 cups sugar
and the spices:
1 tablespoon each of:
ground cloves
cinnamon
ground allspice
salt
2 tablespoons celery salt (not seed)
1 and a half teaspoons black pepper
Using cleaned berries, cook together with diced onion in a large stock pot with the water. I bring to a boil, cover and simmer, stirring regularly until the berries are very soft and smash easily.
The directions say: Put through a sieve and return pulp and juices to pot. However, I have done this by hand and it can take hours, so if you have a mill, or better yet a KitchenAid mixer with the juicer attachment, use those instead. Basically you want ONLY the pulp and juices-no seeds or remaining stems at all.
Once you have your cranberry juice in the pot, simply add the rest of the ingredients, stirring it in. Bring to a boil again, and then reduce heat and simmer-you want to cook this down to steak sauce consistency at least. So, not runny but not super thick like tomato ketchup. You will need to stir a lot towards the end of cooking time, but expect this to take as long as six hours.
Get your canning jars, lids and rings ready. I keep my jars on the counter full of (boiling) hot water until just before I fill using a ladle and the funnel. Then on go the lids, then rings on finger tight-then boiling water bath them for ten minutes for either half or regular pint jars.
The above recipe makes between 7 and 9 pints, depending on how thick you cook it down. The thicker the sauce (or reserve, as my hub puts it, lol) the stronger it gets in flavor.
I have cooked this almost to readiness one day, then chilled by setting outside (below freezing) for the night, then finishing the following morning. It's an all day project from beginning to end, although I do think the ketchup is an acquired taste.
And nope, I have no idea how it would taste using Oregon or New England cranberries, lol I just pick a LOT of berries when I need them, then feeze them. For these berries, one gallon and one pint Ziplock bag stuffed completely full, equals just about exactly 6 pounds.
I still have about 28 pounds of berries, haha They are very easy picking if you know the right spot to go to here, and you will get tons if you can convince someone to come along and help pick too ;)
Enjoy!
Thank you sounds good ,I like things like chitney so I am sure to like this.
Ahh bugger! I meant Chutney
Forgot to mention uses for cranberry ketchup ;)
First, it's awesome with turkey or chicken. I don't cook with it, it's on the plate as a dipping sauce. Wonderful with game birds too.
It can even be served with ham, but I generally heat a little up in a saucepot and add a tiny bit of brown sugar for that.
Roast pork of any style-yummy! Again, not used for cooking but I bet a person could with some other ingredients added in :)
And of course, hotdogs! Polish links, brats, whatever. Right out of the jar and onto the dog in its bun, scrumptious!
Interestingly enough, you don't get a real strong cranberry flavor, but it's there in the background. If you like good chutney's, you will like this ketchup. The recipe comes from an Alaska wild berry book, unfortunately the edition is out of print or I'd post a link for you.
I have to say, Ive tried suvalley's cranberry ketchup....it's yummy!
I slosh it on darn near everything when I have some....it's great with french fries.
Lori, feel free to ask for a couple jars, I have plenty on hand just now.
In fact, I am trying to figure out (a mental exercise only) if I can use those cranberries as a base for our barbeque sauce. Somehow, I just can't wrap my mind around that one, heehee. And while we now have some really good raspberry canes, I didn't get enough of those for bbq sauce either. Darn! I'll hope for a better yeild and growing season next year....
You should be able to use the Cranbery ketchup as a base, I knew a really good recipe that used apple sauce as a flavor base so would think it would work. If I find it I will pass it on.
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