Our babies are growing up...

Golden Wyandotte, Dominique, Black Jersey Giant

Hard to believe that this is the same group, 6 weeks later!  It's easy to tell which is which now.

They've graduated from the cardboard box to Sunny's crate and now to the small outside coop.  The introduction to the existing flock has been pretty painless, so I think we'll try them overnight in the big coop tonight.  We still keep a close eye on them when they're out of the coop - fast as they are, a hawk would certainly be able to catch and kill them with little trouble.

If these were commercial chickens they'd be ready to start laying.  As it is, it will be another 4-5 months before we see our first egg.  No problem; the others are still going strong.

The whole flock

Newest members of the egg production team

If there's anything I like better than getting a new batch of chicks, I surely don't know what it is.  These little babies are about a week old.  We have a Black Jersey Giant, a Golden-Laced Wyandotte, and a Dominique (I think they're in that order in the picture).  No names yet; those will come in time.

They'll stay inside their cardboard box in the studio for the next couple of weeks or so until they're big enough, and it's warm enough, for them to go outside, at least during the day.  They can go outside permanently at around 5 or 6 weeks.

I'm very happy to have another Dominique and Black Jersey Giant - they are such sweet, gentle chickens.  I don't know the Golden-Laced Wyandotte although our Houdini is a Silver-Laced Wyandotte.  She's a bit skittish so we'll see if this one has a similar personality.

Soup for breakfast? Absolutely!

I don't know what made me think of it - maybe it was the big butternut squash sitting on my counter right from my friend Reeny's garden - but it occurred to me that a thick creamy soup could be just the thing to start out a cold wintry day, in lieu of our usual fresh fruit.  With the early snowfall still on the ground, today seemed like a good day to test my theory on guests.  (Dominique was skeptical.)

I used my usual recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, tossing in lots of dried sage and thyme.  I cooked it up the night before, then reheated it and mushed it with my immersion blender.  I served it in smallish bowls (I wasn't that confident, either) with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of tiny homemade croutons.

I'm not a food photographer so I don't know if this picture looks good or gross, but it was absolutely delicious.  Everyone but the 12-year-old said so (chocolate chip pancakes and hot chocolate for him!) and the empty bowls said that they weren't just being polite.  Once breakfast was over we got to taste it, too, and I have to say, it was great.  Although it's creamy and rich-tasting, apart from the sour cream it's just vegetables, water, and herbs.

With Dominique's retirement really and truly in sight, we're looking forward to more experimentation and with luck they'll all turn out as well as this one.

The Dawn of a new era

Back in January, we introduced our housekeeper, Jessica.  Jessie was wonderful but unfortunately had to contend with difficult family issues that prevented her from continuing to work with us.  After an exhaustive search, we hired the smiling and ebullient Dawn Pruitt.  Mother of 6 children, she is lovely, personable, and hard working.  Although we were sad to say goodbye to Jessie, we have certainly found a wonderful replacement in Dawn.

Forgotten Skills with...Tomatoes!

Several years ago Dominique bought a book by an Irish cook and writer called Forgotten Skills.  As suggested by the title, it's about certain lost or at least wandering aimlessly cooking arts, like canning, bread making, and pickling.

We're a little bit intimidated by this book but a week or so ago I bought a bushel of tomatoes from the Amish farmer who supplies our herd share products.  Not knowing exactly what a bushel looked like, I almost left the farm with only one of these big boxes.  Fortunately (?), someone set me straight and I took them both home with me.

Now what?  Keep in mind, I don't even really like tomatoes that much, although a sliced heirloom with fresh mozzarella and basil is wonderfully cool, juicy and delicious for a summer lunch.  And we did serve up a few this way.

For the rest, I turned to Forgotten Skills and put them up in 2 ways.  First and easiest is halving or quartering them and slow-roasting them in the oven.  Her recipe calls for 100 degrees for 5-6 hours, but my oven felt only tepid at that temperature and I cranked it to 250.  We've been serving these roasted tomatoes as a side for breakfast and our guests seem to be loving them.

Another way to dispatch lots of tomatoes is to make tomato paste.  Tomato preparation is nearly identical to roasting:  clean, core, and quarter.  Before dumping them all into a big pot, you cut a few onions and give them a little warm up in some oil.  Then you let the whole thing cook for a very long time until it's as thick as you want it to be.  Forgotten Skills calls for a food mill to mush it up but we don't have one and I thought the immersion blender did a fine job.  Our paste isn't nearly as thick as that which you get in those tiny cans but it's so flavorful and has a wonderful texture.

I made a final batch of roasted tomatoes today and about halfway through the cooking I needed to bake a loaf of banana bread for an hour so I just turned up the heat and put it in with the tomatoes.  They look ever-so-slightly burnt around the edges and drier than the previous batch.  I have a feeling they're going to be even better and more flavorful.

Good times at Riverdog

I can't get over how lucky we are to have the Riverdog venue just outside of Oberlin!  Not only do we have the good fortune to be friends with the owners, Deborah and Terry :-) , but their concerts are without fail of the highest quality and a ton of fun.  Woody Pines and his band was no exception last night and got us on our feet for some great roots music.  It was the first really chilly night we've had in the coming fall season - although it wasn't too bad in the barn - and there's no better way to warm up than by dancing.

Of course we love seeing lots of our friends there, but it was also great to see new faces and especially the crowd of Oberlin College students that came.  I guess they were there to support their friends, Sweet Potato Spoon, who opened for Woody Pines, but I hope they'll come back for more concerts - their enthusiasm was infectious, to say the least!

Brave Dominique takes the ice bucket challenge

Nominated by our Welsh friend Simon Goldsworthy, Dominique was inspired to take the ice bucket challenge to raise awareness - and funds - for ALS research.  What better place to do it than at a rollicking concert at our friends' Deborah Banyas and Terry Speers' Riverdog Retreat? 

Sandwiched between the opening acts of Emily Keener and duo Andru Bemis and Tom Brosseau, Terry did the honors and dumped the first bucket of icy water over Dom's head in front of 200 witnesses who had come for the concert.  Admittedly the ice had rather melted, but as you can see, the water was plenty cold!  Janet had prepared a second bucket for good measure.  All in good fun and all for a good cause.

Dominique nominated his son Mathieu, his brothers-in-law Kirk Bierman and Dan Dickerson, and also our Oberlin friend Bill County to carry on the trend.

4th of July: Lorain rocks, Oberlin...not so much

The Buckeye and the Frog and some of our friends are boycotting Oberlin's fireworks because, for the second year in a row, they were held on July 3.  What is the point of fireworks on July 3?!?!  Makes no sense and please don't talk to me about firefighter overtime.  You either do it on the 4th or you don't do it at all.

So a group of us headed up to Lake Erie in Lorain and spread our picnic out on the beach behind the Rose Cafe in Lakeview Park.  A better place to watch fireworks simply cannot be imagined.  The evening was warm and breezy, the sand was soft and cool.  Lake Erie sparkled in front of us as the sun dropped from the sky.  All around people were spreading out blankets, kids were playing football and frisbee.  To the west we could see 5 or 6 different fireworks, from Vermilion to Cedar Point.  At 10, the fireworks at Black River Landing started and they were magnificent!  Each volley was like a finale and the finale went on forever!

Deborah Banyas, Nancy Gray, Terry Speer, the Buckeye, Reeny Annable, Jon Rice

This is where we'll be going every year, at least until Oberlin recognizes that this is a Fourth of July celebration.

The hour-long drive home was not exactly the perfect way to end the evening, so next year we'll get some ice cream at the Cafe and wait for the crowds to clear.

Reeny Annable, Jon Rice

the Buckeye, Nancy Gray

Lake Erie or, as the Frog calls it, la mer

Music music everywhere!

With one of the most prestigious conservatories in the country, you would expect Oberlin to have great music.  But musical events go well beyond the academic schedule of the College and Conservatory.  One of the best things about summer in Oberlin is the many concerts on the bandstand in Tappan Square.  This one featured my friend and guitar/keyboard teacher, Kevin Jones, and his band The Scrooges.  They did a lot of great old songs and even got one couple on their feet to dance.

Kevin and Marcia Jones

 The Scrooges played as a wrap up to the popular Chalk on the Walk event, but there are concerts almost every Friday night throughout the summer with all different kinds of music.

Nancy Gray and the Buckeye

Unfortunately, it seems to be feast or famine here and that night we had another concert to go to at our friends' Riverdog Retreat, with Oberlin's own Soul Proprioters followed by the unofficial duo of Peter "Madcat" Ruth and Dave Boutette.  If we had to cut out early from Kevin's group, at least it was for something as amazing as the show we headed to.  The jam at the end was really special and I don't think anyone wanted the evening and the music to end.  Anybody coming to Oberlin should really check out the Music at Riverdog Facebook page to see if there's a concert scheduled.

Soul Proprioters, the Buckeye

Dave Parsh, "Madcat" Ruth, Brad Conklin, Jakob Faber

World's Cutest Little Egg

At this point in our chicken-raising careers we have seen a lot of eggs.  But we have never seen one this small!!

We think it came from our German Spitzhauben, whom we call Kaiser Wilhelmina, only because she's the smallest of the 3 younger chickens and seems more immature.  Goofy, even.  We can't really tell because all 3 of them lay white eggs with a pinkish/tan cast.

We were just amazed by this tiny egg and haven't brought ourselves to cook it yet.  It won't even make a mouthful!  Of course, it might be just right for me since I don't like eggs all that well.

For now, we're keeping it in the basket with our rotating collection of tan, white, and green eggs - our kitchen still life.

Introducing...Jessica Burns, our new housekeeper!

After an exhaustive search via craigslist and having conducted many interviews, we are so pleased to have found Jessica Burns to take charge of the housekeeping duties at the B&F.  Also the head grower at the George Jones Memorial Farm, she really impressed us with her flexibility and enthusiasm.  We, on the other hand, are looking forward to spending more time doing things to add value to the B&B in terms of trying new recipes, doing maintenance and improvement projects, and expanding our guest offerings in amenities, recommendations, etc.  We plan to start making buckeye candies again!  We will also be able to devote more time to the product side of the business.  Hopefully this will be a win-win for all of us.

Welcome, Jessica!

Bread and Butter

After searching for a year or more, we finally subscribed to an Ohio "herd share" in order to be able to have raw milk (thank you, Paula and Kim!).  We now own a small portion of the cows on Log Cabin Farm run by the Yoders in Apple Creek from whom we get milk, cream, and yogourt.

We mainly wanted the milk so that we could make cultured butter after reading about it in a NY Times article.  We left our first gallon of milk out on the counter overnight to let the cream rise to the top, then realized that the cream had already been skimmed off.  Oops.  Milk turned a little sour,  not so good for drinking but just fine for making bread, and it led us to discover a fantastic and ridiculously fast and easy soda bread recipe in our "Forgotten Skills" cookbook.

The following week we ordered a pint of cream.  It was unbelievably thick and luscious, so much so that when we made butter, there was absolutely no buttermilk and no kneading required.  It was delicious.

We ordered another pint this week but this cream was a little more liquidy (is that a word?).  We put it in the food processor and "churned" it for maybe 3 minutes.  Voila! a big lump of butter in a puddle of buttermilk.  We kneaded the butter to get all the milk out, which took about 10 minutes.

It was fun to do by hand but it's easy to see why butter paddles might be useful.  Unfortunately, we forgot to add salt so we had to knead it a second time.

In the end, we had a crusty but light-crumbed soda bread, about a pound of the best-tasting butter ever, and a small glass of buttermilk.  What a breakfast!

Next stop:  an antique store to find butter molds!  But note the pretty butter dish that we recently inherited from Dominique's mother.

Improvements:  a tad less salt.

The Big Freeze

Yesterday Cleveland experienced its coldest Jan. 7 since 1884 - minus 11 degrees.  Frozen water everywhere:

frozen reservoir

azalea icicles

Sunny at the reservoir

At least someone likes the cold.










Here at the Buckeye and the Frog it's been 30 hours and counting with no running water.  We had a small trickle when we got up yesterday morning and, had we any sense at all, we would have kept the faucets open.  Unfortunately, we didn't, and soon after the water stopped.  We are literally melting snow to be able to flush the toilets and give water to the chickens and Sunny. 

We almost fought over a cup of water slowly being formed in our Brita from ice cubes.  This morning I felt like a homeless person, plotting my route downtown to include the library in order to wash my hands!  Maybe the worst problem is the pile of dishes mounting in the sink.


Of course, it could have been worse:  it could have happened last week when our kids were still here; we could be having guests; and my mom could live somewhere other than around the corner where we will be heading later for showers and probably some buckets of water.  Still, this is no fun at all.

The plumber has been called - twice - and with luck will make his way to us today.

New egg!

Two batches of homemade eggnog this holiday season plus the homecoming of our 5 children really depleted our egg reserves!  Fortunately, one of our newest chicks - we believe it's the lavender orpington - surprised us with her first egg this morning.  What a cute little egg it is, so small compared to the brown one from Bucky and the blue one from Goose, and pink!

We were surprised to have an egg from one of them now because we didn't expect them to start laying until at least January and possibly not until February.  It seems that orpingtons are a relatively fast-maturing breed (good to know).

We've learned that 3 laying hens is about right to keep us in eggs for ourselves and our guests with a nice reserve for cakes and other goodies.  When the other 2 start laying - and I guess they will soon enough - we'll be overflowing, but that's a good problem to have.  Sadly, chicken attrition can happen without warning.

First snow winter 2013-14

Oh yes, now I remember why we love Oberlin in the winter!  All it takes is one good deep snowfall - the transformation from dreary drab to frosty playground is instantaneous and invigorating.

I should have been painting our 3rd floor rooms but, under the pretext of getting Sunny out for a walk, I put on my skis and headed for the golf course.  Some of the skiing was great, but for the most part, the snow was a bit too sticky, it was more like snowshoeing than skiing.

Hmm, sticky snow?  Time to make a snowman, obviously! Lots of people had the same idea; snowmen were popping up all over Oberlin!  Not to mention snow forts and miscellaneous other structures.

We love our "bonhomme de neige."  Hope he doesn't melt for a long time.  I still want to get in some good skiing!

Running some numbers

We're not quite at the end of the year yet but I couldn't help looking at our customer database from May 2012 until now.  I was surprised and impressed to see that we have had guests from 32 different states, plus the District of Columbia, and from 11 different countries!  The largest number of guests came from New York, followed by California.

Our occupancy rate went from 27% in 2012 to 32% in 2013.  This even though we implemented our 2-night stay policy and closed the B&B on several occasions due to vacations and other reasons.  As we prepare to lift our 2-night policy pending the hire of a housekeeper, the occupancy rate should be even higher in 2014.

Beyond and more important than the numbers, of course, is the fact that we feel good about where we are with the B&B.  We've come a long way since May 4, 2012.  We subscribe to the principle of continuous improvement, but we're not doing too badly, I think.

Rebuilding the flock

Following the demise of Mimique and the tragic deaths of 2 of our buckeyes, we have added a new chicken and started raising 3 new chicks.

We have our chicken from Wild Goose Garden, in Oberlin, courtesy of Kim Annable.  She is an Americauna and lays blue/green eggs, just like Chipmunk.  We named her Goose - partly in honor of her provenance, partly because she's gray, and partly because we think it's a funny name for a chicken.

Goose - but the picture doesn't do her justice

Crazy story about Goose:  Within 15 minutes of having her at home, she escaped into the woods behind our house.  Dominique and I beat the bushes for a long time but didn't find her and eventually had some place we needed to be.  When we returned home later that night, we went out with flashlights to see if she had roosted in the tree branches.  No sign of her.  The next morning, I put out "Missing Chicken" signs and once again combed the woods.  Nothing.

Later that morning, as I stood in the kitchen talking to my daughter, Jessie, she happened to look out the door.  A strange look came over her face as she said, "Well, look who's here."  And who should it be but our crazy Goose, scratching and pecking as if nothing were amiss at all.  Needless to say we hustled her into the pen and slammed the door!

Maybe an hour or so later I noticed that I had a voice message on my phone.  Someone had actually spotted Goose in the neighbor's yard across the street from us and called to tell us!  Of course it was after the fact by then, but how great that someone would take the time!

Goose is having a hard time adjusting to life at the Buckeye and the Frog thanks to our remaining buckeye, Bucky (clever name, eh?).  That pecking order stuff is real and a bit vicious.  She hasn't been hurt but she sure gets chased a lot.  Detente is coming slowly but surely, however; they all roost together now and Bucky's chasing has diminished.  Hopefully Goose will relax enough to start laying some eggs soon!

Cagney, Purpur, and Angela

Angela, Cagney, and Purpur

As for the babies, we picked them up from Meyer Hatchery on August 20 when they were 2 days old.  Although I asked for another dominique and a Jersey giant, my email was never linked to my order so what we have is a silver-laced wyandott, a German spitzhauben, and a blue or lavendar orpington.  They are named Cagney, Angela, and Purpur.  All seem healthy and are very happy to spend the day outside.  It will be several weeks yet before we introduce them to the older chickens - the pecking order business is especially hard on little chicks but soon they'll easily be able to outrun their elders!

R.I.P., Mimique

Mimique 8-9-2010

9-14-2010

Sadly, when we returned to the B&F after our amazing vacation in Africa, we learned that Mimique had a paralyzed leg and was basically unable to move.  Three days later, she was dead.  We don't know what caused her death although she was found on the ground under the roost, next to a broken egg.  Going on 3 years old, Mimique was laying larger and larger eggs and a google search revealed that sometimes a very large egg can cause paralysis.  Maybe that was it.

We are very sad for our little amputee dominique.  She was a pretty, gentle hen and the head chicken of the flock.  We planted a memorial "Rosy Glow" barberry bush in our backyard and held a small burial ceremony for her.  RIP

There are two silver linings to this otherwise unhappy story.  First, Mimique was the first of our chickens to die of natural causes.  Yay for us.  Second, I now feel justified in buying some new chicks.  Chipmunk is the same age as Mimique and although she could live for another year or two (or more), we will want to make sure that we have enough laying hens to keep us in eggs for our guests.  So we have three day-old chicks arriving on Aug. 19 -  rare breeds, and hopefully including a Jersey giant and another dominique.

Head of the flock

Laying an egg

Continental breakfast

We love serving breakfast to our guests and we've got some killer recipes.  But after we had a rash of very early breakfast requests (6:00! meaning we have to get up at 5:00), we had to rethink our policy of providing a full, hot breakfast at any hour.

Our solution:  a continental breakfast tray, including fresh fruit, home-baked goodies, yogourt, and a small coffee maker for coffee or tea.  We can prepare it the night before, leave it by the guest's room, and they have it first thing in the morning, whenever they get up.  They can enjoy it tranquilly in their room while they prepare to leave and not have to plan extra time.  We get to sleep in.  Win win!

To be honest, we were beginning to resent our guests who had early morning commitments, and we never want to feel that way.  Changing to this approach has completely changed our attitude, and we honestly feel it's nice for the guests as well.  We've done this 2 or 3 times so far and it's been well received.  Any thoughts?

First fire

After a few days of unseasonably warm weather that melted all the lovely snow and put an end, for awhile, to the skiing, it cooled down again enough to justify our first fire.

Having bought 100 pounds of coal on-line, we took the lazy route and just used the bags of SimpleFire that we found in the closet.  We had no idea what it was, so of course we googled it.  We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it is processed from recycled paper and burns cleaner than coal, wood, or natural gas.  It comes in a paper bag and all we had to do was light the bag.  After a few minutes, we had beautiful flames although neither the smell nor sound of a wood fire.  It was supposed to last an hour but was really only good for about half that time.  Maybe it's old and a little dry?

The second time we used it we tried to light the coal with it but that didn't work.  I suspect it doesn't burn hot enough, so we'll have to try a real firestarter next time.  Still, it was lovely to have a fire during cocktail hour, and SimpleFire would certainly be easier for our Frog Room guests to use.

Janet & Sunny

Living room fireplace