Straight Run, Full Circle

Wild Working Kitchen

Tiger Swallowtail on Swamp Milkweed, CEED, Brookhaven, NY. Photo by Bugchik

Nothing has made me more devoted to vegetarianism than harvesting cockerels this season. Straight run means the chicks are not sexed, and if you have been following this journey with me for awhile, you know my favorite rooster lived a month longer than he needed to, because I imagined having broody hens and lots of chicks and an ethical food factory in my little backyard, but I will leave that to the young man I bought the chicks from. Roosters are loud, they are horny, and the town does not allow them. I had some romanic idea that he would serve as the leader of the silly pullets and keep them occupied. He led them around the yard a bit in his alert big headed way, but he really pissed off my oldest hen Pretty Dot and her competing crow was a lot louder than his. Sentimentality has no place in making clear and honorable decisions.

Pretty Dot photo bombs first tiny green egg.

This is how I harvested the cockerels: read on if you wish, or not. It is a simple but not easy task for sure. It is a kindness to harvest them, because so many unwanted roosters are abandoned this time of year by people who could not take responsibility for the straight run. I hope this info is helpful in the best of ways.

Very early in the morning, when it is just light enough to see, I take him out of the coop and wrap him in a towel like a baby. He quiets. I don’t let the other chickens see what I am doing. They stay in the coop awhile longer. I lay the swaddled rooster on the ground and cover his head with another towel. My knee holds his body to the earth while I position the sharpened tree loppers at his neck. It is very fast. I hold him to the ground with my hands until he is still, a few long minutes. His blood flows onto the earth. I try to be kind and gentle and present. He had a good life and I try to guide the good death, too. Being new at this I just removed the skin and feathers together, with sharp scissors like taking off a coat, rather than plucking feathers to keep the skin, I remove the innards, the feet. The body is washed and frozen for winter soup.

The next day one of the new pullets debuted her life as a hen by offering a tiny green egg, the beautiful color that attracted me to getting chicks from this breeder to begin with.

My vegetable garden is a disappointment this year. I imagined I would have a garden of all purple pole beans so they would be easy to pick. The source for these beans is a company that produces a very huge and interesting catalog every year, but their seeds are frankly total shit, weak germination and long and weedy vines failing to flower. I hope to be proven wrong and scouring the earth for experimental seeds is a worthy endeavor but Ill never stake 1/2 my food plot on them again.

My experiment buying expensive organic seed potatoes and laying them on my compost ring and hilling them up with straw, so far is also a fail. Reaching under the flopped over plants, I found no new potatoes. I had to buy some. I think the mulberry tree grew too quickly and shaded out their spot.

A first handful of tricolor bush beans (from tried and true High Mowing Organic Seeds) accompanied my vegetarian pasta meal last night. After I read Jenks Farmer’s post in his newsletter called “Plant People” about the southern “cold plate” I became obsessed with making little cold salads, like shredded boiled beets with yogurt and dill. Kudos to Barbara who did not cook the beets in her version: raw was amazing! And Pam daring to bake chocolate zucchini cake in this heat. Happy Birthday Vita! Perfect summer picnic food for our “garden ladies” birthday gathering.

The year my son was born, 1997, a new edition of The Joy of Cooking came out. The version before was still full of weird pickles, organ meats and aspic, but this one was 1990’s up to date. It was my go to for everything. It was before famous chefs. It was the infancy of the internet. And I still crack open its cracked spine a lot. Here is my favored potato and egg salad recipe, as best recalled from JOC, because nothing is loading right now: Mercury retrograde tech fail cliche’ is grounded in a bit of truth.

JOC American Potato Salad as recalled by Karin

Here is a hint: an Instant Pot will pressure cook perfect red waxy potatoes in 5 minutes. In a bowl mandolin some celery, chop scallions and parsley. Cut the warm potatoes into little bites and toss with the aromatic veggies. Slice hard boiled eggs, mix 1/2 tartar sauce and 1/2 mayonnaise and toss it all together. Serve cold.

Lunar Gardening Week

Time zone converter is here.

July 22, 8:26am-July 24, 11:28am (EDT): Moon in last quarter of Cancer the crab, represented by the breast, that watery nurturing sign. I am so glad I dragged the hose around, full force, no nozzle, to drench all the plants I could yesterday, front and back of house. Irrigation during water signs reminds us to deeply soak every 5 days or so versus light surface watering which can be detrimental. Try not to water in evening if slugs and snails are an issue. At Orkestai Farm I learned to water to a count of five at the base of each plant during heat waves such as this. It is best not to wet the leaves.

July 24, 11:28am-July 26, 7:02pm: New Moon in fire sign Leo, the heart, arrives at 3:11pm July 24, making a short window on July 24 during the waning phase good for killing weeds and pests, and harvesting food crops. The new moon is dark, not visible, because it is so close to the sun from earth perspective that no light can shine on her. No clear gardening directive during the waxing phase of Leo. Have you followed the moon through the sky for a whole month yet? Try this practice starting with the tiny “D” sliver at dusk: easy to find.

July 26, 4:55pm-July 29, 1:43 am: Waxing moon in first quarter in earth sign Virgo is encouraged for all compost related activities. A simple ring of chicken wire can be filled with vegetable scraps coffee grounds, prunings of non invasive plants and later autumn leaves. Keeping organic matter (biomass) on your land is preferable to removing it. Over time all things return to the earth.

July 29, 1:43am-July 31, 1:25pm: First quarter moon in air sign Libra, ruler of flowers. What would you like to plant right now that bears flowers? Perhaps last chance to sow a few legal cannabis seeds here in the Northeast. Late sowing cannabis means your plants will be compact and easy to manage at harvest, a big consideration. Refer to the date of the seed package and count back from first frost date. Too late? Plant in pots if you want to give it a go anyway and place the pots in a protected area during the frosty nights.

July 31, 1:25pm-Aug 3, 2:am: Waxing moon in watery Scorpio moves from first to second quarter. Aug 1 & 2 are the best no brainer planting and gardening days this month. The opportunity to grow food in 3 seasons has been a long obsession of mine. Row cover and shade cloth can support the germination of cool weather vegetable plants during the hot days of August. They will also protect brassicas from cabbage worm and Cabbage white butterfly. Who has not enjoyed some “hole-y” organic kale this summer?

Happy Gardening!