Catching Up

 

How was your month of May?   

Ours was full, but mostly in a good, old-retired-geezer kind of way.  😉

There were appointments with doctors, including the one-year anniversary appointment for Cletus' new knee (a disappointing result).  There were two rains, each of which flooded the back of our property.  

 There was a meeting with two men from the county road department to see if the county would agree to ditch the right-of-way to prevent these floods (they will not; we will have to pay someone to do this).  There was a trip over to West Mobile to deliver our first batch of live quail to St. Elmo Feed and Seed for their Chick Days which was VERY exciting for us as a new business!  

The garden is growing well and keeping Cletus quite busy.  The quail are hatching and thriving.  

 

Market days keep us busy on Fridays as we prep and on Saturdays as we enjoy our market community.  Our Coastal Alabama Farmers and Fishermens Market has been nominated as one of the best farmer's markets in the country and if you would like to help our market reach this goal you may vote here.  We love our market and especially our market community!

I have been learning to make a gluten-free version of the English muffins.  As I have met people at the market and offered samples of English Muffins, each week several would mention they are gluten-free and ask if I had any gluten-free options.  I did not, and knew this would take some time to hunt down a good recipe and test it, but this was not a high priority.  Then I discovered the wife of one of our priests is gluten-free.  I found my motivation!  She has graciously agreed to be my "honest taste-tester".  I got in high gear and found a sourdough option from King Arthur Baking which we both like.

Gluten-free starter bubbling nicely

We have been able to begin selling processed quail for meat at the market.  This means as the birds hit their harvest weight, we take one day a week ~ usually a Monday or Tuesday ~ to harvest and process them, and have them prepared and frozen in time for Saturday morning market.  There has been a great response to this and we look forward to continuing to have some available (our license allows us to sell up to 1000 processed birds per year).

I think the most frequent question we are having at the market right now is, "how do you cook these eggs...birds...vegetables....?".  I asked a few customers this week if having recipes here on the blog would be helpful and was given a resounding YES please!  So we will start having these frequently through the week. 

Since we sold a number of birds Saturday and anticipate having more this coming Saturday, I thought I would start with my brine recipe.  Our quail are not wild-caught so their diet is controlled and does not result in that gamey taste common to wild-caught anything, but I find this brine helps with any poultry.

I pull the birds from the freezer, pop them in the brine ~ making sure they are completely covered ~ and let them sit in the refrigerator for several hours.  

QUAIL BRINE RECIPE

1 1/2 cups kosher salt  

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 cups apple juice

1/4 cup whole peppercorns 

2-3 sprigs rosemary

garlic powder (as light or as heavy a sprinkle as you prefer)

 2 bay leaves

a "slosh" of orange juice

Combine all of this in a heavy saucepan and bring to a full boil.  Turn off the heat, cover, and let cool in the refrigerator.  If you waited til the last minute to mix this up, you may add ice cubes to flash-cool but give it a good 15 minutes first to let the flavors mix.  When cool, add quail and add enough water to fully cover the quail.  

If I am cooking quail for supper I start them in the brine after breakfast.  They should be fully thawed and ready in time to cook for the evening meal.