Henny Penny Farmette

During a swarm, honeybees surround and protect their queen

Humans could learn a thing or two from the world of honeybees where all endeavor benefits the entire colony, not an individual bee.

A tea made of meadowsweet, chamomile, or peppermint herbs can calm an upset stomach.

To get stronger egg shells, feed your chickens extra calcium.

Producing manure is easy; it’s the moving of it that takes patience and the right shovel.

Sow above-ground plants during a waxing moon and below-ground plants during a waning moon.

Honeybees do a waggle dance as they accept a new hive as home

The simplest treatment for a bee sting is to get the stinger out.

Move chickens and bees at night; when they awake in the morning, the move is a fait accompli.

If you enjoy listening to songbirds, it might interest you to know the male is generally the singer since he uses song to attract a mate and defend his territory.

Birds don’t just sing; they call, and their calls are how they communicate
with a partner or sound the alarm that a predator is near.

Box and jug wines are fine as long as you never drink or cook with a flawed wine.

Use a dab of raw honey or bee propolis to treat a peck wound on a chicken as honey and propolis have antiseptic, antibacterial properties.

Rescued dogs can make great family pets

Each nostril of a dog’s highly sensitive nose can separately track scents—a skill proving useful to humans in finding illegal drugs, locating dead bodies, and even detecting cancer.

Red wine remains drinkable for decades because the tannins act as a natural preservative; however, the wine must be properly bottled and stored.

If you want to lower your cholesterol, decrease your stress level
and improve your blood pressure, adopt a dog.

Pacific oysters can engage in annual sex reversals; male one year, female the next—one of nature’s many surprises.

Chickens need extra calcium to produce eggs with strong shells

Help your chickens go through the molting process (when they lose feathers and stop egg production) by feeding them 20 percent more protein and limiting their stressors.

Just the sight of flowers can have an uplifting effect on body, mind, and spirit

Time spent in a garden is a lot like yoga; it slows the breath, quiets the mind, and lets you get to  the truth.

To break your dog’s habit of licking you, get up and go into another room
immediately when the licking starts so the animal will associate its licking with your leaving.

If you don’t want to be devoured by insects, wear light colors when gardening.

If you want to strengthen your immune system, consume a teaspoonful of raw buckwheat honey every day.

Queen bee quarters on a frame inside the hive

A honeybee queens live 10 times longer than her worker bee sisters and while they are sterile, the queen remains reproductive throughout her life.

To keep your bee colony strong and robust, feed your honeybees when their food sources become scarce.

To make a fat-free broth, pour the juices of a roasted chicken or turkey into a wide-mouth jar and refrigerate until solidified; then, skim away the fat that has risen to the top.

You can’t shift the status quo if you don’t take action.

When relationships sour like beans and bitter herbs, an hour in a garden
can generate the sweetness of new dreams.

©November 2013 by Meera Lester
Permission is granted for use of individual quotes, provided the quoted material contains the following credit: “Used with permission from Henny Penny Farmers’ Almanac.”

Steel-cut (Irish) and stone-ground (Scottish) oatmeal has a place on my pantry shelf alongside a container of quick oats. Steel cut means the groats (oat grains) get cut by a steel blade after they have been hulled. The groats of stone-ground oats are cut even smaller than the steel-cut and ground. See http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/types-of-oats

In rolled oats, the groats are further flattened into flakes. But whether you eat steel-cut oatmeal that takes up to a half hour or more to cook or rolled oats that cook in minutes, you can take comfort in the fact that you are doing something good for your body.

Studies have shown that oatmeal can lower cholesterol, and lower cholesterol reduces the risk of heart disease. Steel-cut oats taste about the same as quick oats and nutritionally, the two two are also similar. See http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol/CL00002e

Growing up n a farm, oatmeal made its way to our table on a regular basis. The women in our family also used oatmeal to create sweet treats–cookies and old fashioned deserts. Their crumbles, crisps, and betties incorporated oats in a pastry type topping laid over fruit and baked.

A crumble topping that adds oatmeal and nuts to the flour is known interchangeably as crumble or crisp. Betty is the name applied if the fruit used is an apple variety prepared with sugar, spices, and bread crumbs. The term dates to Colonial America. Sugar sweetens the crumble and butter makes it hang together in a pastry with a crumbly texture.

Here’s an example of how oatmeal might be used in a fruit crumble, crisp, or betty recipe. After sprinkling the topping onto the fruit, the dessert is baked at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-35 minutes.

Ingredients for fruit filling:

6 cups cherries, apples, pears, mixed berries, or other fruit

1 cup sugar (or more, if the fruit is very tart)

1 teaspoon lemon juice (keeps the fruit from turning brown)

1 teaspoon cornstarch (use more if the fruit is very juicy and requires a thickening agent)

1 teaspoon spice such as nutmeg, ginger, or cinnamon, depending on the fruit used

Directions:

Mix fruit and ingredients together and pour into a baking dish.

Ingredients for the crumble/crisp topping:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup oats (optional)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon spice (like cinnamon or ginger, depending on the type of fruit used)

1/2 cup butter (8 Tablespoons)

Directions:

Mix together the dry ingredients and cut in the butter until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of the fruit and bake for 30-35 minutes.