More bread...the obsession continues!

I've got two loaves cooling on the counter, and another batch starting to rise.  Watch for my episode of "Intervention" on A&E.

I hate to throw away food.  So, like everyone else I know, as soon as I've deemed a banana "too brown" to eat, I throw it in the freezer.  This morning, after juggling eleventeen frozen bananas to get to the ice cubes, I decided to do something about it.  I'm not a huge fan of quick breads in general.  Around Christmas, sure, there's a few I like.  But I'm usually only good for a few slices before I forget all about it.   After Googling "what do I do with frozen bananas?" I hit on a recipe for a yeast bread that calls for bananas.  All the reviews promise that I'll never make banana quick bread ever again, that I'll be wholly a banana yeast bread convert.  Judging by the smell in my kitchen, that just might be true.



I bought some AMAZING tomatoes....you know, the kind that are just right with just a dash of salt, and eaten whole?  Oven roasted the skins off those suckers (literally), and tossed them in a dough with dill, sage, rosemary, and dehydrated onion.  It's rising now, and smells phenomenal.  I can't wait to try it with cream cheese and roast beef sandwiches!  This will be the first bread I've baked without the courtesy of a recipe.  Might be a success.....might be moonrocks.

Why post about Buckeye chickens?...

Because we added two Buckeye hens to the Emme family menagerie!  Pretty girls we call Dumpling and Biscuit, they're also extra smart, learning to head into the henhouse at night only after one day.

I chose Buckeyes for a couple of reasons: they were developed by a woman, they're an endangered breed, and they won't need a lot of "winterizing."  They also stay more on the small side, so the girls won't need quite as much space as a Silver-Laced Wyandotte or a Buff Orpington (huge beautiful birds, but boy, are they puffy!)

Dumpling and Biscuit

Their sweet lil' home.

We've had them almost a week now, and so far, we are big fans of having chickens.  They're fun to watch, are fairly low maintenance, and will be providing us with delicious eggs soon.  Our ladies are still a little too young for laying....but, for fresh eggs, I'll be patient.

Buckeyes!

The Buckeye was first bred and developed in 1896, by a Warren, Ohio resident named Nettie Metcalf .  They are the only American breed of chicken known to have been developed by a woman, despite the fact that women were customarily given charge of the household poultry flock throughout much of U.S. history.  Metcalf crossbred Barred Plymouth Rocks, Buff Cochins, and some black breasted red games to produce the Buckeye. Her goal was a functional breed that could produce well in the bitter Midwest winters. Contrary to popular belief the Buckeye breed was created before the Rhode Island Red breed and actually sent birds to the RIR breeders for them to improve their breed. 

The Buckeye was admitted to the American Poultry Association's Standard of Perfection in 1904.  Entrance in to the Standard of Perfection signifies official certification as a breed by the Association, and thus allows Buckeyes to be entered in to poultry shows and judged according to the breed standard (as outlined in the Standard of Perfection).

The recognition of Buckeyes in the Standard has been a significant factor in its survival.  In the past, largely due its lack of color variations, the Buckeye has not been an especially popular exhibition breed, but there is growing interest in the exhibition poultry fancy for this dual-purpose, heritage variety of bird. Not adopted by commercial operations, the Buckeye has generally been a bird of smaller farm flocks. Today the breed status is listed as Critical by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy,  Critical being defined as fewer than 500 breeding birds in the United States, with five or fewer primary breeding flocks (50 birds or more), and globally endangered.  The breed is also included in the Slow Food USA Ark of Taste, a catalog of heritage foods in danger of extinction.