Fermentation Station

If my quail keeping wasn't an odd enough hobby, I also started fermenting stuff this year. I'm pretty much a wannabe homesteader now. 

Yogurt was my first ferment. I've been making yogurt for several years now. I make it with half and half and strain it a lot so it is super thick and creamy. It is delicious mixed with frozen fruit, chia seeds, and granola!

The new staple: Kefir! Pictured above is the kefir blended with frozen fruit to make a smoothie. We have been having a kefir smoothie as an afternoon snack for months now, so our gut bacteria should make us immortal or something. 

I love the origin story of kefir. Basically, a Russian cheese-school graduate was sent as a spy to seduce the prince of the Caucus nomads to get kefir grains from them. Kefir was highly sought after as a health food and was credited for the longevity of the Caucus people. The prince would not give her the kefir grains, because it was forbidden to share them with outsiders. The cheese making hottie was kidnapped by the prince's men on the way back to Russia. Russia retaliated and demanded that they hand over kefir grains as punishment for kidnapping a Russian citizen. All kefir in the world is from the growth of those original grains taken in that deal in 1908. Read the whole story at https://revolutionfermentation.com/en/blogs/milk-kefir/the-fascinating-origins-of-kefir-grains/

A snapshot of my fermentation projects: Raisin vinegar (flopped), kefir grains, and sauerkraut! The sauerkraut is especially delicious. We put it on all sorts of stuff. Elliot is frequently the one to say "I think sauerkraut would be good on this pasta," and he's usually right!

One other cool project was making fermented blueberry soda. All soda used to get the carbonation from fermentation before the days of mechanical carbonation. I did a batch of prickly pear soda later on in the summer.

The kiddos enjoying some home-brewed soda

Taste testing my pickles against store bought ones

I've learned a lot about food preservation and had fun doing experiments in the kitchen! "Shove things in a jar and leave it out for a while" is totally at my level. 

Tale of the Quail

 One January day at playgroup, I got talking to my homesteader friend Hannah Gardener about her animals. She said that if she were still living in Rancho Sahuarita with a small backyard like mine, she would want to keep quail instead of chickens because they are so easy to take care of. I was intrigued. 

My birthday was a few days later. My desired birthday activity was watching several hours of YouTube videos about quail keeping. As a kid, I loved interacting with chickens at my cousins' farm. There is something magical about getting to collect eggs every day, and the birds are just cool. Quail have all the same features of chickens but are quieter, need far less space, and will lay their eggs wherever, so they don't need roosting boxes and runs. I was very excited about the idea, and Aaron was open to it. 

I found a lady nearby through Facebook who raises quail and sells chicks, eggs, and meat birds. I bought a dozen eggs from her to make sure we liked them. They were delicious! They are small- about 3 quail eggs to a chicken egg- but they taste about the same and are supposedly healthier. Plus they look cool.

A few days later, the quail lady messaged me saying that she had some freshly hatched chicks for sale. We were the proud owners of 13 jumbo coturnix quail 9 days after I learned about their existence.

It was love at first sight! The chicks are absolutely precious!

A five day old chick

We were not really set up for them because it was such a short notice plan. I had them in a box that was too short because Isaac could reach into it. Luckily a neighbor had a box from an office chair that I was able to convert into a brooder box. We experimented having them walk on paper towels, then shredded paper, then finally pine shavings. 

I usually don't like projects... but I had a blast playing with power tools and rigging up stuff for my birdies. The picture above was the chick watering cup which didn't really work because the chicks aren't big enough to peck the lever to get water out, but it works great with the adult birds. I built a whole watering system with these poultry cups fed by pvc pipe and a 5 gallon bucket. I also built feeders out of containers with holes drilled in the sides. Quail are notoriously messy eaters and throw their food everywhere, so there's a lot less waste if they have to stick their heads into a container to reach their food. When they throw it around, it lands right back in the container! I made a hopper out of wide PVC pipe so that I only have to refill their food about once a week. 

One of the best parts was having neighborhood kids over to play with the chicks! A group of kids came over every day after school for a while. They wanted to be able to tell them apart, so we tattooed their feet with a sharpie. 

Does it get more precious than this?

Fast forward a few weeks to their adolescent years. These quail grow fast- they are fully mature at 6 weeks old!

Sometimes they fall asleep on their sides with their legs at awkward angles and really look dead. 

Me trying to be as sophisticated as this young hen

We moved them outside after about 6 weeks and probably would have moved them sooner if it hadn't been such an unusually cold winter. I rigged up a way to be able to refill the hopper through a hole we made in the side of the cages using a chute thing. The first chute was made out of cardboard duct tape, and later got someone in the ward to 3D print a more durable version for me. 

Homie likes his new crib

We ended up with 5 hens and 7 roosters. I divided them between my 3 cages but eventually developed problems. Quail are happiest when there are 4-5 hens to every rooster. The roosters got really aggressive competing over a smaller number of hens and ended up pecking one to death. I wanted to keep one rooster so that I could hatch a batch of chicks later on, but the others had to go. Hannah, my friend who originally told me about quail, also had some extra roosters, so we had a joint family dinner.

I will now be able to provide meat for my family in the event of the zombie apocalypse. 

Roasted quail and vegetables. Delicious!

Two weeks later, Elliot found the first egg! We all about burst for joy and excitement. 

After four days, we had enough eggs to make a snack

We each got a fourth of a piece of toast with an egg on it! Fortunately, the other hens started laying soon after, and before we knew it we got 4 eggs a day! This has been going for many months now and fresh tiny eggs are still exciting. 

This gal loves the quail and will ask to get them out in the backyard to play with them.

We brought a quail to Annie's preschool on the day they learned about the letter Q! It was adorable. Annie was so proud to show off her dust bathing pet. 

I used to swear we would never get animals, but these birds have provided a lot of joy and learning opportunities. I'm glad we got them!