An attempt to save a separated buttercream frosting resulted in decorative trimming that looks dead on like bird poop. However the droppings were packed with espresso flavor so they got incorporated into the top. The resulting cake was a chocolate cake with salted cajeta frosting, topped with a thin layer of espresso glaze. It was delicious.

Another cake fail features a meringue frosting that did not set properly. For the record, I did not make this cake. It was in fact made by a child. Which at least is a better excuse than my bird poo cake.

I’ve been reading up on some of the concerns individuals have about keeping urban livestock. I’ve found some great sources of information. This includes an impact study of 20 municipalities that have passed chicken ordinance and Oakland Animal Services 2008-2010 raw data on total animals they’ve sheltered. The OAS data show a number of fighting roosters, but not a huge number of hens, or goats. Rabbits listed are trickier to understand as historically there is an issue of pet owners realizing rabbits are not for them and surrendering them to animal services. Rabbits can be a bit cantankerous. So were these indoor pet rabbits that accidentally bred, that pet owners didn’t want or rabbits raised for meat?

One of the biggest concerns I’ve seen is that domestic farm animals would be denied the opportunity to live a natural life in humane care. This brings up an interesting point. What is a domestic animal’s “natural” life. Many breeds were developed specifically with food in mind. They are not wild animals. They have co-evolved with us over thousands of years and are dependent on us to care for them. They were not bred as companions, they were bred for food. So natural life includes eating their eggs, drinking their milk and in some cases eating their flesh.

That being the case, they deserve humane care that meets their needs. An article on urban chicken welfare explores this, give it a read. In fact, next on my reading queue is the Temple Grandin book, Animals Make Us Human.

I recently did a soil test through the UMass Soil and Plant Tissue Lab. The results are that my soil is very fertile and has no toxic levels of heavy metals. The only thing I thought odd was that my soil has high levels of phosphorus and potassium but low levels of nitrogen. This could be because I took the sample from unamended areas (I wanted to a better sense of my native soil). With all the rain, it is possible nitrogen got washed out. With that in mind, I looked up what manure might be best to amend with. While I thought chicken manure would be the highest in nitrogen, I was surprised to find that actually rabbit is one of the best. Well, shoot. I’ve got some rabbit manure for sure. A good but of information I learned is that when using manure you want to amend with it at least 3 months before you plan to harvest, 4 months if you are growing root vegetables. This is to avoid any pathogens. Also, when using horse manure you’ve collected from a stable, consider if the animal had received any medications prior.

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/manures.html

I’m thinking about a conversation I had recently where it was asserted that people currently teaching how to raise and prepare animals as food are not qualified. I’m thinking about the assertion that before keeping animals for food, there should  be required classes. To this I say, growing and raising food is in the same category of traditional knowledge as herbal medicine. I no more need a license to grow chamomile and drink it in tea than I do to grow lettuce or to raise chickens (or rabbits) for food.

Growing and raising food is an ancient tradition in all cultures. The knowledge is shared orally and experientially. You learn by talking to others and by doing. I do not believe a government should tell how to grow and raise my own food. In fact, I find that oppressive and a denial of my own cultural practice. I grow and prepare by food the way my family has for many generations (likely centuries).

I have assimilated into U.S. mainstream culture through education as much as I am willing to. I want what I eat and how I eat to be left alone by government, by corporations and by radical groups that think think they have the answer for everyone. I say do your thang radical people, just don’t try to force me to do things your way.

That said- I made a fabulous rabbit dinner with fresh tortillas. Dios mio!

Conejo en Adobo (mil gracias to the unnamed woman in Mexico from whom this recipe was originally obtained)

For the rabbit:

1 3- 3 ¾ pound rabbit, cut into 6-8 pieces

1 medium white onion, peeled and quartered

1 ½ heads of garlic

3-4 bay leaves

salt to taste

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

For the adobo:

8 guajillo chiles, seeded and deveined

8 ancho chiles, seeded and deveined

2 teaspoons ground black peppercorns

2 teaspoons ground whole allspice

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano leaves

8 large garlic cloves, peeled

1 medium white onion, peeled and quartered

Preparation:

Cut meat off rabbit, set aside. Place bones in baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and bake about 20-30 min at 350. Just until bones brown.

Place bones and any drippings in a stock pot with, i1 onion, 1 head of garlic, unpeeled and cut in half crosswise, and the bay leaves. Cover with water and salt to taste. Simmer about 1 hour, strain and reserve the stock.

Place cuts of meat in a non-reactive bowl with the vinegar, the other ½ head of garlic, peeled and crushed, and ½ teaspoon of salt. The vinegar, crushed garlic and salt will form a paste that coats the rabbit pieces. Set the rabbit aside to marinate in the paste for 20-30 minutes while the adobo sauce is being prepared.

Toast the chiles on a dry comal, griddle or pan just until they begin to give off their fragrance. Do not allow them to burn or char. Soak the dried chiles in hot water until softened. Place the chiles and remaining adobo ingredients in a blender with enough of the chile soaking water to move the blades, and puree. Strain the puree through a food mill or mesh strainer.

Place the adobo and 2 cups of the reserved rabbit stock in a large pot and cook for 15-20 minutes. Brown the rabbit pieces in vegetable oil and add them to the adobo sauce. Simmer for another 15-20 minutes to make a fairly thick sauce.

Serve with white rice and corn tortillas. Either zucchini or chayote is a good vegetable with this. Serves 6.

Wow, Maker Faire was a whirlwind both figuratively and literally as the table was placed in a wind tunnel. The East Bay Urban Agriculture Alliance (EBUAA) had a presence due to Rachel and Tom’s amazing efforts! Then a group of folks from the EBUAA kindly volunteered to table the event. It was great to have diverse representation of the alliance throughout the weekend! Its also completely exciting that in this last week alone, between efforts at Pluck & Feather and EBUAA, we’ve gathered over 100 signatures, most in Oakland, for the Oakland Food Policy Council’s Urban Ag  Petition.

The above photo is Tom from Dog Island Farm holding it down in the Homegrown Village while his wife and I presented a well attended workshop on how to convert your yard to food.

The presentation went well and was punctuated by odd sights and sounds from things like a giant metal elephant passing by while blowing fire from its trunk. Its hard to capture what all goes on at Maker Faire. Its a sea of creative folks sharing their inventions, knowledge and playfulness. Though, I will admit, the description I saw as a “G-Rated Burning Man” seems to fit. One of my personal favorites was the Robot Chariot gliding around.

Come check out the Maker Faire this year!! It starts today. There is a great line up of workshops. Saturday at 10:30AM you can catch Heidi from Itty Bitty Farm in the City presenting on Urban Goats, at 11:30AM Rachel of Dog Island Farm and I will presenting on Converting Your Yard to Food, at 4PM Janelle Orsi will of the Sustainable Economies Law Center will be doing a presentation on The New Sharing Economy!

Wait, wait, I’m not done. All weekend the East Bay Urban Agriculture Alliance will be there and Sunday Heidi and I will present at 11:30AM on Keeping Urban Livestock. There is a ton more than this so its worth making a day of it. Hope to see you there!

The days have been a blur and somehow my Mother’s Day post is behind schedule. So, here it is…a few days late.

I think most of us can agree that mothers represent a vital life force. They bring us into the world, they nurture us from their own bodies, they often push themselves to their limit to meet our needs. Moms. Really, few others will ever go the length a mother goes.

When I think of motherhood, I think in terms of natural metaphors (and I know not all females are naturally mother’s…look at Anabelle- who by the way is doing fabulous and even lets me pet her now). I think of alert senses, hunting, nurturing, creating, and protecting. And while in reality- moms are people with their own faults and limitations, most still try their darndest.

My own mother has always excelled, and I mean excelled, in the realm of creativity. The woman can build a civilization with a stick of gum and a paper clip. I distinctly recall a day with her when I must have been four years old. She was showing me how to craft something and my hands were too clumsy. I got upset and said I’d never do it as well as she could. She said its because she is an adult and has been doing it for longer. That I just have to practice. I’m in my thirties now and I can tell you, I still can’t make things as well as she can.

That said, the lesson of re-purposing came at an early age for me. Whether its reusing items to make a craft cottage style garden, or finding another use for plastic shopping bags,

Mama’s got the touch. Its hard to introduce her to something she has not done before. However, for Mother’s day this year, we made some goat mozzarella using the generous kit the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company sent as a thank you for being in their newsletter.

That all said, I leave off with Ani DiFranco lyrics that always remind me of my ma, and my gramps.

i do it for the joy it brings
because i’m a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world
i do it because it’s the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
i do it just because i want to

I gave a class last night at 18 Reasons with Rachel of Dog Island Farm. We covered the basics of rabbit care which is more involvement than perhaps some folks expected. Its great to get the word out about the care of meat rabbits. Its also good to get the word out that rabbit is one of the long standing culinary traditions around the world. They provide a sustainable, easy to manage, source of meat that can be raised in your own backyard.

Rabbits are prey animals with native origins in North America, Southwestern Europe, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, Japan, Africa and South America. They have always been a popular source of meat. So when it comes to cooking rabbit, there are a huge number of recipes from cultures around the world. The following image provides the common culinary cuts (you can download the pdf). There are a number of ways to enjoy the offal as well. Typical offal are they kidneys, liver, and heart.

Some traditional preparations include Hassenpfeffer, a German rabbit stew and the common French rabbit in mustard sauce, Lapin à la moutarde. Of course, I am always interested in traditional Mexican cuisine. While reading about how rabbit has been a part of the Mayan diet for over a milenia, I located this recipe for Rabbit and Corn Stew, a Zapotec dish. I look forward to trying this out.

That said, one of my favorite preparations has been a recipe I nabbed by watching amazing Chef Lauren Lyle in action. I call it Olive Rabbit.

Note: You can either make this spice mix and marinate meat in it overnight or just stew for a couple of hours in pot.

Cut one rabbit into its culinary parts and salt it.

Break red whole chili into a stew pot (a handful)

Roast 1 Tbs of whole coriander and 1 Tbs cumin seeds, 1/4 Tsp fenugreek, and 1 Tsp of paprika and place in stew pot.

Place a generous portion ~1 cup of green olive (unpitted it fine) in pot.

Add ~ 1/4 c. of olive oil

Add a handful of fresh cilantro, 2 cracked Persion limes (or slices of lime or lemon).

Dredge rabbit in mixture in pot, add turkey or chicken broth to cover and stew at a very low temperature for no more than two hours. The broth will reduce to a sauce. The flavors are pungent, spicy and salty so it pairs well with a light crunchy salad.

The Bay Friendly Garden Tour was a smashing success! We counted about 215 people toured throughout the day. I was pleasantly surprised by how streamline the event was. I suspect this is because I had an excellent crew of volunteers helping. Marcel was on the front entrance, Dipak was on outreach, and JH was helping to answer questions and give tours. I have to say one of the highlights was seeing some of my closest allies in action to support the Pluck & Feather project.

The fabulous intern JH took a minute to warm up to the crowd and then did an amazing job! I feel really honored that she chose to work with me and has been interested in learning about soil health, growing food, animals and cooking.

Other highlights included:

- Our young neighbor, Fiona, volunteering to help children handle the baby rabbits. She was really good at this!

- Meeting a very cool Romanian woman that told me how to make make pâine, Romanian bread. I have been looking ever since I saw the youth produced film, Babica.

- The visit from a student group from a class at the California State University, East Bay. It was part of an assignment!

- Collecting nearly 100 signatures for the Oakland Food Policy Council’s statement on urban agriculture.

-The number of families with children that came though.

- The feedback received from attendees. It was great to hear their thoughts on what it means to them to grow and raise food in the city.

- My neighbors coming through and being so supportive and encouraging. I really enjoyed talking with the broader Oakland community.

All in all, it was a successful event well worth the work that went into preparation. Thank you to everyone who made it so great!

My father-in-law has been reading a Hindi book on medicinal uses of herbs and spices. we talk about it often as I am interested in growing practical medicinals for myself and my animals. Excited about the potential of all the seeds we have in our spice cupboard, we decided to see if we could propagate Ajwain this year. Ajwain, Trachyspermum copticum, a tasty seasoning with a peppery celery seed type flavor. I’d describe it as both pungent and refreshing. A Punjabi friend of mine turned me on to Ajwain years ago when she sprinkled it on roti she was making. It pairs very well with Brassicas and also coconut milk. You can also use the fresh leaves.

The medicinal used include being a digestive aid, a relief for abdominal discomfort due to indigestion and an antiseptic. Apparently, seeds soaked in milk can relieve colic symptoms in babies. A decoction of the leaves can be used as an antiseptic wash for insect bites.

We planted seeds in early April in a seed box. They shot right up. The plants are thriving and I recently transplanted them to the ground. The plant is an Apiaceae or Umbelliferae, so its leaves resemble carrot tops.