Thread: Getting back to living off the land.....

A simple goat curry:

Go to an Asian food shop, anywhere.

Get some Thai red (or green or other) curry paste in a plastic sachet or jar. Also get a can of coconut milk/cream.

For 1~1.5 kg diced meat,

fry a couple or 3 tbsp, of the curry paste, in a little oil, to bring up the flavour, about 2 mins.

Add the meat in batches and fry a while ~ if you put it all in at once, a lot of water/juice, will come out and it's better, if it doesn't, a handful at a time, lightly browning the meat as you go, is good.

After say, 30~45 minutes of frying, add the coconut milk cream, all of it, or half of it, you choose. Heat to nearly, but not boiling, salt to taste and serve.

You can fancify it with capsicum-chilli-herbs and so on if you want.

Looks good MarkN. I like to have plenty of fluid in my curries. It soaks into the rice we serve it with and it can really 'stretch' a small curry into a big feed.

The 'handy' goats near home are fairly scarce now, and the few in the area seem to be wise enough to stay off the property where I have permission to hunt. But I'm always keeping an eye out for them. My current preference is to get the white ones first, hoping that the darker ones will breed up and not look so obvious on the hillsides. If people don't notice them, they are less likely to get worked up into an anti-pest fervour.

The trials and tribulations of trying to live off the land... Well over the last few days I noticed that my white Orp rooster has been picking on my favourite old chicken. She's been able to keep away from him by going into a pen he can't fit into.

Today I was going to move her but couldn't find her. Anyway, this evening I had a funny feeling something was wrong and went out to check. The bastard was standing on top of her bashing the hell out of her. I think he may have killed my other old girl a week or 2 ago...

So... I grabbed her and put her in her other pen. And him? He's in a plastic bag and will be soup tomorrow. He won't bash any of my girls again... I checked on her and she's ok. Another 10 mins and I'd probably have had a dead chook. He was the last rooster in my line of white Orps. But no arsehole roosters last long here. There are plenty of good ones...

The old hen is at least 8 years old and nicknamed the "Dog-Chicken" because she's like a pet dog. I got her when she was about 2 years old, about 7 years ago and she was a proper mess. she'd been poorly cared for. She's a lovely bird

That's an appropriate bag for the rooster. You've given me a business idea. Pre-printing coffins with emojis and words that express our feelings about the passing of the occupant.

Yeah; I wasn't happy doing it. Especially as he's the last rooster from my own line. I couldn't breed for few years while I looked after he folks so only have 2 of my own hens left... I have some birds from bought in eggs; but it's not the same as your own line...

Is she a cross with a silver laced winedot ?

Originally Posted by Coote

That's an appropriate bag for the rooster. You've given me a business idea. Pre-printing coffins with emojis and words that express our feelings about the passing of the occupant.

bravo -that would suit mew down to the ground .ya know" in life he was a real bastard ,now hes lyin here whats changed???" lifes a series of leg ups -im here cause me wife saw me gettin the wrong leg up!

@Moa Hunter

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Is she a cross with a silver laced winedot ?

I'm not sure; but has the wrong body shape. She has got Dorking in her though and looks very much like the Dark Dorking. She has 5 toes on one foot; so Dorking in her somewhere. I started a project to breed a Dark Dorking (there are none in NZ) but after putting my pure Dorking rooster over her I caught a bad case of lepto and gave the offspring to a friend who was keen. I was too crook for too long to continue the project.

I wonder if you had some eggs that hadn't been refrigerated... and had been fertilised by your rooster.... maybe you could stick them under a broody bantam

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

@Moa Hunter

I'm not sure; but has the wrong body shape. She has got Dorking in her though and looks very much like the Dark Dorking. She has 5 toes on one foot; so Dorking in her somewhere. I started a project to breed a Dark Dorking (there are none in NZ) but after putting my pure Dorking rooster over her I caught a bad case of lepto and gave the offspring to a friend who was keen. I was too crook for too long to continue the project.

get in touch with said friend and get some fertilized eggs to incubate...

@Coote The old white hen only lays every 2 days and she's been sneaky and stopped laying in the nest box. Typical! I'm not sure whether him or her were fertile (she is old) as I had no fertile eggs from them. I have 5 roosters and 5 hens from bought in eggs from a Rare Breeds Assn member from last year. But typically for Rare Breeds (people who try to make as much as possible from their birds and are economical with the truth...) only 3 hens and 2 roosters have the correct coloured white legs. I wondered why they always fudged around answering my questions about leg colour....

I have one other hen from my strain; but am not sure whether she is an egg eater or not. I had 2 other hens; her and a second one. One only laid pullet sized eggs and one was potentially an egg eater... One died a week or so ago without me discovering which was which. I'll put that remaining hen and the other old girl in separate pens. That way I'll get eggs from the old girl and hopefully discover if the other is the egg eater.

It was so disheartening to not be able to breed for those years. As the numbers dwindled. I will put a rooster from those bought in eggs and try to hatch any eggs. And if she is still laying now they maybe fertile to my (now departed) rooster. It's not quite the same having someone else's strain in your birds; or losing your strain completely. Most breeders off any livestock would know the feeling. But looking after the folks was more important in those years. But I lost 6 years of breeding...
@Micky Duck I'm sweet for Dorkings. I have my old boy and his 2 sons. One of the sons is an absolute stunner... I've only got 3 hens but am going to put eggs in the incubator this week. It was the white Orpingtons that I'm in the shit with a bit. Good ones are like hen's teeth and I had developed a cracker strain over about 5 years of intensive breeding. Most whites have the awful grey legs, but I'd eliminated that and they were looking like Cook's original Orpingtons; not the powder puff show birds...

These are the Dorkings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mUY4HotbI

well I love my rhode island reds..but we bought 4 rescue hens...having done one season on big farm,they were $5 each and we get 2 eggs on bad day and 3 most days,havent had four in a day yet so not entirely sure that there isnt a freeloader among them...I have my suspisions as one has comb thats not as bright as the other 3... decent pullets cost an arm n leg that is for sure.

@Micky Duck Rhodies are nice birds. It's funny how people have preferences. I went through the breed books and the birds I kept coming back to were the White Orpingtons and Dorkings. Yet there is a white Dorking in Europe; but I didn't like them; yet I like the white Orps. Weird eh?

Browning off some goat neck chops before they go in the crockpot. Seasoned with bay leaves, cinnamon, star anise, black peppercorns, lemon pepper, garlic, onions and tomato paste. Cooked in stock in the slow cooker for about 5 hours

The slow cooked wild goat neck chops.... Soooooooo tasty...... Definitely doing that recipe again.... it's nice when a plan comes together....