Mice! Apples! Pies!

[altivo]

Uh, no, the mice aren't going in the pies... yet. Wednesday I saw a mouse in the kitchen, so we got out the live traps. Thursday we had two mice, and took them out behind the barn and dumped them in a brushpile. Friday we had one in the trap, and yesterday two more plus we each saw one that got away. This morning four out of six traps had mice in them. Gary tried drowning the Thursday catch, but the mouse swam and swam and he felt so sorry for it he fished it back out. I'm beginning to think that five hundred feet away with two barns full of hay between them and the house isn't far enough. Two resident cats aren't doing much. One is too old to catch mice I think, and the other is too fat and lazy.

It's apple time again. We went down the road to the nearest orchard this morning and brought back two pecks: Cortlands and Honeycrisp. Because of the heavy rains, the apples are huge and very juicy but the flavor isn't quite as strong as it would be in a more dry year. Anyway, I'm making pie, apples mixed with black raspberries from the freezer. Cortlands are usually very good for pie and applesauce. Honeycrisp is very crunchy and they're nice for eating. Unfortunately, I guess Oprah declared them to be her favorite apple a few years ago, which means they now command a higher price than the others even though orchards have planted them everywhere as a result. Also available this week: Gala, Jonathan, Jonamac, Jonagold, and Senshu. Next week the Empire, another of my favorites, and Al says there aren't a lot of them this year so we should get there on Friday. At the end of the month, Melrose (also called Melreuge,) which is a big red apple with crisp flesh and tart flavor that I love to put in pies and apple crisp. They will also have Golden Delicious and Red Delicious, but neither of those has any appeal for us. Compared to many of the other varieties, they seem quite dull and tasteless.

I wish there was a good cider mill around here, but there really isn't. Since cider sold off premises is required to be pasteurized, we can't get really tasty apple cider here. It's something I really miss from back when I lived in Michigan.

Comments

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

I picked up 8 liters of cider last weekend, and Dog drank it all!!

(although he did feel bad about drinking it....it was just too good not to)

Guess I'll have to see if there's any on the way to London from here.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Living as you do in a country that never suffered the ravages of the Temperance movement and Prohibition, you can probably get good fermented cider too. Down here that is really scarce and expensive.

Right now, though, is the time for the fresh-squeezed stuff and I'm with Dog. It's too good to leave sitting there.

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

Living as you do in a country that never suffered the ravages of the Temperance movement and Prohibition

Well, that's not entirely true. It just didn't last as long here. Nor was it ever as widely adopted. (I recently had a book out from the library titled: The history of alcohol in Ontario)

Unfortunately it's still very difficult to find unpasteurized anything around here. It just doesn't seem to be legal to sell it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I realize that various local governments tried to enforce temperance, but at least you never had a national law. Or did you?

The US actually (stupidly) wrote it into the Federal Constitution by amendment. It was eventually repealed, but the period in between was amazingly violent and unstable because people never gave up drinking, they just created a huge black market. Even the politicians who created the situation were often implicated.

During the era of temperance rioting, whole orchards of cider apples were chopped up and burned by mobs. Some fine old varieties of apple became virtually extinct as a result.

[keeganfox.livejournal.com]

Yummy pies! *runs in circles excitedly*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Pies, yes. But you live where you can get REAL cider. The good stuff.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

I don't know how Michigan got to be such a hotbed of cider activity. I'm surprised when I hear surrounding states, like Indiana and Illinois, don't have many mills. How about Wisconsin--you're pretty close, are there any mills there?

Also: Are your mice-in-the-house statistics better or worse than other years? I have a theory that this might be one of those years of small critter overpopulation, though of course what's happening in Illinois might be totally different from what's happening in Michigan.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's because Michigan is one of the leading apple growing states, and has a cider squeezing tradition that goes all the way back to before Prohibition, when cider meant an alcoholic beverage (and a darned good one, too.) I still buy Michigan apples by preference when I can.

Wisconsin has orchards, but not near the state line so much as halfway up the state. Some of the best are in Door County, on the skinny penninsula that sticks out into Lake Michigan.

We often catch a mouse or two about this time of year, when the first cold weather has just hit. This year's population is definitely up, though, and has been for much of the summer. I see them running around in daytime out in the barns all the time. It has been several years since we had so many in the house, and the last time before that when I can remember such numbers is when we lived in the city. I think the cycle may run about every seven or eight years here. Perhaps the rising numbers of fox and coyote coincides and will bring about a drop next year.

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

You need to get yourself a terrier. Much better at eliminating vermin than cats.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

If we had rats, I'd consider it. The problem with terriers is that they are so yappy. I really don't care for barking all the time. That's why I tend to have larger, more laid back dogs by choice. Of course, my St. Bernard used to let mice run right over her back while she was sleeping on the floor and didn't even notice...

just exchange mice for chicken

[vimsig.livejournal.com]

1 Tchikkin, divided into app. 10 pcs
1 Orange
A spoonful of whole dried cloves
A couple of spoonful of tomato ketchup
Green beans (Haricot vertes)
1-2 cubes of stock. veg or tchikkin...
salt'n'pepa
Spuds
Here we go.....
Peel the spuds and put them boilin'...
Fry the pieces of chuck in marg or butter, with salt'n'pepa
Put them in a big enough casserole or if you fry them in a cast iron pot, just let them get a bit brown and then pour water up to about 1 inch over them and let cook till ready, with the cloves and ketchup flung in there aswell.
put in stock cubes and maybe a little soy sauce to make it Stocky..
When it's cooked, sliced the orange, and stick it in there.
Fill up with green beans till you're satisfied...
If you're that inclined, it's nice to thicken the gravy a bit with flour or beurre maniere, but not to much..

When the potatoes have cooked soft, press them and serve...
It shall always be served with pressed, boiled tatties! That's the law!

You can make it with tenderloin pork to, then it's called "Pork Bombay". I have never done that,nor will I ever...

This is a recipe I have inherited from my mother, and it will always be connected to my childhood, So I will never change it..

Bon appetit! bork bork bork...

Re: just exchange mice for chicken

[altivo.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a good use for one of the neighbors' chooks. They are running loose again, all over our beds and lawns, scratching holes and trampling plants. This morning they brought their turkey buddies with them. This is the first I've seen of the turkeys since they were small. Now they must weigh nearly a stone apiece, huge white things with menacing red faces and dangling warty wattles. Gary chased them off, I'd have had to arm myself with a broom before going near them. Ugly and scary looking.

Mouse in the house

[bonnie-tiler.livejournal.com]

"Gary tried drowning the Thursday catch, but the mouse swam and swam and he felt so sorry for it he fished it back out."
- Put some anti-freeze in the water, or soap... they can't keep afloat in that.... cruel, yes, but...
We have a plastic tipboard that you put on a bucket. a little piece of bait at the end of it, mouse tries to get it, tips over and falls in the water, tipboard tips back ready for use again...
But you have to put antifreeze in it, or else you'll have a swimming swarm pretty soon...

Re: Mouse in the house

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I've used a method like that for cockroaches, many years ago when I lived in an apartment building. You put mashed banana in the bottom of a jar, and smear the inside top 3 cm with grease. The cockroaches crawl into the jar for the banana and can't get out. When you have a good collection, you screw the lid on and stick the jar in the freezer overnight.

I can understand not wanting to be mean to mice. They're kinda cute, really. If they just weren't so dirty and didn't tear open sacks of food. I offered to set spring traps that would kill them outright but he didn't like that, so it's carry them farther and farther away. I may start dipping their tails in ink or something so we can find out if the same ones are coming back. ;p

[hartree.livejournal.com]

Uh, no, the mice aren't going in the pies

I'm sure the mice would be happy to help eat the pies. At that point, they might get their very own Tivo made embroidered "wanted dead or alive" poster. ;)

I get an invasion of mice this time of year. It sorta goes with a 94 year old house within a stone's throw (literally) of farm fields.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yep. Same situation here, though the house is only about 30 years old. (It probably won't be standing by 2075, it's not that well-built.) Our house in Chicago was 110 years old and we would get them even though the nearest farm field was many miles away.

This seems to be a peak year though. Typically we catch one or two, and don't see them until they are in the trap. You'd think a houseful of dogs and cats would discourage them, but it seems to make little difference. Out in the barn I'm seeing them daily rather than once a week or so, and not just out of the corner of my eye. They are very bold, sitting in the horse's grain feeder helping themselves or in the rabbit's cage stealing her oats. We used to set traps in the barn, but it never seems to work out there. In the house we have a pretty good success rate.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*goes after the mice in the house while he waits for the pies to finish :)*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*trades you pie for mouse tails*

Cold-hearted

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

"This morning four out of six traps had mice in them. Gary tried drowning the Thursday catch, but the mouse swam and swam and he felt so sorry for it he fished it back out."

My old home was once infested with mice- and even rats. I caught them, then dispatched them through drowning/stomping/mashing them with a 25 pound barbell I used to have :/ I had to hunt down this big-ass rat with a homemade shiv-spear I made out of a broom handle. I fatally injured it, though at first it managed to get away... I found it next morning dead...under the kitchen sink. Unlike the mice, I buried the rat- out of respect for putting up quite a fight. Currently, a holly tree marks his burial plot *bows head in a show of respect*

It was hard to watch them struggle to escape and all, but you can't go making exceptions for others or you'll just end up being moved aside for someone- or something- else's needs. *shrugs* I guess you could say I'm cold-hearted like that.

Re: Cold-hearted

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Rats pose serious problems and I'd rather eliminate them, yes.

Mice are mostly a nuisance, and, I admit, in this case a sign that the kitchen surfaces were not as clean as they should have been. Bread crumbs under the toaster and such like. These are deer mice and can survive quite well enough in our woods and brushpiles, so I don't mind putting them back where they belong. I'd rather figure out how they are getting in, and block that.

Re: Cold-hearted

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my rat was a big, nasty cuss just shy of opossum size :P To be honest, the house was more than a little messy- mostly my fault (long, long story). I don't know the species, but I caught about 7 mice in all... no cat & no place to take them (I used glue traps, so things get pretty messy fast). I did once have to free a lizard who accidentally got himself caught in one trying to eat a bug. He was plently scared I was going to kill him too, and tried biting me many times... he had a funny look on his face when I set him free like, "did that just happen?"

Re: Cold-hearted

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Glue traps are weird. One friend of ours ended up having to pry squeaking mice off his countertop using a spatula. We tried them once at our old house and caught no mice but did catch the neighbor's cat. No more glue traps for us.

The ones we use now are little black plastic things, with about a 30 degree elbow in them. The mouse walks in and goes to the back to reach the bait, which makes it tilt onto the other side of the elbow and the door snaps shut.

Re: Cold-hearted

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

"Hey Bob, we need two squeakers!"
"Comin' right up!"
"Break 'em!"

That poor lizard came out okay- I had to be extra careful not to accidentally tear off any of his toes- but in the end, all he had left to show of his predicament was a little glue on the tip of his tail :P

I'd be too concerned that mice might develop some sort of homing instinct and come back if I just took them far away and let them go.