Open House!

In order to catch you up on the goings on around here this summer, I need to tell you about the Open House that we had here on the ranch on June 18th.

Now, before you start bellyaching that you didn't know about it or wasn't invited... don't worry, we are having another one in October! Date to be determined...

Dan the Man and I have been wanting to have an Open House here at the Open A Bar 2 Ranch for some time now. This is not our first one, some of you chicken customers will remember the one we had a few years ago when we raised heritage turkeys. Actually that was in 2008. Anyway, I'm getting off the subject.

Dan the Man and I want our customers to feel as the Open A Bar 2 Ranch is "their" ranch. We want everyone to be a part of what we are doing out here and to get to know us and our operation on a personal level. We want our practices to be transparent.

The Open House was on June 18th. People who had pre-ordered chickens for Batch #1 we able to pick up their chickens at the open house. But that was not all. I decided to invite several of our "farmers' market" friends to also come set-up and sell their wares. We had 9 vendors who came!! They included the following: Diane Edwards with Wind Harvest Farms who brought some of their most delicious strawberries! Dan Weitzel, with Mitchell Valley Farm (a local CSA) who brought some yummy radishes and information on his CSA. Nancy Butcher, Jams and Jellies Just For You, surely you can figure out what she brought. Flower Field Farm, Nathaniel & Rylee McGown, who had free ice cream cones made with milk right off their dairy. Sarah Pinet, you know her as the "goat cheese lady" of Victory Hill Farm, brought her delicious cheve and other goat cheeses! Jennie Salters, Chalk Butte Pottery, you know the awesome chicken roasters... (see this post, and yes, Dan the Man bought me another one!) Laura and Jim Whelchel with Double L Country Store came with their goat milk products such as lotion and soap along with a vast array of other neat-o stuff. Beth Everett of Meadowlark Hearth CSA brought veggies and seedlings such as lettuce and last but certainly not least Jane Sedman, who you know as the bread lady or Mama Janes' Artisan Breads, who has the best buttermilk cinnamon raisin swirl bread on the planet.

We had our own mini farmers' market going on out here at the ranch. Thanks again to all of you vendors who came!!

The Open House started at 1 pm and of course, wouldn't you know it that a storm moved in around 1:45 or so. We are talking wind, rain and hail folks! Actually it would appear as if "Wind, Rain and Hail" seem to be this summer's theme! Thank goodness we had room for everyone to get out of the storm in the shop and studio. People were great and just moved inside and visited.

Here comes the storm.
Picture courtesy of Katie Bradshaw.

Dave & Laura Whelchel, Double L Country Store waiting out the storm.
Picture also courtesy of Katie Bradshaw.

After the storm cleared, we continued with the festivities. I was afraid that the storm would put a quick end to the open house, but when the sun came back out, the people began to come out as well. Some even told us that the radio had reported a tornado sighting in Stegall which is 3 miles east of us!

Dan the Man gave tours of the operation to several people who went out in two groups. That was after the storm... good thing we had plenty of rubber boots to share! The children loved seeing all the baby chicks and the baby calves.

We had plenty of help with the open house. Our oldest son and daughter-in-law (Nick & Sarah) were here on vacation, Chris came home from Kearney for the weekend to help, Danny's parents (Bob & Penny) came down from Colorado, and Danny's sister and brother-in-law (Carla & Jim) came up from Casper. My sister, Lori, bought and helped me plant several flowers the week before to help pretty-up the place. Too bad most of those flowers got destroyed in the July 2nd storm.

Anyway... I think it is fair to say a good time was had by all. We had a wonderful turnout and can't wait to do another on in October. I hope I can convince Dan the Man to offer hay rides! We will also invite vendors. I can see it now... hay rides, hay castle for the kids to play in, pumpkins, gourds, indian corn for sale from the vendors, apple cider, cookies, smoked chicken, bonfire for making s'mores... awww yes!! Come on FALL!

Dan the Man the "BIG RED" Kamado Kooker

For Christmas this last year, Dan the Man received a few gifts cards for Mernards from our boys. For those of you who do not have a Mernards where you live, it is like a Home Depot or Lowes. Danny has been sitting on those gift cards all this time waiting for the summer grills to come in stock so he could use them to help purchase a new grill. Danny has been wanting a new grill, a charcoal grill, for a year or so now. We currently have a gas grill that never seems to work right.

He originally did research on charcoal grills several years ago and ran across one called the "Big Green Egg" or some such thing. He has been obsessed with getting one since. The only thing holding him back is that they cost around $800 and while Danny can easily dish that kind of money out for some piece of machinery or equipment for the ranch/farm... he has a hard time spending that amount on something that falls in the "household" category.

Well, he finally found a "knock-off" version of the "Big Green Egg" at Mernards! Oh happy day! It's called the "Big Red" Kamado Kooker of which Dan the Man is the new owner of. It is about the third of the cost of the egg one. I like it, because it is red and matches perfectly with the Cleary building. Green would not have looked so good!

"BIG RED"
Kamado Kooker

(I just noticed his grilling "tools". What is my garden spade doing hanging from there?)

Oh my gosh, can I just tell you he has been like a little boy at Christmas with his new hot wheels race track that he simply can not get enough of! He has turned into an OBSESSED GRILLING MACHINE! Hee, hee! I'm not complaining, I've actually have enjoyed someone sharing the daily cooking chore with me! I am in charge of making sure there is something thawed out for him to grill each night (unless we are having left overs) and he does all the research on the internet as to the best way to prepare it. Sometimes this can take hours or even days!

We started out easy with hamburgers. Then moved to steaks and chickens.

At one of the winter farmer's markets I bought a chicken roasting pan that Jennie Salters of Chalk Butte Pottery made for me. Dan the Man just HAD to roast a chicken using it in his grill. I succumbed to the notion, but told him specifically, it could not get any hotter than 350 degrees or it could crack. He promised me, that it would not. I told him if it did, he would owe me another one.

Beautiful Open A Bar 2 Ranch Pastured Poulty
(Seasoned with Famous Dave's Country Roast Chicken Seasoning)
5.5 lb Roaster waiting to be roasted in my beautiful
chicken roasting pan, hand-made, just for me...
which by the way I hadn't even got to use yet.


Potatoes with a little olive oil and seasonings ready to roast.




Dan the Man, the chicken and my chicken roasting pan...




Dan the Man carefully setting everything in the grill.

He roasted the chicken for about 2 hours at 350 degrees. One of the nice things about these grills, is that it is extremely easy to keep the heat regulated in.

The finished chicken!

The finished potatoes.

The chicken turned out great! Very moist and juicy. The potatoes... well... since Dan the Man didn't know that he should probably turn them half way through cooking they were pretty brown... well, actually they were BLACK on the bottom half. And perhaps 2 hours was too long for them. And my pan, you are probably asking yourself... CRACKED! Boo, hoo. I am so sad. Guess Dan the Man owes his Country Chicken Girl a brand new chicken roasting pan from Chalk Butte Pottery! Oh Jennie....

Yesterday, he made a huge leap and smoked two 11 lb. chickens! That's not a typo, by the way, the 11 lb. chickens... Some of you know the story about the BIG chickens!!! Those of you who don't... in a nut shell, we had our commercial freezer konk-out on us last year in the middle of chicken production and ended up growing some pretty big chickens, as in 10-13 lb. chickens which we coined as our "churkeys"... chickens as big as turkeys! So these two chickens were from that whole episode.

Anyway, Dan the Man smoked them for 5 hours at 230 degrees and used apple wood chips. Oh my! He might be on to something. Perhaps Open A Bar 2 Ranch will soon be offering smoked chickens! Dan the Man's Smoked Chicken!

I'm just wondering how long this "grilling fascination" will last until it becomes "work" instead of "fun"! When that happens, the grill will end up being my duty!