Notes From the Kitchen

It's been a rainy morning here on the farm, and according to the web it's only going to be about 72 degrees today. Add to that I collected 6 more eggs this morning and I decided to spend the day in the kitchen. So far I've made a veggie quiche, and a squash pie, a pan of brown sugar brownies is waiting on the oven and for dinner there will be chicken and dumplings. Only dinner will not use eggs and I still have about 3 dozen in the fridge. I see another quiche around the corner.

Veggie quiche: Tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers and eggs all from the farm. I did wimp out on the crust and use a pre-made one.

Here you see 1 jumbo pink banana squash. It's an heirloom variety that cooks up very similar to a pumpkin. Bake it, add some spices, eggs and milk and you get....

a pie that hopefully is very pumpkin pie like. Again, I cheated and used a store bought crust.

The brown sugar brownies are waiting patiently for their turn in the oven. Willow however is most excited about those and is not as patient. She does enjoy making a quiche though since breaking eggs is her kitchen favorite. Very productive day in the kitchen- now I just need someone to do the dishes. *sigh*

New Recipe & Product - World's Best 100% Whole Wheat Cereal

All right, so since you can't have "Real Food, The Way It's Supposed To Be" without breakfast, and even Chuck can't eat eggs EVERY morning, we're going to see if anyone is interested in what we're calling "The World's Best 100% Whole Wheat Cereal".

What we do is take triple washed hard white wheat and hand-crack it with our Country Living Grain Mill, then package it in clean, durable #10 coffee cans. One coffee can is good for about 1 full month's worth of filling, delicious, high-fiber breakfasts.

For details and nutritional information, check it out below. It is YUMMY.....

Worlds Best Wheat Cereal

A Night Off

We just had a down pour on the farm that has left puddles in the fields. Since picking veggies is out of the question (unless I want to lose shoes in the red mud) I ran around around with my trusty Nikon.

The grapes are ripening nicely

So are the apples

Mimi's lazy susans

And by request, a picture of Hammy, the ornery rooster.

Tomorrow, I'll have to pull double duty. The zucchini and squash are going to grow audibly tonight. But for now I'm happy with the pretty pictures.

The Incredible Edible Egg

Ta-da! Our very first egg! It's such a milestone to finally have eggs from what used to be tiny chicks only 4 months ago. The eggs will get bigger as the hens get older. For now though, this is very exciting. Hopefully there will be more tiny eggs tomorrow!

And here are a few of the other poultry on the farm. The turkeys are growing- they run if I get to close so you only get a tail view. The guinea on the other hand now associate with me food- they run at me with their strange call. I'll try to get a video of that up at some point.

Amos was our dog from another planet. He passed away yesterday of old age. He was a good dog, patient with the kids and puppies, part time herd guardian, and barked his fool head off at the meter reader. Being from an alien world he had no concept of physics and frequently tried to occupy the same space as other objects. If he ever got out the front, he would take off on long adventures that usually had him barking outside our window at 4am. We imagined he was trying to summon the mother ship to ferry him back to his home world. Maybe he's there now.

Rest well, sweet boy. We'll miss you.

Poultry Party

Chuck and Madison got some video of the fowl this evening.

Today the turkeys and guinea got to come out of their coops for the first time, and I'm very happy to report that they are all accounted for and back in their homes. I did have to do some herding but it's good exercise and quite amusing. The chickens tried to sneak in and eat the others food- but they all eat the same thing so they weren't really getting away with anything =meager. The turkeys spent most of their time out of their coop next door in the chicken coop=more meager. The guinea played in the trees and on top of the coops where they panicked when they couldn't see the ones that had already gone in the coop=they still qualify for "Most Meagerest".

Yesterday, I went to the farmers market with my folks to sell blueberries and blackberries. We did OK, I don't think I'll take the Angoras next week- it just doesn't seem like the right venue. In rabbit news, I have pulled 4 larger bunnies from Sweetie Pie's hutch, she needs to retain more calories for herself now and some of those bunnies are chunks! We have additional hutches ready now for when Sapphires get older, too.

From Fuzz to Funky Yarn

The fiber stuff is starting to come together. I have plucked the fiber off bunnies, processed raw sheep fiber and bought different kids of ready to use rovings. I have been practicing my spinning and today I dyed some of my hand spun yarn! Next step is to actually make something out of said yarn- I'm still trying to decide what, but I'll post a picture when it's done.

This is hand carded angora/wool blend ready for spinning. The angora is from Sweetie Pie.

These are my first attempts at dying -pink and turquoise. I learned that a little goes a LONG way! The colors will be good together- but since it's some of my first attempts it is rather...unique in both shading and texture.