WATER, FRUIT, VEGGIES AND EGGS

It was a weird weekend of weather.  A late season cool front came through and it ended up being rainy and cold all weekend.  Sunday was a little better but still cooler than normal for this time of year.

When I got to the farm it was sprinkling and about 52 degrees.  The wind was blowing and made it feel like upper 40's.  I didn't think it would be that cold (yeah I should have checked the weather app) and so I dressed in shorts and t-shirt.  Thankfully we have some warm clothes in the closet at the farm and I was able to change into a nice flannel shirt.  Shorts and long sleeve flannel was a great combination, I'm one of those that has to sleep with one leg under the covers and one out.

When I arrived I found that "R" from 2nd Family had fixed our water pipe!  I was supposed to be there to help and learn but he knew the rain was coming and wanted to make sure it was fixed for us...because he's kind of awesome like that.  And speaking of...

...he saw our hose that runs under the house from the faucet on the front side to the back so I can water the fruit trees and new bushes.  I crawled under there a few years ago to do that.  When he realized that, he put a faucet on the back of the house for us!

See?  Awesome.  

Even though it was sprinkling, with the water back on I gave everything a good, deep, soaking.  While watering I noticed the blueberries are all starting to form.  I guess they like their new homes.  I should get the Nanking cherry bushes in their spots either this weekend or the next.

The garden is growing well, thankfully.  Here are a couple of new developments...

The pickling cucumbers are big enough that their tendrils are now doing what they do best and have started wrapping around the trellis.

And what have we here?  An actual TOMATO!  Dang things happen fast in the garden this time of year.

And finally, 2nd Family brought us a dozen more eggs.  They said their chickens (and ducks) are laying like crazy.  The two large eggs above are duck eggs.  I've heard a rumor that there might be some duck egg pasta in my future...

Hope you had a good weekend!

NEST FRESH EGGS BRAND

We get nothing for this post (though if NestFresh is reading this, email us, LOL) but wanted too share this great brand of eggs that we found. We love it when we can get farm fresh eggs from either 2nd Family or the local farmers market, those are about as fresh as you can get.

When we can't though, we found these.

  

NestFresh heirloom eggs

It's hard to find fresh eggs at the grocery store that are just as good as farm fresh but these are pretty darn close.  Nest Fresh heirloom eggs.

Nest Fresh eggs in Temptations egg carrier

They are sourced from family farms that raised their hens humanely, sustainably and without all the nasty stuff.  As you can see above, the eggs are also from various breeds of hens.  You can get brown, blue, speckled, olive green, beige...it's a regular Easter basket, ha. 

We love them for their rich yellow/orange yolks.  They are more expensive than mass produced brans of course but we definitely think they are worth it.

Anyone know of any other great brands we should seek out and look for when we can't get them fresh from 2nd Family?

FARM FRESH EGGS WITH BONUS PULLET EGGS

Farm fresh egg variety

2nd Family gave us a couple dozen more eggs from their hens.  They have more than they need.  We of course LOVE LOVE LOVE to have them as there is just no comparison to store bought.  Of course, it's a random variety of eggs from their random variety of new and older hens, ha.  In this batch though, we noticed the small, tiny eggs.  What the heck?  

We had to do some research on them.

Regular egg vs Pullet egg

Turns out, they are called "Pullet Eggs".  See the photo above, they are tiny when compared to a regular egg.  Almost a third smaller in size.  At first we thought "well those are just too cute" and didn't think much more about it.  

Pullet eggs

After some more research, it turns out that pullet eggs are A THING. 

Here is an article about them:

PULLET EGGS

Pullet eggs are the first few eggs of a hens lifetime.  This makes them rare.  The flavor is more intense with the yolk being rich and velvety smooth.

Pullet eggs and ham

We fried some up (with slices of ham) and the flavor was amazing.  Like the richest egg you can imagine.  You can see on these over easy eggs, the yolk takes up more volume than the white.

We won't get these treats again as their new hens will begin laying regular (but wonderful) size eggs.  For a few brief meals, we had a rare treat!

Who knew?  

Have you heard of/eaten Pullet eggs?

FARM FRESH EGGS

Fresh Eggs

When we were out there this past weekend, 2nd Family had some good news; their hens, that had stopped laying a couple of months ago, started back again and they are getting about 6 per day.  We're not sure why they stopped, could be the time of year, but more likely, there have been some traumatic incidents in recent months...a hawk snatched up one of them while they were free ranging, and they think it was a coyote that got into the hen house another time and they lost two more.  "Security" has since been beefed up and it seems the "girls" are more relaxed and the eggs are coming regularly again.  Apparently, a happy hen is a laying hen!  They've had laying hens for years, and she said she hadn't purchased eggs in the store in so long, it was like a new experience having to do while they weren't laying.

Of course, 6 per day 7 days a week, is over 3 dozen...in a week!  They are a family of three, so the best part of their over abundance of eggs is that we get to share and will have some farm fresh eggs every time we go out there!  Those of you with chickens will understand when I say, there is NO comparison to the eggs you buy in the store.  2nd Man LOVES using fresh eggs like this in baking/cooking.  She gave us a dozen and we are so excited.


Their chickens lay these awesome blue/green eggs.  For those of you who don't know, yes, these are the way they come out, exactly this color.  It's pretty cool.  The color of the shell varies from breed to breed.

We have hopes of one day of having our own chickens out there, as I blogged about HERE, but being part timers for now, that can't happen.  Luckily, we don't have to wait and we get to reap the rewards of "chicken ownership" through the generosity of our "2nd Family"!

Those dozen above are now gone, used in some fresh pasta, a batch of cookies, and a breakfast of bacon of eggs.  Hope to get more this weekend.


So when they read this, a big THANK YOU, as always!

FRITTATA GLORIOUS FRITTATA

OK, so this is a recipe teaser.....2nd Man was cooking a Frittata the other night and I went in there and said "whoa, wait a second, I need to take pics!!!".  Of course it was already in the process. *

So I figured I'd at least post the pictures that I was able to take, just to give you a glimpse.
 


Step 1.5, ingredients in pan!

  Here are a few steps in the Frittata recipe I will be posting soon.

This first step already has the eggs cooked., sorry didn't get a photo before 2nd Man put it in the oven.

It's a combination of eggs, mushrooms, seasonings, and cheese, then baked in the oven.  Then you just lay sliced tomatoes and basil on top of the cooked egg mixture and pop back in the oven.



Step 2 of the Frittata, cheese!




After the tomatoes and basil have cooked a bit and softened, it's time to start adding shredded cheese to the top.


Step 3, more cheese, then put in oven

 


Really, can you EVER have TOO MUCH cheese?


Step 4, Voila!  Done!  Enjoy!

 
After you take it out of the oven, it's all puffy and delicious!  The cheese is golden and brown and it's all melted in with the basil and tomatoes.  Can't get much better than that!

RECIPE COMING SOON

* (He's so not used to this whole blogging thing.  

I'll train him correctly eventually!)

CHICKENS EGGS CHICKENS EGGS...

The front of our property is sectioned off and family lives there.  They have lived there for a long time now and it's their forever home as well.  Cool thing is, because they live there 24/7, we get to live vicariously through their experience with chickens!  Not to mention share in the bounty of fresh eggs.  Last October, the 21st to be exact, they got a box full of baby chicks in the mail!  It still amazes me that baby chicks are being shipped around all over the country at any given moment, but I digress.  They got the hens they ordered, and then ended up with a few roosters too!  The company apparently puts roosters in the box, for no additional charge, to keep all the hens warm!

Boy chicks give off more body heat than girl chicks!  Who knew?

The chicks were adorable.  We even got the honor of naming a couple of them.  

Here they are at only

a couple weeks old.  Can you say, a-dor-able?!

Now though, they are egg laying machines, she said they are getting almost a dozen a day!  Once we are out there full time, we'll be in egg heaven.  In case you've never had a farm fresh egg, or as we call them, a "REAL EGG", they are nothing compared to what you get in the store.

My stomach just growled, ha.

Hard to believe but these aren't "dyed" eggs, these are the way the come naturally from the chicken!  It just depends on the breed.  The chickens out there now are two different types and will produce both brown and greenish colored eggs.
(and yes, the inside is the same in all colors, hey, it's ok, I wondered too!)

2nd Man LOVES to cook.  In another life, he probably would have been a chef at a restaurant.  So he'll come up will all sorts of great things to cook with lots of eggs.  Anyone have some suggestions out there?  He makes a pretty mean Frittata, which uses a dozen at a time.  And of course there is ALWAYS room for an Angel Food Cake.  And naturally, who doesn't want to wake up in the morning to the smell of bacon and eggs frying in a cast iron skillet, with some great, homemade, buttermilk biscuits........dang, stomach growling again!

Anyway, does anyone have any great ideas for use of extra eggs?

Maybe a great old family tradition or recipe or idea?

We want to be able to make some great stuff and share it with the family that gives us the eggs!