One Big Egg!

Since we have some older hens, we are getting some jumbo and x-jumbo eggs. As the hens age they lay few but bigger eggs. The other day John brought in one that was the biggest I've seen. I got the tape measure out to see just how big it was.


Now aren't you glad you didn't lay that one!?!?!?


I put this x-jumbo egg (really it's almost a double jumbo) next to a reg jumbo egg and a quarter just to compare.


Then a few days later I got another one. It was almost the same size but not quite as big, but both were a handful as you can see. I believe this eggs is coming from the same hen as the shell types are the same.



So I decided to make breakfast out of that one really big egg. I usually do 2 regular eggs (if I have any regular ones to eat as we usually keep the really big ones, really small ones, cracked ones or the weird shaped ones for us so regular isn't something we have often in the frig) or I could use 4 small ones or a combo of 1 big and 1 small.....but I thought that this time the 1 super big one would be enough. Sure enough it was! I was wondering if it would be a double yoker. Notice the color of the yokes? The bright orange color comes from the grass that the hens get to eat. You won't see that in any store egg! I cooked it up with our grass-fed, nitrite free pork bacon.


Time to eat!
The toast has homemade strawberry/blueberry/red raspberry jam made from our organically grown strawberries, blueberries and red raspberries using the pectin we sell that allows me to choose the kind & amount of sugar to add to it, so it is low-sugar mixed berry jam. The toast is a bit darker than I would like but everything was yummy just the same.
A great start to a busy day.

Survey winners

We have mailed out our farm newsletter, order form and price list for the 2011 season but this we included a local food survey. If you filled it out and returned that survey to us by April 30, you could be included in a drawing for a $10 gift certificate for Fair View Meadow Farm. There were to be 3 winners and today is May 1.... so the winners are:

Ann Wakefield
Dennis Livchak
Helene Lain

Congratulations!

Thank you for taking the time to fill this out and share your thoughts with us. Also a thank you goes out to the others that took the time to fill it out and send it in as well but didn't get their name pulled.

Smoked Ham with Apple-Maple Glaze

Just in time for your Holiday meal.

We have the smoked ham and the maple syrup, all you need to supply is the butter and apples. How easy is that! Our hams (and bacon) are smoked and cured the traditional way without the use of nitrites. Enjoy!

Smoked Ham with Apple-Maple Glaze

serves 6 to 8

3 to 4 pound, semi-boneless cold smoked ham

1 to 2 large tart baking apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped

2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 to 3/4 cup pure maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 325º F.

Rinse the ham well with cold water and pat dry. Place in a baking dish or roasting pan large enough to comfortably hold the ham, and cover tightly with foil.

Bake the ham until completely heated through, about 20 minutes per pound. About 10 minutes before the ham is done, melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat until it begins to foam. Saute the apples in the butter until tender and golden, about 5 minutes, and add the maple syrup. Increase the heat slightly and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the syrup begins to thicken. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Remove the ham from the oven and increase the temperature to 350º F. Carefully pour the juices from the ham into the skillet with the apple/maple syrup mixture and stir to combine. Spoon the glaze back over the ham and return to the oven. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 15 to 20 minutes to glaze the ham, basting it every 5 minutes.

Remove the ham to a cutting board and allow it to rest for about 5 minutes before carving; reserve the glaze from the pan. Carve, spoon the glaze over the slices and serve.

Recipe variation: Want to try this but don't want to get a big ham? There is only goint to be 1 or 2 of you eating at this meal? Why not try some of our ham slices and put them in a baking dish, cover and then bake. Add other ingredients as above and drizzle over your slices. You won't even need to cut it up with this version.

FarmToons

I thought I'd share some farm/animal cartoon that Jacki Palmer-Boyce sent to me a few days ago. I, by far, like the first one best. By sharing, it brought a smile to my day so I thought I'd pass some along to you. Thanks Jacki!

The Exodus

Last night and today we've had a good size snow storm come through. I just measured the stuff on the sidewalk and so far, as it's still snowing, we've gotten 9" of the heavy wet stuff.

Ye Olde Cow Path, Watch Thy Step......

Have you heard that saying before? It's true, cows do have paths.... and ours are no different. They are creatures of habit. Ours have a path from the pasture barn to the bigger pasture area where John feeds them everyday when they can't get to the grass themselves. We can see them walk this path from our kitchen window. We've seen them do this many times but today was rather unique. It was 11am and still snowing but apparently they were tired of waiting for us so they made the trek out themselves hoping we'd notice and bring lunch. Sometimes these guys act just like children!



Gabriel (our bull) lead the way this time plowing through the snow for the crew...and it really did look like he was plowing. I missed getting a pic of that before he went behind the trees. Everyone is in single file with their heads down headed for the food area.....moving no faster than the one in front of them.
This is what they call herd mentality....one leads and the rest just follow--following and not really thinking about what they are doing.



Still coming.....



First part of the herd coming out from behind the trees on the left with the tail end still on the other side.



Coming into the area where they get fed.




Still coming.....

Then they stood there waiting for the food to come. If we opened the window, we could hear them calling us. John when out a bit later. They will munch for a while then, as they usually do, make their way back to the barn using the same path that got them there.

It a Boy!

Well, we knew ahead of time it was a boy but now it's official.

Our 4 generation farmer (we hope he enjoys farm life) has finally arrived! He was 11 days late and it took 36 hours to get him here....mom and dad were exhausted. Owen's debut was Jan 19th, weighing 8 lbs 2 oz.


A proud mom and dad



This one cracks me up as when Chad and I arrived at the hospital the 2nd day, we found him wrapped up tight like a mummy. The look on his face almost says "help me"---'AH... Grandma, finally--get me out of this straight jacket!'



So, of course, we had to help....and we let him go free. Seems happier doesn't he?!?!

He was actually quite interactive while we were there. It wasn't long after freedom that he found his hand, fingers and thumb, then he tried to get them into his mouth. Uncle Chad helped coach him though the process in getting the thumb in there and not the knuckles. He did OK for a beginner but still needs practice.


Then it was time to leave, so we had to give him back to dad. I think after we left, he then got that mummy wrap again. We hope he enjoyed his time while being out and about.

Making Strawberries

I know the snow if flying as most of you read this right now but I thought I would post this entry in hopes that talking about strawberries would bring summer on sooner. Think it will work?

Here are some of the processes we need to go through to get strawberries ready to have an berry harvest to offer you the following year. I didn't get the planting part, so you will have to imagine that.

Want to know what is better-- organic or conventional? Be sure to go to the end of this post to see the organic vs. conventional strawberry study.




Here we have the beginning stages after planting. We had it somewhat 'easy' this summer as we didn't have much rain and as you can see we don't use black plastic (for various reason) so the lack of rain did keep the weeds at bay for a time. Because we don't use weed stray, we need to keep the weeds out manually so this was a God-send.
Since you don't want to get berries the first year , we did have to come through here periodically and pick off blossom stems. After a while the plants start to send out runners (and this year they seem to have sent out a ton!). We need to clip most of them off because if you don't it will be too thick come next year and that will cause the berries to rot and it actually cuts down on productivity if things are too tight. While down there pulling, we needed to reset the runners we wanted to keep and place them were we wanted them (if they weren't already there) as they grow whatever way they feel like it and that is not always where we want them to grow. In this pic the runners hadn't started very much yet....we were still picking blossom stems.




We have runners now. Our lack of rain ended in September and everything (that being the weeds) took off even more. Between the runner overgrowth and the weeds can you still tell where the rows are? It was a jungle in there!




We were all assigned 2 rows a piece to de-weed and de-runner. Somehow Chad seemed to get out of his 2 rows but my mom was willing to come out. Chad did offer to rototill when we were finished so we let him do it. You can see in the 2nd isle all the runner that were pulled out....and remember this is not the first time we had pulled runners




Starting to look a bit more respectable.....5 rows done and 3 to go (1 Nathan's and 2 Chad's) . I took the last 2 rows on the right as that was by the garden and while I was already over there clearing things out for that, I just worked on those while I was there.




AAHH! now that looks A LOT better. Done and ready for straw after they harden a bit from the cold. John got a few new mid-season varieties this year to try and they didn't get as big as the rest of the varieties. You can tell which ones they are just by this pic. We are curious to see how things go with them when it's picking and tasting time.




Finally time to cover them for the winter. Covering them helps to keep the weeds out for next year as we won't be rototiling again and also protects the berries from ground diseases and helps keep the bugs from getting into them as bad.






Here comes the last of the straw. Leftovers from a church hayride we had this fall.





Done and ready for the snow.
We'll uncover them come spring so they can get sunlight and start to grow again and probably (well it just about a given) that at some point we'll cover them with frost cover to protect the blossoms from frost damage.
Then we'll pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick and pick some more until you can't stand strawberries anymore. Funny how that works.


So why go to all the work to make berries like this? A few months ago I can across a study that was done on the quality of organic vs. conventional strawberries. It was nice to see something in print that we had known already.

If you want to see the whole study you can go to:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012346

but if you want the condensed version, read on....

Strawberry Study
Side-by-side comparisons of organic and conventional strawberry farms and their fruit found the organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious berries while leaving the soil healthier and more genetically diverse.

"Our findings have global implications and advance what we know about the sustainability benefits of organic farming systems." said John Reganold, Washington State University Regents professor of soil science and lead author of the paper published in PLoS ONE.

The study is among the most comprehensive of its kind, analyzing 31 chemicals and biological soil properties, soil DNA, and the taste, nutrition and quality of 3 strawberry varieties on more than 2 dozen commercial fields--13 conventional and 13 organic.

Among their findings: the organic strawberries had significantly higher antioxidant activity and concentration of ascorbic acid and phenolic compounds. The organic strawberries had longer shelf life. The organic berries also has more dry matter, or, "more strawberry in the strawberry".