State of the Farm Summer Solstice (Drought 2015)

There are still almost two weeks until solstice, but with the weather we've been having, it feels very much like summer. In fact, it feels like midsummer - late July or even early August. It is as though the calendar were turned ahead a month.

The blackberry blossoms opened two weeks ago; now they are nearing the end of bloom time and there are hard little green berries on the terminal buds. White clover is in full bloom, and a few red clover blossoms are opening here and there. Full-summer flowers like oxeye daisy, lupine, and tansy are starting to bloom.

Record breaking heat - high eighties - for several days in a row has brought on the berries early. Strawberry season is in full swing and the commercial raspberries will open for U-pick in another week or so. Lack of rain combined with high temperatures has made the berries smaller than usual, but with an unusually concentrated sweetness.

Drought is a major concern this year - the winter was much warmer than usual and snowpack in the north cascades is one-third normal or less. When I look across the valley to the north at the Canadian Cascades, I see deep blue peaks with only flecks of white here and there - which is how the mountains typically look in September. The grass is already starting to dry up, and all of the neighbors are haying. This year I saw people haying in May, which I have never seen before.
We have only bought one truckload so far - 25 bales - but I would like to buy more than usual at early-season prices because I think we will be feeding hay very early this year as the grass disappears.

Though there will be fewer animals to feed over the winter this year. The cow is nearing the end of days. We will be scheduling a butcher date for early fall. I think she is about as big as she is going to get. We have started feeding her alfalfa pellets and bread from there Gleaner's Pantry in hopes of fattening hear up a bit more. I am frankly shocked at how much grass one stunted dairy calf can eat. The big pasture looks terribly skimpy, because the cow has been vacuuming up all the grass all by herself. In years past, I have had the same number of goats plus two ponies on this pasture and it was more lush. This year, the ponies have stayed in the sacrifice area and we stake them out to graze in the front yard. As far as I can tell, one dairy cow equals two ponies and then some. I only hope she tastes good. People who know have told me that Jerseys make good eating, but not to be alarmed at the yellow fat. 

Today I boosted Paloma up into the hayloft to look for eggs. She found a nest with twenty-two eggs in it. We floated them in the stock tank and they all sank, so it's time to make some quiches and freeze them. And egg salad for sandwiches for the last week of school lunches. And maybe some goat-milk ice cream for these hot days. 

Ordinarily, I don't put Demeter on the alter until midsummer (Lammas), but the grass heads are turning golden and my shoulders are all sunburnt and the tomatoes are in flower and the roses are in bloom. It seemed churlish to stick to an artificial calendar rather than honor the actual fact of the season which has clearly arrived. And it may be a brief season this year, so there's no sense in wasting time. Welcome, generous lady! Welcome, abundance! Welcome, Summer!

It Figures

Why is it that every time I get some good egg trades going, the hens mysteriously quit laying? Since my last post on Monday (Trade Network 2012 (Craigslist Chronicles)) I have collected a grand total of thirteen eggs. In the two days before that, I collected twenty-eight.

Maybe the hens put their pointy little heads together and decided to hold out on me for a bigger piece of the action. They all want massages, too. Maybe my chickens are organizing (did you ever see Chicken Run? I love that movie).

Maybe they are just laying their eggs in the blackberry bushes now that it's warmer out. Time to lock them up in the coop for a few days until they get the hang of things again.

Trade Network 2012 (Craigslist Chronicles)

Every year I have to start from scratch on the trade network, it seems. People move away, Like Veggie/Oil Man and the Kale Fairy did, or people stop producing anything I want, or people drop off the face of the earth, like the Baker Biker did - alas; I remember his marshmallows well!

So every year about this time, as the hens really start to crank out eggs, I have to place new Craigslist ads. I explain that we are all so stuffed full of eggs we can't walk, that I fear for my husband's cholesterol level, and we desperately need to offload some eggs. I talk about my happy hens, who are totally free-range on my five acres of pasture and I post pictures illustrating the difference between store-bought eggs and fresh farm eggs.

Farm egg on the left: bright orange, upright yolk and firm yellowish white. Store egg on the left: Pale, flabby yolk and thin, liquidy whites.

Not only do farm eggs taste better, I inform, but they have a healthier lipid profile and are crammed full of healthy Omega-6 fatty acids. I have not yet resorted to posting photos of industrial egg-producers with their battery cages and abused chickens. As my mom used to say, you catch more flies with honey.

In years past, I appealed specifically to gardeners by posting in the farm and garden section and using titles like "Eggs for Veggies!" This eventually works, but not usually until mid-May, when people have at least a little spinach to offer. This year I decided to post in the barter section and to leave it open as to what I was looking for. The title was simply "Eggs for....?"

In the body of the ad, I did list some things I wanted, like vegetable seeds or starts, baked goods, canning jars, etc. but also that I was open to hearing about anything people were interested in trading. After a couple of days, I got some intriguing replies. The first person to reply asked if I was interested in copies of The Rosetta Stone software (not really). Another fellow wrote saying he was a licensed massage therapist and could offer me a massage in the privacy of my own home on his folding table. Of course, this being Craigslist, alarm bells went off, but I decided to reply anyway. I said I'm not sure my husband would let me get a massage, but perhaps if he gave me the name and number of his office so I could verify...?

After verification, and asking permission from Homero (who said "as long as I can get a massage from a female therapist without you getting all weird"), I decided to go for it. When I spoke to the gentleman on the phone and gave him my name and address, he said "wait a minute! Are you the same Aimee I worked for a few years ago doing yard work in exchange for ham?"

Yes, indeed. Two years ago I was so broke and yet desperate for help that I posted an ad asking if anyone was willing to do some yard work in exchange for something I did have a lot of, which was grass-fed beef and homegrown pork products. "I realize this is unorthodox," I said, "but rest assured, although I don't have cash, I will HOOK YOU UP with the best quality local meat you have ever tasted. Also, I'll provide tools, transportation, and a nice lunch."

I actually got quite a few replies. This guy, who I'll call R., worked a couple of days for me cleaning out a whole buttload of blackberries and other assorted weeds in exchange for probably $150 dollars worth of beef and pork, plus a little money to cover his gas. He was a great worker, told me he lived pretty far out in the county, and was going back to school to get a medical assistant's certification, and doing whatever he could to support his large family in the meantime. I lost his number, or I most likely would have called him again a few times.

Having previous experience with R. and being fairly sure he wasn't a skeezy pervert made me much more relaxed. He came over yesterday and I enjoyed my massage very much. I told him I'd keep his entire family of nine in eggs for two weeks, which will probably end up being six dozen eggs. A steal.

Other trades in the works, though not yet finalized are a man who has a whole bunch of veggie starts and wants two dozen eggs a week; and a lady who is charging me two dozen eggs for four dozen bearded Iris bulbs, dug and ready to plant. I absolutely adore Irises.

Now I just need to keep my hens happy and well fed so they keep pumping out enough eggs to fuel my bartering schemes.

Egg-stra Eggs (Preserving and Using Up Eggs)

The equinox must be fast approaching: I'm drowning in eggs. My preferred method for getting rid of extra eggs is to sell them or trade them for things I need more (vegetable starts, seeds, yogurt starter, baked goods, espresso...), but so far this year I haven't set up any good trades. I have been giving away a fair number of eggs, but even so, there are six dozen in the fridge right now.

Over the years, I have developed many recipes for using up eggs, and I'll post more as I come up with them, but there are times when no amount of creative cookery will absorb all the eggs the hens put out. Mid-March is one of those times. Then you need to store eggs.

The first thing to realize is that eggs actually keep much better than most people think they do. If your house is relatively cool (my thermostat is kept at a permanent 64) eggs will keep on the counter for at least a week. Probably longer. In the refrigerator, eggs will last a month, easily. If you have chickens and are collecting eggs on the day they are laid, your eggs will last 8 weeks in the fridge.

Of course, eggs do change somewhat as they age, and fresh eggs are suitable for some purposes while older eggs are better for others. Never try to hard-boil a freshly laid egg - it's impossible to shell. But for making an omelet, use the freshest eggs you have.

Everyone who has chickens will occasionally find - as I did today - a hidden nest filled with eggs and no immediate way to tell how old they are. If eggs are very old - completely spoiled - they will feel like a solid when gently shaken. Throw those eggs away - far away. But assuming they all feel normal, the easiest way to tell how fresh an egg is is to submerge it in water. Fresh eggs sink; bad eggs float. The photo at the top of this column shows a pan full of fresh eggs and one bad egg.

Very fresh eggs sink quickly and lay on their sides. Eggs a bit older but still good will sink to the bottom on the container, but stand on end. Choose those eggs for hard-boiling. And eggs that float on the top should be tossed.

This method, by the way, will NOT tell you if you have a developing embryo inside the egg. If you have roosters, you still run the risk of finding a hideous surprise inside a quick-sinking egg. I have not yet found an easy way to tell if an egg is "developing." The best defense is to collect your eggs daily. Or make your husband crack them.

So: eggs keep for many weeks in the fridge. But that's not good enough for me. I want a way to preserve eggs for six or eight months - so that the bounty of April and May can be used in the dark days of December. My mother told me that she used to preserve eggs by separating them and putting the yolks into ice cube trays covered with salad oil. I can't remember what she said she did with the whites. My research has not corroborated her method, however. Besides, I'd like a way to preserve them without using up all the space in my fridge - that's half the problem right now.

Internet searches have basically turned up two methods, and both of them operate on the same principle. Eggs have porous shells, and if you can seal them so that there is no gas exchange, then your eggs will remain fresh for up to a year. The simple way to do this is to rub the fresh eggs with mineral oil or shortening and then pack them in salt or - for some reason - bran. Many web sites mention bran. The other way is to fins something called "water glass" (also known as liquid Sodium Silicate) and submerge the eggs in a dilute solution of same in a non-reactive crock.

Since I doubt water glass is easy to get a hold of, I would prefer the dry-pack method.

Below, I have excerpted a few passages on how to preserve eggs and provided links to a few more. Interestingly, all sites agree that eggs should be stored small end down for longest shelf life, and this is true even for regular storage in the fridge. I wonder why eggs are universally sold small end up?

How to store eggs

1. Be sure to use only fresh eggs. If any decomposition occurs, you will be unsuccessful. Also exposure to extreme heat or cold will hinder your preservation process. You can use an oil as well, but the oil can go rancid… not exactly what I would want on my eggs.

1. Store the eggs in a finely ground preservative such as salt, bran, or an equal mix of finely ground charcoal and dry bran or finely ground oats. You can also store them in finely ground plaster of Paris, but that’s not exactly something that I plan on having on hand regularly. You can store the eggs layer upon layer, so long as you they don’t touch each other, metal, or wood. Be sure you have enough finely ground preservative to pack them in. (You can feed the salt and bran to the cattle afterwards.)
2. Store the eggs small side down.
3. Store the eggs in a covered container and keep in a cool, dry place. You don’t want to store them in freezing temperatures.
4. Eggs will keep “fresh” for up to 9 months. In fact, some countries are known to have stored their eggs like this for up to 2 years. (Preserving Fresh Eggs « Preparedness Pro)

There are two ways that I know of to store eggs without refrigeration. They both require cool temperatures, however. A cellar, cool basement or cool room in the house will suffice. The cooler the better the chance that your eggs will last longer.

The first method is to coat the eggs with a non-toxic substance, sealing the pores in the shell and thereby sealing out oxygen and moisture. When oxygen is present, many bacteria can grow, thus spoiled eggs.

To use lard or shortening to coat the eggs, first melt the grease and cool it til it begins to solidify again. Dip each egg in the melted grease individually and set them on a paper towel to dry. When the shortening or lard is dry on the eggs, rub the eggs with a clean towel, removing excess solid grease. Rub gently and buff each egg. Now repeat the process, before the shortening solidifies. Work fast, allowing the shortening to get almost solid before re-heating it.

Line the bottom of a flat box with a clean soft towel. Place the eggs in the box in a single layer. Cover the box with either a lid or another towel. Place the box of eggs in a cool, dry environment. Eggs prepared this way will last up to 6 months, although I have heard people say that they have kept eggs this way for 1 year if they are kept very cool.
A product used to coat eggs in this way, but that is supposed to keep the eggs fresh longer is K-Peg. The eggs are coated with this product much the same way they would be coated with the shortening, and prepared for storage the same way.

The other way to keep eggs works on the same principle, cover the pores and keep the eggs cool. However, the eggs must be kept immersed in a solution of Liquid Sodium Silicate. It is usually mixed with sterilie water.

Liquid Sodium Silicate is a non-toxic substance that will cover the pores of the egg shell so well that you will probably be able to keep fresh eggs for up tp 2 years! You can buy it as Sodium Silicate Solution at any pharmacy, however they may not have it on hand and have to order it for you.

Again, you will have to keep the temperatures very cool and the humidity low.

Place clean fresh eggs in a ceramic crock, one layer deep. Pour liquid sodium silicate over the eggs until the eggs are covered and completely immersed in the solution.
Place a towel over the crock and tie it into place. Place the crock of eggs in a cool, dry place and don't disturb them til you are ready to use them. To use them, just take out how many eggs you need, wash them off in clear water and use as you normally would. (How to Store Fresh Eggs)

PRESERVING FRESH EGGS | Seeking Abundance

How to: Safely Preserve Fresh Eggs for 9 Months | Truth is Treason

Chicken Surprise!

Yesterday, I found the first egg of the year... or what I THOUGHT was the first egg of the year. Most chicken folk I know have been getting eggs for some time now, and so I wondered what was wrong with my hens. I checked them over for signs of egg-readiness (such as a bigger, brighter red comb and a big fluffy bottom) and it seemed to me that were three or four who ought to be laying, by the looks of them. But I found no eggs until yesterday, when I found one in the hayloft.

So today, of course, I decided to go up to the loft and make a search to see if there were any eggs today. As I was poking around, a hen came fluttering out from between bales of hay and flew off with a squawk. Well, I know what that means. Sure enough, when I pulled one bale away from the other, I found a clutch of some twenty eggs. All were nice and toasty warm, which means she's been sitting on them. She's broody.

What now, dang it? Don't these stupid chickens have any idea of the season? Well, to give them credit where credit is due, it is true that we recently had a very hard freeze followed by a dramatic warm-up. In the chicken brain, I guess that equals spring. If I had any way of determining how far along the eggs are, such as a candling setup, I would scare the hen away and then check out the eggs one by one to see if they are still edible or irredeemably fertilized. But then, I'd have to throw away the developing ones, and I just hate to do that.

Oh heck. I'll go out there tomorrow morning and see what's up. Most likely, my disturbance of the nest site has scared away the hen for good and If the eggs are cold in the A.M. then I'll gather them and take my chances.

But if there's a hen sitting on them, or if they are toasty warm, then I'll let them be.

Steppin' Up the Trade Network

In light of my vast surplus of eggs and milk products, I decided to post an ad on Craigslist looking for a gardener with whom to trade. Alas, the Kale Fairy has moved away and will no longer be supplying me with her excellent and bountiful produce. Veggie-man is still a good source, but he cannot absorb the approximately six dozen extra eggs per week that I am getting.

The ad I posted:

Eggs for Produce?

My free-range flock produces FAR more eggs than we can handle. We are all getting cholesterol poisoning over here. Are you a gardener? Perhaps you are in the same situation, but with spinach, asparagus, greens, berries, or tomatoes (in season, duh). Maybe you have fruit trees and the fruit just falls on the ground. Maybe we can help each other!!! I will give you a dozen gorgeous eggs each and every week in exchange for your garden produce in season! I don't mind fronting you eggs and stockpiling veggie futures, or eggs are $3 cash per dozen.
Thanks for looking! Happy digging in the dirt!
aimee
xxx-xxx-xxxx (ferndale)
p.s. no, bacon does not come with the eggs.

• Location: ferndale
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

I got a response last night from a very interesting guy I'm going to call X-man. He has recently built a greenhouse with hydroponic system where he is raising not only tons of tomatoes, chiles, and other hothouse produce, but also tilapia, trout, and catfish. He started the veggeies in January and anticipates beginning harvest in about a month. Pretty freakin' awesome. He himself is a mightily eccentric guy - I've spoken to him on only two occasions but I already know quite a bit about his colorful naval career and youth growing up on a chicken farm in Illinois. He's a talker. He's also trying to convince me to raise pheasants and split the meat - he'll act as butcher. I told him I'd have to read up on pheasants. Meanwhile, I'm going to make some more cheese now, so excuse me!

Easy-Cheesy (No Room at the Inn)

Last week, I started separating the baby goats at night. Now I am getting a crazy-large volume of milk, a volume that must be dealt with daily. If I don't do something with milk at least every other day, there will soon be no room at all in my fridge. The eggs are space-hogs. I have seven dozen eggs in there now, and the hens are outside popping out more even as we speak. I need to step up the trade network; but that's a topic for another day.

Yesterday I made a quart of cajeta (Cajeta is Love). Cajeta is easy to make, but you HAVE to watch it, because milk boils over whenever you take your eyes off of it for fifteen seconds. Ask me how I know. Because it has happened to me EVERY SINGLE TIME I make cajeta. Yesterday I pulled a chair right up to the stove so I could sit and read while I watched the pot. After an hour or so I was pretty sure that I had the right gentle simmer going, and the milk was nowhere near the top of the pot. So I went to the bathroom. Now I have a hamper full of sticky caramel covered washcloths and the floor is still pretty tacky on the bare feet. Will I never learn? But at least we also have a jar of cajeta in the fridge, and my husband was so happy to see it he gave me a big kiss and washed all the dishes.

I have made a half-gallon of yogurt, which is really too much. The guy I thought would want some is out of town so I can't offer him any. We'll just have to eat it. Luckily, there are still some blueberries in the chest freezer. We picked a LOT of blueberries last summer. Blueberry smoothies make a very good breakfast. Maybe I should put a raw egg in the blender too. Get rid of a few. No one will ever know.

When I started to make cheese the other day, I discovered that I'm out of rennet. I already had the milk heated to 100 degrees on the stove, so I thought fast and came up with the idea of making paneer. Paneer, for anyone who doesn't know, is soft fresh Indian cheese. It is made by souring milk with vinegar or lemon juice instead of coagulating with rennet. I like paneer just fine, but I've never made it before. I sort of can't think of it as "real cheese." But I'm glad I was forced to make it: it is so incredibly easy. The finished product tastes pretty much exactly like queso fresco, but it takes only an hour to make instead of a whole day.

Here's how you do it:

Heat a half gallon of milk to just below boiling - when the milk suddenly starts to expand in volume you're there. Remove from heat. Add about two tablespoons white vinegar, little by little, stirring as you go. In a minute, the milk will separate into tiny little curds and clear whey. If you want soft cheese, immediately scoop (with a fine mesh sieve) into a colander lined with a triple layer of cheesecloth. If you want your cheese firmer, put it back on the heat for a few minutes and stir, then scoop. Wrap the cheese up and either hang the cheesecloth bag from the faucet to drip, or leave it in the colander and put a heavy pot on top of it to press out the whey. In about an hour, you will have cheese. If it's firm, slice it into cubes and toss with a little salt (otherwise it's incredibly bland).

These are little cubes of pure protein, without much flavor. Indians put them into all kinds of curry. My husband crumbles them over eggs or beans. They can be used to make quesadillas. I have a feeling I will be making a lot of paneer. It's a perfectly adequate every-day kind of cheese, and it sure saves a lot of time. Of course I will still make regular cheese too: chevre and feta and cheddar. But maybe I don't have to make serious cheese every time.

Sometimes I can make easy-cheese.

Things I Don't Understand

1) Why the chickens are not laying eggs. A few weeks ago, we decided to put the chickens into a coop because we weren't getting very many eggs. Since then, we've been getting no eggs at all. Before you suggest it, yes, I let the chickens back out and still got almost no eggs at all. Put them back in so at least we would know whether they were not laying or laying but hiding eggs in the blackberries. They aren't laying. I'm feeding twenty chickens and getting two eggs a day. Why?

2) Why I can't figure out how to cook a farm chicken and make it edible. In light of the rediculous feed:egg ratio, we decided to kill a few roosters today (note to self: later, post pics and praise Rowan highly for doing her part). This time, we picked the very youngest roosters, neither more than four months old. Same result: tough, inedible, rubbery flesh in a grimy broth. Happy dogs, unhappy people.

3) Why I even have chickens at all.

4) How to clean up beehive frames and put together a beehive. It seems simple when you read about it in a book. There are only four or five parts to a beehive, none of them moving parts (until you put the bees in, anyway.) Why can't I figure it out? Today I scraped down about thirty frames and tried to sort my big jumble of equipment into recognizable bits: bases, boxes, lids, queen excluders, feeders..... I just got hot and confused.

5) Why the beeswax won't melt. When I scraped the frames, I scraped them into a big cardboard box. Beeswax is really nice stuff, and expensive, too. Of course, the crap I was scraping off the frames wasn't nice clean wax, but rather blackened, hardened lumps full of dead bees. However, I figured it was at least worth a shot to try to save it, beeswax being so valuable and all. I dumped it all into the top of a double boiler and it's been simmering away on the stove (along with the hideous chicken soup) for hours. No melting yet. I planned to sieve the melted wax through a triple layer of cheesecloth, but I can't do that if it WON'T MELT.

6) Why in God's name there's no beer in the house.

Enough Eggs

The chickens must be extremely sensitive to light. Even though the days have been dark and dreary since the New Year, several hens have started to lay. If I didn't have a calendar, I could use chickens to tell me when the solstice was past and the spring around the corner!

For the last week, I've been getting three or four eggs a day. I now have enough so that I don't need to calculate my menus based on how many eggs needed; I can assume there will be enough eggs in the fridge for whatever I choose. I will very soon have enough to begin trading again!

Actually, I have an egg debt left over from last year. My trade partner the Kale Fairy decided, late in the season, after she'd already given me a full CSA share of organic veggies, that she didn't want a butchered baby goat after all (which was what we had bargained). So I gave her eggs and goat cheese as long as they lasted, but by late October those things pretty much dry up and I hadn't nearly worked off my egg-debt. So I think for several weeks my egg surplus is spoken for.

However, by the time the farmer's market opens in May, I ought to have eggs galore!

Everybody Hates Pigs, and Confessions of Laziness

Our pigpen is pretty squalid this time of year. When we don't have a pig in the pen, it serves as a place to pitch the old straw and horse manure until I feel strong enough to get the wheelbarrow and haul it all out to the official compost pile. We were without a pig for several months, so the pile got pretty high. I did move some of it before we put the pig in there, but I have to admit, thew pile was still pretty high when the pig moved in. I rationalized my laziness in two ways: 1) my knee freakin' hurts, and 2) the pig will actually enjoy rooting around in there and turning the pile for me, thus facilitating the pile's transformation into compost.

There's no doubt that both those things are true. The pig does like digging in the pile. He has turned over most of it, in fact, and dug deep holes. But even if the pig is happy (which is not something I can tell for sure, not being a pig expert) I was feeling guilty. Especially after a week of rain. Most of his pen was mud-soup, belly high on a little pig. He does of course have his doghouse full of dry straw, but anytime he leaves the house he is plunged into a freezing cold stew of compost. And, he's probably lonely. Pigs are social animals, and the only interaction he gets in there is the chickens trying to steal his food.

Not that letting him out did much good on that score. Yes, we let the pig out. We just felt too guilty. If we had two pigs, I wouldn't feel bad about letting them live in there together for their entire lives, but a lone pig? Nope. As soon as he got out, he started running around in circles and digging. AND bothering the other animals. Pigs are seriously obnoxious. Seriously. He ran under the ponies and tried to nip their bellies. He slammed into the goat's legs, nearly knocking them over. He spilled all the water in the bucket. He chased the chickens.

The goats mostly ignore him regally

but the ponies actively try to bite to kick him

Ivory tried to play with him, and when he nipped her on the ear, she tried to bite him back.

Ah well, soon enough this obnoxious pig will end up like the last obnoxious pig:

Except for a single roast, this is all that is left of the last pig: a big bag of fat scraps. I decided to try and render them into lard. I hope I'm doing it right: all I did is dump the frozen scraps into a large pot and put it on medium low heat. I figure sooner or later it will mostly melt, and I can skim off anything that isn't lard.

Also today I found three eggs, and one of them is clearly the first contribution of a new pullet. See how it is small and skinny, almost cylindrical? This is good news! For the first time since late November, I have a full dozen eggs in the fridge!

Eureka! Eggs!

Found eight eggs up in the hayloft. I always check up there, but it's kind of dark. The hens snuggle down between bales of hay and make nests. They are impossible to find until I move a bale.

Chicken Conundrum

Time for another installment of the regularly recurring game - "Where the %$@? are the chickens laying their eggs?"

I don't expect many eggs this time of year, of course. But I can tell by looking at them that some of the hens are laying. There are several signs to look for, but the easiest way to tell if a hen is laying or not is to look at her comb.

This hen is not laying. She is molting. See how she looks skinny and untidy, and her comb (though I barely got it in the picture) is small and pale? She won't start to lay for probably several weeks. First she has to grow all her feathers back and gain some weight. Hens go into molt after their first year of laying, at about 18 months of age. The first year is the most productive, but the second year is still pretty good. After year number two, it's charity to keep a laying hen alive.

These two hens are intermediate: their feathers are full and sleek, but their combs aren't there yet. The black hen is a little closer to starting production, I think, but the speckled hen is not close yet.

This hen is a layer. She is fat and fluffy, her comb and wattles are well developed and bright red. She is laying her eggs somewhere all right... I just don't know where!!! For comparison, here is the comb on one of our roosters. A hen in good laying form has a nice big crest and wattles, at least two thirds the size of a rooster's. Combs vary a lot by breed, so some will be bigger than others, but all laying hens will have combs and wattles that are thicker, brighter, and redder than hens who are not laying.

Now I have to go back out to the barnyard because as I was posting these pictures, I saw that I had taken a picture of an egg which I didn't find when I was out there. Can you find it?

Sudden Abundance

Ever since the ladder broke, I haven't been able to check the hayloft for eggs. I had thought that perhaps without the ladder the hens couldn't get up there anymore, but they can.

I boosted Hope up (brave girl) and she started handing me down eggs. 1,2,3... 8,9,10.... 13!!!

Then we noticed that one of the boards that blocks off the underneath of the barn had fallen off. So I sent Hope scooting to see if there were any eggs under there. Of course there were... another ten, in fact. We had to check those ones by dunking in water to see if they were good or not. Good eggs sink; bad eggs float. They sank.

So now I have about four dozen eggs all of a sudden, a rich trove for this late in the season.

If only I could get at the eggs that some of the hens are laying deep in the blackberry bushes!

Weird Eggs Redoux

Clockwise from top right: a more or less regular egg, a freakin' gigantic egg which is most likely a double-yolker, and a teeny-tiny pretty little light blue fairy egg. Right now I also have weird long skinny blue eggs which are pointy at both ends and a purple-freckled egg. 

First Cheese of the Year

Well, I'm not going to count the first batch, which didn't turn out at all because I thought I remembered enough from last year and didn't need to look up the recipe for chevre again. Turns out, I did.

This batch came out great. I pressed it during the final draining session, hoping it would be a little firmer and crumblier than chevre, more like queso fresco. And so it is. It's a nice big batch, too, at least a pound of cheese, from about 3/4 gallon of milk. This is one thing I haven't figured out yet: why does the same amount of milk sometimes yield more and sometimes less cheese? I think it has to do with the firmness of the curd. A firmer curd binds more casein and the whey is as clear as water. A softer curd lets more milk protein go down the drain in the form of cloudy whey. And the firmness of the curd depends on many factors, from the exact amount of rennet used (a single drop can make a big difference) to the exact temperature the cheese is held at (a single degree can make a big difference). 

In any case, I'm happy with my cheese. In fact, I think I'll make quesadillas for breakfast this morning, along with scrambled eggs.

There are ten dozen eggs in the fridge.

Production Going Up

Since we killed the egg-eating hen, I've been collecting about sixteen eggs a day. The trade network is not capable of absorbing this many eggs. Berry man is all out of berries, until the new crop that is, and so he has stopped getting eggs. Bread man stopped a while ago (darn it - he really is a fantastic baker). I still have a couple of regular cash customers, but they collectively take only about four dozen eggs a week. 

Luckily, eggs keep well. I'm sure that more customers and trade opportunities will pop up. Just yesterday, I was talking to a guy about trading my eggs and possibly meat for his wildcrafted morels. Hope that pans out. 

I've also started milking. Just a little. Xana is still a complete butt, and will not jump up on the stand. And since she's a first freshener and feeding twins, she doesn't have a lot of milk left over. It's kind of hardly worth it, wrestling her hairy ass up on the stanchion for a scant cup of milk. But I have to do it, just as training for her. Sooner or later her twins will be weaned and then I will want all her milk. 

 Iris, on the other hand, is giving me a generous quart a day, and this is less than two weeks after her baby was born! Most people wouldn't even start milking so soon, but Iris has a serious case of overproduction. Her baby can't begin to drain her abundant udder. If I left her alone, she'd naturally downregulate to suit his needs. But I don't want to let her do that: I want to keep her in fairly high gear so I can get to making cheese!

My garden is producing too: weeds. I gave up. I have nice beds of weeds. If  search diligently, I can find enough baby spinach and radishes among the weeds to make a decent salad. That's just going to have to do. I don't have time. Except for tomatoes! Bibi helped me plant fifteen tomato plants, and I WILL weed the tomatoes. Swear. 

Most of my vegetables this summer will be coming from the kale fairy, just like last year. She's the nice lady who traded me for eggs all last summer, and this summer is trading for a kid (of the caprine variety, not the human variety). I call her the kale fairy because last year she showered us with more kale than I've eaten in my entire life before - not that I'm complaining. I adore kale. My husband - well. Let's just say he's not quite such a fan of kale as I am. This year she promised us she would plant a little less kale and a little more other stuff. 

As a matter of fact, if I remember right, she said she'd have our first delivery ready in the last part of May. Maybe I should get in touch. I'm about ready for some kale.

Alas, a Chicken Must Die.

Actually, I'm not sad about it at all, since I don't have to do it. Homero is the designated chicken assassin around here. 

The big fat hen, a Light Brahma with feathers on her feet and the mother of the brood of famous escape artists of last summer, is an egg-eater. We caught her in the act. We were all in the barn admiring the baby goats (yup, still cute) when she hopped up into the nest boxes. A pergectly normal thing to do, I didn't even notice it, until I heard "pock, pock, pock, pock," the sound of four eggs being broken in rapid succession. She broke all of them before she even began to eat any of them, the greedy thing. 

We couldn't apply the recommended treatment (Hchckthsst - imagine a finger being drawn across a feathered throat here) instantly because we had guests there in the barn with us, and we didn't want to traumatize them. And Homero went to work at 5 am this morning, so it has to wait until wednesday, his next day off. 

I'd been wondering where the heck all my eggs were. This last week or so I've only gotten an average of five a day, which is crazy. Most likely, this hen isn't the only one eating eggs. Dammit. But she's the only one we've seen doing it.

I just realized, of the seven chickens that we got together last summer, there will be only two survivors after wednesday. That was an unruly bunch.

And Now There's Not Enough.

Last week I was drowning in eggs, and the food bank wouldn't take them, so I put an ad on Craigslist offering free eggs to families in need. I gave away seven dozen eggs in two days. 

But I also got a lot of calls from people who said "I'm not in need, but I'd love to buy some eggs." Of course, I got these calls AFTER I gave away all my eggs. Now I have customers lined up and nothing to sell them.

This may seem obvious, but....

Don't carry eggs in from the chicken coop in your bra.

Why would I do such a dumb thing? Well, in my defense, it's not so easy to carry ten or fifteen eggs in your pockets, but as you can clearly see, there's ample room in the lingerie. I need two hands to open the gates, work the latch on the barn, and feed the goats. Feeding the goats was the problem. I really should do it first, before stuffing my underwear full of raw eggs. That way, when the goats leap on me, I'll just get bruised and muddy. 

Crafty Chickens

Today we found a hidden cache of eggs behind the hay bales in the momma barn. I must have left the window open one day. Eight of them. Nobody has been sitting on them, so they ought to be edible. Eighteen eggs today, and it's not even over.