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For Breakfast: A pan full of Luck

Joseph came in from the hen house with breakfast fixin’s. He was so confident about what was in this egg that he cut TWO holes in the “Eggs in a Frame” he had in the pan (we’ve also heard this called “Toad in a Hole.”)

We get these doubles fairly often, which I take to be a good sign. Either our hens are extra healthy and prolific egg layers, or we’re just plain lucky. I’ll go with all of the above.

This entry was posted on December 1, 2010, in Farm Life.

Is your car unlocked?

Is your car unlocked? When you get home you’ll discover you have four squash, each as big as your head, under a towel on the back seat. I’m sorry. I had to hide them there. It was the only way for me to insist you take more than I already pressed on you when you arrived.

This is the GIGUNDO squash plant that volunteered in our compost pile two months ago.
And this is the 5-8 lb Italian heirloom squash we’re getting about 8-10 a day of. I carry them back to the house in a wheelbarrow.
Now I want you to know, I’m not complaining. They are the sweetest, tenderest squash we’ve ever grown. We saute them with butter, eat them raw in salad, and Patti suggested we puree them and freeze them to use as a soup base all winter. All good ideas. I will probably come up with more because I think right now we’ve got about 150 more in some stage of development and more beautiful golden blossoms coming out all the time.
Why so many? Here are the culprits.
Easy to see the first bee on the bottom covered in pollen. Then there’s the next bee deeper in, pollinating away. And way down under both of them, there’s a third bee. Each of them wearing enough pollen to decorate six more squash blossoms with. Yes, they are doing their job, and lined up to do it with every squash blossom that opens its petals. And that’s why we will probably harvest close to a half ton of squash this fall from ONE PLANT.
So come on over. Bring an appetite. I’ve got squash fritters frying up right now and I’m working on squash cookies. Or maybe a nice little squash gelato. 
What? You can’t find your car keys? I can’t imagine where they might have gone. You search the kitchen while I dash out to the driveway to see if you dropped them there. Don’t come out unless I yell that I found them, okay?
warmly, Jacqueline
This entry was posted on September 21, 2010, in Farm Life.

Haying, Forever Young

Finally the rain stopped long enough for everyone to get their hay cut, dried, baled and bucked into the truck so we could load it into the barn. Here’s a video of the last run through the field, picking up stray bales.

This entry was posted on July 23, 2010, in Farm Life.

Fall Farm Photos

I woke at dawn and nudged Joseph awake. Here’s what the first hour of our day looked like. 

The light coming in the bedroom window woke me up. 
  
From the window we watched the light roll through the orchard …

and then the sun began rising.
Joseph and I walked up to the field.
The mist still blanketed the garden.
Looking across to the south we could see the whole valley.
The cows waited for us to appear with bins of apples.
Miss Amelia always has a kiss for Joseph.
I watched Missy and Harmony eat apples while Max nosed in his bin …
and then I went to feed the happy chickens.
The sunflowers glowed in the early morning sunshine …
I saw an early rising honeybee gathering pollen from the flowers.
We walked down to the house as the sun tickled the cosmos …
We stared out toward the barn as we poured milk, cooked eggs and slathered honey on our toast.
warmly,
Jacqueline & Joseph
This entry was posted on November 9, 2009, in Farm Life.