I’ve never seen two old love birds like Billy and Imelda. They’re not exclusive, mind you. Billy continues to cavort with plenty of other hens, but Imelda has a special place in his heart. They spend a lot of time together, and this afternoon when I saw Billy standing in the doorway of one of the doghouses, I went to investigate what he was doing.
He was watching out for Imelda, who was in the doghouse to lay an egg. He hovered around her for half an hour or so.
He was right next to her when she laid this egg.
And afterwards, he followed her around. The two make a touching pair. He is five years old and she is four. For chickens, they are well into middle age.
There is more going on in their tiny brains then we realize.
Popup Garden
While out plotting new vegetable plots for this year’s planting, I stumbled on this exquisite miniature garden. The tiny, fresh leaves were dotted with fresh raindrops.
From a distance, it’s easy to miss the beauty nature poured into a cement block.
But up close, it’s every bit as calming as sitting on the veranda of Nanzenji in Kyoto. If you ever make it to Kyoto, Nanzenji 南禅寺 is a temple worth visiting, though with more than a thousand temples in Kyoto, and with hundreds you just have to see, you might think of planning a very long vacation there.
Not to be outdone is the garlic patch here at a man and his hoe®. You don’t have to get on a plane and travel across the world to encounter exquisite beauty. Sometimes you just need to look down and see what’s growing at your feet.
Living in an Outdoor Museum
No matter how busy we get, there’s always time to enjoy beauty. It only takes a second or two.
Posts – Nature’s Gift
If you look around, nature often has what you need. What I need are some 10 foot posts to fence off a vegetable plot to keep the chickens out. I could go to a lumber yard and pick out some posts, but there are many young tree that need to be thinned out. They’re not perfectly straight, but they will make a distinctive looking fence that will be unique. I’ve left some of the branches to have handy hooks for hanging things.
For fun: to get red hands, strip the bark by hand.
New Pullet Egg and Cherry Blossom Snow
This time of year, every day is full of surprises. This morning I discovered a pullet egg. When hens first start laying eggs, they lay tiny eggs. You’ll rarely, if ever, find them in a store, but they are beautiful and make very cute fried eggs.
The flowers are still drifting off the cherry tree and blanketing the ground like snow. There are more petals than the chickens can possibly eat.
The mint is now growing vigorously.
And the salmon berries are in full bloom. Come late June and early July, the orange-salmon colored berries will be ready to eat. They are best eaten in the afternoon on sunny days, after the sun has warmed the berries to perfection.
Spring Deepens – The Lovage Has Sprouted
This morning I noticed that our lovage has sprouted. Potato soup isn’t potato soup without lovage. A few leaves of lovage brighten up any salad. Not only is the plant delicious, it has a celery like taste, with many medicinal uses, it is beautiful and grows easily. Since it is a perennial, it comes up every year so once you have it, you have it forever.
This is one of those many, incredible vegetables that you never see in a supermarket. One of the downsides of our modern food distribution system is that it is based on handling huge volumes of products. The big box stores will only handle things that are produced on a vast scale, will travel great distances well, and keep on the shelves for a long time. This drastically limits the variety of produce they carry. This is why cities need to have hundreds of neighborhood food gardens, so that everyone can savor the full gamut of fruits and vegetables that nature provides. Imagine being within walking distance of a garden where you could stop, on your way home from work, to pick the vegetables and herbs you need for supper. So many vegetables taste best when eaten within an hour of being picked.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of The Guardian posted a number of lovage recipes here.
According to Wikipedia:
The leaves can be used in salads, or to make soup or season broths, and the roots can be eaten as a vegetable or grated for use in salads. Its flavor and smell is somewhat similar to celery. Lovage tea can be applied to wounds as an antiseptic, or drunk to stimulate digestion. The seeds can be used as a spice, similar to fennel seeds.
- Lovage on Wikipedia
- Lovage on Botanical.com
- Washington Post – Lovage: A big plant with an even bigger flavor
All It Takes Is a Little Sunshine
All it takes is a little sunshine to make the cherry blossoms explode. What a pleasant surprise after many days of clouds and rain.
All it takes is a little sunshine to bring out all the chickens. And what are they up to? Are they just out enjoying the late afternoon sun? Are they looking for some treats? Out showing off their Sunday best?
Soufflés Don’t Just Happen
Before you can take a freshly baked soufflé out of the oven you need to pour the soufflé batter into buttered ramekins and put them in the oven.
Before you can pour the soufflé batter into buttered ramekins, you need to finish mixing the soufflé batter.
Before you can finish mixing the soufflé batter, you need to add the sliced ham.
Before you can add the sliced ham to the soufflé batter, you need to finish mixing in the nettle leaves.
Before you can finish mixing in the nettle leaves, you need to add them to the soufflé batter.
Before you can add the nettle leaves to the soufflé batter, you need to mix in the grated cheese.
Before you mix in the grated cheese, you need to fold in the roux and egg yolk mix into the beaten egg whites
Before you can fold in the roux and egg yolk mix into the beaten egg whites, you need to gently fold in more of the beaten egg whites into the roux.
Before you can fold in more of the beaten egg whites into the roux, you need to add a small portion of the egg whites into the roux and egg yolk mix.
Before you can add a small portion of the egg whites into the roux and egg yolk mix, you need to beat the egg whites into a firm meringue.
Before you can beat the egg whites into a firm meringue, you need to butter two ramekins.
Before you butter two ramekins, it’s a good idea to grate some hard cheese.
Before you grate some hard cheese, slice some ham.
Before you slice some ham, cut the nettle leaves.
Before you cut the nettle leaves, finish making your rough and egg yolk mix.
Before you finish making your rough and egg yolk mix, take the rough off the stove and quickly beat in the egg yolks with some milk.
Before you take the rough off the stove and quickly beat in the egg yolks with some milk, cook the rough until it gathers into a soft ball.
Before you cook the rough until it gathers into a soft ball, brown the flour and butter together.
Before you brown the flour and butter together, melt some butter in a pan and add some flour.
Before you melt some butter in a pan and add some flour, wash the freshly picked nettles.
Before you wash the freshly picked nettles, you’ll need to go out into your garden and pick them. You don’t have nettles in your garden? That’s OK, you can use any fresh greens that you find in your garden. Oh, you don’t have a garden? You can’t just go outside and gather something fresh to eat? I guess you could run down to your local green grocer and ask if they have any produce that was picked with the last few hours. What? Your grocer doesn’t even have anything picked today? How is that possible? Surely there is a farm within a 30 to 60 minute drive from your green grocer. There’s no excuse not to have fresh produce picked at least that morning. Well, just do your best, and if your green grocer doesn’t have produce picked that day on their shelves, it’s time to find a new green grocer or find a nearby farmer who will see that you have produce picked that day.
Before you wash you go pick your fresh nettles or greens, break your eggs and separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Before you break and separate your eggs, select five eggs laid today. Five eggs will make two individual soufflés. If you have more people, figure between two and three eggs per person. Eggs work best at room temperature, so if your eggs are in the refrigerator, take them out and let them rest until they are at room temperature.
You don’t have eggs laid today? When were the eggs you have laid? What? You don’t know? Don’t tell me you purchased eggs which you didn’t know how old they were? Didn’t the farmer who sold you your eggs tell you when they were laid? Oh, you forgot to ask? Or did you say you bought your eggs from a supermarket? You can’t see a label on the carton saying how old they are? I wonder why that is? What are they trying to hide? Maybe it’s time to raise your egg standards. The next time you purchase eggs, ask the seller you’d like eggs laid that day. If they look at you like you’re nuts, take a deep breath. You’re not the crazy one. The seller who thinks it doesn’t matter how old eggs are to make a good soufflé is the crazy one.
Life is too short for ho-hum eggs. Find someone who will sell you fresh eggs from chickens that spend all day outdoors enjoying the fresh air, sunshine, and exercise.
Anatomy of a Branch
So that’s what a branch looks like inside the trunk of a tree. It penetrates deep into the center of the trunk.
Rachel does not want to be disturbed when she is on her nest. Svenda just takes it all in stride.
Spring Is Here
Spring is here at a man and his hoe®. Vibrant shoots of stinging nettles bursting out of the ground prove it. The best vegetables never make it into the stores. Once in a great while, I’ve seen stinging nettles in a farmer’s stall in a farmer’s market. But here, from now through May, there is an endless supply of succulent stinging nettles to eat. The best way to describe them is spinach on steroids. Delicious steamed, fried, or used in soups, they are especially delightful made into a soup with a touch of cream.
With all the new shoots and bugs emerging, the chickens are having a field day. What a difference two sunny days in a row make.
The three hens below, Ina-Svenda, Cognac, and Kuro-hime, laid three of the eggs in the colander. I’m not sure who laid the fourth egg. Even though I gather eggs throughout the days, sometimes there are too many hens in a row using a single nest to determine which hen laid which egg. Ina-Svenda laid the egg on the far right, Cognac the dark one, and Kuro-hime the white one.
