Repetitive breakfasts: yogurt with honey, toast, eggs with leeks and chard.
There may be something to be said about eggs and baskets and breezy sunshine after a night of rain, but Rob is coming over so we can eat things and celebrate trains, so I better hurry and find my shoes.
I have been nursing these greens and kale all winter long, waiting for the sprouts to become something grand. As such, I have been reticent to clip a single leaf.
It is February, though, and I think I have to let go of hopes for a flourishing spring-like bed of lettuce. Still, everything is alive and inching ever so slowly towards the sky.
Might as well have a salad. Thanks for the egg, Fleur.
On the right: organic, free-range, local, etc., etc, egg from the store
On the left: a rare winter egg from Fleur or Lola, happy backyard chickens
Thank you, chickens. Only a few more months until spring, okay?
This morning Silvia found the first eggs from our baby chickens, which we have had since 6 weeks old. They are now about 6 months old and we were starting to get concerned that they had not started laying yet. Also, our older hens have just about stopped laying for the season, and we have been more or less without eggs for over a month.
Out of excitement, I went out to examine the coop and found one of the nesting boxes surprisingly full of blue-green eggs! We have two sets of laying boxes, and Silvia must have checked the one where the older chickens lay their eggs. While I was looking at the lovely pile of bright blue eggs, Lola came running into the coop and stood territorially over them. Once she left I scooped them all up into my arms (and felt super guilty about it). In the first picture you can see a little white ping pong ball that I put in the box to “inspire” them to start laying. Guess it finally worked!
Hooray for beautiful new eggs at our little backyard farm…now time for a celebratory quiche!
What an exciting development in our First Eggs day!
Hey Kellies! You are at work, or still sleeping, but look!
I am nearly certain that these are the first eggs from Lola and Fleur. I thought at first that they belonged to Rosie, but they are smaller, and more green than blue. Certainly not her eggs as we’ve known them.
First eggs! Good job, little girls. Kellies, they are sitting in my egg holder, if you would like to have one for lunch today.
As the temperatures cool, Rosie and Betty have slowed down egg production. Still, when they do lay, the eggs are beautiful. Ever since our chickens went free-range, their yolks have taken on a bright-sunshine-yellow sheen that indicates lots of bug-eating and protein-having.
Eggs here with chard from the garden, spinach noodles, and some chili paste.
This? This is an egg plucked, still warm, from the nesting box and boiled for my breakfast. It was enjoyed with a cup of milky grapefruit-flavored black tea while standing at my window, where I could see the morning sunshine reflecting off of our freshly watered, gloriously verdant trees-and-lawn-and-clover-and-everything-alive.
How easily this overshadows all of the minor injustices and shallow frustrations that lead me to think that this day can be anything but wonderful.
After our helicopter ride this morning, the Kellies and I installed two new chickens into our reinforced chicken area. They lived at Kelli’s old place, but their current owner is moving away, and knew we would do our very best to give them a good home.
Babies will arrive in a few weeks (they are busy growing right now), but these ladies are sturdy, sassy, and laying abundantly. Surely, we can keep them safe! Here is but a portion of the eggs we harvested from their nesting box this afternoon. The dish is a somewhat ridiculous purchase.
