More Eggs

More of those pretty powder blue eggs.

See what I mean?

That's a full size egg from either a Orpington or Australorp on the right. It must be twice as big as the pullet egg from an araucana. That's what got me going this morning. Look at those little itty bitty yolks. Their so cute next to the big one. I made a mess of the Guinea egg on right, though. They have such thick shells and membranes it's tough to get them out of the shell. I often use the heal of a knife and I went a little too deep with it, apparently.












I like our eggs. Most particularly as Wavos Rancheros. Sorry about the anglicizing there. Fresh eggs lightly fried on a crispy tortia with beans, salsa (or picante) and sour cream. It's hard to cook the egg enough without over doing it. One of the things I dislike is wasting a perfectly good farm fresh egg by over cooking it. An egg with the yolk firm and solid, or worse yet, dry, is overcooked in my book.

No Wav-Os this morning, though. My secret for getting eggs the way I like them is a little steam. I cover the pan with a big pot lid while I cook them sunny side up. Then, with them about half done and the pan well warmed up, I add a little water to the pan and cover it up. Trapping the steam cooks the top half of the egg before the bottom scorches. That's the idea, anyway. I like my whites cooked but not over done with the yokes still a little runny. Especially if I have some hot buttered toast to spread the yoke on. I am sure you know what I mean.


The boy, on the other hand only likes whites. I have to scramble his to get him to eat the whole thing. If I don't, I might get a peice of yoke in his mouth, but he'll just make a really cute face while he pushes it back out with his tongue. It's cute, but for nutritional value, I like him to eat the whole thing. He ate three little pullet eggs this morning. That aboy!

Pocket lint

I don't know about you, but emptying my pockets at the end of the day can be a hazardous endeavor. I am apt to have all kinds of sharps in there. Most common are drywall screws, but there could be all kinds of fencing cuttings or drill bits or other metal scraps. It occasionally makes sitting down awkward also.

WWOOF

So, who has experience with a WWOOFer? I bumped into this on another Blog and am investigating. From what I read, it is a loose organization that hooks up volunteers who are interested in organic agriculture and self sufficientcy with farms willing to host them in exchange for labor. There's supposed to be some exchange of knowledge in there, also. I am not sure the model would work for us or not. It would seem a natural fit since we are working hard to develop a sustainable way of life and we already offer short term low detail housing. But the fact that part of our cash income is derived from that housing situation might make it mutually exclusive. If we were to trade some of that income generating housing for labor, it would put a crimp in our cash flow. But it's an interesting idea and worth hearing more about.

So has anybody else heard of this? Had experience with it?

Blue Booby Eggs

These are eggs from our chickens. Those three little ones on the top left are from the pullets we bought as day old chicks this spring. They are a pretty pastel blue, from Araucana pullets. I think we have one of the three laying. We got 25 female chicks (plus a free rare breed male plus a free random male to make sure there were enough to stay warm in the box) from Murray McMurray Hatchery in March. I wasn't expecting to see any eggs from them until September, so these little blue beauties are all Bonus.

In there also are eggs from our 3+ year old Orpingtons, A 2 year old Australorp and the guinea egg in the upper left corner. We are transitioning from our original flock that has dwindled down to the new birds we got this year. We have a bunch of new guineas that we hatched last year. But from the number of eggs we are getting, it seems we have a lot of cocks and maybe only one hen. We might just cull the guineas this fall. I like them for tick control, but they are noisey and proan to mischief. The Wife does not like them getting into her garden.