Popeye Would be Proud!

We plant two different types of spinach in the garden - Galilee Spinach (from Israel!) and Monstrueux De Viroflay Spinach (from France).  The Galilee Spinach has already bolted and I'm waiting for the seeds to dry so that I can plant again this fall.  The French Spinach is still producing and producing well, but with several days approaching 80 degrees, it won't be long until it bolts as well.

With that in mind, I picked a big colander full of the leaves and packed them down.  I wanted to get all the leaves I could before bolting.  I'll try to get another picking off of it, but we'll see how that goes.  The leaves are dark green and healthy.  There is no pest damage to speak of on the leaves.

Now, we've been eating fresh spinach salads for a while now, and we enjoy it that way.  We also make a Creamed Spinach side dish that is a copycat of Ruth's Chris Steak House recipe.  We'll make that next.  Tricia wanted to try a spinach quiche with a twist.  The crust is made of sweet potato.  Turns out we still have some sweet potatoes that we harvested over the fall.  They've stored well.  Tricia sliced and baked the sweet potato, lined the pie dish, poured the spinach and egg and topped with cheese and baked.  Voila!

Looks rich and delicious!

And as it turned out, it was.  Now, I'll admit, I would rather a regular crust, but I love sweet potatoes, too.  I would think vegetarians would like this.  I'm definitely NOT a vegetarian, but it was good.

The final thing we did with our 'spinach-fest' was a good ol' Cream of Spinach soup.  Tricia had just made some fresh chicken broth from one of our chickens and that was just what we needed for this dish.  Creamy, spinach-y, and it was kinda cool last night so the soup hit the spot.

Popeye the sailor man would be digging our meals this week!

A Couple Signs of Spring

Springtime in South Louisiana is very short.  Like, it is measured in nanoseconds.  You must be on your toes or you will flat out miss it.  You'll go from wearing a coat one day to being able to fry an egg on the dash of your car the next.  That's why it pays to be observant, enjoying the beautiful signs of spring before it's too late.

Temperatures are projected to top 80 degrees this week.  We showed photos yesterday of some fresh growth on the blueberry bushes.  While I was checking that out a couple of things caught my eye.  First, is our Japanese Magnolia.  This tree is a beautiful tree.  As it turned out, it was an expensive tree, but not the way you think.  Years ago we bought this tree and planted it in a nice spot.  We didn't really think things through.  I guess I'd better take the blame for that.  Anyway, the Japanese Magnolia quickly grew roots that grew into our plumbing lines.  Then they really thrived.  Then the plumbing was clogged up with the roots.  After putting the plumber's children through college, we were able to enjoy this tree again.

At this time of year it puts out some nice-looking blooms before there is a leaf on the tree.  They smell nice too.  These trees are a harbinger of spring... as well as plumbers' job security.

The next sign of spring are spring eggs!  With warmer weather, fresh green growth in the pasture, and more bugs and worms to eat on, the hens' egg production has doubled in the last month.  The pullets' eggs are still small, but they'll get bigger in short order.  Right now, we're separating the pullet eggs from the old layers.  We are eating the pullet eggs as well as giving them away.  We're selling the eggs from the older hens.  I don't want to sell the pullet eggs and upset any customers.

The pullet eggs are delicious - pretty too.  Below you can tell which pullet eggs come from the "Easter Egger" hens.  Some are green and some are blue.  I alternate them with the brown eggs from the brown eggs of the Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rock hens as it makes a visually appealing dozen eggs, don't you think?  Some do not!  One time I had a prospective customer that saw our "Country Eggs" For Sale sign and came knocking at our door.  When I opened a carton and showed her the eggs, she did NOT like the blue and green eggs.  In fact, she said, "No thanks" and drove off.  As I watched her drive off, all I could think was, "I do not like GREEN EGGS and ham.  I do not like them Sam I am."  I guess we're not supposed to quote Dr. Seuss anymore.  What a crazy world we live in.

Another sign of spring is that each day we're picking florets from our broccoli plants.  After harvesting the main head, the plant will continue throwing out florets.  If you don't harvest them quickly, they'll bloom yellow flowers and go to seed.  Every other day we go out and pick all the florets we can.  It is the gift that keeps on giving.  Tricia used the fresh spring eggs and broccoli florets to make a delicious quiche the other night!

Goodness gracious was it ever good!  Back in the 80's there was a book entitled, "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche."  I beg to differ.  I'm a real man and I devoured that quiche.

The "Incredible" Vegetable Egg

I was reading an article here: BusinessInsider Link about a company from San Francisco that wants to make the egg obsolete, by making an egg substitute out of plants.  Yep, you heard that right.  I'm a big fan of freedom and if they want to do that, then more power to them.  But why?

They say that their plant based egg substitute will be 48% cheaper because a large component of the cost of the egg is chicken feed.  The CEO says, "Unless egg makers are willing to lose money, they don’t have a structure to compete with us. Unless they come up with a new way to not feed the chickens."  My respectful response is: Unless, of course, you allow the chicken to to what they were designed to do and primarily graze on pasture, eating bugs, worms, grass, seeds, all of which don't cost anything.  Chickens don't need to eat factory food and live their lives in cages, inside a big warehouse.

Reading further into the article, it appears that they have a problem with our society's food system largely hinging on animal protein.  And again, they are free to be vegans or vegetarians.  That is their choice and I respect that, but eating animals or animal products isn't a relatively new idea, nor is it the downfall of society. We've been eating animals for quite some time.

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.  Genesis 9:3 KJV

The CEO later notes, correctly, that only a small portion of the eggs Americans consume come from free range, pastured chickens that live out under the blue sky and have a great chicken life.  Here are the steps that his company goes through to make his scrambled egg substitute called Just Scramble.

Step 1: Use the seeds of a confidential food crop.
Step 2: Grind the seeds into a powder making a paste.
Step 3: The proteins of the mash are spun to separate them from the other material.
Step 4: Liquid proteins are rinsed of bad tasting impurities.
Step 5: The proteins are then turned back into a liquid and can be cooked like a normal egg.

Interesting.  Talk about making a simple process into a complex one!  Here are the steps that we use to make our eggs:

Step 1: Sally Hennypenny leaves the pasture after foraging for bugs, worms, seeds, and grass and finds one of many nesting boxes where she sits down to lay an egg. After she's done, she'll sing a little happy song. She's proud of her creation as well she should be!

Sally lays an egg

Step 2: Benjamin collects the eggs from the nesting boxes.

The nest in the chicken tractor out on the pasture

Step 3: Benjamin will gather all the eggs in his wire basket and carefully bring them to the house.

A basket of eggs

Step 4: If they need any spot washing, he'll do that and then gently place them in egg cartons.

Fresh Country Eggs!

Step 5: We consume them or sell them to local customers!

Just before reading this article, I finished up leftovers for lunch sitting at my desk in an office at work.  It was a quiche. (I know, queue the "Real men don't eat quiche" jokes.) It was made with our delicious pastured eggs with a dark orange yolks bursting with beta carotene, vitamins, and Omega-3, along with spinach, toasted pecans, onions, garlic and chanterelle mushrooms and also milk and heavy cream from our Jersey cows.  All things either grown at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm or bartered to get.  My wife traded a friend some homemade butter for some fresh picked chanterelle mushrooms he had just picked. Yes, lunch today was a home run! I had to text my wife to tell her how good it was.

Support your local farmer and purchase some pastured eggs today.  His or her hens are happy and the eggs are healthy and delicious and your family will enjoy them. Or, consider getting some chickens and becoming a little more self sufficient.  Don't make eggs obsolete.  Don't 'reinvent the egg.'  There are much easier ways to solve this.  Simply make "factory eggs" obsolete by purchasing local pastured eggs today!

Making Quiche

Back in the 80's there was a popular book called, "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche" that made fun of male stereotypes.  I have to come clean with you.  I'm a man.  I'm real.  I eat quiche.  There, I got that out of the way.

After Thanksgiving, who isn't looking for new and exciting ways to get rid of the leftover turkey?  Turkey sandwich?  Yawn.  We thought we'd make the bird disappear by incorporating it into one of the more popular dishes in our home - the quiche, a french dish that is an open faced pastry or pie filled with cheese, meat, eggs, and vegetables.  We normally make a broccoli and chicken quiche, but this time, we thought we'd deviate and use chopped up turkey coupled with fresh mustard greens from the garden.  That's the neat thing about this dish - it is versatile, you can throw anything you'd like in it - bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, just try whatever is fresh in your garden at the moment.

So first I went out to the garden and selected a nice handful of mustard greens, brought them inside and washed them up real good and chopped them.


Fresh mustard greens

For this recipe, Tricia uses a cookbook by Jude Theriot called La Cuisine Cajun as a starting point, but I think she alters a few ingredients:

We heated up a cast iron dutch oven with some butter and chopped onions in the bottom and then added the mustard greens.  I'll admit, I sampled some straight from the pot.  Good stuff!  When I was younger, I didn't like greens.  Now, wow, I didn't know what I was missing.  I could serve this up on some cornbread right now and be happy, but these mustard greens have a "higher calling."



Pot of sauteed mustard greens

So then Tricia made up a homemade pie crust and added the chopped up remains of the Thanksgiving turkey, a cup of the sauteed mustard greens, 2 tablespoons of slivered almonds, 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of Mozzarella cheese and 1 cup of grated Swiss cheese.



A good meal starting to come together

We then take some eggs from our hens that Russ just gathered from their nests and Tricia broke up 5 of them into a Pyrex measuring cup.

If you're gonna make quiche, you gotta break a few eggs

Then we add a cup of Daisy's fresh raw milk to the eggs and scramble it all up real good.


 A heaping cup full of Daisy

To this developing concoction of culinary goodness, we add the spices: Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, curry powder, nutmeg.  Be creative.  Your taste buds will thank you for it.

Adding the spices

Then pour into your pie shell.  Preheat your oven to 375 and cook for 30 minutes or until you can slide a butter knife in and it comes out dry.  In the picture below, I'm peeking in the oven, anticipating the first slice.


Almost done

And here is the finished product, ready for consumption.  We accomplished our goal:  The Thanksgiving turkey is gone and in a few short minutes, so will this quiche.  The cookbook says it feeds 6, but who are we kidding?  I'm going to go ahead and loosen my belt up a notch and eat about a third of it all by myself!


"Honey, can you bring me the pie serving thingy and a fork?"

 Gotta run.  Bon Apetit!