Egg Rolls for Supper!

We love the winter garden for many reasons, there's no worry about pests eating your crops, you don't have to water as much, the weather is cooler for harvesting, etc.  You can actually walk through the garden and just graze like a cow might, stopping to break off some sweet peas to nibble on, tear off some fresh lettuce, chew on some parsley or cilantro while you're walking in the garden.

Some of the produce actually makes it into the kitchen though.  When I got home tonight, Tricia had started making egg rolls, so I caught some of the process on camera.  We used to be sort of intimidated by making them, but they are easy to make and use all the fresh produce from the garden that is currently being harvested.  They are also a big hit with our family.  Let's get started.

First, Tricia took some mushrooms, four cups of cabbage, a stalk of celery, some green onions, and a couple of cosmic purple carrots and put them in the food processor and grated them up nicely.


Fresh ingredients

 She then puts that mixture along with 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger, a dash of salt, a dash of sugar, and a dash of garlic powder into a cast iron dutch oven that has been heated up with a little oil and cooks it, stirring constantly and then adds 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce.  Tonight she had one of our chickens that she had deboned that she chopped and added into the pot as well.


The filling for the egg rolls

  You'll need to purchase a package of egg roll wrappers.  You can find them in the produce department of your grocery store.


Egg Roll Wrappers

Take a couple of tablespoons of the mixture simmering in the dutch oven and spoon diagonally like shown below.  Then take the bottom corner and pull over the mixture until it is covered.  Take the left corner of the egg roll wrapper and pull toward the center.  Now take the right corner of the egg roll wrapper and pull toward the center.  The final step in the top corner.  Take some water on your finger and rub along the corner as this will act as glue to seal the egg roll.  Tightly pull the top corner down and over the egg roll and press down to seal.

Let's roll!

Before you get concerned about the cutting board.  The red stuff is not blood.  It is stained from some fresh beets that were just cut up.  We'll show you those in a minute.  Tricia is putting the finishing touches on an egg roll. 


Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Here is the first one.  It takes a little practice, but you get better with each one.  Before you know it, you're a pro.

First one is done

 Once you get some ready, place them in a cash iron skillet with a little oil and fry until golden brown.


3 egg rolls frying

 Roll them over and fry evenly.  Tricia even puts them on their sides and stands them up to make sure they are fully cooked.  

Almost done!

While we're working on rolling and frying the rest of them up, we might as well work on a side dish.  Since the sugar snap peas are coming in right now, what could be a better companion for some egg rolls than some stir fried sugar snap peas?  Here's some we just picked out of the garden. 



Sugar snap peas

To cook them, here is the secret ingredient: homemade butter from our Jersey cow, Daisy.  Butter makes everything better! 



Homemade butter from Daisy Lou!

Put a dollop of butter in your skillet, put in the sugar snap peas and look out!  If Tricia's not careful, I'll eat them right out of the skillet.  In addition to tasting great, they look good, too.  They turn the most brilliant green color. 

That looks good, right there.

  The peas are done and just in time, as the egg rolls are hot and ready to eat, too.    

A platter of homemade egg rolls (these won't last long!)

We almost forgot.  As another side dish, Tricia cut up some fresh beets and sweet potatoes and put them in a stoneware tray.  She drizzled some melted Daisy butter with some sea salt and black pepper, put them in the oven and roasted them - talk about good!


Oven roasted root vegetables - sweet potatoes & beets

I wanted to get a picture of the plate, but we were all too busy eating to take the time to take one.  This meal is a fun and delicious way to take advantage of the winter vegetables we're harvesting right now. 

Our youth - Our future

This post doesn't have a lot to do with homestead farming, except for an animal reference or two and the fact that we're raising kids in addition to growing crops and animals at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm!

This past Sunday night we had our Church Youth Group over to our house for an end of year get-together.  They are a great group of kids ranging in age from around 10 to 17.  We had a pizza themed party with an appetizer fruit pizza, which is really a big sugar cookie, iced with fruit on top.  Then we had "Make your own pizza" in which we had all sorts of pizza toppings and the kids selected what they wanted on theirs.  That's what they are doing in the photo below.  Finally, we had a dessert pizza, which was a big chocolate chip cookie, topped with M&Ms, coconut and pecans.


Make your own pizza!

We played a bunch of silly games.  Benjamin and Russ got out their arsenal of Nerf guns and Nerf battle axes and light sabers and they had Nerf wars.  We then played a game called, "Taste the Rainbow" that they enjoyed.  The game involves a bowl full of Skittles on one end of the room and two cups on the other end.  You break them into two teams and give them each drinking straws.  It is a relay race in which they put the straw in their mouth and suck through the straw until a Skittle is attached on the end.  With the suction holding the Skittle, they run across the room and deposit the Skittle into their team's cup.  You can't use your hands and if you drop it, you must start over.  At the end of a certain time frame the game is over and the team with the most Skittles in their cup wins.  They really liked this game! 

Then it was time to eat so they made their pizzas.  While the pizzas were baking, we had a devotional message in which we discussed with them the following verse in 1 Timothy 4:12:

Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.

We encouraged them not to think that just because they are young that they could not do great things for God.  We used the example of the young boy David defeating Goliath as an example.  We challenged them to set resolutions for the New Year that are spiritual in nature, like daily Bible reading and commitment to prayer and then we prayed a blessing over each one of them.  Prior to releasing them, we tried to inspire them to deepen their Christian walk in the new year.

I'll mention again, these are really good kids.  Interacting with them gives you a sense of hope for the future.  That is refreshing, especially after hearing lots of bad news all the time about our youth.  To be realistic, though, Christian youth are in a tough spot.  Barna researchers tell us that 61% of churched kids will become spiritually disengaged and leave church when they leave high school.  As Godly parents and leaders, we need to understand why.  I did some research on the Internet and the publication Christianity Today lists 6 reasons:

1. Isolationism. One-fourth of 18- to 29-year-olds say church demonizes everything outside church, including the music, movies, culture, and technology that define their generation.
2. Shallowness. One-third call church boring, about one-fourth say faith is irrelevant and Bible teaching is unclear. One-fifth say God is absent from their church experience.
3. Anti-science. Up to one-third say the church is out of step on scientific developments and debate.
4. Sex. The church is perceived as simplistic and judgmental. For a fifth or more, a "just say no" philosophy is insufficient in a techno-porno world. Young Christian singles are as sexually active as their non-churched friends, and many say they feel judged.
5. Exclusivity. Three in 10 young people feel the church is too exclusive in this pluralistic and multi-cultural age. And the same number feel forced to choose between their faith and their friends.
6. Doubters. The church is not a safe place to express doubts say over one-third of young people, and one-fourth have serious doubts they'd like to discuss.

—Adapted from a list by David Kinnaman in You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church … and Rethinking Faith

As Christian adults, it is our duty to address each one of those issues head-on as there are valid Biblical responses to each item in the list.  Shame on us if we don't first take care of business within our own homes and then reach out to those kids within our sphere of influence.  I've committed to do what I can where I am planted.  I read a book called Already Gone, that underscores this problem and gives some action steps to stop the hemorrhaging.  Across much of Europe, churches are museums and many have been converted to other uses.  If we don't do something about it quickly, America will follow likewise.

We had a very serious message for the youth at our house, but the kids had some serious fun, too!  We ended the night with fireworks as the kids shot bottle rockets over the pasture, threw smoke bombs around the backyard and had fun dropping firecrackers in buckets of water and watching them explode underwater.  I'm sure the cows were wondering what in the world was going on.  I was afraid that the chickens would be so nervous from all that excitement going on that they wouldn't lay eggs for a week!  Egg production actually picked up, though.  Maybe the fireworks scared the eggs out of them, who knows.

In closing, here are some photos of kids being kids:

Nerf gun wars are on!

Nerf Attack on the girls

 

Gymnasts

Nerf attack on the boys

Cheerleaders!

  

More Cheerleaders

I wish I would've had the presence of mind to take some pictures of the "Taste the Rainbow" game!

Meat chickens at 4 weeks old

Here is the latest post that shows the evolution of our meat birds from Beauty to Beast in 8 weeks.  The Cornish Cross meat birds were four weeks old on Tuesday.  There is a little surprise at the end of the post today.

One day old baby Cornish Cross Chick

 Growing...

One week old chick sporting new white wing feathers

 And growing...

Two week old chick in that uncomfortable adolescent stage

 And still growing...

Three week old chick putting on weight

And here we are at four weeks.  Not a chick any more.  This is now a chicken.  He's heavy, healthy and he's generating heat when you hold him.  You can just feel the muscle in this guy.  Amazingly, he's halfway developed at four weeks.  At only 8 weeks old, they are mature and ready for slaughter.


Four week old Cornish Cross chicken

Below you'll see a comparison between a four week old Cornish Cross and a two day old Cornish Cross.  Wait... What?  Yeah, our second batch of broilers came in.

Comparing a 4 week old bird with a 2 day old bird

We have 118 more chicks that came in yesterday.  Since we moved the 4 week old birds out to the tractor in the pasture, that freed up the brooder they were previously in.  I put 59 baby chicks in that one.

59 birds in the Popeye's brooder

Then, I pulled the old brooder from last year out of the weeds in the garden and did some quick repair work on it just in time to accommodate 59 more chicks. 

59 birds in the KFC brooder

So we should have 47 birds ready to butcher in four weeks and (hopefully) 118 ready to butcher in 8 weeks.  What do we do with all that chicken?  Well, we eat a lot of them and stock our freezer full to last a year.  Then we'll sell the rest to friends and customers.  Pastured poultry don't have antibiotics in them and they are raised in a humane way.  They are on grass and not sitting in their poop all day, so they are healthier.  As a result they are healthier for you to eat and they taste better, too!

Planting tomatoes from seed

On January 1st I always plant my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant seeds for the Spring crop.  Early in my gardening, I would simply purchase plants from the hardware store and transplant the six inch tall plant into the garden.  The more I read about it, the more I wanted to grow my own plants from seed.  Yes, it is more work and time-consuming and can be quite frustrating at times.

The pay-off, however, comes at harvest.  I now plant only open-pollinated heirloom seeds.  These seeds can be saved year after year, whereas, the hybrid seeds are sometimes sterile and the quality falls apart after a year.  I find heirloom seeds produce better tasting vegetables.  It may just be in my head, but I don't think so.

I order my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds, but there are numerous companies out there that sell them.  Below, I've laid out all my seed packets and record keeping regarding the seeds I'm about to plant.


2013 Tomato, Pepper, and Eggplant selections

This year I'm planting the following tomatoes:

Moneymaker: produces smooth medium sized red fruit
Arkansas Traveler: produces smooth medium sized rose-pink fruit resistant to heat & humidity
Black Krim: a rare, Russian, black Beefsteak tomato.  Delicious with a rich flavor!
Abu Rawan: a sweet, medium sized tomato from Iraq that handles heat well.
Amish Paste: Roma-type blocky tomato from Wisconsin Amish community great for paste or canning. 
Thessoloniki: Greek tomato with good flavor and high yields.
Valenciano 749: Italian, yellow flesh tomato that adds color to the garden and tastes good.

I save the plant containers and use the same ones year after year.  Spray the seed trays with a bleach solution to sanitize them and to achieve higher germination rates.


Pull out the seed trays collected over the years

Add a seed starting mix to the containers and place in flats for easy transportation. 

Filling the containers with seed starting mix

I'll get some freezer tape and label the containers with a Sharpie.  This enables you to keep track of what variety you have planted along with the date.  You don't want to be caught guessing what types of tomatoes are growing if your labels fall off or get lost.


Labeling the container

I'll generally plant two to three seeds per section in the container to ensure I have enough plants.  It is better to have too many than not enough.  If you have too many, there are always friends and neighbors to share with.  If you have too little, well, you won't be able to enjoy delicious tomatoes or won't be able to make salsa or tomato sauce to can and put in the pantry.


This year's seeds being planted

I plant the tomato seeds in slight indentations in the soil I make with a screwdriver that are 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch deep and then cover with soil.  

Cover seeds with soil once planted

All of the tomatoes are now planted with individual containers labelled.  We're just about done.


All tomato seeds are planted

I get a spray bottle and dampen the soil with a mist of water.  This will allow the seed to swell and the germination process to begin.


Moistening the soil

I cover the entire tray with plastic wrap.  I do this to retain the moisture and warmth of the soil.  I found that if I don't do this, I have to water the soil repeatedly to keep it moist.  This is not necessary, but is a time saver.  Obviously I monitor the seeds daily.  When I see sprouts, I remove the plastic wrap from that particular container in the tray.


Putting plastic wrap on top of the trays

Tomato seeds will germinate in 5 to 10 days, depending on the soil warmth.  The minimum soil temperature for tomato seed germination is 50 degrees F.  The optimum temperature is 85 degrees F. I initially put the trays on top of the freezer in the laundry room as it seems to be the warmest place in the house.  Once the plants have all sprouted, I'll move them to the cold frame that we just built separate them once they put on their first set of true leaves and eventually transplant them in the garden to grow.  All the varieties of tomatoes I plant are indeterminate, meaning they are vine - not bush-type tomatoes.  They will need trellising.  But I'm getting way ahead of myself, the plants haven't even sprouted yet!


Watching & waiting for sprouts

In January, normally some of the coldest parts of our winter in South Louisiana, it may seem odd to be planting tomatoes since we're a couple months away from being able to plant them in the garden.  Actually, you want to get a head start on the tomato planting to get ahead of the bug pressure, heat, and drought that typically plague us during the summertime.

We'll check in from time to time on the tomatoes.  I'm sure there are better methods, but this process seems to work for me.  As Louis Armstrong sang, "You like to-may-to, I like to-mah-to..." 

Harvesting Carrots

In Beatrix Potter's "Tale of Peter Rabbit," Peter disobeyed his mother's wishes and crept into Mr. McGregor's garden and ate a bunch of fresh vegetables before he was spotted by Mr. McGregor and was promptly chased out of the garden.  I remember reading that book to Laura Lee when she was younger.  Fortunately, I constructed a good fence around the perimeter of our garden to keep Peter, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail out of mischief.  As a result, we have numerous carrots that are ready for harvest.

Put on your boots, grab the colander and come along... 

We have had some pretty good rainfall lately which will make pulling the carrots easy.  In fact we don't even need to bring along a shovel.  We'll just grab the carrots by the greens and give a little tug and that's all there is to it.  The moderate December temperatures have really made the carrots grow quicker than normal and as we start to pull the carrots, they are a little larger than I'd like them to be, but we'll eat them just the same.



Here's a few freshly pulled carrots in the colander

The shot below displays a 'mess' of carrots with beautiful greens laying in a bed of winter grass and carrot tops.  The greens will be thrown over the fence to Daisy and Rosie who are standing nearby and will make quick work of making the greens disappear.


A nice tableau of carrots

This picture below illustrates just how big some of the carrots have gotten.  Sometimes when they get this big, they get a 'woody' texture and aren't much good for eating.  However, by the time I posted this, we've eaten all but six of them and they were delicious!

Carrots are believed to have come from Iran and Afghanistan.  Their bright color is attributed to Beta Carotene which turns into Vitamin A.  They are said to be very good for your eyesight, as well as high in fiber and antioxidants.  You can overdo it though, in eating them, and actually turn your skin orange!

Here is today's harvest all laid out and sprayed with a hose prior to bringing them inside.  I deliberately tried to pull all the biggest ones and will leave the smaller ones to continue growing.  I staggered my plantings of them so they'll mature at different times, ensuring we have plenty to eat fresh, blanch and freeze and can.


All washed up

I grow four different types of carrots.  The ones shown below are called Cosmic Purple carrots.  Don't adjust the color on your monitor.  How in the world do you figure they got that name? 

Cosmic Purple Carrots

And these are called Atomic Red Carrots...



Atomic Red Carrots

And finally just a plain, old, boring Orange Carrot in the middle with an interesting Parisienne Carrot on the far right.  Parisienne carrots are great in stews and soups (and not so great for peeling since they are round, so we normally just eat them without peeling them). 

Normal Berlicum Orange carrot in the middle and a distinctive, round Parisienne Carrot on the far right

The Cosmic Purple carrot below has an odd double tap root.  Benjamin said that it looks like it is running away - running away from Peter Rabbit, perhaps.


Carrot on the run

Since you've had your recommended daily allowance of carrots, I'll leave you with one final picture of some beautiful carrots washed and ready to be sliced up and cooked in some butter with a little salt and black pepper on top.

Nature's Bounty

Bloom where you are planted

"Bloom where you are planted"

I thought about that quote the a couple of days ago when I was rooting around in the garden.  A while back I had posted about volunteers - plants that come up on their own from seed.  Who knows where the seeds come from, probably from the compost pile.  Anyway, I had been watching a sunflower plant and captured a little primitive time lapse photography to show you what I'm talking about.  This is a sunflower plant growing in the carrot row in late December:

Almost...

Almost...

Wow!  Look at that bright sunflower yellow contrasted against a brilliant blue late December sky!!



A sight to behold in December, of all times

I think it is interesting how God can just grab our attention some times.  When I saw this sight unfolding before my eyes I began to think of the parallels in our lives.  Sometimes in life, we may find ourselves out of place like the sunflower.  Here was the sunflower who found himself (or herself) in a place where he didn't belong.  Why, he was growing in a row of Atomic Red Carrots!  The sunflower was not planted there on purpose.  It was a mistake.  It was not supposed to be there.  Not only was the sunflower out of place and mistakenly there, it was there at the wrong time.  Sunflowers are summer plants.  Get your timing right, sunflower.  They aren't supposed to be brightening up the garden in the middle of winter!

But you know what?  No one told that to the sunflower.  The sunflower bloomed where it was planted - even though it was planted mistakenly, in the wrong place and the wrong time.  Despite everything against it, the sunflower grew, opened its glorious flower to the heavens and brightened up the entire area.

What a lesson we can learn from the sunflower blooming in my garden right now!  Who hasn't felt out of place?  Who hasn't felt like they weren't supposed to be where they are?  Who hasn't been discouraged because the timing seems all wrong?  It doesn't matter.  Go ahead and grow.  Open your blooms toward heaven and be a bright light to all those around you!

Matthew 5:16

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Coddled eggs for breakfast

With all of our hens laying beautiful eggs, we're always looking for ways to eat eggs other than omelets, scrambled, fried, and using them in recipes like souffles, quiches, etc. and that is always a great treat.  Another thing we like is to make coddled eggs.  Here's how we do it.  First we break a few eggs in a measuring cup.


Fresh eggs from the hens out on the pasture

Then we put in different things that we like, including grated cheese, pieces of bacon, chopped mushrooms, green onions, etc.

Adding accompaniments to the eggs

Then pour the eggs with all of the good stuff into the porcelain egg coddlers.  We bought ours on eBay.  They are manufactured by Royal Worcester from Worcester, United Kingdom.  They were invented there and have been made there since around l890. 

Into the egg coddlers the egg mixture goes...

We then screw the lids onto the coddlers and place the egg coddlers into a pot of boiling water for 7 - 8 minutes.  Tricia likes her eggs cooked very soft and runny.  I like mine cooked a lot more, so it all depends on your preference.  Can you see the rings on top of the coddlers?  That is for removing them from the hot water.


Egg coddlers in boiling water

When they are done to your liking, simply pull them from the water by the ring and unscrew the top.


Testing to see if it is done

 You can grab it by a fork and pull it out of the porcelain coddler easily.



Ready to eat

Now all you have to do is cut it up and eat it.  It is kind of neat.  Sort of a re-invented egg.  Like if eggs naturally came with bacon, mushrooms, green onions and seasonings in them!  All of the flavors you love come together in a taste explosion for your taste buds.

Delicious breakfast from jolly olde England!

 Obviously, you can also cook them soft and runny like Tricia likes them and serve them with toast.

Happy New Year, everyone!