Morning in the Vineyard

As we listened to the news last night on the criminal charges filed in food safety case against egg producers in Reuters Iowa and saw the stretches of building on top of building where their hens are kept for production, it gave us great joy and pride that our eggs are from truly pasture-raised, free-ranging hens. This morning, our laying ladies greeted the day in the vineyard area, keeping the vines insect free, the grounds well fertilized and themselves well-nourished and healthy. This is how every egg should be produced. 

Benefits of Working and Living off the Land

I have a new hero: Stamatis Moraitis, pictured below and featured in the New York Times Article. It speaks to the health benefits of working and living off the land and adopting a life style within a carring community. It makes me want to move forward with getting goats and to next year’s harvest of grapes for our first wine.  As we prep for spring and make decisions on how we are structuring the CSA for 2015, the ladies are still producing up to 2-3 dozen eggs a day! At the moment we are selling eggs for $3.00/dozen.  Let us know your orders and we will work logistics.

Crazy Egg-Production Ladies

Now that the cold has set in, the ladies' production is up. We are getting close to two dozen eggs a day even with the short days of sun light. We are so happy that they are finally behaving and saving their eggs for us. With all the extra eggs of late, look for some yummy egg recipes to come your way.

Hard-Boil Egg Tip

Blog entry: The Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg—Yes, Even with Fresh Farm Eggs | Paths of Wrighteousness shares a hardboiled egg tip for the fresh farm eggs. It comes highly recommended from Karmen “… talks about how to poke holes in farm fresh eggs before boiling them. I have had great luck with this.” 

Eggless Sadness

We bring you sad news on our saga to break the egg-eater habit. Our ladies had discovered how yummy their eggs are. They have now developed into egg eaters. If we are vigilant with multiple checks throughout the day of their nesting box, we are lucky to find 3 eggs from our 48 egg layers, but most days we are down to 0. We have checked with all our resources on how to break the habit. They have an abundance of calcium in their feed. We filled empty egg shells with mustard but they eat it gone – shell and all. We put golf balls in their nest so to learn it hurts to attempt to break it. We invested in a $300 nesting box that rolls away the egg as they lay them (which we catch our smart girls walking back and forth and craning their necks to reach the goods).

 

As a last recourse, with heavy hearts we even snipped the ends of the beaks of those we caught with mustard on their face to attempt to detour them. We even separated those that we have caught from the others to see if we would have eggs at the end of the day but we are afraid that the hens have modeled this bad behavior and it is now learned by all of them.

 

Our options now are to either run a petting zoo of eggs eaters or to cull the clan and start fresh with a new flock.

 

We will take on the deed next week and will plan when best to order new chicks. What it does mean is no more eggs this year. We are so very sad to share with you this news.

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Spring Greens

We will finally have vegetables in our bag! Some lettuce and Swiss chard will accompany your eggs home this week.  Swiss chard is a nutritional powerhouse -- an excellent source of vitamins K, A, and C, as well as a good source of magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium and dietary fiber. One cup of chopped Swiss chard has just 35 calories. Health wise, chard can help with blood sugar regulation, which provides benefits diets of individuals diagnosed with diabetes. With its very good supply of calcium and its excellent supply of magnesium and vitamin K, chard is also a healthy boost for your bones. Swiss chard does not ship well, so you typically will not find it in grocery stores. 

The young tender leaves are the most flavorful and make a colorful addition to salads. Cut out the midrib of larger leaves before cooking or chopping into salads. Chop large leaves to cook down like spinach, or use in casseroles, soups, and pasta.

How Store Swiss Chard

Do not wash Swiss chard before storing as the exposure to water encourages spoilage. Place chard in a plastic storage bag and wrap tightly. Place in refrigerator where it will keep fresh for up to a week. When ready to eat, rinse Swiss chard under cold running water. Do not soak chard as this will result in the loss of water-soluble nutrients. Remove any area of the leaves that may be brown, slimy, or have holes

If you have large batches of chard, or won’t be able to use it this week, you can freeze it. In the fall, once it is plentiful, we chop the leaves in the food processor and store in 1 cup portion small freezer bags, which is perfect for the family favorite: Crust-less Swiss Chard with Cheddar and Bacon Quiche

Prep Time: 12 Minutes
Cook Time: 35 Minutes

Ingredients:

·        1  cup chopped Swiss chard
·        1  cup chopped yellow sweet onion
·        A splash of olive oil
·         6-12 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (or the whole package)
·         3 cups sharp cheddar cheese
·         5 large eggs beaten
·         Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1.      Heat oven to 350 degrees
2.      Nonstick spray a 9-ince pie plate
3.      In a large skillet, heat olive oil
4.      Cook onion until tender
5.      Add chopped chard leaves and continue cooking, stirring until the chard is wilted
6.      Toss with salt and crumbled bacon
7.      Stir in the cheese and beaten eggs
8.      Pour into the prepared pie plate
9.      Bake for about 35 minutes, until the quiche is firm and lightly browned around the edges  
*Amount of onion and Swiss chard can vary but it is important that they are proportional

 

Angel Food Cake

Expect  Friday (5/9/14) delivery to be a dozen eggs. Still have eggs left from last week? Our favorite treat to make with eggs is Angel Food Cake - high in protein, low in fat, and there is simply no match for fresh, from scratch, Angel Food Cake.

Additionally, kids of all ages enjoy the plastic bottle trick to separate the egg yolks from the egg whites -netting the most amount of egg white for the dessert and the yolks can be saved off for Hollandale Sauce. We challange you to try it this week!

 

Angel Food Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of sifted powdered sugar

1 cup of sifted flour

1 ½ cups of egg whites (between 9 - 12 eggs)

1 ½ teaspoon cream of tartar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Instructions

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.      Sift together powder sugar and flour 3 times and set aside

3.      Beat egg whites, cream of tartar, vanilla and salt at medium speed until soft peaks form

4.      Gradually add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, continually beating until stiff peaks form

5.      Sift ¼ of flour mixture into egg whites and fold in lightly by hand.

6.      Repeat, folding in remaining flour mixture by fourths

7.      Gently pour batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan

8.      Bake on lowest rack for about 40 minutes or until cake springs back when pressed lightly

9.      Invert cake in pan until completely cool

10.    To remove from pan, run a knife along the edges to release and invert cake onto a plate

11.    Serve with fresh berries and whipped cream

Benefits of Pasture-Raised, Free-Range Hen Eggs

First week of CSA! For those at the UIHC today, your bag and eggs are in the insulated bag in my office. I will drop them off to you by 4:00. If you want them earlier, stop by and take one, checking your name off the list. If you can wait until 4:00 you will most likely have a full dozen as Bob will be checking on the ladies one last time, else, each of you at least have ten.  Talk about fresh!

Just so it is noted in this blog, we must boast the benefits of eggs from pasture-raised, free-range hen eggs over supermarket eggs from a processing plant:

Age - Fresh this week vs. supermarket eggs tend to be 1-2 months old. The fresher the egg, the richer the flavor. Note: Fresh eggs are more difficult to peel so if wanting for hard boiled eggs, sprinkle backing soda in water while boiling or have them sit in the fridge for a month.

Yolk Color – Influenced by diet, yard hens that forage for bugs and greens will produce a deeper yellow, almost orange color yolk.

Nutritional Content - Compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:• 1⁄3 less cholesterol • 1⁄4 less saturated fat • 2⁄3 more vitamin A • 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids • 3 times more vitamin E • 7 times more beta carotene

Check out the article from Mother Earth News.