The garden this mild, moist (so far) summer. 2014:  the summer of squash.

Phttp://youtu.be/z2kKX_cOH-M

Little Chickens

Our new flock of laying hens just arrived! They are 2 days old and so cute. How could baby chicks not be cute? We could spend hours watching them - it is difficult to be mindful of our other chores. We walk by the brooder house and hear them peeping then want to peek in and say hello. I am over 40 years old and still a sucker for a baby.



These gals will start laying eggs this fall and will double our egg production. We have many customers who have been patiently waiting for the opportunity to buy more eggs than we can currently supply now. We thank you for your patience.

This has been an odd, cold spring. Usually by this time, the plants in the garden are half grown and starting to produce. This year, however, has been a different story. The tomato plants are puple from the cold (we turn blue, tomatoes turn purple) and have skinny little leaves to keep the cold at bay. We have had some warmer days this week, so hopefully, they will shake it off and get growing. The only plants that have are joyously thriving are the lettuce and the potatoes.

I know we are fully a month late this spring due to the late appearance of the Bluebonnets. The bluebonnets usually appear in early to mid-March but are just now in full flower. They are the state flower of Texas, so are carefully seeded every fall by wildflower lovers on roadways and empty fields. Very beautiful.

Easter is coming up fast, and now there is more reason than ever to eat those eggs!

New research by Dr. Adam Wenzel, Ph.D. in 'The Journal of Nutrition' suggests that eating eggs can improve your eye health. Egg yolks contain lutein and zeaxanthin which are carotenoid compounds. The study showed that eating and egg a day raises the levels of these compounds in the eye which can reduce your risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which is characterized by the deterioration of the central retina, or macula, and is the leading cause of blindness in people over 50.

Carotenoids are found most in green leafy vegetables (spinach has alot) and that is where we get most of them in our food. The chickens get them the same way (and pastured chickens get them the most!) from eating the green plants. These carotenoids are concentrated in the egg yolk and are highly bioavailable (easily absorbed) to the retina. When these are aborbed by the retina they are refered to as "macular pigment". "Macular pigment appears to protect the retina by absorbing potentially harmful wavelengths of light, and by quenching free radicals that can damage tissues," says Adam Wenzel. The study used women who ate 6 eggs a week (one almost every day) for 12 weeks and then measured their macular density. The women who ate the eggs had an increase in macular density but the women who didn't eat the eggs showed no change in their macular density. Furthermore, the women eating the eggs showed NO INCREASE in cholesteral levels!

I assume that the researcher was not using pastured eggs in his trial, and can only imagine how much better the benefits are to those of us eating these dark orange yolks.

You can read a summary of this study at this link: http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/136/10/2568

Here is another link if you want to read more about this study and other reasons why eggs provide great nutrition: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=92

The March/April 2007 issue of EatingWell magazine also has a great article about this.

--Jackie Leigh

Giant Pile of Steaming Black Compost!

That is what we think when we walk out to the vegetable garden right now. We have a big pile of compost, ready to go into the soil and then to our plants (and then into us).

The garden is about half an acre surrounded on all sides by pasture. It sits on one of the highest ground on the farm, so when you go out to work you have a view of everything: the lake, the barns, the houses, the fields and behind them, the forrest. On warm days it is very pleasant working in the sun, catching the breeze (if there is one) and, eventually, having an audience.

The horses will be the first to come over to see what you are doing. They know that yummy things can come out of this patch of ground and are always curious to see if today is a snack day. We have learned from experience to place the corn plants waaaay back from the fence, and they have learned that a few pokes of barbed wire are not so bad when there is a corn stalk to be had. Eventually the cows will come too; they are also curious animals. The new little calves are even more curious than their mothers. (I have a theory that cows are born as smart as they will ever be and then go down hill from there.) Imagine their delight in discovering this giant, warm, aromatic pile of....something to eat....something to climb.....something to roll around in.


Myrtle the cow is especially loving the loam. She likes to roll her head in it and her calf has taken to climbing on top. Here is a film of their antics (sorry for the poor quality).

A warm week with lots of outside work. Love it.

It's been awhile.

During one of the coldest weeks of the winter, we witnessed the birth of the first two calves born from our own cows. They are two heifers and we have named them Gracie Lou and Ethel. We are so grateful they are girls, so we can keep them and they, by their presence, have doubled the size of our herd.

We attended the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association conference this month. We learned alot and met many great people who, like us, are passionately convinced that local, sustainable food is what our country, our state and our neighborhood needs.

We are a little late getting the onions into the ground--it has been a wet month--but we were blessed this week with two warm days in which we were able to get the onions and the leeks in the soil. The leeks are an experiment--I have a feeling that they would do better as a fall crop--but I dearly love them, so I hope they do well. Potatoes are next as well as greens and lettuces. I am salivating just thinking about it.

The chickens are starting to come out of their cold, dark, non-egg laying period. Some people put electric lights in the hen houses to trick the chickens into laying more during the dark season, but we think that the chickens need this time of rest before spring comes and nature comes alive with creation including the chickens desire to create more chickens. Thanks to you whom have been doing with less. There will be more eggs soon.




--Jackie Leigh

November 6

It is now truly fall here in Texas. The trees present yellow and red banners fluttering down to a blanket of green rye grass. Quite a palette for the eye. We have a rooster with feathers perfectly matching the fall colors. The kids named him Adam as he was the first chick actually born here on the farm. He is a beauty with a mellow disposition.



Some of the yellows of the season are reflected in the color of a wonderful ice cream that we have been making here lately. It is a frozen custard made with 8 egg yolks (!) and is simply divine. Here, I must share the recipe with you (with thanks to Susan):



Yellow yellow Ice Cream

2 c. whole milk
2 c. heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I like to use Mexican vanilla)
8 large egg yolks
3/4 c. granulated sugar

Combine milk and cream in saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Whip the yolks and sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer about 5 minutes, until thick and pale in color, and holding a ribbon. Slowly stream 1 cup of the hot milk/cream into the yolk mixture while blending. When well blended, pour the yolk mixture back into the pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon until thickened slightly (to coat the spoon), about 10 minutes.
Strain the contents of the pan into a large bowl. Chill several hours or overnight, and then put into the ice cream maker. Yield: c. 1.5 qts.

(Note: if you can get your hands on some raw, grass-fed milk and cream this ice cream will be positively neon, due to the extra beta carotene!)

The holidays are coming the holidays are coming! We are stocking up in anticipation of all of the extra baking. Don't forget these eggs in your syrup pies and glazes on your crusts. I will have some more terrific recipes up very soon and please don't hesitate to send your own, they would be much appreciated.

--Jackie Leigh

Our chickens are laying like mad. When chickens first start to lay, they lay many but smaller eggs. As they mature their egg production goes down, but the eggs get bigger. We have had a lot of rain this fall (thankfully, as we are still suffering under a drought) and the pastures are very green. The chickens live in a mobile chicken house that is moved every three days.

This is mutually beneficial to the chickens and the pasture. The birds eat the new green grass and seeds and the ground is aerated and fertilized. See for yourself. Here is a section of pasture a few weeks after the birds were on it. It is so green.






The magazine, Mother Earth News did nutritional analysis of eggs from four flocks of pastured chickens and then did a comparison of the results to regular super-market (factory produced) eggs. Their results,

“revealed that compared to supermarket eggs from hens raised in cages, our free-range eggs contained only about half as much cholesterol, were up to twice as rich in vitamin E, and were two to six times richer in beta carotene (a form of vitamin A). For essential omega-3 fatty acids (vital for optimal heart and brain function), the free-range eggs averaged four times more than factory eggs.”

You can read the whole article at: http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs/testing

In fact, I recommend it. It discusses in depth how much of the foods in the food supply have been declining nutritionally due to industrial farm practices.

--jackie leigh