Boy, that hen had a helluva couple of days.
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They have been squawkier lately.
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Those look like they come from two different breeds of chicken possibly three.
My neighbors have quite a few different breeds, including the ones that produce those pale blue eggs. My entire family is unanimous in believing that they look a heck of a lot better than they taste! Give us brown or white eggs instead.
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Nice! Three breeds now. (A fourth breed was there, but got eaten by hawks). There are two more breeds waiting in the wings, so to speak, only being a couple months old.
The blue eggs are fine, just not quite as meaty as the brown ones. The new girls should lay smaller green ones, which we really like.
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I was under the impression that the color of the shell bears no relation to the quality of the egg.
I’m always jealous of the deep orange yolks you see in British baking shows. Is it really due to the farmers feeding the hens marigolds, or is that also a folktale?
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The yolks in ours are deep orange. I’d guess it’s because our roam the yard, foraging plants and bugs, in addition to the pellet feed I give them. The difference between these and store-bought is that the store-bought eggs seem watery and less “full.” I don’t recall the eggs from when we lived in England, so I can’t compare to that system.
I dunno about color differentiation and “quality,” but there’s definitely a taste difference between breeds and egg colors. But in 10+ years of this, we’ve never raised a breed that produces white eggs, so it’s hard to compare.
The plants they eat will affect flavor. Marigolds, mint, scallions, etc, all have an effect. We keep a wild feedspace of marigolds just for this.
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To second what @anon33932455 wrote, it’s not about quality, it’s just taste differences. Some of that is due to diet, but some is just due to different breeds having different eggs. C’est la vie!
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Barring some sort of pepper apocalypse* I am going to have a lot of habaneros later this summer. I have made my own jerk sauce/rub/marinade, but that won’t make a significant dent in the projected harvest this year.
@FloridaManJefe and @ClutchLinkey : I think you both have posted previously about making hot sauce (fermented and or not?), but my search skillz are lacking to find if you posted instructions or recipes. Care to share any wisdom?
*tempting fate here, I know
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I use dried stuff for my hot oil recipe. @FloridaManJefe is the reigning king of fresh in our delightful circle, as far as I know.
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My early cayenne peppers are already drying. Could I use those for your hot oil?
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funny you should ask.
i started a batch of habanero sauce to ferment just yesterday and was working up a post about it to share here.
we grow lots of peppers and will make both fresh and fermented sauces with them. the simplest is fresh, where a pound or so of peppers (raw, fresh) get thrown into the food processor or blender with a whole, chopped sweet onion, 4-5 cloves garlic,a knob of ginger root (peeled, chopped) 1/2c fresh lime juice and 1c of carrot juice (key ingredient here - don’t sub anything else) about a Tbls diamond crystal salt and 1/4c white wine vinegar. whiz all up , transfer to saucepan and simmer for a bit before going into sterilized jars. keep refrigerated.
you can experiment with adding fresh mango or pineapple to the above, to your taste.
i’ll report back on the fermented style in a short. gotta go talk to the doc real quick.
good luck!
showing proper gear for mixing up hot sauces!
ETA: my measures are all approximate. i just add stuff til it looks right. you judge for yourself. you may need less or more, depending on your taste!
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Smart man. Kitted up for working with hot peppers! Also, nice shirt!
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Great equipment @FloridaManJefe! My spouse watched something that told him to remove the seeds and pith under running water. Yikes was that a bad idea. Made us both cough even when I was 15 feet away
@Wayward
My spouse froze a lot of the fresh ones from last year, to be able to make fresh hot sauce throughout winter. He cuts them in half, de-seeds and de-piths, and plonks in the freezer in hot-sauce sized batches.
His hot sauce involves habaneros, a ton of ginger, vinegar, and salt. Processed into a juicy paste. Way too hot for me, unfortunately. But it has a nice ginger and pepper flavor. I’ll be passing on @FloridaManJefe 's recipe. That sounds good. Maybe if I have it in tiny amounts I can eat it. Habaneros have great flavor but too much heat for me.
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seeds and pith are where the hot is! i don’t take it out, just stem and wash, but if you can go right ahead and seed them. still gonna be plenty hot!
freezing us perfectly fine. it is what we do in order to get the full crop in before saucing 'em up!
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note box fan in open window blowing out! gets pretty hard to breath sometimes, as @anon23281680 noted!
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Harvesting.
Garlic. Three varieties. Came out a little smaller than I’d have liked but can’t be helped. Most are about 1.5 inches wide.
Kohlrabi.
Peel them with a veggie peeler, then slice them really thin and eat them like chips. Yummy!
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Why are you harvesting garlic already? We won’t in Indiana until at least a month from now. We’ve already harvested the scapes, of course.
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Just timing. I have other plants that need to go in, and I still have leftovers from last year, so I figured why not.
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