Maggie says, “where’ve you been?”

Working hard all day and late into the night. Hopefully tomorrow will be less busy and more conducive to coherent thought.

Good night.

A Sonoma Garden tagged me for 6 Random Things. I rarely get tagged so this is a bit of a treat.

First, here are the rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on the blog.
• Write six random things about yourself.
• Tag six people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

I’ve been pondering this for a day or two, trying to decide what would actually be interesting. Here goes.

1. On nights that I don’t feel like organizing dinner, we declare it to be a “grazing” night with both of us fending for ourselves. Tonight was such a night. I ate two pieces of toast with strawberry jam and a steamed artichoke with garlic butter. Mike had toast with butter (he’s not a jam guy) and leftover Mexican from Friday night.

2. I don’t like to wear socks, never have. I could happily wear flip flops every day of the year and the only thing that keeps me from doing so is the cold and rain of winter.

3. I don’t like licorice, root beer or olives. Never have, never will. And there aren’t many things I don’t like.

4. I talk to the hens like they can talk back.

5. I’ve never really been to California. Sure I’ve flown through LAX on my way somewhere else but I’ve never been on a proper visit.

6. I bought Mike an engagement ring and asked him to marry me, twice.

Now I’m supposed to tag six more people. I think I’ll keep it local!

- The Hendrick Homestead
- Dropstone Farms
- Elements in Time
- The Shibaguyz
- Muddy Clogs
- Music and Cats

The first couple of strawberries in the new patch have come and gone (into my mouth that is). We probably should have pinched off the blossoms this year, but I just didn’t have the heart with the rest of the garden so far behind.

It turns out that we’ve got salmon berries out back mixed in with the blackberries. We might even have raspberries but it’s a bit too soon to tell.

Bear with me as this is a looooong post.

*****

Summer has finally arrived - or at least as close to it as we’ll see until July 5. The solstice brought warm humid weather for the weekend, perfect for getting the heat loving plants to perk up. It also brought the first of the strawberries to the Everett Farmer’s Market today - finally!

I’ve been waiting for what seems like months to replenish our supply of strawberry jam. So even though the prices were high today we bought a full flat of berries. Half to eat and half to turn into jam.

I’m sitting here now enjoying the foam (thanks Baklava Queen for the idea) on sourdough toast and listening to 12 half pints of no-pectin jam ping. There was actually almost 14 half pints, but the other 2 are in a pint jar going directly into the fridge for enjoying this week. I used the UMN extension recipe, except that I added a TBS of lemon juice for each cup of berries because I like the extra zing.

No-pectin jam is runnier than your traditional jam. And while it’s not the best option for PBJ sandwiches, it is certainly my favorite on toast which is how we eat 90% of our jam. We’ll make some with pectin later for use on sandwiches this winter.

*****

We enjoyed our official OLS meal last night, although pretty much everything we eat is local, so it’s hard to choose. We started with fresh sugar snap peas, baby potatoes, spring onion and mint combined into a spring saute (recipe below).

We added fresh asparagus broiler roasted with olive oil and kosher salt.

We made a fresh herb rub for the last of our pork chops, incorporating olive oil, rosemary, sage and thyme plus a bit of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

While Mike grilled we were treated to a rainbow framing the Cascades over the neighbors’ barns. And while we were enjoying it, our neighborhood bald eagle flew over to say good evening.

We plated it all up and sat down to enjoy some of our favorite parts of spring’s bounty. A perfect end to a day of hard labor around the property and in the garden.

*****

Spring Vegetable Saute
adapted slightly from Simply Organic
serves 3

- 6 medium new potatoes, halved
- 2 small handfuls sugar snap peas
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 small spring onions, thinly sliced
- 9 leaves fresh mint
- a touch of garlic powder (I was out of garlic)
- pinch of kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 20 minutes. Add the peas for the last two minutes.

2. Drain the pan and leave taters and peas in colander.

3. Put the pan back on a medium burner. Add the butter. Then saute the onions for five minutes until soft. Sprinkle in the garlic powder (or add fresh minced garlic).

4. Add the potatoes and peas back in. Add the mint, salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Serve.

This head of broccoli is the rock star of the garden right now. It’s the furthest along of the seven biggest plants - the rest have heads smaller than a quarter. I’m getting very impatient to harvest it, but I know that the longer we wait the bigger it will get…

The dogs find pure joy in running through the back meadow. I’m not sure what they’ll do if we ever get a fence up and something to eat the grass… The previous owners mowed this 2 acres but we’ve decided that it’s too much work, not to mention a waste of gas.

Jake with a stick.

Sam with his favorite ball.

We, particularly Mike, spent the day working hard, but even on a day like today there’s always time to take a fetch and run break with the dogs…

I realized the other day that it’s been a while since I talked chicken. Or at least since the news wasn’t bad. If you didn’t already know better you might think we didn’t have hens!

So last night while I was working in the hen shack I took a bunch of photos of the flock. It was a busy evening of cleaning out dirty straw, removing the shelf that they insist on roosting on, adding a new roost bar, rescuing a field mouse from the grain bin, and generally sprucing up the joint.

Two weeks ago today I picked up 4 two month old chicks to replace the three the coyotes got. I probably should have gotten 3 or 4 full size hens, but instead I chose to get two Cuckoo Marans and two bantam Old English Game hens. The banties are for Oscar (picture below) since he’s going to stay for the foreseeable future and Agnes seems to be choosing to accept Steve (finally).

This is Sadie, Ann, Abby and Daisy checking out the new upper roost bar.

Sadie is a bit special needs as due to an accident when she was littler her upper beak is snapped at the end giving her the look of a hen that’s had her beak clipped. Now that she’s got access to crumble all the time she seems to be catching up on weight and size with Daisy. I got the new chicks from someone I know that free ranges his bird almost completely - she has a bit of a hard time foraging for herself (but she’s getting better at it). I didn’t realize that her beak was snapped when I picked her out - didn’t see it until I got home and then I got attached so didn’t go back and exchange her. Hopefully that decision will pay off in eggs someday…

Oscar has grown into a very striking looking little rooster. He’s just finally, at 3 months, learning to crow. After some research I’m pretty sure that this “straight run assorted bantam” is actually a Mottled Bantam Cochin.

This is our other “surprise” rooster, the remaining Golden Laced Wyandotte chick. We’re calling him Felix to keep with the theme of naming in pairs. Of course Vinnie might be a more appropriate name since we’re not planning to keep him long term - he’s most likely to become Coq au vin later this fall.

This is Wilma, the chick that continues to be exceptionally friendly. Her “twin”, Betty, is a lot more black on the chest and also much more shy.

The whole flock out grazing for a bit while I cleaned and hammered.

Steve and his harem, the original city flock. From left, Maisie, Steve, Agnes (white), Lucy (black) and Penny (brown).

The chicks from March continue to act as their own small flock, as do Steve and his harem, the new chicks are seeking safety in numbers and so they’re hanging out together in pairs. Overall we really haven’t had any problems even with their semi-autonomy. The yard is big enough for each group to avoid the others and they all seem happy to share the roosts at night - even mixing it up a bit when choosing their spots.