Super Size That, Please...

One of the hens is laying double yolked eggs! They're huge and scarcely fit in a large egg carton...what fun!

Peach Butter...

We've been gone on our annual ocean trip, so I apologize for the lack of posting. We did stop in Fairfield, Texas along the way and bought a peck of peaches from Cooper Farms. Today I made some peach butter following the directions found on this website. Here's a pic of it cooking in the good ol' crock pot:



I ended up with six jars of peach butter! I'm so excited to learn to make this because it's one of my favorite biscuit toppings! My next challenge will be pumpkin butter! Yummy!

In the garden, we've got tomatoes, okra, yellow squash, and cucumbers coming in like crazy! We're up to a reasonably predictable 3 eggs per day, but we lost one of our hens...Shirley...to a heat stroke (we think). She died on a day when it was 107 degrees outside. Per the girls' request, we buried her out back with a cross and everything.

If any of you have an amazing pickle recipe, please share! I've canned up several batches of dill and bread & butter that have been a bit disappointing.

Zucchini Bread

Yesterday, while tending a neighbor's garden (they're away on vacation), the girls and I discovered THIS hiding under a huge leaf:



See that tiny round thing in the lower left??? It's a quarter...ummmmhmmmmm...that's one GINORMOUS zuke, people!

(Also, please note that said neighbor gave her blessing for harvesting any veggies that were ready...and this bad boy was definitely ready!)

So naturally, tonight I made zucchini bread! I tried a new recipe that contains pineapple, walnuts, and raisins along with the zukes...can you say healthy...and also sneaking in nutritious ingredients for two children...and YUM!

In the interest of NOT loosing this recipe, here it is:
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001330zucchini_bread.php

Funny how my blog is also a great place for me to collect ideas!! ;-) Oh, and sweet neighbor, if you are reading, you will have a loaf of zucchini bread waiting for your return to Okie land!

Blackberry Syrup!

We've been really enjoying pancakes lately...for breakfast AND supper, so I decided to try making blackberry syrup with the berries from our bushes! We used this recipe from All Recipes. We had to half everything because we didn't have THAT many berries, but this is definitely one to add to the canning book!

Here are some pictures from the process:







In the interest of keepin' it real...after all this hanging and dripping, I was not satisfied with the amount of juice, so I sent the whole slurry through the Champion Juicer and got LOTS more juice! The juicer is fantastic for jellies, jams, and now....syrup! And all those pesky blackberry seeds went right out to the chickens! I never imagined all the uses for my juicer! Who'd have known?

I'm hoping to find some blackberries at the farmer's market to buy in bulk and make up a big batch of this syrup to can and put away for winter. As good as it tastes now, I can imagine that it will be heavenly in the middle of a long cold snap!

Homesteading question....

Imagine that you purchased 22 acres of land. From your home to the acreage is a fifteen minute drive. How would you use the land? I'm really hoping to hear your ideas, so please put in your two cents...or four cents, whatever. Remember that it has two ponds and is divided by a cross fence.

Some eggy goodness for you....

Just washing these up to cook with them and they looked so lovely...I had to share. We're now getting anywhere between one and three eggs a day...today only one tiny egg. It looks like three of the big girls are in production...the last one to lay will be Amelia, the one I thought would be first. Goes to show how much I know about chickens!!

Changin' the blog name!!

Pretty soon, I'm hoping to change the blog's name...we're officially in the process of buying 22 acres of land that lies about 15 minutes east of our home. We'll still be living and working here on this one acre, but the extra land will allow us additional opportunities...including a place for our horses! Our two horses now live about 2 hours away at my in-laws' 7 acres and we're looking forward to being able to ride them more. In addition, the acreage has two ponds...one is already stocked with Bass! We'll also be raising at least one beef steer on the acreage to supply our beef and hope to add an area appropriate for a pig as well. With time, I'd love to try some milk goats! We haven't closed on it yet, and I'm trying not to get too excited until it's all official...ya'll know about all the craziness that can happen between the acceptance of an offer and closing!