Farm adventures................

"My friend A.Wyse always tells me
'don't give up on your goal'.............................
I've been trying to reach this grape vine for weeks!"

......And today I GOT IT!

The grass is always greener..................

Today in the farm adventures Riley and Bandit offer some sage advise from their friend and mentor
                                                                        A. Wyse

"A. Wyse" told me
'the grass on the other side of the fence ALWAYS tastes better.'
and boy is she right!



"Yep Riley, she's right about that, but  I just remembered, she also  said
 ' only if your head fits!'

Everything...........Season

Everything season: The time of year (whenever it may be) when you realize EVERYTHING you make needs to have eggs, or milk, or zucchini, or tomatoes, or green beans in it.
 Because you just have  (insert current item here) coming out your ears?
There are lots of "everything" seasons on the farm, but summer is probably best known as 'everything zucchini season' so here's another great use for Zucchini:
                       Zucchini Blondie's With Fudge Frosting

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups grated zucchini

Cream together peanut butter, oil, apple sauce, vanilla and sugar. Add flour and baking soda, stir (mixture will be dry and crumbly) add zucchini and continue to stir. mixture will go from very stiff and dry to a thick moist batter as the zucchini is incorporated.
Spread into a greased 13 x 9 inch pan and bake for 30-35 minutes at 350* (until a knife inserted in center comes out clean)

                                            Fudge Frosting
4 Tablespoons butter OR margarine
6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups powdered sugar
1-3 Tablespoons milk

In small sauce pan melt butter, remove from heat and stir in cocoa powder. In a large bowl and cocoa mixture to the sugar along with 1 Tablespoon of milk, beat, adding milk as needed to get a smooth spreadable consistency, (you want it thick, but spreadable)
Frost cooled Blondie's. Serve or refrigerate for later

Zucchini Blondie's

Everything...........season

Everything Zucchini Season

Everything season: The time of year (whenever it may be) when you realize EVERYTHING you make needs to have eggs, or milk, or zucchini, or tomatoes, or green beans in it.
 Because you just have  (insert current item here) coming out your ears?
There are lots of "everything" seasons on the farm, but summer is probably best known as 'everything zucchini season' so here's our favorite Zucchini Bread Recipe (and it's good for you too)

3 cups shredded Zucchini

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix these together in a large bowl and let sit while you beat together:

3 eggs

1/2 cup applesauce

1/4 cup yogurt

1/4 cup canola oil

2 tsp. vanilla

Add to zucchini mixture stir together then add:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp Baking soda

3 tsp. Baking powder

3 tsp. cinnamon

**optional**
add 1/2 cup raisins and/or

1/2 cup chopped nuts to batter

sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar before baking

Stir until all dry is incorporated.

Bake in either a greased 10" tube pan OR 3 loaf pans.

For 55-65 minutes in a 350* oven. check every five minutes after 55 minutes by sticking a knife in the center, done when it comes out clean. Cool five minutes in pan, remove from pan and finish cooling.

You can frost this with your favorite frosting, for more of a dessert bread. Or leave plain and grill with a little butter for a good-for-you breakfast or snack!

Sophie's strolls..........................


Here’s our periphery (a word which here means " always staying out of the way and hanging around the edges") cat, Sophie, who’s always lurking on the outskirts of the yard because she never knows when one of the other cats will ambush her. We don't know why this is, she is one of our four kittens (now all grown up) that were born here, she's just never fit it, her momma Butterscotch is the only one in the feline family that likes her.... which is  too bad since she's really sweet (when she's not looking over her shoulder or jumping at her shadow!) you can "meet" her HERE too.


Up on the split rail fence, taking a  stroll, sniffing as I go..............



Haying season is really late this year, due to all the cool, wet weather, so poor Sophie is still forced to take the rough gravel drive to the house instead of strolling through the soft grass......like she'd prefer!
 

Around the farm.............

It's been a busy month around the farm, summer always is!
An extra treat this year we just got through having a nice visit with my Niece and her family, hadn't seen them in six years so that was wonderful,,,, now back to work :)

Valerie getting spoiled by Wayne :)

Life on the farm.....never a dull moment....

And if you still have too many eggs.... we have one more way of getting rid of them ((BUT WE DON'T SUGGEST IT!))

This feller was over five feet long, caught red handed! He got a free trip farther down the road!

New items for sale

New items listed on our Facebook page today : Check them out here www.facebook.com/jonquiljunction

40x 45 inch biscuit quilt

hand-hammered copper 'diamond'(shaped) earrings

Everything................Season

Farm Fresh eggs! Nothing like 'em, they are the best for everything you make................until you try to PEEL a fresh hard boiled egg. So frustrating! An egg peeler's worst nightmare!

All you have to do is Google 'hardboiled farm fresh eggs' to realize you aren't alone in your frustrations because  you get a whole page of suggestions to try such as these :
**Vinegar
** Poke 'em
**Salt
**Steam
**Roll them before peeling
**Cook longer
**Cook shorter
**Peel under a running stream of water
** Baking soda
**Age them to at least 10-14 days old before boiling

But the reason the fresh egg is so hard to peel is exactly the reason you want to use it---because it's fresh!!!!!!!!!!
In fresh eggs, the  (egg white) tends to stick to the inner shell membrane. As the egg gets older the egg becomes porous, absorbs more air, and releases some of its carbon dioxide.  The egg white also shrinks slightly, so the air space between the eggshell and the membrane grows larger, resulting in boiled eggs that are easier to peel. ((Stop a minute and think how easily the store bought eggs peel--how old do you think they  are?))

So after reading all the 'suggestions' I put together my own combination and have been peeling perfectly pretty eggs this year.

*Eggs
*Pan large enough to hold amount of eggs you want to cook
*Water to cover

First I take a clean safety pin and poke a small hole in the LARGE (Rounder) end of the egg
place all your poked eggs in pan and cover with cold water
add 1 tsp. of baking soda

Bring water to a gentle boil and cook 7 minutes (adjust heat to keep at a low boil)
turn burner off, cover pan with a lid and let sit 5 minutes,
immediately drain eggs and rinse in cold water or place in a bowl of ice water---you want 'em to cool down quickly to stop the cooking process.

Peel or place in the refrigerator for later use.

Everything............season

Everything egg season:

So after you've made Lemon curd, Angle food cake, deviled eggs, omelets, and hard boiled eggs till your family is sick of them. What then??????
Freeze 'em!!!!!
Because even if you think you'd rather not see another egg right now, you'll be happy to have some farm fresh eggs in January when the days are at their shortest and the hens are on 'winter break' !

I freeze my eggs in threes, which is a  perfect amount for an omelet, pancakes, scrambled eggs and cakes.

use your freshest eggs, beat together with a whisk. adding 1 tsp. of corn syrup or 1 tsp. of water per three eggs (this is suppose to help them not separate when you thaw them later. I've done it both ways and have settled on water, though corn syrup is what I used first years ago when I started doing this)

Pour into a quart freezer bag and label :

Here's some I did earlier this spring

Freeze flat then stack in the freezer and they take up very little space, and thaw quickly when you need them!

Everything................season

Everything season: The time of year (whenever it may be) when you realize EVERYTHING you make needs to have eggs, or milk, or zucchini, or tomatoes, or green beans in it.
 Because you just have  (insert current item here) coming out your ears?
 Right now on the farm it's eggs: we've had a cool spring/summer so far and the girls are still laying really good, so good in fact they are having to stack the eggs in the nest boxes for us :)

So here's one of our favorite recipes to use up lots of eggs

Homemade Lemon Curd

3 cups sugar
3/4 cup cornstarch
2 1/4 cups water
12 egg yolks
2 T. butter
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon extract

Separate eggs (save whites for angle food cake). Beat yolks with a wire whisk. In sauce pan mix together sugar and cornstarch, add water, stir well, cook over medium heat till small bubbles start to form, pour some of hot mixture into bowl of egg yolks, stirring the whole time, add egg yolk mixture back  to saucepan and stir with the whisk, till all incorporated. Cook over medium heat till it begins to boil, then turn to low and cook five minutes stirring constantly (will get very thick) add lemon juice and butter, whisk till incorporated, remove from heat and stir in lemon extract.
Allow to cool, then put in freezer containers and freeze. I usually freeze in two cup containers. Allow to thaw overnight in the fridge to use.
Wonderful on our Lemon cheesecake Recipe here , as a topping for Angle food cake. with fresh fruit or on biscuit or toast. We're known to eat it right from the jar too :)

Y'all come back now, ye hear?

Farm life---never a dull moment...........

Our Wyandotte ,Wynonna learned a lesson most animals (and people) find out at some point in their life.

 

“A fix is A LOT easier to get into than out of !"

 

While free ranging, she flew down into this spool of wire I had sitting out to mend fences’ (part of the reason she was free ranging , fence needed mending)

but was unable to fly straight up as would be needed to get out again!

So being the opportune photo taker that I am -I grabbed the camera-

 

When I returned Earl had arrived-- I could almost hear their dialog:

 

EARL:  "Earl to the rescue!"“Wynonna, if this wire weren’t between us I could save you”

Wynonna (in disgusted tone):

"Earl, If this wire weren’t in the way.......I wouldn't be in trouble in the first place!”