The Egg Mystery Solved

I have 7 chickens.

2 Yellow Buff Orpington - Thelma and Louise

2 Rhode Island Red -Reba and Dolly

2 Black Australorp - Mable and Mavis

1 White Delaware - Edna

Why am I getting only 2 -3 eggs a day? Some of the girls may not be laying, but I was getting 4 or 5 a day. I know it is getting dark sooner, but another website expects that her young birds will continue laying just because they are young. So where are my eggs? I have checked some of the places that they spend time, but haven't found anything. 

Then I went to the garden  to get some overgrown kohlrabi to see if they or the goats will eat it. Somebody needs to.

Of course you can tell by now what I found. 

26 eggs.

Twenty-six eggs.

With no idea how old they are I sent them all to the pigs. 

And while I was picking them up I also found Black feathers.

I think I now know why I have never seen Mable or Mavis in the nest boxes. I haven't seen Thelma or Louise in there either by the way. So - I will check the spot daily to see if it is still going on and try to keep an eye on who is heading that way. That should be easier when I start painting their building this week. 

If they are still laying in the garden I will lock them all up in their yard in an attempt to get them in the nest boxes. I have seen that Reba is sort of bossy and might be chasing them out of the house, but there are four nest boxes to choose from so they will have to get it together. I mean really, they could have it worse!

Croissoughnuts First Try

I decided to give the CroNut craze a try out here on the farm.

Don't they look wonderful?!

Total disclosure, I made some mistakes, but it was an adventure.

I used a recipe from the Dinner with Julie website, which I will include, 

just in case any of you get inspired to give this a try too. 

http://dinnerwithjulie.com/2013/06/11/homemade-cronuts/

My first thought here was "Wow, anything with this much butter will have to be tasty!"

Then after the first fold I realized I should have done that differently. 

I could have unfolded and done it right, but I am stubborn. What happened was - after I refrigerated the dough and came back for the second roll and fold (turn) the butter started squishing out the edges and got pretty messy.

I should have skimmed that first layer with butter, refrigerated, and then after rolling it out the second time, skimmed that layer with more of the butter, and then the same for the third and fourth turns also.

It would have probably made the layers more flaky. I also used bread flour when the recipe says to use all-purpose.

But hey it rolled out pretty nice after I got the mess under control. The recipe says 30 minutes of chilling time, but I think 45 minutes worked better. It does take more rolling out muscle and probably one of those rolling pins that don't have a handle. I was concerned about bending the handle with all the force needed to roll out cold dough.

This is the last rolling before I cut out the croissoughnuts.

The layers are visible.

Into the fryer and rolled over. 

This oil left sort of an after taste. I think it was the oil anyway. I am going to try something different next time.

I don't even know for sure what kind of oil I have in the cupboard it is either vegetable or canola. I will try the other one I think.

The end product of the first attempt.

Yes I fried up all the holes and bits too.

Can't waste anything!

So that was the first attempt.

I will try again.

The Watermelon of BRSK Farm

What is bigger than a loaf of bread?

Taller than a jar of jelly, a paper towel roll, a knife block, and a spatula?

What intimidates a basketball?

What makes a farmer work on an uphill pull?

What stresses the scale to beyond its 70 pound limit?

The Monster Watermelon!

After defeating the Monster....

..we found it is tasty, put a bit pale.

Since it really did bottom out that 70 pound scale,

we wanted to know how much it might really weigh.

The half weight weigh in was

40 pounds! 

At an estimate 80 pounds total, that was one giant melon! 

And the chickens say... 

Bring on the Rind!!!

They will eat this down to paper thin. No really, they will.

It is amazing.