Ouch! that had to hurt!

My poor hen! This egg is HUGE! After a scarcity of eggs all winter the girls are making up for lost time and really cranking them out. I never cared much for eggs, its the icky texture i guess...but made into a kale omelet I can eat them even without a piece of toast to help them down.

This is the neverending kale, planted from seed last spring, transplanted to the garden where I picked it all summer and fall for the Farmers Market and csa boxes, then transplanted yet again in November back into the glass greenhouse, where I picked it all winter. It was unheated except for the winter sun, and unfazed by regular freezing and thawing. Now I need the bed space in the greenhouse for seedling trays so it's being transplanted back to the garden again.

I take a handful of leaves and chop them..

Whisk together with one or two eggs from happy free range hens. Those deep orangey yolks show that they're finding lots of green feed. Way less cholesterol and way more omega 3's and vit E than factory eggs.

Of course you can add chopped mushrooms, onion , whatever you like. I cook it gently with a lid on so the greens sort of steam a little.

Flip, add a bit of cheese and fold over... Flip

and...

Enjoy a very healthy breakfast!

Christmas Sheep and Fun With Gardening

It makes me quite giddy with happiness to have green things still  growing vigorously in the unheated glass greenhouse a week into december. I was able to pick 2 good bags of kale for a couple of my csa customers, with enough left for my morning omelettes. One of my favorite ways to eat kale is to chop up a handful of it in small bits, whisk it into an egg or two, with a bit of chopped onion and mushroom, and make a cheezy omelette. Yum! And so healthy. Kale is such an amazing powerhouse of nutrients.
I started my next painting..., in a bit of a hurry to get two entries ready for a January show in Saint John, with an entry deadline of next week. Here is the under painting of watercolor on toned pastel paper. This will be a mixed media of watercolor and pastel chalks.

And here is the finished and framed results, outside mat size 16x20".

Amazing November

Since the last post the weather has been unbelievably warm, an average of 4C warmer than usual for November. I feel almost guilty for loving it so much as it must be an indication of the climate going crazy. Most days have been Tshirt weather and I'm still pulling edibles out of the garden. These gorgeous sweet cherry tomatoes are still producing in the small glass greenhouse and I've been harvesting cabbages, brussel sprouts and kale.

The winter cabbages make really good sauerkraut. Just shred and layer in a crock or glass jar with non iodized salt. Pack down tightly and cover with a weighted plate.

I use a nylon stocking to keep out any fruit flies. After a bit the salt will draw water out of the cabbage. (I had to add a bit of salted water to get it all submerged)

10 days into this I'm skimming "stuff" off the water surface, but that's normal as the cabbage ferments. It takes about 4-5 weeks to turn into delicious sauerkraut.

The kale I picked all through mid summer and fall is still producing so I have been digging it up and transplanting it to the glass greenhouse, to see if I can overwinter it.

Here it is nestled amongst the tomato plants and mulched with compost and lawnmower clippings. When the tomato vines succumb to winter I will just clip them off.

We get huge loads of leaves from our big linden trees and here is where they end up. I dump them on whatever part of the garden is in need of a nutritional boost and run over the piles with the lawnmower to shred them.

Then they get lightly tilled in so they dont blow away and by next spring nature will have disappeared them.

Here's a great load of 3 year old horse manure and leaves that went into the garden today.

But it's not all work! We are remembering to hike down to the beach while we can, to remind ourselves how blessed we are.

Jimmy waxes artistic and leaves his self portrait on the beach...