Drstratton - My Backyard Journey Journal

[drstratton]

Love to bring eggs in the house and look at them... especially when there are different colors. When I had the free range layers, all the eggs were brown, that is what sells here, and all I could think of, was I ever going to get done washing and packing... but that was like 10 doz or more a day... had up to 150 hens at one time.... still, it was nice to be able to fill an order for 10 and 20 dozen at a time.... one place I did flats.... 2 1/2 dozen to a flat.... a case was 30 dozen and they would take 2 cases one week, 1 case the following usually.... it was a summer camp.... LOTTA EGGS....

So do I! That is a lot of eggs! More than I want to deal with!

 

[Baymule]

Chickens are fun, eggs are fun, they are an essential small livestock.

 

[drstratton]

Chickens are fun, eggs are fun, they are an essential small livestock.

They definitely are!

 

[drstratton]

The garden has been producing tomatoes like crazy. We picked & canned 20 pints of San Marzano sauce tomatoes on Friday. Then yesterday we picked half of the other varieties that were ripe & canned 24 quarts, well 25 if you count the jar Dale dropped...lol We will pick the rest of the ripe tomatoes today & get them put up. So far we've canned a total of 55 quarts & 24 pints. I really think the landscape fabric & drip tape that we put in has contributed to the bumper crop we've had. Here's a few pictures of the garden today. The corn is taller than any that we've ever grown, we didn't use landscape fabric, but we did use the drip tape. We need to get it harvested & into the freezer, that will probably happen next week. We've put up a few beans, but we were gone a couple of weekends in a row & they got away from us...oh well, hopefully we'll get a few more...it was worth losing out on them as we were spending some time with our kids.

 

[drstratton]

We harvested less than 1/2 of the first set of corn this afternoon! We blanched it, cut it off the cob & stuck it in the freezer. We will finish it up tomorrow. We picked 52 ears, 60 cups cut off the cob for a total of 16 meals for our family. Hopefully we will get close to the same amount tomorrow! Then, maybe by next weekend we will be able to pick & freeze the secondary ears!

I told my husband that I wanted to put the cobs into the freezer so that I can pull them out as a treat for the chickens. His comment to me " I thought you were going to say that you wanted to keep them for toilet paper"...he cracks me up...

This is the tallest our corn has ever grown!

Blanched

I portion them into ziplocs, then place them into food saver bags. Each has two meals worth, I can reseal the bags after I take the first portion out.

 

[Baymule]

That is some beautiful corn! I love cream corn. You will certainly enjoy the rewards of your hard work.

 

[drstratton]

That is some beautiful corn! I love cream corn. You will certainly enjoy the rewards of your hard work.

Hi Bay! Thank you! I took a nap today, so I am still wide awake! How do you make your cream corn...if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Baymule]

I use a sharp knife, make a cut, skimming the top of the kernels off. Then a second and third cut, rotate the cob, rinse repeat. Then I scrape the cob to get the milk out. If you scrape the cob the wrong direction, the milk flies upwards and splatters in you and everything. Scrape the cob the right direction and most of it will go into the pan. I usually spread newspapers on the table as it is a messy job. Take note: corn dries to cement and is hard to clean up, so don’t leave it to clean up later. Haha, once I sat at a table by a window that had Venetian blinds. I had a MESS to scrub!

 

[drstratton]

I use a sharp knife, make a cut, skimming the top of the kernels off. Then a second and third cut, rotate the cob, rinse repeat. Then I scrape the cob to get the milk out. If you scrape the cob the wrong direction, the milk flies upwards and splatters in you and everything. Scrape the cob the right direction and most of it will go into the pan. I usually spread newspapers on the table as it is a messy job. Take note: corn dries to cement and is hard to clean up, so don’t leave it to clean up later. Haha, once I sat at a table by a window that had Venetian blinds. I had a MESS to scrub!

Thank you Bay...yeah, corn is definitely hard to clean up when dry...I can't even imagine the blinds! I will have to give that a try! Thanks again!

 

[drstratton]

Good morning all, I hope everyone is doing well!
I bred Daphne to Buck on the 7th of August...32 days later she had her first kindle of 13 kits and on Labor Day too, so fitting! My youngest son was also born on Labor Day! All alive and well and wiggling! In fact they are so wiggly that I can't get a good picture...to blurry! She seemed to be just a little concerned as I checked them, but she let me pick them up with no problems!

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