Chicken Egg Blues

For the last two weeks, the three oldest ladies - Poppy, Red and Baron have stopped laying their eggs in the laying boxes and have started laying their eggs around the yard, particularly in the long grass in the ravine. Obviously, I'm not overly impressed with the change in their laying habits. I've literally spent hours searching under trees, in the ravine, in the corn fields etc etc. I've found the occasional individual egg here and there, but I figure I was down 20-25 eggs!!

Today, I went on an egg hunt again, and happily managed to find a stash of 9 eggs!

I have to do the water test on them to ensure they are still good. 

When checking eggs, put them in water if the float they are bad, if they sink they are good and if the sink, but one end rises they are still good, but should be used immediately

While out on my egg hunt today, I ran into this big fella. He's an Eastern American  toad (I think)

He was hanging out with the hens. He's lucky they didn't try to eat him!

The Hazards of Backyard Hens

The Garden is starting to look like a Garden!

Its so nice, all our hard work is starting to really pay off and the garden is actually starting to look like a garden, not just a sea of green. There are actual rows now! :)

Still lots of weeding to do, but all the vegetables are pretty well dug out now and are no longer being taken out by weeds.

The photo below is of the small corn/cucumber and pole bean garden. The pole beans are starting to climb the trellis and the cucumbers are starting to flower. I'm hoping the cucumbers do well this year so i can make lots of relish and pickles.

I took down the Wyandottes coop last night so they would start sleeping in the big coop with the older ladies. They tried sleeping on top of the coop, but I gently moved them inside s they spent the night sleeping in the coop on a branch beside Poppy, our oldest hen. Its important that all the ladies sleep in the same coop so they become a flock. 

The flowers in the photo below grow in my front garden. There are day lilies. They are actually edible and their petals are great in salad. (Not all lilies are edible, Easter Lilies should not be eaten!). Day lilies grow throughout Ontario wild. You can read the wikipedia article on Daylilies

Weeding, Weeding and More Weeding

My vegetable garden has completely exploded in weeds, it was virtually a sea of green. As the weather has been cooler the last two days, I did some very serious weeding. The garden is still horribly overgrown, but at least I can see most of the rows now! I'm letting several of the radishes and spinach plants come to seed so I can harvest them for next year.

Butternut squash is doing amazing. The radish on the side of the photo are coming to seed.

Iceburg lettuce and red lettuce. The lettuce that is out of the rows is thanks to the darn chickens scratching in the garden. Little troublemakers!

Acorn squash and Broom corn

Giant Hogweed

The topic of Giant Hogweed came up on Facebook today, which reminded me of an article I wrote on it a couple of years ago. Giant Hogweed is a seriously dangerous invasive species of plant that can cause serious burns to the skin and even blindness.

Read my article on Giant Hogweed  

Radish Relish and Crazy Chickens

So, I tried making the radish relish (recipe on previous blog post) and it turned out surprisingly good. I think perhaps its a bit sweet and if I make more I'll drop the sugar down a tiny bit. It took one cup of sugar, I'm thinkin' 3/4 cup would be better

Boil down the radish relish

The recipe (on the previous post) made one jar of relish. I think I'll make more up during the week - enough to last the year and perhaps for gifts

The chickens are in fine form today. I had the door open waiting for company and they started literally knocking on the door. I always imagine them saying "Hey, stupid blonde lady, we know you are there, bring us food!" :)

Radish Relish Recipe

So, I found an easy radish relish recipe... not sure how well it will work, but figured I'd give it a try. I've never had radish relish, so not sure if I'll like it, but I'm always willing to give new food a try!

I got the recipe from http://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/2026/radish-relish-recipe/. They seem to have a crap load of good recipes on the site.

Radish Relish Recipe

It was submitted by Susan Howard

Makes about 1 and half pounds of radish relish.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of diced radishes
• 2 ribs of diced celery
• 1 large onion chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 2 tablespoons dill seed
• ½ teaspoon celery seed
• 1 cup vinegar (I like to use cider vinegar)
• 2 tablespoons horseradish (this is optional)

Directions:

Throw everything in the pan and boil until thickened!!