Processing the Harvest

It would make your eyes water! I do my drying on my porch.

These onions will be part of my search for an omlet herb mix - but I have yet to grow the others and the season is heading to hot when most herbs do not survive, but there is next year.

But eggs! They come at 7 to 11 every day. I bought this great machine that makes egg sandwiches. One puts a piece of bread - anything made round, corn tortilla, pita, and sliced, hamburger bun... in the bottom ring - add some meats, cheese, jalapenos... and crack a raw egg on it. the second layer has a pivoting bottom - crack an egg on it, add herbs and cheese and a slice of bread - close the lid and give it 7 minutes. Pivot out the middle plate, lift the rings and there is a sandwich with browned, toasted, bread and cooked eggs and whatever inside.



I also keep pies on hand and make them for others for any reason. I make three kinds - chocolate, lemon, coconut - all basically the same pie with a merengue top - and they use 6 to 7 eggs each. Then pickling eggs with beet root. Someone said they pickle eggs, I would like the recipe if it is around. We like them sliced on salads.

 

that is the maker - I only paid $16 for it though. but I got interested when looking for it so logged on with a UK ip address so amazon and such would come up British - and only got E-bay in USA giving a price in British Pounds so it is not available there - no mention that the voltages are very different. This is a must for chicken keepers in USA and Canada, Mexico too.

I love it, and cornmeal pancakes are a standard with me and you can just pour in batter instead of bread - do the rest, top with batter and it comes out great.

My standard is corn tortilla or pita or bread or pancake batter - pickled jalapenos and cheese, sausage, or ham, or any sandwich meat, a large raw egg. Next level: an egg, some pepper, herbs, salt, cheese and bread of what ever kind. 7 minutes, remove and let sit 10 minutes as it is Hot, and will finish cooking through on the plate, bread is toasted brown, no oil used. Great stuff - and it needs no cleaning because the surfaces are non-stick.

I am going to have one now - with maple sausage and peperjack cheese.

 

Coconut pie with meringue sounds delicious!

 

Before we had our own hens, we found Tescos multisave eggs reduced to below the price that meant we were paid to take them away, so had a whole trolley full together with a 1L bottle of Gin to soak up the savings, only costing us pennies after the savings were applied.

We gave eggs to friends & neighbours, ate eggs for every meal at home for days afterwards, also for sandwiches at work and, used them in whatever we could freeze, but still had loads left over that had to be pickled.

 

I just had a slice of coconut merengue pie - and it is excellent. I just looked and I do not have a photo of a merengue pie - although I make them a couple times a week - I can do it in my sleep, no matter which kind. They would be photogenic because the very deep yellow from 6-7 yolks in the filling, and a big merengue with 6-7 whites. I am going to work on a sweet potato, or pumpkin, chiffon pie (pumpkin and sweet potato pies are staples, one of the most common pies in USA, especially in the South - very good.




editing again to see if it takes pictures being messed with without messing up. The pie on top is coconut, the bottom lemon from a neighbors tree - a full 2/3 cup of juice - no food coloring, just the yolks and lemon colors.

 

I found the photos and then corrected the above and added the pictures again; it had logged me out so I had to re-post and it came up a bit mixed so I edited and still got it wrong.......I was just on the phone for a couple hours talking to my mother on Karma and ethics of anger, which is why it logged me out (she is an expert on Christianity and Eastern religions) so having to go back and re-find the pictures and do all that and then get it wrong anyway was a good bit of synchronicity, ( was slightly angry at the computer)

Ethics and gardening, my main things. So off to run some pipe to make a fish cleaning station out by my dock. A fish from here, this is a redfish and the dreaded 'Little Dog' now sadly decd.



We catch and eat a lot of seafood, smaller redfish mostly.

 

Nice pie!

 

I am posting too much I guess.

Last night we had flounder, one of the last two in the freezer from October when they leave here and go to deeper water - they should be back in April. I net live minnows or shrimp and fish on the Gulf from our lovely harbor, or from my row boat, or dock. This is a cooler of flounder and sheephead from the harbor last October......



This is taken under my live oak (our regional tree - named that because it keeps its leaves all year, changing them all at once right now, never being bare) in my plant hospital/nursery.

Last night I cooked it teriyaki style in butter and it was fantastic. It is that vacuum packer which extends the life of seafood so well (I re-use the bags)- Greens from the garden, chips, soup, and banana split to finish. Fish is a large part of our diet - and the chicken's diet too. I net them a local sardine - putting 100 pounds of them in the freezer for the winter as they move off shore so are no longer netable in the bayou for fresh food - the chickens eat them whole when small, can tear them apart when medium, and I cook them in cornbread loaves using chicken cracked corn, cracked or eggs found in the woods shell and all, flour, and a mass of whole sardines - they are extremely chemically pure and 'organic' and full of omega3. The chickens love it!

 

Please carry on....I enjoy reading your posts.

 

No doubt you've led an interesting life Colne and I can understand you find it difficult to settle. My son spent just a year wandering around Australia living a 'nomads' life. When he returned it took him four years to finally settle back into a run of the mill life, the same thing day in day out. For the first three months after returning he slept on his bedroom floor with his curtains open overnight having got used to living in a tent under the stars. He also had a sense of claustrophobia being inside. The first job he took was valeting cars as he couldn't bear the thought of being shut in. As time passed he began to settle but it was a restless time for him. He now lives in America having emigrated more than two years ago to marry his now, American wife who he met on the internet and had been talking to on there for six years.

I don't know how long you have been trying to put down roots, but persevere, it will come with time. Good luck!

 

Shael, no that was me a long time ago; my being like your son. I am settled now, a elderly man, resigned to it and fine. I was just mentioning my shifting about on sites, I did just join a few days ago and may be not a great fit here, this is a much smaller site than I had first thought. The good thing is it is just gardening so I am not likely to offend with some pronouncements on the philosophy behind carpet bombing, or the French military during the Italian campaign in WWII, or atheists and nihilism.

But I am driven in by rain. We planted a couple peppers and I am still just meaning to pick the last of the onions and dry them.

I want to start a thread on chickens too - they dominate a lot of my efforts as a flock of such strong willed, yet stupid, creatures can if they are mostly allowed to run free. Sitting here I can hear them yelling off in the woods. They try to come down the road to the house sometime but I run them off - but they do get to other places where they should not.

 

Sheal, I actually deleted the post you responded to - not something I would often do, but it was a cumbersome post.