We’ve gotten ones that appear to be folded in on themselves, tiny ones, huge ones, rubbery ones, and many with a double yolk, but I’ve never seen the likes of the one in the picture we got a week or so ago.
Everyday is Christmas around here. My little gramerlings love to hunt them, then cook them for themselves and eat it right up.
I just got some adorable brightly colored small cups and saucers that will be there egg cups when they visit.
Sweet.

There were many other items, but this was the one…

Pies: boughten

Leon, thank YOU.

Issa, thanks for sharing the post. It sounds like you’ve been on your own culinary journey too: and congrats on buying your house! Gardening is definitely a life-changer. But look what you have done: even biting it off little bits at a time, getting more confident in your cooking…it will only get better from here! And: here’s a secret: everyone will think you’re a fabulous cook when you know it’s just that you’ve got great home-grown food to work with…

Mike, you can claim you’re a Minnesotan if, when you’re lifting something heavy or are falling into a comfy chair you say “Uff da.” Yeah, I won’t even touch on how nutritionally better my salad, etc., is from the had-boughten. Definite upside though! But: don’t you just love your chickens?

Stef, I think the phrase should be “to judge is human.” It was a TOUGH nut to crack for Muffin Day (Wednesday’s snack) to become a not-had-boughten undertaking: one child per classroom is responsible for muffins the next day and we were getting Krispy Kreme donuts (no shit) brought in instead. So now the kids go home with a pre-made bag of ingredients we assemble; they add eggs and water. They can add any kind of fruit to it, the kids enjoy making it…it’s our one real outreach to each household. Are we doing any good? Well, we think the kids are the best ambassadors…and when they talk that evening about making soup or pressing tortillas to their parents, maybe something will sink in. But: you’re well on your way, especially with that winter garden!

Liz, indeed. I guess the hurdle for those of us into it is to tell folks that canning, growing a garden, keeping chickens, etc. is not a resentful time-suck but is really entirely enjoyable!

Laura, I would just say you have a very enjoyable life of your own making. I know BOTH of you have entirely loved moving to the country: especially when the man of the house gets to drive big tractors But yeah, working with the best food possible: makes us all absolute Thomas Kellers or something, isn’t it funny? At first I just thought it was my superlative skill! I am contemplating your Dark Days request: I always worry about themes hijacking the blog content, but you’re right, I would have something to say considering I live where it snows a lot. I’ve missed a couple of weeks, though, haven’t I?

Sarah, now you know you’re just spoiled I’m quite glad to lend the term to you though! It just makes more sense if it’s got a label. And yes, the blogosphere is a wonderful place for finding people who do what you do: when I started (about 5 years ago, with my husband, on a now-defunct blog) there were nearly no homestead/homecooking/gardening blogs per se (or whatever it is this blog is) and then I found one, then two…and now, voila! LOTS of great sites, lots of good information, and yes, the satisfaction that you’re not alone!

Ah Aimee; what can I do to help? Sounds like you need to change up your lettuce varieties to get some that don’t bolt so easily. They get bitter only when they’re about to go to seed: it’s the lettuce family’s way of getting creatures not to eat them so they can produce the next generation…sounds like it’s working at your house, hwah! Actually I adore your goat-y posts, and am so jealous…we’ll have milkers one day or I will eat my hat.

Alison, great point about washing the bagged salad. Yipes. And yeah, we branch out during the months you mention too: in the heat of summer we eat a lot of weeds (hey, if they’re stupid enough to grow in my garden and are edible then it’s just fair game, right?)…mainly purslane and lamb’s quarters, and in the winter we eat a lot of sprouts and a lot of apple, carrot, or cabbage-based salads. Keeps things interesting, but, yeah, we’re always glad when salad lettuces come back on the menu. See my post about the way I keep the sun off my lettuces, it gives me another 2-3 weeks.

Randi! Smoochie!

Dennis, that recipe sounds fabulous! I think we all look for new ways to eat up zucchini, hah. But you are exactly right: it’s an adventure, a culinary adventure. How fun for you, and I take it you’re enjoying it, its highs and lows.

Lyssa, you’re right! And what holds true for sexing-up store-bought eggs holds true for the rest of the garden fare: not much is needed. That’s time-saving, certainly. But I agree. Now that we’ve been down the path of ducks, geese, turkeys, guineas and chickens, the chooks win hand’s down as far as ratio of inputs to outputs. And I *love* them all. But…I still like gardening

Sylvie, I like the literal translation better: the WORLD is crazy! I suppose we just need to show people, one meal at a time, how great food can be. It can be entirely intimidating for people to go to the farmer’s market and come home with armloads of greenery then get home and have no clue what to do with it all. Who knows how many bags of the stuff never get fully eaten, all because people have lost the ability to COOK too. We’ve got a lot of work to do!!

Andrea, exactamundo. It’s tough going on vacation, too, goodness knows. I suppose this is the tradeoff! But indeed, there’s nothing better than salad with an egg for simplicity’s sake.

Sinclair, I feel you. The economy has totally sucked for this household too and yet we eat better than anyone else I know, for far less money…there’s immense satisfaction to be found in that, the financial world be damned. But I am with you: it’s pity I feel for everyone else trolling the supermarket, filling their (gigantic!) carts with food with unpronounceable ingredients and questionable provenance: you pay MONEY for that, I think, and then you eat it?

John, sounds like you had a great trip! Any of that cheddar make it back with you? But yeah, the simple things.

Kelly, hi! Hwah that you’re still “ashamed” about your daughter’s cake! Times have certainly changed in those 23 years as I have YET to be to a kid’s birthday party (except my own child’s of course) where the cake was homemade, even storebought homemade…it’s one of the reasons I politely decline these invites. Love means eating crappy cake with blue Crisco frosting? Yipes, not in my world.

Bridgit: nail on the head time: your life is certainly not disposable. I am not entirely sure if what I am doing is because I think we only go around once, but…the good china and crystal and silver comes out NOT just for holidays. And cloth napkins and candles make sense to me: I worked really flipping hard to make that meal. I hope one day there are a lot more of us out there, educating our co-workers and world, that life’s better if the food you eat is prepared with love.

Kimberly! Congrats on those eggs! Wasn’t it a surprise when you first found them? Any kooky ones in there, like double yolks and the like? We’re getting such strange batches of them now and it just makes me laugh, old girls and new girls. Life’s better with the daily home-grown egg!

Thank you.

My family has been hit hard by this economy, and there are some things that give rise to abundant frustration, but I take comfort in my home, my chickens, my food, and my family.

Give me fresh greens and a poached egg any day.

I wonder also why and sadden when I realize that many people have never taste home-grown in its glory.

I’m surprised fewer people don’t realize that keeping chickens for eggs is even easier than gardening. They pretty much keep themselves.