7 Eggs on December 7

I haven't picked up 7 eggs in one day since the middle of October.  I don't know what got into the ladies.  The really cool thing?  Four of them were blue!

All four of our Ameraucanas may have been laying blue eggs for a while, but today is the first day I've seen four blue eggs in one day's clutch.  Now there's no doubt ... they all have the blue egg gene!

Fall Greens

We are starting to really enjoy the fall garden.  I'm cutting small heads of cabbage and incorporating them into the weekly menu plan.  The heads have been perfectly formed, with tightly packed, moist leaves. They look like giant brussel sprouts, and I guess that's sort of what they are!  I've been slicing or chopping or shredding cabbage, adding it to tossed salads and soups, concocting new varieties of slaw, and steaming it up over cooked potatoes and sausage.

We've eaten broccoli twice in the past week.  The flower stalks are maturing sequentially, which makes it easy to spread the goodness over time.  No danger of being overloaded with broccoli ... unlikely to happen in this household, no matter what!  It looks as if we'll have a good harvest of side-shoots, too.

The collards are looking robust and delicious.  I'm holding back on cutting them until everyone's home for Christmas.  Then we'll cook up a big mess o' collard greens!

Since Thanksgiving we've been enjoying a nice mixture of green leafy lettuces, arugula, baby kale, sorrel, and a few spinach leaves.  Soon we'll be adding more spinach, baby mustard, and spicy mesclin mix to the salad bowl.

Indian Summer in December?

We're having unseasonably warm weather this week, and are expecting rain.  High temperatures are expected to be in the 60's, and may hit 70 by mid-week.  The overnight lows are expected to be in the 50's.  It's feeling downright balmy!  Tomorrow I plan to remove the fabric row covers that have been protecting my fall crops from pests and severe weather in order to take full advantage of Mother Nature's sprinkler system.