Water Glassing Fresh Eggs

We've been getting 8-10 eggs daily lately from our sweet girls. We've been sharing them with friends and family, but I wanted to try out a method of preserving the eggs that I've read about, but never tried before - water glassing. 

Purple Reign

 A couple of weeks ago, my daughter treated me to some ube honey yogurt from pinkberry. It was delicious and a welcome treat on a hot tailgate day, but I thought I can make this! So I did.

I warmed up some heavy whipping cream in the microwave, added some honey and ube powder et voila! Nailed the flavor, then chilled in the freezer overnight. So good!

Frog Fruition

Today I got a "do over" in the yardening arena. I've been wanting to plant some ground cover around my chicken run but I didn't have success with the creeping thyme that I planted at the end of May. I thought that Frog Fruit would be a really good option because it seems very hardy in other people's yard so... 

Frog fruit is a fast growing, low maintenance, and long blooming herbaceous plant that attracts bees, wasps, and butterflies. 

Last fall I was gifted a welcome mat sized cutting of Phyla nodiflora and I put it in my front flower bed to overwinter. It didn't survive its new digs, but I thought I might have another go at it again this year. This morning I received more Frog Fruit cuttings from my friend's amazing pollinator garden.  I took pictures of what it could look like when (if) it grows up in my yard.

Q: What's Growing On...

A-Existing: Fredonia grapes, hops, figs, lemongrass (overwintered in my front bed and was relocated to the chicken run border), lilacs, peonies, roses, hydrangeas (successfully propagated), butterfly weed

A-new to the garden: My Chaos Garden is a bust as far as I can tell. I dusted the area with the seeds given to me and I got bupkis. Part of the problem is that we dug around in the same area to set up a post (reusing segments of an old flag pole) for a shade sail for the pond and the seeds may have been buried a little too deep in the end. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have 2 peanut plants surviving currently from the 9 or so peanuts that I sowed! The squirrels feasted on most of what I put in the ground. 

  

Burrito Prep

I have been trying to prepare myself for the increased demand for food at home, and wanting something healthy(er than Taco Bell) for quick meals and I happened upon a video for preparing high protein cheesy chicken and rice burritos in the crockpot. I am DOWN for that! I didn't have every single ingredient on hand so I had to make substitutions, but the family LOVED them. We ate them for dinner AND have a few in the freezer ready to pop into the microwave when hunger hits. I WILL be making more of these soon.

 The recipe makes 18 burritos with 32g protein and 12g fat.

It's Alive!

A friend of mine gave me her Whale Fin Sansevieria plant when she moved away last summer. I did not feel worthy of this gift, but I accepted her and could not tell if she was happy for the longest time. Then, this spring she finally gave me a sign! Plants rule!

 

 

Hope Springs Eternal 🤞

This year I'm trying to grow a few new things in the yard, like borage, zinnias, turmeric and peanuts! I didn't know that peanuts grew in Oklahoma! 

I also have (fingers crossed) a Chaos Pollinator Garden sowed with random seeds given to me by a friend. I am stoked about that and the frog fruit transplant that he gave me as well. 

Borage, Salvia, Feverfew, Yarrow, Basil, ???