Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Ducklings, An Albino Poult and Some Vegetables

I'm a bit late with Monday farm photos this week. There were lots of miserably hot farmers and I think I saw steam rising up off of the vegetables. For the most part, I chose to follow the boys to the animals instead - less stinky (though to be honest, I love the Farmer smell - I tell him that is why he is lucky to have me; it makes up for the fact that I am not Helga the invincible farmer). He has asked that I figure out how to get that smell out of the summer farm shirts. Is it vinegar in the rinse cycle? Is it oxyclean? Is it buying more thrift store t-shirts? What is the answer? He (and the other farmers) aren't as fond of that smell.

Back to the birds:

For the past several weeks or so the Bourbon Red Turkey sat on her own eggs! Most of the poults thus far have resulted from us placing the turkey's eggs under an unsuspecting brooding chicken. But this time, the turkey mama was ready for a long sit - must have been the heat. Gillen led me through wild brush to show me the hiding younguns, with their parents, in their new larger space. There are about eight new poults.Gillen calls this an albino poult (the other Bourbon Red poults are speckled brown and black). I call it the chicken egg that got placed under the turkey.
Just the other side of the compost pile, Jesse led me to a good view of the ducklings.

Though they still waddle around in a line behind their mamas, they are much more independent and soo much bigger. I couldn't resist following them around for awhile:
Gillen checked for more duck eggs in the coop that now belongs to the roosters. There have been so many that we have been eating them instead of letting them hatch.
Watermelon made us forget the heat.Here's what I brought back to my kitchen.I made eggplant parmegan for dinner. We grilled the red peppers.After cooling them in a covered bowl I peeled off the charred skin and seeded them in order to freeze them. Roasted red pepper for paella and pizzas in the winter.

9 comments:

Angie said...

Those peppers look divine!

I've never eaten a duck egg - how do they compare?

Great pictures, as usual:)

Jodi said...

I agree, that little chicken might grow up thinking it's a turkey. So sweet.

kelli said...

oh my gosh, those woods shots of Gillen and the birds are heavenly :)

So sweet! And yum.. eggplants and red peppers, love grilled peppers!

Madeline Rains said...

Angie, the duck eggs are huge and delicious. We haven't used them in recipes yet, only fried or scrambled but I've heard they are good for baking.

Danielle said...

Borax. Add about a half cup or so to the washer, and it should help get rid of the sweaty smell. That's what I used to need to do with Jim's cycling clothes back when he used to commute 11 miles each way by bike.

What kind of peppers? I'm sorry, but I'll need you to start posting varieties, please. ;)

Love the babies!

Dawn said...

Oh my! The chick and ducklings are adorable! Yum! The rest looks divine~

Madeline Rains said...

Danielle - they are Pimento peppers - yes, Nicolas says these are the ones that make Pimento cheese. But I won't be trying that. I prefer roasted.

11 miles commute! Yes, we must be talking about the same amount of sweat. Thanks for the hint.

Sona said...

Divine! Your pictures are amazing!

krg said...

Augh! I can't believe "So You Think You Can Dance" was just spoiled for me! It's running late here (which is advantageous because it gets edited for time and they obviously cut out the stuff about voting) but as usual we're following it closely. I'm going to try to keep mum about the results for the rest of the season, but is it ever gonna be hard.