We’re having the most crazy spring here. It is May 2nd, and we woke up to over a FOOT of SNOW!!!!!!!!
Just a week ago, we decided we to delay the start date of our CSA. Because the soil is too wet to work, we are seriously a month behind with all the field work required to begin growing in the garden. We had sugar snap peas sprouting in the garden on April 2nd last year, and this year we STILL can’t even WALK in the garden without sinking up to our calves! Once this nonsense is over, we’re be ready to go….we have many thousands of plants started indoors, ready and waiting to be moved outside.
Learning to grow food in this changing climate is going to be a struggle for gardener and farmer alike. The growing season in the Northern Midwest is short enough already, and now with the highly variable weather extremes on either end of the season, we need to choose breeds and varieties which are resilient and can handle these fluctuations.
Luckily we have the most hardy heritage ducks! ducks going out in the May 2nd snowstorm! Our Khaki Campbells are laying their decadent eggs in the early morning and enjoying going outside every day, even in a snowstorm! We’re excited to have just added the Wedge Co-op in Minneapolis as one of the stores selling our delicious duck eggs! We love Co-ops! And boy, do we love our duck eggs….
2 over-easy peppered duck eggs on top of creamy grits cooked in chicken broth, with sauteed mushrooms, onions and pinto beans. YUMMMM.
Fried Duck eggs with goat cheddar and sauerkraut on toast- Our new favorite combo. The trick for a perfect fried duck egg is using medium heat, and for not too long. Duck eggs have more protein and require gentle cooking, but reward you with a luscious texture and a divine, rich flavor!
The geese were moved out of the hoophouse last week, in anticipation of spring. We really thought that would be the very last of the snow for the year!
We just got the first three goslings from their eggs, hatched by a friend. Here’s a little video clip: the new goslings We hope to have quite a few more goslings from our goose experience, but hatching these eggs in an incubator is proving to be very very difficult. The next angle is to allow the mother geese to set up their own nests and incubate their own eggs. We’ll see how that works out. So far they’ve made elaborate nests out of hay and pine needles, but after this snowstorm….we’re not sure how it will go.
