This is an excellent book. We’ve read a number of similar books, and this is our favorite. The Backyard Homestead has great overviews on gardening, raising animals, landscaping with plants, maintaining fruit trees, keeping bees, homebrewing, cheese making, and more. While each of these topics is broad enough that you should have other guides or …
Monthly Archives: July 2010
Dehydrating Walla Walla Sweets
Most instructions we were able to find for dehydrating onions said they should take about 12 hours. Given the higher water content of Walla Walla Sweets, we’ve found them to take a fair while longer. At 125 degrees, it’s been taking our dehydrator about 32 to 48 hours to finish the job, depending on how thick we layer them on.
Rosemary Marsala Onion Jam
This stuff is really rich because of how reduced the onions and wine are. It should be good on herb and other savory breads and baked goods, and is great on crackers. I imagine it would also make an excellent glaze for meats.
Egg Nutrition
Fresh eggs have a variety of benefits over commercial eggs including flavor, eye appeal (yolk color, shell color, and consistency), and even nutritional content. According to an oft-cited 2007 study by Mother Earth News Magazine, eggs laid by hens raised on pasture, as compared with eggs laid by confined factory farm chickens have:
Bloodspots
Every now and then a little red dot will show up in a fresh egg. This is a bloodspot. Bloodspots are caused by abrasions or other irritation in the hen’s oviduct. Contrary to what most believe, a bloodspot does not indicate fertilization. Fertilization can only occur when a male chicken has access to the laying …