My Plant Sale Spoils

We went to Seattle Tilth's March Edible Plant Sale and brought home some babies!

Clockwise from top left, you can see mint, fennel, comfrey, and rosemary. In the brown paper bag is the shy and elusive rhubarb, which is grown from a chunk of root.

I bought all perennials. I do plan to grow annuals as well but I am going to start them from seeds I already have in order to save some money. There are also many more perennials I'd like to get, but this is what I could afford to get for now. It's easier, cheaper, and less stressful to build one's garden gradually, rather than trying to get the whole thing done perfectly in one try. Meanwhile, these babies are living in the mudroom at night and sunning themselves on the back steps during the day, hardening off while I dither about garden fencing.

Honey Lavender Ice Cream

Or, what to do with all those eggs?

Both RC and I love ice cream! It's so good. I'm pretty much a lifelong fan: from grades 6 through 12 I ate a mug full of mint chocolate chip ice cream every night for dessert. I've branched out a bit, flavor wise, since then. We had a surplus of eggs, and so I decided to use them to make this vernal treat.

Since RC is lactose intolerant, I modified a recipe I found online to be dairy-free, but if you dig the dairy you can just use milk instead of rice milk and cream instead of coconut milk. Another thing to keep in mind: ice cream is easy to make but it takes a long time. So, start this the day before you plan to serve it.

Honey Lavender Ice Cream
(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:
2 cups rice milk
1/4 cup dried lavender
1/4 cup honey
5 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

Directions:
Heat the rice milk, lavender, and honey until it boils, then take off the stove and let sit for five minutes. You're basically steeping the lavender in the milk, just like making tea. Strain out the lavender and throw it in the compost bin! Put the lavender-infused milk back on the stove and bring to a simmer.

In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until thick and pale. I love using the whisk attachment on my stick blender for this step. Slowly pour in half the rice milk while whisking, then add this egg/milk mixture back in with the remaining milk in the saucepan, again pouring slowly and whisking the whole time. This step may seem finicky but you don't want to curdle the eggs!

Once everything is all back in the saucepan on the stove, continue simmering and stirring until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and stir in the coconut milk. Congratulations, you have successfully made custard! Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.

The next day, put it in your ice cream maker and freeze it up. I'm not gonna tell you how to use your ice cream maker: I don't know if you have an electric one, a hand-cranked one, or just a couple coffee cans that you kick around in the grass, so you'll just have to follow your directions. If you want soft-serve you're all done at this point, if you want hard ice cream you just pack it into a suitable container and freeze it for about six hours.

That's it! Happy ice cream eating!

Color

All four chickens are laying and so they're all, officially, adults! Hens not pullets. And we appreciate their efforts very much. It certainly sounds like a great effort to lay an egg; they all make that well-known "cluck-a-cluck-a-CLUCK!" sound right after laying, sometimes in harmony. It's loud but quite charming. It lets me know they're working hard!

Something I am coming to appreciate about these homegrown eggs is how beautiful they are. Sure, the nice deep yellow-orange yolk is often mentioned, but you can't forget about their shells. What variety of color and texture, even between the eggs of one hen!

Some of the eggshells have freckles, some have raised bumps, some have bands of darker color around the middle, some have wrinkles. The three hens laying brown eggs produce shells in every shade from the lightest tan to dark chocolate. Makes a carton of plain white eggs from the grocery store seem so boring!