grilling

Whew, what a whirlwind it’s been. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Grandpa K’s service was beautiful. David’s mom played Amazing Grace on her flute and many, many awesome stories about Grandpa were shared. It was clear he brought sunshine into so many people’s lives. The silver lining to such occasions is that it brings people together and it’s always nice to get to spend time with family.

Yesterday we ventured back home and are settling back into things. I finally downloaded pictures from the weekend and decided that I had to tell you about why I now want to live in the middle of nowhere and be a farmer.

Saturday afternoon we went to visit a friend, Jeff, who basically has a farm. It’s not his full time profession, and who knows if he calls it a farm, but if you own animals besides dogs and are growing an orchard of apple, cherry and peach trees, you’re a farmer to me!

He just got 2 three month old goats (totally a farmer, right?!) and they were adorable. He plans to use them for goat milk, which according to his research is a better fit for human consumption than cow’s milk. He said that some people truly are lactose intolerant, but other people are simply not able to break down the proteins in cow’s milk. Goat milk proteins are more similar to human milk, making them easier for us to digest.

My verdict on goat milk? It’s good! It tastes really similar to cow’s milk actually. I found it a bit creamier and it reminded me of melted goat cheese… mmm… goat cheese. Now I want a goat.

Did I mention he also had baby chicks and ducks?! I wanted to swipe one of each and pretend I was Chandler and Joey. The ducks were adorable and I wanted a photo of them waddling around Hailey.

Too bad she found the fuzzy little things terrifying.

Out of the goats, chicks, ducks and rooster, she preferred… the cat.

Way to branch out, kid.

Speaking of roosters, the chicken coop was pretty cool. It did not smell (who knew?!).

Jeff owns about 20 hens, and only 1 rooster. Roosters are mean and pick on the hens, unless someone else tries to mess with them. Then Mr. Rooster gets very protective. Odd. Also, a hen lays about 1 egg a day, meaning that Jeff has a plethora of eggs! Luckily, he’s nice enough to share.

Aren’t they pretty? Like natural Easter eggs. I knew I wanted to incorporate an egg that was laid that morning into dinner, so on our way home we stopped by Josh’s farmers market for veggies to grill.

And used an over-medium egg as a fancy sauce for our asparagus.

Such a difference! The yolks of fresh eggs are much more brightly colored- almost orange instead of yellow. The yolk was creamier than store bought and it tasted amazing. Did you know that eggs you buy at the store are typically 2-3 months old? And that eggs don’t actually have to be refrigerated? I remember that from seeing them on shelves in Germany.

Yes, Saturday was a good day.

Sunday we celebrated Easter by going to church before heading south to Brunswick.

Now we’re home and settling in. On that note I should go put on a load of laundry, clean up and collect the eggs from our chickens.

See, it sounds natural, right? We totally need chickens. Think the HOA would mind?