We’re Ready! - March 30, 2024 @goldenoakfarm

in homesteading •  3 months ago

    Sky on fire crop March 2024.jpg

    I was up a bit late on Saturday morning and I pulled the shades up at 6:30AM instead of 7AM. From the second floor I saw this sunrise.

    Amaryllis - upstairs flowering crop March 2024.jpg

    My brother said he had a “lily” flowering in his room. I thought the clivia had flowered again, but hadn’t remembered seeing buds. But no, it was the amaryllis and it had 2 flowers!

    Amaryllis close-up2 crop March 2024.jpg

    Unfortunately, I managed to knock one off when getting photos. Sigh… but it’s in a bowl on the dining room table, so we can enjoy it for a little while.

    I will really be on my own for Easter and had been toying with making a little dinner. Then the flyer for the local co-op came out and they had sugar free ham and more of the $3/lb organic asparagus. So I thought I’d try to make scalloped “potatoes” using a batata. For dessert, a small chocolate bar.

    Easter dinner crop March 2024.jpg

    So when my helper arrived at 8AM, we had to go to the hardware store anyways to get chains for the porch light and to try to find feverfew seeds. They had been out of stock at Fedco, so I needed to find them locally if I could. So we went off on these errands and this is to be my Easter dinner. We didn’t find feverfew anywhere. We got back around 9:30AM and got started on the lights.

    Porch - top light up crop March 2024.jpg

    We got the top light hung on the porch then moved into the office.

    Trashed office crop March 2024.jpg

    She started hauling up stuff from the cellar, as I figured out what we needed and set it at the foot of the stairs. The office was pretty much of a mess for a while.

    Office - finished crop March 2024.jpg

    But we finished just in time at noon and got all the mess cleaned up. We hung all the lights as getting the upper ones in place with the 4’ light where it was would be difficult.

    Office light set up crop March 2024.jpg

    Right now I only have the one heat mat in place. Last year I had an awful time regulating the mats temps, so we will see if it gets used. The bottom lights have 4 bulbs and are 22” wide x 4’ long. The top lights are the same as in the other places. I can fit 6 or 7 trays on the bottom shelf, but only 2 on each of the upper ones.

    Making deviled eggs crop March 2024.jpg

    My brother had bought 2 dozen eggs and I had my 1 dozen and we planned to turn most of them into deviled eggs. A few would be egg salad for sandwiches.

    My eggs were old so they peeled really well. I also make sure they stay very wet until the peeling is done. My brother’s were fresher and he had a bit of a time peeling his.

    Spectrum mayo March 2024.jpg

    source

    I use this mayonnaise and Grey Poupon Dijon mustard usually. But when I went to take the mustard from the fridge I discovered it had been put away empty. So I went to the root cellar to get another jar, and there were none. I could have sworn I saw one there last time I checked. Someone had been using a lot of mustard recently and it wasn’t me. Sigh…

    So I had to use much more mayonnaise and dry mustard powder. Once this is well mashed into the yolks, I use a fork and dab it into the half egg cups. Then I sprinkle it with paprika and call it done.

    Deviled eggs - what remained crop March 2024.jpg

    I forgot to get a photo when the dish was nearly full. Only 1 egg had torn so it couldn’t be used, so I had 3 tablespoons of egg salad for lunch. (Plus all the eggs I could eat.)

    My brother gets carried away making deviled eggs. He ground up some of my dehydrated Walla onions for powder, and added dill weed, paprika, dry mustard, and maybe garlic powder. They were pretty strong tasting.

    I had found deviled egg recipes in the Martha Stewart Living magazines I’d gone through a couple days ago. My brother had picked up basil pesto during the week and he decided to make pesto eggs.

    Pesto eggs crop March 2024.jpg

    I don’t know how many he made, but 3 made it into the boxes for Easter at my mom’s and there were 4 left after I had a couple. They were REALLY good!

    He uses a Ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and filled with the filling to make the fancy swirls. He had 42 eggs in the boxes plus the 3 pesto eggs. I’d put these 4 in the container for him to munch on his way to Connecticut.

    But he decided they would make a mess, so he ate 3 and put 1 back on my tray.

    I was pretty wiped out by the time we finished the eggs.

    On Sunday I hope to go through my starting notes and get them set up for the year, and for the seed starting on Monday afternoon when my general helper arrives at noon. I may tackle some of the projects on my 8’ table, like putting away CDs and DVDs. It’s to be a cold cloudy day, so I’ll be keeping the stove going. Or maybe I will feed the house plants and seedlings. That needs to happen also. We’ll see…

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