Rhodies are laying!

The Rhode Island Reds have finally started laying. I was all excited when the first egg was a lovely brown, but subsequent eggs have been lighter. Funny that there is so much variation in breeds that I would have thought had been through years and years of selective breeding.

Hilda put the first Rhode Island Red egg  in the tiny basket for me to admire

Here is a comparison of the first Rhode Island Red pullet egg and a Buff Orpington egg, both in the shell and in the frying pan.

Pullet egg next to a regular size egg

Regular egg, left; pullet egg, right

I harvested all the leeks and the last two weenie little cabbages on Friday. The smallest cabbage, although very cute, was shot through with fungus. I ended up throwing it all in the mulch bin. I salvaged enough for one more meal, which ended up to be two with the leftovers.

Friday's harvest

We were very close to calling the kale a total loss because of all the cabbage butterfly larva. Many of the crowns looked pretty good, so I cut them all off and brought them in the house. And there were plenty of worms. At first, I threw them out with the damaged leaves. It then occurred to me that I should save them for the chickens. I had to keep an eye on them to keep them from crawling out of the bowl, but the girls loved them.

Cabbage butterfly larva on the back of a kale leaf

I didn’t see any dead worms in the blanching water, so I hope I got the kale clean. I knew I had embraced pesticide-free food when I found a worm in my Portuguese kale soup, and I just picked it out and kept eating. I will know I have gone completely around the bend when I eat the worm for the extra protein.

The Brussels sprouts have been very slow this year. I can only speculate that it was because June was too cold and wet and July was too hot and dry. They continue to grow well after the frost, however, and seem to be getting to a size that is not too annoying to clean. I brought in one stalk to use over the weekend. I am thinking of doing the whole harvest Thanksgiving weekend, if they look like they are ready. The one I harvested had some interesting growth near the base. Brussels sprouts are axillary buds, meaning that they develop above each leaf where the leaf meets the stem. These sprouts had grown stems and started producing tiny sproutlets where the bud had sloughed off leaves. I’d never seen this before in all the years I’ve grown sprouts. There was one year when the buds were all loose leaves rather than tight balls. That was a disappointment. At least this year, the buds at the end of the tiny stems were mostly salvageable.

Sproutlets at the base of the sprouts

I spent all day Saturday in a workshop on Greening the Curriculum, held in conjunction with the Green Living Expo. The workshop was a lot to take in. I’m still processing all the information and the possibilities for incorporating sustainability into my classes. Sustainability is much more than tree hugging. There are three E’s or three P’s, depending on which you prefer: Environment, Economics, Equity or Planet, Prosperity, People. It’s been quite a long time since I was in a serious discussion of eliminating world poverty.

The Green Living Expo at McHenry County College

We had a working lunch during which we went to the Expo, looking for resources to use with our classes. The big draw for the year was a tiny house. I had only seen pictures. The tiny house was not as finished as the contractor had hoped. Nevertheless, it seemed spacious and had lots of natural light. The bathroom (I didn’t take a picture) had a tiny bathtub. 

The outside of the tiny house--it can be pulled with a full-size pickup truck

Kate on the stairs to the sleeping loft in the tiny house

Kate and I in the tiny house

The tiny kitchen

I went out for a celebratory dinner at the end of the day with the rest of the committee that planned the expo. There was a good deal of discussion about what the point of such a tiny bathtub would be. It seemed that all you could do was soak your butt and your feet. Or perhaps bathe a child. Neither seemed very viable (not the washing the child, but living with a child in a tiny house). When I talked to Jane the next day, she said without hesitation, “It’s for washing a dog.” Oh. She watches a lot of tiny house programs on HGTV.

Sunday morning just at sunrise, two deer walked up the path and across the yard. It was an odd time for them to be out. Shortly after that, guns started blasting on the next property over, which was probably what got the deer moving. I got the binoculars to check that the hunters were firing with their backs toward us. Terry explained later that these guys were training their dogs for pheasant hunting.

Two deer by the river birch at sunrise on Sunday morning

Lo, how the petunia ere blooming, from the patio bricks hath sprung! It’s been as cold as 25°F in the morning, and still the blossoms keep coming. Amazing.

The petunia that will never die