Poaching eggs

To poach perfect eggs ignore talk of cracking eggs into induced mini whirlpools or adding vinigar or using moulds just use a small frying pan or largish shallow saucepan ( you need to be able to get bothhands close to the water). Heat the water till it is as hot as your finger tips can bare for a few seconds and  lower the cracked egg into the water and gently open it up letting the egg slide out. The only other requirement is that the egg must be freshly laid i.e. that day or the previous one. To shell hard boiled eggs easily do it under a running tap and use eggs that are at least 4 days old

Dabbling with ducks

I'm not sure if it has been the strange season, prolonged winter, dry spring (bad year for wind turbines) cool, wet August (maybe not so strange) but most local chicken keepers have seem to have suffered a bigger slump in egg production than usual this autumn. They should consider dabbling with ducks.

We have a little flock of  khaki Campbells, though keen observers will spot a black duck in the pond. One drake and five ducks are in their third year four ducks and one drake hatched and reared this year. They are currently laying 5-8 eggs a day and are outperforming the chickens by c.5 to 1. Until the young ducks started laying they did slump to 1 or 2 for a month or so but in the previous 6-7 months layed 4 or 5 eggs each day and on one occaision surprisingly 6 (only 5 ducks). The eggs are great to eat and fantastic for baking.

 

Bill and Sukie's Good Life. Making a living on a Highland Croft.

In 2004 we gave up the remorsless grind of running a small hotel and bought a 3 hectare croft in the loch side villiage of Strontian.

A house was needed for the family and a further property required for self catering to provide an income.

We also planed to produce much of our own food so establishing a veg garden, a large poly tunnel and housing for livestock was another priority.

Six years on we are running low on children, with six gone and just two left, but other livestock has flourished with our house cow Daisy and three followers, a pair of pigs fattening, and flocks of geese, chickens and ducks.

With plenty of muck and compost veg and fruit gardens have done well and so Billandsukieatbluebellcroft has become Bill and Suki eat Bluebell croft helped, of course, by family, friends and guests.