Preparation:
Sterilize all equipment this can be done by running it through your dishwasher.  
Mix 1/4 of a rennet tablet with 1/4 cup of cold water in a measuring cup
Mix 1 1/2 tsp of citric acid with 1 cup of cold water in your second measuring cup

Few things in life can truly compare to the taste of the first ripe strawberries of the season.  Strawberries were the first crop I ever grew and sold on my own.  They own a special place in my heart, I'm sure that's what makes them taste that much sweeter to me.  When I was 6 years old with the help of my father and brothers I planted my first patch of strawberries with the goal to sell enough strawberries to take a family vacation to Disney.  I used my little brothers red wagon to set up a produce stand at the end of our farm lane to market my berries to the neighbors.  I could be found on the weekends peddling strawberries at my brother little league ball games much like the Beer Man at the O's games.  When I think of Disney I will always think of the Strawberries that got us there.

Earliglow Strawberries were my favorite berry when I was 6 and they still are today.  They are a June bearing variety meaning they produce one large crop of berries in the spring.  I find in Delaware mine are ready to pick mid May.  The berries are smaller then the varieties that you find in the grocery store but packed with so much flavor they are well worth the smaller size.  This variety is normally ending its harvest about the same time other June bearing varieties start to ripen, you can extend your harvest by planting a second June bearing variety.  I like to use Jewel as my second variety.  I personally have never had luck with Day Neutral Strawberries (they produce all summer) so I stick with June bearing.

This is an old Strawberry Jam recipe my father made that was taught to him by his Grandmother Anne.  My father swears that to make good jam you must make it in small batches.  I break this rule all the time and triple the recipe, so go ahead.  Back in Great Grandmothers day the peels of green apples were used instead of commercially produced pectin, I find store bought pectin to be easier to deal with and more consistent.  Strawberries must be picked ripe and have no white tips this is a must to make good jam.  Strawberries from the grocery store will not make the best jam so if you don't grow your own strawberries buy them from a local farm that picks them ripe.  The amount of sugar is a range. I find with my own Earliglow strawberries I can use a lot less sugar.  Slowly added the sugar and give it a few minutes to dissolve, taste and added more until you get the sweetness you prefer.  I added Balsamic Vinegar to brighten the flavor of the berries.  If your unsure about adding it, leave it out you will still have a great jam.  When I make jam to sell I make it both ways, with and without but I prefer the batches with.

• 2 Quarts of Strawberries Rinsed and Hulled
• 1/4 Cup Lemon Juice 
• 6 Tablespoons Classic Pectin (I like Ball Brand)
• 3.5 to 7 Cups Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon high quality Balsamic Vinegar or Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar (optional)

Add the Strawberries to a heavy bottom 4 quart pot. Crush the berries with a potato masher.  Mix in lemon juice and bring to a simmer, stir constantly.  Add the pectin and bring to a boil, stir constantly.  Start adding the sugar slowly and taste after each addition until you have found your desired level of sweetness.  Bring to a rolling boil for 1 minute, continue to stir.  Check the gel on a cold plate.  Stir in the Balsamic Vinegar and remove from heat. Do a quick check to make sure you are still happy with the flavor of your jam, you can still place it back on the heat and add sugar if needed.  You will have foam and don't toss it out, skim it off the top and refrigerate for future use.  Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4" head space and process for 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Need ideas on what to do with the foam?  Toss in a blender with Ice, Rum and Strawberries for a Daiquiri.  Add it to a fruit smoothie or top plain yogurt with it.

What a week!  Sheep have been sheared, new lambs were born, spring harvest is underway along with all the other daily farm chores!

Shearing went fast, easy and stress free for the Ewes!  Post shear the girls were very happy to get back in the field and graze.  The lambs were happy to be reunited after being separated from the ewes for 30 minutes.

The first four lambs born are now two months old!  While the Ewes were being sheared the lambs all got vaccinated.  Washington is always begging for attention, he lined up first to receive his shot and kept rejoining the cue after.  We vaccinate for Clostridium perfringens (a bacteria disease) and tetanus.  Lambs can die suddenly from Clostridium and treatment of sick lambs is generally not successful so we believe vaccinating is important to the health and well being of our flock.

We grow Imperial Star Artichokes each plant typically produce 6 to 9 small artichokes.  They are perennial to zone 7 and will produce artichokes the first year during late summer/fall and then during the spring each year after.  I find artichokes to be fussy to get started but very hardy once they are established.  If you start them from seed, start at least double the number you want. I seem to have half of them die when I transplant from plug trays to pots.  We live in zone 7 so we mulch the plants heavily in the fall and do occasionally lose a plant over the winter.    

Only 10% of Hog Island Sheep are black, so far 3 out of 4 are black.  Even though white is the preferred wool color we love natural wool and are very happy that we had three born black.  

Brother and Sister, Washington and Leslie Lee are always near each other.  Leslie Lee will lose her spots as she grows and turn white like Sedona.

Overall all it took us a week to pour the 18 inch deep foundation, frame and roof the coop.  We then spent the next two weekends making all of the doors and painting the coop.  We have a large fox population in our area so I felt the foundation was a must.  A friend laughed at us while we were pouring the foundation and made a comment that his coop did not have a foundation and he had never had a fox get into his coop and that very evening a fox tunneled into his coop.

Our first and biggest mistake during construction was hanging the plywood to the sides of the coop before cutting out the doors.  A notorious corner cuter that was helping us out that week talked my husband into hanging the plywood and cutting out the doors later.  This made cutting square doors near impossible and extra plywood needed.  Thanks Dad!

Painting this coop was not easy project and I am dreading the day when I have to repaint it.  One change I made early on was removing the shelf from one side of the back storage area.  This allows me to have a spot to store larger items.  I should have installed rain gutters at this point as well.  Its been 3 years since construction and I have yet to go back and install them and I think about it every time it rains.

I personally think an electric door is a must for any chicken coop.  This door is on a timer and opens at dawn to let the hens into the bottom of the coop and closes just after dusk.  This door gives me the piece of mind if I'm out late that the hens are safely locked inside the top of the coop at night. We installed an outlet at the bottom and top of the coop.  The one on the bottom is for a water heater during the winter months.  The one on the top runs the door and when we first moved the hens into the coop we had to turn a night light on for them in the evening to get them to go into the coop to roost.  After a week of having a night light they learned where they were supposed to roost and we were able to remove the light.  We don't supplement lighting during the winter months to increase egg production and we do not heat the coop. Hardware cloth is used instead of chicken wire on the coop.  My childhood coop had chicken wire and it provides no protection from hungry hawks, foxes nor my brothers Dalmatian.

I love the rear laying boxes on this coop with the storage underneath the laying boxes.  If I could do over again I would extend the roof further over the laying boxes.  During extremely heavy rains water does get into the laying boxes through the top of the door.  We have tried installing weather stripping but it hasn't been a workable fix to the problem.  I bed my laying boxes first with a Nesting Pad, then I top with Flock Fresh which is a blend of chopped straw, zeolite and alfalfa.  I then top with a sprinkle of Spruce The Coop.  Our hens always had three favorite laying boxes they used and three boxes they never used.  When I received my first bag of Spruce the coop I sprinkled it into the three boxes they never used and that day the hens switched to laying in the boxes with Spruce The Coop.  The three favorite boxes that now had no Spruce The Coop now were being left empty.  So my hens do prefer boxes with Spruce The Coop.

The interior of the coop is where I would make the majority of my changes.  First what I like. We have removable boards installed at each of the doors to keep the shavings from falling out every time we open the coop up.  I like that I can easily add roosts to the coop and remove them so as our flock grew we could added roosting space.  My hens love the curtains, when I first installed them and posted a photo on Facebook I had a friend joke that Hens do not need curtains.  Well when one fell down and I didn't replace it the hens refused to lay in those boxes.  When I made a new set of curtains and hung them back up the hens went right back to laying in those boxes.  They might not need them put mine sure do seem to prefer them.  Now for the changes.  The doors have been corrected so they fit tight now and don't have a gaping hole.  I would change the position of the roosts so they are not over the laying boxes if I could do over again or I should say if I ever got around to correcting this.  Having them directly over the laying boxes I ended up with piles of droppings in front of the back laying boxes the hens have to walk through.  
I had wished I would have installed a droppings board in the coop.  I did eventually install one but after a few months removed it.  I did find the droppings board kept the bedding cleaner and the bedding lasted longer.  The daily cleaning became difficult while I was on business trips.  Some of flock started roosting on the board instead of the roost leading them to get covered in droppings from the hens they were roosting behind.  Finally standing outside in the pouring down rain with the wind blowing the doors shut on me was the final straw and the board was removed.  I have seen other coops that are set up differently than mine that the dropping boards seem to function very well.    

We have two small chicken doors on each side of the run.  We like have two, this allows us to open one door that allows the hens to free range the whole farm and a second door that leads to a large fenced pasture.  We use two 100 foot sections of Premier 1 Poultry Fencing.  We like this style of fencing because it allows us to easily move the fencing to new pasture.   I'm sure your wondering why we like having a fenced in pasture in addition to allowing the hens to free range the farm.  On days that we are away from the farm this allows us the peace of mind that the hens are protected by a fence from predators and our hens also tend to get under foot so days we need the hens safely out of the way they can still be on pasture and having fun chasing bugs.  We use the solar charger to charge the fence when we are concerned about predators.

Next we installed a brick sidewalk that goes all the way around the coop.  The sidewalk was a great addition, its easy to spray off and keeps you from standing in mud when the hens have decided to scratch up all the grass in a particular area.  The down side is the amount of weeds that seem to pop up in between the bricks.  We also installed a gate on one side of the fence to attach the poultry fencing to.  My short legs couldn't handle jumping over the fence every time I needed to open the chicken door to let them into the pasture.  

This recipe makes about 3 pounds of pasta.  Don't worry about the large amount just portion it after you cut it and freeze for up to a month.  

This is a great cake to make when you have a lot of egg whites left.   My fresh pasta recipe will leave you with the exact amount of egg whites to make this cake.  Serve with fresh berries and whip cream.

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the egg whites and let stand for 30 minutes. In another bowl sift the powdered sugar and flour together.  Add cream of tartar and vanilla to the egg whites and beat until soft peaks have formed.  Gradually add the granulated sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  Sift in the powder sugar mixture in 4 additions folding in gently after each addition.  Pour into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan.  Gently cut through the batter with a knife to remove any large air pockets.  Bake on the lowest rack in a 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched.  Immediately invert cake and cool thoroughly in the pan.  Loosen cake and remove from pan.

Delicious, custardy french omelets are best with the freshest eggs, which you can get every week at our stand. 

Whisk the eggs thoroughly make sure to incorporate your whites and yolks until you’re left with an even mixture with no whites or yolk floating around.  Heat a nonstick pan on medium to medium-low heat. Add 1 TBS butter to the pan, it shouldn’t make a sound.  You want the butter to gently melt. When you start to see bubbles forming in the butter, add your eggs.  You should not hear a sizzle when the eggs hit the pan.  Season your omelet with kosher salt and pepper in the skillet as the eggs begin to cook. Start stirring your eggs as soon as you add them to the pan to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. So the eggs cook evenly, vigorously shake the pan in a circular motion as you stir. Scrape down the sides of the pan to make sure the sides do not overcook. This is a slow process take your time.  Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for one minute.  Add your cheese in a line that runs the center of the omelet.  Hold the pan at a slight angle, tilt the pan away from you and gently begin coaxing your omelet into a roll. Once you’ve made your first roll, add 1 Tbs of butter to the pan to loosen up the omelet. Once the omelet is rolled and all the way slide it on to the plate.