Category: Turkey Tracks: My Life in Maine

Our Life in Maine, My Craft Projects, Quilting, Recipes, Book and Media Reviews

Turkey Tracks: Duck Eggs

April 7, 2010

Duck Eggs

One of the seasonal pleasures in Maine is the appearance of duck eggs in our local markets in the spring.  My friend Rose has a spectacular black Muscovy male duck.    Rose and her husband Peter made a little retention pond for their ducks by diverting some of a local stream, gave them a dog-house sized house, and fenced in the area. 

Two years ago a sudden fall freeze froze the pond during the night.  The ducks were not locked into their house since they could escape predators by going into the pond.  A predator killed the female, and the male fought all night long.   When Rose and Peter found him the next morning, his wing was injured, and he was, understandably, very upset. 

He spent that winter in the chicken house, which was not at all to his liking.  Peter took pity on him from time to time and filled a basin with water so he could bathe.   But, in the spring, one of Rose’s many friends found a white female for him, and they raised a lot of babies that year.  I want to say 12 to 14.  I’ll have to ask Rose to jog my memory, but I was getting eggs from Rose one day just after the female duck first brought her babies out into the world. 

This spring, there are two females, and Rose has generously shared some of their eggs with John and me.  A duck egg is larger than a chicken egg, and it has a very tough shell to crack.   The insides are much thicker than a chicken egg, much more viscous.

Rose says duck eggs make the most heavenly pasta.  I used our eggs for cheese omelets, which are large and very fluffy.  These days I hardly ever go shopping for special recipes.  Rather, I take what I have and make something out of it.

Duck Egg Omelets

For each omelet, crack open one duck egg and scramble it with a fork.

Add some whole raw milk, real salt (celtic sea salt or local grey colored damp salt), pepper, and whatever herbs or leftover greens you might have on hand.  I was growing some onion sets in a Mason jar on my kitchen window sill (thanks to Colin Beaven’s web site–No Impact Man–http://noimpactman.typepad.com), so I snipped some of those into the egg mixture.  (It was too early to have herbs outside my kitchen door.)

Melt some good butter (made from raw cream if you can get it) into an omelet pan, and when it has stopped foaming, pour in the egg mixture.  Lower heat.  Lift the edges and let the raw egg run under the mixture.  When the omelet is mostly set, add a handful of grated, raw milk cheddar cheese and fold the omelet in half.  Let it sit in the pan on low heat until the cheese melts.

Enjoy!!

Turkey Tracks: Lost Chickens

Turkey Tracks:  April 3, 2010

Lost Chickens

John lost the chickens last night.

I went outside at dusk to batten down the hatches on their coop so no predator could get to them in the night and found John circling the garage.

“The chickens are missing,” he said.

I chuckled because I had done precisely the same thing two nights before.

“Look inside,” I said.  They’ve put themselves to bed.”

And, there they were, up in the attic of the coop and curled into the nesting boxes.  You have to look really hard to see the black hens on the roost in the dark.  The wheatens are easier to spot.  Or so you’d think.  I somehow managed to leave one outside the coop, but inside the cage one night last week.  She must have been under the coop.  I found her the next morning roosting on the inside ramp to the coop.  The wheatens don’t take on the bulky French babes, and one of the wheatens is always odd woman out.

I have to count feet on the French babes to take a roll call.  Nappy is easy to spot.  On cold nights, he and Sally sleep together.  As I peer at them through the lid over the nesting boxes, he purrs to me.

“Good night,” Nappy, I say, and rub his neck for a minute.

Then, together, John and I lock them in.

Turkey Tracks: Our First Flock

Turkey Tracks: April 2, 2010

Our First Flock

We got six chickens in March–a rooster and five hens.  We hadn’t planned on the rooster, but he wanted to come, and we’re so glad he did.  The roo, Napoleon, or Nappy, and three of the hens, are Copper Black Marans.  This breed is rare in America, but very common in Europe.  We lucked into getting them because they are not breeding quality.  This breed lays the most beautiful dark, chocolate brown eggs.  We could care less that Nappy has a white tail feather, or that not all the beautiful black hens have feathered feet.  The other two hens are Ameraucana Wheatens, and they are beautiful.  They are like quicksilver in the yard–quick, light, happy.  And, they lay blue eggs.

Here are our chicks getting used to their new home.

And, here is a picture of our chicken coop, which we purchased at the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers (MOFGA) fair last September from a young couple near Augusta, www.rootscoopsandmore.com.

One of the Ameraucanas, Sally, loves Nappy.

She follows him everywhere and sleeps next to him at night.  The coop roost only holds four birds, and the French babes and the other Ameraucana, Martha, apparantly have dibs on it.

Nappy leads the girls around the yard on walkabouts.  There is much discussion along the way.  They are delighted with the number of worms in my vegetable garden beds!