Chef's Compliments!

My friend Jane's husband is a chef at the local yacht club; I sent a dozen eggs home with her a couple weekends ago, and happened to catch him on the phone the other night. "Hey, your eggs are fantastic!"  (oh really? tell me more) "Yeah, I mean it. They hold up well when I poach them, the whites don't get all stringy, (whatever that means), "they have color, they have taste, they're rich.....all the things you expect from an egg but don't get anymore." (Chest swells)   "So you must be doing something right!"  (Well, I don't mean to brag...)  "I'm sure it's a lot of work too!"  (Yeah, especially the part where I run outside and throw food scraps into my yard.)
Just thought I'd share that tidbit with you. If you think of having chickens for egg production, you too will be raking in the praises. Be sure to reward your hens with special treats for all their hard work!

Top Ten “Treats” for my Girls – because yes, 

even free range chickens deserve a little sumpin’ special every now and then!

The girls race to get the leftover artichoke from last night's supper.

10.   Bread slices – this one is not a frequent treat, because we don’t tend to eat much bread ourselves.

 9.   Squash – this year I planted summer squash just for them. It’s a fast and easy treat, just pick the squash, cut it in half, and let them go at it!

  8.  Apples – I share mine after I’ve eaten half; too hard to resist letting them in on it.

  7.  Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal (those bits at the bottom of the bag that won’t hold up to milk would go to waste otherwise)

  6.  Peaches – I sliced some overripe peaches in half and removed the pit, then threw the halves out in the yard where they promptly rolled down the hill (we have no level ground) with the chickens chasing them all the way. 

  5. Corn scratch – they love this stuff. We keep it in a red bucket and all we have to do is go outside and shake the bucket and they come running at the sound.

  4. Corn on the cob – Doesn’t even have to be cooked. They will eat every kernel, they don’t waste a bit!             

  3. Watermelon– I admit sharing my watermelon doesn’t come easily to me, but once I saw how much they liked it, I couldn’t justify eating it all myself!         

  2.  Pasta – I wish I had videotaped them eating my leftover linguine. They went wild over it.

And the number 1 treat:  Toasted Eggo waffles (whole grain, of course!)  I toast a couple and then tear them into pieces – they barely hit the ground when I toss them to the girls. In fact, while I was tearing one up, Pansy jumped up and grabbed a bite out of my hand. (So of course I then had to get them all to jump for their Eggo, which they do!)