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Life on Peace and Plenty Farm
Exiting the Day Job
I have around three weeks left of my "day job" in tech before I take the big leap, this time with Simon by my side, and become a full-time farmer.
Strong Momma
The panic was real today. I was in the chicken run working on setting up some temporary outside nesting boxes as back-up, when Bree, our Buff Orpington, made it very clear that she needed to get to her favorite box inside the chicken house to lay. It’s amazing how much an angry hen can sound like some ancient creature out of Jurassic Park.
Of Interest: Articles and Recipes
"Pennsylvania Gold" The Mennonite Tradition of Growing Saffron - Saveur Magazine
The spice came to the U.S. during Colonial times along with other old-world crops like spelt. According to food historian William Woys Weaver, saffron-loving Pennsylvanians were once called Geeldeitsch, or “Yellow Dutch,” for the distinctive gold hue of their food. Merchants shipped Pennsylvania saffron to Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and, writes Pat Willard, author of Secrets of Saffron: The Vagabond Life of the World's Most Seductive Spice, in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, saffron traded on the Philadelphia commodity exchange at a price equal to gold. In the colonies, saffron acted as a flavoring in soups and teas, as well as a domestic remedy for measles and fevers.
The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with Saffron - Chowhound
Great write up by Pamela Vachon in Chowhound about saffron and its uses. There is a small error (stigmas, not stamens are used to make saffron threads), but there are some great dessert ideas in here and valuable information about its uses. "Fortunately, a very little goes a very long way, and mere fractions of grams of saffron can infuse a variety of dishes from...
Saffron Tea as an alternative to coffee
Nice article here in the NYTimes with Camille Becerra’s breakfast - which includes a saffron tea. “Rather than coffee, Becerra drinks saffron water in the morning. The recipe, a gift from Boulaabi, involves soaking the plant’s ruby-colored threads in water overnight to release the nutrients and flavor. “It has a savory note, and is floral-y but not in the way of a rosewater — it’s...