Cleaning the Milk Parlor - More greenery outside - Scones and Lemon Curd

We are still having warm weather here.  Yesterday it was cloudy most of the day but nice and warm.
I milked and then decided to stay in the barn and begin the organizing of the Milk parlor.  I worked just an hour and got a lot done but suffered the rest of the day for being on the concrete too long.

I put up the new shelf so now I have everything up off the floors and pretty well sorted.  I still need to sweep and clean some things.   This is the room in the barn with the ss sinks and the old frig where I process my milk.  It is just in front of where I milk Willow.  The old bulk tank still sits in the middle of the room and I wish it were gone!  Then I would have a roomy 12x12 area.  I need to check into that this spring.  Surely there is a market somewhere for this equipment that DH should have sold years ago!

I couldn't resist the urge to try scones with the rest of the lemon curd.  I made them for breakfast yesterday morning and we finished up the lemon curd.  We both like it very much.....I did add a little bacon on the side.

I saw lemon curd advertised somewhere, a very small jar, for $15.95....wow!  That would make a lemon pie worth a lot of money.


The other day Kris showed her sprouted potatoes she is saving for planting....here is a bag of mine I had on the back porch and I found a lot more in the milk parlor during my cleaning process.

These will have to be cut first but I have a lot in the barn that are sprouted tiny potatoes and will be planted whole.
I may I will buy some red potatoes and some Yukon Golds to let sprout too.

Gardening

Here are some more greenery pictures I took the other day.  Note the 'ground cover' around the base of the rose of sharon....if you can't beat em, join 'em!  Henbit has been the bane of my gardening existence since moving here.  I have sprayed it, pulled it, cut it down and tilled it in.....and it is more lush than ever.  It occurred to me walking around and seeing it on every bare piece of ground that it grew similar to my purchased lamiums......I think I will just throw in the towel and let it be and consider it as native ground cover.  I do plan to weed whack it into semi submission before it blooms.....

The roses have never lost all their leaves.

and many have 1 inch long new growth on them.

I love self-seeding anything.  When you have a lot of space to cover, these are wonderful plants.  One that takes this a little too far is malva sylvestris and it has a long taproot like its cousin, hollyhock.  This makes it very difficult to eradicate so mostly, I just let it grow where it will.
I have these vibrant green clumps everywhere, even in the vegetable garden (those will have to go!)

I always leave Annabelle's bloom heads on so I can enjoy them in the winter.


(note: more native ground cover here)
Speaking of self-seeders.......... this is nigella damascena.  She has covered more territory than ever before.
and I have several patches of her in other places.  This is just the white variety.  I wish I had the blue one too.
The catalogs always say that foxgloves will self seed if they find a happy place....after years of growing these biennials, I think mine finally have.  It could be a neighboring salvia but I think it is foxglove.  Time will tell.


The shastas have stayed green all year too.

I found one lonely gaillardia,

and here is my favorite 'real' ground cover.  This is one of the lamiums.

another bed of nigella,

For me, snaps are practically perennial.  There are three or four snaps in this group.  They started life as the heirloom blood red one, but have morphed into various colors....maybe self seeded from the mother plant.


This next is lychnis coronaria,rose campion (fuchsia one).  I am amazed how it self seeded on this stump and  grows and blooms.

It is another rampant self-seeder.

The nepeta Walker's Low is greening up.  I need to divide it this spring!  I think I said that last year too.




and another plant that self seeded all summer and stayed green all winter (so far).  I wish this was the purple one, but it is the white.  Hesperis matronalis or Dame's Rocket


I have very few tulips because of the varmints eating the bulbs.  I thought it was moles but a very knowledgeable gardening friend said  they don't....that it is most likely gophers or voles.
These are safe because they grow in a raised narrow planter right on the patio by the back door. I keep tossing leaves over them and need to do it again.


Chickens

I am happy to report they are keeping  us well-supplied in eggs.  We got 10 yesterday.  I am getting a rainbow mix of eggs.
 

This picture is for Ilene.  This shows a pullet egg next to a normal sized one.  They will be smaller for a short time but soon catch up.

Winter Greenery and Lemon Curd

3:45 AM (nothing good lasts forever) to a cold 34° morning with a slight breeze.  The sun is shining now but it is still cold.

Sue always makes me remember I should look outside now and then during the winter months to see what is happening and I did that a couple of days ago. I was surprised at all the green and sprouting and budding going on.  It worries me a little.....

The mums are coming up behind the dead tops...I always leave the tops on perennials during the winter both for protection and to remind me where they are.

From winter greenery 2012

I like the green stems of the kerria japonica almost as much as the tiny yellow blooms.
I didn't realize it was such a spreader.

This is a salvia whose name escapes me at the moment.  It spreads a great deal from wind blown seeds and I like both the blue flower and the fuzzy big leaves.
The columbines have never gone dormant.
These two are in the cellar bed on the  south end.  They are a tall yellow variety, Chrysantha.

and this is lunaria (money plant) variegata.  It sprouts from seeds tossed by the wind in the fall and stays green all winter.  These are at the base of an old apple tree by the chicken yard and the old chicken house.


OK.  That is enough for now....more later.

Food

Remember the lemon sponge cake I made and then froze.  Well,like all desserts that I freeze, they don't stay frozen long!  I pulled it out for Sunday dinner.  The new thing was I made lemon curd for the topping. I have always loved the sound of 'lemon curd'.  It is so English or Irish sounding.  Well it is the simplest thing to make and is almost like lemon pie filling except you use the whole egg and it is slightly less sweet.  I was wonderful on the sponge  cake.

Lemon Curd from Joy of Cooking

about 1-2/3 cups (I didn't get much over 1 cup)

Whisk together in a medium stainless steel or enamel saucepan  until light in color:

3 large eggs
1/3 cup sugar
Grated zest of l lemon

Add
1/2 cup of strained lemon juice
6 tablespoons of diced butter

Cook, whisking, over medium heat until the butter is melted.  Then whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and simmers gently for a few seconds.  Using a spatula scrape the filling into a medium mesh sieve set over  a bowl and strain.  Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

Note: I had to press the filling through the fine meshed sieve that I have, but it worked.

Let cool, cover and store in frig to thicken.  Will last about a week.

Can be used over sponge cakes, or with Angel food cake.  Also good swirled through a cheesecake. (doesn't that last sound good!).

There is also a recipe for orange curd....sounds very good.

I almost forgot I took a picture of Sunday dinner....the above was dessert for it.