Chickens and Scones

I brought homemade scones to the Young Mother's Breakfast Club at church this morning. I was very excited about how they turned out. I used a recipe that I had found on Pinterest and just substituted Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 for the flour. It's very encouraging to try a new recipe and have it actually be a success! Too often I avoid trying new recipes because I am afraid of failure. I think God is telling me to not give up, that this is what I am supposed to be doing. 

Cranberry Orange Scone

As I have said before, Naaman and I are looking for ways that we can make money from our little 6 acres. But we have limited resources to start with. So we start with the obvious choice: chickens. I think most people start there because they are easy to take care of, will eat most of your table scraps, and provide you with fresh eggs daily. Not to mention the fresh meat. We have bought three sets of chickens since living here, today's purchase included. The first was about a year and a half ago and we got chicks. I enjoy starting with chicks because they are significantly cheaper, don't require near as much space or food, and they are just so cute! The downside is that you have to wait quite a bit longer for eggs, and at that age you can't really tell it's gender. We lucked out and got 7 hens and 1 rooster. Eventually the rooster became very territorial and would attack anyone, human or animal, that came nearby. We decided to kill him before he went after our son. He was a little tough, but made a delicious chicken pot pie. After many various animal attacks, we ended up with just one chicken left.

So the next batch of chickens we got were quite a bit older, almost to the age where they start laying eggs. More animal attacks, and we were left with one from the original group and three from the second. Just recently we decided it was time again. So we put in our name at the local feed store for older chickens, and we got the call today that they had come in! So I loaded up the kids and picked them up today! Now we have 12 chickens, so I need to start figuring out what to do with all of those eggs. 

My father and I are going to a local farmers market this weekend and I am very excited! I've never been to one and, since farm and food is what I am about, I'm hoping to get lots of inspiration and ideas about what I could produce from my farm. Obviously that is a good way to use up my eggs, but I want to do more. When our cow has her next calf, I'm hoping that we can start milking her and using that for making all sorts of homemade dairy items. We also want to milk goats and figure out how we can use that, as well. Do any of you use fresh cow or goat milk? What do you make with it?

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me an I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

John 15:5