Almost every year I go through a period in the winter when my chickens don't lay eggs. The days get short and they don't get the necessary light stimulation. I don't put artificial lights on my chickens to stimulate egg production because my coop is a long way from the house and I don't have electricity to it and because I kind of like giving the girls a break. It has always just seemed to be a bit more in the natural order of things.
Last year, I froze whipped up eggs in ice cube trays to get me through the egg drought. Surprise, surprise! The chickens kept laying all winter. So this year I didn't even think of it and the surprise was on me - the girls stopped laying for about two months!
I'm feeding 30 chickens and I REFUSE to buy the nasty, tasteless eggs from the grocery store. (I know, I should have a least a few layers. I have a number of old hens that need to be culled - in the spring)
So, my family and I eat seasonally. There are great recipes that don't use eggs. Homemade bread for one. How wonderful is a fresh loaf of bread baking on a cold winter day - the oven warms up the kitchen and, oh, that heavenly smell!?! It's better for you with only a few ingredients (flour, water, honey, yeast, and salt) and costs less than 50-cents to bake. My husband bought a loaf of whole wheat bread at the store the other day and it cost over four dollars!
My other go to favorite (and my family's) is homemade biscuits. Easy, quick, and oh, so good! But what about desserts? We do love our desserts? I had a harder time finding desserts that don't use eggs, but we started making no-bake cookies fairly often. The family didn't complain!
In the past week or so the eggs have started to trickle in. I've hoarded them and finally, today, my kids had eggs and toast for breakfast. I think (I HOPE) the drought is over!
This is my favorite biscuit recipe:
Never Fail Biscuits
from allrecipes.com
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tsp. white sugar
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
3/4 c. milk
1. Preheat oven to 450-degrees
2. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse oatmeal. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the milk. Stir until the dough begins to pull together then turn out onto a slightly floured surface (I put mine on floured wax paper)
3. Press dough together and the roll out 3/4 inch thick. Cut into two inch round biscuits and place on an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until golden.
These turn out wonderfully layered just like the commercial version (except you can pronounce what's in these biscuits!).
I hope 'the girls' keep up the laying for you! I like how you came up with things to bake that didn't require eggs. :)
ReplyDelete