I had always heard farm fresh eggs were different than store bought, but I had never experienced that for myself before moving back to Wisconsin 5 years ago.  Immediately upon arriving at our rental home in the country we got to start collecting eggs from the huge flock of chickens on the property.  I found out quickly everything I had been told was true!  Not only are farm eggs beautiful colors, ranging from tan and brown, to off white, and even green and blue.  The mixed flock on our property provided an array of eggs in different sizes and colors.  The yolks are so orange, not the pale yellow of the grocery store variety.  With a few ducks on property, each spring we also got a handful of huge duck eggs, so rich in texture, I loved those the best.

Ani was only 2 when we left Las Vegas and did not have much experience or memory of eggs.  When the temperatures outside started getting colder and the light of day grew shorter and shorter, the eggs stopped coming in such abundance, and eventually not at all.  The first time I was in need of store bought eggs I purchased a dozen of Eggland's Best.  Are you familiar?  I guess I just expected your average dozen large, white eggs, but I wasn't aware they stamped each one with red ink, that looked strange to me...and especially strange to my young daughter.  When I pulled them out to prepare them one morning she approached me and asked, "Mommy, what are those?".  I said, "They're eggs".  Noticing their stark whiteness to which she was completely unfamiliar, she asked, "Are they made of paper?".  I laughed a little and silently thought to myself, "We're doing something right".

The way we have trained ourselves to approach shape and color when it comes to food astounds me now that I see it all coming straight from the source.  Carrots grow in all shapes and colors, and some are deliciously ugly.  Tomatoes aren't really perfectly round.  And eggs, they are never the color of white paper.  Ever.  Our food is genetically engineered, bleached, sanded, artificially colored, and otherwise modified to look "nice" for the grocery store, many times at the expense of the nutritional value, and the safety and health of the animal and earth. 

In June we purchased day old chicks to raise as layers.  We got 4 different breeds: Rainbow Easter Eggers, Jersey Blacks, Americanas, and Rockford Pullets.  We started with 16, 2 died within days.  14 were hens, 2 roosters.  The Jersey Blacks are dual purpose birds, the roosters came from that breed, so we plan to raise meet birds next summer into fall...if I can get MY guts up to pull theirs out, again.  They have become a beautiful flock of birds, and are finally starting to lay enough eggs that we may be getting them all winter, perhaps even enough to sell.  With any luck, we won't have to resort to eating paper eggs.

I could tell you all day long about how great of a gardener Chris is.  I could sit and describe the gorgeous purple color of the cauliflower, and the plump greenness of his peas.  The sweet taste of the cantaloupe with it's bright peach flesh was amazing, and we are still enjoying the divine tenderness of the red and striped beets that became better as the temperatures got colder.  I could sit and maybe even get your mouth to salivate just from reading the words on the page, but I think photos do much more justice.  So here are 11 of the amazing edibles we harvested this year.

It's almost impossible to count your neighbors in a country setting.  Some might say we have no neighbors, because we are at least a quarter mile from another house in any direction.  I say our neighbors are limitless.  Our "immediate" neighbors are in a 2 mile radius, and there are about 10 homes within that scope.  I might meet someone at a craft fair in Minneapolis who says they are from Beldenville...AH!  We're practically neighbors! (Beldenville is about 15 miles from us).  You live in Ellsworth?  Yep, we are most definitely neighbors.  You see, when you're out in the country anyone even remotely close to you can easily become a friend, a helping hand, or a playmate for the kids.  Some people come out to the country because they want the solitude and peace of being far away from other people.  Me?  I've always seen it as a way of being part of a close community.

The people we've met in our immediate "neighborhood" could not have been more welcoming or helpful in the first days (and beyond) when we moved in.  Leaving our old neighborhood was hard.  We loved the people around us dearly.  They are our friends, and have been so helpful in so many ways, from giving our daughter riding lessons, lending us a tractor, and watching the kids when we needed it...and that's just one family!  Other folks gave us free reign to use their pool, free chicken coop fixtures, and the BEST Halloween treats always come from the country neighbors.  I was nervous about our new neighbors...were they there seeking solitude, or were they of like-minded community spirit as we were?  Turns out the latter has been true, and we are grateful.

Chris made a point to go around to every house near ours before we even moved in to introduce himself.  We was welcomed and offered use of equipment and time from every person he met.  In the beginning our fields were full of alfalfa, which needed to be killed and tilled to make way for a garden and orchard.  One neighbor came to kill it using his ATV, and another came back 2 times for a stretch of 3 hours each time to till it up.  Another household came all summer to cut the grass in the pasture and bale up the hay.  In return, we gave them the hay to feed their cows.  We've exchanged animal care so we could take vacations, which was really fun because in exchange for watching our chickens and cats, we got to watch and take care of horses!   We even got our two kittens, Chlowy and Little Gray, from a neighbor who's barn cat had kittens.  Chris helped pour cement for a driveway, and that same neighbor had trouble with his well only a week ago.  The same guy who tilled our field hooked him up with barrels of water to get him through, commenting, "Hey, out here, we're all in this together".  And he's so very right. 

In the city, it can be hard to get to know your neighbors, and with everything you need within arm's length, you may not ever need them.  But out here, we share resources, skills, and time to make sure everyone has what they need.  If a trip to town can be skipped or a piece of expensive equipment isn't an option, someone here probably has what you need, and you have something, even if it's just a bar of soap or some homemade cookies, they will be grateful for in exchange.  And, at the end of the day, it's just nice to sit around a fire with a beer in hand having a conversation with another adult person who doesn't live with you.

This particular area is so wonderfully appealing to us in other ways, as well.  We have fallen into a community of hobby farms and homesteaders seeking to make their living from their home and property, just as we are.  There is a lot of entrepreneurial spirit out here, from Yonder Way gift shop, to the Vino in the Valley Winery.  Homesteading in modern times is a whole new concept, and with the access to the internet, it is totally possible to be connected with large populations of people without ever leaving your home.  We share ideas about hosting live music, holding classes, and even hosting weddings and other destination events, making our neck of the woods a rural visitor destination.  Of course, there are some in the area who are still seeking that solitude, but with a little strength in numbers, maybe we can come together to find common ground that's good for everyone in the community.

It's party day!  We've been doing this twice a year since we moved to Wisconsin 5 years ago.  This first year was really important for us to reconnect with friends and family in the area and to introduce ourselves to the new neighborhood.  Since then, it's been more about just getting together to eat, drink and be merry!  A couple of years ago shopping got involved, but mostly it's always been about the camaraderie.  We have friends of all walks of life, ages, and lifestyles.  Our parties bring together the college kids from Stout who are a part of the my local fraternity, our children's friends and their families, our rural neighbors (old and new!), our loyal customers, co-workers, and, of course, my favorite great aunt and uncle who are in their 80's!  And what's a party without PICKLES?!?

An abundance of vegetables means trying to find ways to preserve them to last until the next harvest.  I am not a huge fan of anything canned unless it's pickled, and Chris is a damn good "pickler"!  He makes dill and bread and butter pickles, pickled beans, onions, and peppers, and one year I tried pickling beets myself but wasn't very successful.  Either they weren't very good, or I just don't like pickled beets, but I've never tried them before or since, so I have nothing to compare them to.  I think 9 pounds of pickles is an understatement, because we were harvesting cucumbers well into the end of September-early October.  By that time we were also canning tomato sauce, salsa, and applesauce.  Our house has a large root cellar that is getting great use with all the canned goods, as well of buckets of buried carrots, beets, and leeks.  Chris has a some definite "survivalist" tendencies...he wants to be prepared in cases of the grid going down, mass terrorist strikes, and the potential zombie apocalypse.  I like to tease him about it at times, as I'm much more of a "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" type pf gal, but I guess he'll get the last laugh when we're hiding in the basement eating pickles while the rest of the world riots.