First Marans Egg Today!

[julesapple]

And I missed it!

We left at 5am this morning as we had a craft fair, and Gladys Wheaten-Marans surprised us all later in the morning. We only got home an hour ago, so I haven't had chance to photo it yet.

The egg is a gorgeous deep chocolatey colour and weighs 57g. I'm very chuffed...Gladys got a few extra meal worms tonight.

Yay! 4 eggs a day now!

Jules

PS Sold 28 x 8oz jars of my fruits curds today. There was lemon, raspberry, bramble, passionfruit, pear & ginger, mango & lime, pineapple, banana and alpine strawberry & orange to choose from.

[Bramble-Poultry]

yay - well done Gladys - aren't maran eggs a lovely colour, at least you'll know which one shes laid

[Glutton4...]

It's a shame they're not as prolific layers as some - their eggs are a lovely colour aren't they!

[lettucegrow!]

All in all a good day then Jules. Your curds sound lovely. I'm going to make Lemon curd this afternoon.Do you use your girls eggs? Just had a browse of your blog pics, they are beautiful girls! I want to add more when I can but am still deciding what to go for ,at the moment the wyandottes are the favourite. I love their markings. What's their temperament like?

[HayleyB]

Lovely, can't wait until our two wheatens start laying... And ditto Lettuce on the curds

[julesapple]

All in all a good day then Jules. Your curds sound lovely. I'm going to make Lemon curd this afternoon.Do you use your girls eggs? Just had a browse of your blog pics, they are beautiful girls! I want to add more when I can but am still deciding what to go for ,at the moment the wyandottes are the favourite. I love their markings. What's their temperament like?

I only have the one wyandotte, and you can look at Shirley's partridge feather patterns all day, absolutely beautiful. She's quite placid and always comes to see me. She's the one we can hypnotise! I really must update that blog....been so busy though.

I used another crafter's organic eggs for the fruit curds that I sold, but used our eggs for our curds...I'm still a bit 'precious' about our little eggs - still keeping them for us only. Daft really.

Jules

[lettucegrow!]

That's not daft, I know just what you mean about them being precious. Any curd I make would be for family consumption so it would feel quite special. Have you made Rhubarb curd. Thinking of experimenting as I have lots of rhubarb to use still. I hadn't heard about the hypnotising thing,that is a very strange pic. of that chook!!

[Nicos]

Oh..sob.I can't wait to get my Marans!!!!...come on November!!!!

I'm looking forward to blowing a few of mine...can't wait for chocolaty coloured eggs!..lucky you!!

[julesapple]

Found This...

Ingredients


300 grams rhubarb
approximately 225g of sugar
6 egg yolks
a pinch of salt
half a lemon
100 grams of butter, cut up into chunks


Method


1. Cut the rhubarb into chunks and stew it gently in a bit of water and some sugar. This is to taste. Perhaps about 50g. Set aside when it's a bright pink pulp and all of the pieces have dissolved.


2. In a heat-proof bowl, whisk your egg yolks, 175g of sugar and the pinch of salt. Stir them well.


3. Set the bowl over a pan of simmer water. Do not let the water touch the bowl.

4. Incorporate about 225g of the stewed rhubarb. Squeeze in the juice of the lemon half. A bit of zest is nice too.

5. Once it seems nice and thick, take the curd off the heat and stir in the butter.


6. Now pour the curd into clean sterilised jars and leave to cool. The curd should thicken more as it sets. Store in the fridge for up to three weeks but eat within three days once opened.


I haven't tried this as I would need to buy shop rhubarb which would be yuck. Also, every curd I've made has all the ingredients in the bowl over the water together, but I've never made this one so I don't know if all in one would work.

Jules

[di]

Thinking I need to try making some,not rhubarb,but raspberry sounds good.
Daisy is desperate to try making some lavender meringues(was on telly),so that'll use up th whites too!

[bluemoon]

Fruit curds!!!! Tons of excess fruit, lots and lots of small eggs...why didn't I think of it before?

[lettucegrow!]

Thanks for that Jules,going to give it a go.

[julesapple]

****warning****

Fruit curd making is seriously addictive.


You have been told........

Jules

[julesapple]

Fruit curds!!!! Tons of excess fruit, lots and lots of small eggs...why didn't I think of it before?

Bluey,

If your eggs are banty eggs or similar size, you may need to use two small eggs for every one egg mentioned in recipes. I did that with our mini eggs as the girls aren't laying full size yet.

Jules

[julesapple]

Thinking I need to try making some,not rhubarb,but raspberry sounds good.
Daisy is desperate to try making some lavender meringues(was on telly),so that'll use up th whites too!

Make the meringues and when cool put a layer of the raspberry curd in the bottom, top with whipped cream (or a good vanilla icecream) and fresh raspberries.......best of both worlds!

Jules