Yet again, a food magazine has come up with an improved scrambled egg recipe. I’m sure it’s very good, as is any recipe with extra egg yolks and cream. However, they’re really and truly missing the point of what makes scrambled eggs the perfect food: ease and simplicity. Case in point – today dawned sunny, but a quite cold 8º F. I bundled up and did my barn chores. Then I came inside, put a pat of butter into the cast iron skillet,

cracked two of these into a bowl:

and with a fork, stirred them up with a splash of milk and a pinch of kosher salt. The eggs went into the pan (Lily got the bowl to lick) where they cooked over medium heat. As the egg set, I moved them gently about with a spatula.

In about three minutes, just as my hands were thawing out from the barn chores, I had perfect scrambled eggs.

If I thought I’d have to separate eggs for yolks, and then find a use for the extra whites, I would have had cereal instead. That said, sometimes even I embellish scrambled eggs with cheese and/or sautéed vegetables. Sausage is good, too. Such scrambled eggs make the best dinner when you don’t feel like cooking at all. But again, they’re the best because they’re not fussy. (Recipes can be found in my Farmstead Egg Guide and Cookbook.) Making scrambled eggs complicated seems so… wrong… to me. Besides, I’d never add extra yolks. The two yolks in my breakfast eggs are so flavorful and colorful that I don’t need to add more.

However, notice the muffin in the background of the photo, that recipe does need tweaking. I’m working on a not-too sweet honey whole wheat breakfast muffin. When that’s perfected, I’ll share it with you. Meanwhile, the hens are laying and I’m eating two eggs every morning for breakfast. They’re perfect any way I make them. Thanks, girls!

Fifteen inches of snow, sleet and rain fell. A cold wind blows and swirls. There’s frozen slush on the ground. Veronica is in the front of the line at the Customer Service Department. Excuses fall on feathered ears. A resolution is not forthcoming.

In my office there are two dog beds. One for the little dog. One for the big dog. Of course, this is what happens. Good Dog Lily looks a bit resigned to being cramped, doesn’t she?

So I made her a bed large enough for two. Sometimes Scooter doesn’t get up from the couch that he sleeps on at night until almost noon. Lily loves mornings.

There’s a mare at Little Brook who has become hard to catch. At night, her two pasture buddies come right up to the barn manager, let her put on their halters, and take them back to the stable where hay and grain is waiting. The mare dances off. The barn manager has a lot to do, and in winter the evening chores take longer. She leaves the mare, attends to other animals and comes back. But the mare dances off. To the human it is annoying, time consuming, and rude behavior. But, the mare is enjoying herself. The winter days are long and boring. Despite the food waiting for her in the barn, she’d much rather see the person stumble through the snow and try to catch her.

I’ve been watching this drama unfold over the last few weeks. I’ve seen the mare frustrate a number of good horse people, already red in the face from cold, go even redder. I was at the stable yesterday afternoon and offered to go get her. The mare has no history with me, although she has watched me come and go. The geldings were already in the barn. The horses who live out were eating their hay. The mare was at attention, waiting for the person to make a fuss and try to get her. This, more than grain, has become the highlight of her day. I walked into the field and said hello to her. She raised her head. Hah! She said, Catch me if you can! I said, Oh, I’m not interested in you, and I headed across the pasture towards the fence line where another mare lives, a mare that also likes to get the geldings’ attention. Hello Tallulah, I said. I ignored the mare. The mare is very beautiful and arrogant. This is not a bad thing in a horse. In the show ring she would have presence. A horse that shows off is fun to ride, as there’s energy and flash underneath you. But, in this case, that arrogance was her undoing. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the mare take a step towards me. I stopped, turned to her and called her name. She stood quietly. I walked up to her, put on her halter, and walked her calmly out of the field. Good Girl, I said. I am, she said.

There are seven hens in the Little Barn, one of which is an old bantam White Leghorn named Betsy Ross. She no longer lays eggs, but the others, the Ladies, are heading into their peak laying year. They hatched last spring, fully matured over the winter, and are now laying eggs in the nesting boxes, and in their favorite place, the rabbit hutch.

Despite the snow on the ground and the thermometer at zero this morning, now through the end of March will see the maximum egg production for the year. That’s because the length of daylight tells the hens it’s time to lay eggs, but that it’s not yet time to go broody. This weather is actually better than mid-summer, when sweltering heat depresses laying. Right now, the Ladies are cozy in their coop, and warm enough in the sunshine, to be able to crank out the eggs.

Yesterday I collected six from the six Ladies.

Yes, even Veronica laid an egg! She’s a Cuckoo Marans, a breed that is supposed to lay chocolate brown eggs. She doesn’t. In fact, the darkest egg of the lot belongs to Beulah. But, that’s okay. Veronica is a chatty, cheerful hen that likes visiting schools and meeting children. Any eggs from her are the icing on the cake.

Beatrix, who was showing signs of straining to lay an egg without success, now has all in gear and is producing her pretty greenish-tinged egg. (Beatrix’s egg is to the left, alongside Owly’s slightly bluer egg on the right.)

Twiggy lays the white egg. Being a Leghorn, she lays eggs six eggs a week, and sometimes even seven. The other girls lay from two to five eggs a week. After a winter of using eggs sparingly in cooking, I now have an abundance to work with. Egg Salad! Frittatas for dinner! Custard for dessert! Despite the freezing temperature outside, it’s feeling a lot more like spring in my kitchen. The eggs are just in time for programs I’ll be doing to promote The Farmstead Egg Guide and Cookbook. There will be samples of recipes at book signings! Keep an eye on my events page and let me know if you’ll be coming.