This little chicken, half the size of her peers, survived an attack from a red tailed hawk. She is super friendly, perhaps from time spent recovering in the kitchen from her wounds. She prefers to hang close to the house and not with the others, seems to prefer human or canine company. She likes to nestle close to the dogs and is fond of sitting on your shoes but would prefer your lap if you’d let her. 

This was a bumper year for chestnuts especially for the hybrids, we never had such a crop of huge nuts. The pigs are eating quite a few of the Dunstan hybrids as we still prefer the Chinese chestnuts for taste.  Chestnuts are really good for you don’t you know! They are high in essential fatty acids, high in fiber, beneficial for cardiovascular and nervous system health. They are low in calories compared to other nuts as they are low in saturated fats. They are high in vitamin C unlike other nuts and high in B vitamins. They’re an “excellent source of minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and zinc, besides providing a very good amount of potassium” !!!

Peculiar. Two of the most consistently productive apple trees here are unknown seedlings. One is very close to the road, completely neglected and  nearly run over by the plow each year. The apples are consistently large and unmarked. They are beautiful apples with a rosy blush on one side of most of them. They’re tasty too, crisp and light textured, mildly sweet.  The other tree which is most often just covered with medium size lovely red, disease free apples. These apple are good too but they don’t keep well and get mealy quickly. When they are just picked and ripe the taste and texture is just great. We made vinegar, applesauce and apple butter this year, still an abundant supply leftover.

This is a Redfield cider apple, This is the first year the young tree produced fruit. We can hardly wait for when there is a good supply for making cider. It's claimed  that the cider is red, and the sauce made from the apples is red. It certainly is beautiful, the very dark skin belies the eye popping surprise inside.