I give you Fiddlehead Ravioli.

Gee. I wonder why.

The far left of the backyard...

...the middle of the backyard...

...and the far right of the backyard.

Needless to say, I’m glad I didn’t let the chickens out. Knowing my luck they would have tried to follow the duck that went swimming across out lawn. The plus side to all this rain is that next weekend, when we go for our second round of fiddlehead picking, the crowns should be up more. Here’s to trying to beat the 15 pounds from last year!

So, while I’ve already mentioned that I have seedlings going, the idea that spring is here did not fully click until I was out with the boy, dog, and ladies earlier. The season is here in all it’s glory and I am proud to say that we didn’t lack in eggs. Even with Skee’s one month protest, we still averaged eight eggs a week from Louise and Edith, our red sexlinks. Now with the warm weather and the ladies getting out every day, we’re back up to 16 – 18 eggs a week! More than what we ever thought we’d get out of the three birds.

Thanks to the handy-dandy egg scale my dad gave us (don’t know why or how he came to have one), we’ve been able to keep track of the sizes as well. For the red sexlinks, it’s the only way to tell whose egg is whose, which is super important in case calcium issues should arise. Skee, whose eggs had been mediums last winter, are now up to extra large size, just like Louise, who is ironically our smallest bird. Edith lays medium eggs pretty steadily with the occasional large.

Now we just need to stock up on egg recipes…

Reading through the the CDC’s website on DEET is a disturbing thing to do this early in the morning, but it’s eye opening nonetheless. Here’s a glimpse of some of the studies done (here again I’ve highlighted the important part to draw attention to for those just skimming this post:

“AA study was done involving 143 National Park Service employees at Everglades National Park to determine the effects of DEET on varying use groups. Exposure groups were classified as low (non-users), medium (0.01-0.52 g/day) and high (0.71-69.38g/day) use of DEET. It was found that 36 of the workers (25%) reported health effects that they attributed to DEET. These effects included rashes, skin or mucous membrane irritation, transient numb or burning lips, dizziness, disorientation, and difficulty concentrating. Headache and nausea were also reported. A statistically significant difference was not found between reported effects from high-exposure and medium-exposure workers, although the incidences were significantly higher than in the non-users (McConnell et al. 1987). “

Then there’s the EPA’s list of precautions to take, some of which include:

•    Do not apply over cuts, wounds, or irritated skin.  
•    Do not apply to hands or near eyes and mouth of young children.  
•    Do not allow young children to apply this product.  
•    Use just enough repellent to cover exposed skin and/or clothing.  
•    After returning indoors, wash treated skin with soap and water.  

I don’t know about any of you, but I have yet to meet an outdoorsy person that’s not going to have a cut, wound, or rash as its par the course (or at least it is for me). The warnings of not to get it near the eyes or mouth, or on anything a child could chew on, such as hands, scared me. Many alternatives (there again, Bite Blocker is a wonderful one), is made of FOOD GRADE ingredients. While you wouldn’t want your child drinking the entire bottle, it’s fine if they accidentally lick their hands. You can respray as often as needed, there’s no limit due to the possible side effects of overuse. While it’s a good idea to wash your hands when you come in anyhow, getting soybean, geranium, and castor oil on the furniture is nothing compared to getting DEET all over the place.

Just as with the pesticides that Carson exposed in Silent Spring, I can’t help but think WHY are we using these man-made chemicals that can cause havoc? There are natural solutions to the DEET problem, just as there are to the DDT problem. (What is it with chemicals that begin with Ds?) I can’t even begin to pronounce the chemical name in DEET (N, N -Diethyl- meta -toluamide). What I can pronouce are natural ingredients like soybean oil, geranium oil, castor oil, purified water, coconut oil, glycerin, lecithin, wintergreen oil, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, and benzoic acid. The past couple summers I’ve been on a min-crusade, trying to get people to stop buying DEET based products, offering anyone I come across that needs bug spray to try mine, which I keep in my purse all summer thanks to that lovely mosquito allergy. I’d rather have to respray every hour or so than worry about what they’re going to find out that DEET causes later on.