Farm Fresh Eggs, Every Day!

Eggs make me happy!

Every morning, I wake up and think about breakfast. It’s my favorite meal of the day. Think about it, Breakfast! Savory, sweet or both! You can have just about any combination of starch and protein, vegetable and fruit to complete your morning meal.

When I think breakfast, I think poached eggs on any kind of starch I can get my hands on. English muffins from Model Bakery complete a sinfully delicious egg. Just one farm fresh poached egg will win over anything else in my breakfast repetoire.

Our farm has 150 chickens, laying more and more eggs every single day thanks to our uncharacteristically warm weather. Each egg is hand collected, washed and packaged in a cardboard carton.

Eggs have always been a breakfast staple, and when I set out to write about our eggs and how wonderful they are I realized most people may have never experienced the amazing difference in taste between a farm fresh pasture raised chicken egg verses a commercially raised chicken egg.

The difference is vast, and I’ll explain why.

Pastured chickens are allowed to roam freely. Without concern for cages, the hens can peck and eat anything they get their beaks around. This includes bugs, weeds and the grape leaves growing over the top of their pen. With a varied diet, the chickens produce a healthier, more flavorful and deeper yellow yolked egg. I get so incredibly egg-cited (oh, I had to put one egg pun!) when I break open an egg, and the yolk is deep orange. It may not have any thing to do with the nutrition value, but the deep orange yolks have this creamy, buttery and lush texture not typically afforded to commercially produced eggs.

Clearly, I’m passionate about my farm fresh eggs. I know you’re thinking, “This chick is crazy about eggs! What’s the big deal?” I’ll let you in on a little known secret. The good karma from purchasing your eggs from a local farmer is two fold. First, you’re supporting local farmers, which is a BIG DEAL. Second, you’re feeding your family a more whole food, with scientifically proven health benefits.

Here are the actual facts, funded by http://www.motherearthnews.com/:

- 1/3 less cholesterol

- 1/4 less saturated fat

- 2/3 more vitamin A

- 2 times more omega 3 fatty acids

- 3 times more vitamin E

- 7 times more beta carotene

- 4 to 6 times more vitamin D

(This study was performed by taking sample eggs from 14 different flocks around the country.)

In just two eggs, you can satisfy your daily requirement of vitamin A!

Spring is the best time to try our eggs! The hens are happy, due to the plethora of sunshine, all the new vegetation and bugs galore! A nutritious diet with many variations is good for humans, and the same goes for hens.

Hurley Farms has had chickens for 17 years. Periodically we’ll raise chickens from chicks to adulthood for various other farms. We also supply the ubiquitous Napa restaurant, Pearl with their eggs.

Our egg selling hours are Monday through Friday, 10am – 4pm.

You most certainly may call ahead to make sure we have eggs for you to come pick up! This does not come without a warning: Our eggs are so tasty, you’ll never want to buy grocery store eggs again!

I’d like to thank you in advance, for your interest in our family owned and run farm!

Strawberry Rhubarb

At Hurley Farms, we take pride in our broad selection of flavors derive from the best the season has to offer. This season brings us Strawberries and Rhubarb, which go together like ice cream and warm summer days.  Our special attention to the berries and rhubarb is what makes our jam so special!

Rhubarb also known as “Pie Plant” is classically tart and a welcome addition to biscuits, muffin batters and gelatin salads! A perinial favorite, this jam goes well on peanut butter sandwiches, and over your morning yogurt.

As early as 2700 BC, the Chinese have used rhubarb medicinally. After a long trek around the world, rhubarb finally made it’s first appearance at U.S. markets in Massachusettes around the early 1800s. We must advise to take care when using rhubarb, as the leaves are quite poisonous even though the stalks are a great addition of fiber into your diet.

Here on the farm, we take rhubarb grown right on the grounds, then wash and hand slice each and every stalk. After a gently simmering of fresh rhubarb with local strawberries, we hand pour every jar in our family owned and run kitchen. When you buy a jar of Hurley Farms jam, you’re purchasing a slice of the old fashioned life, where pies sat in windowsills to cool, and neighbors waved to each other with a hearty smile and “How do you do?” in passing.

Rhubarb Fun Facts:
To create the appearance of chatter for the background of a film, directors would ask extras to repeat the word ‘rhubarb’!

Here is a tasty dessert which, when served warm with our Strawberry Rhubarb jam spooned over the top will please any table of guests!

Rhubarb Crumble (Serves Six)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup flour (reserve 1/4 cup)

5 tbsp powdered sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 1/2 cups Rhubarb, cut into 1/2 in pieces

2 beaten eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 tsp baking soda

Dash of salt

Cut together 1 cup flour and butter. Pat into greased 9×13 pan, bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Mix rhubarb and eggs, then add sugar, flour, baking soda and salt.

Pour rhubarb mix over crust and bake for 35-40 more minutes. Serve warm, with ice cream and our Hurley Farms Strawberry Rhubarb jam over the top.

Please visit our Products page to order your jar today!

Spring is for Strawberries

We’re ramping up our kitchen for the arrival of farm fresh strawberries!

Hurley Farms strawberry jam is made from fruit grown just down the street from our agricultural commercial kitchen and if I had better aim or perhaps a better arm I could call it a stone’s throw away!

Strawberries are a finicky crop, needing hot days and cool nights to produce sweet juicy fruit making California’s coast the perfect place to grow lots of delicious produce. In fact, California grows over 80% of the strawberries consumed by Americans.

This year has been an exceptional year, as the strawberries are sweet, plump, juicy gems which happen to be the perfect shade of crimson thanks to our beautifully consistent Napa Valley sunshine. Hand hulled and washed, these strawberries are given the star treatment around here!

While a strawberry may seem merely a child’s peanut butter accessory, here at Hurley Farms we view it as the portal to a simpler time, when jams were fresh and came from your grandmother’s kitchen…where you were lucky to get a sample right from the stove! We really enjoy Strawberry Jam day, as the aroma fills the kitchen and lingers around for hours after, reminding us to take time and savor the simple pleasures life has to offer.

With one spoonful, our jam will instantly taste sweet and tart, with a defined sun kissed strawberry flavor as if you’d bitten into a berry you’d picked yourself just moments before.

Click here to view our store, where you will find our Strawberry Jam, along with an assortment of other treats we have available for shipping!

Strawberry Fun Fact: Each seed on the outside of the strawberry is capable of growing into a plant, and there are about 200 seeds on every strawberry!

Strawberry Jam is our featured product for spring.  http://www.hurleyfarms.com

Santa Rosa plum in bloom

Happy New Year!!!

We at Hurley Farms wish you and your family a Very Happy New.  We hope that you have had a wonderful holiday season filled joy and happiness.

Sunset Magazine

Check out Hurley Farms in the February issue of Sunset Magazine.  Sunset lists our Royal Blenheim Apricot Preserves and Sun Grand Nectarine Jam as “Sunshine on a spoon”.  Try these delicious flavors today, available at hurleyfarms.com for $6.75 for a 9oz Jar.

Happy New Year!!!

From everyone here at Hurley Farms we hope that you have had a joyous holiday season, and that the New Year brings you happiness and good health.