Far Better Farmstead

We haven't taken pictures of our up-and-coming laying flock lately simply because it didn't seem like they were getting any bigger. Well here they are at 12 weeks and yes, they are growing up. We are down to 24 - 5 were lost to a predator before we revamped the chicken coop (again!). They almost ate 3 full bags of crumbles before switching to their first bag of pellets.

My favorite breakfast is toasted homemade bread with butter. I don't like jelly or jam, just some good salty butter. The only problem is that real butter can be very hard to spread. We buy a spreadable butter product with canola oil that tastes great but I'm just not sure what's in it. We started making pumpkin bread this fall and the recipe had us making maple butter to go with it out of maple syrup and butter. You just mix 1/2 cup of maple syrup (the real stuff) with 1/2 cup of softened butter and it tastes wonderful (there's another easy and addictive recipe!). So that got me to thinking - can I just blend butter with oil and make my own spreadable butter? Yes, it's also that simple!