Pickled Eggs and Food Photography
My first attempt at a real composition. This is not as simple as it looks. I can see everything that is wrong with each of these images and whats more I can see what to do to make the image better. And some areas are not too bad. I am taking notes!
I am looking forward to the Friday Pizza day so I can try again. This morning I am starting a Pizza Bianca. And the Fresh Cheese. Both of which take at least 24 hours. Impatience has no place in a world where we make everything from scratch. Like the vegetables I grow and the meat I grow, we do it slowly and gently.
This tomato has been nominated by Our John the heirloom tomato grower as coming from the perfect plant and so I will begin drying seeds from the perfect tomato from the perfect producing plant today. It is a Mortgage Lifter. My favourite this year has been Amish Paste. I shall be buying heirloom seeds from a tiny seed producer though. The people who keep our old fashioned heirloom seeds safe need some business to keep them safe.
The grapes are ready to harvest but there is no frost on the horizon. I need to decide whether to pick without a frost or wait for one and deal with more losses to the bird. I cannot call it ice wine if I do not have the cold freeze that concentrates all those sugars. But it is still a good wine grape. 
The bobble headed owls can only do so much in scaring away the birds.
This is the view of the barn and the rat house from the creek which is no longer a creek and is really a deep deep ditch.
Same position but looking South across the asparagus field and into the corn.
As usual Daisy is watching every move I make.
The chickens are producing anything from 19 – 24 eggs a day. I have a big flock so that the eggs can feed more than the house, they are the main protein for the pigs. It was Bulldog who suggested I pickle some. He used to make them all the time evidently, even packs jars of them when he goes bush in Africa.
Good Morning. Here is our neglected Daily View. Like I said, things grow slowly on the Farmy.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Take great care of yourselves and your people, remember – there is kindness everywhere. We need to keep our eyes open for it. Kindness does not beat a drum for attention. But it is contagious.
Your friend on the farmy, celi
86 Comments on “Pickled Eggs and Food Photography”
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I love pickled eggs. Yours looks like my mother’s – all burgundy!
I have to admit that i have never eaten one so once the required 4 days is over I am going to be digging in!! Morning Renee.. c
I like both pickled egg pictures, but the second one best. And the grapes.
Ah yes the grapes, perfect composition there! Morning rosemary.. c
I can’t wait to taste the wine from the Steubens we have working!!! Our usual white and red and elderberry are scrumptious and all bottled! Hubby built me a lovely floor to ceiling wine rack to hold all my bottles. Now to design and slap on the labels! The deserve a lovely label and name! Started making wine in 2008. I make delicious grape jellies too! And red currant, black currant, red raspberry, black raspberry, elderberry, chokecherry, apple butter, hot pepper blueberry, apple, watermelon, sweet onion and garlic, and yellow tomato jellies!!! We also make apple cider and beer! LOL And they thought that North Dakota wasn’t wine country! Can’t wait to hear how yours comes out! Yum! We have a lot of friends who are vintners! One year we had corks blowing in the basement and one exploded into a thousand tiny pieces and red wine was all over the place!!!! LOL
Tried making ice wine and it was a bust…so I am most interested in how yours comes out! 😀
Tomatoes I like the best are the heirloom Amish paste (roma) and the Red Brandywine. The Brandywines are so HUGE!!!!! And so sweet and delicious!!!
Also.. Cherry Roma and Grape tomatoes! Mmmmm….and yellow pear also know as tomato fig (excellent sugared and dried)! I am a seed saver too. I do plant Early Girls.
Have grown the Mortgage Lifter too. Have seeds. I try a lot of things and store the seeds so that I can continue to try others. However…I do repeat the faves! Nothing like a tomato! Fried Green Tomatoes! Yum! LOL
I agree, much better composed.
I have always, always loved your photography.
Also, I know absolutely nothing about composition. I feel like I should make some efforts in this area, but then get distracted by cookies and stuff. {sigh}
I think your photos are lovely (esp that dog!!) .. I am a horror for taking quick snaps with the wrong exposures and a grubby bench. This is my attempt to clean up my act so to speak.. c
Slowly and gently, I like that. Think I need to adopt more of that.
I admire your dedication of always fulfilling your commitments each day C – I often have to push things forward to the next day or even the day after and I don’t even have a farmy to run!
Have a beautiful day.
🙂 Mandy xo
As i sit here now, the chores are done, a big pot has the milk and rennet sitting in a warm spot in the kitchen hopefully setting, and the dough is sitting to rest after its first mixing, soon i will make a cup of coffee and fry an egg before I go out and start cleaning the barn and then move the red chickens again.. it is slow in a methodical kind of way. I think i am going to like today.. hope you have a gorgeous day as well.. c
Sipping hot chocolate and getting ready to unload the beans. We grow soybeans and hard red spring wheat. I have to wear a special mask for the wheat because I am celiac. The beans no problem! They are much cleaner too and I hope the weather stays cool til we are finished. Have a great day Celi! 😀
I used to do my dough for my breads by hand too. Now I have a lovely zojirushi that does all the work for me! I just have to do the last rise. It is such a life saver for me. I don’t use the bake cycles. Just the dough cycles. Got mine from King Arthur! They have one for gluten free bread lovers too!!! 😀
Good to see the daily view back. It looks very different at this time of year! And that’s a lovely puss.
I don’t suppose you want me to wish you a frosty night! Vx
Yes and No!! Laugh.. morning Viv! c
I am curious to see how you change the composition. I see the three white objects on the right being broken up by the jar of red pickled eggs. The the white frame on the wall, the white table cloth make a good color composition. You’ve created a diagonal line with the pitcher, container of eggs and jar of eggs. And parallel lines between the frame and the curtain. Interesting…
After watering the garden when I came home today I realised I must decide what to keep alive in the garden; the dam is at a critical level as well as fires to the north and west of us today. Summers not here yet and 32degrees with bendy tree day wind today. Tomorrow will be cooler plus last day of lectures for the week!
Your grapes look like at their peak…….just beautiful
My dad used to love pickled eggs…I can’t bring myself to try them. Morning miss c…t
Lovely post (as usual).
Your food photography is great (but the second image is my favourite). I guess you’ve realised that the light from the window in the first shot is a bit too bright & over-exposed. Also may I suggest you put the recipe below the photo in the typed area of your post and keep the actual photo free from words/recipes.
Your viewers will want a typed list of the ingredients, as well as the step-by-step directions (so they can make the pickled eggs too).
I love the red wall with the gorgeous white crockery too. Simple, natural, but also extremely elegant and appealing. I also like the picture frame colour tying in with the colour of the eggs. You’re such a creative person. Try moving the jar of pickled eggs to the right, so you cover up that gap between the jar & jug of eggs – the over-exposed white cloth & small piece of aqua blue stops the eye moving in a natural curve around the frame from the subject (pickled eggs). Or you could move about a foot to the right with your camera & include more of the framed picture on the left. This would enable you to remove the dark piece of shadow on the right of the frame.
You have such beautiful natural light, that I think that dark shadow on the right side of the frame in the 2nd pic detracts from it. (hope you don’t mind the critique).
The photo you took of the celery soup in a previous post was absolutely perfect. In fact, I’d keep that particular shot for future posts too.
If you’re like me, you can spend ages taking photos and re-arranging things on a table to create different scenes and/or atmosphere. While you have good natural light, I have a dark flat and need to put lamps/overhead lights on to create enough light for photography indoors.
Your photos spur me on to do more food photography – but in order to do that, I guess I’d have to cook something (before I eat it, of course).
Mortgage Lifter is about my favorite tomato. This is the 1st year I haven’t grown them for a long time and I MISS them. We’ll definitely be growing them next year. I’m hopeless when it comes to photography except for some of those sunset and sunrise shots and you can’t hardly mess them up!
Mortgage Lifter is one of my favorites too! I also love Black Krim and Cherokee Purple. These last two are big and juicy!
I have considered the Black Krim and Cherokee Purple…how is the flavor? Similar to? Or their own special taste….
i LOVE pickled eggs. Here is a recipe you might like to try. these last a long time and are very tasty. http://octoberfarm.blogspot.com/search?q=ford+field+fire+eggs
and if you decide you really like pickled eggs, here is another one: http://octoberfarm.blogspot.com/search?q=pickled+eggs
Those ruby-coloured eggs look like jewels. Do they have their shells on and, if so, does the colour go into the albumen?
Now tomorrow I’m gonna have to go out and buy eggs… pickled they will be… I am so keen for one now, and they take a couple of weeks to really get tasty, specially if you add a little chilli powder…
I put in a few slithers of japapeno, so we will see!! Thank you for the nudge. John’s eyes quite lit up when he saw the jar of eggs! c
Funny men seem to love these… jalapenos sounds a great addition… did you add onions as well.. I see one of the recipes had it, another good idea… I’ll be making tomorrow
I bought lots of damsons on Sunday to make this year’s sloe gin – the two are both mini plums and one can be substituted for the other. In the absence of a frost, one can freeze soles or damsons instead. The fruit is noticeably riper on defrosting. I suspect you could do the same with your grapes 😉
I love the idea of your sloe gin. Some people do freeze their grapes and call it ice wine, but I don’t have the room. i think i will just pick them and crush them. I am going to let the wild yeasts do their thing with half of them this time (john is convinced it will turn to vinegar) so i am going to need the volume. c
I did think that was a log shot – you’d probably need industrial size freezers.
true..
I don’t crush my grapes. Too much sediment. I cover them with boiling hot water. One gallon grapes to two gallons water. I let them sit for five days covered in a special bucket that has been sanitized, (stir the mash once a day) then filter at least twice through a wine bag into another clean sanitized bucket, then add one crushed camden tab. per gallon of liquid and then the sugar and cover. It rests for 24 hours and then I pour it into the carboy and add the wine yeast. I like Montrechet. Now it sits with the stopper and air lock in place for another year. I like to test it after about 5 or 6 months later to see how it is working. Works well for me this way. I learned this from a 104 year old farmer. He has made his wine for years this way!!! And everyone swears by his wine!!! The locals all have enjoyed it for years! LOL Just updated with the camden tabs, carboy and airlock and I test it. I have never had vinegar. Thank Heavens!!!
After the wine is aged…pour the wine into a sanitized covered bucket with a spigot and let it sit overnight. Then hubby helps me bottle it all. I have a hard time corking and lifting so I welcome his help! My wine bottles are all sanitized and then I fill them not to far up the neck or the cork doesn’t go in without shattering the bottle!!! LOL I know just how far now…do it every year. Then we let it sit upright overnight. Then rack it til we label them! Then they lay on their sides so the corks don’t dry out!
Wine making is fun! Enjoy your own wine making!!! I can’t wait to hear how it tastes!!!! So exciting! 🙂
Hmm, well that is a new way, we would have to buy the water here as our water has a dreadful sulpher smell, but how interesting that you add so much water.. I bet it is great.. thank you.. c
Oh…so sorry about your water…ours comes from an aquifer and is wonderful! Very lucky. We make has great flavor and what a buzz!!!!! One glass and it mellows you right out! LOL The color, aroma, taste and finish is lovely! I love the differences in color and how the wine looks in a glass! But the way it’s aroma wafts when you sip and breathe and the nice taste in my mouth is so delightful! The feeling of peace and comfort it leaves after enjoying a I can’t enjoy commercial wines due to the added sulfites used as a preservative. The wine glass is so pleasant! Beer and other alcoholic beverages (except a good tequila) never leaves me with that blissful glow! You know…that feeling that all is well in the world! 😀
Sorry about the typos…mother-in-law called in between! Love her dearly…just distracted! LOL Going to the city to drop off about 6-7 cases of tomatoes at the food bank this afternoon.
Oh…so sorry about your water…ours comes from an aquifer and is wonderful! Very lucky. The wine we make has great flavor and what a buzz!!!!! One glass and it mellows you right out! LOL The color, aroma, taste and finish is lovely! I love the differences in color and how the wine looks in a glass! But the way it’s aroma wafts when you sip and breathe and the nice taste in my mouth is so delightful! One glass leaves you with a feeling of peace and comfort. I can’t enjoy commercial wines due to the added sulfites used as a preservative. ! Beer and other alcoholic beverages (except a good tequila) never leaves me with that blissful glow! You know…that feeling that all is well in the world! 😀
I am such a virgo!!! LOL
Ooopsie! That’s me there I am anonymous! Guess I didn’t fill in the details properly! Sorry! 😀
Lovely shots
Food photography has as many styles as does flower photography so play and find YOUR OWN 🙂
wonderful advice.. thank you.. c
🙂
By the way…I have a furbaby who looks like she could be your furbaby’s twin! LOL Her name is Samantha! We just call her Sam. Also…what variety of grape is that one in the photo?
The grape is a vidal blanc. sweet. c
Mmmmm…..my Steubens are spicy and sweet, with hints of honey (thus its nickname ambrosia). They are not only used as a wine grape but also as an eating grape and a jelly grape.
Pairs well with chili, turkey, salmon, barbecue, pasta, lamb and cheeses from what I understand! My Kay Grey I blend with my Niagras. Delicious! :)I may try the Vidal Blanc. They should do well here.
I don’t know how I became anonymous but it is me Mere! LOL :d
I love pickled eggs! Your photographs are always so pleasing! It’s a lovely way to start my day… and thank you for the reminder about kindness.
You know, I took a special food photography course in my early 20s when I just started photography and then threw everything away and developed my own style. I think your photographs are 20 times lovelier than any “professional” shots I’ve seen lately. Sometimes, if I’m not happy with a photograph, it helps to trow it into photoshop and multiply the layer. (do you know what I mean?) That gives the image incredible depth. Then you can adjust any way you like in curves. But thank goodness for digital. I remember having to scan thru hundreds and hundreds of negative proofs! Maybe that’s why I got into editorial photography instead of weddings. 🙂 Hope you’re having a lovely day.
I do work in layers in PS, but very quickly there is not a lot of time, I was deliberately over exposing this set, to get that white on white so that the red of the beets popped out. And you are right about developing your own style, your images are just wonderful. I am hoping to combine the written word with the images in mine as this seems like a natural progression for me. It is fun though, to develop a style or a mark, on purpose. My blog work is usually so organic and bordering on chaotic most of the time!! c
I agree taking photos of food is one of the most diffcult. It is so much easier capturing nature since the subject in itself is always beautiful. I love your last comment- ” kindness does not beat a drum for attention”……you have a wonderful day and lets hope kindness does become contagious….I enjoy visiting and reading about your country life…so peaceful:-)but a lot of work, I have no doubt.
morning robbie, luck for me the work is winding down now as we get all the food in and stored, a little ways to go yet but it is getting easier.. next it is the wine and apple cider!
Loved seeing the pickled eggs on my reader today. Thank you. A favorite of mine since childhood. The little gem my grandmother packed in with her pickled beets as a surprise. Perhaps you’d enjoy my story, Beets. Now I must make it a priority to photograph what I remember sitting on her shelf. -Cheers
What an excellent idea, i bet your grandmothers food was real food too! The pickled egs are new to me, and I cannot wait to open the jar and try them. Sue, did your grandmother store them in the pantry then, not in the fridge? I am wondering how long mine will store for and whether i can put them in the cellar.. c
I remember the jars of pickled beets with eggs stored in neat rows on a shelf in the cellar. She would let me go down and grab a jar when I visited. I’d eat the beets straight out of the jar. Yum! Depending on how long you leave them you eggs will be a lovely, ruby red. She always put them out at Easter. Guess it depends on the brine. Do you want me to ask her? Perhaps you’d like a beet story and recipe? http://suebthefoodie.com/2012/06/25/beets/
-cheers
I would love you to ask her, thank you, and I shall pop over and look at your beets right now.. thank you.. c
Sounds good. I will ask her the next time I ring her up. -cheers
Ok the brick has dropped on my head – re the composing of the shot. the first one is too harsh on the eye and a bit loose and uncoordinated and while in the second your eye is naturally drawn to the centre you somehow ‘see’ the rest is connected – in your thirds grid.
What big paws you have Scrapper, and I love the Farmy walkabouts always. Laura
Yes there is work to do, slowly I will get this right. morning laura! c
Lovely day on the farmy! Would be nice to soak up the sun like that.
Heirloom seeds are so important. Food might be healthier if more used them?
Easy composition: groups of 3, vary height, texture, color old “rule” from merchandising display work.
The red smooth tomato on the dark textured wood…makes me hungry!
Gotta go – but had to pop in to check on you and the farmy! Have a great day
Morning Mouse!! I am going to go and dismember that tomato right this minute, and start the process! c
I love the message that kindness is contagious! Now to find some pickled eggs, I have never tasted them.
It sure is!!! “Pay it forward!”
Mere, I am a great believer in Paying forward!
Hi Celi, have a lovely lovely day…your food photography is coming along swimmingly…I’ve always loved it, exactly the way you’ve done it…so it will be great to see where you end up! (For ex., I love your beautiful tomato.) This is UTTER SILLINESS, but when I saw it, I thought immediately of all your chickens…this idea for Mercedes was based on a chicken fact that I’ve never heard, but which you UNDOUBTEDLY already know…I hope wordpress will allow me to leave this link for you. It’s so funny: http://www.fastcocreate.com/3018392/mercedes-scores-a-video-hit-with-dancing-chickens-that-demonstrate-stability
Loved it.. hilarious.. I should dance with my chickens like that!! c
Your images and words are always so beautiful … the shot of the grapes is lovely, but I especially love seeing your farm and the lay of the land … the image of the hens with the old car and big tree in the background and the shadow in the foreground, Daisy and her barn with the flat Illinois horizon in the background, the corn field and asparagus patch with the thin clouds – these convey a warmth, a feeling of “home” that I miss so much. Your images resonate, as do your closing words, “remember – there is kindness everywhere. We need to keep our eyes open for it. Kindness does not beat a drum for attention. But it is contagious.” I’m making that my mantra. You always make my day. Thank you for that.
I could so be doing what the cat is doing in the last photo – ha! Happy Day Around the Farmy:)
Greetings from Dijon France. I’ve never eaten a pickled egg. Not made them either. Are the eggs hard boiled before they go into the pickling mixture?
yes misky darling,hard boiled but STEAMED of course, give my love to France!! c
But of course! We’re off to les halles for Friday’s farmer’s market. Should be fun. xx
I finally have some time to myself (what a gift—time to yourself—but you don’t know that as you have oodles of time to yourself) to post my Daily View!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Yes, there is kindness everywhere but some days it is harder than others to find it. X
Such attractive outlooks – and if the food looks as yummy as that, then the photos are good.
I was wondering if the owls could be supplemented with bird-like kites, tethered on short running lines having a slight weight at the end and running through ring at the top of the bush/tree, so that they take off and hover with wind, and then settle on the top again?.
Sounds like an excellent idea, i will find some for next year, I shifted the owls again today and the grapes have a short reprieve.. c
Hi Celi
Lovely pic of The Daily View! Everything looks so healthy, growing, and happy….and the angle of the sun tells us it is autumn…beautiful! And thanks for the new “kitty pic”….it’s going right to my desktop! 🙂
Such a lovely walk-around of places we may have missed for some time. The Daily View is definitely autumnal: remember when we had to choose which one we wanted to see last year and this one won! And am so glad to have your aerial farmy photo next to my computer ~ know exactly where you stood to take the barn/rat house pics. And silly billy me, thought your laying hens ran totally free around the paddock during the day!! Have fun with the pizza challenge tomorrow . . .
The laying hens come out in the afternoon, but are in their pen in the day until i have all the tomatoes and grapes picked! They go through the gardens like a swarm, so they only come out in the late afternoon then they do not wander far. Soon they will have the door opened until next spring.. c
Thank you, Milady! I hope other ‘city slickers’ learn from this too . . . another ‘tick’ for me 🙂 ! ni-ni . . .
What a beautiful place to live
Of course Daisy keeps an eye on you. You’re her person! I think the animals love you as much as you love them.
I felt so happy to see the daily view again – it was like a homecoming. And it looks so green and healthy. Love the cat shop, and am enjoying your photo experiments.
I was on the beach today with my sand shovel and a few extras. You might enjoy this bit of creative play:
http://seasonalinspiration.blogspot.co.nz/2013/09/did-persephone.html
I meant to say ‘cat shot’ of course!
of course.. c
Grannymar! I love your pup! I laughed so hard when you described how Buffy jumped up and growled willing to take on that tiger! I haven’t seen that movie yet! My Maisy loved the Air Bud movies! LOL Thank you for making me smile!
I have to say, your photography is looking wonderful! Well done xx
I’ve never tried pickled eggs before, what a gorgeous vibrant colour they are!
with the farm egg orange yolk it is a pretty wild combination!