Saturday On the Farm and Simple Scones

It’s a quiet Saturday morning on our Queensland goat farm. Massive clouds are scudding overhead, covering up the sun now and then as the wind tosses the branches of the big gum trees out back. It has a lovely stormy feel without the rain or the cold and I love it.

I’m still struggling with a wretched head cold that has been hanging on for dear life for nearly a month now. Thankfully I managed to soldier through this week and get some very important paperwork done for my Australian visa and can now rest without anxiety, happily curled up with good books, inspiring blog posts, and a few new movies from the library. 🙂

The book I’m most excited about reading is “Coins in the Fountain” published by my friend Judith Works. I have been reading Judith’s blog for a while now, and her brilliant, honest and observant writing never fails to pull me in to whatever she is writing about. I’m really looking forward to reading of her experiences living and working in Rome. If this sort of story interests you too, you can buy the Kindle version on Amazon for only $3.99 (click here) or visit her blog (click here) or Facebook page (click here).

My other great happiness this week was finding white nectarines at the market!!! They are my most favorite Spring fruit and these are tiny they are absolute beauties, juicy and flavorful. I can’t get enough of them. 🙂

white nectarines in a bowl

Most mornings we eat something egg-centric – fried eggs on toast, eggs scrambled with sausage, or a frittata of some kind.

But this morning I felt like baking something, so I whipped up a batch of my tried and true simple scones. They take 5 minutes to prepare, 12 minutes to bake, and then they’re ready to slather with butter and onion or a thick layer of your favorite jam.

We ate them with big cups of coffee for Robbie and tea for me, visiting about our day and the latest happenings on the farm. It was a great start to our day. 🙂

scones on a blue plate

What is your favorite weekend breakfast?

Simple Scones
(makes 6 large or 8 regular size scones)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (I like half whole wheat and half white)
1 Tbsp white sugar
1 tsp sea salt
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup slightly softened butter
2/3 cup milk or cream
1 large egg (I use duck eggs)
1 egg, beaten (to brush on top)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 450 F or 220 C.
  2. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
  3. Using hands, blend in butter until there are no large chunks of butter.
  4. Chill in freezer for five minutes.
  5. In small bowl whisk together egg and milk.
  6. Pour into dry mixture and stir gently just until incorporated.
  7. Dump dough onto floured surface and knead very lightly, just until dough will hold together.
  8. Form into circle about 1-inch thick.
  9. Cut into triangles (or any other shape) and place on non-stick baking tray.
  10. Brush tops with beaten egg.
  11. Bake for 12-15 minutes until tops are golden brown.
  12. Serve warm.

3 thoughts on “Saturday On the Farm and Simple Scones

  1. Scones are simply the best. I love them any way I can make them. I will have to try white nectarines…I haven’t found any since last year. Yay for baking!

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