Anna Lamotte runs Guardswell Farm near Inchture, with her sister Kirstin. Following a busy day on the farm, she shares a recipe for one of her favourites – omelette.
One of the most joyful sights of spring is a group of bounding lambs, haring around a field edge for their evening race.
It’s like they all get a memo at birth, “meet on the northern boundary fence at 7pm every night, then the lamb olympics can start”. We’ve just started our 2021 lambing – our Hebridean ewes are in a little paddock, patiently waiting for their new arrivals. Udders are filling with milk, gaits a little more “waddley”, and soon tiny black lambs appear.
Chickens on the move
We’ve also just popped our new “chicken tractor” into the orchard. A chicken tractor is a mobile hen house that allows you to move the chickens to different areas of pasture – giving them the best possible areas to scratch and eat – and ultimately lay the most delicious eggs.
The plan is to follow our grazing sheep and angora goats with the hens, who will hopefully spread out their dung, meaning that any parasitic worms or eggs are dried up by the wind and sunshine, which hopefully leads to cleaner pastures for any returning ruminants. And what’s keeping us fuelled up after our 5am lambing field checks? A good old chervil omelette, of course.
Perfect omelette for one
It’s a simple skill, that once mastered, turns the humble egg into a seriously delicious meal. For the perfect omelette for one, take two, ideally organic, pastured eggs. Crack them into a bowl, whisk and season well.
Meanwhile, finely chop a small handful of chervil and mix through the whisked egg. Place a plate in the oven to warm up. Pop on a small frying pan with a knob of butter and get it really nice and hot. Pour your egg mixture into the pan and swirl the mix around.
Immediately, using a spatula pull each edge of the omelette into the middle, allowing any uncooked egg to run into the place where the omelette was pulled away. Do this on each “corner” of the pan.
Once all the wet egg has started to cook, leave it on the heat for a few seconds longer. It should take under 20 seconds to cook in total. Finally, fold one third of your omelette in on itself, then tip the pan in the same direction, with your plate below.
The omelette should roll out of the pan and on to your plate, showing you it’s beautiful golden underside. Eat with toast and a cup of tea.