Farm News October 6th, 2010

Introduction

This has been absolutely the busiest season with the highest sales at the farm ever! We believe this is from the support of many repeat customers who have stayed with us over the years, combined with more offerings from the farm. We can't put in words how gratifying it has been to really feel that all the work and investment in the farm over the years has been recognized and appreciated!

Garden and Produce Challenges

With the CSA Orders more of the garden was planted then usual and we had the strangest weather ever. Things got off to about a month late start because of the alternating cold and hot Spring. The news said several records were broken! We spent many nights worrying about being able to meet the CSA deliveries promised. In spite of three hard frosts in late August most crops finally ripened although many weren't as productive. Mostly the long growing season veggies like corn, winter squash, string beans, corn, and tomatoes but much to our surprise they all did finally produce some yields.

We finally have a 12 x 48 foot hoop house full of tomatoes just as the season is ending. Much to my delight we finally got a lot of strawberries and "So" has been making sure I share with our CSA members. We harvested some corn and we may yet get more. We got little production from the beans, gave up on them, and didn't do the weeding but then to our surprise the weeds shielded them from the early frosts.

In addition to frequenting three farmer's markets the garden produced enough for about 35 more coolers full every week. My poor wife who is the Green Thumb was almost overwhelmed by it all but somehow managed to figure things out with out any fancy charts and graphs. Good thing days are long in the Summer. It makes the 12-14 hour days easier.

When the real hot weather set in the work became exhausting but thankfully from time to time we were able to round up some part time garden help. My 88 year old Mother In Law even helped! My youngest Grandson helped for the month of August and was a big relief to us. He really seems to enjoy marketing and even took over sales at the farmer's markets for a time. We also hired a few part time garden workers but none of them stayed with us very long. Somehow during the course of the Season things have become more efficient but we think we have reached the limit.

Poultry

It seems that no matter how many hens we have laying we never have enough eggs! We gather and process about 15-20 dozen eggs everyday using up a lot of time from every one of our evenings. We have a variety of egg colors, sizes, and shapes because we have a variety of types of chickens. I like the colorful diversity of the different breeds! Unfortunately so do the coyotes, Bald Eagles, Crows, Barn Owls, and Hawks which have become more plentiful since a nearby Bird Refuge for Eagles was established. Thankfully we have no Raccoons who have put many small poultry farms out of business.

We recently inherited a hen from a family flock of pet chickens. It was the last survivor of raccoon attacks. The children seemed very sad to give up the hen but the mom seemed overjoyed although she was careful to not let the kids know that. We now have a chicken fence that looks like it belongs around a prison, but it is only to keep critters out - not inside. No factory computer sorted and sized eggs here and so far no egg recalls from this half of the country!

We've also been raising 25 Geese, 50 Ducks (half are layers, half for meat), 1500 Cornish Broilers, and 125 Turkeys. One group was of 300 so called "slow growing natural" Cornish Broilers. "Slow" was right word; it took 16 weeks, twice as long as usual and caused us a shortage in the middle of the season. So for a time our regular customers like the CSA got small birds from us but later we made up for it with Broilers the size of some turkeys.

Feed, Hay and Critters

This is been one of the best years for hay and pasture in over 10 years thanks to the cool Spring and heavy early rains. A lot of people don't realize we have been in drought for over a decade. Until this year our local precipitation has been way down from what it was when we bought this farm. We used to have a 5 acre pond that is gone. The hay field once produced 180 tons per year. For several years it has been only about 30 tons and last year it was only 10 tons. This year with just the change in moisture it was up to 140 tons and that's after years of being organic and not using any synthetic fertilizer.

It was so muddy most of the Spring we couldn't even get all the Spring field work done. We left 40 acres unworked but the cows didn't mind gleaning it anyway. So, for similar reasons hay prices have fallen from over $200/ton to as low as $80/ton and grain fell from all time high down to the lowest in five years which made for an easier time feeding hogs and poultry. Unfortunately that's over now! Grain prices have risen about 45% in the last few months and I'm worried about the impact that will have on feed.

The hogs have been enjoying the freedom of the pasture all Summer. My wife kind of took over the pig nursery to incubate chicks so most of our baby pigs were born on range. I call them bush babies. Some of the sows were great range sows raising good sized litters out in the open. The same sows that didn't do so well farrowing in the barn during the Winter did poorly outside as well. Right now we have about 60 feeder pigs roaming around. Almost every evening they gather at a gate near the garden to see what goodies were tossed over the gate from the days gardening.

I found an abandoned baby pig about 2 weeks old almost dead on the range pasture so I took it to the house to see if my wife could revive it. Her Mother took over the job and for several days we didn't think the baby pig would make it. She kept the piglet at her side when sleeping and fed it milk with an eye dropper. After about a week the piglet started perking up. Soon it was a little terror chasing the dogs away till they hid in a closet and followed us around in the kitchen grunting for goodies. So now we have a pet pig. Had to explain that it must be moved outside as 600 pound pigs don't make good house pets but its still hanging out in our front yard and follows my wife around in the garden like a puppy.

I went to visit a nearby farm up north and noticed a friendly young horse wanting our attention while we were there so I asked about the horses status. The other farmer told me he wasn't worth much cause no one ever trained him. I asked if I could take him home. After some hesitation the other farmer said, "I'll make you a deal! See those two Llamas over there? If you take them too, you can take the horse." So I got the Llamas for nothing and now have them guarding the calves. The new horse, a fine young Arab gelding is now keeping our other lone remaining horse company. Now I'm thinking about how to find time to do some horse wrangling again. I'll let my Grandson be the Buckaroo!

What's Next? A Winter-Extended Season CSA Program

Winter Indoor Farmer's Markets are starting soon and we are rolling out a new Winter CSA!!! Never heard of such a thing? Well we haven't heard of one around here either. But we have heard of them in other places just as cold as our winter climate. Because of the great support from so many with the Summer Variety Meats and Produce/Eggs CSA Programs we decided to try to continue a CSA Program through the rest of the year. It will be a combination of Variety Meats, Veggies, and Eggs similar to what was offered separately during the Summer. Meat will be used to keep fair value when produce is more limited so the weather won't cause a loss of food quantity to the members. Hoop houses and a Modified Solar Greenhouse will be used to extend the season's produce and will be most plentiful at the beginning in early Fall and in late early Spring. To find out more and become a member please visit the web site and check out the CSA Programs.

Winter Indoor Markets??? Yes they exist and have been going on quietly for several years at the Main-street Community Building and at the Millwood Presbyterian Church Youth Center Building. This year the Thursday Market at Perry Street will start a new Winter Market at the Community Center. During the Winter we will deliver CSA Shares and market extra produce, eggs, and retail meat at Indoor Farmer's Markets. We'll also be delivering Turkeys to these locations for the Holidays.