May 2009
Monthly Archive
Tired and sore
Posted by Lauren on 25 May 2009 | Tagged as: farm updates, lists, meat
So the sun has been shining here, which means we’ve barely sat down at all as we scramble to get things done. This weekend was full of socializing and meeting new people as well as much farm work. In the past few days we have:
- planned irrigation for the New Farm (nothing in the ground yet there since there is no water nor fence yet);
- had our farm inspection, required to sell at our Farmers’ Market — they just want to make sure we are growing and not importing;
- met a new friend and toured his chicken tractor setup, meat chick brooding facility, and brewing/drinking space, as well as meeting the soon-to-be-mutton sheep;
- introduced the Wyandottes, who are now 4 months old, to the big wide world;
- shuffled some things around in the greenhouse to make room for the tomatoes;
- moved the tomatoes back into the greenhouse so they can grow big and strong (we will not be having nearly as many tomatoes as we had hoped);
- watered everything, and then watered again;
- fixed the hanging auto-refilling chicken/duck waterers so that they actually auto-refill;
- watered again;
- hauled much dirt all morning to fill up the flower bed;
- mucked out the chicken coop;
- permanently moved the Wyandottes into the big girls’ section of the coop;
- moved the Ameraucanas, who will be 7 weeks old this week, out into the subdivision of the coop — hooray for no more poultry in the house!!;
- showed off our chicken tractor technology to some folks who want to build one;
- drank iced tea on the porch with Garth’s folks;
- made a list of everything in the greenhouse that needs to be potted up, planted, or otherwise dealt with — it’s a big list;
- potted up some squash we got at the Tilth plant sale, which are still in the greenhouse;
- planted out a few rows of Shimonita bunching onions;
- did two loads of laundry and ran the dishwasher;
- drank a beer.
But it’s just the calm before the storm. This week is OK — some basic things need accomplished like planting out the flower bed, mulching paths and around some of the larger starts, and addressing the greenhouse inventory list, but the next week, we have 6 turkey poults (babies) arriving on Tuesday, and 25 meat chickens arriving on Thursday, and a show to go to in Seattle that same day, Thursday, and then also a chicken slaughter party to go to on Saturday. Need to prepare homes for both these batches of poultry before they arrive! And then there are plans to make about doing chickens for sale … more to come on that soon!
links for 2009-05-18
Posted by Lauren on 18 May 2009 | Tagged as: links
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A great resource on tomato troubleshooting.
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grilled fava beans!
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How to make and dry and grind your own paprika!
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Rhubarb!
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Non-detergent ways to get stains out.
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If we ever find ramps for a reasonable price, this is how we preserve them.
Fun with search logs, part 1 of many
Posted by Lauren on 15 May 2009 | Tagged as: internets, meta
Dear person who found us by searching for “double digging” overrated,
It isn’t. It is only unfeasible if your plot is too big to double-dig in one day or one weekend. In that case, evaluate whether you can have some friends and their shovels over to help, or just double-dig the planting areas and skip the paths. Double-digging is good.
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Dear people who found us by searching for broccoli plant; broccoli plants; broccoli farm; broccoli plant sprouts; etc.,
What is it that you are looking for? We get a lot of you! Did I take a particularly nice broccoli picture or something?
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Dear people who found us by searching for zucchini blossom end rot photos or similar,
Zucchini blossom end rot is a bummer. Try adding dolomite lime to your soil. But as you can see, you probably can still get enough zucchini to meet your needs.
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Dear people who found us by searching for variations on Monsanto owns Territorial Seed,
I assume you found what you are looking for, but rest assured it isn’t true.
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Dear people who found us by searching for halibut with broccoli and brown rice,
Yum!
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Dear people who found us by searching for pullet bald butts, bald polish chicken (poor critter!), bald chicken butts, etc.,
We never did figure out why all their butt fluff was gone, but we got rid of our drake (male duck), and they seem to be regrowing — at least, they aren’t getting worse. Do you have any dudes around who might be unkind to your ladies?
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Dear people who found us by searching for no farms no food,
Right on. You can get a bumper sticker like ours from the American Farmland Trust.
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Extra bonus question:
Dear people who read the duckling post in Dutch via Google Translator,
Who are you?? How did you find us?? Do I know you?
Love, Lauren & Garth
Sad day
Posted by Lauren on 13 May 2009 | Tagged as: chickens, death
An inevitable day, especially with six dogs total across our lot and our two neighbors’, but a sad one all the same. This weekend the neighbor Lab pup learned she could jump the fence, and yesterday she also learned how to kill chickens. Garth was home getting ready to come meet me in Seattle to go see Star Trek, and when he got out of the shower he found our dogs, who were inside, all agitated, and looked outside to see the neighbor pup in the coop. The flock was scattered — he found poor Stripes’ body somewhere outside the pen, and Sick Chicken was lying up in the woods. Stripes had always been always a loner, the straggler and social outcast of the flock, so I wasn’t surprised about that, and Sick Chicken, though all better and happily reintegrated with the others, was still slower, and had a paler comb than she used to have. So I was sad, but not surprised to get Garth’s frantic phone call telling me it was these two that he had definitely found. We canceled movie plans and I hurried home as fast as is possible when one is dependent on a ferry schedule. Along the way I heard that all the others — Black Chicken, Other Black Chicken, Other Red Chicken (aka Miz Bitch), and Wilhemina — were definitely alive, as well as the two ducks and the four Wyandotte youngsters who live in the coop.
This flock was our first, and as such straddled a difficult line between pets and livestock, but leaning towards livestock. We are sad at the reduction of the flock, of course, but in this case we are also saddened by the loss of these two chickens in particular. Next time it won’t be so bad — this was our farm’s first loss of animal life — and even so, it didn’t mess me up as much as I expected (though Garth says he is “more tweaked than [he] thought [he] would be”).
So thanks, little chickens. We hope you only had one bad day in your lives. Despite your vocal protestations about how horrible it was to be left all day, or even until 7 o’clock in the morning, in your 8×14′ coop, we hope the former was true. We’ll miss you.
Stripes perches on the grape arbor to do her impression of Drill Cat.
links for 2009-05-08
Posted by Lauren on 08 May 2009 | Tagged as: links
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On growing tea plants (like mine!)
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Purple tomato seedlings = low phosphorus, apparently. And other notes.
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Ever wonder why cut flowers are so plentiful and so much cheaper than they used to be?
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On hops in containers
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Spicy tomato bourbon jam. Substitute for ketchup.
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Yogurt cheese!
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Source of non-CX meat birds.
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Chile colorado is what you eat when it is too warm out for beef stew.
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It turns out that spraying roundup for years has a tendency to select for roundup resistant weeds. Who'da thunk it?
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Notes on how Polyface does their tractored pasture broilers.
The Temperature at which Manure Becomes Compost.
Posted by garth on 06 May 2009 | Tagged as: compost, dropstone farms, paperwork, washington
This is not legal advice, please consult your county extension. That’s what they’re there for.
I like compost, soil likes compost, worms like compost. Everyone likes compost. You know what I don’t like? Pathogens. Pathogens and weed seeds that show up in uncomposted manure. At last year’s Tilth Producers conference I attended a workshop on static aerated composting given by Scott and Amy Turner of Blue Dog Farm. (Actually, I’m not positive it was both of them presenting because that’s not in my notes)
At any rate, there are rules governing the spreading of manure on Organic farms that specify a certain window prior to harvest (90-120 days, depending) but, once you’ve composted manure, it is no longer manure, it’s compost. However, I could not find a reliable source* for when manure counts as compost. And it was a tricky research problem especially for someone who doesn’t read legal writing particularly well. The Wisconsin State DNR links to the s. NR 502.04, Wis. Adm. Code [PDF 194KB] Compost Performance Standards which includes the following paragraph alluding to a national standard:
(h) Materials resulting from composting shall be:
1. Stabilized to eliminate pathogenic organisms and to ensure that the materials do not reheat upon standing.
2. Free of sharp particles which could cause injury to persons handling the material.
3. Free of toxins which could cause detrimental impacts to public health or the environment.
Note: Pathogens are defined in ch. NR 204 as “disease causing organisms, including but not limited to certain bacteria, protozoa, viruses and viable helminth ova.”
Appropriate methods for pathogen elimination during composting are specified in 40 CFR, Part 257, Appendix II, Section B:
1. For in−vessel or static aerated pile composting, maintain a continuous minimum temperature of 55° C, or 131°F, for a minimum of 3 consecutive days.
2. For windrow composting, attain a minimum temperature of 55°C, or 131°F, on a minimum of 15 days, which are not required to be consecutive, and turn the windrow a minimum of 5 times during the high temperature periods.
The document referenced at the state level is40 CFR : Protection of the Environment, a monstrous collection of regulations that the EPA has thoughtfully put online (Good jobs, folks!). The section relevant to reducing pathogens in compost states the following:
Composting: Using the within-vessel composting method, the solid waste is maintained at operating conditions of 55 °C or greater for three days. Using the static aerated pile composting method, the solid waste is maintained at operating conditions of 55 °C or greater for three days. Using the windrow composting method, the solid waste attains a temperature of 55 °C or greater for at least 15 days during the composting period. Also, during the high temperature period, there will be a minimum of five turnings of the windrow.
So, as I read the codes, manure qualifies as compost then the following conditions are met:
Also, let’s take a moment to thank the EPA and WDNR for doing such a great job indexing and making available these documents.
Edit: After going through all that, I found the composting page at extension.org which states the following:
The interesting thing is that I misread the regulations. I assumed that both a windrow (long stack of material) and vessel (big box) needed to stay above 131°F for three consecutive days and that composting in a bin also required turning. I was misinformed. Or, more accurately, I misinformed myself. Curiously, the federal standards are less rigorous than my own, personal standards.
My compost pile with the temperature around 155° F. ZOOM! say the bacteria.
*No, my recollection of a conference session is not reliable.
Small milestones
Posted by Lauren on 02 May 2009 | Tagged as: internets
We posted on the day, but didn’t realize it was the blog’s first anniversary on March 10. Thanks, Garth, for kicking this off, otherwise we would have agonized over it forever.
Recently we also had our 100th post (if I counted correctly).
And, wonder of wonders, I finally caved and got a Twitter account for the farm. Only 7 updates so far, but Garth figured out how to do it, so beware of snark.