Thief in the Night

I arrived at the farm to a terrible sight.  The chicken coop door was open, a few chickens were outside, and a bunch of white feathers everywhere.  Something got into the coop and killed five of the chickens.  Including one of my favorites, the little white leghorn.  That was such a curious, good laying chicken.  All but one of the chickens were eaten down to the bones and dragged away from the coop.  There was one of the original Dixie chicks left inside the coop half eaten.  This is really bad and we have got to do something.  I moved the coop, buried the chicken, and am formulating a plan.  I am going to borrow a live trap from a friend to see if we can catch whatever is doing this.  In the meantime I reinforced the coop.
It was nice to finally get some rain at the farm.  It has been months since we had a drop out there.  But that hasn't been a bad thing with keeping disease at bay.  The weeds are quickly taking over as I usually can't keep up at this point in time with only three weeks left before we begin plowing everything under.  I will keep the weeds down where it matters like the peppers and basil but let them have there day in the sun everywhere else until the tractor and disc are called in to prep the fields for the cover crops.  The okra is starting to form flowers.  The pumpkins are almost ripe.  The corn is struggling this year.  The cucumbers and the yellow squash  are shutting down.  I wish I had planted one more rotation of squash and cucumbers this season.  I figured I could keep them going for the last few weeks but I may have been wrong.  It is a little too early to tell.
The pictures didn't make it again this week as the battery died on the camera while uploading for this blog.  Maybe next week.

One of the special attributes of our farm that we like to cultivate is the community portion of the community supported agriculture operation we run.  I think it is great that some of our farm supporters interact with one another at pickup and beyond.  I mean really, we all see the same people every Saturday for 24 weeks.   It is nice to get to know each other in the community and see where we have common interests or learn new things.  Since I don't have one of my own pictures for this blog post, I do have a picture of one of our supporters doing cool things in the community.  Here is a picture of Danielle with her bowling team raising money for Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  Go Danielle (blue shirt holding the ball)!  Another great way to build community!

101st Blog Post

I can't believe that I have posted 100 blog posts since I started blogging 5 years ago!  I kinda feel like confetti and streamers should be dropping out of the ceiling and those crazy New Year's Eve horns should be going off.  Yeah!  OK, settle down.  Back to posting the blog.

We had something attack our hen house and then get three of our chickens.  It must have been something pretty big because it ripped the bottom of the door off and pulled the screen and the mesh off the door.  It also rolled the pressure treated post away from the door to start the process.  It must have been really mad and hungry.  My bet is that it was a bobcat.  I have seen one out just up the road in the pasture and one of the loquat trees that I planted had the bark shredded and I assumed that was from a bobcat as well.  One of the chickens we lost was the Amerucana that laid the double yolk, blue eggs.  What a shame.

I visited an organic grower in another county (Magnolia Gardens in San Antonio) today and it was nice to see his field.  His plants looked great.   It was interesting to hear him talking about his variety choices and they were very similar to mine.  He had a different red beet which seemed to grow well and he also had a couple of melons that I might try.  He didn't grow as many varieties of veggies that we do but what he did grow looked great.  In fact, it made me really understand how much better I hope to do next year.  He had a few ideas that I hope to try in the field.  He plants all his scallions in bunches instead of rows.  I like that idea and it will save a bunch of time.  He uses plastic mulch in his rows.  I don't think that I will do that but it is interesting.  He brews coffee for repelling ants.  It didn't seem to be working as I saw ants, but I will give it a try as they were eating some of my seedlings.  I will be using a few ideas I picked up.

In our field the corn is growing nicely.  The zucchini and the squash are doing better than ever.  The beans are just starting to ripen.  The greenhouse tomatoes are starting to go downhill.  The lettuce is trying to finish off.  The field planted tomatoes are green and ripening.  The pumpkins are looking good. The peaches/plums/nectarines, what little we have are almost ripe.  I wish we had more of them this year.  A few more weeks to go until the end of the season.

Here is a few pictures from the farm.  A lettuce going to seed.  A lemon tree with some fruit for next year.  I am very excited about this one.  It might be the first lemons since I planted the tree in 2004-'05.  The last picture is of a leaf with lady bug larvae that were all over the eggplant eating the aphids that were running rampant in there.  The ladybugs ate them all.

Week 24, 2011, Last Pick up and End of Season

Well this is the last pickup of the 2010-11 season. I think it went rather well overall. Not without complications but I feel that the amount and variety of produce over the season was pretty good. I hope that our patrons feel the same way. Things have really run their course in the field and there is very little to pick for this last week. Some things like the silver queen corn, watermelon, and the tropical pumpkins will not be ready but we will have an after-season pickup. This final pickup after the season is one that will be like a gleaning day. Anything in the field is up for grabs. There won't be a whole lot of stuff to pickup. Much like the pre-season pickup that we had before week 1. Where things are ready that falls out of the normal season and we would rather share the produce with our members than see some of it go to waste. The corn and other stragglers should be ready then. By the way, the silver queen is about a foot over my head and I have never grown corn that looks so robust and healthy. I am really looking forward to picking it, if the good Lord wills it.

I finally had to remove the rooster from the laying flock as he was causing some severe damage to some of the hens. I processed him and brought him home for dinner. The kids were really keen on eating him and seeing what he would taste like. Anna had 2.5 helpings of the bird. I was a little apprehensive, Jenn more so. But the kids lead the way with a fearless example for the grownups to follow. I must say he tasted just like chicken :) He had extremely dark meat that almost tasted like a cross of chicken and turkey. He was very good and much more tasty than store bought meat but a little tougher as well. The one thing that struck me was how sturdy his legs were. The leg bones were about 30% longer than the ones in the store. Maybe it is because he got way more exercise. He really was a very beautiful rooster with really nice plumage. If he was nicer he would still be running with the ladies. There might be a lesson for thought there.

I am turning my thoughts to covercrops, where I will plant next, and equipment repairs/maintenance over the summer. I am thinking that I will fix up one of the greenhouses for vegetable production this winter. It would be nicer to grow in there than worrying about covering up the warm season plants with freeze cloth and then taking it off each time. I think that I will try tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and either zucchini or cucumbers. I am also working on a plan to replace my Dad who has been a tremendous asset to the farm over the season. He will be retiring after Saturday from the operation. We thank him for all the hours he puts in during the week. He is moving to Clearwater so commuting would be out of the question. We will miss him dearly around the farm. But I hope he enjoys his time away and not worry about the daily operation.

Week 20, 2011

We are slowly wrapping up the season. Thankfully it has gone very well. I am really excited about the peaches, nectarines, and the plums that have produced abundantly. Unfortunately, when they are ready to be picked, they are ready. The peaches have been falling off the trees and every night I pick them off the ground and either give them away or cut them up and freeze them. Jennifer makes a great cobbler. But we get a little bit overworked cutting up peaches at midnight. They attract a great deal of flies, wasps, love bugs, stink bugs, and bees. In fact, I got stung by a wasp while making a blind reach to pick a peach off the tree the other day. I am really looking forward to giving them to our members this Saturday. I would be nice if they ripen a bit over time. Maybe next year I will pick them early and let our members ripen them at home.

The corn, watermelon, cantalope, cukes, zukes, peppers, pumpkin and beans are growing pretty well. I am very disappointed by the new zucchini for us "Costata romanesco". It did very poorly being prone to viruses. Our saved zucchini seeds seem to be doing better. All in all it looks like we will finish well this year.

I had to remove one of the older Dixie Chicks from the flock last Saturday. I did some reading on the matter and figured I had general idea. It wasn't a pleasant task, but in the end it was best and it turned out fairly well. It took a lot longer than I thought. I had a bunch of learning on the job. The chicken ended up as Copper's food for the week. Next time it should be quicker. I think that a whole bunch of folk wouldn't eat chicken if they were left to the task of preparing their meal with a start of a live bird. You really have a whole bunch of time to think about things when you are preparing the bird. I feel that this week I will need to cull out the rooster as he is beating up on one of the older Dixie hens. Her comb is nearly off and he won't let her off of the nest area.

Week 6, 2011

Things are going fairly well this season aside from dramatic weather changes. Our diakon radish are doing great and are very tasty. Jennifer put them into a stew last week and they were delicious. They almost tasted like a carrot but not quite. Mustards are looking good and the bok choi keeps producing. The tomatoes are still trying to brave the cold and we are still picking them with Celebrity far outpacing the other varieties and Uncle Matts wild tomato heavily producing the miniature cherries and still looking great.

The rye, wheat, and oat plot have tillered and are slowly building up their momentum to produce a seed head. The picture above is the small plot with rye up front then wheat and oats in the foreground.

The chickens are starting to lay a few eggs again. About 2 per week at the moment. I am looking forward to giving everyone eggs this year.

Novemeber on the Farm

Well it is hard to believe that it is already November, even with almost a whole year to prepare for its arrival. It might be harder to believe if it wasn't for how busy we are preparing for the season's beginnings. Things are moving along. The red bok choi is looking good, cucumbers are producing, squash are showing up on the plants, tomatoes are forming. The eggplants are just now entering into puberty and reaching a growth spurt. I'm not sure what was causing their delayed adolescents. Beans are still a bit off and I will be doing soil test on fertility levels this week to see if anything is wrong there. Mint is growing, along with dill, and parsley. The sugar cane is doing well and will be nice for a December harvest. Our resident Dixie Chicks have stopped laying while they go through their molting process. Our Rock Band (Jenn calls the new chicks, the Pleiadies, after the Seven Sisters star cluster even though we are now down to the six sisters) are getting larger by the day and it will be nice when we start offering our organic CSA members the eggs. Overall things are looking nice for a good start to the season at our farm.

Farm Happenings

We have just planted our squash, zucchini, napa cabbage, and red bok choy out to the fields. We also planted 10 different varieties of lettuce in 72 cell trays. I had to spray some organic pesticides for aphids and whiteflies. We are also starting to develop some downy mildew on the cucumbers. The cucumbers are coming in early this year; we have already picked about a dozen. I hope they hold up for harvest time in November. Our green beans are looking very yellow and our eggplant seems to be in a holding pattern. This is what happens when you change fertilizers. It is best if you can see how it works on different items and different conditions. We were not able to get our usual Sustane fertilizer and had to go with something else. It is not reacting the same way. We also have not had any rain lately so the fertilizer that is releasing is not making it to the roots. This might explain our yellow beans and slow eggplant.

My youngest brother Patrick has joined us for a few weeks out at the farm. He needed a place to crash and was willing to work in the fields. He has been a big help so far, cleaning up the nursery and planting many of the vegetables in the trays and field.

It's nice to see the oranges starting to turn orange again. They almost go unnoticed during most of the season disguised in a camouflage green. One really needs to look for them on the tree. And then almost magically they start turning the first shades of yellow, and then reappear into view. This is where I start thinking about how good they taste in the wintertime, and about how nice it is to cut one off the tree and eat it while I'm working.

We had a loss of one of the young chicks this last week. Something, maybe a raccoon reached under the hen house and took a bite of one and killed it. We made some adjustments to the pen and hopefully it will not happen again. Nathan and I got it out of the pen and buried it beneath one of the orange trees

Season's Stirrings

We started out planting the field with tomatoes, peppers, beans, eggplants, cucumbers, and pickles. So the season is off and running. I am hoping that we can make the fall season before it gets too cold. We have had virtually no rain in about 4 weeks and things are extremely dry. The plants just don't seem to grow as fast as when we get rain as opposed to watering from the well. I think that the pH is a bit high and the fertilizer doesn't get distributed well. Our beds have horse manure and the cover crops incorporated into the rows. I've also put out some granular organic fertilizer in the beds as a starter.

We had our second volunteer show up and help us out at the farm this weekend in exchange for learning how we do things. It is great to get extra hands for the farm. Work really seems to move along. Thanks to Jennifer for helping us out.

The baby chicks are doing better now that they are in with the hens. They are adjusting to their new life avoiding the Dixie Chicks. I think that I will call them the Rock Band (Plymouth Barred Rocks).

Easter Break

We will be having a weekend break from our last 8th week pickup and the start of our 3rd season, 8 week pickup. Now is the time to sign up if you are interested in joining the CSA for our last 8 week pickup!

It seems like vegetables sometimes purposefully disappoint. We have some of the best looking lettuce we have grown and it seems like it will be at peak harvest during our break. It is funny how that works out.

Things are going well and it seems like we are starting to find a few core members for our CSA. We get a bunch of trial members but I think that a Saturday pick up and the mix of vegetables available during the winter is not what many people expect.

The chicks have been doing great and we are giving away eggs on a rotation basis on Saturdays. I think that maybe the Easter Bunny might bring some more chicks to add to the flock. It is really great not having to buy eggs anymore. But we have to buy feed. I haven't decided yet to go with more Buff Orppingtons or try some new birds out. I guess it will boil down to what is available at the feed store.

I have started to see a few more beetles showing up and causing some damage. It is finally starting to warm up a bit and now is when the insects start to get nasty.

I planted an olive tree this week end from a nursery that we have propagated for in the past. What is interesting about this tree is that it is flowering in our area this year. We will see what happens.

Frosty March

This month has started out pretty cold. The last few weeks we are still getting frost in the morning. Our potatoes have been freeze burnt and then grown out three times now. I'm not sure how much more of this weather they can take. I think that I lost a few bean and corn plantings and will need to replant. I was trying to beat the warmth and the pests by a few weeks. We are about 20 degrees below our normal daily high right now. The good thing is that it will extend our lettuce plants growing a little longer in the season.

I planted a few more loquats to see if we could supplement the fruit offering in the early spring. I will plan on planting blackberries, grapes, and mulberries this year to create a wider sample of fruit other than oranges.

We lost one of the Dixie Chicks a few weeks ago. I believe that a raccoon made its way under the fencing and got one of the girls. My Dad got there before me and took care of the carnage. There were feathers all over the place. It looked like someone shook out a feather pillow near their cage. I have placed posts around the cage to see if that will help and it has thus far. The four birds are laying about three eggs per day. We will begin to give them to our supporting members starting this weekend.

We will be planting eggplant, beans, and our last cool season transplants out this weekend. We finally found some Sustane fertilizer and I am relieved. It has been working the best for us. We tried four bags of a competitors brand with different analysis but it was no match for the Sustane. I can really see a difference in the transplant growth.

We still have no camera but hope to get one soon to show what is going on at the farm.

It's Cold Out There!

The weather here as been pretty cold as we have not had this much freezing temps since records have been kept in our area. Plant growth is minimal especially with the rainy days. But, this is exactly what climatologist predicted with an "El Nino" Year...cold and wet. Soil temperatures are about 59 F and might be too cold for our corn to germinate. It is hard to predict; some days it gets almost up to 80 F and then it is near 34 F the next morning.

We had one more chicken start laying eggs. We are at four out of five chickens laying now. It really is great fun to gather up the eggs and bring them home and see the egg container filling up instead of getting empty.

We are continuing to plant some of the cool season vegetables like the cole crops, mustards, bok choi. I planted some chard to see how that would do. We didn't have much luck two years ago. I am also having much better looking spinach this year. I tried the variety Bloomsdale on a recommendation from the feed store. So far it looks like this crop might work for us. We had really bad luck two years ago on this as well. I really think that variety selection and planting date are two of the biggest factors to work with on a successful crop.

The Dixie Chicks Lay Eggs!

Finally! After waiting about 9 months we finally have a few eggs to show for it. The chickens have started laying their beautiful brown eggs. We still don't have a camera so we couldn't take pictures but they were perfect size Grade A and tasted great. Jenn got breakfast in bed with fresh oranges and the kids shared her two egg omelet with fresh picked organic scallions and salami. Nate and Anna gobbled it up and wanted more but I had to tell them that there was only two eggs this time. It is amazing how excited we are over a few eggs, but we are all glad for the Dixie Chicks, as talk was increasing about how tasty they might be if they didn't start laying soon.

We have been planting some corn and beans at the farm this last week. We will be trying about a half dozen varieties and about three major types from fresh corn, popcorn, and flour corn. All these will be grown organically and I am starting early to get a jump on the pests. We also planted Contender and Provider snap bean to see how they will do early on in the season.

Check out the Movie Food, Inc.

I haven't had much to say in the last few month during our off season. Things got too hot, wet and bug infested to grow anything worthwhile. So I am adapting to the off season and getting ready to push up our sickly orange trees and diversify some. We will be adding some goats and pines to the land to secure our greenbelt tax status. It will also give us some room to expand the organic growing area. I've already started putting up fence for the goats and we should be pushing the trees in the next month.

The Dixie chicks are doing great. They like their mobile home and strut around their pen all day looking for food. They are getting big and should be laying in the next few months.

We have our cover crop of sudan x sorhgum grass in. We have been harvesting sweet corn and it is delicious. I planted the "Silver Queen" variety and it did pretty well. A few caterpillars here and there but we tolerate a few of them. I planted okra this year and if fared well. We will be planting it again this year for the CSA members.

We saw the movie "Food, Inc." last night at the old Tampa Theatre. It was a treat to see the movie in a historical landmark theater. It was my first time there. The movie was very good and give me inspiration to keep doing what we are doing and keep our philosophy of bringing organically produced food to our community. I highly recommend watching it. It is about how our food is industrially produced and the rationale behind it. It is fairly emotionally charged but has a good message.

Dixie Chicks are out

The mobile chicken coop.

We finally finished the mobile chicken coop. It took a while but it is in good order now. It was constructed from mostly recycled farm materials and some purchased bolts, chicken wire, and wood. I still need to finish their nesting area inside the coop but the run is complete. The chicks are so used to being confined in a box, they spent the entire day just peeking out of the entry way. We released them from the back of the coop and they walked around inside eating and pecking and jumping from everything that moved. After day three they are much better adapted and enjoying their new digs. I hope they are happy enough to lay eggs for us in the near future.

Dixie Chicks shy from the media

The rest of the farm is moving along. I planted our basil transplants and took cuttings to start some more. I also started the sweet potato vines, planted queen anne black eye peas and the white acre peas. I am still waiting for our tomatoes to turn red. They have sized up now but are still green. All the remaining lettuce has bolted. We lost a bunch but learned a lot.

The radishes did really well this year and are delicious. Last year I thought I would never try them again because they all split. This year they came out great. They are also my new favorite vegetable. I found that you can fry them in butter and salt and they taste great. I can hardly eat a radish raw. But they taste totally different when cooked. Thanks for the cooking tip Corner Store.

Chugging along

The Dixie Chicks are getting pretty big and curious about life outside of their box. They are really wanting out and I can't blame them. I am hoping to finish their new comparatively elegant grand coop. They will love their new space.

We have harvested all of the broccoli at one shot. It was ready really quickly as well as the lettuce. I will need to delay planting times better. Smaller quantities and more plant dates. Much of our awesome lettuce went to seed fairly rapidly. We were able to harvest some and sell some but we lost too much this year.

Jalapeno peppers, eggplants, and radishes are producing now. The red mustard and the turnips are inundated with beetles and spraying them is not helping. About every three days the pests would return after a spray. I will try them again next year but earlier to see if that makes a difference.

The Valencia oranges are ripe now and are delicious to eat off the tree. A few peaches and plums are ripening. We lost most of them to the frosts.

We are thinking of adding goats to the operation. "What goats!" I know...like we don't have enough to deal with already. We will see. I still have a little bit of sanity left to spare.

Looking Pretty Good

Here is our awesome lettuce trial!

The lettuce have all grown amazingly. Not one bad variety in the whole lot. We will be harvesting a bunch of really great looking organic heads and will be distributing them to our lucky customers.

We have added a few more customers to our Organic Produce Community Supported Agriculture endeavor. One of the customers is a vegetarian and absolutely loved our produce. She said it was incredible and very tasty. We are extremely pleased that our hard work is producing such a great product.

The "Dixie Chicks" as we have named them have been moved to a bigger box and are getting bigger by the day. Nathan loves to see them in the mornings and likes to wave at them. Our dog Copper would love to get a look at them up close but we have been hurrying him out the door to the yard in the morning. He knows they are there and tries to get a look.

We began harvesting kohlrabi this last week and we cooked some up. We steamed/sauteed them in some olive oil. It was delicious. We have never had them before and I would like to eat them again soon.

Our tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers are growing well. The broccoli and cauliflower are not. It is just too late and hot for them. We have been having an infestation of beetles in the mustard and turnips. I can't keep them off those plants. I hope some predators show up and help in the work.

Catching Up

It's been a little while since I blogged. We have added a few more members to our community supported agriculture! Things are going to get busier around here. That's just fine for us.

We have had a few successes and failure this winter/spring growing season. I always think that summer starts when it warms up enough to plant the warm season vegetables. Here is a rundown

transplants for sale: failed
lettuce during winter: poor
broccoli raab: failed, but the few we did harvest tasted good.
potatoes: failed, again. Those ants got them again. Next year I'm not fooling around with ants!
CSA: success
new lettuce trial in amended soil: success
kohlrabi: success
pak choi "summer green": success
old plot amended with horse manure, covercrop, and old potting soil: Big success

We are still learning and we are running out of room. I think that we will need to push up some more trees.

We also decided to get some chicken. We just got them in today. They are one week old and alert and scratching for food. Just a few months to go to get some eggs. We thought that since we had the room we could grow some eggs for us and our CSA members. I am going to try and build a movable pen. We got five to start with. We will see how that goes. We are going to tell Anna that the Easter Bunny brought them. Happy holidays.