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.