Author: ebeth

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Baby Chicks

Most of our hens hang out under the Taj Mahal. They have food and water and grass to scratch. On the side under the windows are nest boxes they get to from inside their house. They lay their eggs and then got outside and lounge and scratch.

The family told me that a broody hen hatched some chicks over the weekend. She found a corner of the barn to lay her eggs and then sat on them for 21 days until they hatched.

I found mama hen this morning with her back feathers ruffled a bit because she didn’t want me (or the cat) bothering her. But no view of the chicks.

When I went out a few hours later, seven chicks were scratching and pecking just like mama hen was. Chicks hatch able to walk and scratch. They have some feathers, but not enough to keep them warm, so they need a heat lamp or a mama hen.

As I watched the chicks went under mom until finally all of them were warming up again. Fun to watch!

Then I went off to find the father. We only have 1 mature rooster right now so it wasn’t hard to figure out who he was.

Pretty papa who didn’t want to pose!

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What Do You Do with a Large Zucchini?

You know those large zucchinis that suddenly came from nowhere? What can you use them for?

The simplest thing is to grate them for zucchini bread. You can get 4-8 cups depending on the size. Then you can make the bread now. OR you can freeze the shredded zucchini in the amount called for in the recipe and then make the bread later in the year. Shredded zucchini can also be used in carrot cakes or other quick breads. (I don’t have a favorite recipe; you will need to check your cookbook or google it.)

You can also cut off what you need to steam or boil as the day’s vegetable or to add to the mix of sauteed vegetables.

I have also used large zucchinis in place of pasta noodles. Several years ago I cut them in rounds and used them to make little pizzas.

This year I cut them in slices and attempted lasagna. I layered them in the lasagna pan with spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese. It was a sort of soupy lasagna, edible and nutritious, but not excellent.

Peeling the zucchini first may have helped. Also either baking or steaming the slabs of zucchini for 10 minutes would have gotten them softer and may have reduced some of the liquid. If the recipe gets refined, I will add my improvements here.

Lots of options. Use them and enjoy them!

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Beef and Vegetable Medley

This week’s medley was quite colorful: nice reds, greens and yellows.

I cup up a sirloin tip steak and browned it. It is the one on the right. It has no bone. The one of the left is a sirloin steak. It has a rim of fat on the right and a bone that juts up on the left. It would have worked as well.

These are the kinds of vegetables that I used. Top to bottom: green beans, red beets and greens, cauliflower, broccoli, patty pan squash, yellow summer squash, Swiss chard, zucchini. All of these were harvested here this past week. (Photo taken after meal, proportions not accurate.)

This recipe I cooked to the pot. I cooked the meat, then added the vegetables that I had until I thought it was enough for the family. We ate it over rice or over lettuce. Some added salt and others added Matson Hill Spice Blend at the table. All in all, it was a good meal!

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Vegetable Medley

Recently I made a vegetable medley. Follow the pics to see the process.

  • Zucchini to use
  • Beef fat melted
  • Vegetables cut up
  • Vegetables in pan
  • Greens to use
  • Cut up greens
  • Greens added
  • Greens cooked down
  • Final medley
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Meat Birds

Our meat birds arrived in the mail in mid-June. They lived in our barn in the brooder. These birds are Freedom Rangers, which are raised specifically to range on pasture. They were active on arrival and have done well in the brooder.

We recently moved them outdoors into these moveable cages. The cages are completely enclosed in the back third providing shade and shelter from the weather. The front is enclosed in wire mesh allowing fresh air and sunshine.

The chicks are able to eat grass and other vegetation, and scratch for bugs. We also supply water and locally grown organic grains from Gianforte Farm in Cazenovia. We move the cages once a day and will move twice and three times a day as the chicks get older.

These birds will remain in the field until mid-August when we process them.

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Brady Farmstand

On Saturday mornings we have joined Brady Farm at their farm stand. Brady Farm is a nonprofit urban farm in the city of Syracuse at 150 Ford Ave., off of Valley Dr. They have similar practices to us and use their six acres well.

Our meats and eggs complement their vegetables. So we will join them this season on Saturdays at their farm from 8-1:30ish. Stop by and say hi if you are in the area.

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Views of the Gardens

We planted some brassicas this year – cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. It isn’t a lot; more just a patch to practice and get a feel for how to raise these kinds of vegetables.

On the other hand we do have several onion beds for Stuttgarter (yellow) onion and Red Baron (red) onion. Onions do well here and are enjoyed by our customers, so we like to have several sections of them.

  • Pumpkins and squash
  • Potato rows
Other veggies growing here

One of our vegetable beds had some deer damage. Really Red Deer Tongue leaf lettuce got eaten down to the ground. I guess the deer like their name sake!

We are walking the dog in that section using his smell to discourage the deer’s presence. And we may need to fence it in with higher fencing.

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Potato Beetles

This year we have planted Red Maria, Yukon Gold, and Kennebec potatoes. They are up and growing. The predator we need to watch for this time of year are Colorado potato beetles.

Potato beetles have four stages, three that we watch for: eggs, larva, and mature adults. First we will see the adults. They are a hard-shelled insect. They mate, then the female lays yellow eggs on the underside of the leaves. These hatch into red larva, which eat the potato leaves. As they mature they get larger, but are still red. Eventually they drop and burrow into the ground and form a chrysalis? which then hatches into a mature adult.

We fight these insects several ways. First we change the field where we have our potatoes (rotating our crops). Beetles that have wintered over from last year will still hatch and will find at least some of our potato plants. Moving the potato location means that less plants get found.

Then we look for potato beetles, eggs and larva at least twice a week. We mash the eggs and drop the larva and adults into soapy water. If we start soon enough, we will see adults and eggs the first week, then eggs and larva the next week, and finally by the third or fourth week larva and adults. The more adults and eggs you can find at the beginning the lower the larva infestation.

I think that I counted 8 beetles on this plant. You can see parts of leaves that have been eaten away. But this isn’t bad. However, if they aren’t contained, they can eat all the foliage of the potato plants. This mean that you don’t have a good potato harvest. And we have had that happen in the past. Right now we have a very small infestation. Hopefully it will stay that way!

Here is an extension sheet that talks about potato beetles in more detail.

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Animal Pens

We raise our animals outdoors, letting them have the fresh air and sunshine and eat fresh grass (cows, sheep, goats) or scratch the grass and dirt (chickens) or root in area that they are (pigs). Cows, sheep, and goats especially need to be moved regularly as grass is their food. Sheep and goats also need to be protected from predators. So how do we try to keep this in balance – being outdoors, being moved regularly, being protected from predators?

This year we are using small moveable pens. For the goats we have wooden frame with metal sheep fencing around the outside and wheels in the corners. The kids can and do get underneath, but that is happening less as they get older.

Model 2 is for the sheep. It is a bit bigger, has rough cut wood, and has no wire except at the door. Sheep are more content to stay in a fence and less likely to crawl through the fence, so they do well in this set up.

  • Sheep pen
  • View of the door

We can move these pens, giving the animals fresh grass, protecting them from predators, and keeping them in the space where we want them to be.