Lettuce make kraut

Little Sweets

No cabbage heads yet?  Make kraut from leafy greens instead.  I’m posting about this over at Simple-Green-Frugal Co-op today.

Have a great Independence Day!!

A farm week

Everywhere I turn, something needs planting, harvesting, weeding, cooking, feeding, hauling, picked up, butchering, watering and moving.  The days are long and the nights are short.  I’ll just try to say it in photos.  Food, slow and close to home.

I think I may have vanished into thin air… .  They do too!

Don’t let people tell you Cornish Cross won’t graze – if they didn’t, this broth and schmaltz would not be golden.

And the the broth is gelatinous too.  Perfect for adding extra nutrition to your cooking.

Hakurei salad turnips and Mishayage Daikon radishes.  These are not your grandmother’s turnips.  We snack on these like apples they are so sweet.  And the greens are good too.

Another myth:  It’s hard to grow celery in the home garden.  Of course, it won’t look like the stuff from California.  But it will take neglect, low water, and is great for adding flavor to summer salads and soups.

Been spending some time here harvesting too… .

Grassfed tallow awaiting rendering.

Our share of Blackie.

Himalayan blackberries on the way.  Love/hate relationship with these noxious weeds!

Garlic scapes.

Found again currants near the corral.

Meat and milk on the hoof.

Kohlrabi

Crunchy lettuce for a quick dinner.

Parsnip seed

Styrian seed pumpkins

Kale planted last July.  Still kicking, but not for long.  This should have bolted but I guess a greenhouse on your head kinda changes the order of things.

January King cabbage from last July too, same greenhouse treatment… .  I don’t recommend this method of perpetual cabbage – just stick with reseeding.

Ruby Ball cabbage from last July.  Apparently I cut these in the right place on the stem to stimulate more head formation.  You can see how large these plants are – Melvin weighs about 75#’s.

Joan rutabaga seed.

Berries calling my name.

We’re pooped!

Hope all this didn’t make you too tired to check out Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday collection of posts for July 3rd.  Looks like some good recipes, reviews and always some good opinions and facts!

Where’s PETA when you need ‘em

Normally I look forward to the Sunday Oregonian.  New book reviews, lots of life-story obits, and other miscellaneous stuff.

This morning I am outraged, there is a article about getting closer to your food via taking a class to kill a buffalo on a farm, and the whole process of butchering the carcass. 

The article starts out innocently enough, with a picture of a minerally deficient/wormy buffalo standing next to a fence (it still hasn’t shed all of it’s winter hair), and then there is a photo of people lighting a smudge to honor the buffalo about to give up it’s life for this class.  Well, as I turned to the page and began reading, I smudged my pants.  While the farmer who purportedly cares for his herd of buffalo, stood nearby, the teacher took a full 10 minutes, and countless bullets to kill the animal.   Sorry people – that is SUFFERING!! I have to ask, how could the farmer let this happen, and and how do these people think they are even remotely prepared to teach such a class!  I am furious! 

If you are a Portland reader of my blog, I would urge you to boycott this farmer and his “healthy products” and certainly I would boycott TrackersNW, no wonder people want to quit eating meat because of inhumane practices.  To make an animal suffer, and then to eat it, is cruelty at the highest level.  When it became apparent that watching cowboy and Indian movies on TV wasn’t enough training, someone should have pulled out a knife and slit the poor animal’s throat to end the needless suffering.  Instead the farmer, gently nudges the animal with a broom stick.  Sickening…

If you want to eat meat and find a humane rancher/farmer, consult the Eatwild.comdirectory.  Jo and Frances spend tireless hours maintaining this website.  Not only are they good friends to have, they never stop their quest for getting out good information.  Thanks Jo and Frances, et al!  And if you want to learn more about getting close to your food, do go see Food, Inc. 

To read how a buffalo or any meat animal should be humanely dispatched read this blog post.  And if you feel up to it, complain to TrackersNW.  I hope they stick to squirrels from now on.

Sunday Stills – wings

The challenge this week is wings.

Parsnip flower and friend.

Shoo fly

 We don’t have too many flies to worry about, but I do like to keep Della comfortable since I have been pasturing her in such small areas with no shade.  BAD farmer, bad farmer.  Plus, she is such a piss ant to milk when she is annoyed by flies.  We both end up doing things we reget later… .

I’ve tried many different products, and then of course I have spent countless hours and money trying to make my own concoctions.  Usually with poor results.  I have finally settled on No-Fly repellent from Crystal Creek in Wisconsin.  Other products of their’s that I like are Saf-Cal a non-caustic calcium drench, and the Fresh-n-Easy calcium supplements.  Flies are kind of an indicator species, just like weeds.  Cattle with properly functioning adrenal glands won’t have flies.  I need to work on that part of the equation.  Sigh.  So using insecticide isn’t really solving all the problems you have with your cows.  Kinda like spraying for weeds.  We do want the weeds and flies to go away, but in way that does no harm.  So I prefer a repellent to an insecticide.

It’s hard to tell what Della dislikes more, the flies or the fly repellent.  The strong essential oils really bother livestock, so with that in mind, I prefer to wipe on the oil instead of spraying.  She still dislikes the procedure.

 

I keep my fly wipe cloth in a tightly lidded plastic container in my milking area.  When I want to apply fly wipe, I pour on a little repellent and let it soak into the cloth. 

 The cloth stays moist in the container. 

 Apply the fly repellent to your cow the same as you would your horse, using the repellent soaked cloth, rub the hair the wrong way. 

 Then rub the hair back down.  This really gets good, long lasting coverage. 

Della has her tail, so I try to concentrate on areas that she can’t reach with her switch.  Legs, front and back. 

 Especially the heels, to repel heel flies. 

 Under the belly. 

 Flank area. 

Tail head. 

 Udder. 

And surprising, the horns.  Huge blood supply here, and horn flies bite through the horn really irritating the cow. 

 To wipe in the eye area, take your cloth and wipe downward.  The cow will close her eye and this will avoid damage to tender skin.  Notice the oil on her horns. 

Ready for the day.

Two birds with one stone

This is where I have been lately.  Sorry for the lack of posts, lots of ideas and pics, just no time… .

Due to a scheduling snafu when I received the chicks and then fitting the butchering in with my friends schedule, I processed the chickens a week earlier than normal.  The timing actually was good, one less chore for me, and this time of year, there are usually a 100 other chores to take that ones place.  Average dressed weight – 5.2#’s.   The chickens did well, I put a miniature one out of its misery, and one died of a heart attack.  So I lost two out of 75.  Processing went fast and the livers and hearts looked great.

My friend also happens to be the Fertrell dealer, so I was able to pick up my cattle minerals for the summer and fall.  Saves a trip, since he lives 40 miles away.  As the crow flies it isn’t so far, but he lives across the river in Washington, so we have to do some road miles to get to the closest crossing. 

Don’t call me a hoer unless you really mean it.  I like to hoe in the garden.  Melvin loves the garden, I think because his first job here was helping plant garlic.  So he is always in the garden being the supervisor. 

Pretty boring work, I guess.

And, the grazing schedule (self-imposed) is keeping  me very busy in a good way.  Here’s a quick video of Lula and Lana from the other night.  Lots of pics on file of how the grazing is going, and I am hoping to do a coherent post here soon about rotational grazing and how much I absolutely lovvvve electric fencing :) 

  

Part of the fertilizer crew

Chicken manure grows pretty good grass.    Permanent pasture can take a lot of manure.  As long as it is not too concentrated.  How does it get concentrated?  By leaving the animals in place too long.  With most day ranging or free ranging models, the manure distribution is too thick in places and too thin in others.  When we had our pastured layers, we moved the shelter and fences every three days, and gave the pasture approximately 90 days rest before the hens would return to the same spot in the pasture.     Most parasites can’t live without their host after 30 days, and the by the time the hens returned, the rapidly growing grass had utilized all their manure.

feathernet

 

By raising the Cornish Cross meat birds in the floorless, moveable shelter we can really grow grass in a permaculture fashion.  The chickens have a clean, well rested portion of the pasture each day, and in return for me providing said pasture, they deposit their mineral rich manure and the grass grows like gang busters.  And I have to say here right now that I don’t worry about growing my garden as much as I do growing enough grass.  Our recent dry May had me working in the garden, but all the while I was fretting about the growth, or lack of growth in our pastures.  Our perennial plants do more for the ecosystem than the annuals we plant in the gardens.  Less than 1% of our land is under cultivation, the rest is permanent pasture or forest.  With intensive rotational grazing approximately 98% of our farm is at rest.  That means we are getting pretty good at solar capture, and by keeping succession at a higher level we are seeing more diversity, and less pest outbreaks in our gardens.  We humans are pretty good at only seeing one thing at a time, but really in nature, there is always an overlap and a connection.  We just have a hard time seeing it.

 

 These photos were taken 10 days ago, and about 10 days after the chickens were put on pasture.  I just followed the path of the pen and took photos to show how quickly the grass recovers and begins growing.

 From a distance it is hard to see the path of the chicken shelter.  The pen route curves to the left. 

 What the chickens don’t graze they trample and deposit manure on.   

 The area in the top left of the photo shows where I laid down straw for bedding on a rainy night.  It will only add to the growth of this spot.  The chickens had a comfortable dry bed, and I had peace of mind knowing they weren’t sleeping on the cold wet ground. 

 

 

The chickens are traveling around the garden.  I suppose I don’t really need extra grass growth in the garden headland, but the adjacent pasture is for hay, so here they are, and really I have been grazing this area with Della, and she is easier to get along with than the tractor.   Plus it makes for great milk! 

 Up close, pretty high impact, but during the growing season this is just fine.

The view from the back of the pen.  Pretty thick, but it is like money in the bank.  When we quit compartmentalizing our animals, and highlight their attributes, we win.   Stacking and reciprocity.  The feed I am buying becomes meat, and fertilizer for the grass via the chicken.  Then cow grazes the grass before the chicken, and after proper rest, the cow can graze this area again making more meat and milk.  Both species provide extra fertilizer for the garden that is nearby.  One big system, if the human cares to function within that system.    I have to say it is enjoyable in the evening to work in the garden and hear the contented sounds of the chickens eating and socializing, and the cows grazing nearby.  The swallows love the gnats that congregate on the chicken manure, and in their sweeping dives, they eat any mosquitoes or flies nearby.   

So many tasks on modern day farms are handled by machines and are single purpose activities, turning a farming life into a dull monotone of tasks, looked down upon as a dreaded chore.  Raise the chickens for meat.  Mow the damn grass and weeds in the headland.  Put the milking machine of the cow.  Buy feed for the cow, it’s too much trouble to grow.  It is all in how we choose to view our place on our land and in the world.  A farmer friend I know, grows berries.  He has been taught, and he has taught his children, and grandchildren that his berries are no better and have no distinction from the cannery berries.  He pays workers to pick his berries and he takes them to the cannery.  Then he brings home berries from the cannery that come from another farm.  He sees no difference, and he doesn’t see he is just going through the motions.  The thought of bringing a crate of those berries into the farmhouse kitchen to process for the freezer is just more work.  His best friend has a dairy, and you guessed it, he sells all his milk as fluid milk, and buys milk replacer for his calves, and does not bring a drop of that milk to his house.  Now they are under the gun, it is costing more to produce those berries and milk than they are being paid.  Do they adapt and change, no they keep on doing the same thing over and over.  Both live next to a huge metropolitan area, hungering for food grown nearby, they could name their price and throw the doors open and the hordes would come.  But like the rest of their lives, they view it as a us vs. them situation.  It’s easier to continue doing the same ol’, same ol’ than it is to change a little and try to learn a new technique or way to sell the products that they raise.  They are both great farmers, caring for the land in their way, but by treating it as a job they are shorting themselves and their farming days are numbered.  Sad, because those farms will become housing developments soon….

Egad, sorry for sticking that rant in there.
 

Grasses and clover awaiting the treatment from the chickens. 

The fertilizer crew!

Still chuckling

This is just a quickie, but some long time friends of ours told us we should see Food, Inc.  If you don’t know about this documentary you should check it out.  I guess there is some fella in the movie by the name of Joel Suhlattin (their pronunciation), who rotationally grazes his cattle, and chickens.  Hmmm, do you think we should go see it?  Really?   I know, I know, maybe my friends aren’t too quick on the uptake, it isn’t like they have been here before and had to wait while we finished our chores before visiting or anything.    Baby steps – I guess.

Sunday Stills

This week the challenge is tri-color, and even though I have a tri-colored Aussie, he gets enough face time here.

The inspiration for my next quilt… .

photo credit Trapper Creek Daughter

I demanded Ruthless take this picture, therefore I am stealing it and posting it.   Couldn’t resist, the flower with the dew was just too pretty.

The Dad around here

is great!

Always making, fixing and doing something.

A guy can’t open manholes without a fancy hook – right?

Manhole hook detail.

New rafter tails for the never-ending roof project… .

Another view of the rafter tails.

And of course, recharging the cosmic pipe for the garden.

Happy Father’s Day Hangdog!