A Positive Note

Um, I should really be doing chores right now, but if there are two things I really love, they are nature and photography. I just encountered the most perfect luna moth I think I have ever seen, and had to share her-

I took these with my blackberry, so they are not very good quality, oh well. You get the idea.

And here is Mantis, master of disguise!

I love luna moths-a few years ago I came across a pair. They are a little beat up, but very neat, nonetheless.

Difficult Decisions

Lately things here at the farm have taken a serious turn for the worse. I have been debating whether this blog is an appropriate place to discuss them. Right now I have far more questions than I do answers. Certainly, it seems I will not continue to live and farm here. However, it is a blog about the farm, so leaving the personal bits out, I would like to continue to tell the story of the farm.

One of the areas in which there has always been some serious conflict for us is the poultry aspect of the farm, which is a large part of what we do here. We hold ourselves to extremely high standards when it comes to the quality of life of our birds. Knowing that hatcheries have questionable standards regarding selection and care of breeding flocks, and treatment of the extraneous male chicks, we made the decision to keep a "closed flock" and breed our own chickens and turkeys, and hatch our own chicks. This way we are indeed responsible for their whole lives and the lives of their parents.

The tricky issue then, is the final one. When you hatch your own birds, you then have many "extra" little boys, and the ladies that do not have the appropriate points to be healthy and productive, or that do not meet the breed standard. We have always taken them to an independent, USDA inspected processing facility, to be be processed for eating. This is the only time in their lives when they leave our farm and our care. Our options our limited here, but we had put our trust in a certain place in Virginia, one that claims to be very concerned with the humane treatment of animals, seemed like minded in intent, and whose owner is a certified reiki healer, in fact. The last time we took chickens to this facility to be processed, it was last fall, and the condemned happened to be the sweetest, gentlest, most laid back bunch of fellas I have ever raised. It caused a particular sadness for me to help load them into the crates to go, because in their trusting way, they didn't struggle, weren't especially upset, they let me catch them without too much fuss.

We picked them up, brought them home, opened the cooler-and were horrified. Many of the birds were bruised, some severely. One of them had a leg so extremely bruised that I am certain it was broken.

Furthermore, they were badly packaged, and mislabeled "stew hen". They were young cockerels, not old hens. Furious, we both called the place, I obtained the owner's cell phone number and tried to call him, I e-mailed. I wanted to know what happened to them, what was the explanation, why our birds were given back to us in this state? I understand that accidents or mistakes can happen, but if, say, a crate of birds was accidentally dropped, I felt I at least deserved the courtesy of being told. There was never any response. So much for customer service.

So, there is the stress not having an adequate processor for the product. That aside, we are losing money on the birds, no fault of theirs. We hatched a good number of chickens last fall in order to have plenty of eggs to sell at market, but as I have said, for all the reasons I have mentioned before, the eggs aren't selling. Trying other avenues, such as selling hatching eggs, hasn't panned out. Feed costs remain very high, and it is a lot of work to tend a large flock, so the result has been Steve working off the farm to afford the feed for birds that aren't making us any money, and on my end..

While Steve is off working I have been taking care of the birds, and it is an average of three hours a day to take proper care of them. For us both, it has become drudgery. Because it is a large, complex system, we have been unable to leave the farm for a vacation, or any sort of break, because we lack the funds and an appropriate candidate to train to take care of them while we are gone.

Also, I am facing the fact that, though I have tried to make myself accept it, I do not want to raise animals to kill them any longer. It goes against my basic nature, I can't be comfortable with it, it is simply not my calling. Both of us believe strongly in raising our own food, in eating food that is raised right, be it animal or vegetable. We believe in "you are what you eat" at a fundamental and even spiritual level. However, every time I have to sort a flock of chickens and decide who gets to stay and who goes, and when I help catch and load them into the truck the morning they go away, it hurts my heart, and that feeling never goes away. I believe in what we do, but I can't do it. So there is that.

The decision then, has been made that we will disperse most all of the flock. These young hens I mentioned are in the prime of their lives, and we hope to be able to place as many of them as possible in good homes. I have a few small groups of old timers that I feel I must keep, a few favorite youngsters, a few turkeys, and my geese that I feel the need to hold on to. Go ahead and call them pets, if you must, but at least these pets have jobs. They provide poison-free pest control, and produce nutritious eggs, and fertilizer, which is more than I can say about my dogs!

The ones we can't place, Steve will process himself. Neither of us likes it, but there it is. We hear every day about another poultry producer that is going out of business, selling off the flock. It is a serious crisis, trying to remain a viable small poultry farmer in this economy, and I have wished that we could make it work, but it looks like it is our turn to quit.

Next up: why wiregrass is the devil's weed

Busy, busy, busy

What an amazing time of year, the harvest is rolling in. The heat is getting us down some, but these long days keep us working hard. This is peak harvest time for the only two flowers I seem to be capable of growing in any quantity, gladiolus and sunflowers. I adore the elegance, height, and fortitude of glads. This is the new kid on the block this year, and vying for my favorite; it is an heirloom by the name Violetta.

What's not to love about sunflowers? You can't have too many in my opinion. I planted several varieties when I first came to the farm, five years ago, and now they just volunteer in great numbers, reliably, year after year. That's not to say I don't plant more! As you can see, they really bring in the bees, and a multitude of other insects. I understand they can be an effective trap crop for cucumber beetles, though I haven't seen many of those this year. I can sell them as cut flowers, and when the seeds mature, I can cut those that haven't already been cleaned out by the songbirds and give them to the chickens and turkeys. They are a highly nutritious, high protein and fun to eat snack! I tend to leave the volunteers in row crops that might benefit from their shady shelter from the intense summer sun, like these leeks.

Yes, they are weedy, and would benefit temendously from some rain and some mulch, I just haven't gotten to it yet.

The blueberries are doing well, it hasn't been the best year for them, but not the worst, either. Of the several varieties we have, the very large, plump sweet ones were most affected by the late frost we had, yielding fruit only in the middle of the plant, where presumably the blossoms were most protected by the surrounding branches and leaves. The varieties (unknown) with the smaller, more tart berries are producing like mad. Diversity counts, people, when planting, don't put all your eggs in the one proverbial basket!

Despite my fears, the potato harvest is going well so far. we did have some rotten ones, but the others are perfectly beautiful.

We haven't dug all the varieties we planted yet, but there are plenty of potatoes available for your independence day potato salads!

( Note: all of the above items will be available for purchase at the Hillsborough Farmers' Market tomorrow 8-12, (-; )

It is a really good time of year to be a chicken, or a pig, or, ahem, a squirrel, at the Shady Grove Farm. Produce culls abound. Sweet corn with ear worms is a special chicken delicacy, the wormier, the better. This little fellow in our yard was delighted to find a spent cob.

I have strung up the onion harvest to cure on our font porch. It is the perfect environment for them, dry and shady, with plenty of air circulation. It might just be enough to see us through the next year. Not bad, I must say. I have found two varieties I am quite enamored with: a Japanese red and a Spanish yellow.

The ticks this year have been absolutely awful. Of us all, Maybelle and farmer Steve seem to be magnets for them. Some years ago, I abandoned using the popular Frontline type products. I was introduced to the concepts of Ayurveda, whose followers believe that the the body absorbs whatever is put on the skin, and therefore, one shouldn't put anything on one's skin that one wouldn't eat! Makes sense, right? So what about one's dogs? It doesn't seem right to assault them with toxic chemicals on a regular basis, and the companies that manufacture these products recommend that you do it monthly, even through the winter, no doubt in an effort to maximize profits. I think it is just criminal, given that there are no studies to long term effects. Furthermore, I am hearing reports more and more often that these products don't work as well anymore, that the ticks and fleas are developing a tolerance for the chemicals-creating pesticide resistance, and potentially "superbugs": not a good idea. So, I did a little internet research, and came up with a concoction to try. Using what I happened to have already, to a spray bottle full of plain water I added several drops of the following essential oils: Cedar, Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Sweet Orange, and Peppermint (I understand that sage oil and rose geranium are also effective, but didn't have them laying around).

I spritzed some of this on the little lady's legs, belly, and under her chin, and not enough that you can even smell it on her, and it seems to work really well. In the past week we have found one tick on her lip, and one under her collar, where before we were removing multiple vermin each day. Herbs-use them. They want you to!

Lastly, but not leastly, I was the proud recipient of a prize. Billie Jane, over at technobillies, went on a grand African adventure, and I was the lucky winner of a flip flop key chain (slightly puppy chewed), AND a beautiful carved stone heart that came from Nigeria to Oxford, UK, and then here to Hurdle Mills, NC, USA. How about that? They have received a place of honor on my shelf of special things. They are now nestled amongst such items as a bamboo flute and favorite picture frames from my mother, a custom tiny birdhouse that my stepmother made for us, a bird's nest lined with fur from our beloved deceased dog Willow, feathers from my favorite birds, Steve's skull candle he bought one Halloween 'cause he thought it was cool, and the candle my sister gave her family and friends to burn when she went into labor with my incredibly wonderful niece! Something from everyone I care about, here. Somewhere around here I also have a perfect arrowhead that belongs on this shelf, I will thank you to remember the Native Americans that were here before us on this Independence Day. Read about Billie Jane's amazing African adventure, if you dare! http://www.technobillies.net/search/label/Soapmission%20Africa

Now, I am off from from work this weekend, and this fourth-of-july weekend mission is to deal with my extremely untidy yard! -and eagerly anticipating the tomatoes that should be ripe any minute now....