100 Days of Growing Food: Days 10-15

In our last post, I wrote about the endless, cold rain that soaked everything. In the short time that has passed, a switch was flipped and we are now hiding in the house from intense sun and temperatures in the 90’s (32C).

It is also Memorial Day weekend in the USA, a time when we remember and mourn those who died in service to our military. My parents and niece and nephew came out yesterday. It was a special treat for myself and the boys. Because of Covid-19, we haven’t gotten to see them since Christmas.

They got to spend some quality time playing and meeting all the new animals. Lots of memories were made and giggles to be had.

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Last night, Bryce and I sat outside and watched a large thunderhead roll by the back yard. The frogs were singing, the air was warm, and it was so unbelievably peaceful.

Our garden. Our poor garden! From shock to the cold to shock to the intense sun and heat with no time for acclimation! My mom helped plant our squashes yesterday, but today they’re looking awfully sad. It is forcasted to rain and storm tonight, so if we don’t get rain by tomorrow morning, I’ll do the unthinkable: water the garden.

I’ve only had to water our Back to Eden garden twice since the beds were implemented, but small plants and seedlings are extra delicate.

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The Garden

I have a few tomatoes planted, the ground cherries, and all of the cold crops are still in the ground. We harvested our radish this week, along with our first garden salad.

The pak choy is ready to be harvested. I’m planning on doing so tonight once the sun goes behind the trees. I plan on sautéing with some pork and rice this week. The rest will be thoroughly washed and frozen for later this year!

Bees

Friday morning, Bryce tried collecting another swarm but they did not stay in the boxes. They had swarmed onto a central branch on one of our apple trees, so cutting the branch to remove all of the bees wasn’t an option. We still have three hives, but four would be lovely!

I found this poor lady today while in the garden. When bees die with their tongue protruded it’s usually a sign of poisoning from pesticides. While we don’t use pesticides or herbicides on our property, worker bees can travel up to a 4 mile radius from their hive in order to collect honey and pollen.

Goats

I started milking both Oona and Edda for our family. Per usual, Edda is a delight to milk, while Oona is a complete terror. We’ve been getting about a cup of milk from Edda each day, with less than a quarter cup from Oona. Mostly because Oona likes to knock the pale over or put a muddy hoof in the milk.

We have been drinking raw goat milk for about a year now; however, have never had fully Nigerian dwarf goat milk. Our reasoning for choosing this breed was due, in part, to their highly praised milk quality. They have a high butterfat content which makes the milk sweeter.

Imagine that soup-y goodness that forms in the bottom of a vanilla ice cream bowl once it has started to melt. That’s exactly how their milk tastes!

There are some factors that can affect milk flavor. Poor sanitation, heavy parasitic worm load in the goat, breed of goat, and poor diet. Thankfully, our goat milk has been absolutely lovely!

Cornish Cross

We harvested about 140lbs of chicken on Thursday. With the help of family and friends who wanted to learn how the process is done, we were able to finish the entire flock of meat birds in just under 2 hours. 28 birds, averaging about 5lbs, raised for about 9 weeks.

We do our best to utilize as much of the bird as we can, as to not waste their sacrifice for us. The blood is collected and diluted 1:10 with water for fertilizer. The feathers and waste organs are buried deep into the compost pile.

The feet and organs are frozen for broth in the winter, and after the carcass is cooked, we save the bones and cartilage are turned into bone broth.

For the first three weeks after the chicks arrive, they stay inside our large coop in a brooder box. At three weeks of age, we move them to our pasture pen. The rest of their days, they get to enjoy foraging fresh grass, bugs, and a fermented, non-gmo feed!

We enjoyed a large lunch afterwards together. (I need some practice baking chicken in the oven, I’ve become too reliant on our InstaPot, that gives us perfectly tender chicken, everytime!)

Yes, our boys were with us throughout the entire process.

No, they haven’t been scarred or scared.

It’s historically accurate for the children to grow up knowing how and where meat comes from and how it it’s processed. So no, we are not scarring our children by allowing them to grow up around the entire process.

We have another batch of meat chickens ready to be moved out into the pasture pen next week!

Find out more about pasturing poultry with Joel Salatin’s, “Pasture Poultry Profit$“.

Your Challenge

I’m so interested in hearing how your 100 Days of Growing Food Challenge has been going? Have you started yet? Harvested anything?