Eastside Farm Chronicles

Day 19 - Chicks are on their way!

2010-02-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

These videos were taken last night on Day 18. All in preparation of the birth/hatching of the chicks!

Day 17 - Countdown to Baby Chicks

2010-02-07T22:43:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the folks who originally took this photo. I copied it after seeing it on someone else's site.

We are getting very excited around here! The babies are due to start hatching on Thursday, day 21. On Monday or Tuesday we will have to move the eggs off of the egg turning device in the incubator. This is to prevent the little chicks legs from getting caught! I had to look up a picture on the internet to let me know what the Silver Hamburg chicks look like. I am especially excited about these chicks because their breed is on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy list in the "watch" category.

Farmer Jeff spent part of the day building the first of two brood boxes. He is amazing! The both of us keep forgetting just how many babies we are going to have once the hatch takes place...I need to buy special medicated chick feed for them! I also mentioned that I would need to get a bigger chick feeder for them because I don't think our little regular feeders would handle it all. We shall see!

Day 15 on the Countdown to Baby Chicks!

2010-02-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

There is not much to report on the eggs/chicks. Things still look the same in the incubator. I need to refill the water trough more frequently and I still am guessing at the humidity. Eventually I will order a gauge from the poultry equipment catalog. The heat is finally holding steady, thankfully, so I don't need to worry about constantly readjusting that! Once we get to February 9th I will need to remove the mechanical egg turner and place the eggs onto the screened floor of the incubator. This will need to be done very gently and carefully. I have NO idea what I am doing, but will imagine I do! Act as if, right?

Life around here is getting busy. We are busy getting ready for farming. (Farmer Jeff has forgotten he also needs to help Chicken Mama rig up a brooder for the babies...!) We bought many packets of seeds (over 50!) at the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Bank in Petaluma. Farmer Jeff and I were each walking down the aisles collecting seeds. We ended up spreading them all out on the floor, grouping them in food categories (cucumbers, radishes, beets, carrots, tomatoes, eggplant, corn, beans, and assorted herbs) and interestingly enough, we didn't duplicate a single one! If you live near by you really should go and see the place. We swoon the whole time we are in the store. I feel myself growing faint and needing my smelling salts just thinking about it! Okay, not really...but it is simply amazing to experience if you are a farmer/grower.

Farmer Jeff has gone on to order yet more seeds from a couple other of his favorite seed places (Seed Savers, Johnny's, Tomato Growers Supply, Victory Seed) and the dreaming begins! He has been carrying around a diagram of how things are going to be planted at our furthest/biggest site. He is engaging a little crop rotation action.

We have set Feb. 15th as the start date for seeds and have actually planned when we can go away around the growing season. We can't leave the seeds because if they fail we lose the whole crop, but we may be able to get away later.

It is raining again. I feel as though I should have gills or at least webbed feet with all of the water. We are supposed to get 5 inches of rain from this storm alone. Last week we ended a 10 day stretch of rain with a total over 13 inches of rain. Crazy!

In between the rain Farmer/Inventor Jeff is out taking apart his portable smoker. He is removing the existing lid and will weld it onto/over the built in pig roasting pit. He will then add a rotisserie/motor unit to the portable smoker. If you get the idea that:
A. Farmer Jeff likes to build things, you are correct.
B. Farmer Jeff likes pork, you are correct.
C. Farmer Jeff can't sit still, you are correct!
And
When Farmer Jeff stops...he falls asleep!

I leave you with a picture of our sweet feral porch kitty, P.J., safely perched up in the tree.

Video of Egg Candling at 7 days

2010-01-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

I found this on Youtube. It was taken by HenkMannetje. Thanks, Hank!

Day 7 - Countdown to Baby Chicks - Candling Night!

2010-01-27T23:08:00.000-08:00

(Photo taken from Univ. Illinois @Champaign-Urbana site "Chickscope"
To give you an idea of how many eggs we found NOT to be fertile and growing chicks, Farmer Jeff asked me in a very plaintive voice: "Can we PLEASE not have all of these chicks in the bathroom"?

We started with 41 eggs in an incubator which holds 42. I guess I thought I would be a little manic if I filled all 42 spots. I guess that is like an alcoholic not thinking they are an alcoholic because they don't drink before 5.

Well, we have 40 eggs that are growing and only one that is not. I guess one of the hens stayed in the hen house that day and was able to evade the 6 roosters. SHE should be the one we breed!

Now it is just a waiting game. OH, a friend and Chicken Mama in her own right advised me to keep the humidity in the incubator at 50-55% until the last 3 days at which time I need to raise it to 65%. WHAT!!! How in the world am I going to do that!!! Heavens...new things to worry about! Where is my Chicken World catalog when I need it!

PS: Farmer Jeff is going to build a brood box that will be set up in the greenhouse! He is excited he gets to build something! Whew!

Day 6 - Countdown to Baby Chicks

2010-01-26T20:13:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been blessedly uneventful. I was afraid that the rain and subsequent wind would knock our power out, and that, in turn, would knock out the incubator! I was worried I would end up with eggs under my shirt, but thankfully that didn't happen!

This is my first time as a manipulator of life and I keenly feel the responsibility. I check the incubator temperature every few hours and have had to make minute adjustments. The heating apparatus is not terribly sophisticated. The temperature is controlled with the loosening of a wing-nut and the turning of a little non-specific lever. I am SWISS! I want precision! The other funny part of this is that the little thermometer that sits on top of the eggs migrates to the back of the incubator because the eggs are in constant motion via the auto egg turner.

The first time we let a hen sit on eggs and then hatch them, we tried marking them with a pencil X which quickly disappeared because of the constant rotation the mother instinctively performs for even heating. If I didn't have the auto turner, I would be opening it up and hand turning it many times a day. Not good.

One of the banner days in the incubator is Day 7. That is the day that the eggs will be candled to determine if there is growth taking place in the shell. There are all kinds of warnings about washing your hands before handling the eggs, that the simple naturally occurring oils on our fingers can be sucked into the shell and damage the embryo. Farmer Jeff is going to bring some latex gloves home from work so we can do it and not risk damage.

Farmer Jeff, after I carefully explained what I was going to do on day 7, went to the garage, took an empty steel cut oatmeal can, cut out a hole, and then painted it black to match the lamp over which it will sit. This is the ideal set up for candling, which as you can tell by the word, used to be done with candles.

Banner News!
We put bands on the feet of the 3 little chicks we have been tending to for 3 months. We didn't want to let them out before we traveled because we wouldn't be around to watch them and then we hesitated due to the rains. We took advantage of the break in the rain today to band them and integrate them in with the rest of the flock. I felt so bad...the first thing they did was flap their wings. They haven't had enough room to stretch out and do that in the cage I kept them in. Sorry, Girls!
(I just went outside to make sure they all made it back into the coop and ended up having to pick up the darkest one and slip her into her now open old cage with her sisters.)

Tomorrow night, Day 7, candling! We did a little test and both of the Ameraucana eggs we checked are growing! WooHoo!!!

Day 2 - Countdown to Baby Chicks

2010-01-22T08:41:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of the incubator all loaded up with eggs. There are 30 Ameraucana eggs (I can tell because the eggs are green), 6 Silver Spangled Hamburgs (that I always call Star Spangled) and then 5 assorted "mystery" eggs. I want more Ameraucanas because that is what catches folks eyes when buying eggs. I bought a breeding trio of the Hamburgs because they are on the list of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy and the breed is actually at risk of becoming endangered.

Because I have very active Roosters, if you catch my drift, I am confident the eggs are all fertile. I will "candle" the eggs on day 7 to see if there are little embryos forming. If not, I toss the egg. *At this point I could replace the eggs with another set of eggs, but I don't think I will this time around.

When I awoke this morning the temperature in the incubator was up to 105 degrees, which is 5 degrees too hot. I have played with the little, somewhat inaccurate, temperature gauge to lower it but will need to check again in an hour.

Stay tuned!

The Countdown to Baby Chicks Begins...NOW!

2010-01-21T23:12:00.000-08:00

On February 11th we are due to have baby chicks breaking out of their shells! Yep, the incubator is loaded (41 eggs) and they are due to hatch out that day ...or the next.

This is the first time I have used the incubator. I did research on whether or not you should wash the eggs first. The shells are very porous and absorb bacteria quite easily. There is also a coating that is all part of the egg laying process called a cuticle. Many countries residents believe that eggs will spoil once that cuticle has been washed off, which is why you might see eggs in other lands that still have a bit of chicken poop on them. I decided to follow the advice of the University of Mississippi Agriculture department and NOT wash them. We shall see!

The goal is to raise chickens that:
-are resistant to Marek's disease
-lay green or blue colored eggs (I have both the male and female of the colored egg laying breed, Ameraucana)
-we don't have to buy!

It has been a long day and I need to go to bed and dream of chicks. I will keep y'all informed!

The Kids

2010-01-09T20:02:00.001-08:00

For someone that doesn't have children, I sure have a lot of kids! We have the 3 indoor cats, the 3 dogs, the 2 outdoor feral cats and the ** number of chickens! (and that number is growing!) The little kids of the household, the 3 chicks that were hatched by a neighbor while we were on vacation, (who then lived in the bathroom, and then the greenhouse) have finally been moved out to the main coop but are protected from the others by being contained in their cage.

It takes at least 1 week of caged/protected introduction before you can let the newcomers out into the general population. Because we are getting ready to leave for 5 days and my mother-in-law is going to be watching the fort, we are going to leave them in a little longer for a total of 9 days. If they are mixed into the flock too early, the bigger girls could cause harm and even kill the newcomers. Yes, pecking order is the rule of the roost!

As you can see, the other members of the flock are quite curious about these newcomers. The newcomers, for the most part, are talking up a storm and are a little nervous. This protected intro will ultimately save their lives.

What are the other kids up to?
Callebaut, our chocolate lab, aka "the Elder Statesman", "Brown", "Grandpa", "Cranky Butt", has received some preferential treatment for the last month. He just turned 10 years old and has been showered with gifts! As you can see above, he takes the original gift, in this case a stuffed faux sheep-skin goose, and transforms it into...um...more fluff!

In this next photo, you can see he is quite pleased to be on his brand new "big boy" bed...and India is SOL.

On the other hand, Tasso, our Hurricane Katrina survivor, has figured out how to make the best of a situation and instead of sulking over Callebaut's new bed, has found the perfect place! On Mom and Dad's bed right in the middle of the laundry and packing area. Nice!

Parents of human children practice the art of unconditional love and we do the same, as much as is possible when they tear up your favorite robe, pee on your leg (Tasso has issues) or steal your butter. After all, they are just animals!

More Peepers, Coming Right Up!

2010-01-03T21:58:00.000-08:00

How many people can honestly say they got EXACTLY what they wanted for Christmas? I CAN!!! My Honey gave me an incubator! Now I can raise my very own chicks! (Can you tell I am excited?) I have been doing some research on breeding chickens and have discovered I need to have 4 separate breeding groups which has one rooster and at least 8 if not 10 hens.

(This is Martha. She is a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana)
Why do I want to breed them, you might be asking. I am in love with the Ameraucana breed. They are docile, good layers, have great personalities and lay green or blue eggs. By breeding my own I will have a "closed" breeding system.

There is a terrible disease, Marek's, that kills the females just as they are about to begin laying at 6 months of age. There is a vaccine, but it is available in doses of 1,000 and is only good for 24 hours. My incubator holds 43 eggs. You can see that the doses are just not worth it. I would like my babies to be resistant to the disease. We shall see. I may change my mind 8 months down the line!

Before I can get any more invested in the breeding plans, I need to expand the chicken housing for the breeding families. Thankfully Farmer Jeff likes to build things!

Happy New Year! May all of your wishes come true!

Sleep Tight, Garden...

2009-12-04T22:13:00.001-08:00

Our extern from the Culinary Institute of America Greystone, Denise Quintanilla, took this beautiful picture of the garden after we put it to bed for the winter. Nighty, night, Garden. Sleep Tight!

Jeff on TV and Bees

2009-12-03T22:43:00.000-08:00

My Honey, ZinFarmerChef Jeff (that is a long title, I know!) was on View from the Bay today. We have been busy promoting the Down Home:Downtown Cookbook from Healdsburg to New York to Mississippi with a couple of stops in San Francisco. It was quite exciting to see him filming and we are so pleased with the video.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=7152079§ion=view_from_the_bay

If you would like to purchase the cookbook it is available on our website:

We are in the process of putting the garden to bed. It is always kind of sad, and a LOT of work. In the past couple of weeks we have also put the bees to bed.

I will do my best to explain "why" you have to manage the hives in the winter. Bees keep a constant temperature in the hive of 92 degrees, no matter the outside temperature. This means in the summer they cool the hive by getting droplets of water, deposit them in the front of the cells and then fan, creating air conditioning. In the fall they do what they can to keep the honey "stores" warm and fluid.

Once the temperatures really drop the bees don't leave the hive to forage because there is not much food available and because they need to stay warm. They begin to die off leaving only about 20% of the peak summer population. The die off leaves a small number of bees that really need to keep the hive alive by taking care of the brood/nursery. If left with more honey than they need (35# is the optimum amount)they will literally kill themselves trying to keep it warm!

We had to reduce the number of "supers" or boxes that comprise the hive. This is easier said than done because the bees are not ready to leave the frames of honey. In moving the bees off of the frames, we first had to lift the "supers" holding them to the top of the stack. We will go out tomorrow morning when it is cold and remove the supers before the bees go to the top of the hive as they do in the course of the day. Does any of this make sense? I hope so!

A little Video after the Astor Center Event

2009-10-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a little video of Jeff (Mall) and Josh (Silvers) after the event at the Astor Center, NYC.

More to come!

Day 2 in the Big Apple

2009-10-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 20

This is the first day the chefs have to prepare a meal for guests and these aren't just any guests...they are "the press". There are folks from magazines, print media and bloggers. Cooking in the kitchen are Jeff (Mall), Josh (Silvers), me, Josh's wife, Regina Silvers and our God-send, Noah Senitz. Noah has worked with us on the farm, has worked catering jobs with us, now lives in San Diego (my home town) and paid his way to fly to NYC to cook with us. He kept laughing as we thanked him, and as he laughed he shook his head and told us he couldn't believe we were thanking him for crashing our gig! Guess it is all the way you look at it!

The site of the event is the Astor Center. It is the most amazing event space with state of the art equipment, great dishes, a well stocked kitchen and all very new! That is saying a lot for a kitchen! We had to do a little shopping before we got there and arrived with Noah outside the venue waiting for us!

The theme of the event was, of course, the cookbook, Down Home: Downtown - Seasonal Recipes from Two Sonoma Wine Country Restaurants. The chefs each prepared items which were reflective of their personal styles. Here is the menu: (Jeff is Down Home, Josh is Downtown)

Tray Passed Items
Down Home - Fried Green Tomatoes topped with El Rancho Dressing (we picked, and packed our very own green tomatoes!)
Downtown - Potato Latkes topped with an Apple Fennel Slaw
Paired with Rodney Strong Chardonnay

First Course
Down Home - Mixed Greens with Bellwether Farms Pepato Cheese, Pickled Onions and Candied Pecans
Downtown - Simple Green Salad that is wrapped in a cucumber with goat cheese and enoki mushrooms and flower petals
Paired with Rodney Strong Sauvignon Blanc

Second Course
Down Home - New Orlean's-style Red Beans and Duck Cassoulet
Downtown - Deconstructed Cassoulet
Paired with Rodney Strong Symmetry (Rhone-style blend) and Syrah

Dessert
Down Home - Apple Upside-Down Cake with Salty Caramel Sauce
Downtown - Buttery Apple Cake with Mascarpone Ice Cream

I didn't get any pictures of the food because I was too busy helping to shop and cook! I was able to get pictures of diners, and of the chefs and guests. Here they are:

*Photographer Alan Campbell is standing to the left in this photo

The "fun" part of cooking at the Astor Center, the chefs are reminded that they are mortal. This my way of saying that they can't skate out of there...they have to help clean up! Here is proof:

The next posting: The Big Event at the James Beard House!

We're Not in Kansas, Toto

2009-10-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

We traveled a long way from home...all the way to New York City! We went to the big city to promote our cookbook, Down Home: Downtown, by Jeff Mall (FarmerJeff) and Josh Silvers, along with photos by Alan Campbell, produced and sponsored by Rodney Strong Winery.

Our first stop was the "Green Market" in Union Square. I had scouted out the market when I was in New York in July, so I knew the guys could find some really great "local" produce. Here are some of the fun things we saw.

After shopping with the crowd, off we went to Katz's Deli, a temple to Pastrami, Corned Beef, Kosher Salami and all culinary wonders of the lower East Side. We were so enthralled with the food that we didn't take time to take pictures...we just ate! From there we ducked into Russ and Daughters Appetizers, another famous culinary institution. Being the crazy food people we are...we of course had to get knishes from Yonah Schimmel's famous Knish spot. On we wandered to the Bialy bakery, buying something for breakfast, and then we went off in search of the famous pickle place. Apparently the most famous was closed (sorry...can't remember the name) but ended up at Two Pickle Guys where we purchased many pickled items.

We had a break (shower, check email, make some calls) before we went out again for DINNER! We went to the temple of Cheese, Artisanal. There we ate...cheese! We ordered fondue, cheese and onion and bacon tart, a mushroom and cheese risotto and ended with ...CHEESE! Here are some photos to enjoy!

Down Home: Downtown Cooking Demo

2009-10-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, folks, the new cookbook is OUT! We were lucky to have Rodney Strong Vineyards, Josh Silvers of Syrah Bistro, and Alan Campbell, photographer, as partners in this venture.

The wizard behind it all, Robert Larsen, of Rodney Strong, took this little video clip of Jeff (Mall) and Josh giving a cooking demo at the Windsor Farmers Market.

I hope you enjoy the clip! The cookbooks are available online at Zin Restaurant

Fall Fun

2009-09-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

We are in PEPPER CITY!!! The peppers are in FULL production. We have Spanish padrones, jalapenos, serranos, 2 varieties of Anaheim (Joe E Parker and Big Jim) along with pasillas, tabasco, and then the sweet peppers!!! Right now we have an abundance of RED and sweet Sheepnose Pimento peppers. These little babies are on Slow Food's Ark of Taste list. Last week we were fire roasting the peppers and I thought I was in Albuquerque from the smell!

Our dill is very healthy and of course we are growing WAY more than we need! I guess I will go out and start collecting seeds for use during the year!

We are also in great melon production. Our favorite, Moon and Stars Watermelon, complete with big, black seeds, is so good this year. I will miss having a big slab of it in the fridge. The crop of hard winter squashes are just taking off. They aren't quite ready...but we are growing butternut squash, pumpkins, Sibley squash, also on the ark of taste.

This is a late year for us for eggplant. It is still coming on. I am finally going to make my caponata and see if I can successfully can it. Caponata is a Sicilian eggplant relish and I love it!

The peaches are at an end. Jeff picked the last of them from the tree and made a big batch of jam. I do my best to eat jam every day, otherwise our supplies will be too vast. I think we will see where we can sell it. Maybe we will sell some online.

The pears are here for another couple weeks, the tomatoes are starting to show signs of slowing, but are still wonderful!

Our "shoe peg" dent corn has finally tassled out at 14 feet! We are growing it for cornmeal. Yes, another attempt to do it all!!! We call it the "Field of Dreams" corn patch because you honestly could get lost in it!

Where did summer go? Was it on the fast track? I don't know about you, but I am so happy it is fall. Why? The farm slows down, the catering picks up, it is cooler (or at least it is supposed to be!) and time for slow-cooked "comfort" foods.

I had best get off the computer and out onto the farm to help Farmer Jeff with the chickens. They are all good, healthy and starting their annual molt. We have enough random feathers floating around to make at least one good sized pillow, but I don't think we could ever get the smell out! Yum, chicken feathers!

HAPPY FALL!!!

Thoughts on Theft

2009-09-06T20:10:00.001-07:00

Thoughts on Theft & Originality by way of Jim Jarmusch

Posted using ShareThis

Summer flies by

2009-09-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

Where has this summer gone? We have been working like crazy people on the farm, catering and welcoming the newest, exciting edition to our lives...drum roll, please...

In the works for over 7 years, we finally have the copies in our hands! They are currently for sale at the restaurant, Zin Restaurant & Wine Bar and they will soon be available on our website. Speaking of which, the new website for the restaurant went up TODAY!!! So exciting. Thanks to Joey and Rosemary for all of their hard work and HUGE thanks to Alan Campbell for his GORGEOUS photos. What a talented man!

Where do I begin to talk about our summer? It has been filled with friends, food and farm. Just last night Farmer Jeff fixed dinner for us. He picked pasilla peppers, anaheim peppers, and some tomatoes. He roasted them and then pureed them and nestled chicken breasts in their sauce and roasted all of it. We also had our sliced tomatoes with garden basil and a good-sized wedge of Humboldt Fog goat cheese. The piece d'resistence, sauteed Spanish "padrone" peppers. YUM!!!

We have also had a couple of our roosters come into their own. I won't go into graphic details, but suffice it to say they have earned their crowing rights! Here is a beauty shot of Ivanhoe. He is the youngest of our Ameraucana roosters and will be put out to stud very soon!

We have also been blessed by a wonderful extern from the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, Denise. She has saved us this summer with all of her farm help, catering help and great attitude. She has also fallen in love with our rooster, Madison and is the unofficial president of the Madison Fan Club. In the near future we will have T shirts for the various chicken fan clubs.

She has also taken some great pictures of our other chickens, including some fun group shots.

She and Farmer Jeff picked a lot of tomatoes the other day for sauce. After cooking half of the tomatoes, they made 25 GALLONS of sauce. Holy Moly!

Denise was also kind enough to take a picture of our newest "Mille Fleur" Belgian Booted Bantam, Lucrezia Borgia.(I am holding her)

Thank you, dear readers of my blog, for your patience this summer. I have had my computer super-charged by Fixer Ken (thank you, Ken!) and now will be able to write blogs and post pictures with ease. In the meantime, have a great Labor Day weekend!

What is Ready Now?

2009-07-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

This morning we picked the first of the blackberries and our very first RIPE PEACH!!! Yeah! I don't think we will have enough of them to sell, but we will be selling blackberries. Farmer Jeff just picked some beautiful summer squash. We are growing 10 varieties and they are all so sweet and wonderful I have a hard time singling out a favorite. Last year it was the pale green "round geode" and this year is the stubby, chubby dark green and pale green striped zucchini-like squash called "bush baby". Yum!

I also picked 2 baskets of cherry tomatoes. They are actually "green grape" and for some reason this year they are very yellow instead of pale green. We also planted another little yellow one that is like a jelly bean and that is so sugary!

The girls are laying eggs after their summer heat break. Production slowed WAY down when it was so hot. I took Madison, the gray Silkie Splash rooster, Anastasia, the Silver Spangled Hamburg female, and Lucretia, our darling Belgian Booted Bantam with me to my interview on our local FANTASTIC radio station, the KRUSH (krsh @ 95.9). They were pretty funny! I was holding Lucretia and she started chatting up a storm which prompted Madison, ever protective of his girls, to start kicking up a ruckus! All on air! I am hoping I can get hold of the interview or direct y'all to a podcast of the interview. It was a lot of fun!

Farmer Jeff came with me to the station and made everyone breakfast! Big, tender, fluffy biscuits, filled with some Eastside Farm Fresh Eggs that were scrambled with some of our very own fire roasted chiles, all topped off with Farmer Jeff's incredible bacon! YUM! He baked off some extra biscuits and we also brought one of our last jars of Indian Blood Peach Jam. Our host, Ziggy the Wine Gal, was snacking on those during the radio break!

Can you tell we have fun doing what we do? Fear not, we also get to do things like dishes, cleaning chicken poop off of Madison's back before the radio show, pulling the dogs out from under the house, laundry, paperwork and THEN playing in the dirt!

Enjoy today. Enjoy breathing, tasting food, walking, speaking. Enjoy life. It is precious!

Farm Update - July 21

2009-07-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

We have been working so hard on the farm, I just had to write about it!

We had a farmers' market on both Saturday and Sunday. Right now we have eggs (less when it is hot!), LOTS of summer squash, a few lemon cucumbers, a few Armenian cucumbers, very rare Gravenstein apples, spearmint and chocolate mint. It doesn't seem like much because we are waiting for the show stopping tomatoes to ripen!

Yesterday we got up early (early for me! 6:15 is early!!!) to go tie up tomatoes before it got too hot. It has been getting up to 104 here and I just melt! We tied up tomatoes for 5 hours and then came home. This took place at "Site 3" of our farm which is also known as the "Ruff Garlick Patch". Long story, not very interesting...

Anyway, with long spools of wire and lots of stinky twine we tied up over 100 tomatoes. I guess I need to supply a picture so you can see what I am talking about. Afterwords we came home for lunch in the backyard, and then started building more bee frames. We knew we had to go back into the hives because one was full to bursting and a little more space keeps them from leaving and "swarming".

I had also heard that some bee keepers were noticing that the bees are starving or are out of their honey stores for the winter and this is causing quite a bit of concern. Between folks pulling up everything that is flowering (weeds/herbs) and the drought (no wild flowers bloom when it is too dry) there is concern about how these critters will survive the winter.

Farmer Jeff and I suited up and went into the hives for a look.
We were lucky to see that the bees are very happy and very productive. The best of all was finding that the "girls" are building up stores of honey and started sealing it. This is called "capped" honey.

After we went through each and every frame, we found we were really pissing them off! How do we know? They start moving their wings faster and raising the pitch of their hum...and they try to sting you! We wrapped things up quickly after that...and then went out into the tomato patch on "Site 2", which is thankfully next door. I couldn't believe we were still tying up tomatoes. While tying them up I couldn't help but notice some little ripe tomatoes! Jeff made a wonderful dinner for me with those tomatoes, along with some other yummy food.

Today Farmer Jeff smoked some sausages, we ran an errand to the fabulous garden store, Harmony, and then went back to Site 3 to fix the irrigation system so we could plant pumpkins. That took 3 hours vs. the one hour that Farmer Jeff promised...so I tied up more of the tomatoes. I think Farmer Jeff finally "gets" how wiped out I am from working out all day in the sun. That is why, when he went to work, I took some time off from duties and ...watched some TV. Don't tell him, okay?

So, the last of the crops are in. Well, major crops. Now we just have the raised beds to pull apart, mix some sand into it, and then plant it with more carrots, radishes, and whatever else we can think of! At this point, all I want to think about is when will the peaches be ripe?

Cell Phone Pics

2009-07-21T18:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, I can be one of those annoying people that thrust their cell phone into someone else's face to show off their kids, except mine are furry and feathered!

Here is a picture of my sweet kitty, Chloe. Yes, she is sleeping under the covers and sometimes stays there long after I have gotten up. She is the kitty that was feral and then was "caught" by our dog, India, who accidentally broker her leg at the hip.

I also have photos of the of the beautiful landscape where I work. This was taken at Acorn Winery off of Old Redwood Highway.

Of course I have a picture of my Honey! This was taken at a catering job. Isn't he cute?

Here are some pictures of special chickens...

These are silkies. The gray one is Madison and the brown one is Bubbles. Bubbles didn't make it...sad to say.

This is Nancy. She is a Barbanter and has a male counterpart, Sid. Nancy is very inquisitive and is a great security guard. She and Sid, upon spotting a snake, set of a very noisy alert, spread their wings, and then hold everyone else back. It is a very impressive sight.

I also have a picture of my dad. It was taken by my brother, Chris, on his phone!

Last, but certainly not least, is a photo of my beloved and departed, Tyner. I miss you, Sweetheart!

Summer Work and Rewards

2009-07-07T22:38:00.001-07:00

Life on a farm is something I once dreamt of, never thinking it could ever be a reality. Now I have chickens and bees and my own rows of vegetables, and am the envy of almost everyone I know. Who knew so much work could be so rewarding?

Some Quick Chicken Notes:
We have lost a couple of our little birds in the last 2 weeks. One was a new girl, part of the Ameraucana clan. She never ate enough and just never bulked up. Another was one of the red sex links. She started with a lame foot and then was picked on by the other hens. I will say no more.

Finally, our beloved Eric, White Sebright rooster, passed away after a long illness. He hadn't been well for close to 6 months and all attempts to fatten him up or give him rest from the group did not succeed.

Fare thee well, Eric. Say hi to Tyner for me.

Hunting Bees

2009-06-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

Three of us newbee beekeepers went out on a call Wednesday morning: Farmer Jeff and I and the beautiful Ms. Kristine. A swarm, the second swarm in a week in this particular yard, landed in a plum tree on Tuesday at noon and was still there the next morning.

The rescue/hunting team went into action. We took our extension ladder, our chain saw on-a-stick, a swarm box baited with used drawn out comb, a smoker, bungee cords and our bee suits.

We entered the yard and located the swarm. WOW. The first one I have ever seen UP CLOSE!!!

We received permission from the owners to cut the tree if necessary (it hadn't been pruned in a couple of years, so the trim wouldn't hurt the tree!)

We extended the ladder. Farmer Jeff climbed up and trimmed away all of the pieces of the branch that was sticking out of the swarm. He got down and then I climbed up, holding the open box above my head with my arms fully extended. Kristine was holding the ladder stable as this was going on.

Farmer Jeff then cut the branch with his trusty chain saw and the branch fell exactly into the box, the rest of the bees that had been swirling around flew in, we lowered the box to the ground and cleaned up the vegetation a little more, and then slid the lid onto the box, leaving a little opening. Then we jumped up and down with joy!!!

The entire operation took 45 minutes and Farmer Jeff then asked both of us, "Is that how it normally goes"? To which I had to tell him, "...um, Honey, this was our first one. Now you know as much as we do"!

Follow up - What did we do next?
(Answer given as though talking to fellow bee keepers!)
We set up a new hive in a new location in the "veggie corral" on a metal box that lifted it off the ground 20 inches. We put in the follower boards in positions 1 and 10. Then we put in new wire reinforced bee's wax foundation in position number 2, and 3. In position 4 we slipped Kristines's built-out frames from which the honey had been extracted. We left position 5 open for the frame that was in the swarm box. Position 6 was another frame of the built out frame from the honey extraction, position 8 and 9 new bees wax foundation.

We lifted the lid off of the swarm box, lifted out the one comb which was COVERED in bees, and set it into the center of the super.

We lifted the branch out of the box (which we had cut off the tree, now covered with bees) and shook it over the top of the new super. Just as we have been told, the bees fell in a clump onto the top of the frames and slid down the sides of the frames like ...honey!

We then lifted the lid to the box and shook/tapped out the remaining bees.

We did all of this with cool and collected heads, no sudden movements and no anxiety (because I felt as though I knew what I was doing!). It was like poetry in motion. I am IN LOVE.

Later that day:
BRAVE Knight Susan captured a wild swarm of bees, Brave Knight Susan moved thousands of bees from box to box.

Gardener Susan was out picking carrots when a bee came charging up and STUNG me on the tip of my NOSE!!! Then she proceeded to call her friends and they got into my hair! During all of this I was swatting at them to get them out of my hair and whacked my blue tooth into the stratosphere.

Sigh...First thing I did was get the last little buggers out of my hair, then rinsed my nose with cold water, then put blue toothpaste on the end of my nose ( a new fashion statement)...and then feeling very silly, rinsed it off and put on some sort of cortisone cream. Sigh...that is how I lost my blue tooth...out in the carrots!

Okay, now feeling calmer, I went outside dressed top to bottom in my bee keepers suit to finish picking carrots! Why didn't I think of that in the first place!

Someone asked me how often I am stung by my bees. The last time I was stung was 40 years ago!!! Really!!!

Here is a video that Farmer Jeff took while I was futzing with the bees!

A Weekend in Heaven on Earth

2009-06-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was able to visit heaven for a few days...or at least it felt like what I would imagine heaven to be! My father and I have been the fortunate ones to be invited to a quiet and peaceful fishing camp on the Fall River in northern California. It is a 5 plus hour drive and worth every minute.

My father is 84 years old and is mentally sharp now as he was 35 years ago. We spend these 4 days together just chatting about this and that. He is fascinated by geology and we discuss the hillsides as we drive. He tells me about the kinds of rocks, how they were formed, what glaciers will do to rocks, how far rocks fly during a hard volcanic eruption...stuff like that. Now I know where my brother gets his fascination with ...well, everything! My father is a curious man and is not afraid of doing the homework.

I digress...

We left on our long drive on Thursday morning after he got a tour of the greenhouse. Farmer Jeff built it since he last visited here a year ago for our last fishing trip! He also got to see the bee hives, the new sproutlings of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and now eggplant.

We arrived in Fall River just at the precise moment the thunderstorms began. It was quite intense and ...fun! I am not one terribly excited by storms, but I felt safe and secure with my Papa there.

The company was wonderful. The host is married to a sweet, contemplative woman and she, in turn, has many sweet friends, several of which were there. Most of the same people have been fishing together for 20 years and have very established routines and relationships. I won't even go into the fabulous food we ate up there...but as a teaser, we had the BEST scones waiting for us each and every morning, thanks to baker Steve!!!

This is Steve with a turtle he found in the middle of the road and rescued.

We fished, we ate, we talked, we slept, we ate, we read, we ate, we fished...for 2 days...and then packed up to come home again! The fishing was great...I didn't catch any but I got to hold my father's rainbow trout (as I removed the hook and slid it back into the water). Papa sketched one afternoon...I took pictures and cooked. My holiday!

Chicken News:
We lost a Marans hen over the weekend. No sign of distress or illness...just dead on the bottom of the pen. Sigh...

Our little gray Silkie rooster, Madison, is finding his voice and testing his moves on the ladies. He isn't very successful, but at least he is a polite suitor.

The little female Belgian Booted Bantam, Lucretia Borgia, is a sweetheart! She is so tame and friendly. I love to hold her as she looks at me in complete bewilderment...

Something I learned today: one of the top 10 searches on the internet is... How to raise your own chickens! GO CHICKENS!!!