Silly me...

I thought he wanted to come in for a little visit, perhaps...

...turns out the turkey in the window just called him a bad name.

Mama's Little Boy is all Grown Up!

Testing, 1, 2, 3...(er..4)

Rose, one of our two Bourbon Red hens, sat diligently on the nest of eggs for over three weeks.   There were 14 in total; mostly hers, but with a few from the Narragansetts snuck in for good measure.  Well, despite what we (humans) felt were adequate security measures, the skunk (s?) got them all.

Having a healthy skepticism for natural hatching, I had tucked away several in the incubator, even though nothing had worked so far.  Over three incubators and four different thermometers, we had failed with almost thirty eggs  - none hatched.

Success at last - thank goodness!  (I was beginning to drag out all my tofurkey recipes that I had accumulated over the years...)

#1 and #4 show the difference in plumage.  #1 (on the right) is a Bourbon Red; the Narragansetts are darker,  duller browns with a bit of black.

Despite the claims by numerous sites that the incubation period is 28 days (don't believe all that you read - it can cause traumatic boo-boos) our poults have widened the hatching window...#1 and #2 came on the 30th day, #3 on day 28, #4 on day 29.

And not to be outdone - precocious #5 is announcing his/her arrival on day #27:

Turkeynomics 101

Last year we bought the poults (11) from the local feed store at a base price of $8.75 each.  Add organic game bird starter, at $16.95 for a 25 lb. bag, and we were starting off pricey.  We lost three to various ailments of baby poults.  

They arrived the third week of May, and we let them free-range for a lot of their lives, with minimal supplementation of organic turkey grower.  The decision to let them range was part kindness - our chickens free-range, and seem much happier and healthier for the experience, and part financial - we had to be able to sell these at the end of the year, and could not afford huge use of organic feed at $21.95 for a 50# bag.

By November, they were not as large as we would have liked, averaging around 8 pounds from the processor.  (Who charges $10 each for processing, BTW.)  This was due, in part to the fact that heritage breeds naturally take longer to put on "Thanksgiving weight", and in part to the leaner range diet.

By Thanksgiving, organic, free-range, heritage turkey was selling for $4 -$7 a pound.  New York City (three hours away) was going for $8 and more, but our customers were local, and we wound up charging $4.  We kept breeding pairs of both Narragansett and Bourbon Reds for this year.  We ate two ourselves, and sold the rest.  It was not a money-making success.

With all the difficulty hatching our own poults, we are getting started three weeks later.  So, like it or not, there has to be more grain supplementation.  We want to exceed 10 pounds for all the birds; hopefully some higher.

Free-range has to be greatly limited, due to the proximity to the enlarging food gardens and my neighbor's reluctance to host turkey pool parties again this year when the poults discover the fun of his yard... (did you know cabana chairs make lovely roosts on hot afternoons?)  

So, we shall see if we can turn this turkey business around this year...

  

Since we last spoke...

Whew!  Too much time has gone by, and I have been very bad about posting.  Shame on me!  Coal in my stocking would be too profitable, so Santa will have to come up with another punishment...

There is no easy way to capsulize what has been happening, but I came across something in all my reading that has given me a lot to think about, so let me share it and see what I can do.

Traditionally, this is the time for lots of cleaning.  Mostly because I anticipate company, or at least cannot even think about erecting a tree in my house or baking dozens of cookies without cleaning off lots of horizontal space and cutting the dust load about 60%...and it's very tiring.

 

Wish we all could have curled up on the sideboard and gone to sleep...but, no.  

I save articles and things I want to read all year long, and get to them when I can, and many of them this year have been about sustainable farming including checklists and guidelines about measuring progress.  I've taken the liberty of condensing them all into a workable list for 2009 and so I am going to treat you all to a "test run" if you don't mind.  (Those of you groaning, can exit here; the rest of you find a chair.)

You could follow this list daily, and come Spring, I am sure we will.   But for this time of year, there are certain considerations that might limit us, as you will see.

Plant something.  I took advantage of our little aspect of Global Warming (thank you, George Bush!) and put in another 65 garlic bulbs and about the same number of tulip bulbs before any cold temperatures set the frost in the ground.  It sets later and later each year, and although gardening wisdom tells us to do all this way back in September or October, I have discovered that if you do that, our freaky temperature swings often get the bulbs starting too early, and they get vegetative growth in the Fall, and do miserably in the Spring.  So perhaps I was pushing the limits by doing all this at the end of November, but we shall see.  (And it has worked for the last three years, so who knows?.  Anybody else having to alter their farming schedule due to changing weather patterns?  

Harvest something.  We participated in the Thanksgiving Farmer's Market and took jams and jellies to sell.  We were actually able to harvest windfall apples and quince in November, and so we put up quince jelly and apple jam.  And we are still harvesting eggs in December!

 Even though we turned our light off at Thanksgiving, the girls are still laying.  Any of my other chicken friends still collecting? 

Preserve something.  In the more traditional sense, that would mean something like this.  I get tired just looking at the picture.  But, we did put up more jams and applesauce even in November, and I like to keep my aspirations high...but seriously, I read a blog post that reminded me I had all but forgotten the cheese in the cellar fridge...so I've been tending to them.  I'm hesitant to open them...and what the heck, one is Parmesan and the other Cheddar, both benefit from aging.

Prep something.   We are planning on hatching turkey poults next spring, so there were calculating decisions when it came to harvesting for our customers this year.  In the end, DH decided he liked the Bourbon Reds better, and so they have been designated as our official layer flock for next year, but I couldn't give up our Narragansett tom, Onyx.  A face only a mother could love... 

Anyway, I prepped their pen by laying a thick layer of straw in the back half to give them insulation against the cold ground and a draft blocker.  We have six left; two toms and four hens (two of those have dates with the processor after the New Year.)

Cook something.  It wasn't hard to fulfill this item.  Jams, jellies, cookies, turkeys, dips, party foods, and candy...in addition to the regular stuff with as much farm food as we could manage.  Favorite farm food used so far:  garlic scape pesto.  I put it up in the early summer when the scapes were ripening, and it freezes very well.  It is yummy!  What's everyone's favorite "farm food" that they used for the holidays?

Manage reserves.  For us, we planned to give lots of homemade gifts this year.  So managing reserves was all about deciding which went for gifts, and which stayed for consumption here.  My ultimate foodie gift box went to my sister in Monterey, who got goat cheeses, jams, maple syrup, organic popcorn, mustard and an antique platter in one of her patterns.   (Collecting antiques is like recycling, right?)  

She made me a beautiful necklace for Christmas, which is kind of like managing reserves for her...she collects beautiful stones and beads and she has an entire room full.  (Beader's heaven)

Work on local food systems.  We participated in the Thanksgiving Farmer's Market in Bennington, VT.  It was indoors (thankfully!) and it was a lot of fun.  We got to bring our yarns as well, and business partner Allison featured her new line of mustards.  Participating in the market this year was very educational and connected us to consumers in a way we had never done before.  (Can't wait for next year.)  We are planning several plantings of beans for drying for next year, as that was one item I thought needed better representation at the market.  People have gotten away from using beans, and they are a wonderful source of protein, vitamins, etc. and great for winter food storage. What other items have people noticed are wanting at the Farmer's Markets?

Reduce waste/recycle.  I'm busy turning old wood into a new coop, sending outgrown clothes to a friend's two daughters, and making a dedicated effort to use up my stashed yarn into worthwhile projects and finished items. (Talk about reducing wasted space!)  And I happened by a neighbor's farm at the right time two weeks ago...she was cleaning out a storage bin and was taking the expedient route and simply shoveling the old spelt

 into the tractor bucket for dumping.  I snagged 4 big bags simply by being willing to shovel them full while she dumped her load in the compost pile.  Turns out the turkeys and chickens really love the stuff, and it's organic!

Learn something.  This is perhaps the hardest one to document.  Besides learning what spelt was, and reading all those articles about sustainable farming and the like, what can I point to as new learning? How about learning that Canadian geese (despite being named for our snowy neighbor to the North) do not really like snow.  In fact, they seldom come out of the barn unless paths have been well shoveled, or there is something decidedly NOT snowy to walk upon...like say, a snow angel?

What has everyone learned lately?  

And finally, my own personal addition to the 2009 list: 

Be a friend.  What is more important to sustainable living than building a community of people that you care for and want to be around?  I have learned painfully and poignantly this year that family can be rotten (don't panic "family" that are reading this!  I don't mean you.  Believe me, the rotten ones aren't reading-not that I'd care if they were, but they are off spending the thousands that they stole, and wouldn't know how to read a blog if they wanted to...but I digress...) and friends can be found in unusual places.  Better to cultivate the friends...

What do you like about your friends?

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday, and looking forward to blogversations in the new year!

Pied Piper

Our heritage turkeys have now decided they would like to free range on the upper lot as well...(much to our dismay) so Madison was the quick thinker and put her new trumpet to good use.

Not a bad sized audience for only one lesson, eh?

Fall Shearing, #1

It was a nice Fall day, so I HAD to get some work done outside.   First project up: shearing.  Hattie, my flock matron, went first as she is the best behaved (and had the halter on so I could catch her without too much gymnastics)

Hers is a pretty nice fleece; each year her silver gets lighter, and this year it looks almost white...

She is standing next to Secret, her granddaughter, making the perfect "before and after" shot.  Photos of anything "during" were more challenging, as many of the farm's other inhabitants were on hand to "help"...

The turkeys hovered around, in case anything edible should appear.  They tasted the bits of fleece that were flying about, but settled for pecking the freckles on my legs in case they were bugs.  (Thanks guys.)

BTW - Anybody know how to sex turkeys?  What exactly is one supposed to look for when deciding who goes to the chop shop and who gets to stay home making babies for next year???  I mean if there is some visual difference in plumage or something, please clue me in.   Based on last year's comedy of errors, I need all the help I can get.  (For those of you that don't remember, we apparently ate the hens...)

And the geese...

...kept squeeking and squawking until I sat down and took a break with them.  They seem to want me to sit with them and pick grass for them to eat out of my hand.  It must be some kind of geese ritual, because they eat three or four handfuls, then they settle down and either take a brief siesta, or walk off to continue grazing.  But if I ignore them, they keep up the anxious squeeking...(I have learned this from experience)

And once the word was out we were taking a break...

Max came by to soak up some attention.  Somedays I just want to be a cat...

Talkin' Turkey

Something new on the farm - turkeys! We have never tried to raise meat poultry on the farm, because we've never had anyone to "process" them in the end, but circumstances have changed, and here we go!

First, I had to build a pen. So from this:

(the old pheasant pen...a 4-H project...)

To this:

With old or green lumber, no power tools, no concept of level, and no directions...it's fantabulous! Or at least Madison and the poults think so...

That's one Narragansett, and three Bourbon Reds. Sex unknown. At least for now...

These guys were the first installment on the new career (more about that coming), and a new "mentor" for the farm, and well, ...you'll see.