Pickn' in the garden

This afternoon I came home from work and the recliner was calling my name, but I knew If I sat dow in that recliner, I would have never finished the chores, the garden was in dier need of picking. I went straight down to the shed to get a bushel basket and started picking. I hit the cucumbers first. The slicing variety is really being affected by the hot weather and the drought, they feel a little soft but they will crisp up in the fridge... I hope! The pickling cukes are handling things a little better, but its just about curtains for the pickling ones, we planted them about a month before we planted the slicers. The squash is pretty much played out as we say here in the south. then  it was on to the three rows of tomatoes, and they are loaded. Probably picked a half a bushel basket full. Looks like the next few afternoons are going to be spent canning. We raw pack our tomatoes in pints and quarts, the pickling cukes are made into bread and butter pickles. The recipe I use is pretty intensive, we soak them in salt for an hour, rinse them off and bring the pickles almost to a boil before putting them in jars. It is an out of sight recipe, I have had so many compliments on them from coworkers and friends that I think I will stick with this recipe, it's worth the trouble.

Speaking of preserving, we also dry a lot of things from the garden. Our neighbors taught us a lot about drying food. We have learned how to dry Cherry tomatoes, squash, and all sorts of things. I've had a dryer for years and never used it, but after learning from our neighbors we use it all the time. My favorite thing to dry is hot peppers like cayenne. You just remove the seeds and membranes from the pods, and cut them into strips with a pair of scissors, and dry them. How long should I dry them you might ask? Until their dry, of course haha. That's what my neighbor tells me when I ask him and yet I still fall for it every time. But it's true, every dryer is different so just check your manual. Another thing I like to dry is basil. It's the only herb that survived my first attempt at an herb garden. It's pretty prolific stuff, I just dried the leaves whole and crumble them up in a spice container. By the way, the last time i dried cayennes I halved them, removed the membrane, and dried them that way, and just crumbled them up afterwards.

                                                                  Hogs on the brain

I've been thinking about getting a hog or two, I have the perfect place in mind for them , the old catch pen we used to keep a momma goat and her baby. We have plenty of garden waste to fatten one or two up for the fall. If any of you have ever ventured into raising livestock, you know the hardest part is convincing your spouse. Michelle is on board, it didn't take a lot of convincing to get her to go along, but of course she is married to me and is used to my hair-brained ideas. I guess she thought "it could be worse, at least its not camels or something" (note to self; where can i get my hands on a camel). I think raising then would be a good learning experience for us. Just have to make sure we don't get to attached to them. Maybe I will name them tenderloin, and bacon.

Creativity before Capitol



Here is the waterer in use.



I first heard of this phrase in a training class at work,like its some new idea, but it's not. Its been around a long time, Farmers have always been trying to save money by making something yourself or just making do with what you have.

       You can spend a lot of money raising chickens, I have known folks who spent hundreds of dollars on fancy painted chicken coops and then go out and buy expensive waterers and feeders that cost an arm and a leg. They even say look at all the money I'm saving raising my own chickens, when in fact it would take centuries for those eggs to pay for themselves. I have raised chickens for several years starting off with just a few hens, to currently raising 27. I have also spent too much money on products that either don't work well or don't last. I am afraid to add up what I have spent on drinkers alone. I tried the plastic ones they where a pain to fill and tote around, I shelled out big bucks for a metal one that rusted out in less than a year. When I bought this last batch of birds I wanted to buy a nice range waterer, so I drove on down to the farm supply store and got sticker shock. 50 bucks for one waterer, and I needed two at least! I don't know about you but that's a lot of eggs to sell to get that kind of money. So,  I went about researching how to make my own and stumbled on some that where ok, but not real practical.  I took those ideas and came up with my own. I took a 5 gallon bucket and drilled two 1/4 inch holes in the bottom of the bucket just above the bottom, I took a metal pan from the farm store that's big enough for the bucket to fit in with enough room around it for the birds to get a drink. I made sure my holes would be below the lip of the metal pan. I put a gamma lid in the top of the bucket so I could remove and replace the lid to add water. If you can find the bucket lid with the little screw on cap that will work too, but I couldn't find any so I used the slightly more expensive gamma lid. To fill it you simply take of the lid fill it with water and screw the lid back on, instant range waterer. The pans where $3.00, the buckets where about $2.50, and the lids where $6.00, for a grand total of $11.50 each. They work easier than any waterer I have ever used. Their easy to fill, easy to clean,and the the water is always fresh and clean and  the birds love them.

For a feeder we needed something that would hold the feed and any scraps from the garden or the kitchen. To my knowledge they don't sell any thing at the store to fit that bill. It just so happened that we had some left over PVC that is cut in half lengthwise, I would say that it was 6 inch PVC or so. The section I had was about 5 feet long. I originally had it as a feed trough for goats, but it works really well for the chickens. We can put their feed in it as well as all the garden scraps we have. The cost? Absolutely free, it was given to me by another farmer that didn't need it anymore but it has found a home here. 

Here is one of the metal pans we use as the base of the waterer

If you are wondering what I mean by garden scraps It's the peelings and end pieces of squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. instead of throwing them out we feed them to the chickens, they love them and they're good for them. Sometimes we find a cuke that we missed that is a little too far gone for us to eat, but to the chickens it is a real treat. They eat the seeds out first and then finish off the rest. This may sound strange to some, but this is the way people have raised livestock  for centuries, and it makes us feel good that nothing is wasted.

Here is one of the two holes i drilled in the bottom of the buckets. this is the first one i made and i made the holes too far up on the bucket,  its still works but not as well, it likes to overflow.

Pasture-ized poultry

Well it's about time I introduced you to some of the animals here on the farm. We have 24 young egg layers called "pullets" they are about 10 weeks old and have not started laying yet.


A few of the gals. Notice there are some bare spots still left from our drought

I call them "pasture-ized" poultry because we raise them on pasture much like goats or cattle. They roam about within their fenced in area called a paddock, which is just a small section of a larger pasture. The fence they are in is electric poultry netting which is a flexible fence that is electrified with a fence charger.  Don't worry the birds don't really get shocked, it is not to keep the birds in as much as it is to keep predators out. Here in west Tennessee we have coyotes, fox, possums, weasels, raccoons and owls that really love a good chicken dinner. We  recently lost an entire flock of chickens to the masked bandits (raccoons) and this system is a result of tough lessons learned. We move the fence every so many weeks to keep the grass fresh.



Many people ask me why we go through all this trouble, why don't we just put them in a coop. I chuckle a little when I am asked that knowing what I know about the benefits of raising chickens on pasture. I understand that for many people this is what they imagine when they think of chickens, or maybe they remember back to when grandma had the old hen house, and if thats what grandma did that's the only way to do it. But if we look back to great grandma she let he birds roam around the yard eating bugs and scratching through the grass.





Here is the poultry netting and the charger that powers it



So why do I choose to raise my chickens on pasture? I thought you'd never ask. For one it's just healthier for the birds. They get plenty of fresh air and sunshine, they get all the bugs they care to eat, they get a free salad bar ( for those who have not read one of Joel Sallatin's books, thats fresh grass) its just a more natural way to raise poultry. When Michelle and I first began writing down our farming philosophy,one of the things we both felt was important was humane animal husbandry. What does that mean? It means let the goats be goats and the chickens be chickens. Chickens in the wild where not confined to poop filled coops and processed feed, they foraged for their food, eating bugs and grass and seeds. Now don't misunderstand me, we still feed traditional chicken feed to supplement their natural diet. The second reason is that the eggs are out of this world! Hold up a store bought egg or even a coop raised egg next to one that is layed by a pasture raised hen you will immediately notice the difference. The yolk is a bright orange color, the whites are so defined the yolk actually stands up on the whites. Taste it and you will have tasted the most flavorful, richest, creamiest egg you have ever tasted. Cook that egg in a cake or a pie and you will not stop getting compliments on how rich it is. There are even more unseen benefits, studies show that eggs raised in this fashioned are lower in cholesterol and higher in omega 3 fatty acids, why one might even say eating a pasture-ized egg is akin to taking a vitamin.




Our New Hampshire rooster

Those buckets are our range waterers they cost a fraction of what the store bought ones do and work even better

Farming in the rain

We have had a very dry June, so it is a welcomed sight to see the rains we've had in July so far. Today has been one of those rainy days with periods of no rain to misty rain to downright downpours. Most folks would just enjoy a lazy day indoors, but when you have livestock they must be cared for every day regardless of the weather. We have 26 pastured laying hens that roam about on a section of pasture enclosed with electric poultry netting . Every so often we move the fence to a new section of our small pasture. Today just happened to be the day they needed to be moved. The longer they stay in one spot the less grass they have for eating (which really saves us on feed costs) and the more manure is deposited on the soil, a little is good fertilizer, but too much will burn the grass since it is so high in nitrogen. We did our best to pick a lull in the scattered showers, but as soon as we moved the birds to the small holding pen and got the fence down the sky just let loose, it came a good ole gully washer. Our only choice was to work in the rain. We got the fence back up in record time and got the shelter moved and the waterers back in place and headed indoors. When we arrived in doors we had more work ahead of us. Our large garden is in full swing, there where cucumbers and tomatoes to can as well as apples and basil to dry.

Earlier this morning the neighbor and I went on a feed run. Since we both raise poultry we just made one trip between us. Picked up 100 pounds of chicken feed that will hopefully last us about a month if our pasture holds out. The grass is just now growing again after the dry spell. Growing good green pasture is becoming one of our biggest concerns now.
All this may seem like pure drudgery to some, but we absolutely love it. There is nothing like watching those chickens scratch around in that fresh pasture, or seeing a beautiful stand of sweet corn, or opening the cupboards and seeing jar after jar of homemade pickles,jellies, salsa, and tomato sauce that you made. This is why we choose to live on three acres and a dream.

What is three acres and a dream about

Three acres and a dream was created by my wife michelle and myself (Anthony). Three years ago we bought our home that sits on three acres of land. (thats the three acres part of the title) It has been our goal to one day be able to make a living right here on our small farm called dogwood hill farm. (that's the dream part of the title)
Well, now that you understand the title I can get to writing. Our goal is in 7 years to be living only off the income we receive from the farm. Right now we both have full time jobs in town . Why such a long time frame you might ask? Well two reasons; 1) in order to live of the farm income we need to be as close to debt free as we can. This means in the meantime we need to pay off as much debt as we can. There really is not that much, since we don't use credit cards. just a car note, a small personal loan from the bank, and of course our mortgage payment. We realize that we are not going to be able to pay our mortgage off in seven years, but we hope to make a large dent in it.
2) since it would be expensive, not to mention fool hardy to rush in at full production, we need to slowly ramp up the process. This way we can cash flow each enterprise instead of digging ourselves deeper in debt. There are other benefits of this progressive approach, it gives us a chance to make mistakes and learn from them while we are still working off the farm. Mistakes made at the peak of production could ruin our business. It's much easier to learn when the operation is small, and we still have our jobs to fall back on.
Well, I suppose that Is enough for today. Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story