Farm Friday

In case you've been wondering, I am still alive. Today was a good day to be alive, too, with much cooler temperatures that felt more like fall than the dog days of August.

After processing the chickens and selling two of my heifers, things have slowed down alot here. I ordered another batch of 80 Cornish Cross broilers today, however, so things will be getting busier.

I sold the red and white heifers last week, and found that one gained only 15 pounds and the other lost 20. I was expecting them both to have gained at least 90 pounds, so this was a revelation about the quality of our pasture, and also scuttled our grassfed beef plans. No gain=tough beef. I suspect that on the fresh spring grass with lots of clover the heifers gained weight, and then started losing weight after the first full grazing rotation, when our pasture must have been lower in quality than hay (!). It would have been best if I had sold the heifers in late May (only a month after I bought them), as the price of 400-weight heifers was highest at that time as well and slowly dropped afterwards. But hindsight is 20/20, so I'll just learn from that mistake and stick with goats for the rest of the year, and maybe next year, building up the quality of our pasture in the meantime.

I never seem to have pictures before I blog, so Lord willing I'll post some pictures tomorrow, one of which will show the laying hen chicks. I have about 60 of various breeds on the pasture in our hoop coop (which deserves a picture of it's own).

We've really been having fun eating our local, seasonal produce. When we first started going to our farmers' market there was little produce besides onions. Now everything is at the market and, best of all (in my opinion), the apples have started coming in. We discovered Moon and Stars watermelons last week, which are sweeter and more flavorful than any others I've tasted

Our grandparents' had a grape vine loaded with grapes that we picked yesterday, and we're in the process of making grape jelly. They also have a pear tree and a couple of apple trees that are loaded with fruit ready for making pear butter and preserves, apple butter, apple jelly, applesauce, apple juice, apple cider, and apple pie (I love apples). They also have crabapple trees and I'd like to try and make crabapple jelly. On Tuesday we tried our hand at making salsa, which turned out okay, but we learned how we might make it better next time. In Alabama summers, at least, eating locally is a rich life and we count it a blessing.

In closing, Optimistic World News courtesy of Sherlock:
Gas has gone down a little.
Corn has gone down a little.
The temperature has gone down alot.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock