Shades of Green Farm

The Trouble with Chickens (Processing, that is)

Yum, our pastured, colored-ranger breed broilers are looking fat and just about ready to become food for us... however, due to the recent and  heavy rains our area has finally received, we are in a quandary. The new facility our friend and fellow farmer, Jason, has built awaits nothing except installation of the septic tanks, and his inspection visit... and the soil is too wet to install the tanks... and the visit cannot happen until the tanks are in.

For Jason, this means he cannot begin to recoup the investment he's put into building the facility. For us, it means we've got chickens ready for slaughter and customers eagerly waiting to buy... and we've got new labels to have made with the correct information on them, which we have to get from the inspector, who hasn't been able to complete the process yet.

Who would have thought we'd find the fact that we're getting rain in our corner of the world to be anything but pure pleasure?

No problems with the chickens but chicken trouble none the less... or is it all the same?

Stay tuned, all will unfold and turn out just fine. If you are interested in buying our chicken or eggs, and are in the Austin/Bastrop area, contact me; we will gladly serve you... barring trouble with chickens, of course.

Newsy Email Sent October 3, 2009

Greetings to our friends and supporters (those who didn't get this in an email; if you got the email,check out the new #3 listing)~

To ease your reading, I'm numbering and separating each topic... that way you can read only what you wish to or have time for.

1. Bastrop Farmers' Market and purchasing our goods

2.  New logo

3. Link to funny new YouTube video featuring Sue and our newest chick

4. Farm workings

5. Our wish list for materials and labor

1. Bastrop Farmers' Market and purchasing our goods
As of Saturday, October 3rd, the market hours return to 10-2; Friday hours remain 2:30-6, but we are there only on Saturdays, 10-2. We are often asked by regular customers if they'll see us Friday, so to clarify and explain... with all the work that needs to be done mostly by me alone, and Sue working at the mill, we are unable to attend on Fridays until further notice. We'll sure let you know if/when that changes.

We are about to run out of frozen chicken, only a few left. We will have fresh chickens for farm pick up in November and will send out the exact dates when we know them. We will also be raising pre-ordered chickens to a larger size for those who want them for Thanksgiving or just big birds for large gatherings. We'll soon have two order forms-- one to let us know how many chickens you would like to purchase fresh or frozen when they become available and another to order holiday/big chickens.

Should you be in Austin for breakfast and want an organic meal using our eggs, go to Terra Burger, on Guadalupe or Research; right now Guadalupe has a special on their breakfast tacos, too.

I deliver eggs every Tuesday in Austin and if you want to get together with other folks and arrange a drop-off of multiple chickens, let me know and we'll set it up. Many small farms are working with buying groups who do the work of organizing who wants what , where it will be dropped off by the farmer, and collecting the money to give to the farmer. I'd love to see that happen in Austin with our goods!

2. New logo and our gratitude and appreciation
We are in the final stage of developing our Shades of Green Farm logo! Gigantic hugs of gratitude to Andrea Weissenbuhler!!!! Andrea Feathers, as she may be called for her love of chickens and birds, came to us by chance in her search for chickens to photograph. She met Sue at Coyote Creek Organic Feed Mill (where Sue works) because she'd learned there were chickens there. Sue told her she might also want to come to our place and once Andrea called me, we both knew we just had to meet. She's been here several times, taken wonderful pictures, painted a fabulous and funny chicken for my birthday, and decided she 'should' support our efforts. Andrea is a website designer, a graphic designer and a very good artist... and she has donated her time and prodigious talents to create our logo. Once complete, I will certainly post it on our website and send it to all of you... and get the word out about this talented woman. Thank you, thank you Andrea Feathers!

3. Funny new video on YouTube
It's a hoot, especially the surprise ending! I won't say any more about it.... take a 'peep'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE8UVCSiD4k

4. Farm workings
It's a busy and exciting time on the farm! With the recent rain, our farm is once again living up to its name, and we are most grateful. It's good to see the land rebound after being so dry so long and in some places, having had hard pressure on it from chicken pastures that stayed in place longer than usual. Our vacation gave us great rebounding, too, which comes in handy now with the larger work load... my energy and spirits are high as I go about the work of being a farmer and educator.

On the farm we currently have:
Two registered South Poll steer about to become food and once they're gone, our 2 cows, Pip and Penny, return pregnant from their stay at Coyote Creek, along with this year's calves, the heifers Phili and Bette. These four gals will be the basis of our herd, although we'll take on another heifer if they have one, cause Pip and Pen are not youngsters any more and we need to give time for the new breeding cows to become of age.

Our first flock of layers, now numbering about 180, in their pasture, and a second flock of 300 pullets just starting to lay, in their pasture which includes the new Egg Mobile we bought from Josh at Alexander Family Farm. This 2nd flock involved quite an investment for our farm and will mean we can once again fully meet Terra Burger's needs, as well as one or two additional small contracts, and our customers at the market, of course. That is, once their lay rate is up, their eggs are large enough,and we've figured out how to meet their lighting needs... now the lay is down with both flocks because the daylight period is too short. It's amazing- the endless learning involved in being a farmer... as, I suppose with most long term endeavors in life.

There's 150 5 week old broilers on pasture and another flock of 75 in the brooder. We're working with Jason over in Brenham and it looks like we'll have our chickens processed at his place starting this fall, although it's still not clear if it will be certified organic in time for this year's flocks. Barr Mansion in Austin is awaiting our having certified broilers, and as soon as that occurs, they will take 16 a month! This is such an important step for us, to know in advance that we have ongoing sales.

The two ducks left from our first little flock are both laying again, after one took a hiatus to sit a nest of unfertilized duck eggs and some fertilized chicken eggs we snuck under her. From this we had our first farm-hatched chick~ Trudy, who was named by the girls who gave the rooster to us... named, by the way, Gertrude. Many and big thanks to Casey who cared for our farm while we were on vacation, and allowed that duck to brood! He also brought 3 more ducklings to our farm, which look like will end up being one drake and two more ducks, although they're not mature yet. More folks at market want duck eggs, so we want to collect more than we can from our two gals laying now. We are also exploring interest in duck eggs at small stores, to see if it makes sense for us to start up a larger flock... and figure out how to make the details of pasture, swimming and cleanliness work at that scale.

Of course there's the 'home flock', consisting of Gertrude the silver wyandotte rooster and his array of chickens, two of which are broody now, so maybe we'll get more chicks. We still have Gail, our blind hen, and now Trudy lives with her and I've found them laying next to each other and seen Trudy try to wedge herself under Gail when they roost up at night. It's adorable! News flash!! Our second home hatched chick emerged before I could get this letter completed and sent. Andrea doesn't know it yet, but she has the honor of naming this little one.... gender unknown, as is Trudy's.

Last and certainly not least, I am teaching again! I've spoken to a few groups about food production and consumption choices and Thursday October 1st, I addressed the Austin Slow Food group to discuss our farm values and practices. Thanks to Betsy Levy for contacting my about that. Through the efforts of Michelle Hernandez, it looks like we'll be hosting the Austin Backyard Poultry Meet up group in November or in spring. And many thanks to Kathryn Henderson, who teaches at Texas A&M in Bryan; she will be bringing her Eco-feminism class here for a day of learning and work later in October. I am so eager for this chance to teach on the topic of alternative/healthy food production in our country! To top it all of, I will be facilitating an online community of early childhood educators from St. Louis as they work to achieve Bachelor degrees in their field. For 13 years, I worked  at the Child Day Care Association in St. Louis as a consultant and trainer for early childhood and youth programs. I am honored that they would ask me to teach for them again, and with the wonders of the internet, it is possible.

5. Our wish list for materials and labor
As you can see, we've got a lot going on, and along with that comes a bunch of stuff we wish we had or help we need. So, in that light, in no particular order, here's our wish list:

Materials needed:
Metal or Plastic roofing panels in good shape, at least 6' long
Good condition 2x4, 2x6 and 2x8 boards, as least 4 feet long
Plastic gutter lengths, 10 ft. being best but not necessary
Welded wire fencing-- we need 100s of feet
6' T-posts, also 4' or 5'
Barbed wire on roll
Pasture gates-- 4', 8', 12' and 14'.. almost any size-- could be hollow metal, or chain link, or other
Stone or ceramic tile to cover a 4' x 4' outside floor area
Hardiplank to skirt the house with- could be remnant pieces at least 3' wide
Working front-loader washer
Non-working but not rusted electric water heater tank... 30 or 50 gallons

We have a pickup and will pick up anything we can use.

Work to be done:
Replace tarp with roofing panels on several chicken houses
Help put in and fence around a small fall garden (or it'll be next spring's)
Help mulch and fence around the rest of the fruit and nut trees
Mow or shred the dove weed in the lower pasture area
Mow down dove weed around pond while water's still low
Repair barbed wire boundary fence in a few areas (got tools for the job? i don't know how and am eager to learn as well as get it done)
Cut down dead trees... you can have the fire wood or leave it, as you wish
Build small pole barn/shed for well pump house and temporary egg washing room
Help skirt around the house
Tile the 4' x4' "bathroom"
Artisan craft privacy fencing that will hold vines... using cedar branches cut from nearby
Pile up chicken litter wood chips and fence around (to keep chickens from re-scattering)
Help set up solar hot water collection system (done with Sue)

As you might imagine, there's an endless array of work that could be done. If you have time and interest, let me know what and when and we'll make it happen.

Enjoy the rain, the new growth, the cooler days... life in general,
jules

Spring Catch-up Time-- A Quick Check-In

Coming from Missouri where winters are longish, cold and typically wet, spring certainly calls forth the possibility of a good cleaning~ it’s no longer cold, making the idea of opening windows and taking things outside to air a pleasant one. After a season of being shut inside with old air, dust and germs, it’s a necessary step in having a healthy home, as well.

Here in Texas, winter is short and interspersed with warm days… warm enough to open windows and air things out. And being a farmer one gets outside every day, warm or cold, wet or dry (precious few wet days this past winter!)… like it or not there are animals to care for and in our case, just a few cool season greens that I managed to get in the good soil of our now 4 season garden.

What we have here at Shades of Green Farm is spring catch up time… not because there’s suddenly more hours in the day (although daylight savings time fools some of us into thinking we do)… not because there is information to get out that we shouldn’t have or didn’t send out earlier (although there are some dates set that weren’t before yesterday)… no, this morning is spring catch up time because my cat woke me at 3:00 a.m. upchucking an over-sized snack of dry food nuggets and after hours of snoozing, I got up early enough to at least start this entry. ☺    (and now it’s two days later, as I complete this entry to share at least a snippet)

The ‘abbreviated version’ of what’s new and doing on the farm is as follows (I am not brief, so I’ll do what I can to give you a sense of life on the farm without taking up too too many characters of font):

1. We are now certified organic by Nature International Certification Services!!! We are purchasing our little round green and white USDA/ORGANIC stickers to put on everything. We are having our egg label redone to include the USDA and Nature International logos.

2. Our 235 laying hens are producing over 200 eggs each day, which we are selling each week at the Austin Farmers’ Market at Triangle Park on Wednesdays from 4-8 p.m.; at the Bastrop 1832 Farmers’ Market on Chestnut St., each Saturday from 10-2; from our farm by appointment; to TerraBurger, a new organic, healthy 'fast food' restaurant near the UT campus on Guadalupe (which we are excited to see them being used in the egg muffin breakfast sandwich and to see our egg case on their ‘source wall’!); and to Kay Wheeler, chef and caterer who sells her wares most Saturdays at the Bastrop market we well (she’s featuring our eggs in egg salad and spinach salad at her food booth at Round Top)… and we continue to seek venues for selling our good eggs from happy hens.

3. Our two cows have ‘dropped’ which means their calves are hanging low in their bellies and their hip and back bones stick up like they’re emaciated… and means they’re likely to give birth in 2-4 weeks. With the drought we have invested quite a bit of money in hay to augment the sparse pasture… and have learned quite a bit about how much they need and thanks to Betsy Ross’ recent visit, how much dry matter a chunk of our fields offer the cows and their steer calves (which become food this summer) and how to set up rotating pastures fairly easily (I’ve added setting up new fence lines to the To-Do list)

4. We are running low on our chicken pieces but have whole chickens left; we hope they hold out until our  next flock is processed. We have another flock of broiler chicks coming mid-April, “Colored Rangers” and “Poulen Noir”, again from JM Hatchery. With the incredible help from Judy and Dennis, we cleaned the brooder of last year’s litter (which is now helping trees and bushes grow) and are almost ready for Flock #6.

5. We’ll have fresh, never frozen chicken ready mid-to-late June and will let you know when you can come to pick them up.  If you know how many chickens you would like this spring and early summer, place your order now to reserve them. We continue to work on finding a way to have our broilers processed under certified organic circumstances, at which point we’ll be able to add that mark of excellence to this label as well. We also want processing to happen closer to home, to minimize stress on our chickens at the end of their lives… part of the reason for a delayed start this year when we hoped not to run out again. Ah, well, it will work out in time.

6. Our ‘home flock’ consists of Gail, our blind hen, living alone at this time (Violet was predated and now we’re getting a few chicks to become her new companions that won’t peck her); our 5 keeper broilers are Golda and Hillary, the dominant divas now almost a year old and Lucy, Ethel and Ricky from our last flock~ Ricky’s voice is horrific, unlike his namesake, while the gals are both beautiful in big-time rotund fashion; only 2 ducks remain from our 8—all others were predated—and living with them are 6 escapee layers from the large flock. All are happy, healthy and laying eggs (except Ricky, of course).

7. The dogs: Jordan who is “owner protective”, is almost 5 and has surprised us by becoming well-behaved (as long as you accept her self-appointed guard dog ways… useful out here); Aubie, our dumpster dog who turned out to be at least part Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, she’s been with us almost a year and continues to be a sweetheart and unstoppable chicken chaser (since she’s up all night chasing off critters, she sleeps happily enough in her yard or on tie-out during the day).

8. Emma the cat will be 18 years old this summer and is just now beginning to show her age… she receives constant compliments on her youthful appearance, but I know she doesn’t chase her mice around the bed like she used to.

9. Sue continues her work at Coyote Creek Organic Feed Mill (and the farm as well, to lesser extent); the availability of local organic feed is how we are raising chickens at all; the lack of availability of Sue here on our farm is a decided lack on both our parts; Sue treasures the time she does spend here.

10. jules continues her work here at Shades of Green and finds increasing pleasure in the daily tasks of walking pastures and caring for animals; she is eager to find her co-farmer and get more growth happening on the farm; she has written a full page of To-Do’s and is not done yet.

11. Our recent 3+ inches of rain has resulted in the greening of ground and trees…. exquisitely gorgeous after the long brown drought. It appears that all the orchard trees have survived except the pomegranate; we’ll lost several perennial plants, even a couple lantana which are native to this area but obviously needed more water than I gave them.

12. We hope to open new ground for a market garden yet this spring, with the goal of having fall produce to take to market… (back to that co-farmer notion; either that or committed community supporters to help on a regular basis) herbs that go well with chicken and eggs are one thing we’re interested in attempting. jules’ experimentation adding organic matter to the sandy loam on this part of the land resulted in good soil in our first garden… we’ll move some of this soil to the new location, lightly till/turn the wood chips and chicken poop from our Flock 5 broilers into the sod and fence the whole thing from chickens and deer.

There you have it… a not-so-brief overview update… and a haiku for you…

Loving our Green farm
In all her variations
Of leaf and effort

Appreciating the green spring,
jules

April Events Coming to Bastrop 1832 Market-- Including jules on the 24th

Greetings, folks! Dolores from our local Bastrop market just sent me this, so i am posting it and passing it on. Next i will post my long-time-writing 'quick update'.

jules

April events at Bastrop 1832 Farmers Market
1302 Chestnut St. by the railroad tracks
In the Market building at the back of the lot
512-360-4502
info@bastrop1832farmersmarket.org
www.bastrop1832farmersmarket.org

·         Saturday, April 4, at 1pm.  Seminar with Libby Pulley and Kay Wheeler: Meal Planning. Learn tips and strategies for planning healthy meals for you and your family. Free.

·         Tuesday, April 7: 2:30-6pm and Saturday April 11:  10am-2pm.   Celebrate Texas Herb Week, April 5 - April 11, 2009. The herb of the year for 2009 is Bay Laurel. Free handouts on growing herbs and herbal recipes.

·         Saturday April 11: 10am-2pm. Spring Celebration at Market. Fun for all--including Face Painting & Farm Animals Exhibit. Free.

·         Tuesday, April 21, at 4 pm. Seminar at Market: Backyard Chickens by Jules of Shades of Green Farm. Free.

Sales are Taking Off and Chickens are Coming!

Well, my friends, there is much in the way of news on our little farm. After wondering if we would ever get to the point of having regular sales, we have just sold out of our chickens! Except for the 2 USDA chickens we are holding for People’s Pharmacy in Austin, I sold the last 3 today at Bastrop 1832 Farmers’ Market. We have less than a dozen of the locally processed chickens~ at least 5 will be delivered to places and people in Austin next week… and today at the market several other customers indicated they may come out to farm and pick one up. I love it when that happens, because I can then show folks where their meat is coming from, so we can feel good about it together.

[ By the way, in Texas a piece of state legislation that was apparently meant to support small poultry producers had regulations attached that contradicted that intention. Now, unless you have your own processing facility on your farm property, you cannot sell to stores, restaurants or at markets; you must have your poultry processed at a USDA facility. Part of our approach to raising food in sustainable fashion is not to try to do it all, but support existing small farmers by paying for them to process our chickens. It’s like everyone on the block having their own lawnmower~ we would rather not see resources used this way and would rather share and cooperate. And so we have some chickens processed locally and sold off our farm and the rest done at a USDA certified plant. After searching extensively for a USDA processing facility anywhere in the state, we found one~ yep, just one!~ that will take birds from other people’s small farms. We are incredibly grateful to them for taking us on at a challenging time for their family! I will maintain their privacy on the website until I hear from them that it’s okay to thank them individually by name. We hope that changes someday, so we can address another of our goals, which is to keep all our farm business as close by as possible, especially when it involves moving animals.]

Back to our news…. We’ve sold out but you will not have long to wait to be able to purchase  our chicken at the Bastrop Market and at our home.

We have listened to our customers and are striving to have smaller chickens available. In order to make a living from them, our goal is that they will weigh between 3.5 and 4 pounds. We also hope to have some of them cut at least in half, if not fully parted into breasts, legs and thigh sections. I’ll let you know when we know.

Chickens will be available starting Friday November 7th, 2008 and should remain available consistently available at least until spring, depending upon demand and our decisions about when or if to take another pause in brooding during the coldest month, January.

Another opportunity for buying a chicken is to reserve one or more or our famous large chickens for the holiday season. We will hold back chickens for people who want a fresh, never frozen big roasting bird the Tuesday before Thanksgiving as well as the Tuesday before Christmas. If you celebrate another holiday at the this time of year, let us know and we will see if we can make it work to have a fresh chicken ready for you; it may be that we can offer a large roaster but that it must come to you frozen.

Contact us to reserve your holiday roasters~ send us an email, give us a call or come visit us at the Bastrop Farmers’ Market on Fridays and Saturdays. Only those who have reserved roasters will be able to purchase them.

We're growing again!

"Oh my... am I ready for this?" This is what comes to mind when I am not too busy to think or too excited to be worried... or sleeping.

It's almost autumn and we are growing our work here on the farm. The short term calendar looks like this:    
Wednesday Sept. 3rd~ 250 day old laying hen chicks arrive into a new brooder/house and pasture     Wednesday Sept. 10th~ 15 ducklings (Khaki, egg layers) arrive into their new house and yard    
Friday Sept. 12th~ 160 broiler chix arrive (thank goodness their brooder and house are built!)     S
aturday Sept. 13th~ Shades of Green Farm conducts a demo on preparing whole chickens and leftovers at the Bastrop 1832 Farmers' Market    

We're also bringing our own cattle onto home pastures here in September.    
Oh, there's the fall garden.

My my, aren't we busy? Are we crazy?!?

People want our chickens, increasingly... as folks get a taste of them and understand what it means to their health and our planet to eat organic, local, humanely raised meat as part of their diet, demand goes up. Some folks would like us to raise ducks, turkeys and other meat as well. People ask us about eggs, both chicken and duck eggs... we're hoping to offer eggs at market and primarily to small grocers and restaurants. We'd love to be growing more produce for ourselves and some to sell... and we're thinking about herbs-- fresh herbs to go with our chickens.

The possibilities are endless and so is the work. If you'd like to support us, there are a number of ways to do this. Buy our products, since without customers we have no farm. (In accordance with our values, we only sell locally, in south central Texas) Consider offering a contract for meat and/or eggs; regular sales/revenues go a long way in meeting our fiscal needs. Call jules to arrange a time to come and work on building, maintaining or moving poultry houses and pastures, gardening, etc; regular help would be greatly appreciated. Donate materials, expertise or money to build the expanded infrastructure we need; this includes electric and barbed wire fencing, freezer and/or frig-cooler, storage barn, water lines, trailer, tractor, gardening, etc. (At this time, your donation would not be tax deductible). Share your recipes and cooking strategies with us and others~ to expand our repertoires and help those who don't know how to approach a large, whole, pasture-raised chicken. Make suggestions for improvement and expansion~ we'll take all into consideration and if we might not be able to do it, we still want to hear it.

Life is good on the farm. At times strenuous, at time stressful... and good. How fortunate we are to have this opportunity to live here, work here (at least some of the time) and make food for ourselves and others... food we know is healthy~ for humans, the animals in their lifetimes, and the planet. Oh joy!

Welcome to Our Farm!

Hey there!  Welcome to the Shades of Green Farm website.  We are Julie and Sue and we're chicken farmers.  We hope you'll become one of our customers and enjoy our healthy chickens.  Our chickens live on  green pastures and are fed organic feed from Coyote Creek Organic Feed Mill in Elgin.  Julie will write soon and tell you more about our farm and our family.

We have roasting chickens on sale now for $3.00/LB.  On June 12, we'll have USDA certified chickens for sale for $3.95/LB.  Our chickens average 5 LBs each so you can cook up several meals and only heat that oven once!  Our chickens are of French origin from Label Rouge breeding stock.  That means they are very tasty.. like a chicken!  Their meat is tender and textured, not mealy.  We hope you'll try them!