Micro Greens!

We have begun a new venture. In addition to the birds,
Osh & I have begun a Micro Greens business!
Things are looking super promising. 

There were some initial startup costs but either way, the items were something we could use in the Spring for starting seedlings.

The plants are growing extremely well! Micro Greens only require about 15 days of powerful light until they are ready to be harvested. Did you know that micro greens actually contain more vitamins than if you were to let the plant fully cycle? Pretty cool, right?!

Some trays should be ready by Wednesday, November 18, if anyone would like to place an order. Live trays are $20. There will be a future credit to use on your next purchase, if you bring the tray and soil back. :) Freshly cut trays are $15 or you can purchase by the oz! $3 per oz. 

Stay up-to-date with everything that's going on at the Micro Farm on our Facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/Johnsonmicrofarm/

All the things!

Hey interwebs! Sorry it's been so long since we last chatted... I was super busy planning a huge event at work + Emma was recovering from her surgery.

Unfortunately, Winter will be here in a blink of an eye. Osh and I have been taking the dogs for walks as much as possible, while the weather holds out. I actually bought us some toasty workout pants so that we can walk the dogs well in to November. (hopefully!) Emma and Otis love adventures!

Speaking of Winter, it's almost time to start preparing the barn for the cooler temperatures.
Typically, we house all of the birds together over the winter, so that they can keep each other warm. This year will be no different, except with the addition of Narragansett Turkeys. The idea of having a heat light in the barn has been tossed around but I'm still unsure about that. There's so much that can go wrong with a heat lamp -- such as a fire which would ruin the barn and probably kill our entire flock. Still weighing out the benefits/downsides... Check back in a few weeks to see what we decide to do!!

This year, we decided to keep about 20 drakes to raise for meat. I have done a lot of reading regarding muscovy duck meat, and it apparently was supposed to taste like beef.... And beef it tasted  like. There's not a whole lot of fat, so cooking it perfectly is key. If you ate this piece of meat, blindfolded, you would probably think it was a really nice cut of beef. We've had muscovy ducks for over 2 years now, I'm not sure why we haven't tried it before. Next year, we will probably raise more drakes for meat, especially, considering how delicious it is!

PS -- If anyone wants to get on the list forr barred rock chicks in the Spring, please let me know around January. Heritage barred rock chicks are $7 each, unsexed. The lines that we have are Woeppel, Guy Roy, & Good Shepherd.

Hatchery vs. Heritage

My apologies for not blogging the past week. I've been fairly busy lately and Emma (the new puppy) is extremely exhausting. Her new favorite thing to do is, hop up on to the counter and eat the cats food or chew on spatulas. I think she might be part goat but waiting on her DNA test for confirmation...

 Harvests have been fairly light but we're getting something every evening ranging from berries, squash, potatoes, kale, broccoli, green beans, & tons of herbage. I haven't had to buy produce in weeks, which is nice, I just wish we had a little more to sell. There's always next year, lets cross our fingers for a warmer summer.

Chickeny-things:

This year we added a line of glittery barred rocks that I am super pumped about. They are from Jeremy Woeppel's line of Plymouth Barred Rocks, his line goes back about 100 years. The main difference between a heritage chicken and one from a hatchery, is that they have been bred to be the closest to 'breed standard' as possible. For instance, most hatchery birds are strictly bred for their egg laying capabilities and  the majority of their original traits are lost along the way due to crossing with another breed, etc. Heritage Barred Rocks are prized for the dual purpose capabilities. IE: amazing meat production, winter hardy, and great layers of large brown eggs.

Cool fact about barred rocks: The Barred Rock is the first and oldest member of the Plymouth Barred Rock breed. There are Partridge Rocks, White Rocks, Barred Rocks, Silver, Penciled, Columbian,, Blue, Black & Buff Rocks all under the same umbrella. Through World War II the Barred Rock was the most common chicken that farmers had in their flocks due to their versatile nature.

Really excited to breed these barred rocks next year! They will most likely run $7 a chick, sold as a straight run. If anyone is interested in being added to the list, please contact us in February 2016 to be added to the wait list. 

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Photo below is of Hatchery Stock {Image rights belong to Murray McMurray Hatchery.}

Visually, you definitely see a difference in barring & weight. I'll try to do some side-by-sides with the hatchery barred rocks that we have in our flock for another reference.

Thank you for reading! I appreciate it!
XoXo
-Kristen

Garden haul!

TONAGE in the garden tonight! 

2 QT sized bags full of green & purple beans

2 QT sized bags of tomatoes 

2 Huge bunches of Kale

4 black radishes 

2 Yellow Squash 

Multiple bunches of chocolate mint  & echinacea leaves for teas. 

1 bunch of beautiful Chard 

1 large bunch of lime Basil 

If anyone is interested in anything feel free to let me know! Everything is grown organically, GMO free, no chemicals or sprays used. 

Thanks for reading 

-Kristen <3

Farm Dreaming........

Someday, we would like to own a large piece of land. 20 acres+ 

I found this beauty today........ 

 

Kickstarter for Johnson Micro Farm? Free eggs for a year? Who's down!?!!!!

http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Curlew-WA-99118/pmf,pf_pt/2108775856_zpid/100095_rid/featured_sort/49.045294,-118.268853,48.712939,-118.879967_rect/10_zm/2_p/

Rooster Troubles

I hatched some heritage Blue Splash Brahma chicks from Carolina Rare chicks line back in February. 

The roosters have started to come in to 'manhood' and Josh has been butchering them a few at a time.  The rooster to hen ratio should be around 8-10 hens per rooster. Right now we have a total of 8 roosters soon to be 6 or 7. So That would be mean we would need 60 hens in order to keep the peace, which we don't have nor really want to have at this moment in time. OH, and I should mention, that these Brahma roosters are massive. Like double the size of an average sized rooster.  In total, we like to keep our numbers for chickens around 40-ish during the winter months.

So back to the Blue Splash Roosters -- this morning Josh went out to open the barn to feed the birds, and found the blue splash Brahma rooster, that we had planned on keeping had broken the neck of a barred rock hen and paralyzed our Barnevlder hen.  It's in a roosters nature to PROTECT the hens, not harm them.  It's hard to say what really happened. I thought maybe he was trying to mate with them and they refused. However, after carefully thinking about the situation, broody hen or not, he shouldn't have harmed them like that. There has to be something wrong with the rooster, so he's gotta go.  It's just not safe for him to stay in our flock any longer. I still plan on breeding them in the Spring but with a different rooster {pending that the last of the blue splash roosters is friendly}

Happier News:

We sold 2 ducks and 3 chicks this week! They went to a home where they will be part of traveling petting zoo. How cool is that?! I'm excited for their adventurous life. It always does the heart good to know they are off to do big things. :) 

 

 

Happy Sunday Y'all! 

 

Blood, Sweat, & Tomatoes -- It's harvest time!

Last night we harvested some of the larger tomatoes! 

This was the first batch of large tomatoes at the Johnson Micro Farm so far this year. While everyone is drinking hot chocolate and sitting by the fire during the winter months; Osh is busy in his plant room, planting the seeds of deliciousness for the next season. [ I typically help plant seeds in the trays but Osh handles the day-to-day care of the seedlings.

 A lot of work goes in to bringing one seedling to fruition.

1. Purchase seeds, swap seeds, or even use seeds that you saved from a previous year.

2. Figure out what you plan on using to start the seeds in. Usually, seed trays will suffice, but in some instances, larger pods are a good idea if you don't want to re-pot things multiple times.  

3. Create your  own soil amendment or purchase soil for the seeds to grow in. On our farm, we use a mix of topsoil along with compost.

4. Watch em' grow!  

 Thanks for reading! Please check back later in the week. I plan on blogging about Heritage Plymouth Barred Rocks from Jeremy Woeppels line & our most recent hatch of Barred Rocks from the Good Shepherd & Guy Roy Lines.