How Big?

How big does a farm have to be in order to call it a farm? One day at work I casually called what I do farming and received several condescending smiles. Around here "farms" are big; 2000, 3000 acres. They have lots of big equipment that need lots of petroleum products. They grow one crop and they do it darned well, if your goal is yield per acre. I have several goals for this little farm (yes, I'm calling it a farm). First, the food must be the highest quality possible; fresh, organic, picked at the last possible moment before delivery. Second, the varieties I grow are open pollinated, ensuring maximum nutritional value. Third, this labor of love will provide my family with an honest living.

I grow in raised beds to extend my season and outsmart the bermuda grass. I make my own compost. The trees supply leaves, the garden and the kitchen give "greens", the rabbits and chickens provide manures. This may not look like a farm to most folks but I feed myself and my teenager in addition to sharing the harvest with 8 CSA subscribers. I feel as if I've barely begun to tap the potential of this little 1/3 acre. There are so many imaginative ways to get more produce out of a small space and I've tried just a few of them.

I need a new name for this kind of agriculture. We need a name, because there are quite a few folks doing this kind of small-scale farming. I know there are Urban Farms but I can't really use that term when in live in a town of 720. Its kind of like Backyard Agriculture but its also a commercial enterprise so I don't know if that fits, either.

If you can think of what to call this "thing" we do, please post it. I'd love to hear your ideas.

Post Mortem

Fall has arrived and the chilly wind is giving us all new hairdos every minute or so.

I didn't post much in the summer because I was in the midst of doing so many things. Now that the fall garden is (mostly) planted I can take some time to reflect on the Summer's projects.

Five little chicks accompanied me home from the feed store back in March. At the time I thought perhaps I needed my head examined. I already had a house full of rescued cats, how on earth was I going to care for even more critters? They lived in a dog crate in my back bedroom for the first 6 weeks as I got used to the routine of feeding and watering. Then I took a weekend and built a chicken tractor for them. It probably would have only taken a day if I'd known what I was doing. But it got built and the girls moved in. They spent the summer happily eating grass and bugs and fertilizing my back yard.

Six raised beds became 7 as I scavenged some 2 X 12s from an old shed. I planted green chilis, jalapenos, cucumbers, sunflowers, green beans and a few more herbs. I dug up some more of the yard and planted corn and sorghum. I also got carried away with the tomatoes. I started some seeds, then the home improvement center put their Romas on sale for HALF PRICE. So I came home with more. By the time midsummer hit I had 50 tomato plants growing out back. I anticipated lots of happy jars of spaghetti sauce on my pantry shelves. But it was not to be. This was not a good garden year. Cucumbers did very poorly, tomatoes not much better. I didn't get a single green bean until September. But the jalapenos did well and so did the cantaloupes. The other veggies limped along. Eventually I had enough extra produce to start taking CSA subscribers.

My financial aid at the college got SNAFUed so I got a booth at the Farmer's Market and every week I baked artisan breads and lovely sweets. I brought my organic veggies. I enjoyed the face time with customers very much. I am definitely doing it again next Summer.

In July my favorite Hatchery sent me an email "White Plymouth Rocks are half price!"

Oh, that half price again. I just couldn't help myself. I drove to the Post Office three days later to collect my box of 25 fuzzy yellow peeps. These would not have names. These are for eating. We built a simpler enclosure for them, just some fencing and some places to roost. They graduated to a covered pen last month. As I write 5 of the roos are in isolation awaiting their date with destiny tomorrow.

The garden produced, the laying hens began to lay and I made the Dean's List at SEMO State. I still have my faithful CSA subscribers. Every week I deliver fresh bread, herbs and produce to their offices. I love the direct contact with customers. I love planning what goodies will go in their boxes. I'll be adding more shares for the Fall CSA and even more when we start up again in the Spring. Here's a link Mamas Garden.

Some of the Summer's projects turned out well, some didn't. I learned a lot and I gained some confidence.

So what's next? There's plenty in the ground right now; broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, beets, radishes, spinach and three kinds of lettuces. I'll be planting potatoes next week. I expect I'll be installing row covers soon if the nights continue to stay so cool. My big dream for this winter...

wait for it...

Growing Power Urban Farmer Training Workshop Series I want to take these workshops soooo badly. Say a prayer for me that it all works out.

Thanks for the encouragement y'all have shared with me this year. I don't think I could have made this leap into Urban Agriculture without it. Check back soon, I have other exciting projects that I don't dare share just yet. I'll keep you posted.

Why I don't take photos.

Lately I've had no photos to accompany this blog. Okay, I haven't had much to say either but that's a story for another day. I've had plenty of things I'd like to show you. But then I look through the camera lens and there's always some sort of disaster going on in the background and I'm not able to a. clean it up or b. shoot around it.

I know you all understand weeds in the garden and unmade beds. But its embarrassing. Between work, full time school, car pooling the child 30 miles one way to school and taking care of the menagerie, things around here have become unraveled. I still get lots of lovely produce from the garden and I get very pretty eggs from my girls. The turtle finally expired but an abandoned baby bunny arrived. I still cook and bake bread. But sometimes clean up has to wait until much later in the day.

So imagine if you will, very happy cantaloupe vines producing a second crop while taking over the eastern half of the yard. 5 fat little hens in a chicken tractor cooing and trilling while munching fresh grass and bugs with the occasional cucumber from the garden. A new enclosure for the meat birds, who have also become rather fat and whose time on this earth is drawing to a close. Overlook the laundry that needs folding and the dishes in the sink. Those weeds will either get pulled or the frost will do them in.

Its all good and my problems are those of abundance.

My higher power (insert the name you use for the creator) has taken very good care of us. But as you can see, there are still no photos.

Flabbergasted!!

What a great word. How appropriate to the situation it is.

Just now I went out to the chicken tractor to check for eggs. What do I see? The bird that was crowing and hopping on top of all the other birds is up in the coop laying a lovely blue-green egg.

Other words that might apply are as follows...

Flummoxed
Confounded
Confused
and Whaaaaaat?


Please feel free to add any other words you feel might be fitting.

1st egg!!

Well done, girls.

Chickzilla!!

We've started some meat birds. The hatchery sends you an extra chick for free, you just don't get to choose the breed. I thought, "Heck, why not?" one more bird is a good thing, right?


Well here she is, we call her chickzilla. She (or he) is only two weeks old and is HUGE. I believe she may be a Dominique. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Help. Chicken issues.

Okay, so this is one of the things that's been keeping me from blogging. No, not the beautiful teenager, the chicken. Actually I have 5 of them. Chickens, not teenagers. I have 5 Ameraucana laying hens that are just shy of 5 months old. One has always been the dominant hen. She pecks at me when I reach in to change their water.

 BUT, I'm afraid "she" may be a "he". Its been many years since I last kept chickens and I've slept since then so I don't remember everything I should. This large chicken has a much larger comb and holds her tail much higher than the others. "She" has also begun to bully a smaller hen, Martha.

While potentially having a rooster is a separate issue, I need to figure out what to do for poor Martha. She is hiding in the coop and can't even get a drink without being jumped on.

Please post any input you feel may be helpful. Thanks.