First Rabbit Butchered, First Farmer's Market & Catch-Up Blog

I am not sure what sort of wildness is in the air but life has been insane lately.  We're just going with it, but I'm hoping that winter brings a bit of calm to our life. 

We are moving into canning/harvest season, and I'm so excited to put up new things like Rhubarb Orange Jam, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling and Fennel Relish.  Those are just what I've decided on doing today.  We'll can some pickled beets too because they're a favorite! 

We did our first Farmer's Market the 31st of July and were really successful.  The funniest part of selling was that catnip (which I took on a whim) was our bestseller.  Catnip.  I had to laugh.  Since we are overflowing with rhubarb, I also took some rhubarb cobbler kits and sold two of the three.  I was pretty excited about them because they were our first "value-added" product and they sold!  It was good to talk to people about what our goals are, where we are now and whats in the works for this coming season - I can now talk about these things much more smoothly than before.  My friend Christina sold her beautiful bags and other hand-sewn products across the way from us, and we met several other vendors (of course) so it was interesting to see what was available.  I am not certain we will be doing a booth there more this summer - though I certainly enjoyed it - simply because of the time requirement and because I cannot take the kids down at this point.  Richard took them home this time, but had to take the day off to do so, and as far as economics goes, it makes much more sense to have him work than sell produce for half the income.  Once this kids are bigger this won't be a consideration, but until then, unless we have more high-dollar items to sell, we're undecided on how much we'll be going down.  I am a bit disappointed by this but ultimately enjoy selling from home much more.

Last night I butchered one of our two young bucks.  Initially used the "broomstick" method for killing them, but didn't do it correctly so ended up taking thirty seconds (forever! i don't really know how long) to kill a rabbit that should have taken five.  Not the best deal.  I felt horrible that it wasn't as quick as it should have been, but learned and will be better with the next one.  Killing something with your hands is much different than shooting it.  More intimate, which made me more thankful because I felt the life leave.  Earlier this week I cooked a Foster Farms chicken, and was disgusted by the unhealthy smell of it - so much so that I almost threw it away.  Processing the rabbit I was struck by how clean and healthy the meat looked and smelled, and  it made me happy that we are providing that quality for our family.  If we all had an intimate knowledge of the animals that we ate, I'm certain there would be much lower consumption nationally.  We're going to fry it tonight, so I will post on the quality/taste etc then.  We will be butchering the second buck this week sometime between Tuesday and Thursday, hopefully it goes much much quicker!!

Land next spring!

Through his work, Richard has talked to a man who is interested in leasing us land.  Apparently Richard's boss has been talking to land-owning customers about what we're looking for and trying to do - pretty amazing to have support from unexpected places - and as a result he approached Richard!  We are hopeful, but are obviously several steps from putting a shovel to the ground. 

We have received our seed mix lists from Justin at NRCS, and they're long lists.  Instead of a few plant species there are two batches of nearly ten species!  We would split our land, seeding half with one mix and half with the other so that the entire growing season is covered. 

Lately we are getting more and more people coming by for produce, and I just love being able to have them walk through and point to what they want.  It's just a cool experience.  Sharing our goals - letting them know what they're supporting - is wonderful.  Savanna will tell them what everything is too if she is outside with us, which I just love since I don't drill her or anything on the kinds of plants we have, she just catches on.  We are even able to sell the catnip that we originally planted to keep the cats in a certain area of the garden.  It has flourished and I figured "why not?"

I will be taking pictures of our garden again this week, and will post them shortly after.  It has grown a TON since the last photos were posted.

We have several more wild bees showing up now!  Hopefully they will pollinate the tomatoes like crazy.

Downside of the strip beds

We love the quick setup, ease of use etc of our strip beds BUT it turns out the animals love to be at ease in them!  Crazy Lucy (cat) loves to lounge on the young seedlings and Jesse (Bassett/Bordercollie pup) thinks he should sit in the tomatoes to drink out of the little water dish I have in one.  They're only a foot tall, so apparently it's like an animal throne lol.  I'm hoping that me running them out will get the "don't get in there" message through.  Not holding my breath though - I've found that once they like a spot it's pretty hard to convince them that it isn't wonderful.

Our Garden

Digitalis (Foxglove) I planted last year, put to sleep under straw for the winter, then did a happy dance when they emerged this spring - victorious!  Bees like flowers too, so a constant bloom on the property should help attract bees and therefore boost our production.  Thats the idea anyway.

The rest of the front flower bed.  Bees have been coming through regularly and I should be able to start collecting seed soon.  We have flowers in almost every planting bed.  This bed only has the large, nasty/noxious weeds pulled.  Food beds keep me busy enough with the weeding.

The two beds on the right each measure 4'x20' and are made with FREE scrap wood from our local mill.  The shorter bed on the left is new this year and measures 1' x 18' +/-.  We call the little beds "strips" because we've been putting them up in free/unused space.  They are made from salvaged feed-lot fence boards (also free).  Pretty doesn't grow plants (good thing lol).

These are three more "strip beds" behind our house.  This area has some nasty clay soil spread over it (containing a TON of weed seed) so we're hoping that the soil in the raised beds will be enough for the plants to thrive.  Not sure they will, our pumpkins are struggling but seem to be gradually getting better.  The right bed contains only root vegetables though, so maybe they'll have a better outcome...?

Our home & front beds.  The bed to the right of the sidewalk is 5'x60' and our neighbors regularly stroll by to check its progress.  I know this because I am usually weeding, watering or thinning.  The "squash boxes" (this year anyways) are new this year also, and are simply a way to use our lot more completely.  They are only 18" or so square and are very quick to do.  Just dig out the sod where you'd like to put one, build the box and fill it with soil.  Simple.  Much easier than trying to keep the grass back from the squash.  They are also made with scrap lumber.  All we purchase for these beds are nails.  It's good to explore your community : )  Our lot is 9,000 square feet for those of you who are curious.

In the evening the leaves of several of our vegetables cup in order to collect moisture.  Pretty cool.

Everything needs a place to water.  By supplying a water source you attract all sorts of life that you otherwise wouldn't see: caterpillar-eating birds, aphid-eating lady bugs etc - good guys.

There is one more bed on the north side of our home.  Richard dug a 5'x40' section of horrible, hard clay(then added and turned in organic matter), so that he could plant a swath of sunflowers out our kitchen window.  He raised them from seeds brought from California - from sunflowers he planted for me there.  They are the only thing he has started and/or planted this year.  I love sunflowers, and they're right out my sink window now.  Their sole purpose to say "I love you" every time I look out.  Pretty words would not begin to compare to the beauty of them stretching ever upwards in love.

There is somewhat of a lull in gardening, mostly I maintain right now.  Still weeding grass, watering of course, and dragging Fort Rabbit around the lawn.  If we have enough to sell at Farmer's Market, we will be going this Saturday.  I have been thinking up value-added products that are easy to do and use the things we have the most of - I'll be implementing them soon!  We'll even have something special for cats (due to the mass of catnip growing in the "wild corner" of grasses, trees, catnip and mint).

Our rabbits should be butchered this weekend, but if Richard continues to work every day (as in 7 day work weeks) then I'll have to find time to do it in the evening after he gets home.  When the kids and passerby aren't around to see me thumping rabbits on the head.  Ugh.  I can hardly believe that these are even considerations I'm making.

On a positive note, we were encouraged by a farmer friend to be unafraid (not dumb, just not fearful) of making a big push to get us started on a grander scale.  He says not to pass up on a good thing just because we're afraid of failure.  Nice to hear things like that from someone who knows better than we do about these things.  It makes me wonder what gems of advice I'll have when I've got a few more decades of gray on my head. 

I just had to open my big mouth lol

Yesterday I blogged about bringing the more delicate plants out into the warm sun, and planting them in our beds.  This morning the forecast is calling for "large hail" tonight!  I just had to laugh at the timing.

Visiting Season

Rick's mom (my MIL aka Mother-In-Love) has come from California to visit us for a week, and we are so happy to share our life here with her.  She hasn't been up since last fall when Cole was born, so we have been sharing our many new projects and gardening things with her.  I love that she has stories about how her family did things (as well as how she did them) and likes that we are trying all kinds of fun things - food production-wise - in town.  Her mother, Helen Mama, was a "real food" champion back when people we flocking to the prepared food isles and sprinkling MSG into their gravy.  I have wished several times I had gotten to meet her, but she died the same year that my grandma died, in 1996.  Thank God for stories to keep their habits and wisdom alive.

Our two New Zealand bucks are nearing butchering age.  In another week or so I will be posting pictures and blogging about butchering "bunnies."  I've been prepping myself by going through the "I'd rather eat an animal raised kindly, eating what it's supposed to eat" etc...but am not sure how good that's going to make me feel when the time comes to thump them on the head.  Butchering hooved animals doesn't bother me quite as much, but ultimately every time we kill something I am a bit sad and very thankful.  If we were all to personally kill the meat we ate, I'm willing to bet that our consumption would go down quite a bit. 

I am no longer milking, our fat little heifer is consuming all the milk that her mama makes and I don't have the heart to keep them both alone so that we can get milk.  Next year we will have two milk cows (therefore two calves also) so they'll both have company when they're separated and we will have a TON of milk!  I will have strong hands next year.  This coming month we pick up our new heifer, and I can hardly wait to visit a Milking Shorthorn dairy!  They're an Organic Valley dairy with an outstanding sanitation record so we're very interested to see how they are set up (since they only have forty cows that they milk, and are considered very small).  We have only seen dairies that are for several hundred cows, and their tanks, milking stanchions etc are huge.

Last week we sold our first lettuce and green onions!  Our neighbors have said that they will buy whatever we offer them and are thrilled that we're just over the fence.  I talked to her last night and she said that our "lettuce was wonderful!  Not sure if we'll ever be able to go back to store-bought."  And I hadn't even asked, so no just-being-polite-because-you're-prodding  ; )  Another week or two and our beds will all be full finally.  We have brought the more delicate herbs out of the cold frame (their large, soft leaves make them easily damaged by hail) and have filled the "holes" in our planting beds with them.  Their soft, fragrant leaves are not only beautiful, but when it's warm out you can smell them - it's divine.

All of the blooming flowers and trees around us have made me wonder about bee-keeping, so I am now going to look into keeping a small population/hive here in the back corner of our lot.  Hopefully bees aren't lumped in with llamas in the city ordinances.  I'm hoping that having bees will improve our crops and flowers, plus bees need all the help they can get with colony collapse disorder affecting their numbers so seriously (30% loss annually).

Busy Day

Our buck has arrived!  He is the first California I've seen up close and is SO different from other rabbits I've handled in the past.  He is built very wide, long and deep - just like any other four-legged meat animal.  For some reason I'm shocked by how stout he is, but it really is amazing for an animal so small.

While our "rabbit connection" was here she checked the sex on our two New Zealands - lo and behold...they're boys!  I apparently bought them at an age they're not very easy to sex (she may have said this to be kind) and now that they're older their testicles have descended so it's pretty clear they're bucks.  "When they're very small the boys holes are circular while the girls are a slit."  FYI.  This bit of news means that we will be butchering them within a month.

She said she had two does to sell (many really, but we only want two) and would gladly bring to us the next time she comes to town (from Lima).  Pretty nice that she has a whole harem of breeding rabbits so we can get what we need from her.  The Californias have dark ears, so they won't sunburn like the New Zealands are starting to from being in the sun and grass.

A note on new skills acquired - today I stitched the skin on top of my dogs' paw back together.  My first time stitching though I've helped with fixing animals (mostly cows and horses though) up plenty of times, which is handy because I knew what I needed in the way of bandages etc.  This is not the first time I've had to doctor him.  Last winter his shoulder was torn open and had to be bandaged daily for a couple weeks.  Several small wounds in the past but this was his worst to date.  Good thing he is such a good patient.  I would not have had to stitch him if a vet had made time, but they weren't taking emergencies today (even if it was something that would have taken them a half hour).  Very frustrating but ultimately not too big of a deal.

There were thunder storms rolling through today, and when I milked this evening the rain was falling heavy on the  barns tin roof.  I love milking when it's raining for the sound of it.  It is so calming to hear, maybe because my favorite house when I was growing up had a tin roof, but it's so nice.  Opal, however, was so full of it she was running in and out of the stall I milk in and jumping with all four legs off the ground, bucking and kicking and shaking her head.  Nothing like a warm day and a cool rain to bring us all to life!