Bees!! Yahoo!!

As most of you know things have not been going smoothly around here, pool collapses pouring 50,000 gallons of water into greenhouse and across property (the pigs loved it!), the beds out front are now succumbing to the beginning of the critters building their stores for winter, and yields have been down due to my learning curves and the weather and taking on too much, but what do most farmers do…we bounce! So we are bouncing and not only are we about to dive into hydroponics to solve part of the issue, but we are getting some help around here in the yield category…yes the real workers are coming…two bee hives arrive on Saturday!! What a tremendous blessing they will be increasing yields hopefully beyond any tinkering with the soil that I could do would accomplish. We also are investing in more equipment to make the animal end of the farm run more efficiently with more automatic water fountains and more feeders. Even the cows are going to get a new automatic water fountain so that I don’t have to clean out their trough and they get nice fresh water with each sip. To bring my spirits up around here I walk the fields (that are doing well) like the corn, the green beans coming up and all the winter squash including sweet dumplings, butternut and carnival and the huge first two plants of rhubarb! I also tinker in the kitchen and tonight there is goats milk yogurt warming in the oven (i have a bread proofing setting of 100 degrees) and with some luck I will have luscious warm yogurt to add to my granola in the morning along with some fresh canned peaches (we did 30 quarts). Yes I know it sounds crazy after all that hard work, but it puts a smile on my face and a warm feeling in my belly!!




See ya all soon!

Whistling Turkeys

It was so nice this week to be able to leave the windows open and sit at my lap top listening to the turkeys whistle!! They are such neat animals.  Michael built them a great new coop and after going into it they did not stop talking about it for hours.  Our first batch of Cornish chickens will be ready soon and the summer turkeys soon after that so I guess we are in full swing.  We did do 10 for ourselves a few weeks back to check the numbers again on using the organic feed and test flavor of course....our favorite duty around here, and it was fabulous!!  No mushy chicken for us.  Free of worries; I know exactly what is going in them, and it is so delicious!! The coop is so nice that Mike built I think we will be able to extend the season a little more than I thought providing more poultry for our freezer and yours!  Remember this year we are only doing batches through the Fall and we only have a limited amount of Thanksgiving turkeys available this year...we needed to get our feet wet and start slow.  Any questions just drop us a line at moonstruckfarms@verizon.net.  Moonstruck signing out!!

Winter Pork Sides

Planning 6 months to a year ahead has become our natural course around here. With the pork operation growing I am developing a waiting list for the batch to begin October 2012 and be harvested February 2013. The $50.00 deposit will not be collected until September 2012. I am developing the list so that I can reserve the proper amount of piglets and build more pens if necessary. So drop me a line at moonstruckfarms@verizon.net if you would like to reserve or side or just need full details. Moonstruck signing off!!

Progress at the Farm

While my head is not spinning I thought I would take a moment to sit down and update you to some changes.  Sales are climbing so we are only growing for the CSA at this time, and what a relief that is.  It was hard growing for the larger basket requirements for the co-ops and keeping up with a wide variety of plantings for the CSA.  It also allows us to make some changes that were needed.  When we started root crops in August last year outside they did not succeed.  It was not early enough so this year we are reserving a few rows outside to plant in the next couple of weeks of carrots and other root crops.  This way we will have a supply outside and inside the greenhouses hopefully fixing a long awaited problem of enough carrots for the year.  With sales up it looks like the large onion order I made is not going to be enough so we will have to rely on green onions through the winter though I am hoping the red onions will last until December.  I am also going to try Crystal Wax onions from seed in the greenhouses that are a small bulb like onion.  We will be taking the new greenhouse out of production in August clearing it for an September planting of greens, radishes, etc. thus allowing the old greenhouse to continue production of the summer crops until they die out in November/December.  We will then clear and reamend planting as soon as the day length starts to return towards the end of January leaving January for onion/garlic planting again for the next year.  In the meantime the poultry operation is well underway with Cornish growing like crazy and little tiny turkeys who are already spreading their wings and strutting their stuff saying "Yes, I am the man"....someone needs to tell them they are not even the size of a softball yet!!  Moonstruck signing off!

Some of My Favorite Things

Some of my favorite things....roses, fresh green beans, the first tomato of the season and Molly!!  She has truly been a blessing lately with babies everywhere and new pens going in and moving animals this way and that!!  Yes, if you don't close the door all the way those laying hen babies will squeeze through and run out!!! They are fast too!  Molly catches them, and waits for me to come and get them!!  It is awesome!  One she caught and it freaked her out by playing dead so she walked away, and I thought oh know she was too rough! I picked it up and put it in the coop and it ran away!!  The piglets she corralled with a few nips on the heels and back in the pen they went!  Now, when I go into the coop to feed the laying hen babies Molly stands guard at the door to make sure none get out.  The cows are pretty docile, but if they show any agitation at all a few quick barks and they are back in line.  She is by far one of the best additions to the farm in the last few years.  Of course, she is my constant companion also, and whines terribly if I waste anytime going outside once the overalls are on....as she is right now.  Have a good day everyone!! 

P.S.

We made fresh squeezed orange juice today and received 5 cups of juice from about 3 - 3.5 lb. oranges from Glen Cairn, and it was sooooooo good!!

New ordering system!!

My daughter is the third from the left in the rear with her friends at graduation.  She has been friends with Jen on the far left since they were 3 years old when they met at the gym daycare.  This is just a little of what we did this week along with working on something that have been needing to get done for some time....a new online ordering system. 

We have been struggling with finding a new ordering system for a while and we finally found one!! Myrealfoods.com. Very affordable and will customize the site for us! Look for it coming in the next few weeks. You can even post a credit on the site of let's say $40.00 and just automatically deducts your order each week. I can invoice beef payments. You can order your chickens and pay for your deposits and then I can go in and add the proper weight and invoice accordingly!! I love it! Just will take some time to set up! Thank you for all your support. We would not be growing by these leaps and bounds without you!!

Thanksgiving turkey deadline soon!

As I sit in the kitchen hiding from the heat believe it or not I am thinking about Thanksgiving.  I know I have to have my final order in by June 18th.  Please let me know if you do need a Thanksgiving turkey I am only ordering 20% over the total preorder this year.  This is a necessity with us taking on so much this year.  We also have decided to use an old travel trailer or toy box (so if you know of one let me know), gut it except for the nice existing plumbing and electricity and add larger sinks and presto you have a poultry processing unit with heat!!  I don't know what I will do not freezing my touche off at Thanksgiving!! Everything is still pretty "messy" around here in terms of needing a lot of weeding and hardscape still, but we are growing by no doubt.  The new beds out front have added a tremendous amount of space and with the new misting system going in soon the greenhouses can stay planted throughout the year.  Winter and summer squash and corn are going in this week....200 feet done yesterday.  720 leeks in the ground and 350 red torpedos going in the last constructed bed out front.  Lettuce is being tucked in every shadowed corner I can find along with cilantro.   Piglets are escaping and keeping Molly busy herding them back in, and she makes sure she has a word with the cows from time to time to make sure they don't get any crazy ideas like Filet did, but this bunch is a WHOLE lot calmer and they are filling out nice since they are not bunco bronching across the corral all day!! We have gained a lot of new customers from Apple Valley so we are adding a Wednesday delivery from 4:30-5:00 at the Target center near the garden center.  The fruit tree order is finalized including apples of all kinds including cider and cooking Heirloom varieties, peaches throughout the season, figs, cherries and a few pluots for my daughters along with plums for pollinating and some Texas umbrella trees for the cows and pigs.  Time to eat dinner and head out to work in the cool evening air.  Remember we are closed this week, but we will see you next week and in Apple Valley too!