Chicken update

I thought I'd just put a chicken update out there for all (ahem) to read. So, here goes:

1. My Sussex chickens have all been killed by raccoons. So, I'm going to have to start over, but only better this time. What to do about it? Well, I haven't yet fenced in my property entirely, so I'll either have to do that or keep my flock within a smaller area of electric fencing; also, some raccoons must (will) perish.

2. I've finally become a member of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, and they'll be able to help me with my Sussex breeding program.

3. I'm almost through with my annual chicken slaughtering; all my Buff Plymouth Rocks are in the freezer, and I'm starting on my Delawares. I've had some communication problems with my farmers' market, so I may have them all to myself instead of selling most of them like I intended. It's too bad, too: I raised the birds well, and they've been tasting GOOD.

4. I've made a tentative list of chicks to buy in the early spring: mostly Sussexes, but I also plan on getting a Dominique or two and a Dorking.

Chillin' at the mill

Just got back from a two-day [semi-marathon] road trip through South Carolina, and one of the things I finally did (after putting it off for three years) was visit Anson Mills off Gervais Street in downtown Columbia.

They have a very cool set up, with several types of mills (several are from Meadows Mills in North Wilkesboro, N.C.) and a whole lotta chest freezers (in which they freeze their pre-ground corn and their finished products) throughout their warehouse.

I was able to obtain some buckwheat flour, oat flour, blue grits (made from Cherokee Blue corn), and rice grits.

Can't wait to cook with them! First, I think I'm going to make Anson Mills' recipe "Carolina Gold Rice Grits with Shallots and Celery" as a side to a "Poulet Rouge" chicken from Ashley Farms/Joyce Foods. Mmmm...

(The other foodie highlight in S.C. was Cooper's Country Store in/near Salters, where I bought two BBQ turkey sandwiches, a bag of boiled peanuts, and some salt and vinegar pork rinds for my dinner; they are "famous" for their country hams, which I assumed are produced on premise, but may not be -- they are also somewhat mysteriously "famous" for their rice cookers/steamers. Their meat counter made me seriously drool.)

Surrounded by chicks

Got my first order of day-old chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery the other day. I ordered 25 (they sent 27) of their "all heavies" (heavy breed) special. The reason that these type of chicks are so inexpensive is that they are the males of typically-egg-laying type of chickens, and therefore aren't very desirable. So, hatcheries basically give them away (I think the shipping cost as much or more than the chicks themselves!).

The chicks arrived in good shape, but over the next few hours, four died... and another died the next day. It's sad to see them die like that, but they go through a lot in shipping and, well, it's nature taking its course, really. The other chicks are doing very well and of course are as cute as all heck. (Murray McMurray, by the way, took care of my "problem" immediately and I received a credit -- as I requested -- for the next time I order birds from them. They definitely get an A+ customer service rating from me.)

Reality check: I'll raise them to about three months, and then butcher them and freeze most of them and I'll give a few away to friends.

Next time I order chicks, however, I'll likely order the White Rocks from Murray McMurray, or, alternately, I may try the "Ranger" (similar to the "Label Rouge," see my last post) type chicken. I intend to keep a few for myself, but will probably sell the rest at my local farmers' market. I'm definitely going to stay away from the "Cornish X" type of birds (a.k.a. "frankenbirds"), for several reasons. I'll probably not be raising the "heavy breeds" special again, as they're a bit too un-uniform for sale to customers. The White Rocks and the "Ranger" type of chickens are pretty standardized/uniform, and the White Rocks are more easily cleaned (i.e. de-feathered or plucked, due to their white feathers) by hand, since I do not currently have an automatic picker.

Da seedz

Okay, just got my spring 2008 seed list together. I'm trying to consolidate to only three (quality) suppliers, to save money on shipping. Plus, I have local suppliers of Wyatt & Quarles seeds for anything else. This year, I'm ordering from Baker's Creek, Seed Savers, and Seeds of Change.

As of right now, my list is:
Snow's Fancy Pickling cucumber, Riesentraube tomato, Mary Washington asparagus (seed), Thai Red pepper, Munchener Bier radish, Bowling Red okra, Merveille des Quatre Saisons lettuce, Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach, Blue Lake bean (bush), Jalapeno pepper, Cocozelle zucchini, Yellow crookneck squash, Buttercup winter squash, Roquette Arugula,
Mayflower bean (pole), Amish Deer Tongue lettuce, Speckled lettuce, Christmas lima bean, Wenk's Yellow Hots pepper, and maybe Potimarron winter squash.

I still have to figure out what kind of broccoli seed to get, and what type of Latin-American pepper.

I saved seed from my okra (Clemson Spineless) and corn (Stowell's) last year, so I'll just replant those. Plus, I have other various seeds I didn't use last year I'll plant again this year (mainly carrots and radish). And, I'll purchase tomato (a paste type, a striped type, and Cherokee Purple) transplants locally.

C'mon spring!

Current thangs

Still am narrowing down my seed wantings from the seed catalogs... I've gotten rid of some from my list I had wanted, but added others I hadn't previously know about. I have already pre-ordered some German Butterball seed potatoes from SSE, however, as last spring I was too late and they were sold out.

I may just plant my saved Stowell's corn seed. Nothing really excites me that is "dual purpose" (one of the purposes being "sweet"), although I still may try and find some Tuscarora/Iroquois White seed to plant. I thought about Gourdseed (again), but since I won't be making meal for awhile, I don't see the point. Decisions, decisions...

AND, it's about time to order chickens for this year.

My main garden is still doing ok, even though the weather has been fluctuating between 15 and 80 degrees lately! My broccoli is hanging in there, as well as a speckled lettuce and my carrots. My garlic is still going strong (but it has awhile to go), and my onions are doing well, but some deer infiltrated my [very low] fence and munched many of the tops. Who knew?! I thought deer wouldn't like onion greens, but obviously they do.

Although a bit late (or early, depending on how you look at it), I've been thinking about what kind of fruit and nut trees I want to plant (a few different kinds of apples, a pecan or two, a few black walnut, and a pear or two). I have an area in mind to plant them in, but need to do some land clearing first anyway (so, I guess it will happen next fall). A man named Creighton Lee Calhoun lives about an hour south of me, and he is considered by many to be the apple guru for the South. Too bad (for me) that he doesn't sell heritage apple trees anymore, but he still works his magic at Horne Creek Living Historical Farm and the trees can still be purchased locally through Century Farm Orchards.

Acting corny

For the 2007 season, I grew Stowell's (a.k.a Stowell's Evergreen), which is/was a fine corn and all, but perhaps as a friend of mine said, it is one of those heirloom corns that you'd better already have the water boiling before you even pick it. I only grew about 200 stalks of it, so it wasn't too much of a waste of space or time.

So, I of course would pick it a few hours before I cooked and ate it, and wasn't very impressed by its taste. I did save some of the seed (about a quart canning jar's worth), however, just in case I feel compelled to plant it again next year. I also saved a sack of it for chicken feed, as I'm getting a few Dominiques for 2008. Much of the corn was eaten up by worms at the last minute, just before I picked it (it's my own fault really, as I didn't take the necessary precautions).

I may bring it into the twentieth century with corn, however, and plant either Hasting's Prolific or something similar (as a sweet corn) ... but I also may go the other way and plant either Tuscarora (a.k.a Iroquios) White or Gourdseed, both at least eighteenth-century corns (and probably earlier).

By the way, if anyone knows where to obtain some Hasting's Prolific seed, please let me know; I may need to write Don Hastings (no, not the actor; the guy whose grandfather originated the corn type, and who is the writer of several modern gardening books) and ask him about it.

A new weapon for the 'War on Terror' arsenal?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=485506&in_page_id=1770

Finally (and just in time, really) ...

Just got some (Inchellium) garlic and (Ed's Red) shallots ordered for planting this fall. Thought I had ordered them (plus a few other things) from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange a month or so ago, but for some reason my order didn't go through and I just finally realized it. So, needless to say, I couldn't remember who I attempted to order them through originally, and ordered them through Seeds of Change this time.

So, my fall garden is now complete; I have greens, lettuce, carrots, turnips, broccoli, beets, radishes (which aren't planted yet), and now I'll have garlic and shallots. Plus, I still have okra and tomatoes going (but barely).

I guess it's time to start thinking about what I want to plant next spring! Oh boy, here we go again ...

The State of the Garden Address (SotGA) #1

Well, my garden's pretty much done with its spring/summer crops, and I just recently planted some fall/winter ones. So far, I've planted (from seed): mustard, cabbage, collards, turnips, kale, lettuce (Grandpa Admire and Black Seeded Simpson), carrots (Oxheart and Touchon), and broccoli. I even planted nine Packman broccoli plants, in case the seed-started ones don't do well. I still have yet to plant some winter squash and some garlic and perhaps even some shallots.

My Cherokee Purple tomatoes are still producing (although not as well as they were; I think the drought's affected them), as are my (late-planted) San Marzano tomatoes. My Marglobes are still producing a few small tomatoes as well. The Cherokee Purples were a big hit amongst everyone I shared them with, and they are likely the best tomato I've ever eaten (I/we have Craig LeHoullier to thank for that).

I still have two squash plants left, but they don't seem to be producing right now (perhaps anymore). My Fin de Bagnol beans are through, and my Ichiban eggplants are long gone (they both apparently fell victim to the drought, and to a problem with my irrigation system). My jalapeno and tabasco pepper plants are still going strong, as are my okra plants. I'm going to pickle my okra, and turn most of the jalapenos into chipotle peppers (by drying and smoking them); I may try pickling some of them as well.

My corn did fine, but it (Stowell's Evergreen) wasn't the best sweet corn I've ever had. Plus, without using pesticides, the ears got eaten up by worms, and I wasn't able to harvest as many as I'd wished. I may try Country Gentleman or a similar open-pollinated corn next year (I'm not quite desperate enough to go back to a hybrid like Silver Queen quite yet).

The only crop that was destroyed by wildlife (deer) was my sweet potatoes. But, it was my fault as I didn't make the fence high enough. And anyway, perhaps the deer meat will taste sweeter this year!

Heirloom seed

I have become obsessed with heirloom seeds. I’m actually even starting (this year) to save specific seed (corn and peppers for now) so as to make my seed what is termed “land race,” where a specific animal or vegetable over time becomes totally adapted to a specific place’s climate and land or soil. I’m beginning to land race my Stowell’s (sweet) corn, and within the next few years (I’ll have to clear some land I guess) will do it with a Southern dent-style of corn – probably Gourdseed but perhaps Hickory King or Boone County White. I’m also thinking of saving some of the seeds from my Cherokee Purple tomato plants for next year’s garden, but since I have other types of tomatoes growing near them and they might cross-pollinate, I may not.

Many seeds are heirloom anyway: even major companies like Burpee and Wal Mart sell some heirloom seeds (like yellow crookneck squash or Brandywine tomatoes). As long as it’s not a hybrid, or genetically modified (which yellow crookneck squash can be these days), it’s probably an heirloom variety. Heck, even some hybrids are nearly considered to be heirlooms nowadays (especially certain corn or tomato types), as they’ve been grown by some families for generations.