We send out regular e-mails to update our friends as to what is happening
with our farm and family. If you would like to be on our e-mail list,
drop us a note at:
cooncreekfarm@discover-net.net
2009 2008 - Click Here
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday July 25th - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Happy
Thanksgiving!
It's been a transition week for the white
Thanksgiving turkeys of Coon Creek Family Farm.
Now
into their fourth week, they have started to have a taste of the great outdoors.
Now you may notice a few similarities between their species and ours but turkeys
do not like change. When initially presented with something different,
they all fall back and stare at it. Next, they call a meeting to discuss
it. In their turkey tones, you can almost hear them say to one another
"What's that?", "I dunno", "You go see", "No you go see", "I'm not gonna do
that", "It's your turn, I went last time". After all this babble, finally
one brave soul slowly ventures forward, neck extended head cocked slightly to
the side with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation. Once he thoroughly
checks out the new item and declares it safe, all the others come confidentially
forward chirping away in a tone that seems to say "I knew it was ok all along.
Let's jump on this bandwagon!".
As the turkeys took their initial brave steps into the great outdoors they first
hung pretty close to the barn. Once they saw their initial delegate to the
fresh green grass found it lush and tasty the rest quickly followed suit.
Their next move will be out to pasture early next week.
If
it weren't for Country Jam, the turkeys could be moved sooner. Now you're
probably wondering what a country music festival has to do with our turkeys.
Well, despite the 13 miles that separates us from the fest, we can still hear
some of the music and noise. That has scared Gracie our 100+ pound
guardian dog half out of her wits. She is currently a pool of drool
trembling in our garage. I can't even get her to lick up any of her
favorite goat milk. Until the last musician bids their final
farewell, Gracie will be firmly planted near the back steps totally abandoning
her duties as poultry protector. Given the close proximity of the pack of
coyotes I heard howling this week, I'd prefer to wait to move the turkeys out to
the field until Gracie is in a position to at least provide some protection.
If that doesn't have the makings of a good country song, I don't know what does! Reserve
for Market & Chicken Leg Sale
Continues:
Please feel free to e-mail us if
you would like to reserve items for pick up at market. We greatly appreciate
your support of our farm!
We will continue to bring a little kale to market. If you
would like to reserve some, please let us know.
Our delicious chicken legs continue to be on
sale. Thanks to Jamie for sharing the link to a
Spicy
Hot Chicken Legs
crock pot recipe. Jamie says it is not as spicy as it sounds. The 5
minute
preparation time makes it sound like a winner to me!
Vince and Ilya have been bringing their griddle to market and preparing samples
of our fantastic turkey brat products. This Saturday, they will be
showcasing our turkey brat patties. Come listen to Ilya tell you about
their lack of MSG as well and no nitrates or nitrites. This
same great brat mixture is also available as a brat as well as breakfast links.
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday July 18th - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Rest!!!
It's been a partially restful week for Coon
Creek Family Farm. Last summer, we vacationed for a few days at
Black's Cliff Resort just outside of
Hazelhurst, WI near Minoqua. It had been our hope to return this summer
but
between Farmer's Market and the boy's sports and school schedules, that wasn't
looking possible. Then last week we received a call that the resort had
had a cancellation and we were welcome to come from Sunday through Wednesday. Leaving
the farm is no small task despite the recent departure of our meat birds. Our
deepest thanks and appreciation to our friends and neighbors
Mel & Shawn, Robin and Morgan for making our get away possible and for taking
such good care of all
our animals. Thanks also to the Gibson family of Black's Cliff for their
excellent hospitality and beautiful resort! In addition, we were delighted to
encounter a chicken feet
connoisseur in Olga of Black's Cliff. Olga is
originally from
Guatemala where she grew up appreciating the tasty treat of chicken feet. We
were happy to be able to bring her some "home food".
If you're ever looking for a great place to vacation, we would all highly
recommend Black's Cliff. They have very clean, well-maintained cabins
sized to fit anywhere from a small family to a multi-generational get together.
Hay,
Hay, Hay!!!
Well as they say, there's no rest for the wicked and our leisure time ended
almost immediately after the car stopped in the driveway. Steven Covey
states in this 7 Habits book that "you can't cram on a farm". He
elaborates on this point by saying you can't wait until the night before harvest
to sow seeds and how right he is. Now is the time when we make major
preparations for winter. One of those almost sacred acts is filling the
barn
loft with hay.
There is something deeply satisfying about the sight and smell of a full hay
loft. In a single evening we went from being able to hold a barn dance to
only having room to accommodate a short shimmy down the aisle. Our hay is
made by one of our Amish neighbors and is absolutely the best we've ever
purchased. With the exceptional help of 3 of his boys, we managed to get
the first two loads in the barn. We still have at least two more to go
plus straw before we can feel fully stocked for winter but it sure is a nice
start.
Reserve for Market & Special Sale:
Please feel free to e-mail us if
you would like to reserve items for pick up at market. We greatly appreciate
your support of our farm! We will be bringing a little kale to market. If you
would like to reserve some, it would be good to let us know. We will have both
the Red Russian and Lacinado (aka Dinosaur) kale. It goes great with our
delicious eggs after first being sauted with garlic in a little butter or olive
oil.
Sasha is gone to Grandparent's University this weekend so if you'd like oregano,
please let me know and Ilya will do the honors.
Although we hate to raise our prices, our receipts indicate that all of our
costs have increased this year (e.g. feed, bedding, processing etc) thus we are
finding it necessary to raise our chicken prices 20 cents per pound. We
will wait until August for this to go into effect to give you a little time to
still purchase at the old prices. Our 10% discount on whole chickens for
those who purchase approximately 20 birds over the course of the year will
continue to be in effect. Thank you for your understanding and support of
our farm and family!
SALE: We will continue to have our delicious certified organic chicken legs on
sale for another few weeks. Purchase one pack for $3.00 or two for $5.00. These come two to a package and
have the drum and thigh attached. Regular price: $4.75 per pack.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday July 11th - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Weeds
It's been a weedy week here at Coon Creek
Family Farm. With the chickens gone, we were finally able to focus on the
vegetables. Many were crying for help lost amid a host of weeds. Two
years ago at the Organic Farming Conference in LaCrosse, Vince and I came upon a
fancy weeding/cultivating tool called the
CobraHead. Since Vince's birthday is only a few weeks following the
conference, we picked one up as a birthday present. Once we got gardening
again, we found the CobraHead to be an excellent tool for all sorts of weeds
including one of our major irritants - Quackgrass. I quickly claimed
Vince's birthday present as my own and went to battle. Unfortunately, at
one point the weeds jumped it and it remained hidden for a long time. This
year, Vince insisted we get another that would actually remain his. If you
are looking for a great gift for a gardening friend, we would both highly
recommend this tool. You can find it online at
Johnny's Selected Seeds. You may even want to consider purchasing two!
Duck Egg Danger
One day this week while Sasha was out gathering duck eggs, he had a bit of a
surprise. As he reached down to pick one up, a grass snake stuck it's
tongue out at him. He insisted I come out to see. While I do not
harbor any ill will toward these serpents, I do not wish to cuddle with them
either. My choice was to depart and allow the snake to silently slither
away.
A few weeks ago, we were providing updates on the two potential duck mamma and
their nesting behaviors. I am sad to report that they abandoned their
nests without any of their eggs hatching.
Grilled
Turkey
Each summer we get requests for whole turkeys for grilling. I'm pleased to
report that we do have a handful of smaller turkeys (i.e. 10-14#) still
available from our fall batch that would be great on the grill or turkey fryer.
If you are interested, please let us know. Also, it is not too early to
start reserving your Thanksgiving turkey(s). We always brine our turkeys
in salt water and maple syrup. There is a recipe at our website on how to
do this. Brining makes for a very moist and tender turkey.
Handcrafted
Goat Milk Soap
This has been a busy week
in the soap kitchen. Check out our new selection of bath bars in: Lilac,
Heather and Hyacinth, Lemongrass and Lavender (to name a few!). The Heather and
Hyacinth has been an instant hit and one of my new favorites. Stop by our booth
for a wonderful sniff! Coon Creek Family Farm Products Also Available at:
In case you can't make market or a trip out to the farm, you can find our
products at the following locations: Just Local Food Hahn's Market Foster Cheese Haus
Castle Rock Organic Dairy
We will also be partnering with The
Coffee Grounds to provide chicken for a fundraiser they will be hosting for
Feed My People. More information to come.
Reserve for Market & Special Sale:
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
SALE: We will continue to have our delicious certified organic chicken legs on
sale for another few weeks. Purchase one pack for $3.00 or two for $5.00. These come two to a package and
have the drum and thigh attached. Regular price: $4.75 per pack.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday July 4th - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Chicken
Chasers
It's been week of weather extremes here at Coon
Creek Family Farm. When raising a group of chickens I keep careful records
of their progress. Special notes are made as to unusual weather events.
Last Tuesday in large bold letters was the word HOT with several exclamation
points. This Tuesday's note read COLD. Tonight's note will say
"Left for Processing".
Now there are friends and there are friends. There are friends you can go
out to eat with and friends you can call occasionally on the phone. The
most special friends however are those who will come over and help catch
chickens with you. Years ago when I went to college in Eau Claire there
was a bar in Fall Creek we would visit occasionally called Chicken Chasers run
by a guy named Gomez. Not sure if that is still in existence or not but we
have stolen the moniker "Chicken Chasers" for our motley crew.
Since our group has now been doing this together for several years, we have
chicken catching down to an art. We also follow a set of unwritten rules.
The first rule of course is never wear anything you really want to ever have
clean again. Another is never reach for a chicken with your mouth open.
If you wear glasses, give consideration to installing little wiper blades on
them at least temporarily. Lastly and probably most importantly is the one
who wins the prize for wearing the most organic matter on their clothing gets
the first bowl of ice cream. Our crew as pictured from left to right
includes: Anna, Ilya, JJ, Robin, Me, Vince, Mel and Sasha. Thanks to
our great team of helpers! We couldn't do this without you!! In
addition to complimenting us on our teamwork, the driver who came to pick up our
birds also commented that ours were the nicest and cleanest birds he had seen
all season. We were very pleased with how these chickens performed on
pasture and were delighted to have that affirmed by someone who literally sees
thousands of chickens throughout the year.
To reinforce our passion for raising poultry on pasture and organically, this
week the Washington Post ran an article regarding an arsenic additive used in
conventional chicken feed and it's impact on human health. I'll paste that
in at the bottom of the e-mail or you can find it through the link below.
Reserve for Market & Special Sale:
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
SALE: We will continue to have our delicious certified organic chicken legs on
sale. Purchase one pack for $3.00 or two for $5.00. These come two to a package and
have the drum and thigh attached. Regular price: $4.75 per pack.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday June 27 - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Hot
Week
It's been a hot, humid week here at Coon
Creek Family Farm. Seems like I've gone from pondering whether to wear my
long johns to market to trying to find hair clips to hold my locks up off my
neck. Our chickens are handling the heat relatively well.
Fortunately, we've had come clouds and breeze to go along with the high
temperatures which gives them some relief. We've added an extra pen for
the pastured meat chickens to provide additional shade and resting room.
We've also been going over the field to water and check on them as often as we
can.
Pavlov
had his dog, we have our chickens. Vince and I and the boys have become
the stimulus for their eating and drinking response. When we go over to
feed in the morning, the meat chickens can't wait to eat and line up at the
feeders fast and furious. In the heat however, their appetites are greatly
subdued. What they associate us with on scorching days is water.
Thus, the more often we can go over and provide them with fresh cool water, the
more often they waddle up to the drinkers and wet their whistles. This can
literally mean the difference between life and death.
Several
years ago, we experienced the lethal combination of high heat and humidity in
the middle of drought conditions. Despite our best efforts we were losing
mature birds to heat stroke. One huge difference between then and now is
the condition of the grass in our pastures. It is lush and green which
helps to provide a cooling effect for the birds. We believe this is due in
large part to our work with Grazing Specialist Mary C. Anderson who has come out
on many occasions over the years and given us sage advice on how to better
manage our pastures. By moving the chicken pens twice a day now, we are
constantly keeping them on fresh green grass. This contributes greatly to
chicken health and happiness. They pay us back by providing an ample
source of organic nitrogen to our fields. You can almost literally watch
the grass green up in the path behind the chicken pens. It is one of the
great joys of organic farming to be witness to the way nature can heal and
improve her soils without the use of toxic chemicals.
Natures workings and wonders have not always been completely joyous from our
perspective. Those of you who have been with us through last summer's
season will recall that we had terrible problems with owls snacking on our
chickens. To our great relief, we have not had this same challenge yet
this season. We are being diligent in our efforts to put our poultry away
in their pens each evening to keep them safe. Last year however, even this
did not work. Perhaps the travel brochures I scattered around the field
all winter with pictures of girl owls and captions reading "Fly to Florida"
worked. No matter what, we are very thankful for this blessing.
The
Round Heads are Here!
Among poultry people, baby turkeys are affectionately referred to as "Round
Heads". So in the middle of this heat wave, we are thinking Thanksgiving.
On Tuesday I again met Jim from Sunnyside Hatchery in Eau Claire for the baby
turkey handoff. My first question was whether he had any loose poultry or
waterfowl running around inside the van. "Not that I know of" was his
reply. Fortunately for the baby turkeys, they like brooder temperatures of
around 95 degrees. This week that was achieved without the use of heat
lamps during the hottest parts of the day. Remember it's not too early to
reserve your Thanksgiving turkey - white and/or Heritage.
Canning
Class
On Monday, Vince and I attended an all day canning course at UW-Stout.
Passing this class has provided us with state certification to can low acid
foods such as pickles for sale at market. We have a few more hoops to
hurdle before this can become a reality but we would love to hear your thoughts
on this idea as well as canning and selling items such as strawberry jams. Reserve for Market & Special Sale:
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
Oregano: Sasha has been at Boy Scout camp this week.
We paid for this adventure. He is still working to provide the funds for
his July camp. Unless he returns Friday night and picks Sat. morning, he
will likely not be selling his oregano this weekend. His brother Donald
Trump however may step in and take over the oregano trade for this weekend.
Mizuna/Kale: The heat has sent the mizuna skyward to flower and seed thus in all
likelihood we will not have any at market this weekend. The Red Russian
and Dinosaur kales have been tasting great with eggs here at home.
Unfortunately, they are often not looking their best at market despite our
immediately getting them in into cold water after picking. If you would
like kale, please let me know and I'll do my best to get it to you looking good.
SALE: Due to your overwhelmingly positive response, we will continue to have our delicious certified organic chicken legs on
sale. Purchase one pack for $3.00 or two for $5.00. These come two to a package and
have the drum and thigh attached. Regular price: $4.75 per pack.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday June 20 - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Wet
Week
It's continued to be a wet week here at Coon
Creek Family Farm. Our rain gauge had registered over 3 inches in the past
two days. The ducks love it! As for me, I've been considering
building an ark but haven't yet mentioned it to Vince. I'm afraid of his
reaction when I tell him we'd need a few more pairs of animals around here.
Speaking
of the potential for more critters, the two mama ducks who have been setting on
eggs have been doing a very interesting thing. Every few days, they move
their entire nest to a slightly different location. Not sure if it's a
hormonally inspired redecorating or some sort of housekeeping ritual as
occasionally they leave an egg or two behind. No hatching to date although
I did see one broken egg.
Feed
Delivery
Almost 10,000 pounds of feed were delivered here on Monday. The meat
chickens are now consuming over 350# of feed per day! Tom ended up running
late in bringing the feed to our farm. For my part, I underestimated the
number of extra barrels needed for the feed that wouldn't fit in the regular
grain bins. What this meant was we unloaded feed without a moment to spare
before I needed to run Ilya into town for his Little League game. As I
looked down at my legs, I realized I resembled Big Bird. My body was
covered from hair to toenail with a fine yellow chicken feed dust. With no
time to take a shower, I quickly changed into some cleaner blue jeans and threw
on my new T-shirt.
I must say, I'm pretty proud of my new shirt. Got it at the Amish Bent and
Dent Grocery store. For those of you who have never had a Bent and Dent
shopping experience, this is a "grocery store" that gets truckloads of canned
and other assorted grocery goods that are damaged and/or expired or otherwise
unrecognizable. Vince loves to look there for organic imported Italian
tomato paste. Although our Amish community is allowed digital rain gauges,
"Rock the Rim" T-shirts are taboo. At 5 for $1.00 we couldn't resist
getting one each for the entire family. I even spent an additional 20
cents and bought and extra that I'm thinking I'll save and give to my brother
for Christmas. My plan is to leave the original $9.99 price tag on it.
He'll be so impressed! I'll sign the gift tap - "Your loving sister -
Minnie Pearl".
When we got to the Little League field, I made sure to select a spot downwind
from all the other parents. Unfortunately, the boys lost that game but
they did manage to record their first win on Wednesday against Gilmanton.
That same son may be Vince's last hope to fulfill his livelong dream of having a
child who plays for the UW-Madison marching band. The chances of that
coming true nudged one step closer this week when Ilya stepped off the summer
school bus with his newly assigned first band instrument - the euphonium.
I'm sure he'll be playing the tuba in no time! See the first 2009 Coon
Creek News installment for more on that son's natural musical aptitude. For
those of you who are new to reading our newsletter, they are archived at our
website under the "E-mail" section.
Reserve for Market & Special Sale:
We were so thankful our order for nice weather was filled last weekend.
Hoping for more of the same this Saturday!
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
We will continue to have our delicious certified organic chicken legs on
sale. Buy one pack for $3.00 or two for $5.00. These come two to a package and
have the drum and thigh attached. Regular price: $4.75 per pack.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday June 13 - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Wet
Week
It's been
a cold, wet week here at Coon Creek Family Farm. Our
soil is so sandy we rarely have puddles. Somewhere around the second day
of rain, I thought I
saw Noah or at least several pair of animals from the ark splashing in some
standing water here. Our rain gauge showed a total of 2.4#. One of
our Amish neighbors actually has a digital rain gauge. Talk about trying
to keep up with the Jones - or is that Millers or Yoders? Theirs showed 1.9#.
Amazingly in the 7 miles that separates us, we often have different weather.
Sometimes they get rain and we don't and vice versa.
Foster Cheese Haus
On Wednesday night, we had the privilege and pleasure of getting a sneak peek at
the newly remodeled Foster Cheese House.
If you have ever been to the old Foster Cheese House, you will not recognize it.
The Koska Family from Castle Rock Organic Dairy provided the artistic eyes and
hard labor behind the beautiful stonework. The store features a restaurant
and local food, cheese and gifts all from local farms and artisans. Nathan
Berg (formerly of Native Bay Restaurant) is the General Manager. You can
taste Nathan's amazing culinary skills in the pizza, salad, soup and sandwich
menu. Our family had a pizza that was out of this world. We finished
our meal with some fantastic Castle Rock ice cream cones. Four thumbs up
from the Maro's!
Chick Mover Those of you who have been reading our newsletter for awhile may remember
our "chick mover" from last season. This is basically a wooden box on
wheelbarrow wheels constructed by none other than our Amish neighbor Danny (who
by the way did replace our light bulb for us this week!). It was one of
the biggest time and labor savers added to our farm last year.
The chick mover is used to transport our meat birds to pasture. We like to
say it is "self-loading". Meat chickens are so strongly food motivated
that all we have to do is put feeders inside and they march in on their own.
We attach their stretch limo to our John Deere Gator and away we go to our
pasture. Once on the field, we place filled feeders in the pasture pens
and the chicks let themselves out on the other end.The pictures
here are from last summer when we moved chicks during the drought. It's
amazing to see how much fuller and greener our fields are now after our recent
and badly needed rain.
Reserve
for Market:
This week, it is my turn to reserve for Market. I am placing a large order for nice
weather. After the cold and rain of last Saturday, I totally lost my voice
all day Sunday and into Monday.
Send Sasha to Camp - Oregano
Sasha has been saving his money to attend a special Boy Scout Leadership Camp
this summer. One of his money raising ventures is to pick, trim and bunch
some of our fantastic fresh oregano and seen bunches for $2.00. He started
to sell his oregano at market this past weekend. Thank you to all who have
supported him in this venture! Feel free to reserve some for this Saturday
(It's way better than frozen pizza and cookie dough!).
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
The mizuna is flowering and likely won't last a lot longer. I'll be able
to continue to make small harvests for awhile and will replant for fall.
It does great in cold weather (It LOVED this past week while our tomatoes did
nothing but shiver and remain stunted). The kale is coming along and more
has been planted so it should be quite plentiful in a few seeks.
Mention this e-mail and we'll provide you with a two for one special on our
certified organic chicken wings. Regularly $4.00 per pack!
This week we'll add our delicious certified organic chicken legs to the sale.
Buy one pack for $3.00 or two for $5.00. These come two to a package and
have the drum and thigh attached. Regular price: $4.75 per pack.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Special thanks to Eliza Green for the amazing rooster and goat pictures!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday June 6 - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. It's
a Boy!, It's a Boy!
It's been another week of twins here at Coon Creek Family Farm. Last
Friday around 7:30 pm, Lisa started showing signs that birthing was imminent.
Typically once that happens, she has her babies within the next half hour.
Two hours later we were all still waiting and by that time worried.
Fortunately, we have a great neighbor who has been my goat mentor. I
called her and got advice as to what to look for and when to call the vet.
It was on this very evening that the light in the goat barn burned out.
Vince and I figured that we had not changed that bulb in at least five years.
We also took note that it is mounted so high up on the ceiling that we will
probably have to wait until our tall helpful neighbor Danny is here again to
change it. So off I go to the barn flashlight in hand to see if I can
assist in a goat delivery. To my great relief, Lisa was licking her new
baby who was breathing on his own and seemed fine. Within the next half
hour, his twin brother was born also by flashlight. After waiting another
half hour or so, I decided to call it a night. I am delighted to report
that all the goat babies are doing fine although sometimes there is a line at
the milk fountain!
Winter
Wonderland
No the white stuff you see in the photo is not snow but a special plant
protector material called floating row cover. It seems anytime frost is
predicted anywhere in the northern hemisphere it hits our farm. When the
temperatures were predicted to get down into the 30's overnight this week we
figured it was time to tuck and cover.
One of the items we have in abundance right now are empty plastic bags from all
the shavings we use as chick bedding. We figured the easiest way to weigh
down the row cover was to fill the plastic bags with dirt and use them as
anchors. With shovels in hand we sent the boys
out to put dirt in the bags. Forming a family dirt bag
brigade, we had more than two 100 foot rows covered for the night. Now
that the cover is on, we will leave it there as pest protection.
Chicks
Taste the Big World
Just as we harden off our transplants before they go to the gardens, our chick
get similar treatment. Their brooder room has two doors which now allow
them daytime access to the outdoors. Here they get their first taste of
grass and large doses of sunshine. We surround their area with electric
fencing which will also be used in the pasture. The purpose of the fence
is not so much to keep chicken in as it is to keep chicken eaters out.
Red-Winged
Blackbird Patrol
Earlier this week while walking the little dirt road that leads over to our
pasture, I had a red-winged blackbird swoop down and almost hover by my face.
It travelled back and forth from a tree in the duck yard to a tree on the border
of our little marsh marigold ditch. Although I did not notice a nest, my
guess would be it was a female protecting her young. Later that same day
in the same area, I saw two red-winged blackbirds go after a red-tailed hawk.
Knowing that hawks would love nothing more than to feast on chicken dinners, I
decided to strike a deal with the blackbird - she keeps the hawk away from my
chickens and I stay away from her nest.
Cooking
with Kale
Awhile back, we were invited to dinner at Kristina and Alex Beuning's of Sunbow
CSA farm. Kristina made an awesome kale casserole. This week while
wondering what to make for supper, I remembered that dish and located the recipe
in our From Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook. It's a book I've mentioned
before and well worth purchasing. Just Local Food in Eau Claire typically
carries it. It lists each vegetable alphabetically along with storage tips
and recipes. It was put together by the
Madison Area CSA Coalition and is a great resource.
The recipe is called Herbed Baked Greens and attributed to Broccoli and Company:
2 egg whites
3 C cooked chopped Collards (or kale, mustard greens
1TBS canola oil
or turnip tops)
1/2 tsp Worchesterchire sauce 2T minced onions
1/3 c lemon juice
2C cooked brown rice
1/4 tsp crushed rosemary
1 1/2 C grated low-fat cheese
salt to taste
Heat oven to 350. Oil an 8-inch square glass baking pan. In large
mising bowl, beat egg whites with oil, Worchestershire sauce, lemon juice,
rosemary and salt. Fold greens, onions, rice and cheese into egg white
mixture then turn into prepared pan. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake 25
minutes. Remove fiol and bake until lightly browned, 10-15 minutes.
Makes 4-6 servings.
Here's how I did it: Read 2 egg whites - Think "Humm, that's not nearly
enough eggs". Open fridge. Find "family eggs" which do not look
nearly as nice as those you will find in your market boxes. Find a carton
with 5 eggs - two of which were laid by a very old hen and are quite wrinkled.
Crack and beat all 5 eggs. Go to garden. Pick kale. Notice
spinach about to go to seed and pick some of that too. Remember there is a
stray garlic plant that wintered over where you planted sweet potatos yesterday.
Pull that and some an odd onion plant that also wintered over where it should
now not be.
Chop onion and garlic plants and use a lot of the green stalks. Don't want
anything to go to waste. Saute in pan of olive oil. Use olive oil in
place of canola oil because you are married to an Italian and in our house you
always use olive oil in place of canola. Rip up greens and add to onion
and garlic sautee. Notice some basil that was trimmed off a plant in the
greenhouse and add that too. No Worchestershire sauce or lemon juice so
omit. Completely forget the recipe calls for rosemary so don't put that in
either. Find leftover chicken and rice in the fridge from roasting one of
our whole chickens earlier in the week. Mix that in with the eggs.
Since it looks like more than two cups of rice and a bunch of chicken, better
add more eggs. This time use 3 duck eggs and a misshapen Auracona egg.
Darn we're out of cheese. Bet that would have been great. Maybe next
time.
We don't own an 8 inch square pan but my Aunt Judy brought us a beautiful Pyrex
rectangular baking dish one Thanksgiving so use that. Bake while doing
chicken chores which will last more than 25 minutes so reduce heat to 325.
There you have it - followed the recipe almost to a T and everyone loved it.
Feel free to call anytime for cooking advice and recipes.
New Soap Scent Heather and Hyacinth - Smells fabulous! Come take a whiff!!
Reserve for Market & Special Sale:
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
Mention this e-mail and we'll provide you with a two for one special on our
certified organic chicken wings. Regularly $4.00 per pack!
This week we'll add our delicious certified organic chicken legs to the sale.
Buy one pack for $3.00 or two for $5.00. These come two to a package and
have the drum and thigh attached. Regular price: $4.75 per pack.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday May, 30 - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. It's
a Girl!, It's a Boy!
It's been a busy week culminating in the birth of twin baby goats to our fine
Mamma goat Lucy. We are still awaiting Lisa's baby's which by all
indications should take place
some time today. Lucy had been showing signs since early Wednesday morning
that her time was near. At around 4:00 in the afternoon, she started
having contractions. Minutes after the boys got off the bus, the babies
were born and by 4:30 both were being cleaned off by their Mom. Within the
next half hour the new kids were standing and looking for lunch.
We
usually assist in their initial nursings. Their first attempts to find
where the milk dispenser is typically results in their sucking on their mother's
legs and/or my thumbs. By morning they needed only a little nudge to find
the faucet. We won't milk the mothers until after the
babies have had at least 24 hours to drink the colostrum rich first fruits.
The kids will nurse until their mother's choose to wean them. We will use
the extra milk for our soap plus drinking at the dinner table. Actually,
Ilya and I are the only members of the Maro clan who drink goat milk.
Vince and Sasha prefer Jersey cow milk which is akin to drinking ice cream.
Guess we all have our own tastes.
Some interesting facts about goat milk include: it has smaller butterfat
globules than cow's milk making it easier to digest and it is naturally
homogenized so it does not separate quite like cow' milk. Goat's milk also
makes great cheese! Another interesting family fact is that Vince does not
and will never milk goats. Despite his Sicilian heritage which includes
family members who were goat herders he has drawn the line and held firm in his
determination to never milk my goats.
Duck
Mammas
Not wanting to be outdone on the baby front, two of our female ducks have
started setting on nests. Despite the fact that they have a lovely indoor
space, they have decided to build their nests outside. Over the past 36
hours, we received 2.1" of rain. During that entire time, the duck mammas
remained dutifully on their stash of eggs.
When we purchased our last load of organic straw, there were bales that
contained a significant amount of stick material. The duck mammas picked
out only the sticks from the straw bedding in their building to use in making
their nests.
Planting
Like many, we spent our holiday weekend planting. Thanks to the assistance
of our friends Andy, JJ and Dawn, our ground now hosts loads of onions, leeks,
broccoli and cabbage plants as well as seeds for cucumbers, squash and pumpkins.
One of the wars we consistently wage during this part of the season is against
the cutworm. Cutworms look like little caterpillars and literally cut off
the plants at the soil line. One of the things that most frustrates me is
that they never eat the plant they just cut it off and leave it. Over the
years, I have become expert at cutworm reconnaissance. By systematically
scraping the soil away from the plants, I can locate their dugouts, remove them
and feed them to the chickens. Oh the joys of farming organically!
Chicken
Feed Beauty Treatments
Last week, you saw how our feed is augured into our grain bins. Pictured
here is the chute that comes down off the bin to the feed barrel below. A
wooden slide is opened to allow the feed to be dispensed into buckets and
carried to the hungry peeps. These days, they are eating no less than 150
pounds per day.
With the bin this full of feed a curious thing happens. Each time I open
the slide, I am treated to a dusting of chicken feed that drizzles down from the
ceiling and lands in my hair just to the right of my part. I can't recall
if it was Lily Muenster or Morticia Addams that had their long black hair
accented with a striking white streak but I do believe I may be resurrecting
that fashion trend. Hopefully all those whole grain organic ingredients
will have a positive impact on my hair! If you too would like to receive a
Coon Creek beauty treatment, just let us know.
Reserve for Market & Special Sale:
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
Mention this e-mail and we'll provide you with a two for one special on our
certified organic chicken wings. Regularly $4.00 per pack!
Consider picking up a pack of our delicious turkey brats. These brats are
MSG, nitrate and nitrite free and taste great! Although these are made
with our organic turkey, they are not certified organic as they are made with
some of our processor's pasture raised pork which was not certified organic.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmers Market Saturday May, 23 - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. It's
been a windy
week here at Coon Creek Family Farm.
Thanks to all you brave souls who came to Farmer's Market last Saturday.
There were points in the morning when I was thinking that if I were five pounds
lighter, I would have been blown all the way to Green Bay!
Today to keep the barn from blowing away, I ordered over 10,000# (yes that's
more than 5 tons!) of chicken feed. My
biggest fear with taking this delivery in 40 mph winds was having the auger go
airborne and seeing it fly through one of the barn walls. Fortunately, Tom
the delivery guy is a great driver and got the
feed arm in perfect position without incident.
While the feed is being augered in, I climb into the bin and use a big scoop
shovel to direct the flow of feed evenly to each corner. By the time all
the feed is unloaded, I usually look like I've aged about 40 years being covered
from head to foot with a fine layer of grain dust. I'm sure it would make
a great cover photo for the Queen of the Castle magazine. Although
the photo opportunity was missed today, we'll be doing this all over again in
another 4 weeks.
Canning
Time
The first batch of jam cooling from the canner is to me a sure sign that we are
marking the beginning of fruit and vegetable season. I love to hear the
ping of the jars sealing as they come out of the canner. It always seems
these early food storage events come just in time as the root cellar shelves are
starting to look pretty bear and the number of empty pint and quart jars far
outnumbers those that are full. I'm also reminded that having a hungry
teenager in the house means I need to fill more jars than ever this year.
In June, Vince and I will be taking a canning course offered by the State of
Wisconsin. As a result, we should be eligible to apply for a license to
can and sell foods such as pickles and jams at some point in the future.
We'll keep you posted!
Hats off to Houligans!
On Thursday evening May 21st, Houligans
Steak and Seafood Pub in Eau Claire is having a three course local themed
beer dinner. This event will feature beer from the Sandcreek Brewery in
Black River Falls and our chicken and eggs! Personally, I can't wait to
try the Scotch Egg and Chicken Agrodolce! Special thanks to John and Guy
at Houligans for featuring our poultry products!
Kale
Several years ago, we started growing Red Russian Kale
(pictured at left). It has definitely become a favorite especially when
sautéed with some garlic in a bit of olive oil and/or butter and then mixed in
with our eggs. This year, we are also trying a new variety called Lacinado
aka Dinosaur Kale.
According to From Asparagus to Zucchini, "Nutritionally, kale is
vastly superior to most vegetables. It is very rich in vitamins A, C, and
the mineral calcium. B vitamins and other minerals are also in excellent
supply. Kale is also the highest in protein content of all the cultivated
vegetables." p. 94.
Last week we brought a few bunches of kale to Farmer's Market. If you
would like us to save you a bunch, please let us know. Price per bunch:
$3.00.
Handcrafted Goat Milk Soap
Over the past several weeks, I have had the privilege of working on a variety of
very nice soap orders. One went to
Bedell Hill
- a Bed and Breakfast in Manitowoc, WI. Another is for a wedding in Eau
Claire. Soaps have also been shipped to Illinois and throughout Wisconsin.
If you're looking for a unique handcrafted Wisconsin gift and would like it send
somewhere special, please let me know.
Reserve for Market & Special Sale:
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
For Your Memorial Day Weekend Grilling Needs:
See us for a variety of great grilling items including:
Turkey Brats
Turkey Brat Patties
Whole Chickens - for beer can chicken!
Chicken Legs
Chicken Wings
Mention this e-mail and we'll provide you with a two for one special on our
certified organic chicken wings. Regularly $4.00 per pack!
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
FYI - Baby goats due May 27th or 28th.
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmer's Market Saturday May, 16 - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. It's
been a
week of blooming and brooding here at Coon
Creek Family Farm. Our beautiful marsh marigolds have begun to flower.
These are some of my favorite flowers and another sure sign that winter is
behind us once again. The other official signal of winter's end came about
10 days ago when I removed the water heater from the horse tank.
The big event of the week was getting our batch of baby chicks. We use
Sunnyside Hatchery out of Beaver Dam, WI. Throughout the years, we have
been very pleased with the quality of their chicks and with their customer
service. They have a delivery van that comes our way every two weeks.
The great thing about living along their route means that the chicks endure
significantly less shipping stress than when they are sent through the mail.
We firmly believe this to be a major contributor to the health and well being of
our chick babies.
The big day came on Tuesday. Vince and I were awakened to a 5 a.m.
phone call from Jim the Sunnyside van driver. He told us he was just
leaving and would meet me at the McDonald's on Hwy 37 around 10 am. When
we say we go to McDonald's to get our chicken - we're not joking :). I
arrived ahead of Jim and parked in a place where he could pull in next to me.
When he got there, he rolled down the window and said "If you don't mind, I
can't open the door just yet I have a loose duck in here. Duck rode up
here by me for most of the trip and now it's hiding somewhere in the van".
Moments later, Jim got out after having successfully cornered the baby duckling
and put it back in it's box. He said at one point, he had 3 loose baby
ducklings in the van! Not sure how Jim does it travelling the state with
all those boxes of noisy peeps. I nearly went deaf on my 11 mile trip home
after having relieved him of only a small portion of his overall load. As
soon as I arrived home, I unloaded the boxes of chicks and began transferring
them to the brooder. Each adorable little yellow fluff ball had it's beak
individually dipped into a waterer. As the chicks official "mother hen"
part of my job is to teach it to drink. This is about the only point in
the peeps life when I actually do feel smarter than a chicken.
Although the chicks need to be taught to drink, their eating instinct is firmly
entrenched. You will note in the photos that many of them have actually
planted themselves inside the feeders. They will remain there for the
better part of the rest of their lives. I promise they will not look this
cute for very long. The next step in their development is that they begin
to form feathers at the tips of their wings and next at the end of their tail.
While they are still little, they need a warm, dry environment. The boxes
you see in the photos each have two heat lamps. Thanks to Andy our
engineer friend, all of our brooder boxes were rewired this year. The
initial wiring was done by an Amish friend. I swear one day if I ever
write a book it will be titled "All I ever needed to know about electricity I
learned from the Amish".
Mizuna
Last week, we brought our first bags of mizuna to market. Several of you
asked about the origins of this early green and I could not give you an answer.
I did say, I would look it up and get back to you. Thanks in part to
Wikipedia, I learned that
Mizuna has been cultivated for years and years in Japan but may have originated
in China. Nutritionally:
In my web search, I also came across a great looking recipe
for
Mizuna with chicken breast - (Sounds like a great Coon Creek Combination to
me!). We enjoy it by itself as a salad with some Balsamic Vinaigrette
dressing.
Beware
- Woman with Power Tool!
Today I was blessed with the good fortune of having help to
plant the 150 strawberry plants I ordered in February. At that point,
I always have delusions of having all kinds of time in the spring to plant the
hundreds of seeds and plant stock that tantalize me from the pages of the myriad
of fruit and vegetable catalogs we receive. It seems very unfair and/or an
ingenious stroke of marketing that these gems always arrive in full color during
the most frigid and snowy of days.
Last week, when the strawberry plants showed up on my doorstep I diligently
added their planting as a priority on my "to do" list. This week, I was
fortunate enough that our friend Dawn came over to help my in my quest to cross
that item off my list. We pulled out the power drill and bulb auger made
famous in the garlic planting e-mail from last fall. Dawn drilled the
holes and I nestled the plants in the space and covered them with fresh dirt.
In what seemed like no time, we had all the plants in. Thank you Dawn!
Our strawberry plantings from previous years are currently flowering. With
luck, we'll be eating our first strawberries in about three weeks.
Reserve for Market:
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
FYI - Baby goats due May 27th or 28th. Correction from last week
when I mistakenly said May 25th.
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Farmer's Market Saturday May, 9 - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. It's
been another
week of planting and digging here at Coon Creek
Family Farm. On Sunday, Vince and the boys took their shovels out and
planted another row of blueberry bushes next to those we added last year.
The Coon Creek boys are not the only ones who like to dig in the dirt.
This week, we also had the excavating crew out to finish some work left over
from our kitchen/root cellar addition. While problem solving how to keep
rain water away from the cellar door, the crew decided to dig a trench across
the backyard.
Then
they installed a drain near the foundation and placed PVC pipe in the ditch to
divert excess water away.
Inspired by the lovely moat we had in our backyard Gracie dog decided to get
into the act. Gracie loves to dig!!! Last fall when the crew was
here carving out the foundation for the new kitchen/root cellar, she slept
between the digger and bobcat all night. I think it was her way of
worshiping the only icons who could make holes larger than hers.
This time, Gracie gathered her inspiration from the new trench and tunneled
totally underneath the goat pen. While I haven't measured the exact extent
of her hideout, last years hole was large enough so both boys could fit in
without being seen. I half expected we'd end up with front row seats to
last summers Beijing Olympics as an added benefit of Gracie's excavating skills.
In
between trenching and laying pipe, the crew poured fresh cement. Being a
human and having a brain considerably larger in size than an laying hen,
I decided this was an opportunity tailor-made to outsmart our free range laying
hens. First, I showed them my college degrees. Next, I showed them
the roll of electric fencing. Then, I poised myself to plant the stakes of
the netting around the perimeter of the wet cement. What you will note from the
photos is that not only did the hens outsmart me but the cat got in on the act
just to add insult to injury. So much for all those continuing education
hours. My current life goal is to one day outsmart a farm animal.
In the meantime, I am considering capitalizing on the girls talents by renting
them out to trendy cement crews. I figure I could transport them to a job site,
spray their little feet some some Pam and let them have at it. For a
modest hourly rental fee, you too could have designer cement at your home.
Call toll free 1-800-CHICKEN FEET.
Baby Goat Countdown
One of the most frequent questions I've been asked lately is whether we
have baby goats yet. As you can see from the size of Lisa's belly, she has
not yet delivered. The due date for goat babies is May 25th. Goats
have a 5 month gestation and tend to have at least twins. Judging from the
looks of Lisa, I wouldn't be surprised if she has triplets.
Approximately two months prior to the ladies giving birth, I stop milking them.
They do however, receive a daily ration of grain. This week while Lucy was
gobbling her grain, I decided to step out of the milk room for a minute to turn
on a sprinkler. When I came back, I found her in the greenhouse happily
munching on some of our beautiful broccoli transplants! So much for
leaving the girls unattended for even a minute!
Goat Milk Soap - Great Mother's Day Gift!
Nothing says "Happy Mother's Day" like a bar or two of handcrafted goat milk
soap. This weekend at Farmer's Market also found out it's a great way to
say "I'm sorry". On Saturday, two delightful gentleman showed up at our
soap table display. One apparently had his lady friend mad at him.
After considering buying the entire assortment of lavender soap shapes, he
settled on a large heart complete with gift box. How I hope he's been
forgiven! Now I'm sure none of you will ever find yourself in a similar
situation but if you have a friend who needs to augment an apology with a gift -
please feel free to send them our way!
Missoula
Children's Theatre
Last week, the Missoula Children's Theatre put on their version of "The
Princess and the Pea". Their productions are always amazing. They
audition elementary school children for parts on Monday and put on a full blown
professional production by Friday. Our Ilya played the part of "Bitter"
one of the characters who is like a winter wind. A delightful time was had
by all!
Reserve for Market:
This Saturday, Ilya will try
out for Little League. Vince will be going with him so it will be just
Sasha and I at Market this weekend. We hope to see you there!
Please feel free to e-mail us if you would like to reserve items for pick up at
market. We greatly appreciate your support of our farm!
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
First "Summer" Market Saturday May, 2 - Phoenix Park
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. It's been a time of planting and
discovering what wintered well here at Coon Creek Family Farm. Each spring
for the past nine years or so, Vince has planted trees. He estimates he
has easily planted over a thousand seedlings. Some years, he planted
hundreds other years less. Many years the seedlings suffered through
drought conditions and sadly did not see the next spring. This season, he
and the boys watered in over fifty Blue Spruce and Austrian Pines as well as a
new crop of Red Twigged Dogwood bushes. In inspecting previous years
planting, we were pleased to find several nice rows of small pines and white
spruce lining the horse fencing on our eastern pasture.
Spring
Planting
One of my favorite spring activities is to begin planting in our unheated
hoophouses. Since these structures are still susceptible to freezing, we
carefully select the varieties of vegetables that are suited to this weather and
tuck them under row cover for added protection at night. Currently, we
have kale, mizuna, spinach and lettuce taking root inside. We should have
some small bags of mizuna ready for market this Saturday. We introduced
this green at market last year and it was very well received.
Over the past few weeks, we have been also been uncovering the garlic we planted
late last fall as well as our strawberries, rhubarb and asparagus. Vince
had to plant several more bags of cover crop on our field garden as the chickens
devoured all of the seeds laid down for our fall planting. At least two
"girls" have been caught sneaking over to the field to try some certified
organic oat seed. They were noisily chased away by the farmer's wife who
was furiously waving a piece of binder twine in their direction (read "armed and
dangerous"). We use "cover crops" such as oats, peas and buckwheat as a
way of adding fertility to our soil without using chemical fertilizers.
These plantings are also referred to as "green manure" and get shallowly
incorporated back into the soil after they have put on some nice top growth.
That is, if the chickens can stay away from the seed!
New Additions This
past Thursday morning, I got my usual 7:15 a.m. phone confirmation from Roger at
the Mondovi Post office saying my chicks had arrived. The "chicks" were
actually "poulets" which is poultry talk for baby turkeys. I brought their
shipping box in the house and filled their first waterers. Since Vince was
at work and my mother was not visiting, I figured it was
safe to set them on the kitchen counter and take some pictures of the new
arrivals.
These
Bourbon Red poulets originated in Bourbon County
Kentucky in the late 1800's and are listed on the American Livestock Breeds
Conservancy Conservation Priority list. They will need the next seven
months to grow to maturity. Their regal red plumage will be stunning as
they strut around the barnyard. As babies, one of my main concerns is
getting the birds to eat and drink. Each of them has their beak carefully
dipped in the drinking fount as they are gently lifted out of the box into their
toasty warm brooder. Turkeys are very drawn to all things shiny so as
added incentive to find their way back for more water, I put a quarter in the
dish of their drinkers. Yes, I'm paying my babies to drink!
Prayer Peeps Our
church decided to set up a prayer
labyrinth for Good Friday. Those in charge of creating it
decided that the last prayer station should include a small array of baby
chicks. You won't believe who they thought of to provide the prayer peeps!
With relatively short notice, we called our hatchery and asked if they could
pull together some baby chicks for us. We felt our best choice would be
laying hens so people wouldn't be put off by praying over the poultry that might
later end up being the guest of honor at a church supper! With the
hatchery being short on layers, they did the best they could to pull together a
box of 10 baby chicks. Our assortment even included 2 little black hens.
When this group first arrived there were a couple in particular that did not
look very thrifty. Fortunately with all the people praying over them all
day, each of the new chicks looks healthy and happy! Each day when I care
for them, I am reminded to pray for several special people. If you would
like to be included on the prayer peeps prayer list, please let me know.
Reserve for Market: Please feel
free to e-mail us to reserve items for pick up at market. "The girls" are
doing a great job of laying their beautiful brown eggs. In addition, we
have a limited number of duck eggs available in 6 packs. Duck eggs are
especially great for baking and pasta making.
We continue to have a nice selection of: chickens - whole, cut-up, breasts. wings, legs
turkey brat products (brats, breakfast
sausage, patties)
turkey broth
turkey croquettes
stewing hens
as well as a
limited number of chicken giblets and feet. Our turkey brat products
include approximately 30% pork. The pork is pasture raised by our
processor but is not certified organic. Therefore these are not
certified organic like our other poultry products.
Simmering on our stove right now
is a pot of chicken stock. Our usual practice is to roast a large whole
chicken (include the neck in the roasting pan). After our meal, we remove
the remaining meat and place all the bones (including the neck) in a stock pot.
Vince usually adds a carrot and some onions and garlic. That creation
simmers on the stove for a day or two. Next it is strained and used either
as chicken broth or made into chicken soup. For more details - see Vince!
Please note, all vendors are assigned a different market stall location each
year. This year, our regular location with be about where Castle Rock
Dairy was last year. For the first few markets, we tend to get grouped
together in other locations to make it easier for customers to go from booth to
booth.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Last
Winter Market April 4 - First Lutheran Church 1005
Oxford Avenue,
Eau Claire 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
It's been clean up time here at Coon Creek Family Farm.
We were lucky
enough last week to have our
Amish neighbor Danny to help us for two days. I say lucky because Danny is
a fantastic worker and in high demand. He is 16 years old and has been
doing odd jobs here for us for several years.
One of the first projects he worked on was the building of
our "big barn" with his father and another Amish father/son team. It was
quite an
experience to watch them make each of the roof trusses by hand and then to
actually erect them without the use of a crane or any other mechanical lifting
equipment. Since that time,
Danny has grown in many ways. He
now comes by himself and probably knows more about the operation and use of our
tractor and manure spreader than either Vince or I.
This past week, Danny was here cleaning out the bedding from
the goat pen, layer area and brooder and then spreading this nutrient rich
mixture on our field.
Another way we've seen Danny grow is taller and taller. One of my
winter
worries was that the Auracona girls were laying their colored Easter eggs up
above the chicken coop. The reason I was concerned was that my neighbor
Robin shared the Auracona order with me and her girls were laying but mine
appeared to be a group of slackers. The other observation I was making was
that these ladies were flying up into the rafters and roosting high above all
the other girls. Sure enough, I asked Danny to look up
above the coop and on the roof and he found oodles of eggs covered with a layer
of dust. He also discovered another cache of eggs in the eves high about
the goat pen. The girls and I have had a little discussion about this
issue. Since then, I have been finding many more blue eggs intermixed with
the brown ones. Hopefully the girls have gotten the message that I do not
want to add to our stewing hen inventory.
In
the category of hardworking female animals at Coon Creek Family Farm, we turn
next to our Haflinger horses. With an eye toward using the girls to help
in the vegetable garden this summer, I've been working with them on a more
regular basis. This morning I discussed the idea of pulling a plow and
harrow with Queenie. Shortly after our talk I found
her sleeping in the sunshine. Perhaps the thought of doing some actual
work this spring was a bit more than she can process at this point! I can
just hear my Grandpa Harry teasing me by saying "When are you going to
take those three legged plugs to the glue factory!".
Another hardworking Coon Creek resident is Gracie Marie our guardian dog.
You can see her in "protection" mode near the propane tank above. Lately
her biggest challenge has been "chasing" a pair of robins trying to nest in the
big tree by the goat pen.
The
sunshine brings out the best in our layers as well. One of their favorite
activities is "dust bathing". (Not sure if they learned it from our boys
or our boys learned it from them!) Taking a dust bath involves lying on
your side in a pile of loose dirt and using your limbs to cover your entire body
with sand. Sounds like a great beauty
treatment doesn't it! Perhaps we should change our name to Coon Creek Spa!
New Soap Scents:
Speaking of Spa - come and check out our new soap scents - Rosemary Peppermint
and Lily of the Valley. Both are fantastic!
The Rosemary Peppermint is
an essential oil blend known as Vitality and Vigor. Here is the description
from the Brambleberry website: Vitality and Vigor Essential Oil Blend:
Rosemary and Peppermint are the main components of this blend, both of which are
considered refreshing and stimulating and also help fight depression.
This scent was added based on a special request from
Onyx Salon in Appleton where my Mom
gets her hair done. It’s a keeper! Thank you Edward and Brian for suggesting
it!
Just in time for Easter - our bunny and chick soaps will be available at market
this weekend! They make great gifts for friends and family or a cute
decoration for the holiday.
New
- Duck Eggs - After taking the winter off (does this sound familiar) our
Welsh Harlequin ducks have begun laying
again. These large and delicious eggs are offered in 6 packs for $3.75.
Duck eggs are great for baking and making pasta (not to mention they come from
cute stock!).
Reserve for Market: Please feel free
to e-mail us to reserve items for pick up at our last winter market this
Saturday. We continue to have a
good selection of chickens, turkeys, turkey brat products (brats, breakfast
sausage, patties), turkey broth, turkey croquettes and stewing hens as well as a
limited number of chicken giblets and feet. Our turkey brat products
include approximately 30% pork. The pork is pasture raised by our
processor but is not certified organic. Therefore these are not
certified organic like our other poultry products.
A complete
listing of our products and prices can be found on our website
www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Reminder: The Downtown Farmer's Market begins the first Saturday in May
- May 2 - Mark your calendars!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm!
Winter Market March 14 - Hope United Methodist Church 2233 Golf Road,
Eau Claire 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
It's
been a happy week at Coon Creek Family Farm as "the girls" have finally decided
it's time to venture out of the coop and rediscover the farm! The Auracona
ladies are so pleased with the snow melt that three of them have even taken
to laying an occasional blue egg! Please let me know if you would like to
reserve eggs for market this weekend as we should have enough this time.
My deepest apologies to those of you who had to do without last month. The
girls and I have had a little heart to heart and they promise to produce better
for you this time.
The
topic of my next little chat with the girls will be "Where Eggs Should be Laid
101".
Over the years, we have built many fine nest boxes for the ladies.
The books all say to have at least one box for every 3-4 hens. The ratio
of boxes to hens here is even better than that. Yet despite all the
available designated places to put eggs, the girls prefer the most out of the
way spots they can find. These locations are usually only accessible by a
weird set of what can best be described as contortionist yoga moves.
Normally these poses are struck
only by those wearing leotards. Mine are being executed in a pair of
Herman Munster winter boots
(rated to 40 below zero!)
that come up close to my kneecaps and a head to toe jump suit insulated three
times over. Grace does not come easily when wearing Michelin Man attire.
Yesterday, the girls laid 10 eggs between the goat hay can and the straw barrel.
Today, several of them opted to place their eggs in the straw barrel.
A few others have chosen a small opening between straw bales in the barn.
Guess the bottom line is the girls and I are just not reading the same books!
Seeing Green! Another
happy item here is that we are
finally seeing green! We have a plant stand in the basement where we start our
onions and early flats of seeds such as kale, lettuce and mizuna. One of
the best ways we have found to start members of the brassica family (e.g.
broccoli, kale, cauliflower) is in soil blocks. Ilya especially liked
helping with this when he was young as you first mix up a mushy slurry of soil
that is every little boys dream to play in. Then you take a soil block
maker and form four approximately 2"x2" blocks. Each block is made with a hole
in the center that we drop our seeds into. Normally these then go on a
germination mat which provides bottom heat as the seedlings are taking root.
Unfortunately, this year our
mat died.
Since
we do not have eggs in our incubator yet, I decided to see if we could use that
for germinating seeds. To begin with, I could not get the temperature low
enough so with the help of our engineer friend Andy Becker, we began
experimenting with hanging light bulbs of different wattages until we found the
right temperature. The picture on the left shows what the incubator turned
germination chamber looks like through its clear door.
Kitchen
News!
Andy also made another huge contribution to our happy account this week when he
volunteered his Sunday afternoon to come help us here at the farm. We had
purchased a used stove for our new kitchen but had to have a different cord put
on it as the building codes now call for a four prong stove cord rather than the
old standard three prong. Andy replaced the old so we now have the ability
to make soap in our new kitchen! Andy also helped us bring one of our
refrigerators into the new kitchen space. Thanks Andy!! Once the
trim is is completed, our room will be all ready to go! Vince and I have
signed up for a workshop which will allow us to become certified to can for
resale in our kitchen once the kitchen is officially certified.
Organic Farming Conference: Once again we had the privilege of
attending the Organic Farming Conference this February in LaCrosse. Among
the many great sessions we attended were the two keynote speakers -
Dr. Vandana Shiva
whose speech was titled "Agriculture for Life: Beyond Industrial Farming &
Golbalized Agriculture" and Dr. Allan Greene
a pediatrician from California. CD's and MP3's of their presentations are
available through Midwest
Organic and Sustainable Education Service. Both have websites which
are well worth exploring! Reserve for Market: Please feel free
to e-mail us to reserve items for pick up at market. We continue to have a
good selection of chickens, turkeys, turkey brat products (brats, breakfast
sausage, patties), turkey broth, turkey croquettes and stewing hens as well as a
limited number of chicken giblets and feet. You can find a complete
listing of our products and prices on our website.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Reminder: Our last
winter market will be the FIRST Saturday in April - April 4 at First
Lutheran. The Downtown Farmer's Market begins the first Saturday in May
- May 2 - Mark your calendars!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm! Winter Market Valentine's Day
2/14/09 - First Congregational Church
310 Broadway Street, Eau Claire 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
It's
been a frigid few winter weeks here at Coon Creek
Family Farm. Even with heated water bowls and tank heaters in the horse trough,
we are still experiencing ice in the all the waterers. This is the type of
weather when we fear using the water hydrants in our barns. In past years,
we have had the water freeze
in the pipes when the temps dip and stay below zero. One year, the entire
metal head of one of the hydrants froze and cracked in two! Thus, during
the coldest spells, we hand carry water from our bathtub in the house out to the
barns. Needless to say, the recent warm up has brought welcome
relief both to us and to our animals.
"The girls" who produce our
delicious Coon Creek Family Farm eggs have been laying through the winter
although certainly nothing like they do when the daylight hours are longer.
The other issue we run into that significantly impacts egg numbers is that in
the bitter cold temps, the eggs often freeze before we can collect them.
Our compost pile now contains a significant share of calcium from all the frozen
eggs added over the winter.
In addition to longing for warmer temperatures, another activity that leaves us
eagerly anticipating spring is our regular review of the seed catalogs. We
are planning for more rows of Delicata squash, some new varieties of heirloom
tomatoes and even a few cranberry bushes (since we won't be using the bathtub to
water the animals - we thought we'd make it into a cranberry bog!). In
addition, we will be planting our usual array of favorites including: kale,
broccoli, mizuna, peas, pumpkins etc. If there is anything you would like
us to grow special for you, please let us know. Many of our favorite
vegetable varieties have started out as special requests from our customers.
Once ready, you can either come out to the farm to pick it up fresh or we can
bring your bounty to market with us.
New Kitchen Update
Our new kitchen is progressing nicely. The inside is almost done. We
are waiting on the plumber who has been busy responding to freezing pipes type
of emergencies. Hopefully the warmer weather will move our project back up
the priority list. Meanwhile, we have our flooring in, a beautiful coat of
paint on the walls and our cupboards and countertop all ready to go once the
sinks are installed. If you know of anyone looking to sell a used almond
colored electric stove, please let us know.
Find us Between Markets
We have received a number of calls asking for chicken, turkey, eggs and soap
between markets. One option is to find our products at Just Local Food in
Eau Claire. The other is to contact us and arrange to meet in Eau Claire.
Vince works full time in the downtown area and I come in to town for church and
errands pretty regularly. If there is something you would like between
Winter Markets, please feel free to call or e-mail and we can make arrangements
for you to get what you need.
Reserve for Market: Please feel free
to e-mail to reserve items for pick up at market. We will have limited freezer
space and want to ensure that you get what you need.
Be
sure to surprise your sweetheart with our handcrafted goat milk
soap hearts this Valentine's day!
See you soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Greetings from Coon Creek Family Farm! It's been a time of resting
and enjoying Christmas vacation at Coon Creek Family Farm. One of the
highlights of our holiday was being graciously gifted tickets to the Chippewa
Valley Symphony by Kaia Simon Power and her husband Gene Power. Gene did a
fabulous job of conducting one of the concert pieces. He even posed for
pictures with the boys after the performance. Now before you become too
impressed with how cultured the Maro family is, I need to relate a little
story. At one point during
the evening, there was short period of time when the conductor gave the
musicians a chance to tune their instruments. It was during this
interlude that Ilya (our 10 year old) in all
seriousness turned to his Dad and said "I know this song!". Perhaps we need to
get off the farm a little more :).
Dairy Goat
Update
There is a billboard on the left hand side of the road leading into Mondovi. It
begins with the saying "Helpful like when . . .". The messages which follow
change periodically. Sometimes it says "like when Grandma takes the kids". To
date, I haven't figured out whether that is a plea or a thank you. At other
times, the saying changes to "like when your husband fills the tank".
Throughout a typical year, my husband is 99.45% on that one (but who's keeping
score?). I arrive at that percentage by dividing 363 by the number of days in
the year. The missing two days represent the occasions when my two main dairy
goats Lisa and Lucy come into heat.
Many people ask how I know the girls are at that point. There are generally
two very obvious signs. One is they wag their tails a lot. The other is that
they scream loud enough so that their boyfriend who lives at the bottom of
Silver Mine Ski Jump knows
that they should be on their way shortly. A phone call is placed to Ken and
Virginia Smoot who own the buck (aka boyfriend). A large dog crate is lifted
into the back of the pick up and a ramp is put in place to get the girls to walk
the plank into their temporary travel trailer. The next thing that happens is I
get in the truck and glace at the gas gauge to find it on empty. Now usually
this is not the empty that indicates you can safely make the 25 mile round trip
but the one that alerts you to the fact that if you don't get to the Mega Fuels
off Craig Road on the way to the ski jump, you and the goat will be in for a
long walk.
We make quite a sight at the
gas station - a bellowing goat and a woman who has just cleaned her dresser
drawer of enough quarters to get a few gallons of gas. Life is never dull here
on the farm. No wonder our children don't know a tune up from a symphony.
(Actually I must confess that this year for the first time in many the truck did
have sufficient gas for us to make the entire trip without a stop at Mega.
Think they missed us?? Thank you honey - you are indeed helpful. This year,
that's a thank you and not a plea.)
Market this Weekend
Join us this Saturday in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Church at
421 S. Farwell Street in downtown Eau Claire for our monthly Winter Farmer’s
Market. The market runs from 9:00-1:00.
We will be bringing a nice variety of our new turkey products including: Croquettes, Brats, Burgers, Breakfast Links
and broth.
We also have a number of whole frozen
turkeys still available. Our certified organic chicken
will be along as well
including: whole birds, cut ups, legs, wings, breasts and backs. We will also
have chicken broth available.
If you are looking to make a fantastic pot of soup, reserve one or
two of our stewing hens and/or
chicken feet (yes you read that right).
Come see our selection of Valentine soaps - a great gift for
your sweetheart!
Reserve for Market: Please feel free to e-mail to reserve items for
pick up at market. We will have limited freezer space and want to ensure that
you get what you need.
Hope to see you soon!
Blessings & Thanks for Reading! Julie & Vince, Sasha & Ilya
Coon Creek Family Farm
834-4547
Now
into their fourth week, they have started to have a taste of the great outdoors.
Now you may notice a few similarities between their species and ours but turkeys
do not like change. When initially presented with something different,
they all fall back and stare at it. Next, they call a meeting to discuss
it. In their turkey tones, you can almost hear them say to one another
"What's that?", "I dunno", "You go see", "No you go see", "I'm not gonna do
that", "It's your turn, I went last time". After all this babble, finally
one brave soul slowly ventures forward, neck extended head cocked slightly to
the side with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation. Once he thoroughly
checks out the new item and declares it safe, all the others come confidentially
forward chirping away in a tone that seems to say "I knew it was ok all along.
Let's jump on this bandwagon!".
If
it weren't for Country Jam, the turkeys could be moved sooner. Now you're
probably wondering what a country music festival has to do with our turkeys.
Well, despite the 13 miles that separates us from the fest, we can still hear
some of the music and noise. That has scared Gracie our 100+ pound
guardian dog half out of her wits. She is currently a pool of drool
trembling in our garage. I can't even get her to lick up any of her
favorite goat milk. Until the last musician bids their final
farewell, Gracie will be firmly planted near the back steps totally abandoning
her duties as poultry protector. Given the close proximity of the pack of
coyotes I heard howling this week, I'd prefer to wait to move the turkeys out to
the field until Gracie is in a position to at least provide some protection.
If that doesn't have the makings of a good country song, I don't know what does!
Reserve
for Market & 
This
same great brat mixture is also available as a brat as well as breakfast links.
Rest!!!
between Farmer's Market and the boy's sports and school schedules, that wasn't
looking possible. Then last week we received a call that the resort had
had a cancellation and we were welcome to come from Sunday through Wednesday.
Hay,
Hay, Hay!!!
loft with hay. 
Weeds
Grilled
Turkey
Several
years ago, we experienced the lethal combination of high heat and humidity in
the middle of drought conditions. Despite our best efforts we were losing
mature birds to heat stroke. One huge difference between then and now is
the condition of the grass in our pastures. It is lush and green which
helps to provide a cooling effect for the birds. We believe this is due in
large part to our work with Grazing Specialist Mary C. Anderson who has come out
on many occasions over the years and given us sage advice on how to better
manage our pastures. By moving the chicken pens twice a day now, we are
constantly keeping them on fresh green grass. This contributes greatly to
chicken health and happiness. They pay us back by providing an ample
source of organic nitrogen to our fields. You can almost literally watch
the grass green up in the path behind the chicken pens. It is one of the
great joys of organic farming to be witness to the way nature can heal and
improve her soils without the use of toxic chemicals.
The
Round Heads are Here!
Canning
Class
Reserve for Market & Special Sale
Speaking
of the potential for more critters, the two mama ducks who have been setting on
eggs have been doing a very interesting thing. Every few days, they move
their entire nest to a slightly different location. Not sure if it's a
hormonally inspired redecorating or some sort of housekeeping ritual as
occasionally they leave an egg or two behind. No hatching to date although
I did see one broken egg. 
Reserve for Market & Special Sale
saw Noah or at least several pair of animals from the ark splashing in some
standing water here. Our rain gauge showed a total of 2.4#. One of
our Amish neighbors actually has a digital rain gauge. Talk about trying
to keep up with the Jones - or is that Millers or Yoders? Theirs showed 1.9#.
Amazingly in the 7 miles that separates us, we often have different weather.
Sometimes they get rain and we don't and vice versa.
Reserve
for Market
It's
a Boy!
Winter
Wonderland
Chicks
Taste the Big World
Red-Winged
Blackbird Patrol
It's
a Girl!
, It's a Boy!
some time today. Lucy had been showing signs since early Wednesday morning
that her time was near. At around 4:00 in the afternoon, she started
having contractions. Minutes after the boys got off the bus, the babies
were born and by 4:30 both were being cleaned off by their Mom. Within the
next half hour the new kids were standing and looking for lunch. 
We
usually assist in their initial nursings. Their first attempts to find
where the milk dispenser is typically results in their sucking on their mother's
legs and/or my thumbs. By morning they needed only a little nudge to find
the faucet. We won't milk the mothers until after the
babies have had at least 24 hours to drink the colostrum rich first fruits.
The kids will nurse until their mother's choose to wean them. We will use
the extra milk for our soap plus drinking at the dinner table. Actually,
Ilya and I are the only members of the Maro clan who drink goat milk.
Vince and Sasha prefer Jersey cow milk which is akin to drinking ice cream.
Guess we all have our own tastes. 
Duck
Mammas
Planting
Chicken
Feed Beauty Treatments
It's
been a windy
Hats off to Houligans!
Handcrafted Goat Milk Soap
It's
been a
As
soon as I arrived home, I unloaded the boxes of chicks and began transferring
them to the brooder. Each adorable little yellow fluff ball had it's beak
individually dipped into a waterer. As the chicks official "mother hen"
part of my job is to teach it to drink. This is about the only point in
the peeps life when I actually do feel smarter than a chicken. 
Mizuna
Beware
- Woman with Power Tool!
It's
been another
Then
they installed a drain near the foundation and placed PVC pipe in the ditch to
divert excess water away.
In
between trenching and laying pipe, the crew poured fresh cement. Being a
human and having a brain considerably larger in size than an laying hen,
I decided this was an opportunity tailor-made to outsmart our free range laying
hens. First, I showed them my college degrees. Next, I showed them
the roll of electric fencing. Then, I poised myself to plant the stakes of
the netting around the perimeter of the wet cement. What you will note from the
photos is that not only did the hens outsmart me but the cat got in on the act
just to add insult to injury. So much for all those continuing education
hours. My current life goal is to one day outsmart a farm animal.
Missoula
Children's Theatre
It's been a time of planting and
discovering what wintered well here at Coon Creek Family Farm. Each spring
for the past nine years or so, Vince has planted trees. He estimates he
has easily planted over a thousand seedlings. Some years, he planted
hundreds other years less. Many years the seedlings suffered through
drought conditions and sadly did not see the next spring. This season, he
and the boys watered in over fifty Blue Spruce and Austrian Pines as well as a
new crop of Red Twigged Dogwood bushes. In inspecting previous years
planting, we were pleased to find several nice rows of small pines and white
spruce lining the horse fencing on our eastern pasture.
Spring
Planting
Simmering on our stove right now
is a pot of chicken stock. Our usual practice is to roast a large whole
chicken (include the neck in the roasting pan). After our meal, we remove
the remaining meat and place all the bones (including the neck) in a stock pot.
Vince usually adds a carrot and some onions and garlic. That creation
simmers on the stove for a day or two. Next it is strained and used either
as chicken broth or made into chicken soup. For more details - see Vince!
We were lucky
In
the category of hardworking female animals at Coon Creek Family Farm, we turn
next to our Haflinger horses. With an eye toward using the girls to help
in the vegetable garden this summer, I've been working with them on a more
regular basis. This morning I discussed the idea of pulling a plow and
harrow with Queenie. Shortly after our talk I found
The
sunshine brings out the best in our layers as well. One of their favorite
activities is "dust bathing". (Not sure if they learned it from our boys
or our boys learned it from them!) Taking a dust bath involves lying on
your side in a pile of loose dirt and using your limbs to cover your entire body
with sand.
It's
been a happy week at Coon Creek Family Farm as "the girls" have finally decided
it's time to venture out of the coop and rediscover the farm! The Auracona
ladies are so pleased with the snow melt that three of them have even taken
to laying an occasional blue egg! Please let me know if you would like to
reserve eggs for market this weekend as we should have enough this time.
My deepest apologies to those of you who had to do without last month. The
girls and I have had a little heart to heart and they promise to produce better
for you this time. 
The
topic of my next little chat with the girls will be "Where Eggs Should be Laid
101". 
Since
we do not have eggs in our incubator yet, I decided to see if we could use that
for germinating seeds. To begin with, I could not get the temperature low
enough so with the help of our engineer friend Andy Becker, we began
experimenting with hanging light bulbs of different wattages until we found the
right temperature. The picture on the left shows what the incubator turned
germination chamber looks like through its clear door.
Kitchen
News!
It's
been a frigid few winter weeks here at Coon Creek
"The girls" who produce our
delicious Coon Creek Family Farm eggs have been laying through the winter
although certainly nothing like they do when the daylight hours are longer.
The other issue we run into that significantly impacts egg numbers is that in
the bitter cold temps, the eggs often freeze before we can collect them.
Our compost pile now contains a significant share of calcium from all the frozen
eggs added over the winter.
Be
sure to surprise your sweetheart with our handcrafted goat milk
