Broody Chicken

You might recall a guest article written by Michael Atkinson in which he re-engineered his chickens pecking order. He sent me this video of one of his broody frizzle chickens. The feathers on this hen are fantastic, and it's fun to see her motherly instinct kick in.

 

~Michael~

70 Percent of Ground Beef at Supermarkets Contains ‘Pink Slime’

This is infuriating!!! Leave a comment with your thoughts!

The New Guy in Town

Michael and I had some good laughs picking out the Barry White song. Once the video all came together, it was pretty funny to listen to the words because they seemed to fit......I love you baby, let me run my fingers through your hair feathers.

~marisa

The "Real Food" Evangelist

A New Home for the swarm

There is an old saying that goes: 

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay;

A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; 

But a swarm in July is not worth a fly’

for it is then too late

to store up honey before the flowers begin to fade.

But we are giving it a try anyways.

More on MyPlate

By Uncle Dale

I am more cynical about “MyPlate” than Michael is. I look at the recommendation from USDA over the years, click here and see the dumbing down of Americans. We stopped reading a long time ago and now graphics have to be so simple that they are pointless. 

 Americans will glance at the plate and say, “Ya, that’s what I eat” and will not bother to read and follow the recommendations.  For example, a Big Mac, french fries, apple pie, and a milk shake fit on MyPLate. I appreciate everyone who follows this blog because you are people who take your diets seriously and understand what your plates should really be covered with, particularly food from your own back yard.

If I look behind MyPlate, I also see the vast influence of various food organizations as they fought to keep from being diminished or excluded from the plate. MyPlate is so meaningless that no food lobby can complain. 

By the way, my family is currently in gross violation of MyPlate since we are completely covering our plates with strawberries.  

Another food story in the news is about Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg killing his own meat. I don’t have a problem with that because I have killed my own meat. But oh! I wish that with his clout in the public eye, Zuckerberg would have decided to grow his own food instead of just killing it. Think of the great example that would have been set for everyone if Zuckerberg would have organized or commissioned a large community garden adjacent to the Facebook campus where all of his employees could relax and grow their own food. It could have even included some pastured broilers that he could kill and eat at his leisure. 

Chicken Waterers 101

Key to the good health of chickens, both broilers and layers alike, is a constant supply of clean water. Inadequate water can stunt the growth of broilers and reduce egg production. So it is important to have a watering system that meets the needs of the chickens and is also easy to maintain in terms of refilling and cleaning. Water is easily “fouled” with chicken manure. It is important that the system avoids this and is easily cleaned if it does happen. Watch below as Dale explains that advantages and disadvantages of the watering systems that he has used through the years. We would also appreciate your experiences. If you would like to explain your system, please comment below. We also welcome any questions. If we can’t answer them, there is probably someone reading this blog who can. 

 

Projects That Get Out of Control

A lot of projects on a backyard farm start small then get out of control. Watch how a $10 kiwi plant from Lowes explodes into a major project involving time and money.

Thinking of Getting Roosters?

You may want to think again after this video!

Chicken Tushies

Warning:

This video may make you vomit a little in your mouth. If you have a weak disposition toward seeing naked chicken tushies, please do not watch!

Update:

We only had to check their bums for the first week.

Early winter at Antietam Glen

Each December I take pleasure in searching the garden for treasures left behind from the fall harvest.  Hidden under the brown stalks, leaves, vines, and soil are the makings for a few more feasts. Low lying leaf lettuce and spinach greens will make a succulent salad. Cabbage will complement corned beef. Deep buried carrots and potatoes will be the foundation for a savory stew.   Marisa’s recipe (August 18) will render Brussels sprouts and onions into a tasty side dish.
Today I put my garden to bed for the winter, I mowed down stalks and vines, pulled up and stacked cages and row stakes, and cleaned off the trellises. I mulched the berries, added to the compost pile, and stored the shovels, hoes, and rakes.
As winter sets in, I bask in the pleasant memories of the past summer’s garden before they blur into the collage of memories of gardens past. New this year was our army of sunflowers, a hedgerow of soldiers standing at attention, greeting us each morning with cheery yellow faces. We planted and cultivated strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries anticipating the sweet fruit to garnish our breads, rolls, muffins, pastries, pies, and ice cream for years to come.  A garden border of chrysanthemums propagated from cuttings this year will yield a rainbow of color next fall.  My biggest garden adventure of the summer was embarking on my volunteer career as a University of Maryland Extension master gardener to improve my own garden, but more importantly to help others improve theirs.
Tonight I will ask Heavenly Father in my evening prayers to bless us with snow, a sparkling white sheet to cover Antietam Glen until purple and yellow crocuses burst forth next spring.  

Is it safe to eat lettuce amid E. coli outbreak?

By Dale Johnson

The above title is the title of the following article.

http://us.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/13/lettuce.recall/index.html?hpt=T2

Answer: It is safe to eat my lettuce because I grew it myself.

We hope your spring garden is doing well whether it be a large backyard farm or deck container garden. We are eating out of our garden now and it is refreshing, particularly our various varieties of lettuce and spinach, untainted by E. coli. We have accomplished most of our garden goals this year and look forward to several months of fresh produce.

Backyard broilers 2010 video 4 & 5

Dale
Our Freedom Rangers are now 5 weeks old and growing very nicely. Our Cornish Cross are 3 weeks old. In one more week we will put them out on pasture to finish them. One of our freedom rangers hurt its leg and we isolated it for a few days. It didn't eat very well so its growth has not kept up with the other Freedom Rangers. We don't dare put it back in with them because they might pick on it so I put it in with the younger and smaller Cornish Cross. You can see how that went in part 5 below

Backyard broilers 2010 video 3

by Dale

This is video 3 in my ongoing series on broiler production where I am raising 50 Freedom ranger broilers and 50 Cornish Cross broilers to compare the results.

Click here to view the first 2 videos.

You Reap What You Sow

By Mike

We have been busy getting our house for sale lately so our garden has been a little neglected. We finally got around to planting our root vegetables and our leafy greens. Check out this video about planting root vegetables. Watch for the various tips embedded throughout.



By Mike

Freedom Ranger Videos

Drying For Freedom

A Film About Clotheslines

Due to be released in 2010, Drying For Freedom is a film about communities and freedom; with 50 million clotheslines banned in the U.S alone, are we hanging our planet out to dry?

Visit their site at www.dryingforfreedom.com

A super duty trellis

We are tired of tomato cages that fall over and leave our tomatoes a tangled mess of diseased plants that are impossible to water, weed, and harvest. String weaving is more labor intensive with the same results. So this year we devised a system that will change our whole garden. Using sturdy metal T posts and heavy welded wire fencing, we erected a trellis that keeps the tomatoes off the ground. As we train the vines into the fencing, the tomatoes grow up into the sun and air never to topple over. A furrow at the base makes irrigation easy. Circulating air wards off disease reducing the need for fungicides. We have been rewarded with a heavy crop of beautiful tomatoes that will continue into autumn. This same trellis will serve future crops of peas, pole beans, cucumbers, and vining squash. As we construct more of these trellises, our vertical garden will generate higher yields and better quality produce.

Megan's Square Foot Garden: Gone With the Wind

We too had a huge wind storm that did a lot of damage. You can see our ordeal in this video below.

I felt so depressed when I witnessed the damage one night of storms could do and how our many of our hopes for our little garden had been dashed. And I couldn't help but think of people who completely rely on their farms/crops for sustenance. I don't know what they did when that happened. Turned to what they had stored/ asked neighbors for help?

Homemade Laundry Detergent