Tag Archives: 30 Day Farm Blog challenge

Day 25 – Look Who Came Calling!

Posted on November 25, 2013 | 6 comments
Who could the culprit be?

Who could the culprit be?

About a month or so ago the ferret food started to disappear. Adding bungee cords to hold down the lid on the food dispenser didn’t help – the cords would be removed and the food gone each morning. At first we thought it might be the cats, but they aren’t strong or dexterous enough to break into our tied down ferret food hopper.

We got one of those live traps, thinking we might be dealing with a raccoon. We put the trap beside the ferret cage and… nothing. The food stopped disappearing and the trap remained untouched.

A couple of weeks later, we caught the neighbour’s cat. The cat was rather miffed that it had been busted stealing the cat food we had used as bait, but the ferret food remained untouched. We speculated that maybe the raccoon had met with an untidy end up on the highway or had seen traps before and knew it was best to avoid our place.

Then, last night, this fellow paid us a visit:

I know these devils eat chickens, kill turkeys and ducks, and generally have no respect for other people's property, but my, oh my, they are adorable!

I know these devils eat chickens, kill turkeys and ducks, and generally have no respect for other people’s property, but my, oh my, they are adorable!

This dude was FAT!! Totally rolly polly and surprisingly relaxed, given his circumstances.

We loaded him into the back of the truck and drove him waaaaaay out of town to an undisclosed wilderness location…

We released him far, far away from any farms or houses where he might be tempted to make trouble...

We released him far, far away from any farms or houses where he might be tempted to make trouble…

He shot out of the trap and headed for the hills...

He shot out of the trap and headed for the hills…

He was moving fast when he exited the trap, but we had released him at the bottom of a huge, forested hill and he didn’t get very far before he was huffing and puffing and had to stop for rest. He turned to look down at us and we wondered how he would fare out in the wild without easy access to a steady supply of ferret food. Then we decided he was carrying so much flab he probably wouldn’t have to eat all winter and he’d still be fine by the time spring rolled around. By which time he had caught his breath and continued on his way, disappearing into the trees, no doubt in search of a good place to have a nap.

Interested in learning who else is participating in the 30 days agriculture blog-a-thon or the five things Holly Spangler will be talking about this month? Head over to Prairie Farmer to find out!

6 Comments

Posted in Blog, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , ,

Day 24 – Frost!

Posted on November 24, 2013 | 7 comments
I try to keep this quote in mind when my fingers are not functioning properly and the garden beds are crispy, solid, and completely unworkable.

I try to keep this quote in mind when my fingers are not functioning properly and the garden beds are crispy, solid, and completely unworkable.

The one good thing about frost or a light dusting of snow is that everything looks so darned sparkly! The whole world is clean!

The turkey field looks quite different when it's frozen solid.

The turkey field looks quite different when it’s frozen solid. Fortunately, the birds don’t seem to mind.

Frozen water is a pain in the backside to deal with.

Frozen water is a pain in the backside to deal with.

All that glittery frost might look magical, but man, when frozen water pipes mean you have to haul buckets and Jerry cans of water from the house to distant water containers all over the neighbourhood, the thrill of a glorious morning wears off pretty quickly. A couple of chickens wouldn’t be so terribly difficult to deal with, but horses? Lactating sows? A whole herd of thirsty turkeys? I was more than a little pleased when the temperature began to rise again and the water started to flow. That gurgle of water splashing into an old bathtub in the horse paddock is a special kind of music!

LOVE that sun after a few gloomy rain days... Though, it always astonishes me just how low it stays all day long through these shortest days of winter.

LOVE that sun after a few gloomy rain days… Though, it always astonishes me just how low above the horizon it stays through these shortest days of winter.

Interested in learning who else is participating in the 30 days agriculture blog-a-thon or the five things Holly Spangler will be talking about this month? Head over to Prairie Farmer to find out!

7 Comments

Posted in Blog, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Day 23 – Craft Fair Season!

Posted on November 23, 2013 | 4 comments

For the past couple of weeks the upstairs kitchen has been the place to hang out and drool (if you are a human, that is. If you are a dog, downstairs is the place to be because that’s where all the tasty pork dog treats are being made…) Jams and jellies were first to be processed and then, oh heavenly delights, it was cookie time!

These pinwheel cookies are delicious and kind of cool - but fiddly! Given how many we were trying to make, we used a handy dandy jam cookie making device for the next number of batches.

These pinwheel cookies are delicious and kind of cool – but fiddly! Given how many we were trying to make, we used a handy dandy jam cookie making device for the next number of batches.

Filled with Dark Creek jams and jellies, these are oh so very good!

Filled with Dark Creek jams and jellies, these are oh so very good!

It has been tough to only eat the broken ones (oops! slipped! can’t take that cracked old thing to the craft fair!), but we have to be strong so we have lots to take to the North Douglas Christmas Craft Fair tomorrow.

In addition to the festive cookies and yummy dog snacks (at least, I assume they taste pretty good as I caught Tuulen up on his hind legs STEALING the pork treats from the counter – he looked very sheepish and said, ‘it was cracked! You can’t take something like that to the craft fair!’) we are also taking a variety of jams and jellies (including the cranberry jelly gift packs that were so popular in our Thanksgiving Goody Boxes), fresh eggs (the new pullets are getting into gear!), carved wooden plant row markers, hand-pulled wood block prints, art cards, original watercolour and miniature paintings by E. Colin Williams, children’s books by yours truly, carved wood signs, herbal salves, and aprons. We’ll also have the coolest little terrarium with a wooden base that defies explanation at this late hour (will post a photo tomorrow – it is packed away in a box, ready to go). For anyone interested in signing up for our CSA or ordering a turkey, we’ll have information and forms.

Getting all of that together has been a bit of a trial in the middle of everything else going on! As I write this just before midnight, I’m hoping all goes smoothly and that we’ll get a chance to chat with some of our regular farm stand customers and meet lots of new people as well.

If you are in the area, here are the details:

North Doug Craft Fair Info – hope to see you there!

4th Annual North Doug Craft Fair

Where : North Doug Church, 675 Jolly Place
When: November 23rd, 9am-4pm

Door prizes and other surprises!
Concession with soup, sandwiches, and dessert
All of the table proceeds go towards the youth

For more information, check out the Facebook event page

Interested in learning who else is participating in the 30 days agriculture blog-a-thon or the five things Holly Spangler will be talking about this month? Head over to Prairie Farmer to find out!

4 Comments

Posted in Blog, Markets and Special Events

Tagged , , , ,

Day 22 – Let’s Talk Turkey

Posted on November 22, 2013 | 4 comments
They can run, but they can't hide...

They can run, but they can’t hide…

This year has been a bit of a challenge in terms of timing for processing our Christmas turkeys. Until very recently, the closest place to have the birds processed was up in Cowichan Bay an hour or so north of here – a journey that requires a VERY early start to get the birds there on time and then a return trip the following day to pick them up again (the processed birds can’t be transported until they have been sufficiently chilled). As you can imagine, the demand for slots is huge right before the two major turkey feasting holidays, so it is not easy at all to book a date that is close enough to Christmas to be able to offer customers fresh birds.

Add to this the fact our Ridley Bronze turkeys take their own sweet time growing to a decent size so an early date and frozen birds is not a great solution for us, never mind the fact our customers overwhelmingly prefer fresh birds to frozen (though, I have to say that having tasted both, there isn’t a noticeable difference in flavour). Anyway, the closest date we originally were able to get to Christmas was December 13, which meant very stale ‘fresh’ birds (too stale, really – though there is no definitive number of days a fresh bird can sit properly refrigerated, we were uncomfortable selling birds that would be 10-12 days before preparation). So, we were resigned to selling them frozen.

Invite a Ridley Bronze to your holiday dinner...

Invite a Ridley Bronze to your holiday dinner…

Then, we heard through the farmer grapevine that a new processor had been approved here on the Saanich Peninsula and, when I got in touch, I was delighted to hear he had space for our birds on December 21 (ready for us to pick up and get them to our customers December 22). Not only can we provide fresh birds, they benefit from an extra week or so of growing.

Now that we have the processing date finalized, I can post the link to our fancy schmantzy online order form.

Please note, we do not produce a huge number of birds and they grow to the sizes they want to grow. To avoid disappointment, please, please order sooner than later so you have the best chance of getting a bird close to the size you are hoping for. We do our best to match you up with a good dining partner, but it’s not like we are running a factory farm here with thousands of birds to pick from. We always sell out, so if you are interested in a fresh, local, delicious heritage turkey, click on that there link and let us know!

We are now able to take VISA and Mastercard – details for payment options are on the form. Over the next little while we’ll post some favourite recipes and cooking tips – these birds are not quite like the broad-breasted whites you’ll find in the supermarket. More on that, too, in future posts – for now, just wanted to give you the heads up on our late-breaking turkey news!

4 Comments

Posted in Blog, Turkeys

Tagged , , , , , ,

Day 21 – Getting the Word Out

Posted on November 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

Vancouver Island Direct Farm Market Association AGM is being held at the Saanich Fairgrounds, tonight (November 21) at 7pm: doors open at 6:30, cookies and coffee will be served. If you have a farm in the area, consider coming to the meeting and becoming a member. You’ll get to connect with a great group of farmers, hear about current issues affecting all of us, and learn about how effective it is to band together to let consumers know where to find local farm products. 

Small farms use all kinds of strategies to get their produce into the hands of consumers - farmers' markets, box programs, and farm gate sales... What works best for you?

Small farms use all kinds of strategies to get their produce into the hands of consumers – farmers’ markets, box programs, and farm gate sales… What works best for you?

The DFMA has certainly been a fantastic marketing tool for us – we are listed in the annual Farm Fresh Guide as the Alderley Grange (the name of our farm stand) and that one listing alone has sent all sorts of customers our way. We do not have the benefit of a lot of drive by traffic, so it’s not that easy for people to find us. But, find us they do – either online (check out the Farm Fresh website if you are looking for any kind of local produce, eggs, meat… ), through the Farm Fresh Facebook page, or at the annual Farmer’s Market Area at the Saanich Fair. We also attend local farmers’ markets and have been very happy with the success of our subscription box program (more on how that will look for the 2014 season in a future post).

Local marketing groups are not only invaluable in terms of bringing farmers and customers together, they also help bring farmers together - no small feat given that getting farmers together is a bit like herding cats.

Local marketing groups are not only invaluable in terms of bringing farmers and customers together, they also help bring farmers together – no small feat given that getting farmers together is a bit like herding cats.

If you farm elsewhere, would you mind posting a link to your local/regional marketing resources? (add the link in the comments section…) Do you have a regional co-op? Something similar to the DFMA? A fantastic farmers’ market that does a great job of promoting local products? And, if you like to shop local, how do you connect with farmers in your area? I’m always interested to see how other farmers are connecting with their customers and how customers find their farmers…

Interested in learning who else is participating in the 30 days blog-a-thon or the five things Holly Spangler will be talking about all month long? Head over to Prairie Farmer to find out!

Leave a comment

Posted in Blog, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , ,