Bounty & Abundance

Well, our crops are producing like crazy. Here's what we've been up to (in the few moments we have of 'chicken-free' time).

Turning plums into plum jam (the less sugar kind so it's kind of tart...delicious)




Harvesting and eating summer squash, corn, onions, broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, etc.



Making fresh salsa...yum yum



Taking care of this sweet girl




And attending weddings and reunions. It's been a busy month!

Now what do I do with my chicken?

If you bought one, you may wonder how to cook it. I found this article and recipe interesting and delicious. Includes 3 different recipes to get the most out of every piece of your chicken. Enjoy!

Third batch...and turkeys too!

Just a review: We are raising 6 different breeds of chickens this year: Cornish Cross, White Plymouth Rock, Delaware, Turken, Red Ranger, and Barred Plymouth Rock. This is our first year raising free range chickens on pasture. We have sure learned a lot! We are raising 6 different breeds in order to see which ones we like best and which ones our customers like best.

We are processing our third batch of chickens this Tuesday, August 10th. We will be processing mostly Cornish Cross chickens, which are the chickens you've probably eaten before if you've ever eaten chicken. They are bred to grow fast and big. This will be our last batch of Cornish Cross chickens this year.

We may also be processing some White Plymouth Rock chickens in this batch. White Plymouth Rocks are a heritage breed. They will be smaller and may taste somewhat different.

Our next processing date is scheduled for Tuesday, August 31. We will be processing more White Plymouth Rocks and some Delawares. Again, these will be smaller and we're excited to see if they taste different.

We have Red Rangers and Turkens (aka naked necks) still to be processed at a later date. We'll let you know the specific date soon (a few picture of the Turkens below - I personally think they have the most beautiful colored feathers).






And...our turkeys are growing quite nicely. They obviously need more space than the chickens. See these great pictures! These birds will be processed in the beginning of October.







They can be eaten fresh in October, or frozen for Thanksgiving. Since we are processing outside, we're trying to avoid processing in the freezing cold weather. Having said that, we do have some younger turkeys which will be ready around Christmas time so we're not going to be able to avoid processing those in the cold! Thanks for your interest and support to our farm!!

Here are some reasons people are buying our chicken

And last but not least, we do have a life other than farming (but not much right now)!

The second round is here!

We are processing Cornish Cross birds tomorrow! If you would like any please let us know. dmcdowell32@yahoo.com. 801 241 1681. In two weeks we will have more Cornish Cross and some White Rocks. That will be fun to see the difference in the breeds. We are hoping for a nice cloudy day tomorrow.

We're back!

What a fun trip! A little bit of Alexandria, VA ~ Driving through the beautiful countryside ~ Two 14-hour intensive training days on the farm ~ A few state parks and caverns ~ and lots and lots of learning and note-taking. We had a bit of a frame of reference since we have been raising chickens and turkeys this year, which allowed us to ask some detailed, specific questions. We learned lots about pigs and cows, which we want to raise in the future. We met many people devoted to local farming, grass-finished meat, pastured poultry, etc. Joel Salatin was the teacher and we followed him around his entire farm for 2 days. The training was limited to 30 people to keep it intimate and give enough time for valuable discussion. Virginia is a beautiful place, but so is Salt Lake City and we're excited to be back home to farm in our own local community. The visit to Polyface was so encouraging and positive. The Salatins have been farming for years and decades, so it was fun to see all the possibilities and come back to our own little growing farm. Thanks again for sharing this adventure with us. Enjoy the pictures!

p.s. if you don't know who Joel Salatin is yet, watch the movies Food, Inc. and Fresh, the movie or read the book The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. We highly recommend them.

Polyface Farm...here we come!

We are off to Polyface farm in Swoope, Virginia (Shenandoah valley) tomorrow for a 2 day conference. Joel Salatin is the owner of the farm, has written 6 books, numerous articles, and is featured in the movies Food, Inc. and Fresh, the movie. Danny will be trained from Joel Salatin himself. This is such an exciting opportunity for us to learn from the best!

"Roughly 550 acres, the farm is about 100 acres of open land and the balance is wooded. Polyface Farm produces "beyond-organic," grass-fattened beef, home-grown broilers, pastured turkeys, firewood, eggs, rabbits and vegetables."

We recently learned that all sessions of this summer's Polyface Intensive Discovery Seminar are long full and there are lengthy waiting lists in case there are cancellations. We'll have a full report when we get back. In the meantime, thank you to all the people who are helping 'babysit' the chickens and the farm while we are gone. We return on 22JUL and will have our next processing dates on 27JUL and 10AUG. Stay tuned!

We reap what we sow!

It brings us great joy to start something from the beginning and see the finished product. As far as birds go, we have seen one batch begin as babies in the brooders, taken care of them for life, and then they fed us. What an amazing process. Here are some pictures of other things we are looking forward to this fall (or now). Saffron is especially excited because she will be able to eat real food by then! Tomatoes, peppers, corn, broccoli, onions, fresh herbs, eggs, and chicken...and in one of the pictures you can see our nice compost rotting away.










We just got 3 orders of new baby chicks in. These chicks are actually called turkens or naked necks. I think they look like little people with wigs on. They are doing well and we hear they are more of a delicacy in terms of flavor. We can't wait to find out.





And we'll close this entry with a very nice picture of a flower and a flower girl.