Marilyn's First Egg

Marilyn laid her first egg today! She's been preparing for this big moment for a few weeks. Yesterday morning she snuggled in a nest box for a good thirty minutes--she was practicing--and for the last couple of weeks she's been hanging out in the hen house watching the older girls carefully as they lay. This morning Marilyn was mighty bossy to the other pullets, and I could tell she was feeling all grown up and important.

Marilyn is a Silver-Laced Wyandotte. We named her after actress Marilyn Monroe because a Wyandotte is a full-bodied and curvaceous hen, and the silver lacing on her plumage makes her an awfully glamorous addition to the chicken yard. Marilyn was hatched on March 10, 2014. The previous Wyandotte on Red Bucket Farm took a full seven months to lay her first egg, so Marilyn is ahead of schedule.

This morning's egg is tiny--less than two inches long--with a perfectly smooth and shiny tan-colored shell. Subsequent eggs will grow in size. Marilyn has finished bragging and strutting. She's settled in the dirt for a quiet afternoon in the shade. Well done, Marilyn!

Infused Vodka

Fruit infused vodkas are growing in popularity. They're fun and easy to make and almost too easy to drink. Last fall I made my first attempt at infused vodka with cranberries, which we thought was delicious. This summer the currants have been so plentiful that we experimented with currant infused vodka. In the photo above, the glass on the left contains red currant infused vodka; the glass on the right has black currant infused vodka.

You don't need to be a farmer to try this project. Begin with two cups of fruit in a medium sauce pan. I added a half cup of sugar to my tart currants and cranberries. Cook over low heat until the skins just begin to pop. Pour the fruit mixture into a large jar. Add four cups of cheap vodka. Wait for two weeks, then strain and serve.

If I wanted to make raspberry, strawberry or peach infused vodka, I would stir only a few tablespoons of sugar into the fruit and let it rest for 15 minutes (without cooking) before adding the vodka.

My Jewish friends tell me this is known as vishnyak or vishniak in Yiddish culture. We enjoy our vishnyak over ice or just neat in small cordial glasses. Be careful---it's not kool-aid.

Harvesting Garlic

Earlier this week I began harvesting garlic. I carefully removed it from the soil and spread it on the drying table in the sun to cure for a week or two. A tarp is handy for cover at night and during potential rainstorms.

Look closely at the photo above. On the left is the regular garlic clove, but on the right you see little bulblets about five inches up the stalk. These little bulbs were growing above ground. None of my usual gardening resources gave me any clue about this, so I did what we all do these days---I googled it. Occasionally a very cold winter will cause garlic to grow above ground. This is evidently some sort of defense mechanism. I will use both the underground and above ground cloves. After all, I've already harvested the garlic scapes earlier this summer. Scapes are seedpods that grow at the end of the leaves and sap energy from the main bulb. I use them in cooking as if they were chives or scallions. They are delicious and quite expensive at the market.

There are three kinds of garlic: softneck garlic, which grows many smaller cloves in one head; hardneck garlic, which grows fewer large cloves; and elephant garlic, which is very big cloves. Softneck garlic is the kind that is usually sold in the grocery store, but hardneck garlic is commonly available at the farmers markets. At Red Bucket Farm we grow Inchelium Red softneck and Eric's German White hardneck.

My hardneck garlic is still in the ground (see photo) and needs to be harvested. No time to blog! Thanks for checking in.

Chicken Predators

Yesterday I agreed to a telephone interview with a student journalist writing for The Badger Herald. I was told that the article was about urban chickens and urban farms, but I quickly learned there was an ulterior motive. It seems the writer's mother knows urban hen keepers who are complaining about foxes. These folks have contacted the Department of Natural Resources and expect some sort of action regarding foxes in the city.

Red Bucket Farm is situated immediately adjacent to a wildlife sanctuary, part of the city parks department. Our section of the park is dense trees, brambles, and a few hiking paths. We have all kinds of predators---foxes, coyotes, hawks and a pair of great horned owls. We rely on these predators to keep the rabbit, squirrel and chipmunk population in check. Without their help, I'd have to start trapping the little critters to save my crops.

We researched our chicken coop for months before building it in 2010. Since safety was our primary concern, we covered the entire coop with half-inch hardware cloth. The hardware cloth covers the walls, windows, and ceiling; it's also sandwiched between two layers of flooring. We attached it with screws and fender washers. All doors and windows are secured with locks. It may seem extreme, but we've never lost a hen to any predator.

Remember that chickens sleep from dusk to dawn, and darkness causes them to go into "torpor," a kind of stupor or unconsciousness in which the heart rate is lowered. They can't make any effort to defend themselves. This is why chickens roost in a high place at night.

So let's be clear: protecting the urban flock from predators is a farmer's responsibility. Anyone who staples chicken wire to a wooden frame and calls it a coop is asking for trouble. Our hens provide us with fresh eggs, manure for fertilizing, and hours of entertainment. We owe it to them to care for them properly.

Picking Cherries

We've reached the point at Red Bucket Farm where we are much too busy---sowing, weeding, watering, fertilizing (chicken poop tea!), harvesting, cleaning, processing, tending the chickens and bees---to have time to write a blog post. But there is a bit of photographic evidence that the orchard ladder is useful and well worth the cost.  Our three tart cherry trees suffered no losses over the cold winter.

Container Gardening

Every year my gardening ambitions exceed my ground space, and so I use containers as overflow.  Many herbs grow well in pots. I'm growing parsley, rosemary, chives, pineapple sage and basil in containers on our back patio. Elevating them off the ground keeps the voracious bunnies from eating tender seedlings. Fresh herbs are amazing to eat and easy to grow.

This year is the first time I'm growing "Tom Thumb" dwarf peas in containers. The pea pods are beginning to form and we're excited to sample them soon.

I'm experimenting with growing leafy greens in shallow planting dishes that we like to call "salad bowls." In the foreground is kale, plus spinach and bok choi in the background (not yet germinated). Notice that I've hung the shade cloth in the greenhouse. It's frequently 100 degrees in there!

Finally, I intended to put this broccoli in the ground in a new raised bed, but it's not going to happen this year. I transplanted the little seedlings into 6" pots. I've got nothing to lose at this point, so we'll see if it works.

If you have even a tiny patio or balcony, you can do this too!

Early Harvests

I love the earliest harvests of spring, especially asparagus and rhubarb. The first taste of grilled asparagus reminds me why I'm a farmer. These two crops pop up so early and easily in the spring that they seem effortless. Of course, I've conveniently forgotten that I composted and mulched them last fall. Right now, they seem almost miraculous and provide enough inspiration to lure me outside to the gardens.

This morning I harvested baby carrots, kale and bok choi. I started them by seed in February, beneath grow lights indoors. They were transferred outdoors into a covered raised bed in early April. The weather was lousy and I didn't expect to harvest anything. It isn't much of a harvest, but I'm grateful that anything managed to survive this spring.

The herbs have done nicely in the greenhouse--basil, chives, rosemary, and sage--also providing a little inspiration for my gardening soul.

That's all for now. I'm off to bake rhubarb custard pie. It's what's for breakfast in the morning.