Next Level Farming Life

Nathan and I thought last week was going to be nice and quiet, but we ended up with our fair share of excitement despite the super wet weather ALL WEEK LONG. Here's our silkie, Millie, taking a break from the rain to lay an egg. Poor gal.

Monday was my day off for working the previous weekend and I enjoyed a lovely slow morning followed by purchasing and planting two honey berry bushes. We learned about this cultivar about a month ago from a guy that sells berry plants near Paris Mountain. They are related to honeysuckle, but produce berries very similar to blueberries. Not only that, but they often produce before strawberries in the spring! We decided to give a pair a try. So far both are putting out some healthy green leaves. Looking forward to tasting their fruit!

After lunch, I was able to go visit with Hessy on their ever-evolving homestead. Her peach tree was already covered in beautiful blossoms and Daisy got to meet guinea pigs for the first time, and we had a good visit soaking up the only day of warm sunshine we going to have. Daisy wasn't sure what to make of the guinea pigs, she was spooked by them at first and then wanted to play chase. Hessy also gave us some seeds to try in our garden this spring--some tasty broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts! Oh, and trying out some Egyptian walking onion as well. They smell strong, but if we could perpetually have our onions reproducing for us that would be awesome!

Monday evening we were invited to have dinner with the John and Gina of Saint Basil Farm. It was fun to see all the beautiful greens they had growing in addition to getting to say hi to their friendly goats. John sent us home with some really cool lettuce and tomato seed cultivars! We planted 13 of them in flats already and can't wait to try them all! Thanks Saint Basil Farm!

After the beautiful warm Monday, the next morning I stepped outside to go feed the chickens and was pelted with sleet! The forecast was rain, so that was quite the surprise! I hurriedly covered our more tender plants hoping they wouldn't freeze too badly. Saw a strawberry developing on our young plants yesterday, so hopefully they came through unscathed.

Thursday morning it was my turn to give a tour of the SC Room. A "newcomers" group got an in-depth tour of the whole library and I was able to highlight some of the special offerings our department has. The group as a whole seemed quite impressed with the variety of our resources and services, so hopefully they come back to visit us.

After work on Friday, we had my parents over for dinner before we packed up and headed to Asheville for the night. All day Saturday we attended classes at the Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project (ASAP) conference. We left with tons of great ideas for the coming year of Growing Green Family Farms and can't wait to try a few of them out come market season.

Breaking news! The elimination diet has been a success thus far, so I probably do have another food intolerance of some sort. My doctor told me to create priority list of what I wanted back in my diet, and gave me the all clear to begin adding in a new item once-a-week. First up was EGGS!!! We enjoyed our chickens' eggs for the first time in almost a month and they were delicious! Also being able to have eggs means most of our paleo baking recipes are back on the menu, so we tried out some paleo biscuits that were actually quite good to round out our intro day to eggs. Day 3 of eggs and I'm still feeling great, so I believe we can safely say that it ain't egg. Whew!

Sunday morning while prepping some food, I heard bloody murder outside and ran for the door. Tugging on my boots as fast as I could I saw golden feathers strewn everywhere. The storm door scarred off a large hawk, but the damage was already done. Penny hid in some bushes, but when we caught her to inspect the damage we knew we couldn't save her. Her wing was down to the bone and the hawk had almost ripped her neck. Nathan dug a hole and my dad came over with the tools and expertise to end her suffering.

Nathan and I have been mentally preparing ourselves to get into meat chickens when we eventually have a bit more land of our own, and had been wanting to acquire some butchering experience. So we decided to embrace the opportunity and learn a new skill. Hessy kindly told us how she skinned chickens over the phone as we weren't set up to pluck. Then my dad taught us how to remove the entrails and unwanted portions (neck and feet in our case). Valuable experience, but it's always hard your first time.

We put the meat in a brine and sampled it for supper. It was the most flavorful chicken we'd ever eaten, granted it was tough. Penny was nearing a year old and most meat birds are harvested at about 10 weeks...so it probably would have been better to boil her for a stew. Weird mix of emotions eating an animal that you butchered yourself. As Nathan said yesterday, it creates even more respect for the animals in our care. The experience reminded me of a prayer included in the Outlander series that I'll close with it this week:

"O Lord, bless the blood and the flesh of this the creature that You gave me. Created by Your hand as You created man, Life given for life. That me and mine may eat with thanks for the gift, That me and mine may give thanks for Your own sacrifice of blood and flesh, Life given for life. "

-Diana Gabaldon

Slightly graphic photos are next, so scroll at your own risk.