I’m purging some of my “stuff”. This particular round, I’ve started to clear out my blown goose egg collection from last spring.
I’ve got about 50 blown goose eggs which I started saving for craft projects, or for selling for craft projects. Several of them posted on e-bay now, and my first sale got shipped out last week. It was a package of 10 eggs that went for $14.50. The discussion in our house has been on what package size gives the best return per egg. Should I sell them by the dozen, in packs of 4, or one at a time?
It’s nice to get paid for the stuff, but it seems like the work:cash ratio isn’t quite in favor of this one. That’s balanced by the fact that it’s less for me to have around the house, and I’m just as glad for that!
After the eggs are gone, it will be time to start auctioning off some of the other things I’ve accumulated….Or maybe just haul it out to the trash… Hmmm….
Posted inSales|TaggedEggs, Geese|Comments Off on Goose Eggs for Christmas
We made a 611 gallons of apple juice last weekend! Fortunately, we had about 40 people to share it all with.
This is the 3rd year we have been part of this apple pressing group, which has been going on for more than 25 years already.
The routine is that the group drives to Eastern Washington one day at the end of October, to glean apples left on the trees of organic orchards. We haven’t made the picking weekend yet, but this year we offered to host the group for the pressing weekend. Continue reading →
Sold as grass, looks like straw, and the animals won't eat it
Sometimes we paint ourselves into corners and then make mistakes when we try to get out.
Last week we found ourselves out of hay. Well, we did have half of a bale left, but I’d say we were plum out. I drove down to the local feed store before they closed on Friday evening and bought 3 bales at $15 each (ouch!), which would be enough to get us through the weekend when we could get more from our usual source of weed-rich prairie hay from Ellensburg, WA at $5/bale.
Friday night a friend called and asked if we would go in with her on buying 50 bales from a farmer in Kent, WA for $6/bale. We joined her and our 35 hay bales showed up the next afternoon.
We collected this soil sample at the very end of July, 2010. The charge was $30/analysis. We have a good relationship with our Vet, Dr. Paul Dettloff, so we chose to go with his usual lab & routine.
Sample #1: The grazing area is from a mixture of samples of the rich black soil that is in the south west corner of our property. It’s full of moisture & organic matter.
Sample #2: The Soccer Field is field is a mixture of samples from the flat area adjacent our shop & barn, and also some samples taken from the ground south and east of the big cedar tree below the house. Both of these areas have been graded. It’s just fill dirt from construction of the buildings, and had zero topsoil when we moved in.
Results show our need for Calcium, Sulfur, & Boron
3.1 Acres for pasture & grazing 2.1 Acres is forested 0.4 Acres for Driveway, Homesite, & yard 2070 sq. ft. for Teaching Barn, and Workshop
Animal population on October 14, 2010:
1 milk cow, 1 steer, 1 calf 5 doe goats, 5 kids, 1 buck, 1 wether 26 geese 33 ducks 18 chickens 2 cats 3 beehives on site
All pastures are rotationally grazed to maximize quality grass & forage production.
The ruminant animals (cows & goats) are kept in winter confinement areas from October – March, and are pastured from March-October.
The Geese are rotationally grazed and on pasture throughout the year. They are separated into breeding pairs & nesting pens in January. When the goslings are large enough to handle the transition, the geese are mobbed back together again in the summer and rotational grazing resumes.
Ducks are kept in portable pens, and moved onto fresh grass daily throughout the year. Nesting ducks are added to selected goose nesting pens.
Chickens are penned up at night, and left to forage during the day. They are responsible for removing any potential insect breeding areas.
The cats keep the rodents from becoming a problem.
We have 4 garden spaces, one on each side of the house. 3 of these were previously described as “lawn”, but we now use them for growing vegetables.
We’ve got about 20 grape vines, 20 fruit trees (18 of which are small), and are always looking for intelligent ways to expand our “food forest”.
Posted inFarming|Comments Off on October 14th, 2010 Farm Overview
There are about 8 oz of worms in a gallon of bedding
I’ve run a worm box for my kitchen scraps for about 10 years, and they work great. We usually generate between 2 and 10 lbs of scraps each day, too much for a single 2ft x 4ft worm box. I solved that problem by just building more worm boxes–I have 3 of them and they are wonderful!
In 2009, I introduced some of my red wriggler population to my manure pile. They did a great job. After about 6 months of increasing population I could tell that it was working because they had really filled up the heap. The compost was still composting at about the same rate, but my system had changed for the better. I now have a host of worms working through my compost.
I no longer create large heaps of hot compost, and I no longer have to turn the piles. Continue reading →
Foliar Spray to apply to plants every 2 weeks during the growing season:
2 oz liquid kelp (trace elements) 2 oz liquid fish (protein & phosphorus) 2 oz liquid humates (humic acid – fulvic acid feeds microbes) 2 oz sea salt (which ionizes & increases ergs energy) 2 oz apple cider vinegar (sets frequency for absorption) 1/2 Cup brown sugar or molasses (energy) Garlic juice (helps discourage rabbits & deer)
1 gallon raw milk
Rain water – fill to make 2 gallons
Local Resources (Puget Sound, WA): Fungi Perfecti LLC — Paul Stamets mycellium company based in Olympia, WA http://www.fungi.com/
To “culture” something is to cultivate it. Cultivating has several meanings, all of them useful. It can mean to prepare soil for growing crops; to improve yourself by labor and study; to cherish or foster; to improve.
Cultivate the land. Cultivate your talents. Cultivate a love of excellence. Civilize.
So how does this relate to the home? It has EVERYTHING to do with the home! Have you ever thought about what you are cultivating in your home? What is nurtured there, what is labored over, what grows in your home?
Many families, often without realizing it, are trying to cultivate the true, the good, and the beautiful in our homes. For our family, the journey of faithful cultivating began with a change of direction over food and health. This led us down paths we could not have predicted when we first began. Homeschooling started some of our like-minded friends down this path. For you it may be something else entirely. What it all has in common is faith in the LORD God to lead our families.
So here we can share what God is doing and provide resources, roadmaps, hints and helps for others as He calls them. Your family may not look like ours, but you can also cultivate what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful in your own Cultured Home.
Join us!
About the author:
nathan@culturedhome.com
Nathan
Small Farm Systems Engineer Author of this site’s food & farming topics through 2010
Tying together concepts across traditional topics is what I love doing most.
For example, I get really excited about how agriculture & food combine with life. It’s great to discuss how to use rotational mob-grazing animals to create a sheet mulch to follow after a no-till sowing of buckwheat. This is a forage crop for my naturally raised honeybees & other wild beneficial insects, and it makes the soil’s phosphorus available for growth. Plants with enough phosphorus help the eggs from our pastured poultry to have strong shells. These discarded egg shells are fed back to the layers who feed the soil biology through their manure. Healthy, living soils grow the grass which harvests sunlight and feeds the grazing animals all over again.
Traditional lacto-fermentation food preserves the harvest throughout the year. Milk from the grazing animals becomes cheese, kefir, & yogurt. Whey from the cheese making enlivens our food, soaks the grain for the family bread, and inoculates the animals’ feed with probiotics. Honey from the bees sweetens the meal and mead brightens the dinner of pastured meats. Springs’ surplus eggs are pickled in last years’ cider vinegar to complement salads brought in after the garden’s extended fall harvest. We sleep with pillows and comforters made from our own feathers and goose down. Socks & sweaters from our own fiber warm us during the winter in a home heated with local wood. Our children contribute useful projects of wood, fur, horn, leather, & food.
There is a place for everything, and everything here contributes. My job is to recognize and direct how the animals, insects, plants, and soil work together to support the farm. They do the work, the farmer does the management.
“The hay appeareth, and The tender grass sheweth itself, and The herbs of the mountains are gathered.
The lambs are for thy clothing, and The goats are the price of the field. And Thou shalt have goats’ milk enough
For thy food, For the food of thy household, and For the maintenance for thy maidens.”
On Tuesday, August 17th, the 4 kids and I joined several others in my Permaculture Design Class to tour the Bullock’s homestead on Orcas Island. We left early to catch the ferry from Anacortes and came home late, but there were enough “rests” during the day that it all came at a reasonable pace. (What else can you do when waiting at the ferry dock but pick blackberries and take a snooze?)
The Bullock homestead & nursery has been there for 30 years, and it is an excellent example of a “mature” permaculture system. The main area of the homestead is densely packed as a perennial “food forest”. The 3 hour tour started at 1 PM, and I could tell that we were just getting a taste of the thought, detail and purpose that was behind everything there.
Everything is carefully laid out, with all the details around fertility, water and waste flows thoroughly worked through. Continue reading →
