$9.00 chicken quandary

I finally got to read the whole study about the cost of eating health food.  It just confirmed the quandary I'm facing.  I find my self approaching the problem of food from three different, and sometimes irreconcilable perspectives. As a local food activist I'm working to promote buy local even if it costs more.  As a producer I'm trying to produce great food and make enough profit that I am able to continue producing and expanding my business.  As a wage earner near the bottom of the wage scale I'm looking for the best food I can get for the limited money I have.  My $9.00 chicken sits right in the middle of this.  It costs to much for people like me (most of my county) to buy.  If I sell for less I don't make any money so what's the point of offering it as part of my food business.  The easiest way to balance this all is to scale up.  Tyson and co. can sell chickens for what they do because they pay a lot less for feed and processing  than I do, and because when you sell millions of chickens you can afford a much smaller profit margin.  I'm looking for creative ways to solve these problems while staying true to my vision.

I'd love to hear what you think.  Maybe together we can plot a course forward.

We still have some openings for our summer and fall chicken CSA at our Local Harvest Store.

haiku

                                                       redwing blackbirds trill
                                                       sun drenched breeze ruffling new grass
                                                       feet dancing naked

Working Chicks

 Staff Meeting

The BOSS...

working...

Clean-up around the flowers

 Horseradish bed.

Lots got done today by a few old hens and a fat rooster.  Nice to have warm weather. 

Edible Landscape Clean-up: Run for the Roses

Edible Landscaping

I don’t recall when I started to search out edible landscaping as a primary source of beauty.  It might have been when I saw how pretty my purple eggplants looked, tucked between some bushes because I did not have any more room in the REAL garden.  Or maybe it was the color of Swiss Chard under my cherry trees in the summer.  Well, for whatever reason, I am an avid edible landscaper.

I have been slowly trimming my rose bushes every other day.  They are not hard to manage but you do need to cut them back if you don’t want to live in Sleeping Beauty’s rose covered castle. Or was that Snow White and Rose Red?  Anyway, I never worry about trimming the roses too much because every bit of them are used.  In the Fall I use the rose hips for syrup.  In the Winter I give the trimmed branches to our goat, Lucy.  She eats them like candy.  The roof of her mouth must be made of titanium because these branches have thorns that really hurt.  The chickens clean up anything that Lucy drops and any spider cases, etc.

So, Lucy gets a special treat and I feel like I have cleaned up without adding anything to the landfill.  It’s a win-win.

Edible landscaping benefits not only the human critters but the birds, goats, and chickens.  Try it this year!

End of January - A pictorial retrospective (makes me look artsy don't you think...)

 FRESH - THE MOVIE  We had more than 100 in attendance from our small community.  It was inspiring.  If you haven't seen it check out the options at http://www.freshthemovie.com/.  We will be following up on this...

The Klondike - A scouting adventure at -11 degrees F.  Fun, challenging, You Should Try It!

Dog training - are we training them or are they training us?

Girl Scout Bridging.  JJ moves on to Cadet.

She has great plans for the next few years.

Chickens waiting for spring.

Garden waiting for spring. (oats planted as a cover.)

A Thyme for Snow?

Winning the Mouse Wars

In Other News...

Our normal level of crazy has returned to the Roost.  The kids are back in school and we are all trying to settle back into the routine of teaching, learning, and school projects mixed in with everyday farm life.  "Vacation" is very disruptive.

The Dogs have imposed their own level of crazy on the house and the farm.  They seem to have taken over as they settle in.  The dogs and kids are starting their third week of basic obedience training.  It is making a difference.  The kids are enjoying it.  They especially love that their Dog Training Instructor is named Kat.

 Comet and

Leonardo at rest.

And at play. 
 
Eve is doing quite well.  She eats well, tolerates me, plays like a calf, and seems very healthy.

But she doesn't really like the snow.  "It's cold, and wet, and gets in her fur.  Then mom lick me and messes up my look."

Most disturbingly, the Imperial ATAT Walker that was in pieces in RR's room disappeared last night.  I suspect the Evil Mouse Sith have stolen it.  They are probably refitting it with new lasers, preparing to for an new offensive in the on going Mouse Wars saga.

Happy New Year from the Roberts Roost Gang

Best wishes for the new year from Alan, CC, JJ, and RR (the human part of the gang), and from Sandy, Comet, and Leonardo (the dogs), Jaguar, Runty, and Shadow (the cats), Lucy, Angel, Angelina, Ginger, Patty, Ink, and Elvis (the goats), May, Jane, and Eve (the cows), Penelope (the hedgehog) and all the chickens and other critters here at the Roost.

Eve 20 hours old

New Years EVE

EVE

This was going to be a post about seed orders and plans for the new year.  But, we are just taking this moment to welcome a new member to our farm.  This is EVE.  (new year's eve).  She is a Dexter/Jersey cross.  We will raise her as a family milk cow.  We hope to find a family who REALLY wants a milk/beef cow on their small holding.  We will raise her by hand, share milking for the first 6 months at least, and teaching her to lead, be handled, etc.  The kids are totally excited.  If she was a boy she would be destine for the freezer.

Listing (mostly to port, but sometimes to starboard...)

As we get ready for our annual planning party (this is what we do on New Years Eve...fun huh) I find my self making lots of lists.  So, I'm going to share some of them.  I'd love to hear how they compare with your lists, if you have any.  And whether you list to port or to starboard?

Some of the books I read this past year.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler
The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith
Walking On Water by Derrick Jensen
Endgame v.1&2 by Derrick Jensen
The Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman
Ultrasimple Boatbuilding by Gavin Atkin

this isn't all the books I read last year, but it is the list I find myself continually recommending.

What did you read that you totally loved?

Here's what's on my MP3 right now (If I was smart enough I'd get one of those widgets so I could inflict it on my readers.... but I'm not that smart.  Lucky You!)

Name
Breathe (2 AM)
Takin' Care of Business
We Danced Anyway
People Are People
Somebody
Route 66 (Single Version)
White Flag
Life for Rent
Sand in My Shoes
This Land Is Mine
Goodbye Earl
The Long Way Around
Not Ready to Make Nice
Wide Open Spaces
The Revolution Will Eat Its Children (A. ..
One (Hu)'Man One Vote
Cruel Crazy Beautiful World
Dela (I Know Why the Dog Howls at th ...
Moliva
It's an Illusion
Bombs Away
Warsaw 1943 (I Never Betrayed the R. ..
Dead Man's Party
Weird Science
No One Lives Forever
Who Do You Want to Be
Grey Matter
We Will Rock You
Jackie
Just Like U Said It Would B
Troy
Drink Before the War
Just Call Me Joe
Nothing Compares 2 U
Mandinka
The Emperor's New Clothes
Success Has Made a Failure of Our Ho ...
Black Boys On Mopeds
Good Enough for Granddad
Lover's Lane
Memphis Exorcism
Put a Lid On It
Hell
LowDown Man
Ghost of Stephen Foster
Suits Are Picking Up the Bill
Dancing On the Moon
Pallin' With AI
Bedbugs
Hush
A Johnny Ace Christmas
Carolina Christmas
Gift of the Magi
Hot Christmas
Hanging Up My Stockings
The Logical Song
Take the Long Way Home
Power of One
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Lucky Ball & Chain
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Dead
Your Racist Friend
Particle Man
Twisting
We Want a Rock
Hearing Aid
Minimum Wage
Letterbox
Whistling in the Dark
Women & Men
Live Like You Were Dying
Rock on Rockall
Live Like You Were Dying
Janie Mac I'm Nearly Forty
The Big Strong Man
Rock Bottom [Single Version][#
Girls With Guitars

That should keep you looking for a while.

Tomorrow's lists - 2011 Seed and Plant order and 2011 Projects

Planning Week

Family Tradition dictates that this is the week to review the past year and make plans for the upcoming one.  Some of this will get shared on this blog.

For now, here's a list of things from this past year...  We

• survived a financial melt down
• learned to live without processed food
• made lots of fudge
• spent lots of time in the hospital
• sold some goats
• ate lots of Chuck
• blogged a lot, quit blogging and started blogging again
• did a lot of scouting
• read some really great books
• built a shop and a weaving room
• learned to spin
• ate well from our garden
• made lots of bread
• learned to make hard cider

and a lot of other things. 

Next year is shaping up to be interesting.  I'll save the plans for another post. 

Cold day, warm hearth, bread and cookies

It was COLD yesterday morning.  5 degrees F and windy.  The house was cold.  Only one fire had made it through the night.  I opened up the damper, fed it some more wood and soaked in some heat.  It was 49 degrees in the room with the stove (5 degrees above the kick-in temp for the furnace.  I'm hedging my bets this winter by keeping the furnace active.  We have had enough wrecks here...)  The rest of the house was colder, somewhere around 40.  Outside the snow sparkled in the moonlight and the trees creaked and popped in the wind.  Inside, as I lay in a new fire in the now cold living room hearth, the coffee pot gurgled and hissed, the dogs grumbled, and the wood stove pinged as the metal changed from warm to hot.  Within a few minutes the new fire was crackling, the coffee was done, and I was sipping my first cup, listening to my world awake.

Cold days are great for baking.  It adds a little heat and steam to the house, smells wonderful, fills bellies, and makes smiles.  All these things make baking the perfect activity for a cold day.  I usually start with bread.  It takes the hottest oven.  We step down the oven temperature as the day progresses, taking advantage of the heat already soaked into the baking stone.  Today we started with a braided bread.  The dough was already in the refrigerator, so it was an easy fast thing to start with. 

After the bread we made bagels.  They boiled while the bread baked.  When the bread came out the bagels were ready to pop into the still hot oven.

Next the kids made cookies - chocolate chip and gingersnaps.  One can never have too many cookies this time of year.

While we baked, the dogs played.  I'm thinking the house might be too small for two dogs.

I can't type and drive at the same time.

It has been CRAZY around here this past few weeks.  Between stirring fudge and driving to the hospital every day, I didn't get much blogging done.  But I did have time to think a lot (dangerous thoughts I'm sure...) and to read quite a bit.  I'm going to post my way through those thoughts and get back to my exploration of sustainability and agriculture. 

We are about through the Christmas rush on fudge.  It has been a good year for our little farm business.  There is still time to get fudge if you really want it (follow the link from our store page.)  Orders done this week should get anywhere in the U.S. before Christmas.  We will be gearing up for Valentines day after the New Year.

The past few weeks I've read

• World Made By Hand by J.H. Kunstler (This one made me think A LOT! you should read it.)
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover (another thinker!  Still sorting out my thoughts on this one.)
• Dissent in America by Ralph Young (WOW!  )
• Authentic Patriotism by Stephen Kiernan (still thinking about this one...)

Right now I'm reading Noise by Bart Kosko (the "quintessential scientific cyber-punk - a prophet of the information age."  I'm liking it, but not as much as Fuzzy Thinking which everyone should have to read...)  So, what are you all reading?

Now I must end.  The kids want their sleds (we have 4 inches of snow...), the dogs need to go out (2 indoor dogs now...more on that later), and the fire needs stoking (it is 17 and windy out.  Staying warm is a priority, and a lot of work.)

Snow and other stuff

 Waiting

 and Waiting

 Snow on Chard Dec. 2nd.

 Snow on oats.

 Snow on everyting

 Comet at home

JJ at home.

Happy December!  

sTiLl bReAtHiNg

It's been a busy few weeks.  We made a ton of fudge (about 200 lbs) and sold almost all of it.  We had a couple of big gift box orders and a Holiday Show.  It was great.  Orders are still coming in and we are filling them as fast as we can.  It is hard to blog while stirring fudge.  Hot sugar and keyboards don't mix well.

We added a new family member.  This is Comet.  He is JJ's new project.  She hopes to train him as a Therapy Dog.  He's 8 months old, really smart, and fun to have around.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  It is good to get together.

JJ decided to go meet some Therapy Dogs in person.  She has been spending the week at Children's recovering from a ruptured appendix. 

It's snowing this morning.  Should make the 2 hour drive to see my girls a lot of fun.

I will post the rest of the bits cluttering my head as soon as life settles again.

Taking a break

It’s the weekend. Time to (theoretically) unwind. (Weekend isn’t a concept that people who live in-sync with the rest of the planet really understand. Life doesn’t stop. The activities that support life don’t stop.) Where did this arbitrary rest two days in every seven come from? Not resting. Girls are off taking care of Grandma. Boys are home trying to get ahead of Winter. Losing!




I am taking a break from my didactic exploration of sustainable agriculture. Taking care of Penelope

 (JJ’s hedgehog) doesn’t leave one much time to perseverate about obscure ideas.



We are having a taste of winter to come… 25 deg. temps in the morning; cars to warm, ice to chip, fires to revive. I’m learning to wake myself at 1:30 and at 4:30 to stoke the fire. If I could learn to use the hour after 4:30 to write until the coffee is done I’d be brilliant. Instead I sneak back to bed for another hour of sleep.



We’ve a cord of wood stacked, and 6 more cut in the forest at M&G’s. We will be bringing it out to spilt and stack this next week.



The greenhouse is switched into winter mode. All the hot weather plants are out (except one corner where we are burning energy to keep them warm at night…) all else is spinach, kale, chard, arugula, and other cold weather crops. We will see how long we can keep it going. We are moving the rabbits to the greenhouse this week. One big pen for the four of them. We should be overrun with baby rabbits in the next month or so…



Glad the election is over. No one we believed in ran for office this round. Voted mostly for people whose names we didn’t know. Didn’t like the ones we knew, or had seen ads about/from. Hate politics. Ours is a terrible system. It’s better than all the others, but still a terrible system.



Have a nice weekend.  I've got fudge to make...  Chocolate, Chili Chocolate, Lemon Chocolate, and Peanut Butter, 3 lbs each, before Monday.  Orders to fill and a Holiday Show to prep for...

The fair is over!

The fair is finally over.  Goats are home and happy. Kids are rested and happy. Parents are recovering and happy.  It was a long, cold, rainy fair this year.  We didn't do as well as we expected to, but the kids had fun.  They are already making plans for next year.

Robin, over at Fishing For Words, summed up our fair rather nicely.  Check out her post.

For us it looked like this