Return of the Sun

We celebrated the return of the sun this year with a dinner among friends and family and a resolution for the coming year.  Our resolution is to not purchase any meat of unknown origin/treatment (and by that I really mean origin/treatment that we agree with).  The big thing we are currently challenged by is pork.  We don’t have any friends raising pigs that we are aware of and haven’t ventured in to that yet ourselves.  It wouldn’t be quite so bad but our daughters managed to eat through the last three packages of bacon while they were here so we are out.  It’s nearly impossible to find sustainably raised bacon because the demand far outstrips the supply and is completely out of balance with the idea of utilizing the whole pig.  People just consume far more bacon than they do other pork products.  We know of at least one farm locally that sells pork belly during the market season and year-round from the farm.  Since it’s not cured or smoked people don’t seem to know what to do with it so it’s generally available.  So we will probably embark on trying to make our own bacon in the near future to fill the gap and/or look to purchase a half pig this year.

We decided to set a “January resolution” as well. Partly out of necessity. We had decided we would wait until after the holidays and try to do some overhauls on our spending so we could try to save some money to reinvest in to the property. Couple that with the travel expenses, septic repairs, and truck repairs in the last 6 weeks or so and we could really do with a good dose of belt-tightening. So for January we have resolved not to buy any food or go out to eat. Realistically it’s not zero, but as little as possible (for example, we need flour so we will buy that or buy wheat berries to mill our own). Through the winter we often “slack” and get a weekly delivery of organic produce to fill in some of the gaps (it’s not all local, sadly).  We are keeping the weekly produce delivery, but it’s a relatively low cost and good value. It also has the effect of keeping us out of veggie ruts and forcing us to try new things. We figure that the challenge should have positive effects on both our wallet and our waistlines. We also could use a little eating down on the freezer/pantry. I tend to buy stuff on deals and stockpile like the end of the world is coming. We want to make room in the freezer for a nice local spring lamb or two and that pig I mentioned. It’s also hard to justify growing/canning more food when we still have plenty from the previous year (or two).

I’ve been plotting and planning for this year’s back yard garden already.  I’m using growveg.com which looks very promising.  We are also discussing building raised beds for the front yard garden instead of using all of the containers.  They work relatively well but look like a cluttered mess.  I’ve resolved to only buy seeds that are really needed this year.  The last two years I’ve gone browsing through the seed catalogs in the dead of winter and ended up with all kinds of things I don’t need (they are sneaky that way, sending the catalogs when you are yearning for just about anything green and growing).  So far eggplants and celery are the only thing on my list that I need to buy.  To help avoid the over purchasing I’m also going to pick them up at the local garden store instead of mail order so I can’t justify making the shipping costs worth it as a reason to buy more seed.

The new flock of baby chicks is just about a month old now and doing great.  They are whizzing around the brooder box still and we had to upgrade their feeder and water fount to larger sizes to keep them from emptying them while we were at work.  We were just discussing this morning where they are going to range and the housing situation.  We may free range them even though I had originally decided not to, just because we really need to do more clearing before we have space to fence and the tractor has been out of commission for several months (seems like a trend around here).

So far this winter has been really good for our current laying flock.  Of the original 13 purchased we have all but 1, but we still have 1 from last year’s flock.  It seems like we’ve typically lost more than that.  We started with 12 or 13 last year and by the time they were laying we only had 8 hens and 1 rooster.  We currently have 11 hens and 1 rooster.   Egg sales have been going very well and we have far more demand than supply most of the time.  It always disappoints me to tell someone I can’t sell them eggs because I think they are just the most wonderful things and everyone that wants them should get an opportunity.  So I look forward to the new flock starting to lay and giving me more inventory to work with.

We are still planning on getting another flock this spring and I’m hoping to include a few laying and/or meat ducks in the order as well as some chickens for meat again.  We won’t be doing the cornish-x again so I haven’t quite decided on how I want to approach things.  I can either get a straight run of the hens we want and hope the roo to hen ratio isn’t too far off, or we can order sexed roos and hens individually.  I think it costs about the same either way.  I’m also eliciting assistance from our oldest daughter (10 later this January) in helping to select some of the laying hens.  I’m excited to see what she chooses.  At some point we need to invest in an incubator and just hatch our own chicks.  We’ll get there eventually.

I’m practically counting the days until mid-February when I can start my seeds!