Summer Update at the Farm
No Crushing Defeats, So Far
I put off this update as I waited to have a more complete picture of this summer’s projects and their outcomes. Finally I can admit that there have been some decent successes and, fingers crossed, we should glide through fall without any major mishaps. Only question is will the rain we’ve waited for all summer finally come in late September and October during harvest?
The orchard has been touch and go all summer. While our families in Southeast Michigan experienced nothing but rain, we have drought. From time to time we have some rainfall. About 10 days ago we had an inch and a quarter which led some trees to throw new shoots, but overall the trees are stressed at this point. Yesterday morning we had a 1/2 inch. Fruit is a bit smaller than what I expect but I’ll easily double last year’s production. Customers are lined up for mid October deliveries of juice and I think it will be good, concentrated and sweet.
I received a few inquiries this year for specific apples because some of the market decided that they only want to make single variety ciders. This does not seem like a good idea to me. In most cider areas of the world, England, France and Spain in particular, they have blended apples for hard cider for centuries. But the American spirit always wants to explore the next stage, the new thing, and I respect that. But many of the single variety ciders Mary and I have tried are not good. They leave a stale, bitter emptiness on the palate which frustrates the drinker. Dabinett, for example, is not a variety that makes a good cider by itself. Either way, I hope this is a short lived trend and makers get back to making dry ciders with denser mouthfeel and bright apple flavors and aromas. We know how to do this, blend!, we just need to return to basics. Not every exploration results in a moonwalk; sometimes it’s just a fail.
I have 100 new trees in the orchard this year, and 200 planted last year. They’ve had a rough go of it. We’ll see how they come out of winter.
Chickens mysteries. I ordered 20, but I thought I might have 21, though chickens are not easy to count. Well, after I butchered the lot I can say thank you to the Cackle Hatchery for the extra chicken. I wondered, several times aloud Mary reminded me, what size the chickens were. It was 60 days from the hatch date to butchery, but again it is not easy to guesstimate a chicken’s weight. With butchery completed and the birds in their tight freezer wrap bags, the kitchen scale came out and we were amazed to see some of the birds come in at 7 pounds. Most were at 6 to 6 1/2. I’ve never seen a an animal eat as voraciously as these chicken; they ran over the top of each other to get from the coop to the trough every morning. I’m amazed that none were injured. It was like a 5th grade cafeteria table.
One surprise is that the birds have very little fat. I followed the hatchery’s directions on feed, but of course our birds were free rangers with access to a pen full of nice alfalfa and clover. The skin is thin and it clings to the bird better than the store bought chicken. The flavor is excellent, and the meat never dries out. It remains moist, even the breasts, which are very thick. Overall I was very happy with the chicken project. We’ve eaten two of them so far, both cooked on the grill, and they are good for two dinners and two lunches each, plus a few outstanding breakfasts of liver and onions. We gave the hearts away to our neighbor Ed. We also made 7 quarts of very rich stock with the necks and feet (minus the nails). Looking forward to winter soups.
The turkeys take their time growing up. For whatever reason they grow much slower than the chickens, which surprises us since both were bred as large meat birds quick to market. Compared to geese and chickens, turkeys are polite, well mannered birds. They don’t fight, ever, even at the food trough. And they are very playful. I built them a roost with 4 steps to the top, which they run up and down all day. They also have a large expanse of thick, green alfalfa within their electric fence which they make good use of. The fence, by the way, has done a great job of preventing another tragedy like last year’s fox’s thanksgiving dinner. I graduated from a fence electrified by a solar panel and a battery, to a 110 volt plug in type. Huge change in voltage, which I had the happy chance to experience first hand a couple of times. Of all the birds, chicken, geese and turkeys, the turkeys are the easiest to raise. The chickens are a little nuts, the geese are a little criminal, but the turkeys are smart and fun. Ben Franklin had the right idea to make them the national bird. They won’t be 16 weeks old until mid October. We hope they’ll have good size before it gets cold here.
The garden comes to its final stretch in good shape. I put up 20 quarts of pickles, then I tore out the plants yesterday to prevent any further processing. Today I made 19 pounds of green cabbage kraut. I’ll make a similar amount of red cabbage kraut. Roma’s have been slow, but we’ll have an ok yield. The potatoes and the onions have both done well and we’ve started eating them of late. Mary has some beautiful herbs for fresh use and drying, and our edible pumpkins are now 20 in number, we’ll see how big they get. We grew tired of yellow bean soup and have let them go to seed, which we’ll harvest for some as yet unconceived recipe. We wait patiently for the poblano peppers to develop; there’s still a chance. Eggplant, not so much.
The bees. The fella who made the beehives needs a good dope slap. He left a small opening along the top of the one hive, the one he placed the bees into of course, and as a result the bees made a habit of using that entrance, instead of the entrance near the bottom of the hive, to enter and exit. As a result, they have not built their comb correctly. There is comb everywhere but in the frames. Well, a couple of frames have comb, but there’s also comb on the sides and the top of the hive. We’ll have to clean this up in the winter once I move the hive to indoor storage. Then I’ll fix the entrance on the hive in question, as I, rather he, should have last winter! But the bees are plentiful and there is honey and nectar for their winter food. So looking forward to a better year next spring and summer.