I thought I would try a shorter newsletter, a blog right? Our newsletters seem so overwhelming to me, we have so much to say, so much to tell you, we get excited, it must be an over load of information. So I will try to blog, notice I said try. Right now with kids home from school and snow on the ground it seems like a great idea, come April with seed boxes filling the house, gardens needing to be edged, baby chicks, muddy boots.....you get the idea, right?
When I was a kid I lived with my Great Aunt and Uncle. They both grew up on farms here in Little Compton. I'm not sure recycle was a word then, but it certainly was a way of life. We didn't have a recyle box in our house or at the dump, I mean transfer station. We had a compost bucket in our sink and a mulch pile in our yard. We had a paper bag full of old newspapers, junk mail and anything burnable, we had a burn pile in our yard. We had boxes in the basement where we kept containers that could be used again and again, my favorite being coolwhip containers which we always used to store brownies. We had a bucket that held swished cans, after they were emptied we would cut out the other side and jump on them, that way they took up less space. We had boxes of old greeting cards, that were cut up in following years and glued to colored paper to make new greeting cards. We had baskets of old tea cups with broken handles and chips that had been thrown out at the homes where they worked (cooking, cleaning and gardening). The tea cups became saucers for the pots of geraniums that filled our house from January to May. The geraniums were clippings from plants pulled from gardens where they worked and tossed into the compost. The clippings sat in old jelly jars for weeks rooting in our kitchen window until they made it into the teacups. Not once did I hear the word recycle, it was just common sense. As I write this I sit in our office filled with egg cartons. Someone started a rumor that to buy eggs from us you need to bring your own carton. Not true, but certainly appreciated. The state requires us to black out other farms info, but incorages the reuse of egg cartons. There are days we finds stacks of egg cartons at our stand or in our cooler. Sometiems pint and 1/2 pint boxes. Just when I think I am going to have to buy nursery pots for our perennials (which would totally raise our $5/pot price), stacks show up in our yard. Our newest projects of reusing materials have been egg mobiles. We collect wood, old fencing, wheels, you name it and make them into laying houses. We have used everything from lobster pots to wine cellar doors.
So before you recycle something, see if you could reuse it or maybe pass it on to some who can.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
The Holiday Bean
I was having great difficulty posting photos and info regarding our holiday decor. I was however, able to post pictures to our website. So, please visit our website www.beanhouses.com to see some of our wreaths and trees.
I was having great difficulty posting photos and info regarding our holiday decor. I was however, able to post pictures to our website. So, please visit our website www.beanhouses.com to see some of our wreaths and trees.
Monday, November 8, 2010
The Bean - Volume 4
I am going to start this newsletter by introducing ourselves. It probably would have been a better idea to do this in the first issue, but I think back then the people that were receiving this knew us well, it was more like an extended family update. As time goes by, and with the use of the internet our extended family has grown and some of us may not know each other as well as we would like. So, I'll go first. We are a small family owned farm. We have four children between the ages of 7 and 12. They all work on the farm. They have certain chores that they are responsible for individually and some we do as a family. I am a fourth generation Little Comptonite, my great grandparents farmed the land across the road from where we farm now. My Grandfather and Great Aunts and Uncles farmed on local farms. My husband started farming at 14 on his aunt's farm in Westport, Allen Farms. We met on a local farm as teenagers. We ARE farmers. We started our business over 13 years ago as a gardening business and greenhouse grower, over the years we did less wholesale growing and more gardening. We have dabbled in retail but love the freedom of our honor system stand. We have been selling in season chem-free fruits and vegetables, the BEST free range eggs around and fresh flower bunches all in front of our house with a hanging scale and a coffee can. While we take our word and responsibilities seriously we try to make everything we do fun and enjoyable. We are the silliest farmers we know! We have been trying to get this newsletter out seasonally to keep everyone up to speed with our busy farm.
We skipped a frost this year and went right into a freeze, at least in our Dahlia field. All of the Dahlia tubers were dug this week, and packed away in our basement until the Spring. Last year we over wintered some Cannas as well as Dahlias and had a great success with them this Summer. They are dug and in our basement as well. We estimate about 2000 Dahlias and about 1000 Cannas. Its always interesting to see what happens in the Spring. The Winter is like its own growing season below our living room. Some varieties seem to thrive in one environment when others won't survive at all. Jeremy moves them around in late Winter, early Spring to see how they are all doing and make sure we have a good variety of colors. We were able to sell all our Dahlias at the stand this Summer, in previous years we have done some wholesaling, but word must have gotten out about our large, fresh $5.00 bunches!!
We had three batches of meat birds this year. We chose a Freedom Ranger variety, this is a non- GMO variety that is an excellent forager. Other varieties we tried in the past seemed to do nothing else but eat grain despite the fact we were moving them twice a day so that they could forage. We hope to have the meat birds be free range next year as well as pasture raised. We met some new customers this year that were thoughtful eaters. They have done research and put in the effort to finding local meat,eggs and vegetables. They understand the cost and effort involved on our end, they more than talk the talk. It was very refreshing and encouraging because its hard to sell chicken for $5.00/lb when you can go to the supermarket and get it for .99/lb., sometimes even with labels like 'cage free', 'pasture-raised' or 'organic'. Most of these chickens have never stepped foot on a blade a grass. They are raised by factory farms, fed antibiotics and shipped all over the country before they end up in your fridge. Our chicks are shipped to us at one day old with no antibiotics, they are fed and cared for by us and our local employees, they then travel about 5 miles to be processed by Jeremy, Cleo and two other local men and then back to the farm. That's it. If you haven't tried one of our chickens, you really should. We still have some available in our freezers and will be taking pre-orders in the spring for fresh chicken in the summer. We really had a lot of fun having 'Fresh Chicken Friday's'. We set up our canopy, scales and coolers. We met some of our loyal customers and exchanged recipes.
We had the eggs, we added the meat poultry and to complete the pasture management cycle we added beef. Our Scottish Highland cattle have been grass fed and rotate around the field with the egg laying chickens following closely behind, We plan on having beef available for Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas....don't forget we are still making wreaths, boxwood trees and centerpieces. We will have a variety of centerpieces available at our honor system stand starting the week of Thanksgiving and then add wreaths and boxwood trees. We have been making moss wrapped frame wreaths for over 20 years. We use a lot of local greens in our centerpieces and mixed greens wreaths. Feel free to contact us to customize your order or arrange for us to hang your wreath for you. The more unusual the better, we have been know to make wreaths in all shapes and sizes, including squares and letters.
Besides adding beef to our farm this year, we also produced some value added products. With our excess produce we created jams, jellies, pickles and relishes. The fruits and vegetables used were raised by us, so that we could insure that they were completely chem-free. We rented a local certified kitchen and canned our products. Relishes and pickles are: Sweet Pickle Relish, Sweet Sandwich Pepper Relish, Bread and Butter pickles. Our jam and jelly list includes: Concord Grape, Rose Hip, Horseradish, Chocolate Mint, Hot Pepper, Super Hot Pepper, Raspberry, Pear and Apple. The canning didn't start until the end of the Summer, so we will have to wait until next year to add Strawberry and Blueberry to the list. It has been very exciting preserving our harvest. It feels like a mix of culinary arts and mad science- and we love it!! While doing local shopping I have noticed a lot of products that have been-'made for' some local farms. Our stuff is grown, made and canned locally, by us. You can check out our preserves at our stand on nice days – our labels don't like the rain, or contact us and we can get them to you.
The biggest challenge this year was keeping up with the egg demand. Our chickens are offered a variety of all natural food and are truly free-range- as our neighbors will agree. This seasons egg layers were original Rhode Island Reds, Dominiques, and Brown Leghorns for heritage breads, along with Americana mixes, which are a South American breed that lay a greenish- blue egg and are excellent foragers. We started with about 200 laying birds this spring and rarely had eggs in our cooler and never had them in our fridge. Most of the time the eggs would sell as they were crossing the road to get washed, weighed and packaged. We are starting to hatch our own layers to cut the cost of buying peeps and to keep up our effort of becoming more sustainable. While discussing adding more egg layers for 2011 we decided to do a break down of what it cost us to provide you with a dozen eggs. Our current price is $3.00 per dozen. Each chicken costs us $10.00 before it lays its first egg, which takes about 6 months. This amount includes feed, electricity and shavings. This amount does not include labor. At this moment we have 100 layers (the population is down due to coyotes) , they are laying around 3 dozen eggs a day. All natural grain for a week costs about $50.00. Egg cartons are .35 a piece. 3 dozen a day times 7 days a week = 21 dozen a week. 21 dozen x 3.00 = $63.00. Minus the $57.35 for food and cartons and we are bringing in a whopping $5.65. If you didn't notice there wasn't any labor in those figures. We have decided to raise our price. Local eggs at a nearby market in Westport start at $5.50 a dozen. We think $5.00 would be fair. Our loyal egg customers are very important to us and we do not want to lose any of you, so we will be offering Bean Bucks again this year, which will allow you to reduce the price to $4.00 dozen.
So, once again we will have Bean Bucks. Bean Bucks is a CSA ( community supported agriculture) with our own spin. You pick the amount you want to spend. Any amount there is no minimum. When we receive your completed sign up sheet and payment we will send you your Bean Bucks worth 135% of your share between now and the end of 2010 or 125% between January and the end of April 2011. Your Bean Bucks can be used however you want, whenever you want at our honor system stand. You can use them within a couple of weeks or spread them out over the season. This money helps us cover Winter cost and get going in early Spring. In return for helping us out, you get a better deal- on an already great deal, help the local economy, support local agriculture, reduce fossil fuel use, eat in season and basically be a super human being! Sounds like a deal for both of us.
Now you know what we've been doing. Stop by for some eggs or jelly and say hi, check out our ever improving website or follow us on Facebook for a more immediate update on what we are doing.
Know your farmer, know your food.
The Allens -Jeremy, Polly, Cleo, Cyrus, Olive and Xan
www.beanhouses.com
104 South of Commons Road
Little Compton, RI 02837
401.635.4091
Bean Bucks application
□ Yes, sign me up for some Bean Bucks
Name_____________________________________________________
Address___________________________________________________
City________________State____________________zip____________
phone:______________________ email:_________________________
share amount_______________ x 135% Bean Bucks________________
before Jan. 31, 2010
(example: $100.00 share = $135.00 worth of Bean Bucks, $200.00 share= $270 worth of Bean Bucks)
share amount_____________________x 125% Bean Bucks___________
between 1/1/11 and 4.30/11
(example $100.00 share = $125.00 worth of Bean Bucks, $200.00 share = $250.00 worth of Bean Bucks)
We skipped a frost this year and went right into a freeze, at least in our Dahlia field. All of the Dahlia tubers were dug this week, and packed away in our basement until the Spring. Last year we over wintered some Cannas as well as Dahlias and had a great success with them this Summer. They are dug and in our basement as well. We estimate about 2000 Dahlias and about 1000 Cannas. Its always interesting to see what happens in the Spring. The Winter is like its own growing season below our living room. Some varieties seem to thrive in one environment when others won't survive at all. Jeremy moves them around in late Winter, early Spring to see how they are all doing and make sure we have a good variety of colors. We were able to sell all our Dahlias at the stand this Summer, in previous years we have done some wholesaling, but word must have gotten out about our large, fresh $5.00 bunches!!
We had three batches of meat birds this year. We chose a Freedom Ranger variety, this is a non- GMO variety that is an excellent forager. Other varieties we tried in the past seemed to do nothing else but eat grain despite the fact we were moving them twice a day so that they could forage. We hope to have the meat birds be free range next year as well as pasture raised. We met some new customers this year that were thoughtful eaters. They have done research and put in the effort to finding local meat,eggs and vegetables. They understand the cost and effort involved on our end, they more than talk the talk. It was very refreshing and encouraging because its hard to sell chicken for $5.00/lb when you can go to the supermarket and get it for .99/lb., sometimes even with labels like 'cage free', 'pasture-raised' or 'organic'. Most of these chickens have never stepped foot on a blade a grass. They are raised by factory farms, fed antibiotics and shipped all over the country before they end up in your fridge. Our chicks are shipped to us at one day old with no antibiotics, they are fed and cared for by us and our local employees, they then travel about 5 miles to be processed by Jeremy, Cleo and two other local men and then back to the farm. That's it. If you haven't tried one of our chickens, you really should. We still have some available in our freezers and will be taking pre-orders in the spring for fresh chicken in the summer. We really had a lot of fun having 'Fresh Chicken Friday's'. We set up our canopy, scales and coolers. We met some of our loyal customers and exchanged recipes.
We had the eggs, we added the meat poultry and to complete the pasture management cycle we added beef. Our Scottish Highland cattle have been grass fed and rotate around the field with the egg laying chickens following closely behind, We plan on having beef available for Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas....don't forget we are still making wreaths, boxwood trees and centerpieces. We will have a variety of centerpieces available at our honor system stand starting the week of Thanksgiving and then add wreaths and boxwood trees. We have been making moss wrapped frame wreaths for over 20 years. We use a lot of local greens in our centerpieces and mixed greens wreaths. Feel free to contact us to customize your order or arrange for us to hang your wreath for you. The more unusual the better, we have been know to make wreaths in all shapes and sizes, including squares and letters.
Besides adding beef to our farm this year, we also produced some value added products. With our excess produce we created jams, jellies, pickles and relishes. The fruits and vegetables used were raised by us, so that we could insure that they were completely chem-free. We rented a local certified kitchen and canned our products. Relishes and pickles are: Sweet Pickle Relish, Sweet Sandwich Pepper Relish, Bread and Butter pickles. Our jam and jelly list includes: Concord Grape, Rose Hip, Horseradish, Chocolate Mint, Hot Pepper, Super Hot Pepper, Raspberry, Pear and Apple. The canning didn't start until the end of the Summer, so we will have to wait until next year to add Strawberry and Blueberry to the list. It has been very exciting preserving our harvest. It feels like a mix of culinary arts and mad science- and we love it!! While doing local shopping I have noticed a lot of products that have been-'made for' some local farms. Our stuff is grown, made and canned locally, by us. You can check out our preserves at our stand on nice days – our labels don't like the rain, or contact us and we can get them to you.
The biggest challenge this year was keeping up with the egg demand. Our chickens are offered a variety of all natural food and are truly free-range- as our neighbors will agree. This seasons egg layers were original Rhode Island Reds, Dominiques, and Brown Leghorns for heritage breads, along with Americana mixes, which are a South American breed that lay a greenish- blue egg and are excellent foragers. We started with about 200 laying birds this spring and rarely had eggs in our cooler and never had them in our fridge. Most of the time the eggs would sell as they were crossing the road to get washed, weighed and packaged. We are starting to hatch our own layers to cut the cost of buying peeps and to keep up our effort of becoming more sustainable. While discussing adding more egg layers for 2011 we decided to do a break down of what it cost us to provide you with a dozen eggs. Our current price is $3.00 per dozen. Each chicken costs us $10.00 before it lays its first egg, which takes about 6 months. This amount includes feed, electricity and shavings. This amount does not include labor. At this moment we have 100 layers (the population is down due to coyotes) , they are laying around 3 dozen eggs a day. All natural grain for a week costs about $50.00. Egg cartons are .35 a piece. 3 dozen a day times 7 days a week = 21 dozen a week. 21 dozen x 3.00 = $63.00. Minus the $57.35 for food and cartons and we are bringing in a whopping $5.65. If you didn't notice there wasn't any labor in those figures. We have decided to raise our price. Local eggs at a nearby market in Westport start at $5.50 a dozen. We think $5.00 would be fair. Our loyal egg customers are very important to us and we do not want to lose any of you, so we will be offering Bean Bucks again this year, which will allow you to reduce the price to $4.00 dozen.
So, once again we will have Bean Bucks. Bean Bucks is a CSA ( community supported agriculture) with our own spin. You pick the amount you want to spend. Any amount there is no minimum. When we receive your completed sign up sheet and payment we will send you your Bean Bucks worth 135% of your share between now and the end of 2010 or 125% between January and the end of April 2011. Your Bean Bucks can be used however you want, whenever you want at our honor system stand. You can use them within a couple of weeks or spread them out over the season. This money helps us cover Winter cost and get going in early Spring. In return for helping us out, you get a better deal- on an already great deal, help the local economy, support local agriculture, reduce fossil fuel use, eat in season and basically be a super human being! Sounds like a deal for both of us.
Now you know what we've been doing. Stop by for some eggs or jelly and say hi, check out our ever improving website or follow us on Facebook for a more immediate update on what we are doing.
Know your farmer, know your food.
The Allens -Jeremy, Polly, Cleo, Cyrus, Olive and Xan
www.beanhouses.com
104 South of Commons Road
Little Compton, RI 02837
401.635.4091
Bean Bucks application
□ Yes, sign me up for some Bean Bucks
Name_____________________________________________________
Address___________________________________________________
City________________State____________________zip____________
phone:______________________ email:_________________________
share amount_______________ x 135% Bean Bucks________________
before Jan. 31, 2010
(example: $100.00 share = $135.00 worth of Bean Bucks, $200.00 share= $270 worth of Bean Bucks)
share amount_____________________x 125% Bean Bucks___________
between 1/1/11 and 4.30/11
(example $100.00 share = $125.00 worth of Bean Bucks, $200.00 share = $250.00 worth of Bean Bucks)
Friday, July 23, 2010
The Bean - Volume 3
There are so many things going on this time of year that its great to get some news out, but hard to find the time to sit and write. I am canning relish and pickles and have sometime while I am waiting for the water to boil. Our all natural pasture raised meat chickens are finishing up nicely. They should be ready for you to take home on August 7th. So, if you have not done so yet, please reserve a broiler at www.beanhouses.com. This is our new website, it will allow us to keep track of the chicken orders. Its been hard in the past to remember who ordered what as they drove past us on South of Commons yelling out their car window. We are able to update the website with what is available at our stand and in the future we will be able to sell our grass fed beef this way. Shhhhh, don't tell the deer but our tomatoes are doing very well this year. We are putting an electric fence around our tomato field, then our donkeys and then another electric fence. We are really hoping this will do the trick. We have already harvested some plum and cherry tomatoes and by the time this newsletter hits the press the rest will be ready for picking. We have some great heirloom varieties this year, along with our favorite Japanese Black Triefle, and some tried and true varieties. It looks like we may have beans all summer, we have a French Filet String Bean, the we like to call wee-wee beans. They are very thin and sweet. Shell beans will be ready in about a week, followed by fava beans. We also have Oriental eggplants, summer squash, zucchini, green, chocolate and Cubanelle peppers and Poona Kheera cucumbers from India Available at our honor system stand.. The Poona Kheera are what I am using for my relish and pickles, they have a very thin sweet skin so no peeling needed. They have many stages of color, they start out light green and progress to a golden brown. The color doesn't seem to change the flavor but seems to scare our customers- be brave. The Dahlias are a little slow getting going because it was so dry this spring but by mid-August they should be blooming like crazy. The rest of the flowers are doing great, including the sunflowers and we have been able to keep lots of large colorful bouquets available at the stand. I am impatiently waiting for all of our 175 egg laying chickens to start work. Cleo's Cluckers production has been down. I started by going out to the field and giving the girls a pep talk, no luck. Cyrus got them a yummy treat called a 'flock block', still nothing- or at least not much. Now they have a new fence and we are still waiting. When they do start laying in full force get your omelette pans ready! My batch of relish and pickles are done. Come on by and get your chem-free veggies, flowers and eggs. Eat Local. Eat Your View.
The Allens Jeremy, Polly, Cleo, Cyrus, Olive and Xanwww.beanhouses.com104 South of Common RoadLittle Compton, RI 02837
The Allens Jeremy, Polly, Cleo, Cyrus, Olive and Xanwww.beanhouses.com104 South of Common RoadLittle Compton, RI 02837
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Beanhouses goes CSA? sort of.....
Bean Bucks-2010
CSA with a Beanhouses spin
Sure we've considered the CSA (community supported agriculture) program before, people have asked for it, we've discussed it. We just weren't sure if it would work out as planned. Nothing seems to be a guarantee here on the farm. One years bumper crop can be gobbled up in an evening by deer. We don't use chemicals and all sorts of nasty fertilizers so we can't even coax our veggie or fruits in a better direction if the elements aren't ideal. So the thought of promising 3 pounds of beans in the middle of July scares us. A promise is a promise after all. But, the whole concept is so great, we get the financial help of starting up again after a long winter and you get a super deal on fresh produce, help the local economy, reduce fossil fuel use, eat in season, eat healthier and get to come visit us on a regular basis. Sounds perfect to us, how about you?
After reviewing other CSA deals we thought how every family is so different and how structured the CSAs seemed. We have decided to offer Bean Bucks for the month of April. You pick the amount. When we receive your completed sign up sheet we will send you Bean Bucks worth 150% of your share. Your Bean Bucks can be used however you want, whenever you want at our honor system stand. You can use them all in a couple of weeks or spread them out over the season. Tailor it to suit you. Print out sign up form and Mail to: Beanhouses 104 South of Common Rd. Little Compton, RI 02837
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
□ Yes, sign me up for some Bean Bucks 2010.
Name_____________________________________________________
Address___________________________________________________
City________________State____________________zip____________
phone:______________________ email:_________________________
share amount_______________ x 150% Bean Bucks________________
(example: $100.00 share = $150.00 worth of Bean Bucks, $200.00 share= $300.00 worth of Bean Bucks)
Sunday, March 14, 2010
First Newsletter...yes they are out of order....
This is a copy of our first newsletter, from the Fall of 2009.
Happy Fall! Summer was pretty much a big wash out here on the farm. most of our plants and seedlings did not like all that rain and cold weather. We had 600 tomato plants that had survived and were doing pretty well, I guess so well that they were very tasty and the deer ate them all!! We did have a great crop of Oriental eggplant and some delicious roasting peppers though, and apparently they aren't on the deer's menu. We are still picking a few peppers here and there and our dahlias are still blooming, rather slowly. Our Cy's mixed greens are enjoying this cooler weather and a still as yummy as ever. If you haven't tried them you really should! We often have them at our honor system stand but would love to pick them to order. Now on to our newest project, chickens. Chickens aren't really new to us. We have had some great laying hens for quite a few years now. This summer the poor girls just couldn't keep up with production. There were days they were practically laying into cartons. So, we ordered 75 more Rhode Island Reds. Towards the end of the summer our neighbor gave Jeremy 'The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan. He couldn't put it down, there was information about a man named Joel Salatin and his farming practices and morals. Jeremy began reading his books and even attended a seminar of his on the Cape. This all led to ordering not just the egg laying RI Reds, but 75 Cornish Cross, a meat chicken. So, on October 3rd, the Little Compton Post Office received a box no bigger than 2x2 containing 150 one day old peeps! They came without any shots- no steroids or antibiotics. They spent 2 weeks in our basement below our kitchen chirping day and night. For the first few days Jeremy was down there day and night checking on them, warming the smaller ones in his pockets. They are now outside in our homemade 'chicken tractors'. The 'tractors' are made from recycled metal lobster pots that a friend of ours was not using and some old metal roofing that another friend of ours sent our way. Everyone in the family helped with the construction! The idea behind the tractor is that they are movable, every morning Jeremy puts wheels on them and moves them to a new spot. This new spot makes them more sanitary as they are not standing in the same spot all the time. It also allows them to eat even healthier, they still eat the all natural grain, but also feast on grass and bugs. If you haven't seem them traveling around our yard, drive by and have a look. The egg layers will be moving onto our fields eventually to do some weeding and fertilizing and be ready for egg production by late spring. The meat birds will be moving on to processing around the end of November. They will be around 4-5 lbs, are $5.00/lb. We are taking orders and deposits now. Give us a call if you want to be on the list. We will have an exact date in a couple of weeks and let you know pick up time, or we would be glad to deliver to you. Our chicken nursery is now being transformed into a holiday workshop. We are gearing up for everything green! You can choice a centerpiece for Thanksgiving that we offer with greens, pine cones and candles at our stand in front of our house, or give us a special order for flower centerpieces and deliveries. Then we quickly move on to wreaths. We have been wrapping our own frames filled with sphagnum moss for years!! I started making these wreaths when I was 13 and I don't think there has been a wreath free December yet! Jeremy was eager to learn, but now I think he is regretting it. Most of the wreaths are boxwood or mixed greens on the sphagnum frame, we have started doing balsam wired to a frame as well. Our standard shape is of course a circle but we have done tons of others; squares, ovals, marques, rainbows, and even letters to spell out words, names or initials. Feel free to call us with any requests. Boxwood trees are also one of our favorites, decorated or undecorated. Our stand is usually kept well stocked from Thanksgiving until Christmas, but we love special orders and are more than willing to deliver for free in the area. We also ship. If you need us to hang some garland, green up your window boxes or do a more extensive holiday make over, we're here for you! If anyone has a vegetable that they want us grow, let us know. We have been trying to grow some basics with a little bit of a twist. Our tomatoes were Black Japanese Trifle and a large heirloom slicing tomato. We also had the cherry version of the Trifle as well, we were able to try a couple of them and they were delicious. As I mentioned before we had the Oriental eggplant that were so sweet. We lost our cukes in the rain but were trying a Indian variety called Poona Kherra and a lemon cuke as well. Of course we have to grow beans! We chose Red Noodle and a green foot long, both were skinny but super long and I think scared everyone off. We also had a great crop of Easter Egg Radish, but it seems nobody eats radish in Little Compton. We use as little chemicals as possible, we are not organic but with four children we are as safe as we can be. We try to offer our produce at a fair price, because we are not spraying all sorts of pricey chemicals all over the place, this price is often half that of the bigger farms in the area. After the holidays the seeds catalogs will be filling our mailbox and its like Christmas again! They are so much fun to go through, they get us dreaming of a busy spring. We hope you enjoyed our first ever newsletter! This will hopefully get the word out as to whats going on on this little farm. We welcome all comments and suggestions.
The Allens Jeremy, Polly, Cleo, Cyrus, Olive and Xan
Beanhouses104 South of Commons RoadLittle Compton, Rhode Island 02837401.635.4091bean4444@aol.com
Happy Fall! Summer was pretty much a big wash out here on the farm. most of our plants and seedlings did not like all that rain and cold weather. We had 600 tomato plants that had survived and were doing pretty well, I guess so well that they were very tasty and the deer ate them all!! We did have a great crop of Oriental eggplant and some delicious roasting peppers though, and apparently they aren't on the deer's menu. We are still picking a few peppers here and there and our dahlias are still blooming, rather slowly. Our Cy's mixed greens are enjoying this cooler weather and a still as yummy as ever. If you haven't tried them you really should! We often have them at our honor system stand but would love to pick them to order. Now on to our newest project, chickens. Chickens aren't really new to us. We have had some great laying hens for quite a few years now. This summer the poor girls just couldn't keep up with production. There were days they were practically laying into cartons. So, we ordered 75 more Rhode Island Reds. Towards the end of the summer our neighbor gave Jeremy 'The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan. He couldn't put it down, there was information about a man named Joel Salatin and his farming practices and morals. Jeremy began reading his books and even attended a seminar of his on the Cape. This all led to ordering not just the egg laying RI Reds, but 75 Cornish Cross, a meat chicken. So, on October 3rd, the Little Compton Post Office received a box no bigger than 2x2 containing 150 one day old peeps! They came without any shots- no steroids or antibiotics. They spent 2 weeks in our basement below our kitchen chirping day and night. For the first few days Jeremy was down there day and night checking on them, warming the smaller ones in his pockets. They are now outside in our homemade 'chicken tractors'. The 'tractors' are made from recycled metal lobster pots that a friend of ours was not using and some old metal roofing that another friend of ours sent our way. Everyone in the family helped with the construction! The idea behind the tractor is that they are movable, every morning Jeremy puts wheels on them and moves them to a new spot. This new spot makes them more sanitary as they are not standing in the same spot all the time. It also allows them to eat even healthier, they still eat the all natural grain, but also feast on grass and bugs. If you haven't seem them traveling around our yard, drive by and have a look. The egg layers will be moving onto our fields eventually to do some weeding and fertilizing and be ready for egg production by late spring. The meat birds will be moving on to processing around the end of November. They will be around 4-5 lbs, are $5.00/lb. We are taking orders and deposits now. Give us a call if you want to be on the list. We will have an exact date in a couple of weeks and let you know pick up time, or we would be glad to deliver to you. Our chicken nursery is now being transformed into a holiday workshop. We are gearing up for everything green! You can choice a centerpiece for Thanksgiving that we offer with greens, pine cones and candles at our stand in front of our house, or give us a special order for flower centerpieces and deliveries. Then we quickly move on to wreaths. We have been wrapping our own frames filled with sphagnum moss for years!! I started making these wreaths when I was 13 and I don't think there has been a wreath free December yet! Jeremy was eager to learn, but now I think he is regretting it. Most of the wreaths are boxwood or mixed greens on the sphagnum frame, we have started doing balsam wired to a frame as well. Our standard shape is of course a circle but we have done tons of others; squares, ovals, marques, rainbows, and even letters to spell out words, names or initials. Feel free to call us with any requests. Boxwood trees are also one of our favorites, decorated or undecorated. Our stand is usually kept well stocked from Thanksgiving until Christmas, but we love special orders and are more than willing to deliver for free in the area. We also ship. If you need us to hang some garland, green up your window boxes or do a more extensive holiday make over, we're here for you! If anyone has a vegetable that they want us grow, let us know. We have been trying to grow some basics with a little bit of a twist. Our tomatoes were Black Japanese Trifle and a large heirloom slicing tomato. We also had the cherry version of the Trifle as well, we were able to try a couple of them and they were delicious. As I mentioned before we had the Oriental eggplant that were so sweet. We lost our cukes in the rain but were trying a Indian variety called Poona Kherra and a lemon cuke as well. Of course we have to grow beans! We chose Red Noodle and a green foot long, both were skinny but super long and I think scared everyone off. We also had a great crop of Easter Egg Radish, but it seems nobody eats radish in Little Compton. We use as little chemicals as possible, we are not organic but with four children we are as safe as we can be. We try to offer our produce at a fair price, because we are not spraying all sorts of pricey chemicals all over the place, this price is often half that of the bigger farms in the area. After the holidays the seeds catalogs will be filling our mailbox and its like Christmas again! They are so much fun to go through, they get us dreaming of a busy spring. We hope you enjoyed our first ever newsletter! This will hopefully get the word out as to whats going on on this little farm. We welcome all comments and suggestions.
The Allens Jeremy, Polly, Cleo, Cyrus, Olive and Xan
Beanhouses104 South of Commons RoadLittle Compton, Rhode Island 02837401.635.4091bean4444@aol.com
Thursday, March 11, 2010
March Newsletter
The Bean
Seasonal Newsletter from Beanhouses
So, here it is the beginning of March all ready. Its hard to believe that the seed orders are in and some of the seed will be in the ground shortly. We will be getting our peas and spinach in the ground soon and not long after that some wheat. Over the winter we made a lot of homemade pasta with our own eggs and thought we should grow wheat so we could use our own flour as well. From homemade pasta we moved onto homemade yogurt. The first batch was a little watery but the rest have been great and approved by all our kids. We have also been successful with cream cheese, butter and laundry detergent. The kids have all helped out and seem to take great pride in knowing that they are able to make these things. Jeremy and Cyrus have been working hard on our new chicken tractors. The Rhode Island Reds that we started last fall should be ready to lay any day now. We have been pleased that our other chickens started laying again in February. Our blue cooler has been out for honor system purchases of Cleo Cluckers for $3.00/dozen. One of the chicken tractors is outfitted with laying boxes for the RI Reds. It looks like a covered wagon and is a place for the chickens to roost at night after they free range all day. The other is a little less fancy for the meat birds. Last fall we raised Cornish Cross chickens for meat. It is the breed of chicken you have been eating since it was created in the sixties . They were pasture fed and moved twice daily to keep them on nice clean grass. The Cornish Cross is raised because it grows fast, which it did, but besides eating grain, it didn't do much else. Then we learned that they are genetically modified so we now have Freedom Rangers, they have been much more active and seem to be enjoying themselves very much. Freedom Rangers are a strain of a French broiler that is a delicacy. They will be 'ready' around April 10th. They will be $5.00/lb again and we will be pre-selling them. We hope to have fresh chicken throughout the summer on a five week schedule. If you order a chicken we will give you a call or email to let you know when they will be ready for pick up. We have a good friend that has been raising Scottish Highland cattle for most of his life. When we go to his house the cows come to the fence for pats or just to see what is going on. Last summer one of the calves were born on another friends birthday. Since then there has been a small movement to save' Lisa Marie'. We had discussed cows before, but never realistically. Lisa Marie seemed like a great place to start. She could be the mother of our herd. But, if we weren't going to eat Lisa Marie we were going to need more cows. So she and two steers were delivered last Sunday and at least one more heifer will be here soon. One is ours and the other two friends bought. We had decided not to name the ones that were going to end up in our freezer. Cleo, our 11 year old daughter, who loves beef has named one 'big mac'. We hope to have meat for our own families in the Fall, although it seems as though there are more interested people than we have beef. In the fields this year we plan on having most of the veggies we had last year. We hope to have more tomatoes for us and less for the deer and the blight. We will be trying some of the veggies on the slow food ark of taste list. We will be growing Japanese Black Triffle again and trying Valencia. Early on we will have spinach and peas, followed shorly by our baby greens mix, otherwise known as ' Cy's Mixed Greens. Then it will be summer squash, zucchini, peppers, eggplant, beans, melons, scallions and leeks. I'm sure I forgot something. We of course will still be growing flowers, dahlias, lilies and sunflowers, bunched or unbunched. For the Fall we have gourds and pumpkins. There has also been some talk of fruit, but we'll see. In January we were able to attend a couple of lectures geared toward localization. Its amazing the tiny amount of money that goes to the farmer and the large amount that goes to shipping and packaging when you buy something that has been shipped across the country. One of the lectures was organized by Farm Fresh RI. It was very well attended and offered alot of encouragement to farmers that people are seeing the need to buy local when they can. They also stressed the importance of continuing to farm, as the average age of the farmer is going up every year. I am proud when I hear my children talk about being farmers when they grow up. I was also star for a day. I was interviewed by the Rhode Show, a local morning TV show and I actually made the cut, not all of what I had to say, but most of it. So as Spring rolls around and you are heading into the big city to do your shopping, take a second look at your list and see if anything is available locally. Remember, know your farmer, know your food. The Allens Jeremy, Polly, Cleo, Cyrus, Olive and Xan Beanhouses 104 South of Commons Road Little Compton, Rhode Island 02837 401.635.4091 bean4444@aol.com Have you Beanhoused? Beanhouses, Inc Anything floraculture 104 South of Common Little Compton, RI 02837
Seasonal Newsletter from Beanhouses
So, here it is the beginning of March all ready. Its hard to believe that the seed orders are in and some of the seed will be in the ground shortly. We will be getting our peas and spinach in the ground soon and not long after that some wheat. Over the winter we made a lot of homemade pasta with our own eggs and thought we should grow wheat so we could use our own flour as well. From homemade pasta we moved onto homemade yogurt. The first batch was a little watery but the rest have been great and approved by all our kids. We have also been successful with cream cheese, butter and laundry detergent. The kids have all helped out and seem to take great pride in knowing that they are able to make these things. Jeremy and Cyrus have been working hard on our new chicken tractors. The Rhode Island Reds that we started last fall should be ready to lay any day now. We have been pleased that our other chickens started laying again in February. Our blue cooler has been out for honor system purchases of Cleo Cluckers for $3.00/dozen. One of the chicken tractors is outfitted with laying boxes for the RI Reds. It looks like a covered wagon and is a place for the chickens to roost at night after they free range all day. The other is a little less fancy for the meat birds. Last fall we raised Cornish Cross chickens for meat. It is the breed of chicken you have been eating since it was created in the sixties . They were pasture fed and moved twice daily to keep them on nice clean grass. The Cornish Cross is raised because it grows fast, which it did, but besides eating grain, it didn't do much else. Then we learned that they are genetically modified so we now have Freedom Rangers, they have been much more active and seem to be enjoying themselves very much. Freedom Rangers are a strain of a French broiler that is a delicacy. They will be 'ready' around April 10th. They will be $5.00/lb again and we will be pre-selling them. We hope to have fresh chicken throughout the summer on a five week schedule. If you order a chicken we will give you a call or email to let you know when they will be ready for pick up. We have a good friend that has been raising Scottish Highland cattle for most of his life. When we go to his house the cows come to the fence for pats or just to see what is going on. Last summer one of the calves were born on another friends birthday. Since then there has been a small movement to save' Lisa Marie'. We had discussed cows before, but never realistically. Lisa Marie seemed like a great place to start. She could be the mother of our herd. But, if we weren't going to eat Lisa Marie we were going to need more cows. So she and two steers were delivered last Sunday and at least one more heifer will be here soon. One is ours and the other two friends bought. We had decided not to name the ones that were going to end up in our freezer. Cleo, our 11 year old daughter, who loves beef has named one 'big mac'. We hope to have meat for our own families in the Fall, although it seems as though there are more interested people than we have beef. In the fields this year we plan on having most of the veggies we had last year. We hope to have more tomatoes for us and less for the deer and the blight. We will be trying some of the veggies on the slow food ark of taste list. We will be growing Japanese Black Triffle again and trying Valencia. Early on we will have spinach and peas, followed shorly by our baby greens mix, otherwise known as ' Cy's Mixed Greens. Then it will be summer squash, zucchini, peppers, eggplant, beans, melons, scallions and leeks. I'm sure I forgot something. We of course will still be growing flowers, dahlias, lilies and sunflowers, bunched or unbunched. For the Fall we have gourds and pumpkins. There has also been some talk of fruit, but we'll see. In January we were able to attend a couple of lectures geared toward localization. Its amazing the tiny amount of money that goes to the farmer and the large amount that goes to shipping and packaging when you buy something that has been shipped across the country. One of the lectures was organized by Farm Fresh RI. It was very well attended and offered alot of encouragement to farmers that people are seeing the need to buy local when they can. They also stressed the importance of continuing to farm, as the average age of the farmer is going up every year. I am proud when I hear my children talk about being farmers when they grow up. I was also star for a day. I was interviewed by the Rhode Show, a local morning TV show and I actually made the cut, not all of what I had to say, but most of it. So as Spring rolls around and you are heading into the big city to do your shopping, take a second look at your list and see if anything is available locally. Remember, know your farmer, know your food. The Allens Jeremy, Polly, Cleo, Cyrus, Olive and Xan Beanhouses 104 South of Commons Road Little Compton, Rhode Island 02837 401.635.4091 bean4444@aol.com Have you Beanhoused? Beanhouses, Inc Anything floraculture 104 South of Common Little Compton, RI 02837
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