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
Sunday, March 14, 2010
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)