The Bean
Seasonal Newsletter of Beanhouses
November 2011
Here it is, Fall again. It feels as if it were just Spring, like we just planted those 1200 or so heirloom tomato plants. Last year we planted about half of that and had plenty to store for the Winter. There were a couple of tomatoes on our list from 2010 that we decided not to grow this year, and added a couple more varieties. It didn’t seem as if we ordered more seed than any other year but when it was time for the plants to go in the ground the numbers were doubled. There would have been even more if the chickens had not found their way into our make shift duct tape greenhouse and scratched around knocking a lot of the seedling out of their pots. Jeremy and I and the kids spent two afternoons planting the plants in seven and half rows while Cleo’s ipod blasted in the back ground. A few weeks later Olive and I began the Florida Weave, which was a sort of staking/ trellis plan for the tomatoes, which involved several hundred step in posts, many cedar posts buried deep in the ground and thousands of feet of bailing twine. It held up very well until the hurricane, and even then it was able to be pulled back up and staked again. When August came we had four very unique heirloom tomato varieties and an amazing cherry tomato. The kids and I were picking every day. The stand was full. We had more than we could sell at our honor system stand, that was for sure, and way more than we could eat. I just didn’t have the time to can them. As they went by we fed them to our meat chickens, who loved them. Even though they weren’t going to waste they weren’t being sold.
Jeremy commented that we had way too many tomatoes and next year we were not growing nearly as many. In my head I took this very personally. I had watered and turned those seeds under the grow lights. I schlepped water to the duct tape greenhouse, chased chickens, planted, replanted, replanted and replanted, staked, pruned and even braved a couple of snakes for those heirloom beauties, they would succeed! It felt like a challenge. I started emailing restaurants in the area that used local, chem-free veggies. I was finding a lot of places didn’t even know what an heirloom was, never mind want to pay fair price. Tomatoes were going for .63/ pound from the market in Boston. ( This sentence alone could be a book for me, so I will let it go at that ……for now.) I remembered the Market Mobile from a seminar I went to the past Winter. It was a sort of traveling farmers market for restaurants and markets. So, twice a week we predicted and listed what we would have on delivery day, twice a week we picked and packed for the Market Mobile and twice a week we delivered to Pawtucket to Farm fresh RI, where our heirloom tomatoes got put on a truck and delivered to the customers that had ordered from the online system that we listed on. It was very exciting. I was now known in certain circles as…..’ Tomato Girl”. I dubbed Jeremy “Cherry Tomato Boy”, he wasn’t too excited at first, but it grew on him. As tomatoes began to fade we began bringing Dahlias to the Market Mobile. City Feed and Supply in Jamaica Plains, Boston became our biggest fan. They were our biggest buyer of tomatoes and jumped right on board with the Dahlias. We have not checked them out in person yet, but have sent some friends and family up to the big city who have reported back that it’s a great place. A local market, offering all sorts of locally produced products. They also offer soup and sandwiches made with local produce. They are having a day in December for their farmers to come in for a tour, I am very excited and have already marked it on my calendar.
For those of you who found it hard to get a hold of some of our Cleo’s Cluckers ( our free range, chem-free eggs) fear not, we have added 300 peeps to our flock. While they are less than 3 weeks old now, come Spring they will be laying like crazy. We are working on a new nesting box idea to hopefully keep them laying where we can collect them instead of the woods and fields. I am sad to say that we only had one Narragansett turkey survive the coyotes. We had tossed around the idea of raising some for Thanksgiving when a friend had some extra that they passed on to us. When they were old enough we let them free range. They were so much fun, they would let the kids hold them and perch on their arms. They would follow you around when you were in the field, sometimes even cross the road to come and say hi. Within a two day span coyotes had taken all but one, some of them even during the day. I’m not sure where we stand now with trying them again. It was such a great experience right up until it wasn’t……those darn coyotes.
Besides the baby chicks, we have also added a new girl donkey to the farm. Her name is Darla, she is all white, very friendly and gentle. She has become fast friends with our other boy donkeys Alfalfa and Buckwheat. She enjoys running and playing but I can just tell she often finds them to be very silly boys and just sits back and watches them. Sir Wallace of Beaverhead is also joining the farm for the Winter. He is a Scottish Highland bull. We have two heifers and a cow in our herd that we have to repopulate, but until now we didn’t have a bull. I have been very worried about the mayhem that would go along with introducing a bull into the pasture. I have heard horror stories, even witnessed some not so ‘romantic’ encounters on this farm. So the thought of a several hundred pound bull sort of scared me. While on his way here, Sir Wallace’s owner called and said’ please don’t laugh at my bull’ and left it at that. This made us wonder why would we laugh? I was picturing this huge, strange beast with one crooked horn, torn ear, tattered fur and definitely smoke coming out of his nostrils. When the trailer pulled up I cautiously peeked through a crack in the back to see the most adorable bull ever. He was small with curly hair in his eyes, looking much more scared than me. He gently walked from the trailer to the gate with nothing more than a make shift rope harness. It took an hour or so for everyone to settle down in the field, there was some chasing, some sniffing, but definitely no mayhem.
Blue, our Australian Cattle dog is in her whelping box as I write this. Blue is usually by Jeremy’s side, either on the job or on the farm herding cows or chickens. She is very upset to be on bed rest, although lately her herding is just standing in one place barking and getting in and out of the tuck has been a chore of its own. So, she is home, panting, wriggling around, getting up and down and biting the occasional strange man she encounters. (You can’t blame her really). Her due date is this coming weekend, so hopefully by then we will have added some more Australian Cattle dogs to the farm as well.
This newsletter was originally going to be a quick email reminder about our chickens, but I had so much news to share that it turned into a newsletter. So, we have plenty of our frozen chickens still available. They were pasture raised by us since they were a day old, no antibiotics, no hormones, and no chemicals. They were allowed to free range and often ate heirloom tomatoes and goat’s milk whey. They are our best meat chickens yet. There is a man that visits Little Compton every year and stops by for one of our chickens, saying the only place he has been able to get a chicken that tastes as good as ours is in some small village in France. Oo la la. Our fresh chicken sales got interrupted by Hurricane Irene, luckily someone let us put them in her chest freezer that was attached to a generator so we didn’t lose any. So if you ordered one and forgot to pick it up, or maybe you were too busy getting bread and milk, or maybe you want one or two now, drop us an email or give us a call. We have 4-6 pound roasters, delicious in any size! How about popping a frozen one in your crock-pot in the morning? Or a nice oven roasted locavore dinner?
I have been watching a great deal of documentaries on food production while shelling beans. Food Inc. is one of my favorites, but King Corn and Ingredients are a close second. Fresh is in my Netflix queue. These movies are eye opening even to me who lives on a farm, producing beef, chicken, eggs, fruit and vegetables. There movies should be watched by everyone, but especially the people who feel they are eating natural or humanly. You truly don’t know how your food is grown unless you see it for yourself. After watching these movies I have decided the only solution is to be a Beanivore! Look for Beanbucks 2012 coming soon and support our CSA and our farm.
Don’t forget we make the finest boxwood and mixed greens wreaths around. All hand made by us, with the freshest materials. We are glad to make custom sizes and shapes too. Wreaths and holiday arrangements will be available around Thanksgiving at our honor system stand or drop us a line.
Don’t forget your chicken,
The Allens,
Jeremy, Polly, Cleo, Cyrus, Olive and Xan
www. Beanhouses.com
Beanhouses
104 South of Common Road
Little Compton, RI 02837
401.635.4091
****Since I have written this Blue has had her puppies! 8 adorable babies. Both Blue and her pups are doing great.
