Bluebird Farm

Bluebird Farm Meat orders

2012-01-12T13:30:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

Don't forget to make your order in our new online store for pick up this weekend!

In case you needed another reason to choose our anti-biotic free pasture raised chickens they have now found arsenic in industrial chickens! Arsenic is highly poisonous to almost all animals-including chickens. You may be wondering how in the world did arsenic get into our chickens? A good question with a simple answer-arsenic is intentionally fed to the chickens to help suppress some of the many diseases the chickens get when raised in such crowded unsanitary conditions. The companies claim that the arsenic fed to the chickens could not possibly enter the meat. As you may imagine it turns out that what animals eat is typically found in their body, including their meat. Recently the FDA finally got the nerve to actually test some chicken meat and surprise, surprise, found arsenic present. You can read more about it here: http://www.grist.org/food-safety/2011-06-08-fda-admits-supermarket-chickens-test-positive-for-arsenic

You can order our chicken or pork on our new online store:

http://bluebirdfarmnc.csasignup.com/store/all

You will not receive an invoice total because all prices are per pound. Totals will vary with the actually weight of your meat. During check out you will also select your pick up location:

Catawba Valley Brewery Moganton tomorrow Friday 13th 5-6:30pm

Conover Hardware Store Saturday 14th 10-11 am

Hickory at the old train depot and restaurant parking lot noon-1pm.

Hope to see you there!

Bluebird Farm online store now open

2012-01-04T13:14:00.003-05:00

We are excited to try a new online ordering program.

Now accepting January special orders with drop off locations in

Catawba Valley Brewing Company, Morganton Friday Jan 13 5-7 pm,
Conover Hardware Saturday January 14th 10-11 am
Hickory 2010 farmers market location (the Hickory Depot parking lot) Saturday Jan 14th noon-1pm.

We are testing a new online ordering program. You can now make orders in our online store. You will not receive a total invoice because all prices are per pound and your total will vary with actual weights. We are not accepting credit cards at this time. Payment is due in check or cash at time of delivery. We want feed back on this new set up. Please let us know what you think of it.

Click below to enter our online store.

Bluebird Farm Online Store

Bluebird Farm Sausage at nature's Bounty!

2011-12-14T10:42:00.004-05:00

We are excited to announce that Bluebird Farm Sausage is now available at Nature's Bounty in downtown Morganton. You can visit their website for store hours and location at http://www.naturesbountync.com

Bluebird Farm’s pastured pigs are raised without the use of antibiotics. They spend their entire lives outdoors rooting and enjoying fresh grain, leafy forage, roots, grass, and hay.

The pastured pigs are a valuable part of Bluebird Farm’s ecosystem. In warm weather their pigs help convert forest to a pasture and in winter pigs and layer hens till up garden areas and turn deep hay bedding into valuable compost for the farm’s vegetable fields.

Last regular Farmer Friday

2011-12-08T10:12:00.001-05:00

Hello all,

Tomorrow Friday 12/9 will be our last regularly scheduled farmer Friday at the brewery 5-7 pm. The end of the vegetables has finally come. We'll have:

Napa Cabbage, great for cole slaw or stir fries. The cabbage will last bagged in your fridge for several weeks (you may have to peel off the outer leaves before cooking)

Swiss Chard

Kale

Head Lettuce

Beets

Arugula is back!

Cilantro

Kale, chard, and lettuce will all keep a week to 10 days bagged in a fridge.

We will have a full selection of pork and chicken-shoulder roasts and ham roasts are back! Our sausage or salami makes a great gift to the food lover you know.

Unfortunately, we will not have any eggs this week.

See you tomorrow!

Napa Cabbage Slaw

2011-12-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

Hello. We're looking forward to Farmer Friday this evening. There was surprise when I got out to the garden. There were still some beets for harvest. They're a little smaller than they were before, and the tops got frosted. But the little ruby red roots will be a great side. I wanted to pass along a napa cabbage cole slaw recipe we had the other day. It was great:

Napa Cabbage Slaw

This is a recipe I made up the other day with a little inspiration from a few cook books. Remember that salads are a great creative way to blend vegetable flavors, textures and colors. They are also where you see the seasons change. Arugula and spinach salads in the spring, lettuce a little later, rich summer salads of tomatoes and cucumbers, back to greens in the fall, then things like slaws late into the winter. Have fun with them, experiment with some new ingredients, play with the dressing. If you use fresh in season vegetables you won’t go wrong.

A quick and easy salad with a little extra body and great fall flavors

One head napa cabbage-diced

3-4 carrots-cut into coins, diced, or grated depending on your tastes

Dressing:

Olive Oil-about ¼ cup

Apple Cider Vinegar-about ¼ cup

Lemon Juice-2-3 tablespoons

Honey-1-2 tablespoons

Garlic-1-3 cloves diced

Salt-to taste

Pepper-to taste

Mix dressing ingredients. Modify as needed. Toss into cabbage and carrots.

This salad goes great with roasted fall vegetables or roast chicken (it’s the salad we had with our Thanksgiving dinner).

William

Farmer Friday is Back and a delicious soup idea

2011-11-30T16:58:00.000-05:00

We will be at Catawba Valley Brewery this Friday 5-7pm. Look for us inside because it will be a little chilly.

This week the menu includes:

The wonderful Buttercrunch lettuce

Napa Cabbage-good for slaws, salads, or cooked

Swiss Chard

Kale

Dill

Cilantro

We will have our full selection of pork and chicken. Just last week I made a simple and delicious soup with our chorizo sausage.

Pureed Pumpkin, sweet potato, southwestern soup

Serves 6 with leftovers-scale up or down as needed

Pureed pumpkin- about 4 cups

Pureed Sweet potato- about 4 cups

Chicken Stock-about 4 cups

One onion

1-2 lb chorizo

1-2 cans black beans

Heat pumpkin, stock, and sweet potato.

Saute onion (optional puree onion for a creamier soup)

Cook chorizo

Add onion, chorizo, and black beans to the soup. Salt to taste, serve with fresh diced cilantro and cornbread.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T21:16:00.003-05:00

A happy thanksgiving from all of us here at Bluebird Farm. We took a pause from the farm work to enjoy family and give thanks to a year of bountiful harvests. It is always awe inspiring to share a special meal with loved ones and take stock of the connections between each other and the land. Simple foods like rice become a full story when I met the man who grew that rice right here in Burke County. Besides the wonderful nutty flavor not present in most rice form the store that rice now is attached to the knowledge of how it was grown, with a memory of purchasing it on a breezy crisp afternoon, and a happy morning in the kitchen with Marie cooking a wonderful meal.

We also want to thank all of you for your support for what we do. We had a great market season with all of your help. Happy Thanksgiving!

Okra with sidekick rodent patrol agent Raven

This fall one of my projects has been training a new member of the rodent patrol team. Okra is a corgi, collie, terrier mix from Burke County Friends for Animals. We went to the shelter in search of an energetic, intelligent, and friendly farm dog. Okra fit the bill perfectly. She is a pretty good listener who loves to run around all day following me on chores and projects. Unfortunately, she enjoys chewing just a little too much. However, we are channeling her chew energy into rodent hunting. In Okra’a world all rodents from rats to squirrels and ground hogs are “MOUSE!” All we have to do is whisper “Mouse!” and she snaps to alert looking to us to show her where to hunt. Once she is on the trail she won’t stop until she’s found something. Sometimes, when we come up empty handed (or empty mouthed as the case may be) I literally have to carry her away from whatever hole she is just absolutely convinced harbors the enemy.

The fall is when we raise next year’s layer hens. The brooder shed provides a cozy shelter for 150 beautiful birds. It is so fun to see them grow in all their interesting colors. We look forward to all their equally colorful eggs in the spring.

Chicks are very fun to time lapse photograph. Click on the photos to animate.

Holiday Market Meat orders

2011-11-14T21:47:00.003-05:00

Hello all,

In the coming week we will be attending the final holiday farmers markets of the season in Hickory and Conover. We are taking orders for our pastured chickens and forest raised pork for pick up at market. Remember we can only produce chickens seasonally, we are butchering our last birds before April of next year.

The Holiday market dates are:
Catawba Valley Brewery Farmer Friday 11/18 5pm-7pm

Conover Holiday Market Saturday 11/19 10am -2pm

Hickory Holiday Market Wednesday 11/23 Noon-5:30

Making your Order

At the bottom of this blog is an order form for our holiday market selection. Use the order form as a menu. Choose chickens and pork cuts from the list and copy and paste your choices into an email. Don't forget to include the quantity of each item you wish to have.

Select which location you would like to pick up your order at:

Catawba Valley Brewery Farmer Friday 11/18 5pm-7pm

Conover Holiday Market Saturday 11/19 10am -2pm

Hickory Holiday Market Wednesday 11/23 Noon-5:30

Special notes:

We will also have our fall vegetables available at markets. We raise our vegetables following all organic rules: no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. We will have crunchy head lettuce, and other great fall crops available.

We will not be taking preorders for eggs because of limited supply (they don't lay as much in the short days) and high demand.

We look forward to seeing you at the holiday markets!

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Order Form

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The end of the Farmers market Season is just around the corner. Order your pastured pork and chicken for pick up in November at the final Holiday Markets of the season. Stock up on Bluebird Farm pastured chicken.

The birds will keep all winter in your freezer, but they won’t need to because there’s nothing better than a warm fresh roasted chicken on a chilly winter’s day.

Delivery Locations Date Time

Catawba Valley Brewery Farmer Friday 11/18 5pm-7pm

Conover Holiday Market Saturday 11/19 10am -2pm

Hickory Holiday Market Wednesday 11/23 Noon-5:30

Pastured Chicken Quantity

3.75-4.25 lbs 4.00/lb

4.25-4.75 lbs 4.00/lb

Pastured Pork Quantity/Number of Packs

Pork Chops, bone in 2/package 7.50/lb

Bratwurst Limited supply: about 1 lb 5.66/lb

Italian Sausage, links About 1 lb 5.66/lb

Italian sausage, ground 1 lb 5.66/lb

Country Sausage, mild 1 lb 4.90/lb

Country Sausage, hot 1 lb 4.90/lb

Chorizo 1 lb 4.90/lb

Fresh Ground Pork 1 lb 4.75/lb

Fresh Ham Roast Limited supply: 2.5-3.3 lbs 4.60/lb

Shoulder Roast Sold out until Dec. 4.60/lb

Spare Ribs 4.50/lb

Country Backbones 2.00/lb

Uncured Bacon (sliced side meat)

About 1.1 lbs per pack 6.50/lb

Whole Belly Great for smoking: 1-2.5 lbs 6.50/lb

Fat Back, unsalted 1.50/lb

Leaf Lard, unrendered The best biscuits ever! 1.50/lb

Artisan Salami Aged for 2 months

Sweet Soppressata Red wine, garlic, and herb 7.99/ea

Pepperoni Excellant peppery flavor 7.99/ea

We will continue to have special orders available for delivery to Conover and Hickory monthly or twice a month from December through March.

Bluebird Farm at Brewery Wednesday 11/9

2011-11-07T12:22:00.000-05:00

Special Notice:

We will not be at Catawba Valley Brewery this Friday 11/11, we are attending a sustainable agriculture conference in Durham.

This week you can find us at the Brewery on Wednesday 11/9 5-7 pm.

Killing frosts

2011-11-03T18:49:00.003-04:00

Well, it took a little longer than usual. But we have officially had our killing frosts. The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are all kaput, lying brown and dead in the field. The most dramatic death goes to the Basil. The moisture in their stems froze, rupturing the stem and exploding out into spectacular ice crystals.

All of out greens have spent the week snug under double layers of row cover. The row cover moderates the climate around the plants by holding some of the ground heat close to them. Swiss chard, kale, radishes, and beets are all happy to keep on trucking in the cold. Even our lettuces have been doing well under cover.

The cold actually brings out some great flavor in fall vegetables. The beets are especially good. Last night I sliced beets thinly and tossed them with olive oil, powdered ginger, cinnamon, and a little salt. Then I roasted them at 350 until they were tender-delicious!

The fall is also a time of planting. Early this week I cleaned out the eggplant beds and reformed them. After pulling some weeds, adding some organic fertilizer and raking them nice and smooth, they are all ready for garlic. In the southeast garlic is a fall planted crop. It will sprout about 4-6 inches before it gets to cold to grow. Then it will sit dormant for the winter. In the spring it will begin growing as soon as the weather warms up enough. It is then ready for harvest next June.

Catawba Valley Brewery Market

2011-10-27T20:19:00.003-04:00

It might feel like fall, but Bluebird Farm is still going strong. We spent this morning harvesting beautiful head lettuce, rainbow swiss chard, tender kale, and lots of fresh salad mix. Fall gardening is such a joy because the cool weather keeps the insects away. We've done the big work of bed preparation, weeding, and transplanting. Now practically all we have to do is wait to harvest the vegetables.

Of course, there is the cold weather to contend with. Last Friday after market was the first frost warning. We hadn't had time to prepare yet so after market we ran around in the dark with our row cover and wire hoops to protect all the vegetables. They came through the two light frosts well. If the weather predictions are right I'll be out again in the evening covering all the vegetables so we can have crispy greens for weeks to come.

Friday Brewery "Menu"

Buttercrunch Lettuce

Beets

French Breakfast Radishes (the flavor is excellent with the cooler weather)

Dill

Cilantro (last night I added dill and cilantro to mashed sweet potatoes. A delicious southwest-ish twist)

Salad mix

Arugula

Kale

Swiss Chard

Pastured Chicken-roast chicken with fall veggies on the side is an easy, filling, and delicious meal.

Full selection of pastured pork, sausages, chops, roasts, artisan salamis-the whole nine yards!

Bluebird Farm at the Brewery!

Farmer Friday's at Catawba Valley Brewing

2011-10-20T20:31:00.002-04:00

October is coming to a close and the Morganton Market as ended for the season. But don't worry, we are still growing delicious food! You can now find us at

Farmer Friday at Catawba Valley Brewery from 5-7pm on Friday afternoons

The fall garden has provided a bounty for tomorrow's market. I will have

Crispy, buttercruch head lettuce
Arugula
Salad mix
Swiss Chard
Red Russian Kale
Radishes
Beets
Dill
Cilantro
and the end of some summer crops:
Eggplant
Sweet Peppers
Poblano peppers
Jalapenos

Also, the weather is perfect for roast chicken. I will have a full selection of our pastured pork including our new artisan salamis Pepperoni and Sweet Soppressata (fully cured and ready to eat while you enjoy a beer!).

See you Tomorrow 5-7!

William

Ram pump and rain

2011-10-05T21:56:00.004-04:00

Fall Garden

Rain, rain, and a little more

Where was all the rain in August? We try not to complain about much needed water, but boy howdy ten cloudy days with 6 inches of rain-not exactly what we were wishing for. The pastures are now a rich green of a fall growth. The sheep certainly look forward to their munching.

In the garden we could see the vegetables green up as they finally received the water they needed. The cooler weather helps the delicate greens stay tasty and crisp. However, I think they have enough water and could use a little sun for growth. While too little water in the summer is hard on vegetables too much rain can cause problems as well. We can see some fungus and rot problems around the edges of greens. Sun and air flow in the next few days should clear it up.

Sweet potato harvest

Success of the ram pump!

Way back in the spring we received a grant from the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) for sustainable farm development. RAFI distributes funds from the golden leaf fund (money from the tobacco trust fund settlement) to assist farmers to transition away from tobacco and develop alternative enterprises. We received the grant to help us develop our pastured animal operation. We already constructed our walk-in freezer. But the second part of the grant was to build an energy free hydraulic ram pump. The ram pump is a pump that uses falling water to lift water up. There are only two moving parts-just two valves. You can read about hydraulic ram pumps at http://www.clemson.edu/irrig/equip/ram.htm

9/28/11

Just today I finally succeeded in making the ram pump work! It has been challenging to get the water to flow downhill to the pump. Then I had to fiddle with the pump for much of an afternoon. But now it is lifting water 30 feet! Now it is just a matter of hooking up the rest of the tubing to run the water all the way to the top of our pasture. From there it will collect in a cistern to be gravity fed out to all the animals. Stay tuned for photos and video on our website.

Ram pump detail

10/5/11

The ram pump has officially pumped water to animals! I used it to fill 2 of our water barrels at the top of the property. The pump even seems to work better than anticipated. You can see a video of the pump in action here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BluebirdFarmNC

Ram pump inlet pipe

Late summer on the Farm

2011-09-20T20:49:00.003-04:00

September just flew by! The season’s last Morganton Farmers’ Market on Saturday October 1^st. From then on, we’ll have vegetables, chicken, eggs, and pork at Farmer Fridays at the Catawba Valley Brewing Company on Friday afternoons from 4-6:00 pm. We will continue to have vegetables like lettuce, Swiss chard, lettuce mix, kale, and radishes as the cooler weather continues. Conover and Hickory markets continue through the mix of October.

Short Days

As the days shorten we can practically see the plants’ growth slow. Lettuce, arugula, and radishes that would have practically exploded form the ground in May are now slowly growing. A whole week after germination and the seedlings still only have their first set of leaves. Shorter days mean we can start work later and end a little earlier. But there is still plenty to do harvesting, cleaning up, and seeding cover crops. That means we have to run around faster while we do work to make sure we get it all done. The changing of the seasons does make us think of cooler days with a resting farm. Until then you can still find us out in the field.

Sweet Potato Harvest

Today we harvested sweet potatoes. We thought we were just looking for the colorful roots of sweet potatoes. But the harvest turned into an insect and spider safari. Sweet potatoes form a dense canopy of vines providing a great habitat for all kinds of critters. One of the more exciting finds of the day was a small salamander hiding in the debris on the soil surface. A gross find was a whole section of garden bed filled with large white grubs. We collected them as we dug through the soil and fed them to the layer hens-they loved them! We also found more of our arch-nemeses the squash bugs. They had headed into the cover of the sweet potatoes to begin bedding down for winter. In the cooler weather they are slow movers and we could easily squish them! Another exciting find in the jungle were hoards of young wolf spiders. Wolf spiders are the large brown spiders that move very quickly along the ground. They are great generalist predators to have in the garden. The whole surface of the soil had hundreds of little spiders (their bodies were only the size of a pencil led with legs extending out to the diameter of a dime.

Late Summer Color from tithonia or mexican sunflower

Some of the insects we found were pests, but many of them like the spiders are beneficial creatures. Amphibians like toads and salamanders that we find in the garden also play helpful roles eating insects. This entire micro-ecosystem would not be possible with the extensive use of poisons for weeds or insects. Organic practices allow beneficial insects and animals to thrive because there is a diverse base of prey species. When they live in a good balance together problems are kept to a minimum while the whole farm ecosystem thrives.

Sweet Potatoes

Not just for sweet potato casserole! These tasty jewels are great baked, boiled, or incorporated with black beans and perhaps chorizo sausage for a tasty main dish. We harvested several varieties with imaginative names such as Ginseng, Carolina Ruby, Bradshaw, and Covington. Like many fruits and vegetables the grand variety of sweet potatoes has been reduced to only a few commercially available. As usual these varieties are selected for transport and storage ability, not necessarily flavor.

Sweet Potato Jungle with harvested potatoes in background

Baby Lettuce

Tired tomatoes

Insect Assassins

2011-09-13T21:30:00.001-04:00

Cleaning Edamame

One of the defining activities of the last week was preparing the Edamame for bundling and distribution. Edemame is very easy to grow. It sprouts right up and turns into a bean filled jungle in no time at all. It is also easy to harvest, we simply snip the base of the plants’ stalks and carry them into the barn. Preparing the stalks is another story- hours of snipping leaves, cutting to rough lengths and taming unruly stalks into bundles. Of course, the rest of the farm doesn’t slow down, so we end up enjoying late night and early morning radio programs we prefer not to listen to on a regular basis while we work on the edamame. At least with this farm job we could enjoy a beer and work at the same time!

The insect assassins clean up summer garden beds

One of the reasons our summer squash and cucumber harvest met an early demise this fall was an over abundance of squash bugs and cucumber beetles. After killing off the late summer crops both of these insects will over winter in brush and debris around a garden ready to emerge again in the spring with their voracious appetites. Before they got a chance to go hide (at least we hope we caught them early enough) we went through the demolished squash patch turning over brush and shaking dead plants until they fell off. Then we ruthlessly hunted them down as the scurried for cover. We hope we got most of them! After taking care of the insect problem we put down our weapons of destruction and prepared the beds for late fall greens, hoeing out weeds and raking them smooth. The former jungle of summer now lays neatly tamed ready for sowing and transplants.

Farm Open House

2011-09-01T14:29:00.000-04:00

Farm news

Weighing chickens (and pigs) and training pigs.

Our meat chickens are very sensitive to the weather. In hot weather they spend most of the afternoon resting in the shade instead of exploring the pasture and eating. So they grow much more slowly in the heat than mild weather. With the cooler weather and more afternoon shade our current chickens have been growing a little faster. But we are not sure if they will be large enough at 9 weeks of age (next week) or if they need to grow 10 weeks (September 14^th) like the summer chickens. One way we can try to tell is to weigh them at age 8 weeks. So we head out tot the pasture with a scale and box. We set those up on a flat spot then catch a chicken! They aren’t too excited about getting scooped up. They are freedom chickens!

An even funnier sight was me (William) trying to weigh our piglets. We were trying to see how much they had grown since we purchased them. They don’t fit in a box on our small scale. So I brought a bathroom scale to the pasture. I weighed myself, then I had to grab the little squealing, thrashing piglets and weigh again. The scale is the kind you have to tap with your toe then wait for it to zero out. So I am holding a 50ish pound thrashing piglet while I try to reach out with the toe of my boot to tap the scale. Then once it zeros I have to try to balance on the scale and somehow look around the piglet at the numbers. Most of the time I moved too much and the scale read error. So I had to try the whole this over again.

A more fun piglet job is training them to an electric fence. Once they grow large enough we set up a double electric line and have supervised training sessions. At first the little piglets don’t really understand what the fence is. When they get shocked they run all the way back to their old, un-electrified fence. Once they figure it out though they are so excited to munch their way through our patch of millet and cowpeas cover crop.

Farm Day, Friday September 23^rd 4-7pm

Farm Day is open to CSA members and the public. If you missed the CSA Open House, you can come on out to Bluebird Farm on September 23rd. Come out to the farm and tour the garden and pastures! Talk to the farmers (and the animals.) Let your kids dig and get dirty in a special kid area of the garden and enjoy petting layer hens and feeding pigs.

We’ll also have a special deal on pork, Pork Family Packs, and ½ hogs available at the Farm Day.

We encourage everyone to visit the farm and see your community farm! This is an opportunity for a full tour of the gardens and pasture with your farmers. See how we raise animals on pasture and organic vegetables at Bluebird Farm and hear about our sustainable farm management .

Farmers market!

2011-08-26T20:50:00.003-04:00

Saturday is another wonderful farmers market day! I will be there with our delicious pasture raised pork. Our hogs spend a good life doing what pigs love to do, rooting in the woods, napping in the mud, and of course eating! Most pigs are stuck in a small pen not even large enough for them to turn around in! When pigs are allowed to be happy and healthy it shows in their meat. Tomorrow I will have our pork chops unlike any pork chop you find in the store. If you want a little treat for breakfast or maybe a new twist on the great BLT (eat your tomatoes, they'll be out of season soon!) try our thick cut uncured bacon. For a recipe on how to cook the bacon see our website at this link. We have our full selection of sausages: bratwurst, Italian Sausage, country sausage, spicy mexican chorizo, and our new fully cooked smoked kielbasa and spicy cajun andouille.

Yummy weeds!

I will also have our mouth watering whole pasture raised chicken. Whole chickens are easy to cook and provide a great variety of meals: roasted, smoked, pulled off the bone for salads and sandwiches, and of course use the bones for soup stock. See recipes here Our chickens are raised on grass and moved daily. Crowded chicken houses can't produce anything that tastes like this.

Its great to be a chicken at Bluebird Farm

For more information on how conventional pigs and chickens are raised check out the website Food Inc

I will also have some of our organically raised eggplant. It is a small asian variety great for sautes and stirfrys. It is a beautiful bicolor fruit. We like to cook it with tomatoes and squash for a simple vegetable topping for pasta.

Week of the Legumes

2011-08-24T20:46:00.006-04:00

Week of the Legumes

This week was a week of legumes. Beans and peas are part of a larger family of plants called legumes that form special relationships with soil bacteria to make atmospheric nitrogen available to the plant. The second succession of fresh green beans that we have been watching with such anticipation still looks wonderful. The plants are large and full of blossoms. But when we went to pick them there were hardly any beans ready. However, the first planting that we had given up on started pumping out more beans. I guess they just needed a little rest through the really hot weeks in early August. We are very glad we didn’t mow them down after the first picking.

The second legume we harvested this week is edamame. It is a soybean for fresh eating. They make a delicious and nutritious snack full of protein. The edamame patch turned into a huge jungle of tangled bean bushes and weeds. We had to put on our bushwhacker outfits to venture in. We are very glad that the beans ripened now because we had started having our first deer problems in months. As Petunia the ferocious guard dog has aged she doesn’t patrol as often as she used to. She does a great job guarding the layer hens, but prefers to nap next to them instead of touring the edges of her territory. The deer noticed the lack of dogs and took the opportunity to sample our beans. Fortunately, they only ate the top leaves off. We harvested them before they found the rest.

Edamame Jungle

More on Edamame

Edamame soybeans- Fresh edamame is a special, nutritious treat. You may have had the edamame appetizer at a Japenese restaurant. The frozen pods are always tasty, but you can’t beat the delicious fresh ones! At home you can recreate the edamame appetizer. The beans are boiled or steamed whole in the pod and sprinkled with soy sauce. 8-10 minutes of boiling or steaming makes lightly cooked beans. Edamame, like all legumes, is high in protein, B vitamins , and potassium.

Cool weather

As the night time temperatures stay in the low sixties our summer crops slow down dramatically. Tomatoes ripen far more slowly, beans grow at half the speed, and the peppers seem to never size up. It’s as if the summer garden is in slow motion. Meanwhile, our cooler weather crops are enjoying the change. The chard planted last week is looking great as it stretches its colorful leaves to the sky. We look forward to harvesting it in September.

August around the farm

Sprouting Radishes

Baaaa!

Yummy!

Tomatoes

Mexican Sunflower

August

2011-08-18T22:01:00.002-04:00

Baby vegetable delivery

This week our babies arrived. Jeff Mast of Banner Greenhouses (the large greenhouses you see around mile marker 90 on I-40) brought about 15 trays of swiss chard and 15 trays of various types of kale. Banner Greenhouses uses Integrative Pest Management to grow their plants without synthetic fungicides or pesticides.We look forward to planting the babies and to growing yummy fall greens. I could almost taste them when I walked out into the cool, dry air this morning.

We also have baby vegetables sprouting in our greenhouse. Lettuce has poked its tiny head above the soil, ready to grow, grow, grow. It is almost a challenge to make sure it doesn’t grow too fast for its own good and become stringy. Still hiding under the soil are some cilantro and dill to spice up our food this fall.

Tomato Blight

Our tomato crop is suffering from tomato early blight. This is the same disease that caused the Irish potato famine by destroying the potato crop there. . A blight spore most likely landed on our plants way back in June during one of the frequent rainstorms. The blight is extremely common in tomatoes in the southeast because of our hot and humid weather. In fact, it is almost always of question of when and how bad, not if, your tomatoes will get the fungus. It shows up as blackened leaves starting at the bottom of the plant and working upward. Black lesions also appear on the stem and fruit. There are very limited options in both conventional and organic systems to slow blight. It is not curable, but we can slow its spread with an organically approved copper fungicide spray. We alternate with an organic bacterial spray. We apply it roughly every week and hope to prolong our yummy tomato harvest for several weeks.

Preparing for fall gardens

All week we have been getting ready for the fall garden. Out in the big field at Silver Creek Farm I mowed the cover crop (see last week’s newsletter). After letting it fry down for a few days I hilled up beds and tilled the tops smooth. Now we will wait a few more days before added our organic fertilizer and making a final shallow pass with the tiller. This will leave a smooth, mostly weed free, and fertile bed ready for our transplants.

At Bluebird Farm we added some composted horse manure to our beds and worked that into the top few inches. Then we raked them smooth and put out the irrigation tape. Just last night we were transplanting kale and Swiss chard. Unfortunately, didn’t finish until this morning because it is already getting dark so much earlier! Planting small baby plants is pretty difficult when there is not any moonlight.

Today we woke up to a downright chilly morning. Our thermometer even suggested it was below 60, maybe 59.5! The cool morning, and working at Bluebird Farm where it is shady until about 10 am, fooled us into not putting sunscreen on. We realized at about 4 pm when we were both turning an uncomfortable shade of pink-oops!

While we were busy burning our selves we were planting a variety of fall crops. We wanted to plant them about a week or two ago, but with the weather still so hot and dry decided it would have been a wasted effort. Most fall crops really prefer it quite cool, and all seeds need to stay moist. It is almost impossible to germinate lettuce when it is 90 and hasn’t rained for two weeks! But, now they are in the ground: lettuce mix, arugula, beets, and radishes. We hope for cooperative weather and a tasty fall crop. We hope to get some good harvests from the fall crops before the end of the CSA in end of September. Much of the fall crops will produce then and keep producing in October and November.

Mediterranean Salsa

Fresh flavor! This is a great salsa, salad or pita stuffing.

1 medium cucumber, diced

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced, remove as much of the spicy ribs and seeds as needed

1 bell pepper, diced

1 bunch parsley, finely diced

2/3 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

2 cloves garlic, pressed

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup pitted kalamata olives

Juice from 1-2 fresh lemons

Combine all ingredients and toss well. Let marinate at room temperature for at least 15 minutes.

Harvesting in the heat

2011-08-02T21:30:00.004-04:00

July 13th Humidity!

The other night we could have cut the air with a knife, or perhaps stabbed it with our digging forks. We had waited until the sun was safely sinking behind trees to go dig potatoes. But the heat lingered in the sweat soaked air. Trees only 100 feet away were blurry around the edges from the water in the air. It was like digging potatoes while swimming, only not as refreshing. Fortunately, the recent rains had softened the soil so it was relatively easy to dig. Just last week, before the rains, I had dug a few test plants. I had to jump on the fork just to force it into the soil. Now I could easily stab it into the earth with only my arms.

A healthy soil is only about 50% solid material. The rest is airspace that fluctuates between air and water. When the soil is very dry the soil particles are locked together, they do not want to yield to a fork or shovel. Water filling some of those gaps makes the soil more malleable. It will move over so to speak for the tool as it digs in. We certainly appreciated the extra help!

Potatoes before harvest

July 20th Season of Harvest

Lately it feels like all we’ve been doing is harvesting. All year leading up to this point we’ve prepared beds, weeded, started transplants, set transplants out, weeded some more, watered, trellised, and many other vegetable projects I can’t even remember. Of course we were harvesting, but now we are really harvesting. All the summer crops need to be harvested every other day at least because the fruit just keep on coming. They’re not like greens or root crops that can wait until a planed harvest day. Instead, it’s just harvest, harvest, harvest. It is wonderful to be able to see the fruits of all our hard spring labor coming to harvest.

Cherry tomatoes with their friends the marigolds

Marie in the cucumber patch

August 2nd Farm News

This week we have finally been catching up to ourselves and cleaning up some of the spring crops. The least fun part of that job is cleaning up the old irrigation line. It is a thin plastic tube that we laid out on the nicely tilled ground back in March. Since then dirt has been thrown over the tubing and the weeds have gone crazy. Now we get to not only find the irrigation line in all that mess, but pull it out, without losing the many 6 inch long sod staples we used to hold it in place before the weeds took over. Then we get to do it 36 more times-once for each line! With that out of the way the job gets considerably easier. I hop on the tractor and prepare the ground for a cover crop, plant the seed, and use the tractor to till the seed in.

Before the tractor work could begin though we also had to play a fun game we called “find the black widow spider!” In the spring (and fall) we use a thin cloth covering to help protect our plants from the frost. We hold the row cover down with sandbags. This spring, when we were done using them we just piled them at the heads of the bed. Today we had to move them out of the way of the tractor paths. It turns out that the moist, cool, full of good hiding spaces habitat formed by a pile of sandbags is ideal for black widow spiders. We found 10, most with egg sacks, in only 3 piles! We had previously noticed that we were finding more than usual around our house and farm already. It must be a good year for them. So if you are going our back to move and old lumber pile or clean up the junk heap, be careful!

In addition to planting one cover crop we are busy incorporating another. A cover crop of millet and cowpeas we planted in the spring had reached head high-ready to mow. Some of the crop I had to mow because we needed to chop in down quickly for the imminent planting of fall crops. However, in another section, we are letting the sheep do the mowing. When we first put them into the paddock they were a little nervous because the crop was taller than the grass they were used to. Consequently, they couldn’t see very far. They kept poking their heads up as high as they could reach to try to get a better view. Every time another sheep or Clyde the guard dog would unexpectedly burst through the tall plants they would spook and jump away. Interestingly, they all turned their noses up at the crop for the first few hours. They wanted their regular grass and were having no part of the millet and cowpea mix. The sheep just weren’t sure they believed us when we told them that a book had told us that they would like the cover crop. Fortunately, instead of breaking out of the fence they eventually sampled the available food and decided it was acceptable.

Pigs Corralled!

2011-07-06T05:59:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday was a hectic adventure with many pig escapades. The final escape occurred during CSA pickup. A member came down to the house and said “are there supposed to be pigs on the driveway?” Nope! By the time I got fencing supplies in the truck and got up there they were headed toward the neighbor’s yard. Luckily I caught them before they made it there. I herded the 7 or so 250 pound hogs back to their home fence area. Then I fixed there fence-so far it has held. Instead of the one wire that has proved sufficient for the previous 40 or so pigs we have raised these 13 trouble makers required 2 hot wires and a ground wire to make sure they really get shocked! The gang of 13 has taken the title of worst behaved animals previously held by the sheep for their triple escape weekend. We attribute their ability to escape to their athletic prowess. Off to the butcher in 3 weeks (not that we’re counting).

Spiny pig weed

In the garden it is spiny pigweed season. Spiny pigweed is a hot weather weed in the amaranth family. The family includes many not so bad weeds most of which are edible. Spiny pigweed is the bad seed in the bunch. The entire stem is covered in needle sharp, nearly invisible spines. When touched these spines practically jump off the plant into your finger. They will penetrate gloves, socks, or the mesh portion on a running shoe. Once in your finger the spine is almost invisible and breaks off easily when tweezed. In short it is, a highly irritating painful, hard to get pain in the finger. Unfortunately, spiny pigweed is highly tenacious if you simply cut the plant it will grow several branches where there was only one. The only way to deal with this hydra of a plant is to pull it up by the roots. So with gloves and fork I did battle this week. Now where the pig weed had moved in edamame soybean seeds are beginning to germinate! We look forward to their delicious seeds in fall!

Cooling Rain

Today we suffered a setback during chicken butchering. When I went out early this morning to start the scalder up so that it would be ready when we start butchering, it wouldn’t light! Fortunately, we were able to fix it, but not before 7:30-when we were supposed to starting to butcher. Once lit the water takes nearly 2 and half hours to heat up. So we had to go find other things to do for that time-move chicks to pasture, move the horse, clean, relax, eat a snack. We didn’t start butchering until almost 9:30. We had an amazing crew though and we made up much of our lost time, finishing only about an hour later than usual at 2:30. As we ate lunch on the porch the clouds began to move in thicker. As the crew pulled out of the driveway the first few drops began to fall. The breeze and rain came in earnest and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon storm bringing a much needed 1.35 inches of rain. I had front row seats to the storm from the chick brooder. As I cleaned out the space in preparation for the next batch of chicks the storm crashed around me. There were frequent lightning flashes with thunder following just on its tail. Crack-boom! Crack-boom! The coolness and energy of the storm transformed the normally hot and tiresome job into an almost fun task. Poor Petunia didn’t think so though. She eventually found me in the shed as she nervously sought shelter from the storm. She eventually settled down in the fresh shavings as I finished the job. She does not like storms!

2011-06-30T14:54:00.006-04:00

Reinforced, extra-shock fencing

Putting water in the piggy "spa"

Loading hay for vegetable mulch

The big project in the garden this week was to catch up on weeding and put down hay mulch around the potatoes and tomatoes. We still need to get around to the peppers. All these crops really appreciate the moderating effects of mulch. It will help hold moisture in, cut down on weeds, cool the soil temperature, and reduce pest pressure. Pests that particularly like tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes-in particular the potato beetle, are unable to navigate the jungle created by mulch. They tend to get lost in the hay instead of finding the plant. Unfortunately the same is not true of pests for other plant families. Mulch around squashes is a bad idea because this provides the ideal habitat for squash bugs to wildly proliferate.

Flowers in the potato patch

This Monday and Tuesday we didn’t get to work in the garden quite as much as we had planned because we were busy with an experiment. We were testing the idea that our single electric line fences for pigs only work when the pigs are happy. It turns out that when the pigs decide that they are unsatisfied with what’s inside their fence they have no problem going through it! In the last 48 hours the pigs have more or less operated as if there were no fence-extremely exasperating (especially to the poor horse who is pretty sure that the pigs are after her when they get out!). Last night we were finally able to address some of the issues. Turns out the pigs were just plain hot. Who can blame them for being grumpy when it’s almost 90 and humid? So we ran water for a nice big wallow-they loved it! We also added some electric lines to their fence so it looks a little more intimidating. Today we will find out if our changes worked. Update: The pigs decided that the fence doesn’t apply to their situation right now. William added one more electric line to help prevent these particularly athletic pigs from sailing over the fence. They are staying put now. Thank goodness.

Barn Rafters of Garlic

2011-06-22T12:55:00.001-04:00

Happy summer! Yesterday marked the sun’s nothernmost track in the sky. For a few days the sun will stay in relatively the same place on the horizon, before slowly working its way back south.

Last Monday we harvested all of the garlic. Last week you received fresh garlic in your box. This is a bulb that we dug up, cut off the stalk and passed along directly to you without curing it. The rest of the garlic we have sorted and hung up to dry, or cure in the rafters of the barn. This will ensure that the bulbs dry down slowly so they can keep for as long as possible without rotting. Cured garlic can store for a very long time in a cool, dark, dry place.

When we hung the garlic up we carefully selected the largest, best formed, most even bulbs of each variety to set aside as this fall’s seed garlic. We cure these bulbs along with all the rest and just kind of forget about them. Then, in October, we will pull them out take all the cloves off the bulb and push them into the ground to start the cycle over again.

This is about half of it!

Garlic is an interesting plant because it is planted in the fall in October. In the sprouts up to about 6 inches then waits dormant for the rest of the winter. In the spring it takes off, quickly becoming the tallest, most lush green plant in the early spring. Their growth and vigor begins to slow in May when they start to think about flowering. This is when they send out their garlic scapes. The scapes are the closed blossom of garlic. Garlic reproduces both vegetatively and sexually. However, if it is allowed to fully flower and create seed it invests far less energy in the roots, the part we want to eat. So we cut off the flowers before they open, this is what was in you box several times in May. After the flower is cut the above ground portion of the plant starts to decline. The tips of the leaves begin to yellow and no new growth is seen. Meanwhile, the plant is working to make its bulbs as large as possible to give thee, energy to regrow the next year. Once several leaves have fully died on the stalk we know it is time to dig them up.

In a few weeks, we’ll pull down the cured, dried garlic and put them in your boxes. We’ll have several exciting varieties to taste and enjoy.

Flowering cilantro. Look closely to see all the pollinators it attracts to the garden.

Baby cucumbers for August fruit.

A bumblebee visits our Echinacea

Pig Wranglers and a Sweet Potato Jungle

2011-06-15T11:27:00.000-04:00

Last Friday, our big afternoon project was not out in the vegetable field, but with our young pigs.We played pig wranglers with our youngest batch for several hours-they almost made us tear our hair out! The pigs in question are twelve piglets we purchased form Warren Wilson College about 6 weeks ago. When we first get piglets we keep them in a corral because they are so small they will slip through all but the smallest gaps in a fence (several of these actually developed a habit of worming their way through the gaps in a pallet we use as part of the fence!). After about a month of eating they are big enough to learn about electric fences. We string up a double line and hold training sessions. We let them into their electric fence area and watch to make sure they don’t run through the fence. After about 3 practices they generally know what the fence is and they don’t want to have anything to do with it. Now they are ready to go to a paddock in the woods. So we trimmed back some of the brush that has grown up this spring and strung up some electric line. Now comes the fun part; moving the pigs to their new home. Usually pigs herd relatively well. We can get them all moving in one direction out of their old area and toward their new area. Not these pigs, they wanted to go in every direction except the one we wanted them to go in. To top it all of many of them confidently explored the woods alone. It took us about one and a half hours of crashing through brambles to move these little guys thirty feet to their new paddock! Every time we got them close to their paddock they would decide that that was the least interesting part of the woods and scatter in all directions around us. Boy was it frustrating!But in the end they got tired and a little more cooperative. Now they are happily rooting in the woods.

He looks innocent now!

This week we also planted sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are an interesting crop because you actually grow miniature plants from last year’s roots to transplant. It all starts the previous fall when you save out your best potatoes for “seed” potatoes. You then store them in a dry cool area with some airflow until about April. In April you “wake” you potatoes up by allowing them to get warmer. Once the outdoor temperatures are safely above frosting, place the sweet potatoes in a pile of mostly decomposed mulch or very loose soil. Within about a month small green sprouts will begin appearing. In about another month there is a sweet potato jungle! Each sweet potato will send out up to a dozen sprouts, called slips, from one end of the potato. Once these slips are about 6 inches tall (ideally anyway, Mine are always bigger because if you neglect them for a week they grow from 6 inches to 16!), snap them off at the potato and plant. The little slips typically have begun to send out small rootlets of their own. When placed in the soil and watered well they will establish themselves in about a week. After that, watch out, because sweet potatoes are related to morning glories and they will take over! They are a long season crop that appreciates warm weather, so after about three months of patient waiting we should be able to dig up our sweet potato treasure.

Harvesting spring onions

You can't see the forest for the dill!

Zinnias

What does chemical free mean?

2011-06-15T06:25:00.001-04:00

In the garden this week the weeds grew. It is amazing how we turn our back on the weeds for a week or two and they are suddenly knee high! In some ways the dry, hot days have been helpful. They make the weeds grow more slowly and die more easily when hoed out. In the paths of the big field we had planted a clover cover crop. In some areas it has done well, outcompeting weeds and blooming nicely (the blooms help attract beneficial insects). But in others the clover didn’t take as well and the weeds quickly filled the void (nature does not like bare ground). No the weeds are kind of like a cover crop as long as we don’t allow them to seed, so we mowed them all down. Many weed seeds can survive for up to 7 years in the soil without germinating. This is called the weed seed bank. Every time you till seeds are brought to the surface to grow. This is like a withdrawal form the bank. If you allow the weeds to seed this is like a deposit. Unlike most accounts, this is one where you don’t want to make any deposits. Overtime, if no plants go to seed we can reduce the number of weeds we have to contend with.

Depleting the weed seed bank is the primary weed control strategy available to organic farmers. In the short term we can weed, cultivate, and mow. But in the long run that is time consuming and tiresome. By eliminating the seeds we can prevent a problem before it occurs. Weeds are such a challenging problem that even farmers who have reduced or even eliminated pesticide use cannot imagine giving up their herbicides. This has led to some confusing labeling in the marketplace. Is “pesticide free” the same as “chemical free.” In either case is the farmer still using chemical fertilizers? (because the fertilizers don’t typically come into direct contact with the plant many farmers will say “chemical free, except fertilizers”). There are responsible and irresponsible ways to use many of the chemical tools at our disposal at farmers. But, as confusing as this sounds, never assume that a broad statement like “chemical free” means the vegetables were raised in anything like a balanced organic system. Always ask.

At Bluebird Farm we raise all of our produce following the organic standards for fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and all other growing techniques. In addition we strive to work with the ecology of the soil, our plants, and insects instead of against them. We work to establish patterns that encourage our vegetables instead of discouraging weeds. We try to increase beneficial insect populations instead of eliminate pest insects. In other words we are trying to build a positive ecological system of growth rather than a negative system of suppression.

May?

2011-05-31T17:28:00.002-04:00

Where did May go? Here are some updates on May happenings on the Farm. Photos to follow:

May 25th

It has been a great week here on the farm. We completed the final major spring transplanting sessions with a round of herbs and flowers planted Thursday evening. We interplant certain herbs and flowers with vegetable “friends” to help them with various pests. The technique of planting different combinations of vegetables, flowers, and herbs together for mutual benefit is called companion planting. Sometimes we know why we do it, for example marigolds are supposed to repel a harmful root eating nematode that harms tomatoes; and sometimes we don’t, we planted dill with cucumbers because” I read it somewhere, I’ve seen other farmers do it, and beside it tastes good!”

Friday evening we welcomed all newly transplanted plants into the field with a fertilizer mixture of ground fish, liquid calcium, and some liquid potassium (all nutrients we are short on in the field). We are especially excited about our fish fertilizer because we found a western North Carolina source. There is a company in Murphy that raises trout for food. They have recently added a fertilizer sides to the business to eliminate a waste stream. By the end of the evening we smelled like trout ourselves!

While we planted and prepared for summer crops we harvested another week of delicious spring greens. This week you will enjoy kale, swiss chard, baby spinach, head lettuce, and lettuce mix among other things. Remember, spring is the season to eat all the green you can, because before you know it they are out of season! Believe it or not, spinach is a finicky plant to grow. It lets you know when its happy and pouts when it is not. We are trying to keep it happy so that we can extend the harvest in this humid weather. Its harvest window is short and sweet like strawberries and asparagus. Enjoy!

Each season brings a new round of delicious vegetables and fruit, but unless you ship food cross country, it also marks the end of another food. The food industry has tried to convince us that this is a terrible hardship and that no one should go without tomatoes in December or lettuce in August. But eating in season ensures that you always get the best flavor as well as health. Why eat a January strawberry when the only indication that it’s a strawberry is that it looks like one?

There is an interesting article in the New Yorker a week or two ago about PepsiCo that a CSA member brought to our attention. The article goes into detail into how PepesiCo (a huge conglomerate that includes beverages such as Naked and Gatorade, food products like Quaker Oats brand and Frito Lay, as well as their more traditional sodas) is shaping our tastes for the future. PepsiCo is making food products with the express purpose of convincing us that they are what we should eat. They are dreaming of one day even manufacturing “quasi-medicinal” food products to improve our health! Just think one day we can be healthier because we eat the right PepsiCo product.

Until then, we hope you will enjoy our truly medicinal food made using only the finest sunlight, soil, water, and air available.

Your farmers, William and Marie

May 31:

Every day around the farm now comes with several cleansing sweats. On Monday, Marie got a little taste of dizzying heat exhaustion after 2 ½ hours of hoeing weeds from kale plants. And it was only 10:45 am! Even William admitted to still feeling tired from the previous day’s unintended dehydration when we were harvesting veggies this morning.

Because of this uninviting heat, our schedules around the farm have shift slightly the past 2 days. During the 12:30-3 lunch “siesta”, we eat a healthy farm lunch, take a 15 minute power nap, make phone calls, box eggs, purchase animal feed at the mill and think of more projects outside! I’m even writing the newsletter now, instead of at 11 pm! After the siesta, we’ll check up on the farm animals and head back out for more garden work.

The life of a pea plant is ephemeral. T he vigorous vines twirl upward and the little tendrils unfurl, revealing delicate white flowers. Will Coffey, CSA member and volunteer extraordinaire, ate one of the first 3 peas that we harvested last Wednesday. We had to search hard for those first peas. Today, just one week later, we harvest 30 pounds of sugar snap peas from the plants! Enjoy them while you can- we don’t think there will be much of a harvest next week due to the suffocating heat killing the flowers.

Beautiful Spring Light and Broccoli

2011-04-19T14:26:00.004-04:00

We have been busily preparing soil and transplanting baby vegetables. It is best to transplant young plants after the heat of the day. This gives them the evening and night to get over some of their shock, allowing them to cope with the next day's heat better. Sometimes it is tiring to be out in the field that late, but we are often rewarded with wonderful sunsets or clouds that we would otherwise have missed. Enjoy!

Marie cultivates a bed.

Baby kale in sunset light.

Cover crop in stormy sunset.

The sun set underneath the clouds shining on the bottom land and the South mountains.

Will Coffey and Marie plant kale with our new back saving tool-the hatfield transplanter.

Baby broccoli getting a drink (see the sparkling water droplet coming out of the irrigation tubing?)

Planting Season on Bluebird Farm

2011-04-06T21:54:00.002-04:00

Wow, March just flew by. The arrival of spring brings a whole new level of activity to the farm: soil preparation, seeding in the greenhouse, animals out on pasture, and transplanting. Everyday as we work in the field we can practically watch the grass get greener and the blossoms on the trees open up. One morning I noticed that the flowers on our magnolia were looking full and ready to burst. By that afternoon the trees were practically in full bloom. It is amazing to see and smell the plants waking up.

Misty the horse, Sweet Pea the sheep and Clyde the (very fast growing) Sheep-Horse-Dog

Some of our early vegetable starts just a few weeks ago. Some of these are already in the ground!

Beautiful Crabapple blossoms on the way to our garden.

Happy meat chickens on grass!

Row cover protecting young lettuce transplants from the vagrancies of spring weather.

William and a volunteer-Jenny. She has been a great help getting plants in the ground on time! This was just last week in full coats and hats on a wet chilly day.

Farmer Fridays at the Brewery!

2011-03-06T12:39:00.002-05:00

Come on by the Brewery (Catawba Valley Brewing Company) every Friday 5:00-6:30 pm from March 'til mid-May!

We have farm fresh eggs for you. The hens have told us that spring is here! They are really laying eggs again. (forget groundhogs, we have chickens)

We'll also have a limited selection of our pastured pork: mild Country sausage, hot Country sausage and sweet Italian sausage, pork chops, side meat.

Farmer Fridays dates...

March 11
March 18
March 25 Full selection of pastured pork again- order a Family Pork Pack!
April 1
April 8
April 15
April 22
April 29
May 6
May 13

See ya there!

Looking forward to Farmers' Markets? We are!

Here is Bluebird Farm's "When and Where" guide to Farmer's Markets.

Eat Fresh! Eat Local!

2011-03-06T10:25:00.003-05:00

I took a trip south on beautiful Highway 64 to the RS Central High School Farm on Saturday morning to buy young pigs at the spring FFA auction.

RS Central High has a very active agriculture program with greenhouse production, goats, chickens, pigs and much more. The RS Central High Farm has over fenced 30 acres and is a hands on classroom and laboratory for the high school students. Sadly, many high school ag programs have ended over the years- including the ag program at my old high school, Freedom High. I am very encouraged that RS Central has enthusiastic, effective agriculture teachers, a supportive school administration, a functioning community network, and dedicated high school students who spend after school hours working on the high school farm. Read more about RS Central High's accomplishments>>>

The auction was held in the RS Central High School Farm's barn, and each pig got a chance to shine in the spotlight as it passed through a middle corral and the crowd placed bids on it. The RS Central High FFA members worked hard behind the scenes to organize the auction, keep the pigs passing through the corral, and load the vigorous, wiggly 35 lb pigs into buyer's trucks.

The proceeds of the sale of each of the 40+ pigs supports the FFA program and farm at RS Central High School. Several local businesses also sponsored pigs with donations of over $100 per pig.

Later that day at Bluebird Farm... William and my 16 year old sister, Vivian, capture an heavy little wiggly pig, while Petunia, the Great Pyrenees guard dog, worries about her new pigs.

I'm very impressed with the all the hard work of high school students at RS Central!

We're the proud new owners of 5 very healthy, vigorous Red Wattle/ Hampshire and Berkshire cross pigs!

Spring pork order

2011-03-02T16:02:00.001-05:00

Has the warm weather got you thinking about pulling out the grill? Maybe you want to cook a nice roast before the warm weather sets in. Now you can do both!

Spring Family Pork Packs!

We still have two months before farmers markets, but you don't have to wait for Bluebird Farm pastured pork!

Get a full selection of our pork in stock for the end of winter by ordering a Family Pork Pack. We sell out of Family Pork Packs quickly so reserve your pork today!

Small Family Pack (20 lbs, $110) Ordering information

Large Family PacK (40 lbs, $210) Ordering information

Half Hog (about 90 lbs) Contact us for pricing and cutting information

Pick-up at Bluebird Farm on Friday, March 25th from 3:30-5:30 pm

Spring?

2011-02-24T20:31:00.003-05:00

We all enjoyed a week of warm weather and spring like conditions (although we wouldn't mind a little rain with our sun). Everyday at Bluebird Farm we are doing spring activities from preparing for our first meat chicks of the season, to preparing soil for potatoes, to starting onion transplants in the greenhouse.

Seeds arrive!

Preparing for chicks.

They're here!

Preparing the potato beds.

The pigs would like to help drive.

Potato beds.

Spring means more eggs. And new eggs! The chicks we got in October laid their first egg today!

A watchful rooster.

We're looking forward to a great year with everyone. Check the blog and our website BluebirdFarmNC.com to stay up to date on farmers market openings and other spring happenings at Bluebird Farm.

2011-02-04T09:03:00.003-05:00

Winters can be long and dark, but if we ever need entertainment there's always the animals-better than cable!

Curious hen

Watchful Rooster

Hungry Ewe

Clyde and his "Mama"

Winter farm dreams and plans

2011-01-28T21:33:00.006-05:00

Well, I've been sitting around with the laptop, the "Brainstorm" notebook, and the seed catalogs, jotting down ideas and plans. We've been telling ourselves were almost ready to order our supply of seed for the year all week! And here it is Friday night and we're burning the midnight oil. It's all because brainstorming is just so much fun and we are adjusting little parts of the 2011 veggie plans for CSA and farmer's markets.

Here's a photo from Johnny's Seeds. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/ This is why we drool over "sexy veggie and flower pics in seed catalogs.

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/ High Mowing Seeds and Johnny's Seeds are two companies we get most of our seeds from. Here's a carrot variety from High Mowing

These are the most delicious carrots- Yaya is their name. Nothing beats a fresh carrot grown in sweet garden soil.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-24T09:55:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

Happy holidays to all.

Here at Bluebird Farm all the animals have been well behaved and healthy. In the winter we raise all the animals together to make caring for them easier. We don't rotate the animals like we do in the summer because the soil is frozen and biological activity has stopped. This means that if we add manure it will wash away, becoming a pollutant instead of a benefit. Instead of rotating the animals we add piles and piles of bedding. Straw and wood shavings serve as a kind of a sponge holding the manure in place. In the spring we can pile the bedding up for a great compost pile.

Another great benefit of raising the animals together is that they interact in mutually beneficial ways. For example, the pigs are very messy eaters, spilling food right and left as they smack their chops. The chickens come along and clean all that spilled grain up. The chickens also help the sheep, horse, and pigs with parasite problems. Sheep are especially susceptible to internal parasites. However, if a chicken unwittingly consumes a sheep parasite larva that is in the grass the parasite will die because it can only survive in a sheep stomach.

We are taking a little vacation to visit family. But believe it or not next year is already on our minds. January will be a busy month of planning for the garden and the animals. While we are busy planning and staying warm one of our favorite winter dishes is a Pumpkin Tomato Soup. Below is the recipe for this delicious easy to make recipe. I have also attached it.

Have a great winter!

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This is a delicious, easy to make, soup I discovered this winter. It can be made with pumpkin, hard sweet winter squash such as butternut, sweet potato, or any combination thereof. It is easy to make your own pumpkin puree. Just skin pumpkin, winter squash, or sweet potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes. Boil until they are soft. Puree in a food processor or blender. Once the puree is made the soup is extremely fast to make.

Making the soup

Ingredients

2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil or butter

1 large onion, chopped

4 cups of your favorite stock

4 cups fresh or canned pumpkin or butternut squash puree (up to half sweet potato is delicious)

1 can whole tomatoes with their juices, pulse/chopped medium fine but not pureed In a processor (a can of pre-diced tomatoes works well too)

1 tablespoon maple syrup, molasses, or honey

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Minced Italian parsley

Directions

Heat the oil or butter in a nonstick soup pot (more butter if it is not a non-stick pot). Add the onion, and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes

Add the stock and heat through. Add the pumpkin, whisking in. Heat again. Add the tomatoes and sweetener (maple syrup, molasses, or honey) and heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve hot garnish with parsley

Adapted from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon

Conover this Saturday

2010-12-13T11:39:00.000-05:00

Hello all,
The cold weather is blowing our hats off. There isn't too much to do outside, but we are carrying an awful lot of hot water from the house out to the animals. In weather like this even hot water will freeze by the end of the day.
This Saturday Bluebird Farm will be at Ruby Jo's Consignment store in Conover with our pork and eggs. Ruby Jo's is located at
331 4th St. Place SE, Conover, NC, 28613
We will be there from 10-11 am.
To place an order please respond to this email with the number and types of cuts you would like. We will also have our free range eggs available. To see the cuts available see our pork website here. We are sold our of shoulder roasts, but other than that we have all these cuts available. New this time is Ground Sweet Italian Sausage. It comes in one pound packs, vacuumed sealed.
I will bring extra meat if you don't want to preorder. But these cuts will be sold on a first come first served basis. To make sure you get what you want we recommend you preorder by replying to this email

Big Oak farm will also be there selling their beef. To make a beef order please contact them. Their website is http://www.bigoakfarmnc.com/

Thank you for your support,

Widening the Pasture

2010-11-23T14:54:00.003-05:00

One of the many joys and challenges of living in a near rain forest climate is that when you turn your back, trees grow. Consequently, the once open pastures here at Bluebird Farm have shrunken as the trees advance around the edges. Cutting trees fills many winter days. We can do 3-6 big trees in half a days work. Then achy muscles usually forces us to do something else the rest of the day.

Proper warm ups and exercise are an important part of any hard work-a few reps with a tree trunk usually does the trick

A close encounter with the rare pine tree species Pinus horribulus, known for its savage revenge attacks on would-be lumber jacks. I was lucky to escape with my life!

Clearing in progress

December Pork Packages and Speical orders

2010-11-17T13:56:00.002-05:00

Family Pork Packs and Special Orders

It’s time to stock your freezer for winter! From late fall to early spring- late October to April 1^st- pork will be limited in availability. We will continue have retail cuts, by appointment, at the farm until our pork supply is sold out.

Make sure you have a selection of our pork in stock for the winter by ordering a Family Pork Pack or making a Special Order. We sell out of Family Pork Packs quickly so reserve your pork today! Or take advantage of the Special Order - winter is the only time we offer them.

Special Orders (min. $25):

Ordering information

Small Family Pack (20 lbs)

Ordering information

Large Family PacK (40 lbs)

Ordering information

Half Hog (about 90 lbs) Contact us for pricing and cutting information

Pick-up:

At Bluebird Farm on Friday, December 10th from 3:30-5:30.
Downtown Hickory, Farmers Market parking lot, on Friday December 10th from 4:15-5:15 (it gets dark so early!)

**********************************************
We have over a dozen cuts of pork! All pork is sold by the pound. Individual retail cuts are sold at the farm by appointment as available, and at several seasonal, local Farmer’s Markets.

Final 2010 farmers markets

2010-11-08T19:58:00.003-05:00

There are a few more Farmers' Markets this season

You can find Bluebird Farm at these local Farmers Markets:

Catawba Valley Brewing Company Friday 11/12 and 11/19 5-7 pm

Conover Holiday Market Saturday 11/20 10 am-3 pm (at the farmers market location)

Hickory Holiday Market Wednesday 11/24 noon-5 (at the farmers market location)

Come find us for free range eggs, sausage from our pastured pork, salad mix, swiss chard and other greens. We will also have chickens one more time this season on Friday 11/19 at the Brewery and the two holiday markets in Conover and Hickory.

Patton High student working on his senior project (way too early in the morning!)

October manure brings May vegetables!

2010-11-06T20:40:00.002-04:00

November 6^th! Last week we were busily sweating out in the fields, staying so busy that I didn’t even have time to write. Today we spent a leisurely (first Saturday with no markets since April), but chilly morning doing chores. Then this afternoon I attended a meeting of other small farmers raising pastured poultry and other meats. Cold weather, no markets, and farmer meeting it must be winter planning time!

Our major October project was preparing the field for next year’s vegetables. Here are some photos of the project:

First I make the beds

Spreading manure

Cover crop planted in September-oats, buckwheat, millet, cowpea.

Petunia and the Ulysses, the ram

Fall is here!

2010-09-29T21:32:00.002-04:00

Hello all,

Rain and beautiful weather usher in the final week of September. The official Bluebird Farm rain gauge registered 2.1 inches from the first drops Sunday am to the final rain Monday night. Thankfully, the rain came in well measured bursts interspersed with drizzle. The last thing we wanted was a 2 inch deluge in one hour.

On Monday our older pigs loaded into the trailer to go to the butcher. Getting to the trailer was a little bit of an adventure. We had mixed the two age groups of pigs together about two weeks ago. So we had to somehow open the fence and herd the big pigs out while holding back the seven, very curious and excited little pigs. In the end four little ones came along for the walk to the holding pen. They had a great time exploring the woods without the older pigs bothering them (they were too busy exploring as well). But after the hullabaloo of corralling the older pigs into the holding pen the younger pigs were ready to head home. Petunia had jumped into the herding at the corral (usually she was more in the way than a help) and now she wanted to “help” with walking the young pigs home. So Marie and Petunia led the way along the forest road with the four little ones trotting along behind. I brought up the rear to make sure no one stayed behind. It was pretty funny seeing Petunia’s fluffy tail leading four curly pig tails up the road.

The big vegetable field is looking tired and worn out. The tomatoes are showing more blackened branches than ever before. Many fruit are damaged by insects, the sudden switch from dry to wet, and fungus that invades when plants become weak. It is the sort of garden that makes me start to think about clean up: the hard, dirty, but ultimately satisfying work of pulling up plants, taking down trellises, removing irrigation, mowing, and soil preparation for next year. I can already see the field in its fall state. The landscape of towering tomatoes, sprawling vines, and unruly weeds replaced by the groomed look of a made bed or mowed lawn-a welcome respite from the exuberance of summer vegetable gardening.

The garden from the hill. Next year's garden is in the far left

We feel a little like the garden at the end of a season. Our muscles are past tired and our minds have trouble with basic organization and focus. Cooler weather and shorter days make us want to spend more time reflecting than actually working (of course we don’t get to do that quite yet). As we talk about this year we never cease to be amazed at all the support and encouragement we receive. When we moved back to North Carolina we didn’t expect Morganton to be very interested and passionate in what we are doing at Bluebird Farm.

A moment with the bee (look closely in the center of the photo)

In our early planning discussions we frequently pointed out Morganton’s proximity to Hickory, Charlotte, and even Winston-Salem. But you have shown that you care about what we are doing. You care where your food comes from, you want to know your farmers, and you believe in what we are doing. We have been humbled, excited, and inspired to receive this response. Without such positive feedback it would be hard to want to continue working this job that is challenging in the best of years (and this wasn’t one of the best years). And so, even as we clean up from this year we are preparing for next year. We have been spreading organic soil amendments (manure, granite dust, lime), seeding cover crops, and writing down thoughts and observations about this year’s crops before they fade in our minds.

With our increased knowledge of the fields we are working, improved soil conditions, and more planning based on a year of work we look forward to a great year next year. We hope you will join us!

We will still be at Farmers markets for the month of October!

Morganton Saturday 8-noon Oct 2 and Oct 9

Conover Saturdays 8-12:30 for the month of October

Hickory Wednesdays Noon-5:30 for the month of October

Preparing for winter

Time lapse chicks

2010-09-21T22:25:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

Friday began early, picking up some baby chickens from the post office. Whenever I call down there in the morning they seem a little surprised to receive such an early call. They also seem relieved that someone is coming to get the noisy babies out of their office. The chicks are usually chirping so loudly that I can hear them over the phone as the post master looks at the address on the chick box. The only way to get them to quiet down just a little bit is to crank the heat in the car on the drive home-even on a hot morning like Friday. Now the chicks are happily munching, cheeping, and growing in their shelter.

Happy chicks

Our pigs are now (at least most of the time) getting along together. Two weeks ago I wrote about the big pigs chasing the little pigs all the time when we tried to put them in the same pen. We had to put up an electric line between the two groups to let the little pigs have some peace and quiet. However, the older girls (who have never broke down their fence before) continually broke through to the young pig area. After almost a week of constantly moving pigs and fixing fences we just took the fence down and told the little pigs to “stand up to those big bullies”. So far they have done just that and everyone is enjoying being a pig in the woods!

happy sheep

In the garden we have planted almost everything we plan on planting this fall. All we have to do for them is some minor weeding and harvest. But there is never time to sit around at the farm! We have been busily preparing next year’s area. We have spread lime to improve our pH, granite dust to make up for our potassium deficiency, and horse manure to add nutrients and organic matter. The next step is to plant a winter cover crop and hope for rain. Actually, because we need the cover to germinate before it gets to cold we will probably put up overhead irrigation (sprinklers-as opposed to the drip irrigation we use for vegetables) to ensure adequate moisture.

Recipe:

Roasted Pepper Spread

1 or 2 cloves of garlic, peeled

6 medium bell or sweet peppers, chopped roughly and roasted (see below)

8 ounces Neufchatel reduced fat cream cheese, softened

1 can chickpeas, 15 oz, rinsed and drained

1 tablespoon miso (you can find it at Nature’s Bounty. Maybe Ingles? If you want to substitute it try tahini and salt instead)

2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice

Minced parsley

Mince garlic in food processor. With the motor running, add each ingredient until smooth. Garnish with parsley.

Adapted from Passionate Vegetarian, 2002.

William and Marie

Mid-September and Spring Veggies?

2010-09-14T22:13:00.001-04:00

Hello all,

It has been gorgeous dry, clear, dry, cool, dry, breezy, and dry weather. While we can’t complain too much about the weather we could stand a little more rain. Luckily enough we timed our last several plantings in the garden with the wet days we have gotten.

Our fall transplants of boc choi, chinese cabbage, lettuce, and kale are standing in vibrant green rows out in the field. However, you wouldn’t notice their bright little sprouts against the brown soil at first. What catches your eye are the giant white caterpillars, well not really caterpillars, but that’s what we call them. We have metal hoops about waist high and about 6 feet across from foot to foot. We set the hoops up over our garden beds and stretch a white spun fabric over them. Many of you have seen this row cover at the farm or in our photos. Right now we are using a lightweight cover for insect protection. Later in the fall we will switch to a heavy weight fabric for frost protection. Currently we have three of these hoops side by side running the 120 foot length of the field.

It is like entering another world when you lift the edge of these hoops and look under. The wind doesn’t blow; the air is moister and a little warmer. It’s like a little protected vegetable haven. Under each hoop are two beds separated by a narrow pathway. And down the beds are our little rows of bright green fall vegetables. Their green is almost incongruous with this time of year. Most grass, trees, and other plants are the dark rich, tried green of late summer. But not the vegetables, they have the bright almost neon green of spring in their leaves.

We tried something new with spinach this fall. Spinach is notorious for its poor germination. Ask almost any farmer or gardener about spinach and they will either tell you they have trouble growing it, or they have no trouble because of some complicated scheme they devised to make it work. Our new complicated scheme is to place the seeds between damp paper towels. We then put the towels in a plastic bag in a dark cool place for about three days. At this point almost all the seeds have germinated! They had little roots less than a quarter inch long. I then made small trenches about 1 inch deep and put the seeds down the bottom. I was afraid that the seeding might break off the roots and that the seed wouldn’t be able to regrow. But hey, farming is about trying new things. Next I put fish emulsion across them to give a little boost. Then I tamped the soil back over the seeds. Today we have rows of spinach with their two cotyledons (false leaves) reaching upward. Now the battle with the insects begins. We hope to win that one with the help of cooler nights. With any luck we will have some delicious spinach in a few weeks. Just in time for the last CSA week? We certainly hope it will grow quickly for Week 20, our last CSA box.

Pasta with Mizuna and Sausage
Mizuna is one of the primary greens in our stir-fry mix. I love its peppery flavor more than other spicy greens like arugula. Use stir-fry mix in this recipe (I thought it sounded better with Mizuna in the title) Feel free to substitute the sausage with cooked mushrooms.
1 large onion, cut into ¼ inch slices
1 tbl sp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup chicken broth
½ lb-1 lb of your choice of sausage, mostly cooked- a little pink is fine,
½ cup roasted peppers, cut into bite-size pieces
1 bag of Stir-fry mix, leaves chopped into 2 inch pieces, stems diced into ½ pieces
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
1 pint cherry tomatoes, washed and halved
12 oz medium bow tie pasta
¼ shredded Parmesan cheese or Manchego
½ tsp. freshly cracked pepper

1. In a large skillet cook onion in oil until tender. Stir in garlic, broth, sausage, roasted peppers. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer. Add greens; cook 1 to 2 minutes or until greens are wilted. Remove from heat.
2. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Toss pasta with sausage mixture, basil, cherry tomatoes,cheese, and black pepper.

Pig Adventures

2010-09-08T11:23:00.000-04:00

Sometimes while farming we try things that we really don’t know if they will work or not. On Monday we tried combining our younger pigs with the big ones. The younger pigs have spent the last 6 weeks or so in a corral with a small run on it. We were moving them by herding them to the pig area in the woods. Unfortunately, they had become very comfortable with their space and were reluctant to leave their home. Eventually we had to shut them out of their corral and shove them far enough away that they began to explore instead of trying to return. Of course there was one stubborn one that I had to pick up and carry about 20 feet through briar infested woods to get her moving.

Once they were on the road through the woods the little group of seven moved along pretty well. As soon as the big pigs noticed the little ones walking toward them through the woods they leapt to their feet and ran to their fence snorting, “barking” and sniffing. The little pigs, surprisingly enough were not particularly intimidated. I say surprising because the labels “little” and “big” pigs are no exaggeration here. As I mentioned the little ones are still pick-up-able, about 90 lbs, albeit not very comfortably. The big pigs however, are approaching 300 pounds. The top of their back easily come up to mid-thigh on me. The little pigs can literally run between the legs of the big ones.

Once the little ones were in the fence with the big ones the curiosity of the large pigs turned into bullying. If the seven little ones stayed together over in one corner, they would be mostly left alone. But should they try to venture out the big ones would sneak up on them and start chasing trying to get a good bite out of the little ones ears. This culminated in all of the little pigs breaking out of the fence and having a little pig party in the woods. We thought we’d try it out- some pig herds can be mixed ages, but our big pigs don’t enjoy sharing. Now the little ones have their own paddock next to the big pigs. We hope they can sort out their differences across the fence and one day live in harmony. For now they enjoy being neighbors.

Labor day weekend farmers markets

2010-09-03T12:25:00.001-04:00

After a brief break from farmers markets we will be back tomorrow! Add some flavor to your holiday weekend with some Bluebird Farm pastured pork sausages or bratwursts. Back this weekend will be our full assortment of pastured pork products. We will have our delicious chops, flavor packed ribs, and everyone's old favorite: country sausage. You can also try our cherry tomatoes on shish kabobs or in a great salad. We will also have our eggs from pasture roaming hens!

Come on out and find us in

Morganton 8-noon behind Gepettos

and

Conover 8-12:30 at the Conover farmers market

Come on out. See you there!

Climbing pigs and broken trucks

2010-08-31T22:17:00.000-04:00

My first adventure of the week since I last wrote began just hours after Wednesday CSA pick-up. We had finally arranged for a load of beautiful horse manure to be brought to our vegetable field so I headed over to meet the truck and show it where to dump. It was supposed to be a quick project (this is the way many farm projects begin). However, I soon learned that the dump truck they brought the manure in was a very special sort of dump truck, specifically a dump truck that does not dump. Needless to say we spent a good hour trying various methods to unload the truck. In the end we faced the inevitable and got out the shovels. But all is well that ends well and now we have our first load of manure in our field for next year’s crops.

We have discovered that we have a rare breed of climbing pigs! Our younger pigs here on the farm are so eager for any compost we might be bringing them that they have developed the ability to climb up to a standing position using the fence panels of their corral. They love to investigate the sound of running water when we fill their water tank. They use their noses to dig all around the bottom of the tank searching for the source of that tantalizing sound. Just watch out if you get in with them-they love eating shoelaces and nibbling on clothes.

If you aren’t careful farming can be a very isolating occupation. Animals and plants require attention every day. On top of that there is always the next thing to be done so it is all too easy to work, work, work. No matter how much one loves what they do, it is tiring to do it non-stop. A wonderful way to break the routine (while still convincing ourselves that we are working) is through “continuing education.” We had a great weekend of reuniting with several old friends from school who are undertaking various farming ventures of their own. We got to swap chicken raising methods with a friend who worked for Joel Salatin and now has her own place in Virginia. We also spent time with a friend working on several organic vegetable farms in the triangle area. To cap it all off today we attended a field day at a NC state organic field research station. There we learned about the development of disease resistant tomatoes, grafting tomatoes, growing fall broccoli, and the efficacy of various weed control methods.

Talking and cooperation are not always traits that come easily to people, especially independent type-A farmer personalities. But an open dialog between farmers, consumers, wholesalers, government researchers and regulators, and of course farmers talking to other farmers, is one of the biggest changes needed in our food system today. Our food is, more often than not, produced behind closed doors (closed even to regulators as is evident from the latest egg recall). Farmers are hesitant (or even prevented by agreements with companies such as Tyson) from sharing ideas with each other or with their customers. It is a system designed to bamboozle, confuse, and hide. It hides environmental destruction, health safety problems, corporate profits, destroyed rural communities, and societal health impacts.

A great NC organization that works to promote the kind of dialog we need is the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. They provide action alerts on food legislation that could harm small farmers, work to educate consumers, and especially promote farmer to farmer networking. Their biggest event of the year is a conference held each December to bring farmers from all over the Carolinas (and sometimes further afield) together to participate in workshops, network, and squeeze in some socializing. We hope to attend this year’s conference in Winston-Salem to continue our “continuing education.” If you are interested in learning more about the organization check out their website at http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/index.shtml

Some August news

2010-08-17T22:39:00.001-04:00

Could it be that fall is just around the corner? We notice the mornings are darker. In fact, they are dark enough that chores can’t start until 6:15-a whole 15 minutes later! Even though it doesn’t feel any cooler in the sticky August air, it hasn’t actually broken 90 out here on the farm for the last four days or so.

In case we couldn’t tell it was fall by the weather, the calendar tells us it is. At the end of July we started out fall Swiss Chard. The hot and humid weather caused some fungus problems with the young transplants, but many survived. Today we were out in the garden planting our babies. It is great to see little rows of greens in the ground again. Its time for transplanting again!

We need to get these fall greens in now because before we know it days will be short and nights will be cold. At that point the plants really won’t do much growing. So we need them to be large enough to harvest right around the time of first frost. The trick is dealing with the late summer pests. We sprayed a cocktail of items to give them a fighting chance: fish emulsion for nutrients, Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) for caterpillar pests, and a kaolin clay to word off sucking insects and provide some “sunscreen” cooling the surface of the plants. To cap it all off we pulled out some of the white row cover you heard so much about in the spring. That will help exclude insects from the garden bed.

On the animal front I had an amusing task yesterday. We needed to estimate the weight of our hogs to see if we could take them to the butcher a month earlier. Since we have no scale we use a measuring tape much like tailors use to fit people for clothes. But this tape measures the pigs length and heart girth (the roundness just behind their front legs). With these two numbers we can estimate their weight. Our friendly pigs really enjoy attention. This usually makes the measuring easier. However, they have been spending their days totally covered in mud to cool off. Then they like to scratch on trees-or people. So as I measured around the pig’s bellies they were trying to rub on me. So I got to hug 200 lb, mud encrusted friendly pigs. Needless to say I needed a pre-rinse before coming in the house.

Today the pigs got an extra fun treat. I took down their fence and moved their paddock to the next space over. After some careful exploring to establish where I had placed the electric fence they started running around, and around, and around snorting and bucking. They thought it was great to be in a new space with fresh ground to root up. Incidentally, a new study has confirmed that pigs can express optimism and pessimism depending on their environment. Pessimistic pigs run from new stimulus while optimistic pigs move toward something new-our pigs are a bunch of sunshine!

Some Photos of the Farm

Chickens exploring

A chicken exhibiting its athleticism to catch an insect-too fast for the camera!

You know its time to be more social when buckets become your best friend

Flowers always brighten the day

Rain is nice, but it sure makes the grass grow!

Cooler August?

2010-08-03T22:25:00.003-04:00

July flowers make?

August peppers!

Everyone and everything at Bluebird Farm has enjoyed several days of cool, cloudiness with the temps not breaking 80 degrees. How refreshing! That meant the soil cooled down from 90 degrees to the mid 70’s. The plants loved the perfect soil temps and we’ve been watching the veggies and grass grow. It was also the perfect time to transplant more cilantro, the last succession of squash and cucumbers, and an attempt to get snow peas seeds to germinate. Hopefully these last squash and cuke plants will have good growing conditions and we will all swim in their fruits.

Cooler weather lets the pollinators do their job

The flowers aren't complaining about the weather!

We move the sheep flock every few days to a fresh patch of ground. This improves both the flock's health and the health of our pasture. Usually when we move them they all put their heads down to dive into the fresh salad bar. They look like this:

But, we have one silly ewe who kind of loses all her sense when there is fresh food available. She ignores, the flock, ignores us, and snarfs up the grass. The funniest part is that she actually snorts as she eats. Can you spot the bad sheep?

Lean Ground Lamb

2010-07-23T19:41:00.008-04:00

Hello!

For the next few weeks: We will have lean grass-finished ground lamb at the Moganton and Conover Farmer's Markets on Saturday from 8-12 for the next few weeks. Don't miss it! We have it at these markets (and maybe Wednesdays at Hickory) until supplies last. Try a lamb burgers- mix lamb 50%/50% with ground beef or pork! Remember, this lamb is very lean, please don't overcook it!

Try these Turkish lamb kabobs! William and I spent a wonderful time together in Turkey several years ago. I fell in love with Turkish cooking and Turkish architecture during our travels and the successive weeks I spent traveling solo. Turkish spices blend so well with lamb, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Turkish lamb kabobs (or koftas)

2 tblsp. water
3 tblsp. butter, softened or melted
3 cloves garlic
2 tblsp cilantro, finely chopped
2 tblsp parsley, finely chopped
2 tblsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

2 lbs. ground lamb

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and mix well. Shape into approx. 16 oblong "sausages" 1 1/2 inch by 3 1/2 inches and press around metal skewers. Grill or broil, 3 to4 minutes on each side, until just cooked through. Remove from heat.

Sometimes, instead of using skewers I use a small slotted grill rack from a Dutch oven and place this on the grill so the kabobs don't fall through. If using your broiler, remember to place a catch pan under the rack to catch drippings.

Serve each portion on the skewer with grilled pita bread, cacik (Turkish version of Tzatziki yoghurt sauce), salted tomatoes wedges. Cacik recipe

Oh how wonderful! Petunia runs with joy!

A summer day on the farm

2010-07-20T23:11:00.000-04:00

I thought that this morning I would bring you out to Bluebird farm. Don’t worry, you can leave before the hot, hot afternoon!

6 am

Out the door. I’m still loosening up my shoulders, neck, and fingers. Every morning those three places are the sorest. Walking to feed the cats and up the hill to the chickens is usually enough to warm up my legs.

6:05

Cats are fed. Now comes the hardest part of the morning. I haven’t developed a system of writing down the things I noticed I needed for the next morning’s chores. So I am left to scratch my sleepy head for a moment remembering who needs food and water. I love it when I remember that we are fully stocked.

6:07

This is the part of the walk I usually remember that I forgot something. Today, nothing! I hate turning around.

6:10-7

Open, move, feed, and water meat birds and layer hens. Stroll past the pigs on my way back down for breakfast. Marie has taken care of the baby chickens and started the eggs. Mmmm, by this time I am hungry and sweaty already.

Our hard working truck, loaded and ready for action!

8 am

On the road to Silver Creek Farm

Now is when the day really starts. We head over to Silver Creek farm to work in the vegetable garden before it is unbearable hot. These days there is usually something to harvest every day. Most of the greens we harvest in the spring can hold in the field until we need to pick them for market or CSA. The summer crops on the other hand just keep ripening. Squash, beans, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes all need to be picked every other day or we will find baseball bat squashes, tough beans, and rotten peppers and tomatoes.

Our day often begins by starting the irrigation pump

After the vegetables are in the shade we move on, usually to weeding. While we weed we are constantly scouting for potential problems so that we can address them as soon as possible. These days we are on the lookout for a wide variety of insect “friends.” While the spring rampage of Colorado Potato Beetles has dissipated summer pests are out in force. Cucumber beetles, squash bugs, squash vine borer beetles, stink bugs, bean beetles, tomato horn worms, and a variety of unknown worms are all causing us difficulties. Our primary line of defense against insects is old fashioned hand picking. When we fall behind neem oil and Bassilus Thuringiensus (Bt) help keep the insects at bay.

I hate weeds!

The neem oil, essential oil from the Indian neem tree, also acts as a fungicide. Hot, humid weather provides ideal conditions for many funguses including blossom end rot on tomatoes and a black fuzzy mold on our squashes. To apply oil, Bt and anything else we may need to spray on plant foliage we put on our “ghost buster” backpacks. They hold 4 gallons of liquid and use a hand pump and spray nozzle to pressurize and apply liquids to plant. They are a great tool for precession application of fertilizers, insecticides, and fungicides (all organic of course).

The dreaded bean beetle larva (the yellow fuzzy thing)

12:30

Time for lunch yet!?

By now it is almost too hot to function in the field. We are hungry, hot, tired, and usually a little grumpy. This is not a good time to come visit. Homeward bound to lunch and a nap. Rejuvenated we will catch up on inside work during the heat of the day before heading back out to move sheep, seed, more weeding, put up crow
deterrents….

A garden visitor

Some summer recipes

Leeks

Leeks are a non-bulbing onion with a mild flavor. The white part of the leek is the sweetest. The greens are perfectly edible. The higher up you use the stronger the onion flavor. How much green to use is a matter of personal preference.

To prepare leeks Remove roots. Then slice half way through the leek along the length. Hold the leek upside down and rinse well. The growth habit of leeks means they tend to fill up with dirt as they grow so they need a good wash.

To cook either

Dice and sauté in butter to serve with just about anything.

Or try

Cutting the leeks into three inch lengths and sauté in butter. Then place the leeks on a piece of good bread, cover with a tomato slice, then top with gruyere or mozzarella cheese. Broil just long enough to melt the cheese.

Pesto version 1

Ingredients
1 big cup of basil leaves
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 ½ tablespoons of pine nuts
3 tablespoons of original parmesan cheese
1 ½ medium sized garlic cloves

Directions

Crush the basil leaves using a mortar and pestle after washing the leaves carefully (they should not break before you start crushing them. Otherwise they might lose flavor).

Add the olive oil and mix it very well. When it starts to look like a paste add the garlic and the pine nuts and continue mixing all the ingredients.
After you obtain a nice puree season with salt and pepper and continue mixing for another 2-3 minutes. Now, add the parmesan cheese and again: mix it well.
Let the pesto rest before you use it, so the flavor will unfold. 10 minutes should be enough. Use it with your favorite pasta dish or try another dish, such as pesto chicken.

Pesto version 2

Ingredients

½ cup fresh basil
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup walnuts or pine nuts
½ cup olive oil, approx.
Salt to taste

Directions same as version 1

Pesto Tips

Pesto can be made with almost any nut. I have had excellent pistachio pestos as well as roasted almond pesto.

A homemade pesto sauce should be kept in the fridge if you don’t use everything in the same day. You can store homemade pesto for about 1 week, if you cover it with olive oil.

To freeze pesto leave out the parmesan cheese. You can add the cheese after thawing. Divide pesto into meal size portions. Freeze in freezer bags.

Don't forget to stop and smell the basil!

June photos

2010-06-23T07:51:00.002-04:00

Tomato trellis

The garden as seen from the hill

Interesting clouds over the south mountains

Late May bounty

Killer Insects

2010-06-10T22:06:00.001-04:00

As Bluebird Farm has grown and developed it has been one large project after another in expansion and addition. Every week, even every day, brought a totally new project to be tackled-our first chickens, our first butchering, our first sheep, a new walk-in fridge, first planting of each crop, then on to the next first, and the next. But this week we began to see the beautiful cycles of farming. Now, the arrival of a new batch of chickens does not initiate some new adjustments, instead we just prepare and go.

In the garden, summer crops are in the ground and growing. Now our priorities are planting the second succession of the summer crops like tomatoes, cuke, and zuchinnis. Some of our spring crops are done and we clean up the bed, much like in the spring, and prepare for another round of seeds and growth. Also our focus shifts to maintaining the crops we have: namely fighting weeds and insects.

Of course we are always trying to work with natural systems and not fight them. But the weeding and insect killing of the past week can only be described as war. Suddenly potato beetles are everywhere. We are using a variety of physical (spray on clay barriers), manual (hand crushing), and spray methods. Our two first line options for insects are insecticidal soaps and essential oils. The soaps are biodegradable soaps that penetrate insect cells, causing their cell membranes to collapse, dehydrating the whole insect. The essential oil we have been using is neem oil from the neem plant. It is a natural, but powerful, oil that kills insects.

We do try to encourage beneficial insects as well. We are assisted by lady bugs, predatory stink bugs, soldier bugs, and assassin beetles. All of these insects prey on our pest species, helping to keep their numbers in check. Our lady bugs are everywhere and it’s great fun to watch the predatory stink bugs spear and suck the juices from bug larvae. A very good reason to avoid traditional chemical pesticides is that they typically kill all insects-good and bad. Almost always the bad insects will rebound first-this time into a habitat totally devoid of any predators.

A soldier bug eating a colorado potato beetle larva

May Newsletter

2010-05-30T15:40:00.002-04:00

I started writing this newsletter under a leafy umbrella waiting out a few raindrops from a fickle little raincloud. I had just settled into the hammock in the shade for the first time this year. But those raindrops kept coming, and I am grateful for warm, gentle showers. I am especially thankful for the gentle showers that bring back the grass in the pastures without shredding the garden with wind and hail!

Our sheep love their grass!

The animals appreciate the showers too- no flies, nice cool grazing weather. After the hot April weather many of our laying hens decided to go “broody.” A broody hen’s wings droop and they cackle as they walk about with fluffed feathers, all while thinking about a private nest. We have about a dozen American and European heritage breeds of laying hens for the beautiful array of eggs you see at the markets- Barred Rocks, Marans, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Buff Orpingtons, White Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds, Americanas, Lakenvelders, and Golden Campines- all beautiful breeds that thrive outdoors. Two Maran hens showed so much dedication to the nesting idea that we took them up to a private little chicken house where they could sit on a nest of a dozen eggs each without being disturbed. Just 21 days later and the hens have hatched out their little chicks. The fuzzy little ones follow their moms around as the hens cluck and scratch for food. After a break from laying, the laying hens have begun laying again (hooray) and I hope that future spells of hot weather won’t shut down everyone’s laying capabilities.

A mama hen and her day old chicks

As the nights continue to warm, it becomes Swiss chard season. With its beautiful stems of yellow, red, and green the Swiss chard lights up the garden as well as the kitchen. Swiss chard is a great substitute for spinach- it has a great flavor and is packed with nutrients. Chop and sauté the stems with onions and then add the chopped greens and cook like you would spinach. Another great addition to the vegetable fare is Bok Choy. This vegetable is also a beauty in the garden and it’s the ultimate stir-fry vegetable! Large, white stems add a sweet, juicy crunch to any meal. Cook with garlic, grated ginger, mushrooms, carrots, snap peas. Stir-fry the stems for 5 minutes, add the chopped leaves and wilt the leaves for 2 minutes.

Late spring greens-poc choi and cabbages

Warm weather also brings out the insect world. There is no better way to meet the six legged denizens of the world than by weeding a large vegetable field. After several hours on your hands and knees you begin to see the insect world around you. I have noticed, for example, that the lady bugs prefer hanging out on one particular weed over others. It makes me feel a little guilty ripping out their favorite habitat. Finding and destroying other bugs; however, brings no sense of guilt. Our worst so far this year is the Colorado potato beetle. The strikingly striped adults began appearing about a month ago. Since then we have surveyed the potatoes at least every three days to find all the adults, eggs, and larva and squish them. Save the potatoes! Using organic methods sometimes requires the laborious work of hand squishing something like potato beetles, but in the meantime we are able to enjoy all the benefits of friendly insects like predatory wasps and lady bugs that eat the aphids.

See you at the markets!

Up close and personal with a future stir-fry

Coming soon-summer crops like zucchini!

Pork Family Packs- Special Event at the farm

2010-05-20T22:06:00.003-04:00

We are accepting advance orders for pastured pork! Family Pork Packs are available with a special discount Friday 5/28 at the farm only. Pick-up of the special discounted Family Packs is at the farm on Friday May 28 from 4-6:30. Visit the animals and garden when you pick up. Family Pork Packs contain a variety of our pork cuts and allow you to "shop" from your personal freezer. The entire Pork Pack will fit in your refrigerator's freezer.

Our pork has no added nitrates or preservatives. Cuts are vacuum sealed, labeled, frozen, and processed in a USDA certified butcher shop.

Small Family Pack
Contains a variety of cuts totaling approximately 22 pounds* of pork. Stock up and “shop” from your freezer-you’ll have all the common cuts of pork to make delicious meals. Try the pork chops for pan-frying, roasts for hearty dinners, ground country sausage for quick savory meals. The Small Family Pack will fit in your refrigerator’s freezer with plenty of room to spare! 8% Special discount from retail.

Large Family Pack
The Large Family Pack contains a variety of cuts totaling about 42 pounds* of meat. A great variety pack with all the common cuts including more sausage and pork chops! See details here. If you have a little more freezer space in your refrigerator’s freezer this is a great way to stock up and “shop” from your freezer. 10% Special discount from retail.

* Family Packs are based on the approximate weights of listed items- each cut of pork is unique!

Availability
Pork will be available directly from at the farm Friday May 28th from 4-6:30. This is a special discounted Family Pork Pack event. Call it a "direct from the butcher shop" sale! This is also a great chance to walk around the farm with your family and visit the animals and garden when you pick up.

Ordering-
Email us to order and place your deposit. BluebirdFarmNC@gmail.com Copy and paste one of the order choices below into your email to reserve your pastured pork, and then mail your deposit! Your order is not final until we receive your deposit. We will then confirm your order and remind you of the pick-up date.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__ I want to reserve my Small Family Pack now with a deposit of $50* (My check is in the mail)

__I want to reserve my Large Family Pack now with a deposit of $75* (My check is in the mail)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Please make all checks payable to Bluebird Farm
Mail non-refundable deposits to:
Marie Williamson
4178 Bluebird Dr.
Morganton, NC 28655

To learn more about our pork- visit Bluebird Farm's website
Happy eating!
~Marie and William

May photos

2010-05-16T22:39:00.004-04:00

Pigs enjoying a compost pile
mmmm grass!
The tomatoes and peppers are in the ground!
Marie waters the cucumbers
The chickens and the noble guardian beast

The month of May

2010-05-05T21:09:00.011-04:00

Happy May Day from Bluebird Farm! While the spring solstice is an important marker of the end of winter, May 1st (or thereabouts, calendars have changed so many times) has been celebrated as the true beginning of the warm growing season. The weather this spring chose not to break with tradition and celebrated May Day with our first night that did not drop below 70 followed by our first truly hot and sticky day with fireflies flashing in the darkness of the evening.

Of course we didn’t have to wait for the warm weather to begin growing food at Bluebird Farm. As many of you are aware of by now we have been harvesting lettuce, salad mix, spinach, kale, and radishes for several weeks now. The warm weather has also helped many of the crops that take a little longer, like broccoli and cabbage, put on new growth. Our hard work is displaying itself as the garden fills up with luscious shades of green.
In the vegetable field-William recording the planting dates for carrots
Unfortunately, not all of the green growing in the garden is delicious fresh vegetables. Garden beds are perfect weed habitat. Most plants we typically call weeds are annuals that are very good at rapidly colonizing bare ground. In a natural setting they provide a valuable ecosystem service, preventing erosion and holding nutrients. As they die and decay other plants are able to grow. Eventually another disturbance occurs and the cycle continues. From a weeds’ eye view a garden is a freshly disturbed area perfect to move in to. Many vegetable crops are in fact highly bred versions of weeds. However, as we selected over the centuries for high yields and good taste we sacrificed some of the original weedy tenacity. So vegetables need a little (sometimes more than a little) help from us to compete with their weed cousins.
Cover Crop flowers- We plant a mix of cover crops to improve the condition of the soil and prevent weeds from sprouting up after vegetables are harvested

On the animal side of the farm we have been busy trying as hard as we can to grow grass without much help from spring showers. Grass is our most basic resource for our animals. Our grass management has two main components-grazing and fertilizing. We are using sheep and Misty, the horse, in a rotational grazing system to improve our pastures and produce quality, healthy, grass-finished meat at the same time (more on that next). As any of you who have mowed your lawn know grass grows extremely quickly after being mowed. Well, sheep do just about the same thing as a mower. After the sheep have mowed an area some of the grass roots die back leaving behind organic matter. Next the grass begins regrowing, drawing in CO2 from the air, water from rain and using energy from the sun to create more grass. Then, just as the grass growth begins to slow down, we mow again with the sheep. In between mowings we use the chickens to apply fertilizer (chicken manure). Over time this will improve the fertility and organic matter of our soil allowing us to grow more grass and more food.
The flock grazing happily

More grass means more grass finished meat. Grass finished means animals that eat only grass from birth to butcher. Keep in mind this is only possible with ruminants and other strict herbivores (sheep, cattle, goats, rabbits. Pigs and chickens are omnivores and rely on insects and grains to lead a healthy life). We are beginning our grass finished sheep enterprise this year. The emphasis on grass finished is so important because of the health benefits of the meat. When sheep (or cattle) eat strictly grass their meat is lower in fat than grain finished meat. Additionally, the fat that is present is lower in cholesterol, has a correct ratio of omega-3 (important for brain development) to omega-6 (not particularly healthy) fatty acids, and is high in Conjugated Linoleic acids CLAs (an important anti-cancer agent). None of these benefits are fully present in ruminant livestock fed grain.

Even if the animal being fed grain has access to pasture the meat will not be as healthy. You can think of it sort of like two people, both with access to excellent exercise programs. The first eats vegetables, brown rice, beans, small amounts of meat, and no deserts. The second eats the same diet, but snacks all the time on candy and cake. Who will be healthier? In the animal’s case the pasture is like the healthy diet and exercise while the grain is like feeding them giant desserts.

So May is a great month for growing food on the farm. And for you it is a great month because you can find our food near you! Farmers markets all over the region are opening up for the year. You can find us at the

Hickory Downtown Farmers Market Wednesdays 12-5:30 pm, April 28th- October 30, 2010

Morganton Downtown Farmers Market Saturdays 8 am -noon, May 8th-October
Located at 300 Beach St. in downtown Morganton, behind Geppeto's
Look for the Farmers Market sign on Green St.

Conover Farmers Market Saturdays 8-12:30, April 24th- October.

See you there!
William and Marie

Food Safety bill: Take action now!

2010-04-22T23:06:00.001-04:00

I want to make you aware of the current deliberations in the Senate on a food safety bill. This bill stems from legitimate food safety concerns such as E. Coli. in peanut butter or on vegetables. Unfortunately, the Senate has taken a one sized fits all approach to food safety. The current bill does little to differentiate industrial agriculture systems producing thousands of animals in houses or hundreds of acres of one vegetable from small diversifies farms like ours. The bill has the potential to force regulatory burdens on small farms that we cannot afford or comply with. This will have the exact opposite effect of what is intended. Instead of small, diverse, healthy farms you can come walk around on food production will become ever more consolidated as fewer big companies are able to comply with the increased regulation. If you value Bluebird Farm and all other small farms producing food that you can actually see please follow this link, read this article: http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/blog/?p=209 and call our senators. Thank you for your support of Bluebird Farm and all small farms,

William Lyons and Marie Williamson

Jeepers Sheepers II

2010-04-21T23:11:00.005-04:00

Misty meets the sheep

Misty and a lamb try eating together

The sheep do some stealth sniffing

Every body loves grass!

In which Misty meets the sheep and decides that the sheep are not alien creatures, and that she doesn't mind sharing pasture with them. I think she will change her mind if there was another horse around.

Beautiful garden

2010-04-21T22:10:00.006-04:00

More great photographs from our neighbor Leann. She captures the early morning so well!

Some of the lettuce that's in season at the farm, ready to harvest for markets this week.

Meat chickens eating grass, peas, and vetch in the pasture.

Here's Petunia doing her day job, protecting young meat chickens. Most mornings she comings running up to the meat chickens when we feed them, because they squawk so much. She gets very disturbed when her chickens make a lot of noise. In the evenings, she goes for another romp and later she wanders up to the sheep fence for her night job.

Here are the pigs clearing brush and stumps in a paddock. We cut out the overgrown trees around the pastures for firewood and the pigs love digging out around the roots; eating pieces of root and leaves.
They takes lots of breaks from digging. Pigs are always the last animals sleeping in the morning!

Pastured Pork Available!

2010-04-09T21:04:00.005-04:00

We will be taking 4 more pigs to the butcher on the 26th of April. We are offering our Pork Family Packs again for a discount over retail prices. A pork family pack is a great way to stock up your freezer for summer grilling. Our packages are sized at 20 and 30 lbs to easily fit in a standard freezer. You can read more about the pork packages on our website:
http://sites.google.com/site/bluebirdfarmnc/home/products/pork/pork-prices

Our pigs are raised without the use of antibiotics. They spend their entire lives outdoors. Outside on pasture they can express their natural behaviors; rooting and enjoying fresh grain, roots, grass, and hay. These pigs are Yorkshire hogs born at Warren Wilson College so you know their mothers were raised outside eating organic grain. You can read about our forest pigs on our blog.

Whole or half hog
If you own a chest freezer or are considering buying one for vegetable preserving and meat storage now is a great time because we are offering substantial discounts on half or whole hogs (over earth day weekend there is a rebate program on all energy star appliances). You can also get it cut exactly how you want.

Small Family Pack

Contains a variety of cuts totaling approximately 20 pounds* of pork. Stock up and “shop” from your freezer-you’ll have all the common cuts of pork to make delicious meals. Try the pork chops for pan-frying, roasts for hearty dinners, ground country sausage for quick savory meals. The Small Family Pack will fit in your refrigerator’s freezer with plenty of room to spare! Sold at a 5% retail discount.

Large Family Pack

The Large Family Pack contains a variety of cuts totaling about 30 pounds* of meat. A great variety pack with all the common cuts including more sausage and pork chops! See details here. If you have a little more freezer space in your refrigerator’s freezer this is a great way to stock up and “shop” from your freezer for months. Sold at an 8% retail discount.

* Family Packs are based on the approximate weights of listed items- each cut of pork is unique!

Retail cuts

Available by the pound at farmers markets.

You can find us at the following markets
Catawba Valley Brewing Company: Fridays March 26-May 7th 4pm-6pm
Morganton Downtown Farmers Market: Saturdays May 8th-October 8-noon
Hickory Downtown Farmers Market: Wednesdays April 28th 12-5:30 pm
Conover Farmers Market: Saturdays April 24th 8-12:30

Ordering

Contact us or print and mail order form to reserve your pastured pork! Your order is not final until we receive your deposit.

*Please make all checks payable to Bluebird Farm

Mail non-refundable deposits to:

Marie Williamson
4178 Bluebird Dr.
Morganton, NC 28655

Thank you for the support and encouragement everyone has offered.

Jeepers Sheepers!

2010-04-06T16:19:00.008-04:00

Well, our pasture mowers have arrived!
Thanks to our neighbor Leanne for these beautiful pictures!
Our flock of sheep are waiting a few days in the corral, 'til they accustomed to the place. Misty, the horse, must be thinking "Jeepers, Sheepers!" She's not quite sure about these creatures that have landed in her world. But- she decided she would stand near them and meet them in exchange for some grain and alfalfa treats. Misty will be hopefully grazing in the same paddocks as the sheep. We'll see if she decides that they are NOT aliens.

They are a great addition to the farm, since they are the only animals besides Misty, the old grey mare, who can eat grass exclusively for their feed. Of course sheep can eat grains, but just like cattle, it isn't very good for them. Sheep, cattle, and other animals like goats,alpacas, and camels are ruminants with a multi-chambered stomach (aka "4 stomachs") Ruminants have this wonderful place in their stomach called...the rumen! This is a special place to digest the tough, fibrous lignins in grasses and forbs, but it's not meant to digest grains. Ruminants' natural diet is 100% greens...grasses, sedges, and forbs- maybe a mouthful of woody shrubs thrown in here and a mouthful of fresh oak leaves there.

So for lamb, beef and chevon (goat) "grain-finished" is not a good thing for the animal's health or the health of the humans that eat the "grain-finished" lamb and beef. Haven't you heard to cut back on red meat? Well, that's because it's "grain-finished" not "100% grass fed" or "grass-finished." But, that's a different story!

For those of you who are noticing how delightfully cute the lambs are- don't worry! Bluebird Farm's lamb is not "spring lamb" or "Easter lamb." Spring and Easter lamb are those babies in the pictures. Don't worry! Bluebird Farm's lamb is older- young animals that aren't babies anymore!

And for those of you that have heard that lamb is tough and chewy or strange- there was a time when "lamb" was really "old sheep." That is what hamburger in the grocery store is- "old cow" and 1 hamburger patty from the grocery store these days contains pieces of meat from hundreds of cows. How about that for food safety?

March Newsletter

2010-03-29T22:24:00.004-04:00

Hello all,
Folks like to say that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Well, this might be true of the weather, but it sure isn't true here at Bluebird Farm where march started calm and slow and has developed into a regular stampede of activity at the end. The cool wet start lulled us into a false sense of a slow spring. Meanwhile spring sprung upon us over the course of about two days. So March came in like a friendly house cat and is headed out like a herd of elephants.

The real awakening this Spring has been in the garden. We have been trying to prepare the soil whenever it is dry for a few days. Then the fun part--planting! We have transplanted lettuce, kale, cabbage, broccoli, chinese cabbage, and spinach. We have also begun direct seeding peas, beets, radishes, salad mix, arugula, and some herbs. Unfortunately, wetness prevented us from preparing the ground in advance of seeding. When we seed directly into newly prepared ground it means that the weeds start the same time as the vegetables. This leads to our favorite activity--weeding! Ideally we would like to be able to prepare the ground, allow weeds to germinate, do a shallow cultivation to kill weeds without bringing more seeds to the surface, then plant our vegetables. No such leisure this spring.

We have also been busy seeding summer crops in the greenhouse. Our mouths were watering with thoughts of juicy tomatoes, fresh basil, and colorful peppers as we seeded over 1000 plants. We are looking forward to 21 varieties of tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes, canning tomatoes, slicers, tomatoes for drying, and of course a healthy selection flavor packed heirlooms you can't get anywhere else but your backyard or a local farm.

Burning the midnight oil seeding tomatoes

Meanwhile, the animals have done their part to keep us busy. We have broiler chickens outside on pasture. We move their pen forward whenever they run out of fresh grass. When they are young this is only once a day, now it is twice a day. They are busy eating, growing, and fertilizing our pastures. The layer flock is in full swing as well. We are using them to help fight back encroaching honeysuckle around the edges of our pastures. The pigs to are busy working for us in the woods. They are rooting out roots, grubbing up grubs, and generally enjoying being forest pigs. Their paddocks are in areas newly cleared of trees. After they have eaten most of the old tree roots and tilled up a paddock we spread some cover crop seed. They then trample this into the soil and we move them on to the next paddock. We love our pig tractors! They work all the time, don't need to be paid, don't require any diesel, and in the end they taste delicious.

Just when we thought we were busy the farmers markets have started. Scott Pyatt of Catawba Valley Brewing Company generously offered the use of his patio for an early Spring Farmers Market. You can find us there Fridays April 2nd-May 7th from 4-6 pm. Then, beginning May 8th you will find us at the Morganton market Saturday May 8th-October from 8-noon. If you live in Hickory or Conover areas you can also find us at the Hickory Market every Wednesday from 12-5:30 beginning 28th. The Conover Market starts Saturday April 24th and happens every Saturday from 8-12:30

Whenever we are busy, and sleep becomes a secondary priority, I start thinking about why we are doing what we are doing. The short answer is that there is no short answer. Our reasons begin with personal interest, but are sustained by our belief in the importance of this work for the environment, community, health, and the economy. Perhaps no one summarizes these thoughts as well as the farmer, poet, and writer Wendell Berry. If you have not read any of his work I encourage you to do so. I frequently read short pieces of his writing for inspiration and encouragement. He reminds me that what we are doing is more than just farming. By choosing to do what we do in the way we do it we place ourselves in opposition to the all to common pattern of the destruction of local communities and the environmental by large economic forces with no local interest. This story of exploitation occurs all over the world from India to our backyard. It is visible in the high suicide rates of farmers in the midwest, in the destruction of entire mountains in West Virginia, and the decline of downtowns everywhere. Unfortunately, our current economic model offers only one kind of solution-Bigness. It calls for infinite growth on our finite planet and scale far beyond that of communities. In our drive for bigness we replace correctable small-scale issues with large scale problems and we have no large scale solutions.

What we hope to contribute to is a responsible local economy. Wendell Berry reminds us that such an economy must be based on the belief that "the world is rooted in mystery and sanctity", that this is an economy of use and return. This is an economy where we undertake our work with "praise, gratitude, responsibility, good use, good care, and a proper regard for future generations." It is heartening to see that so many people are beginning to realize the folly of our current model of bigness. We are thankful to all of you who for saying enough is enough. We look forward to building on all of our early enthusiasm to maintain and build on the participatory community we believe already exists in all of us. We all know how to cooperate, we all want to help, we all want clean water, air and healthy soil, and we all want to have a say in our community, but we are told over and over again to close our eyes, ears, and mouth and open our wallet. Buy!, Spend!, Drive!, Fight!

Thank you for not listening and choosing to participate in our community.

Humbly yours,

William Lyons and Marie Williamson
Bluebird Farm
4178 Bluebird Dr.
Morganton, NC

BluebirdFarmNC.com
BluebirdFarmNC.blogspot.com

BluebirdFarmNC@gmail.com
828.584.7359

Field Preparation at our leased land

Last fall

Cover crop seeded in November, growing green in March.

Making beds

Sold out CSA and 2010 Farmers Markets

2010-03-24T12:46:00.003-04:00

Our CSA is full

Thank you to everyone for your support. It is wonderful to find a community of people interested in good food, healthy land, and strong community.

If you missed the CSA sign up, but are interested in fresh, local, healthy food raised using organic methods to come see us at farmers markets this season. You can also contact us to put your name on next season's interest list.

We will have most of our products at the following markets as seasonally available. We are starting soon:

Scott Pyatt of Catawba Valley Brewing Company has offered to use space on Friday afternoons at the brewery for an early market. Find us there from 4 -6 pm with eggs and pork- and spring vegetables and chicken in late April.

We will be at the brewery for the next 7 Fridays only (this a season sneak preview before the regular markets start). After that, you will find us on Saturdays at the Downtown Morganton Farmers Market 8am-12pm and/or picking up your CSA box at your chosen site.

You can find us at the following markets
Catawba Valley Brewing Company: Fridays March 26-May 7th 4pm-6pm
Morganton Downtown Farmers Market: Saturdays May 8th-October 8-noon
Hickory Downtown Farmers Market: Wednesdays April 28th 12-5:30 pm
Conover Farmers Market: Saturdays April 24th 8-12:30

As always you are invited out to the farm- please call ahead to visit on Wednesday afternoons.

Transplanting

2010-03-21T21:34:00.004-04:00

Exciting news! Catawba Valley Brewing Company has offered us some space for a Friday farmers market. We will be at the brewery with farm fresh food for sale starting Friday March 26th at 4pm. We will be there every Friday until May 7th with pork, eggs, and starting in April, chicken and vegetables. Bring a cooler!

Beginning Saturday May 8th you will find us at the Downtown Morganton Farmers' Market 8-noon, located behind Geppettos. Beginning in mid-April we will also be at the Downtown Hickory Farmers' Market on Wednesday from 12 to 5:30 and at the Conover Farmers' Market on Saturdays from 8 to 12:30.

We have been busy as bees in the garden. Our first round of transplants was moved from the greenhouse to their new home in the wide world of sky and soil. We planted lettuce, spinach, cabbage, kale, and broccoli. We look forward to some yummy greens in 4-8 weeks.

After planting everything we sprayed the leaves with fish emulsion. Fish emulsion is a fertilizer approved for organic production. The plants actually take in the nutrients through their leaves. This is important because they don't have very developed root systems to find nutrients in the soil. By providing a little burst of food through the leaves they get a good jump on root growth. This will allow them to begin searching out their own food and water.

We have been watching the soil temperature as well for direct seeding. The temperature in our garden at 4" depth read 48 degrees Fahrenheit today. At 2" it was slightly warmer at 49. This is on the cool end of acceptable for a wide variety of vegetables. We have planted peas, salad mix, radishes, and arugula. There is more on the list, but the rain came. Seeding is hard in the rain because you can't allow any seeds you aren't ready to plant to become damp.

The chickens enjoy their new mobile nest boxes.

The pigs got a new paddock. We seeded their old paddock to a cover crop mix before they left. This allowed them to trample it into the soil. Now they are busy working to transform a new forest edge into pasture.

CSA payments

2010-03-17T23:47:00.002-04:00

This is a reminder that final CSA payments are due by April 1st. All CSA members who have not yet paid the full balance should have received an email telling them their balance due. If you received an email in error or did not receive one when yo think you should have please don't hesitate to call or email.

It's the beginning of springtime, which means its the season of babies at the farm. We have baby green grass in the pasture, tiny red maple flowers, chicks, tender speckled lettuce and the hens are really laying the eggs these days. I feel like I am hunting for Easter eggs when I find the blue and green eggs that the Americauna or "Easter Eggers" breed lay in the nest boxes. What an exciting feeling!

Come on out to the farm and get a couple of dozen eggs. Eggs keep well, and since ours are so fresh, you can refrigerate them for 4 weeks after purchase. There is a springtime special for the eggs- for the next 2 weeks the eggs are $2.00/ dozen. We also have small-medium eggs from the young hens or pullets for $1.00/ dozen. They are great "portion" sizes. Also available at the farm is our pasture raised pork.

We are about to seed beets, peas, and lettuce for the first CSA boxes. We are so excited to finally be planting. We are also setting out transplants of spinach, cabbage, and broccoli.

Here are some fun photos of farm goings ons: preparing the garden and one of our big roosters.

Spring!?

2010-03-14T22:55:00.005-04:00

The Chickens are laying. Come on out to get eggs and pork.

First warm weather and now its cool, a regular foothills spring. The grass and the birds certainly thinks its spring though. We practically watched the grass turn greener overnight. Morning chores are now accompanied by the songs of carolina wrens, rufus sided towhees, carolina chickadees, and many others.

Yesterday we moved our meat chickens outside. They were leaping out of their brooder box and running around on the vegetable transplants. That cost them their greenhouse privileges. The great outdoors is a little colder, but they are happy with more space and wonderful grass to peck at.

Another big project has been to prepare the layer housing for spring. We had to figure out a lightweight system so they can be totally mobile. This will allow us to constantly move them around the farm for their benefit and our own. They always get fresh food while we use them to fertilize pasture, convert forest margins to grass, and clean up after the horse and the incoming sheep.

Today we were cleaning up last falls garden to prepare for spring vegetables. We will be planting spinach, kale, peas, lettuce, arugula, beets, and carrots any day now. Digging last fall's carrots was like finding buried treasure.

February Newsletter

2010-02-28T18:45:00.009-05:00

Hello all,
I am squeezing in a February newsletter by the skin of my teeth. In early February I couldn't think of any exciting projects to tell you about. Then mid-February came along and we have been too busy since to tell you about all the goings-ons at Bluebird Farm.
We took our pigs to the butcher on February 15th with the generous help of two fellow farmers (one lent the livestock trailer and another drove). We don't have a stock trailer, and even if we did our truck is not big enough to pull one. So we are on the lookout for stock trailers and trucks to rent or trade for. We will need to work out animal transportation a handful of times each year. The farmer who lent us the trailer is raising beef without the use of antibiotics or hormones right here in Burke County. The cattle are not entirely grass finished, but they do live on pasture and are grass fed with grain supplements. If you are interested in this beef let us know and we can pass along contact information.
But, I digress. The pigs returned to Bluebird Farm three days later as delicious pork. We are slowly sampling all the cuts. Italian Sausage received high marks, we enjoyed a melt in your mouth fresh ham roast, and Marie cooked some amazing short ribs. I won't even try to describe the fresh thick sliced bacon. All of our pork products (except the sold-out ham and shoulder roasts) are available on farm right now. If you haven’t tried our pork, please come out to the farm to purchase some! We do have one extra special cut available. Try a beautiful, succulent boneless loin roast. Boneless loin is regularly $9/pound, but we will offer these large roasts at $6.00/pound. They are about 6 inches wide, almost cylindrical and weigh 10 pounds each. What a wonderful roast for an Easter gathering or for a large family dinner with perfect pork sandwich slices as leftovers!

On the vegetable front we started cabbage, kale, lettuce, and spinach last week. We now have trays of baby vegetables in our greenhouse. The bright green baby plants are so fresh looking against the dark, moist potting soil. After a frozen winter of white snow and brown mud seeing the little green leaves reaching up for the light is an amazing sight. The cabbages we started are one of the vegetables I am really excited about. We are growing three varieties, a green cabbage, a red cabbage, and a savoyed type. The Savoy cabbage is green in color, and savoyed type refers to the wonderful crinkly, wavy texture of all the tightly packed sweet cabbage leaves.
More garden projects are on the horizon. If the rain will hold off for the next few days we will begin breaking ground on more new vegetable beds. We will also begin piling the hay/manure bedding pack from the previous pigs into windrows. This wonderful mixture (although I will admit same less than pleasant odors in its primitive state) will turn into a black, earthy smelling compost mixture with the help of millions of soil microbes. The compost windrows are built right where the pigs were, which is also a new vegetable garden plot. So we will avoid unnecessarily lifting and moving the compost several times (a good rule of thumb around here is to fight gravity as little as possible). So the winter pigs (with some help from us) will have prepared a new garden area from scratch.

Does anyone have any good ideas for the name of the new garden? Give us your ideas!We plan on growing winter and summer squash there, along with sweet potatoes, and many different types of flowers.

No sooner had we started delivering the pork than we purchased a new round of pigs from Warren Wilson College. These pigs spent several days in a corral allowing them adjust to their new surroundings. Meanwhile we worked like crazy partially clearing an area in the woods to create a woodland pig paddock. On Friday we moved the pigs along a 1/8 mile pathway to their new paddock. After a few unplanned detours into the woods and one jailbreak from the new corral they happily settled down to the task of turning the forest into pasture for us.
So that’s the news from Bluebird Farm for February. Despite the weather we all expect Spring to be just around the corner, and with it the excitement of a fresh season of growing and sharing. We look forward to building our community with you this year and bringing fresh healthy foods from Bluebird Farm into your lives. As always, call or email with any questions or to share any thoughts about farming and food.
Happy Eating,
William and Marie

Blue eggs!

2010-02-25T12:59:00.005-05:00

Our rainbow of eggs-fresh from the nest.

Today we received our first blue egg. No, its not a robin's egg, its a blue egg fro ma chicken. We have about ten ameraucana hens. They are a unique breed derived from the Chilean breed the araucana. The hens have a very distinct look, featuring elaborate patterns and cheek feathers. Below is one of the ladies.

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Pastured Pork Available!

2010-02-23T21:19:00.003-05:00

Our delicious pastured pork is now available.

Our pigs are raised without the use of antibiotics. They spend their entire lives outdoors. Outside on pasture they can express their natural behaviors; rooting and enjoying fresh grain, roots, grass, and hay. They are a mixture of Berkshire and Tamworth, two heritage breeds that have hardy characteristics that allow them to flourish outdoors. Heritage breeds have also been selected for the outstanding flavor of their meat.

We have already sold out of roasts. But we have plenty of mouth watering sausage, tender pork chops and a variety of other cuts.

A few nights ago we added our Italian Sausage to tomato sauce for a simple spaghetti dinner. We weren't too hungry, but there wasn't one serving of sauce left over! Tonight Marie cooked some of the bacon for a "breakfast for dinner." The meal turned into two courses because the bacon never made it onto our plates with the rest of the food.

But you don't have to take our word for it. Here is what one of our customers said:

"When I fix dinners I playfully give them a star rating--one star for each
person in the family who likes it. With that rating, the pork gets a
rousing 6 star rating" (A family of five with a guest for dinner.

If you are interested in purchasing pork please call or email to arrange a time yo ucan come out to the farm. For the patient types you can find us at the Downtown Morganton Farmer's Market beginning May 8th 8-noon. We will also be attending the Conover Farmers market and Hickory Farmers Market.

Greenhouse update

2010-02-21T10:15:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we planted out first seeds! three kinds of Cabbage, two. types of broccoli and kale, and three varieties of lettuce. Oh, I almost forgot the spinach. Its amazing what a little change in the weather can do. A week ago I was in the greenhouse in my winter gear building shelves.

Yesterday I was wearing a t-shirt and the possibility of vegetables growing seemed more likely than it has in months.

This year we are growing our vegetables in soil blocks instead of trays. It is a technique that uses a little hand operated press to extrude blocks of potting soil. It takes a little practice to figure out how to get consistent blocks. But once we worked it our filling a tray with blocks doesn't take much longer than filler a regular cell tray with soil. Then benefit for the vegetable seedling is that the blocks allow more soil volume to fit in the same area. More soil volume means more root volume which mean stronger and more vigorous transplants.

Soil blocks also allow us to use less plastic. When we transplant we simply lift the plant and its soil block out of the tray and plant. There is no fighting the cell to release the root bound plant. We look forward to learning more about soil blocks this season as we go through the cycle of seed, grow, and transplant.

Antibiotics in Meat- Part II

2010-02-11T20:32:00.005-05:00

The meat industry in America takes so many shortcuts in raising animals. These are shortcuts that affect human health, animal health, animal welfare, and the environment. Feeding antibiotics to healthy livestock is just one of the many shortcuts that are being taken to create an illusion of inexpensive meat in the United States. Is this a shortcut that the meat industry should take? The spread of antibiotic resistant infections like methicillin resistant staph or MRSA is a human health issue that should not be ignored. The meat that seems inexpensive at the grocery store also has a price tag that we should examine: the health of Americans.
~Marie

NEW YORK, Feb. 10, 2010
Denmark's Case for Antibiotic-Free Animals
Katie Couric Reports on Denmark's Ban on Antibiotics in Livestock

By Katie Couric
(CBS) "They call it the "Danish Experiment" - a source of pride for the country's 17,000 farmers. CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric reports how unlike industrial farms in the U.S., which use antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease, farmers in Denmark use antibiotics sparingly, only when animals are sick. "

Read the full story on the CBS website

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Preparing for shoots, roots, and cheeps

2010-02-09T21:10:00.004-05:00

After days of dreaming about warm, leafy green weather during these chilly rainy days, over 100 varieties of wonderful vegetables have finally materialized in our lives. We don't actually have plants yet, but several small boxes, of the shoe box size, have arrived in the mail! The thousands of seeds that we will plant throughout the next 9 months really don't take up much space right now. That is soon to change, as soon as we finish the baby plant room a.k.a. "The Greenhouse." This nursery will be the focus of our attention as the rest of the winter into early spring.

While we were preparing the greenhouse for vegetable seeding, I realized that we were about to forget the photo opt moment.

But seriously, the greenhouse needed a little TLC. We are improvising this year by stapling up 2 mil clear plastic over the windows and roof to create an air pocket around the room. The idea is that the we will reduce the amount of heat leakage and keep everything toasty, while shop lights with special grow lights provide adequate light on the seedling shelves. This way we can pack in hundreds of healthy baby plants on 10 x 3 foot shelving that William is building for the greenhouse. Next week, our 120 tiny chicks will help keep the greenhouse nice and warm. Their brooder heat lights will give a cheerful glow to the room, while the two radiators will knock the chill off. The real heat source for the greenhouse is pure design. The room is a projection of the Southeastern side of the house, and the heat of the sun is trapped very quickly. During cloudy weather, the house's heat mass helps moderate the temperature of the greenhouse.

In the meantime, the excessive chilly rainy weather has created a great time for indoor planning. I have been researching organic methods of preventing and treating fungus problems in tomatoes. I dream in tomato-color. Stripes of orange/yellow, deep burnished purple, brilliant red all swirl through my mind during my dreams. And the eggplant...ahh tender Asian fingerlings, sweet and mild and beautifully colored. So since these two vegetables have a distinctive deep summer feel, I tend to think about Mediterranean food and grilling. Bright and lemony Tomato Harissa, a Mediterranean salsa, and Grilled Asian Eggplants with Sesame Oil are two of the recipes I have compiled for the CSA summer newsletters.

I know summer is a ways off, so when it comes down to it, I think spring!

Antibiotics in Meat- Katie Couric investigates

2010-02-09T18:50:00.012-05:00

Here's Katie Couric's report on antibiotic use in animals

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Also... read the story
NEW YORK, Feb. 9, 2010

Overuse of Antibiotics in Livestock?
Katie Couric Investigates Feeding Healthy Farm Animals Antibiotics. Is it Creating New Drug-Resistant Bacteria?
By Katie Couric

....."But the bottom line on antibiotic use in factory farming is this: no one is really monitoring it.
Joshua Sharfstein, is the deputy director of the FDA.
"We want to put in place measures to reduce inappropriate use and we want to see that those are working - in order to do that we have to have a good surveillance system," Sharfstein said. "It's very important we make progress on that. There's no question that needs to be improved."

This is a great site I just found:
Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming www.saveantibiotics.org
Superbugs vs. antibiotics
Misuse of antibiotics breeds drug-resistant diseases

Seed ordering

2010-01-29T14:44:00.002-05:00

Rain in 24 hours: 3.5 inches
Outside work done: 1 very wet hour

The best place to be was inside, warm and dry. We have been working away at our seed order for 2010. A seed order might sound like a simple event, and for a home garden it mostly is. With a backyard or community garden plot physical space limits your ability to go wild with vegetable varieties. But on a farm scale, a seed order is a different beast. And unfortunately, the most fun part is the easiest.

It is wonderful to receive seed catalogs this time of year and ogle at all the bright colors and descriptions of flavors. Choosing appealing varieties is a fun game of finding beautiful looking vegetables with good flavor that are adapted to your growing region.

But, then the work sets in. We can't simple order a packet of each thing, then on the recommended planting date, go toss the seeds in the field. More than likely we would get nothing, and what we did get would come all at once and in all the wrong quantities. So the past few days more farming has taken place on the computer than in the field.

The spreadsheets must be cultivated!

I have been studiously entering planting dates, days to maturity, spacing, and a host of other information related to vegetable culture. Each of the 101 vegetable varieties we have selected is different. And don't forget about the herbs and flowers! The results of the computer work will be a well-planned planting and harvest calender. This calender will allow us to smoothly (at least in theory) go through the spring planting varieties and successions to ensure a bounty of wonderful food all season long.

As our eyes begin to cross from looking at the screen too long we dream of the colorful, good smelling, tasty, fresh food that awaits us all. We look forward to sharing!

January Farm Newsletter

2010-01-17T19:58:00.006-05:00

January came in with an arctic blast and a rooster’s crow. Initially we laughed at the weather reports calling for cold weather. Ah! Didn’t we just move from Colorado where it is really cold? Well, a good rule for the New Year is “don’t laugh at the weather.” We sure weren’t laughing on those cold mornings trying to thaw both our fingers and the animal waterers. Sadly the snow-cold combination finished off our fall vegetables (except the carrots as those of you who attended the CSA meeting know, but more on that later). But caring for animals and making plans for next year as kept our thoughts away from dead vegetables.

Our new year was also heralded in with the first crow from one of our roosters. We have over forty roosters here at Bluebird Farm. Believe it or not we did this intentionally. All of our roosters are part of our search for a better meat chicken and greater self-sufficiency. As the experiment suggests many of the roosters are destined for our table, but a select few will take up positions as part of our heritage chicken breeding program.

Most farms (including us) receive their chickens as day old chicks in the mail from large hatcheries. These hatcheries are located all over the United States. This fall our birds came from Missouri and Texas. While most hatcheries breed, hatch, and sell healthy good chickens there is one important drawback-there is no possibility of local adaptation. Along with plant breeding, animal breeding (especially poultry) has left the realm of the farmer and is now controlled by a relatively small number of larger companies. We are very interested in retaining at least a portion of control over our chicken breeds. So we plan to keep 1-2 roosters from about 5 breeds to learn about chicken breeding and raise some of our own layers and broilers. We look forward to sharing the results with all of you in the form of eggs and meat.

Winter is a farmer’s time to plan. The most notable planning event (not that planning is typically a very exciting venture) took place on January 10th here at Bluebird Farm. We hosted over 30 adults and children for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) planning session. The result of the meeting is that our 2010 season CSA is planned! You can learn all about the CSA on our newly updated website. There is information on the general CSA concept as well as size, cost, and logistics of Bluebird Farm CSA.

Our pork will be available in only one month. We are accepting advance orders on family packs. If you place a deposit on a family pack before January 31st you will receive free delivery (Morganton area only). CSA members who place their CSA deposit by January 31st will also receive an additional 5% off of Pork Family Packs. Our pork, chickens, and vegetables will also all be available at the Morganton Farmers’ Market beginning the second Saturday in May through the second Saturday in October. We have also applied to attend the Hickory Farmers’ market. We look forward to seeing you this coming summer at the farm and at farmer’s markets!

Until then,

William and Marie

Frozen

2010-01-08T12:56:00.004-05:00

Days of below freezing weather have made some extra work around the farm. Animal water freezes up and needs to be moved or changed once or even twice every day. Yesterday it finally rose above freezing and we basked in the warmth. I also had some fun playing with the ice from our water barrels.

The chickens don't seem to mind the cold too much. This is a silver laced wyandotte rooster, one of our prettiest breeds.

CSA Meeting and Pork Orders

2010-01-06T16:46:00.003-05:00

Come help us start our new year's plans at our CSA organizational meeting. In the spring of 2010 we will begin our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Customers purchase a membership in the farm at the beginning of the growing season. Members receive a weekly box of seasonal produce, herbs, eggs, and chicken. In addition you will receive recipes and cooking ideas in our newsletters for the food you receive. Learn more about CSA here.

We want to hear what you want from Bluebird Farm CSA. We also want to take some time to show you around the farm and talk about our ideas. The meeting is Sunday, January 10th at 3pm at Bluebird Farm. For directions click here. Bring warm clothes and outdoor shows to walk around the farm. After a brief tour we will come inside for delicious snacks made from farm food and hot drinks. RSVP by email BluebirdFarmNC@gmail.com or phone 828.584.7359.

Pasture raised pork- Order Now!

We are accepting advance orders for pastured pork! Our pigs are raised without the use of antibiotics. They spend their entire lives outdoors. Outside on pasture they can express their natural behaviors; rooting and enjoying fresh grain, roots, grass, and hay. They are a mixture of Berkshire and Tamworth, two heritage breeds that have hardy characteristics that allow them to flourish outdoors. Heritage breeds have also been selected for the outstanding flavor of their meat.

Try our delicious pork! Buy our pork in family packs or by the individual retail cut. Available in a variety of delicious cuts; Tenderloin, Pork chops, Bacon, Italian Sausage, Bratwurst, Country Sausage, Spare Ribs, Fresh Ham Roasts, Picnic Shoulder Roasts, Boston Butt Roasts. Our pork is antibiotic-free and has no added hormones, nitrates, or preservatives. Cuts are vacuum sealed, labeled, frozen, and USDA certified. For more information on family packs and pricing click here.

Availability

Pork will be available in mid-February. Please contact us or print and mail attached order form to reserve your pastured pork! We will notify you of the delivery dates for reserved Family Packs.

Delivery

Place a deposit on an advance order for a large or small Family Pack by January 31st, and receive free delivery to your home in the Morganton area. Delivery fee for a Family Packs ordered after January 31st is $10.

Ordering

Contact us- print and mail order form with your deposit or order by email or phone and mail deposit separately. Your order is not final until we receive a deposit.

*Please make all checks payable to Marie Williamson

Mail non-refundable deposits to:

Marie Williamson
4178 Bluebird Dr.
Morganton, NC 28655

Thank you for supporting local farms!

Happy Holidays

2009-12-30T19:41:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays from all of us at Bluebird Farm!

All of us at the farm, especially the animals, are excited about the days growing longer. Day by day we will have more sunshine encouraging plants and animals to think about spring.

Even in the cold winter weeks our layer hens are hard at work. They give us one delicious egg every day. Our eggs are available at the farm. Millstone Market and Kitchen and the Grind Cafe in Morganton also both purchase our eggs. So you can ask about what dishes they bake them in.

Snow!

2009-12-19T21:20:00.003-05:00

The sleeping garden at dawn

Snow! I have to admit I was skeptical of all the hype this storm received. After living in Colorado it is hard to believe we would ever get anything worth calling snow here in North Carolina. I was wrong!

"What is this stuff?"

"We have cold feet!"

I hope everyone was able to enjoy the snow and stayed safe. The animals here at the farm didn't quite know what to make of it all. The pigs ate it and nose it curiously. The chickens, well to put it kindly, I think their brains froze. They lacked the good sense to go into their shelter onto dry ground and stood in a penguin mass, hopping from one foot to the other, under the trees. We had to assist them into their shelter before the froze their toes!

During the snow storm we had to repeatedly brush the snow of the chicken shelters to keep them from collapsing. As I went out extra early in the morning I was hoping not to kind some kind of disaster.

December Newsletter

2009-12-13T21:56:00.003-05:00

Hello all,

As you look out your window on a gray cold day like the day I am writing this, you might be wondering what in the world could a farmer be doing at this time of year. Well, write newsletters for one!

We have been planning our 2010 season Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. In a CSA Customers purchase a membership in the farm at the beginning of the growing season. Members receive a weekly box of seasonal produce, herbs, eggs, and chicken. In addition you will receive recipes and cooking ideas in our newsletters for the food you receive. A CSA share is a wonderful way for you and your family to share the fresh, seasonal bounty of Bluebird Farm. Fresh food is more nutritional than week old food picked unripe and shipped across country. In addition, reestablishing the connection between farmers and eaters is an important step for personal health, community vitality, and environmental stewardship. We have been very excited about all the positive feedback we have been getting about the CSA. If you are interested in learning more about the CSA then you can read about it on our website. If you have not received a December CSA update in addition to this newsletter and you are interested in the CSA please contact us so we can put you on our CSA list.

Our seven pigs have been enjoying themselves outside these past few months. These days they huddle together in their shelter at night for warmth. But as soon as the sun comes over the trees they are up and about eating, playing, and eating some more. They will grow to a harvestable size by mid-February. Our pork will be available in large and small family packs and by the cut. You will receive more information on our pork prices and how to purchase the meat later this week.
We have been putting out plenty of fresh hay for the pigs to sleep in and eat. They especially like finding seed heads in the hay. Our chickens and pigs have been living together for the winter which has resulted in some pretty funny scenes. My favorite so far is a chicken eating seed heads that had stuck to the back of a pig while the pig enjoyed her mid-afternoon nap. Together the chickens and pigs are providing the raw ingredients for next year’s compost piles.

The other activity we find time for in the winter is continuing education. We were able to attend the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association’s annual conference. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet people involved in the food system in all sorts of ways from farmers to distributors to food activists. One presentation of particular interest to me was the compost tea workshop. Compost tea is a brew made with a small amount of good compost, a microbial food source like molasses, and warm water. The ingredients are combined and aerated for a day or two. The resulting mix is an amazing mix of microbes, nutrients, fungi, and protozoa. If made properly, compost tea can build soil, feed plants, and fight disease. We hope to do some of our own experimenting with compost tea.

Winter gives us time to cook. The holidays give us an excuse to cook decadent food. Marie tried her hand at using our eggs to make eggnog. It was the smoothest, yummiest, richest eggnog you have ever tasted. In fact, it was so thick and rich that we had to eat it with spoons instead of drink it!

Our chicken, eggs, and greens continue to be available at the farm. You can also find our food cooked into delicious dishes at Millstone Market and Kitchen located on South King St. in Morganton. Please call or email to arrange to arrange a visit or pickup at the farm at: (828) 584-7359 or bluebirdfarmNC@gmail.com . See how your chickens were raised, where the fresh eggs come from, walk through the garden, and visit our animals in the pastures. We would love for you to visit; just call or email to arrange one. In the meantime you can read about our farm activities here, at our blog www.BluebirdFarmNC.blogspot.com or learn more at www.bluebirdfarmnc.com

Happy Holidays,

William and Marie

Sustainable Agriculture Conference!

2009-12-06T20:57:00.004-05:00

William and I spent the weekend in Black Mountain attending the annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference hosted by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. We stayed up past our bedtime, met amazing people, and came back to Bluebird Farm feeling so inspired! William and I have attended many great conferences and it was great to return to this one after several years' absence. Lots of familiar faces and new friendly ones too! Bluebird Farm is a proud member of CFSA.
The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association organizes this exciting and inspiring event every year at different locations throughout the Carolina's. The conference is open to anyone interested in learning more about healthy food systems and agriculture, and it is also a great opportunity for exchange of ideas between farmers, educators like holistic veterinarian Dr. Ann Wells, outreach groups like the Society of Saint Andrew, organizers like Mark Winne (community food security expert), coops like Organic Valley to our very own Foothills Family Farms, and organizations like the Animal Welfare Institute.

Whew... So many great thoughts were exchanged! But now we are off again to Atlanta for a family visit. Thanks to my Dad, brother, and sister for taking such great care of the animals for us.

More about the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

Our Mission
Promote local and organic agriculture in the Carolinas by inspiring, educating and organizing farmers and consumers.

Our Vision
A regional food system that is good for the farmer, the consumer and the land. CFSA is a membership-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization of more than 1,000 farmers, gardeners, consumers and businesses in North and South Carolina. These members are committed to sustainable agriculture and the development of locally-based, organic food systems. Learn more about how you can join our efforts to grow a healthier food system for our communities.

CSA

2009-11-30T22:47:00.003-05:00

In the spring of 2010 we will begin our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Customers purchase a membership in the farm at the beginning of the growing season. Members receive a weekly box of seasonal produce, herbs, eggs, and chicken. In addition you will receive recipes and cooking ideas in our newsletters for the food you receive. A CSA share is a wonderful way for you and your family to share the fresh, seasonal bounty of Bluebird Farm. Fresh food is more nutritional than week old food picked unripe and shipped across country. In addition, reestablishing the connection between farmers and eaters is an important step for personal health, community vitality, and environmental stewardship.

What is a share?
A share is a weekly box of fresh, seasonal produce, herbs, eggs, and chicken from Bluebird Farm. We plan to offer large and small summer vegetable shares. A large summer share will feed four people with a season’s worth of wonderful summer crops like sweet carrots, peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and potatoes for 20 weeks (mid May- mid Oct). Additional options will include egg shares, chicken shares, early spring and late fall shares, and shorter “trial” shares. If you purchase a chicken or egg share you will receive our pastured chicken or eggs in addition to your vegetables. See example shares here.

Interested in helping?
We want to emphasize that our CSA is still in its formative stages. We want your input! The wonderful part of a CSA is that it is a two way street of mutual support and ideas between growers and eaters. So we want to know what sorts of vegetables you want to eat, how many vegetables you want, how you want to get your share, and any other ideas you have. We plan on having an organizational meeting in early January. We hope to see you then or hear from you in emails. To learn more about the CSA concept check out our website.

Food Safety

2009-11-28T16:03:00.002-05:00

You may have heard people talk about a new bill in congress that will radically change the way we can produce and purchase food. House bill H.R. 875 and senate bill S 510, better known as The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 is probably the legislation referred to. This bill stems from legitimate concerns about the safety of our food system. The major focus of the bill is to ensure that food processing and handling is undertaken in a manner to prevent food borne illness such as E. coli 0157H7.

While the impetus for the bill stems from real danger in our food supply it does address the heart of the matter. Rather than proposing real solutions to the problems posed by centralized production, long distance transportation, and centralized processing, it proposes to pile more regulations onto the pile of already under enforced current regulations.
We know that our current rules don’t work. A recent example is the January 2010 Consumer Reports which found that 2/3 of fresh whole chickens in grocery stores contains at least one of two potentially deadly bacteria: campylobacter and salmonella. The birds are contaminated in spite of our current regulations. They are, in fact, contaminated because of the way in which we raise, transport, and process most of our meat in this country.

Cattle, pigs, and chickens are all primarily raised in confined situations with high levels of fecal matter. This fecal matter harbors disease agents. As animals are transported and slaughtered there is high risk of fecal matter coming into direct contact with the animals and finally the meat. The solution is to raise animals outside on fresh pasture where they do not wallow in their own excrement. The second part of the problem is centralized processing. This puts pieces of thousands of animals into one piece of processed meat. So even if only one cow carcass is contaminated the meat will reach thousands of people via thousands of burgers. The solution here is to butcher at local slaughter houses in smaller numbers. This way if one animal is contaminated a limited and easily traceable quantity of meat is affected.

The Food Safety Modernization Act does not really address these alternative ideas. It applies blanket rules designed for large producers to all producers regardless of size. Most of the time the new rules probably wouldn’t stop an outbreak, they would simply make it slightly faster to trace. We need to stop these problems before they begin. Furthermore, we must recognize that these are problems of our large scale Confinement Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and centralized processing and not problems of small farmers selling to local markets.

Please learn about this bill at these sites:

http://sustainableagriculture.net/
http://sustainableagriculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/NSAC-Food-Safety-Policy-Brief-October-2009.pdf
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-875

North Carolinians have a good opportunity to provide input because both Senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr are on the committee reviewing the bill. After learning about the bill and reading the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s talking points, please call your senators and urge them to modify the bill to allow small producers like us to operate without undue regulatory burden.

You can reach them at the following numbers:

Senator Hagan's office at (202) 224-6342
Senator Burr’s office at (202) 224-3154

Thank you

Morganton News Herald

2009-11-23T16:20:00.009-05:00

Read about Bluebird Farm in the Morganton News Herald...

For those of you who are interested in finding out more about the farm, please read on through our blog or new website.www.BluebirdFarmNC.com

We welcome your comments, ideas, questions about our Community Supported Agriculture(CSA) project, local foods, and Bluebird Farm. Email William and Marie at BluebirdFarmNC@gmail.com. We also invite you to visit the farm!