Happy Holidays!

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

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

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

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!)

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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

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!

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!

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