Jan. 8th, Twenty-Ten collards and kale under rowcover 18 degrees Thursday morning

Our hens are getting old, they will be two years old in February. A dog year is said to be the equivalent of 7 human years. As far as I can tell, with limited research, is that a year in the life of a laying hen is equal to 26 human years or thereabouts.

That sort of makes sense. hens begin to produce eggs at around 6 months; or around 13 years old. At a year old, they behave like 26 year olds, pretty feathers, showing off for the roosters, full of themselves, and cranking out eggs.

Our flock is now entering their early 50’s in human years. Still young but maturing out of their reproductive stage in life.

Unfortunately, the AARC has limited benefits that involve dumplings and stewing pots.

Wintertime Chores

The cold has slowed us down. It is easier for me to work in 95 degrees with high humidity rather than below freezing temps.We have been staying in the house more and building fires in the wood stove.

I finally registered my copy of Quickbooks 2008, an accounting program, and have been trying to get familiar with it. Also a book called Market Farm Forms - Spreadsheets for planning and organizing small, diversified market farms with CSA’s

Sounded great when I bought it last spring but neither me or Jenifer knows how to use a spreadsheet, although we have tried to learn. Apparently, we do not have the proper software to run the spreadsheet template CD.

We still got pencil and paper, 20 years of experience, and Kentucky windage.

We go out after lunch and make sure the chickens and pigs have water and feed. Our feed costs have soared in the last two years. We are about a year away from any potential profit from the pigs and our hens are not currently laying enough eggs to cover their feed costs.

But they are our responsibility, regardless of profit.

We have a good system of underground water lines and cut-off valves that we can get water to the chickens and pigs via long stretches of garden hoses as long as we we pay rapt attention to draining hoses as soon as we are done and shutting off the underground cut-off valve.

Collards and Kale

Because of the intense cold weather, some of our collards and kale have beautiful shades of purple. Taste-testing in the field confirms that those leaves are sweeter than normal.We picked for the Saturday market on Thursday. It was a balmy 43 degrees. The forecast for today is a high of 31 degrees.

Here in the South, “greens” are often cooked by simmering them for long times – along with a piece of sidemeat, or ham hock. I have discovered a “non-traditional” way of cooking greens that is fast, leaves most of the vitamins intact, and is VERY tasty. 1 big bunch of young collards cloves of garlic to taste (I use 3-4), chopped olive oil Cut the ribs out of the leaves and roll several leaves together in a cigar shape. Cut across the roll in 1/8″ strips. Continue until all the leaves are in thin strips. In a large iron skillet on med-high heat, saute the garlic in olive oil until fragrant – maybe a minute or less. Add the collards and cook, turning frequently all the strips are dark green – maybe two minutes or so. Serve. They are sweet, tender-crunchy, wonderfully fragrant with garlic. My Yankee husband now love that quintessential Southern green – collards. Give it a try! Works with spinach, Russian Kale, and probably a lot of other greens as well. Alison Wiediger, Au Naturel Farm

Collard Soup

We made this a few weeks ago. It is different and good. The recipe served 8 people as a starter course. I would suggest you cut it in half.

We don’t heat our greenhouse because the propane costs would be prohibitive. On a sunny day with temperatures in the 40’s, the greenhouse will easily heat up into the 80’s. It cools down quickly though at night.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, we are expecting temperatures around 22-23 degrees. We will take the flats of seeds off the tables and set them on the ground in the greenhouse to take advantage of the natural heat sink of the earth. We will cover the flats with insulation board and blankets.

We won’t be planting outside anytime soon. Aftert 1.6 inches of rain Wednesday, everything is squishy.

We are also concerned about our onions and carrots. We have lots of those planted. 1600 row feet of onions and 2500 row feet of carrots. These were planted last September for early spring harvest. Jenifer pulled a bunch of carrots this week and they need another 4-6 weeks to size up.