Surprise! The team rushed out to harvest black currants prior to the next round of rain (what a turn-around the last couple of weeks have meant as the dry spell is now a distant memory). From the adjacent towering 3 Sisters garden popped a hen and her clutch of 8 (?) chicks!
We had witnessed some hens escaping from their mobile flexinet and had lamented their lack of compliance with the nest box system in their wagon. Sure enough instincts had led this hen to a success. She apparently wanted to make a next generation. So from her we are getting chickens and not just eggs for farmstand sales.
Sylvester the rooster has been busy and we have kept him with the flock as a possible deterrent to predators. His presence has made us tempted to replenish our laying flock. Though raising your own chicks is documented to negatively impact profitability, we are keen to disassociate ourselves with factory farming systems.
How many of the 8 will survive? How many are female? We are a long way from replacing the 75 layers but it is fun to see the ancient methodology and symbiosis of the 3 Sisters garden assisting additional old fashioned success as well as to see the generative capacity of the whole farm system.
Listen to Happy Turkey noise as they eat their way through their new space
Speaking of the whole… rains have made the gastropod community plentiful so we were happy to assign the turkey flock to the edge of the later succession 3 Sisters garden. Here instead of celebrating the power of sisterhood and fence jumping we are reciting Frost’s famous Mending Walls. Everything has its place!
Overall it is a reminder to all of us find our place and to fly, leap or do what is necessary to get out of what confines us and find what it is we need! The farmstand is so well stocked in this season of abundance we hope it will help you find what you need… whether that is the bright colorful heirloom tomatoes, aromatic basil alongside our delicious batch of nitrate free bacon just back from Green Mountain Smokehouse.
Or perhaps you are thinking more in terms of nutrient richness and medicinal qualities associated with fresh food in general or specific seasonal treats like snap beans! (https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/vegetable/green-beans.html)
Or maybe you just want to commune with the cuteness of the chicks and the geeky-ness of these crazy gardeners! Come find what you need and help us learn more about what you value and seek.