Brocco-lee, Brocco-li, Brocco-lum

Combine two college grads who are old enough to remember when Latin was taught in high school with heaping bins of a vegetable with a name like "broccoli" then throw in a little silliness on top and you get two farmers who walk around conjugating the verb "broccoli".  Brocco-lee.  Brocco-li.  Brocco-lum.  Easy.  Ok we really do know that broccoli isn't a verb, but that's the kind of thing that happens when you pick, sort, pack, eat and breathe vegetables all summer long.

This week another big (for us) order rolled on out of the farm.  450 heads of broccoli, 200 red cabbage and 30 1/2 bushel boxes of summer squash.  Mike and Ed were busy busy boys getting everything ready.  Plus of course they had to pick for the CSA's and the markets.  Mike said they picked close to 1000 squash during the week along with everything else they picked. 

I came home from work Wednesday evening to find three large bins of broccoli hanging out in the garage.  These are the same sized large cardboard bins filled with watermelon that you sometimes see sitting on the floor in the produce section of the grocery store.  That's a lot of broccoli!  It looked so good too.  Perfect maturity.  It took all my willpower not to snatch a few heads out of the bin and go make dinner.

I had a crazy week too at the clinic and this always makes it interesting when I have to come home and tend to the chickens.  The laying hens are no problem to feed, water and collect eggs in the dark if I get home late.  But I still have about 50 meat chickens out on the grass that are old enough (7 weeks) that they need their pens moved twice a day.  It's just that they are bigger now and they poop a lot more now.  If I don't move the pens twice a day when they are this age, the grass gets too messy and there is nothing that bothers me more than animals that don't have a clean place to lay down and sleep.  The pasture pens have no bottom so as I move the pens, the chickens must walk along inside the pen to keep up.  And chickens won't walk in the dark.  So that means rush home from the clinic, change clothes and get to work on the farm without a minute to sit and relax.  The next two weeks until butchering day are going to more of the same. 

Molly, our Brittany, loves to follow me out to do chores.  She is more than eager to look for a few fresh "snacks" when I move the pens.  What a farm dog she turned into.

I took a couple walks out to the garden this week too.  Not sure how I had time to do that, but there are pictures in my camera to prove I was there and I do remember being back there so I must have a moment or two. 

I believe these are black-eyed peas that are coming along quite nicely.  There are some shelling peas further to the left and lots of nice yellow wax and green beans out of the picture to the right.

And a view of some of the cauliflower that is looking really good.  There might be some cabbage in this picture too.  Can't quite remember.  But then it has been kind of a crazy week.

The life of a meat chicken: part 2

Sit back and watch them grow. On more than one occasion I have gone out to the barn in the morning to feed the baby meat chicks and when I come back in the afternoon to do the same, I swear they are noticeably bigger.

I left off at day 1 of the chicks life on our farm, all tucked into their new homes. At 1 week of age, I put a couple chicks back in the shipping box they came in. I put a large chicken egg in with them for size reference. Remember 1 week ago these chicks hatched from an egg this size and that 15 of them comfortably fit in one of these compartments in the shipping box.


2 weeks of age. They are starting to get feathers. They still have access to the heat lamp to stay warm. It's now getting crowded around the chick feeder. Pay attention to the size of the feeder because in the next week, I will start using the adult feeders.


3 weeks of age. Adult feeders in use. I put the chick feeder in the picture for size reference. They are almost fully feathered. They are still indoors, but the heat lamp is now turned off.


Between 3 and 4 weeks of age, they get moved outside onto grass and live in these bottomless "hoop houses". Good shelter from the rain, but since they are on grass, they get to eat the grass, weeds, bugs and anything else they find on the ground. The pens get moved to fresh grass once a day at first and twice a day as they get bigger. And the pens are light enough for me to move myself by pulling them along the ground with a rope. They are built in such a way that the sides act as skids for easy pulling. The chicks still get fed chicken food in addition to the grass and bugs they eat.


4 weeks of age. They are starting to look more like adult chickens.


Here is a picture taken some years back of a meat type chick and a Barred Plymouth Rock laying type chick both at 4 weeks of age. Amazing the difference in their rate of growth all achieved through selective breeding.


5 weeks old. It is now becoming easy to tell the cockerels (boys) from the pullets (girls). In case you don't know, the cockerels are the ones with the larger brighter red combs on their heads.


6 weeks old. The changes become less dramatic, but they are getting bigger.


7 weeks old. They know that I am bringing their food into the pen. It gets really hard to walk inside the pen at feeding time as they all cluster around my feet.


9 weeks old. Two days before butchering day.


Into the refrigerator on butchering day.


Into the freezer in the next couple of days.


And out of the oven all year round.


I have said this before, but I feel truly blessed to be able to raise my own broiler chickens for meat. I think these birds have a pretty good although short life. I guess it's hard for me to put into words, but it is a very satisfying feeling to be able to live this whole process from beginning to end.