Blurry Potato

The first potato of our 2014 harvest was a cute heart shaped potato. 💚 Cute or not, it has friends and they will taste splendid with a pat of butter and a pinch of s&p! Muwhahahaha!

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Today we received our packet for the Seattle Tilth's Urban Farm Tour. We are motivated to get things tidied up and to fix a few things before the 12th rolls around. Please stop by and say hello!  We would love to see each and every one of you! If you need another excuse to come to West Seattle, it's also the street fair weekend, so visit and make a day of it! 

Photos from last week.

I mentioned our cauliflower harvest the other day and I had promised pictures so here are a pair. 

Matilde said that when she gets married she could hold a veggie like this one! (What a farm kid thing to say!)

Hugh Mung Us Are Vest (say it aloud and quickly)

Matilde and I harvested a ton of mixed salad greens. If we continue to harvest, our plants will continue to produce, so we decided to share our bounty with our neighbors! Our neighbors to the left, right and directly across the street each received a gallon bag full of lettuces to enjoy. Matilde had fun delivering them and giving directions such as "please wash them before you eat them," and "if there's a yucky one just throw it in the compost!"  They each got a kick out of that. :) 

Andy and I feel that it's important to connect with our neighbors, and if sharing a little bit of salad assists in building our community then why not share. I hope they enjoyed eating it as much as we enjoyed growing it! 

The bees knees!

They are finally here!! 

We have bees. We are officially apiarists. 

It is very exciting! The first photo is a peak into our new top bar bee hive and the second photo is of the hive itself. We chose a hive that has a built in plexiglass window for peeking.  The girls especially love looking into this new world. We picked up our hive from David at MtnView Honey in Burlington. (www.MtnViewHoney.com). Our neighbors are all on board with us keeping bees and they are excited to see the little pollinators around the neighborhood. We planned on giving Andy a hive for Father's Day, but we didn't quite have all of our ducks in a row for pickup. They are here now and will be hard at work soon. Our beekeeping supplies are being shipped and I will be attempting to make some veils for the four of us over the next month or so. 

I cannot wait to harvest their sweet and sticky honey that will be made from local pollen. I've read that eating more local honey can help people who suffer from seasonal allergies. We'll soon find out if it's true! 

Please feel free to stop by and take a looksie anytime, friends! 

No photo today.

We lost three baby rabbits this afternoon. We think it was the heat. We do our best to keep them cool, but sometimes their little fur coats are too much for our mini Seattle heat waves.  

We also lost two corn stalks this afternoon. We think it was from a passerby. Generally, the teenagers (skatepark/park foot traffic) and neighbors walking up and down our streets are respectful, but today's loss hurt.  I took it personally. I planted that corn, loved it, watered it, cared for the soil, and it was carelessly chopped down to a nub. It makes me really sad, but I suppose a bit of vandalism is expected with an open garden like the one we have. I just hope they stop at two. 

Busy, busy.

We have been taking care of business on the farm this week! Aside from filling holes and laying grass seed in the yard from the "mowing rabbits," harvesting more strawberries, peas, and two large heads of cauliflower, planting more lavender and edamame ("mama peas" to Matilde), and pitting and freezing cherries, we have discovered a free and sustainable means for feeding our farm animals!! 

Long story...

Andy stopped at the coffee shop on Saturday and left us in the car. (Typical.) I noticed the woman that works at the bodega next door walk out with a bucket in her hand. As she got closer to the car, I noticed the bucket was filled with bread. I looked around and then noticed she was headed straight for the compost dumpster on the other side of the parking lot. I stopped her in her tracks, and, as kindly and uncreepy as I could, I asked her if I could take her stale bread. The kids initially thought I was crazy! I explained to the woman that we raise rabbits, chickens, and a turkey a block away and they would LOVE her stale bread. She gladly gave us all that she had and showed me the beautiful heap of fruits and vegetables that she had already dumped into the compost bin before we had arrived. She said it was a daily occurrence. Of course, my next question was if there was any chance we could leave a bucket at the store for her to fill. We told her we would pick it up daily and she said yes! We have a nice system planned out to return an empty bucket when we pick up the full bucket of refuse. It's perfect! 

Today was our first exchange, and Andy picked up 16 POUNDS of free fruits, veggies, and bread for our animals. All food that was perfectly fine for our animals, but would have otherwise not qualified for human consumption. We are going to save a fortune on rabbit feed by only supplementing with pellets while we are away. This was our ultimate goal in having an urban farm. We knew it was only a matter of time before we found a perfect, reliable, FREE food source. We are livin' the dream! L. I. V. I. N., baby. 

Peas, brother.

Shoveling Manure

I cleaned up under the new rabbit hutch and under the lone rabbit cage this afternoon. I hauled it to the front gardens and distributed it throughout the tobacco, tomatoes, onions, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, beets, and radishes. All of these plants need the extra boost of nutrients from the rabbit poops. They'll need a lot more than I can move in an evening, but give me time. I'll keep it coming because these bunnies poop more than the breed! 

Radishes!

We have large leafy greens in the garden and attached to those greens are yummy red radishes! We are patiently waiting for them to plump up. 

Boo-Ya

And that, my friends, is how you harvest some strawberries. 

Rude Awakening

This morning we were jolted awake by the crowing of a rooster, "¡QUI QUI RI QUI!"  

As a reminder, as of yesterday, we did not own any roosters. Since roosters are illegal in city limits, Andy had to dispatch this animal ASAP. It was a small bird, but it will still provide nourishment. Our poor turkey, Mr. Bowling, is in mourning. He hasn't stopped gobbling in grief since this afternoon. He's lonely. :( 

Happy Father's Day! 

I spy white my little eye something...

WHITE! 

Caption Contest!

I can't really think of anything to say about a turkey and a chicken perched on a stick, so I thought id ask you all! 

Dozen eggs to the winner! 

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"Thanksgiving and Super Bowl.  Turkey and chicken wings." Andy

 

"Yuck, that's just fowl." Jen

"Rooster's last roost." Robin 

Broccoli Harvest

We harvested four heads of broccoli yesterday, but they had already stretched and flowered. We have never grown broccoli before but had heard that it does well here in our area. We thought we'd give it a go and we were very successful!  We just didn't know exactly how long to let it grow before harvesting. We left it too long on the stalk and learned our lesson the hard way. Our bitter broccoli was a treat for our rabbits. The gobbled it right up as I sat back and watched. We still have more heads growing from the same plants, but none will be as large as the first.  We'll get it right sooner or later.

Words to live by...

"...the pleasure of eating what he raises is inseparably fused with the pleasure of raising what he eats." Angelo Pellegrini

Please join us!

Kits born this afternoon!

Just this morning Andy placed the nesting box in with one of our does because he remembered it was getting close to her due date, and this afternoon she gave birth!  Evan and Matilde went out to play and noticed lots of fur and movement in the nesting box. We have bunnies!! We are not yet sure how many, but we will know soon enough. The others are getting big and should be ready to harvest soon. I am excited to fill our freezer once again.

(The pink in the photo will be a white bunny!) 

Pretty potatoes!

Our potatoes have pretty purple flowers blooming amongst all that green! I don't remember them from last year, but I think they are from the Red potatoes and not the Yukon Gold. We only had YG last summer which explains why I don't recall the purple.  Flowers or no flowers, I can't wait to boil the tiny and tasty new potatoes!  

A week apart

I took the first photo on June first and the other late this afternoon. What a difference a little sunshine, some water, and a threat can do for a sunflower's growth! 
Short Round on the right, however, didn't budge an inch (vertically!). 

The makings of a side dish.

Peas!!

Harvest time!

Matilde and I enjoyed harvesting our first of the strawberries!  After she dropped all of them and then stepped on two, we brought in about a dozen. They are delicious, sweet and juicy. Well worth the wait and there are PLENTY more where they came from just waiting for the sun to ripen them to perfection. 🍓🍓🍓

Mrs. Lovett's meat grinder had a purpose.

Ask and ye shall receive!

All I wanted was a meat grinder. 
Now, I have four! What to grind...what to grind...??

Chicken Yard

Andy was hard at work yesterday morning building a pen for our poultry. We can and will let them out to free range, but they really don't need too much space. The compost pile is all of their dreams come true, so for now they'll be just fine in their new hangout area. They now have a space all their own, and we have a yard that can be used for entertaining, playing, and just plain sitting! The Donnas have done a nice job fertilizing and greening up our grass now we can enjoy it!