Long day, full freezer

We have had a long weekend!  After the Harvest Fair yesterday, we processed both of the broilers we showed. We thought we'd break up the job between the two days. Aside from the meat you see in the photo (2 chickens), we harvested THREE more birds and NINE rabbits!!  I also picked a ton of ripe tomatoes and canned 5 pints worth. I lost a pint and a quart in the water bath in the process. One jar busted the bottom clear off and the other blew a seal and a ring!! Of course, I can't have a nice, easy experience canning there always has to be some lesson learned while I do it!  Today's lessons were that some jars are flawed and will break for no reason, never mix pints and quarts- do one or the other, and place my jars into the hot water bath at an angle. 

All in all, we are all exhausted and my poor lover boy still had to go to work. He's amazing and extremely tired every Monday morning! 

Also-- We are searching for a small square freezer and a vacuum sealer for keeping our food. If you know of anyone selling, we are actively looking to buy. Please pass us the info if you have it! Thank you, friends!

YOU'RE INVITED to the Seattle Tilth's 2014 Harvest Fair!

Come visit us at Meridian Park, September 6th!  We will be showcasing our beautiful bunnies and fat ol' birds and encouraging others to raise their own food too!  It can be done!  

The fair is free and is located behind the Good Shepherd Center (4649 Sunnyside Ave., Seattle 98103) in the Wallingford neighborhood. There will be plenty to take in.  Please visit the Seattle Tilth's event page for more details:

http://seattletilth.org/special_events/seattletilthharvestfair

It's Power Ranger Thursday!

Here is my weekly photo of the Red Ranger "Power Ranger-Ghostbuster" chickies. I don't know who enjoys the weekly preschool visits more. The teachers or the students! I didn't get a photo if them in the box, but that is my goal. So you can see just how big they are growing from one week to the next. 

The Power Rangers, 3 wks old

We have been invited to share our Red Ranger broilers with Matilde's preschool class on a weekly basis. We dropped in with them last Thursday because we were so excited about having just purchased them hours before school started. The kids were excited to see, hear, hold, and smell them!  Matilde's teachers asked us to bring them every Thursday so the children can see how fast they are growing. Miss Amy said the kids are learning about living things right now, and it would be a perfect complement to their current curriculum. 

I just don't know how to handle not bringing them in after their 12 weeks are up!  Andy suggested a bowl of fried chicken!  Terrible!  

I love watching sweet little Tilly's reaction to her friends who have never seen live chickens. It is so normal for her to live with these animals that it didn't occur to her that others do not have chickens at home. A couple friends asked if they are the mommies that lay eggs and Tilly candidly replied, "No. These are the ones we eat."  

This is our normal. :) 

I spy...

...three Red Ranger chicks!  Can you see them? 

We bought three broilers this week. This is a different, larger bird. These guys should grow fast and plump up just as the Cornish Cross birds did. 

Matilde calls them her Power Ranger chickens. :) Again, six chickens is still legal, and we'll be back down to three in about 8-12 weeks. This is the only time of year to buy meat birds, so we'll be raising them as long as we can continue to get our hands on them! 

Harvest Fair!

Today marked the 26th year for the Seattle Tilth's annual Harvest Fair!  We were invited to share our Oscars (broilers) and help educate those attending about the importance of knowing where your food is coming from and how easy it is to raise chickens for meat right here in the city. We were given advice, gave advice, played, danced, and networked with other urban farmers!  It was a long day. It was exhausting to explain the process with every person that walked up. The girls created a display board that said what breed our birds were and a few facts about chickens and broilers. A lot of people read the board and a lot of people were surprised at what they learned. Good job girls!  

The hardest part of the day was being set up right next to the GOATS!  As many of you know, Matilde wants a goat more than any other pet, so being next to them was tough. She would sneak off and I'd panic for a second and realize she was watching the Eloise and Snowflake. She said (more than once), "I'm gonna get a goat, and I'm gonna name him Douglas!" We saw a lady get squirted by milk, so of course she ran over to check it out. When all of the sudden she was squirted too!  The owner was milking Eloise and pointing the teat right at Tilly!  It sprayed a stream of milk from her feet up her leg and on her face!  Tilly was waiting with her mouth open and screamed with excitement when she was hit!  She ran off laughing and told her papa what had happened.  She is such a goof! 

It really was a fun day, and all of us enjoyed being a part of it!  

They're baaaaaack!

Our flock has grown!  We now have four more broilers to round out our family. After speaking with the nice woman at the new farm store, I think we may let these birds grow for another ten weeks depending.

Now.....what to name them?

Any suggestions?

More new chickies!

Easter chickies are here! We decided to round out our city flock by adding four more birds to the crew. We now have four egg layers and four broilers. The broilers will be ready in 6-8 weeks, or so says Google. :) I'll let you know how it goes. The 8 hens puts us right at the edge of the law. Seattle city municipal code allows 8 chickens per household. It's nice to live in a place that is so welcoming to a more sustainable way of life. I just can't believe the amount of food these four chickens will provide for us at only $1.99 each!