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. 

Worms

We bought even more worms to add to our vermicompost bin. Luckily, red wriggler worms love rabbit poop and coffee grounds, so they should be in heaven in their new home right about now! 

Caught up!

This is our compost heap. It sits directly under the rabbit hutch. The Donnas aerate the pile every day and Andy rakes it back up every evening.  It has worked out well. They're doing the tedious mixing job for us!  

This blurry photo is of our new pair of breeding does!  Hooray!  Introducing (unofficially- names are still up for discussion) LadyBird Johnson and Miss Piggy/Martha Washington!  

I was brave and decided to go for it!  I made myself a sourdough starter from scratch using Grandma Oma's recipe from her cookbook. (Her cookbook as in she wrote it. It's neat, I know!!) 

It started out well.  We were getting excited! Then.......

.....within 30 minutes it started to overflow!!!  I started to panic. 

BUT who can panic when your child begs to play with the cheesecloth covered in beginning bacteria growth and is giving you this look! 

Empty Beds & I failed.

We've cleaned out the beds and will be weeding and composting and filling them again soon.  Planning for next year has begun since we slacked off on winter planting. 

This is what's left to compost of our fantastic green onion crop. Andy suggested green onion pesto. The girls love pesto, but I didn't think it sounded good. I made it anyway. I should have gone with my gut because it was not good! It could have been my oil choice or my nut choice, but it whatever it was, it was bitter. 

Saving money & making dirt!

We have decided to turn in the 32 gallon yard waste bin and save money on the service. We were given immediate approval over the phone because of the many ways we are currently composting and repurposing our waste. I think we will still have a city inspector visit in order to completely rid ourselves of the yard waste service, but I'm not sure when that will happen. 

Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting is a method of using worms to transform organic waste into a soil rich in nutrients.  Our red wiggler worms work hard to eat and cast (poop) our refuse into a healthy soil to be used in our garden.  Matilde learned to love worms from her big sis, Evan, so she was very excited to help me set up our Can-O-Worms vermicomposter.