Introducing...

The Ninja Turtles, Master Splinter, and Shredder! 

Matilde and Evan had fun picking five new broilers and a turkey this week. We lost the other turkey to what we think may have been a bird of prey. Our Mr. Bowling enjoyed roosting high, so we will be sure not to wait before clipping Shredder's wings. By clipping a bird's wings it grounds them. We haven't done it to the Donnas or any of our other birds but none have wanted or attempted to fly out of the yard. Anyway, the NInja Turtles and Master Splinter are Cornish Cross chickens. We will harvest their meat around Labor Day. As for Shredder, he is an American Standard White turkey that will grow between 25-30 pounds by Thanksgiving! I am so excited and will do everything I can to keep this guy alive and well fed until November. 

Thank you to Bradley Farms in Puyallup for ordering the bulk quantity birds and sharing their skills and knowledge with other farmers around the area! www.facebook.com/thebradleyfarm

A long day...

After six hours of visitors coming and going, we are wiped out!  Andy ate, took a bath, and remained here for about an hour before moving his nap to our bedroom.  I think we had about the same steady turnout as we had for last year's tour. There were first time visitors, returning visitors, visitors from as far as Eugene, OR, and local WS people too!  All had positive things to say and lots and lots and lots of questions. Surprisingly, we had an answer for just about every question!  We had a lot of fun and even hosted teachers from both Evan and Matilde's schools.  What a great experience! 

Thank you to all who visited and if you couldn't make it today, please know that you invited over anytime! 

Farm Tour Eve

We took care of last minute things around the house today and also ran a ton of errands.  It's been a busy day, but tomorrow is looking good. We hope to see a few of you here! 
Wish us luck!! 

Bug off!

We're back!  The girls and I spent two full weeks in the Yakima valley. We worked on our tans, our swimming skills, celebrated two birthdays and even built a giant wet banana and a solar oven!  We had tons of fun! Andy was hard at work here at home, but couldn't keep our garden from scorching in this heat. :( Our chard is charred, our lettuce is limp, and our beets have taken a beating from the sun's rays. We will do our best to recover before Saturday, but we can't control the weather and we can only do the best we can. I still hope it goes well. 

Below is a photo I took of our natural pesticide. We disperse lady bugs on our garden beds to keep the aphids down. The aphids eat our veggies and the lady bugs eat the aphids. It seems to work well. We also have a sack of preying mantis eggs waiting to hatch in the front beds. Last year, Andy brought an egg sack inside because it wasn't warm enough to hatch just yet and they hatched inside the house! He came home and there were baby preying mantises everywhere! 

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!