Variety CSA Begins Today!

The Carmel Valley Co-op Variety CSA begins today, February 3rd! Sign-up info is on the www.carmelvalleycoop.org website.

The Variety CSA was introduced last year. The idea is to combine the convenience of a locally produced food CSA with the variety offered from different farms in the area.

One of the favorite features of the Variety CSA are fresh eggs. No, those aren't dyed Easter eggs you see in the photo. Those are the natural colors. Nice browns, brown speckled, blue, green, tan, white. Who says eggs have to be white or brown?

Here at Carmel Lavender, I maintain one of the flocks that supplies the eggs for the Variety CSA. I keep a broad assortment of heritage hens that lay those beautifully colored eggs you see above.

This little lady, the black, grey, and white striped bird is one of those hens. She is a barred rock hen. She lays wonderful brown eggs. I also have Rhode Island Reds, Black Cornish, Buff Orpingtons, Auracanas, and a few other breeds. Each breed has different personalities. The black cornish like to have their backs scratched. The Rhode Island reds do too, to a lesser extend. The auracanas don't tend to like to be handled as much, and stay away from people. In fact, they tend to stay away from the other hens too. And the barred rocks have a nice temperament, but are not quite as forward as the black cornish hens are.

Here you can see two buff orpington roosters. No, they don't wait until sunrise to start crowing. Usually the noise begins around 3 or 4 in the morning. I actually like the sound. Sometimes I wake up partially, but it is kinda nice to feel the life around the farm, even while you sleep. They aren't too close to the house, or it might be more disturbing. I suppose roosters in close urban quarters would require enthusiastic neighbors!

The roosters protect the hens. That is their job. Any time you handle a hen, you can see a nervous rooster standing by, ready to step in if needed. They also keep the eggs fertile. I keep enough roosters to ensure fertile eggs.

The chickens have a pretty diverse diet. I feed them the vegetarian kitchen scraps. They love that. It does mean a lot less for my compost heap though. But the chicken manure goes into the compost instead. I also give them a grain based chicken feed. And important in my farm plan is to let them forage on the grasses and wild plants. Here you can see a field I sowed with wheat a few months ago. The wheat is starting to get higher. When it is ready, I will let the chickens forage on this to supplement their diets.

These days, while the wheat isn't quite ready, I am bringing the chickens the grasses and weeds I pull from my home vegetable garden. I just load up the wheel barrow every morning, and then dump it into the tractor. The hens go to work! They can devour an entire load in one or two days. They sure seem to have fun picking through the pile to find the tastiest weeds!

I hope you enjoyed reading about the hens. And if you are interested in eggs, please go to the website at www.carmelvalleycoop.org and sign up for the Variety CSA! In addition to eggs, you enjoy fresh organic vegetables, lavender, essential oils, soaps, and delicious olive oil. Provided by Catalan Family Farms, Carmel Lavender, Larsen Family Farms, and Carmel Valley Olive Company.

Another Day in Life

Here is a little photo journal of today. Just one day in life on Lavender Hill.

7:00am - Time to rise. Days starting a bit later now. Day breaks around 7ish. Today after my morning tea, I was looking at all those zucchini that on the table and thought I would make a nice zucchini bread. So before I started my outdoor work, I mixed up some bread dough and got that into the oven. For the rest of the day, the house smelled like baking cinnamon. Mmmm.

8:00 - Outside making the rounds. First stop was the Chicken coop. I need to let the little ladies out into the run so they can pick at the ground. Every evening they get locked up in the coop for their own protection. We have had fox and skunk making the rounds lately and I don't want any "encounters". So when dusk falls, and the hens go inside to roost, I close the door.

Here in the picture, is one of the Araucana hens making her way down the gangway to the tractor run.

Next stop was the vegetable garden. I wanted to check on the veggies. Figure out "what's for dinner" tonight! Lots of summer veggies still in production. I hope it lasts though. Last year we didn't have a freeze until late November. However last night got down to 37. Burrr. We'll see how much longer we can go w/o a frost.

This vegetable collage shows some of the delicious food growing. Wonderful zucchini (we saw some of her sisters in the previous photos of the bread!), peppers, tomatoes, and pumpkin. You can see the photo of the grapes that the birds have ruined them. The peck them, and then they shrivel up into raisins. These are Cabernet grapes, so lots of seeds. You know I just had an idea while writing. The Chickens absolutely LOVE grapes. I wonder how they would like picking at these shriveled vines? Tomorrow I will harvest and throw into the coop. We'll see if they like these!

Looking at the mercury, I am a bit sorrowful to think that soon the summer produce will be gone. But every season brings rebirth. These last few weeks I have been working on my winter garden. It will begin as summer dies. I took a looksy. Not much going on yet. Just planted recently. Wanted to make sure the ground was damp and it didn't require irrigation. All was well. The weather has cooled down quite a bit these last few days, so the water it got a few days ago. If I can get a few more days without frost, perhaps the new spouts will be present to console me as the summer crops wither.

After surveying the vegetable garden, it was time to do a walkabout in the lavender fields. I had just irrigated the day before. Unfortunately I found one of the irrigation lines chewed clean through. Judging by the looks of the scat nearby, it was probably the skunk that has been hanging around lately. It was a simple fix, but the ground looked pretty damp. Those plants got a good watering that day I can tell you.

10:00am - I started working on a new field. This is a protected field that will be fenced in from deer and other critters. A safe place to grow crops like basil and other aromatics that need protection from munching deer. This soil is going to need a LOT of work though. It hasn't supported much more than weeds until now. It is very fine and hard. I'm thinking about growing a season or two of cover to build it up before I plant. We'll see. The field is a bit sloping. A bit precarious for the tractor. A little light shaping mades it a bit safer for working.

2:00 - Once the ground work was done, I started surveying the surrounding trees. Some of them could use some trimming. So I spent the rest of the afternoon trimming and clearing away the brush piles. Trimming trees is heavy work. That part I don't mind. But I don't particularly relish climbing. There is nothing like hugging a branch 20 feet above the ground with a running chain saw to make Mr. Newton and his musings seem relevant. I guess that's what you would call a real "tree hugger" !?

7:00 - I quit a bit early today. Had to get ready to head up to Santa Cruz. My neighbor and good friend Kelly is in radio. That's Kelly there at her control console. Today I was invited on her KUSP radio show Talk of the Bay to discuss genetically modified foods, or GMO. Click here to listend to the show.


I am working with a local group called GMO Free Monterey County. We are working to educate people about potential human and environmental health risks of GMO. You can find out more about this effort at http://www.gmofreemontereycounty.org/. There is a petition asking for a moratorium of GMO crops in Monterey County until adequate safegards and regulations can be established. Please sign the petition here. Hopefully the show will be posted on the website shortly if you wish to listen.

Ahh, time for sleep now.

The Chickens Have Landed

First, there is the romantic dream. When I thought about bringing chickens onto the farm, I had the idyllic image of flocks of feathered hens running around the yard, bringing life, happiness, and occasionally comedic relief.

But I wasn't completely naive. Everyone I know out here that have chickens have lost chickens. I know there are "bad guys" out there. Predators. Those who would see the new arrivals as the inauguration of the new neighborhood diner. So I enclosed the soon-to-be barnyard with fencing capable of keeping dogs, coyotes, and other predators at bay. Perhaps from time to time I might have to deal with a thief. But the other 364 days of the year would be bliss.

My naivete would last less than 24 hours after the baby chix arrived. Then, during broad daylight, and every day and night afterwards I saw them. The fox. Like a bad cartoon. The 6ft wire mesh fence isn't going to keep those guys out. Nor the skunks. Alright. Nice to meet you Mr. Reality. Time for Plan 9: the chicken tractor.

First I built the mobile coop. A veritable fortress on wheels. I don't know how many of you remember Super Chicken, but this vessel puts the Super Coop to shame. It has a double wire bottom, so the precious chicken poop can drop right onto the ground. The double wire is to prevent the nasties from eating the little chicken toes that protrude through the wire. Concerned about the wire on the little feet, I made 2x4 pathways so that the chickens (and I) can navigate the coop and hangout w/o having to always walk on wire. Built in nesting boxes with side access shutters allow easy egg removal w/o having to go into the coop and play "Who's Your Daddy" with Mr. Rooster.

But Alas, chickens love getting down and dirty. I would put some of them in a wire bottom dog kennel right on the ground and they would pick and dig and bathe in that dirt. If chix could smile, they'd be grinning ear to ear ever time I let them contact Mother Earth. So that's when the mobile tractor attachment was born. To the right is a photo of the partially constructed tractor with the wheels deployed. The wheels raise the coop off the ground so that it can be maneuvered into place, and then the wheels lower resting the tractor onto the ground providing a protective daytime pen or chicken park.

As usual, it took me way longer to build than I thought, including some welding and metal fabrication lessons from the local blacksmith. Sigh, my initial wooden landing gear would not bear the weight. But this week I finally "got'er done" as Larry would say, and positioned the coop and the tractor side by side in a virgin field. Note the three ports on the tractor. These align with corresponding ports on the coop and are connected with a protected gangway.


DAY 1: the chickens were... well CHICKEN. Man, what worry warts. I would open the coop, grab a hen and put her in into the tractor, and she would panic and run right back into the coop. Some of the chickens would get topside where there is a window and look down nervously at their new park. But nary a venture. Finally, one brave barred rock, Nelle Armstrong, the adventurer braved the gangway, and under her own chicken power, jumped down into the tall weeds under the tractor. Here I caught this historic event. One small leap for chicken, one sigh of relief for the man.

DAY 2: A few more ventured out. Up to a quarter of the flock could be seen in the tractor at any time during the day. In the evening, they all went back into the coop, though one fat hen clogged up the door, and two smaller hens were stuck roosting on the gangway. In the evening I gave them a gentle nudge and they got the courage to push their way past fattie and get inside before I locked them up safe.

DAY 3: Still about a quarter of the flock. The auracana's and barred rocks seem to favor outside the most. Occasionally a RI Red or a Buff Orpington would come out, pick around, and return to the coop. Amazingly in three days, they have reduced that weed filled space to COMPLETE RUBBLE. Bare dirt! Time to move the coop and tractor down a bit :)

TO BE CONTINUED: Well, unfortunately I can't move the coop and tractor right now :( during their maiden voyages, each experienced some "technical difficulties" which are going to require a few more lessons from the blacksmith. Oh well, at least the chickens are on the ground where they are happy until I get those parts welded back up again. The remaining weeds will have to wait.