2014 Summer basket #15

Basket contents: Peppers, pumpkin, tomatoes, cilantro, carrots, choice of celery or potatoes, onions, choice of  hot peppers or eggplant, choice of ground cherries, spinach or cabbage, garlic.

Recipe of the week: Soupe in its Pumpkin

This week’s newsletter takes the form of a photo journal dedicated to the many other beings with whom we share the farm.  Our animals provide us with many services on the farm, but also with so much beauty and fun!

pile o'pigs

The pigs transform veggie wastes into tasty meat and fertile manure, as well as replace the plow when we want to turn the soil and replant either new pasture or new crops.

chicken paradise

We bring all of the Colorado Potato Beetles that we painstakingly remove from the potatoes and eggplant by hand to the chickens, who also follow the calves in the pasture and munch potential pests that feed on the cow’s manure.

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Even if we lost the vast majority of our turkeys (21 of 25!) the four that remain are in top shape, the most resistant of the group!  Unfortunately due to the risks of disease, we had to bring them back into the barn instead of keeping them out on pasture like we do our chickens.  Next year we will seek out a breed more adapted to life in the outside world!

The calves cut the grass for us and fertilize the pastures.  cows in fall field

worms!Our worms transform the compost that you bring us at drop-offs into a rich ‘vermi-compost’ as well as a compost tea that we spray on the tomato plants to ward off fungal and bacterial disease.

And of course the bees pollinate our food crops and flowers, as well as providing us with the sweet sweet results of their labour.bee feeding

Wpile o'kittense also have some not so useful animals… the kittens!  No, actually, even they have their role to play.  Tom, the patriarch, spends his day patrolling our veggie fields, looking for the moles that have been eating our beets, while our innumerous kittens are being trained in the barn, and have done a stellar job at protecting our animal feed from mice.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We feel that having animals on our farm not only helps us diversify our offer and provides endless entertainment, but also makes our farm more ecologically sound, by providing ecological services and closing nutrient loops.  It’s not too late to order your meat share and support the diversity of our farm!