The Freedom : Stress Ratio

Livestock thrive and reach their potential when they are without stress. Sources of stress may include inadequate or inconsistent access to food, problematic weather conditions, overcrowding or over-competition between flock mates.

If a farmer’s single issue is to maximize yield as much as possible and by any means necessary, whether yielding eggs, meat, or plant products, it’s logical that conventional agriculture would arrive at the strategies traditionally utilized- animal confinement, synthetic nutrition and fertilizer, environmentally unfriendly use of chemicals and medications. As mindful farmers and CSA supporters, we all want eggs from happy, free-ranging hens. We’ve seen the difference it makes and we can’t really go back.

So our job on this small farm, with our flock of four score or so birds, is to practically and realistically manage the freedom:stress ratio. We like to think we’ve made an unspoken agreement with our birds: There is an implicit understanding that while we will keep you well fed and watered, sheltered, in a natural environment, without a barrier to the biodiversity we mutually appreciate on our land, those freedoms come at a cost. There will always be monsters just beyond the treeline. We will do what we can to deter them, but life is not without risk. The cost of their freedom is inevitably, paradoxically, anxiety and stress- a topical metaphor indeed.

These monsters just beyond, or just above, the treeline include Foxes, Coyotes, Bobcats, Mink, Raptors, and the omnipresent, ever-elusive Raccoon, all with its smooth criminal appearance and human hands- a pest we hate to love. In recent weeks, we have been battling the latter pest and it is inglorious.

Our neighbor was telling us of a time when he was losing chickens to raccoons and proceeded to trap one critter per night for 2 CONSECUTIVE WEEKS! This extreme example hasn’t been our experience so far, but it’s a challenge nonetheless.

If a predator is visiting regularly, even if the flock is ultimately safe during and after the encounter, the flock is unavoidably stressed and, as was previously discussed, when the freedom/stress ratio is thrown out of balance, yield suffers. As a result, our weekly egg production has slowed and we will only be able to share half dozens this week.

For our 4th harvest, we will be clearing much of our Spring garden and including some early summer pickings and prunings.

Purple Kohlrabi

We think of Kohlrabi as “cabbage apples.” They have a mild cabbagey flavor, without the kick of a radish, with the juicy, crunchy texture of an apple. We like to peel the roots and eat them raw, sliced in a salad, or whole and fresh out of the field. The greens can be used like kale, collards, or other broadleaf greens. These trippy, spacey little brassicas are always a joy to have in the garden.

Kale & Collards

The recent cool nights have been welcomed by these heat-aloof greens. We will gather the best specimens to distribute in bunches this week. Cook the Kale crunchy and chippy and tenderize those Collards with your preferred fat.

Beets!

Beets are traditionally direct-seeded, meaning they are simply sown into loose soil without the need to be raised in a nursery or greenhouse. Market Gardeners often transplant beets, as one would with tomatoes or peppers, beginning in soil trays or pots, getting their start in a more controlled environment.

The theoretical benefit to this is that the beets spend their first few weeks without any competition and are transplanted to the field with that early advantage and resilience. We were reluctant and set in our ways, but this was our first successful crop of transplanted beets and the benefits of this strategy have been obvious- bigger, more uniform roots and less time logged weeding/cultivating. If the conditions allow it, we won’t be direct seeding beets anymore.

We love the sweet taste of roasted beets and have been enjoying them with most of our meals this week! We’ve enjoyed seeing what you all are doing with them as well (keep sharing with us!).

Peppers

We have a few varieties of peppers established our in our summer gardens- Bell peppers, Carmen sweet/long peppers, Anaheims, Shishitos, Jalapenos, Nadapenos (mild Jalapenos), and Banana peppers. While the plants are rooted and established, they could use a pruning from which we all will benefit. This week, we’ll prune and distribute these small fruits as an effort to encourage the plants to produce more flowers in anticipation of the fast approaching summer months. Our peppers this week will be mild, but if you get a small, wrinkly Shishito, beware of rogue hotties.

Head Lettuce

We have massive Parris Island Cos heads going out this week in addition to our long-keeping crisp Salanova. Our hope is that these fresh harvests will come close to sustaining your salads for the next couple of weeks.

Broccoli

These crowns and sprouts are growing and maturing quickly. There ought to be plenty to go around. These will likely be distributed as small bags or bunches of florets, not as individual crowns or heads.

Basil

This season, we’ve strategically interplanted our Genovese basil within our Sweet Corn plot. When operating on such a small scale, it’s critical that space is used efficiently and productively.

We like to interplant, or companion plant, crops whenever possible, whether the strategy is to save space or captitalize on symbiosis. While using the “three sisters” method of interplanting corn, pole beans, and pumpkins, we’ve thrown basil in the mix this season as we had read about a mutually beneficial symbiosis between Sweet Corn and Basil. This early harvest may be small, but will introduce a new pop of summer flavor we’re excited for.

Parsley & Thyme

We’ll continue to include these fresh spring herbs for your eggs, entrees, and sauces/pesto. We interplanted Rosemary with our Tomatoes and while the shade of the bushes keep the rosemary ideally cool, it also slows growth a bit more than we expected.

Wildflower Bouquet

It’s fascinating to see what nature provides without our intervention- this week it was aromatic wormwood in the hoop house, fully-established and impressive tomato plants voluntarily sprouting from last year’s spilled fruit (maybe we should direct seed tomatoes?), and a cultivated strawberry plant with full berries growing out of a log along the creek.

Our cultivated flower varieties are maturing and include Zinnias, Sunflowers, Amaranth, Snapdragons, Celosia, Asters, etc.

Eggs

As we mentioned in the introduction, we will only be able to share half dozens for each family this week. We are taking steps to fix this lull in production and are hopeful our hens will lay more regularly when we return from our break. Thank you for your patience in sharing this farm reality with us.

Next week, we will be on the farm, catching our breath and slowly working on some maintenance projects. We’ll get a much appreciated break from the harvest. We will be on vacation with friends and family the following week or so before starting harvests back up the final week of June/ first week of July.

We will send out a reminder next week to not expect a delivery or pick up.

Thank you for making all of this happen!

Erin & David