Poultry Health in Fall

What a season! Since late September, we have:

1. Taken out summer vegetation in the garden for compost, turned/aerated beds, and planted winter vegetables or (mostly) cover crops;
2. Tested our entire flock of poultry for salmonella and avian influenza (more about that later!);
3. Picked and milled our 2017 olive oil - always an amazing experience! And;
4. Stopped watering!

I know that last one doesn't sound too interesting, but it's a huge event on the farm! This is the most dramatic sign of a changing season for me. Watering costs money, takes time, and the water we use - as demonstrated with the 50% cutbacks of 2015 and 2016! - isn't as sure of a resource as we all thought, pre-2014... Also, a number of winters since we've started the farm have required that we continue to water due to a lack of rain. This is a double jeopardy, as we're not only receiving less than normal precipitation, but because of this we're using up a stored resource that usually should be saved for summertime - yikes! But we're not there - yet - this year. Fingers are still crossed.

But this wasn't supposed to be a post about water (farming talk often tends that direction!). I wanted to share our poultry testing regime. We are members of the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP), established in the 1930s to address some recurring issues in poultry health that were, at the time, affecting local and regional economies, as well as human health. The program initially focused exclusively on Pullorum disease, a consequence of poultry contracting the Salmonella bacteria - which can also infect humans. It has expanded, however, to include avian influenza and other poultry diseases. Our membership in the program requires us to pay an annual fee of $100, in exchange for which they test our flock twice a year. Once, in the spring, they test a small percentage of our flock, and every fall they test our entire flock. Any positive hit requires a second test which, if positive, requires destruction and testing of the bird.

The process of testing is as follows: Art, who has tested our birds for the last four years, comes up from Turlock and usually arrives around 8 or 9 in the morning. He and his assistant pull into our driveway and, upon exiting their vehicle, immediately suit up into protective clothing so that they don't contaminate our birds from their visit to other farms, or other farms' birds from ours! Art pulls out a small table, plus a set of syringes, vials, rubbing alcohol, and gloves, and we get to work. In the fall testing, we do each bird. I keep them in their coop until we start, then pull out one at a time, handing them over to Art for a little prick under the wing to collect a small bit of blood, and then back into the pen. After a little fluffing, they're back to normal! Sometimes we try to do other things at the same time: maybe dusting for mites/lice or weighing to determine growth rates. Art brings the blood samples - all labeled with each hen's or cockerel's number and flock - to a laboratory in Turlock for testing, and we receive the results within 2-3 weeks.

You'll have noticed that $100 seems like a smokin' deal for a twice yearly visit and testing - in a laboratory - each of our birds! This program is subsidized by the federal government in support of agricultural communities. This is not something I would expect our government to even notice in current times, but because the program began in the 30s, when poultry was always raised in small flocks by local farmers, it has been grandfathered in to continue serving our rural agricultural communities (though it also serves the large poultry houses, of course; I imagine they're on a different payment program, but don't know). The program, of course, doesn't have all of the resources it needs: they have a long waiting list! But it exists, at least, and is an amazing opportunity for us to be sure that you're getting the healthiest product possible!

We participate in the program to protect the health of our flock, but also - and primarily - to protect our consumers! We eat our eggs raw all the time - in mayonnaise, Hollandaise sauce, soft-cooked eggs for breakfast, etcetera - and want you to feel comfortable doing so, as well. If you have questions about this program, our eggs, our participation, or other poultry-related queries, please let us know! We love having chickens, and would love to help in making it approachable for you, too!

Here's to healthy eggs!

 - Elizabeth 

While not related to poultry, this sage is just too pretty not to photograph!

Autumn Glory!

Ahhhhh. The first few weeks of cool weather have rejuvenated herbs, flowers, and farmers alike!

Zinnias, peppers, and sunflowers: oh, my!

After months of ignoring the weeds - it was just too hot! - we've had a chance to get in there and tackle them. Pedro's new MO is to use his wheeled hoe from Valley Oak Tool Company (they're in Chico!) to clear the pathways between the garden beds, then edge the beds with a spade, and then weed (ugh!), and then loosen and compost. It's a LOT of work, but we're making up for NOT doing it for three months, so I guess it all evens out...

And on the point of autumn, our wonderful Rick Bonetti reminded me of the Autumnal Equinox in his Redding Voice blog, yesterday. It's a beautiful season to celebrate fruit and vegetable reproduction - and the edible part they produce as a bonus! - as well as begin to think about preparation for cooler weather. I've begun trimming some of my leggier perennials (I'm looking at you, white sage and wormwood!) and thinking about spring bulbs.

We have some really fun winter squash coming on:

1. Pipian, which is a dish that Pedro grew up with (one of his favorites, with chicken cooked in a sauce made of the squash seeds - totally relish!), is also a species of squash. It's really lovely, all white and stripey, and the vines just continue to get larger and larger (see August 26 summer update for their size last month...), and
2. Australian Butter Squash, one that I chose for it's lovely color... and we haven't yet used, so are looking forward to baking with (yes! squash pie! veggies for dessert... or dessert for dinner!).

We aren't getting too many of the Aussie squash, so we'll see if those get out to the CSA, but the Pipian seems to be doing well. Pedro mother did let us know that we shouldn't look at the little baby squash, as they formed - they're evidently quite shy and just fall off the vine if you look at them when they're too small!

It's lovely weather like this, with beautiful and rewarding work to be done, that operating a farm is the most wonderful thing in the world!

Many autumnal wishes to you all.

- Elizabeth

Heirloom Expo 2017

The annual Heirloom Expo has been a destination for us since we moved to Shasta County, in 2011 - conveniently, the year they began the Expo, as well! It is a mad celebration of heirloom seeds, heritage-breed livestock, and traditional - for all cultures, over millennia - food preparation methods. It's a unique and valuable opportunity for us to learn about "new" (usually newly-discovered!) vegetable and fruit strains, hear about food and agricultural policy changes, and meet people who are trying to do similar things with building community around food and earth. It's a blast of exciting-exhausting-inspirational-challenging-limitess-beautiful work and passion.

One of the things we look forward to some years is hearing Vandana Shiva speak. She comes to the Expo just about every year, and seems to be close friends with the main organizers, the owners of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. This year she spoke to the incredible and brilliant self-organization of nature ("autopoiesis"), the concept of scarcity and its impossibility in nature (one seed becoming 1,000, the 200,000 varieties of rice in India - amazing!), and the unity of all living things. As we always do, we truly enjoyed the 40 minutes she spent with us, speaking with many hundreds of people crammed into one of the largest - echoey! - buildings at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. 

One of the stories woven through her theme was the concept of violence against life in the form of genetic seed modification and the use of single-purpose chemicals. This is violence against nature through modification of seeds with toxins embedded, terminator technology (they don't self-propagate), and death of all "weeds" but the objective crop. This is violence against human communities through the dependance of farmers and consumers on multi-national corporations for something that should be free: the abundance of nature, and associated food crops ("a byproduct of seed", and Dr. Shiva reminds us!). The violence of patenting seeds, even non-genetically engineered versions, in order to gain control over the genetic material. What she didn't say, but was embedded in her lecture and in the core values of the Heirloom Expo, is that we, as consumers, participate in this cycle of violence. What choices do we make at the grocery store? Where do we go to celebrate with our families? How do we landscape our yards?

She extended her lecture to cover the actions that we choose to take, independently. The world is interconnected, and divisions that we see do not, in fact, exist. Connections exist between all of us, between us and nature, and between and within natural systems. We, as humans, are part of the system, and co-creators with the seed, with the pollinators, and with the consumer - an essential component of this system! As we always are reminded here on Oliview Farm (as if we could forget!), we are not in control of the system in which we operate, we don't understand how the system is organized, and we can only make an effort to be a productive and positive part of the system - our small role in it - through gentle growing practices, emphasizing diversity in all things, and trying to weave empathy and affection - Wendell Berry's word - in all of our actions. 

All of this beauty and diversity naturally, through a single strain of "wild" tomatoes in Central/South America!

Herbs Return

Not many herbs love Shasta County summers... most of us living things just tolerate the heat and desiccation, to be frank. However, with the cooling nights, lower sun angle, and the RAIN we just got, today, the herbs are looking great, again. And SOOOO: our CSA members received bunches of thyme, oregano, mint, and a sage sprig in their shares this week.

What to do with fresh herbs?

1. You can dry them, certainly: all of those in this week's share dry well, with the possible exception of mint, which is better used fresh. I find that the best way to do this is by laying them on top of a tea towel in a sheet pan for a week or so, turning, occasionally, until they're pretty dry and the leaves are easy to strip from the stems. I strip the leaves, and then leave them alone for another three days or so to finish drying, fluffing them occasionally so that none lose out on getting a dry as possible. Then I crush them (optional!) and fill a dry, clean spice jar. All ready for kitchen use!
2. You can root them! probably not the sage, but the oregano, mint, and thyme will all root nicely if kept in a container of water for a month or so. They're ready to plant in your own garden, after that!
3. You can make this AMAZING chermoula sauce that Pedro and I have been enjoying on meat, cucumbers and tomatoes, and sandwiches (mixed with mayo - YUM!). It is good on everything, and is forgiving if you don't have a particular ingredient (or if you add in others that you happen to have a lot of!). I also find it quite a good place to hide a bit of turmeric... we try to get a good amount each week in our normal diet, as it's so healthy, but the flavour doesn't always go with everything. This sauce is a great way to get it!

Enjoy this week's share!

- Elizabeth

A Perfect Pear

When we purchased the property that is now Oliview, it came with a LOT of trash that we didn't want, but it also came with previous owners' plantings. We've been lobbied, on a number of occasions, to remove some of the older stuff, and occasionally we do try cutting out an old (sour!) grapevine or an invasive plum tree or seven... but we LOVE our pear trees. They don't look like much: there are three of them in various stages of limb loss, and no matter our attempts at pruning, there's a pretty high dead:live material ratio in two of them, but they PRODUCE! I joked with Pedro's mother last week about it being the food crop on the farm that we do the least to, and it is the most productive! 

Pears are an interesting fruit: they ripen from the inside to the outside. Therefore, it is tricky to figure out when they're ripe! We've been picking one/week for a while, now, and leaving them in paper bags for a week to see if the off gassing of ethylene gas (a natural off gassing of a number of fruits that encourages ripening) will allow them to ripen to an edible consistency. Off the tree they're rocks, you see. The flavor is great, but the texture is hard, hard, hard. Waiting just a week or two allows the pears to ripen, soften, and get this mellow, honey-pear scent that is just divine.

We leave pears at the tippy top of the tree, as well as those the birds have already gotten to (grumble!), because they look so beautiful AND because it's a lovely way to attract a diversity of birds to the yard when there's not a lot of other things to eat.

The bees like them, too, as do the birds. And both species are much, much better at sensing ripeness than we are! When we start seeing bees around the tree, and pears are getting little bee-mouth holes dug out of them - not dismissible, as they can finish off an entire pear! - then we know that they're ready, for sure, and we need to get out there and get picking!

One of the toughest-looking trees: it has survived at least one round of fire blight that we know of (in our five years here), and I'm sure there have been previous years with similar challenges. I use a 10-foot ladder, since it's not as scary at the top as some of those 16-footers!

Pears, pears, pears! I am a sucker for seasonal harbingers, and what more can you do to say that autumn is coming that pick a tub of pears?