What A Busy April

It is too true.  While many people are talking about the slower pace of life during this time of quarantine, I am busier than I’ve ever been.

I stepped up my game in the garden and pushed the limits of my budget for food forest trees, shrubs, and plants.  My supply of seeds was eaten by rodents, so I needed to replenish (my own fault), and fortunately I got my seeds and plants ordered in the nick of time before things got too difficult.

One day after my seed order was filled, the company I ordered from was slammed with orders and was asking people to be patient while they tried to keep their employees safe during operations.  Another company I had an order with, stopped taking orders just days after I got my order in, so they could catch up.  I watched anxiously while their stock dwindled hoping my order would be filled (they’ve got the best yellow crookneck seeds).  And the nursery I ordered trees and bushes from were unable to fill all of my order.

Everyone was scrambling and I felt lucky to have ridden the crest of the wave.  I’ve got all my seeds, and have been planting for two months.  In fact, we started eating from the garden just a couple of days ago.

But it’s Spring and my laying flock has really stepped up production.  I’m getting between 2 and 3 dozen eggs per day.  That’s a bit of a challenge because I only have one egg customer.  Meanwhile, I’ve set up an outdoor, self service egg selling station so people can help themselves and leave their money in a coffee can bank.  But no takers.  Even with eggs so hard to find, people walk past my sign and look and then keep walking.

Fortunately for me I was able to get eggs to several family members who were missing them at the supermarket.  I unloaded 33 dozen - two weeks worth of eggs.  It’s a relief that they won’t be going to waste.  And the thing I’m finding out is that people are no longer taking things like eggs for granted anymore.

I remember a friend of mine saying that people wanted to trade eggs for massage.  As a licensed massage therapist and energy worker, she was talking about how eggs weren’t valuable enough to trade for massage, and I realized how things have changed so much in our world.  There was a time when the local midwife or herbalist or healer/doctor would take payment in food.  Food was prized and valued, because people had common knowledge about what went into the growing of food, the raising of food, the time it took and the labor involved.  Now people buy cheap food at a corporate supermarket and they are so far removed from that process that they have no real appreciation for real food.  They have no experience with what it really takes to produce food.

Anyway, my flock’s eggs were truly appreciated when they made the rounds among my family members.  My mom told me she felt rich!  And talked about all the things she would do with eggs.  Just last week she was hoarding the few eggs she had left, trying to make them last.

Another thing the layers are producing right now are chicks.  I’ve had four hens go broody this Spring.  I’m glad they are going in a cycle and not all at once.  It started with one, then a week later, another one, then a week after her, another one, and so on.  I have one mama with her chicks in the yard, and another one in her house hatching out chicks these last few days, and another one due to start hatching out in less than a week.  I’m running out of places to put everyone.  Tomorrow I will be building another brooder and putting up fencing for this next batch due.  It’s tonnes of work and while not all at once, it’s coming pretty steadily in waves.

Meanwhile I’ve been raising meat birds too.  So I was able to get my family set up with birds in their freezers for the next few weeks.  Meanwhile the next batch of chicks arrived by mail last week.  They will grow up and feed my family just when they’re needed.  It’s intense though.  The harvesting must be done daily within a two to three week period when they are at a certain age and weight.  Since it’s just me, I’ve about reached the limit of what I can provide.  I’ve committed to providing birds for four families, which includes us.  But it is worth it to me.  I’m driven to do this.  It’s the most impactful way I can connect with my family during this time of quarantine.  It makes me feel less isolated, to make sure that as long as I am producing good quality food, I can share it with them.

It’s a bit like a family cooperative.  In that they pay for the grain “their birds” eat and for the cost of each chick, and I take care of the birds, raise them, harvest them, and process them.

As for my immediate family right here, I dream of producing the majority of our food on this land.  And this time of quarantine is really putting that dream to the test.  I’m finding it difficult to get certain processed things, like flour and baking soda.  It makes me want to be more creative about how I make bread.  Without flour, I have to find new ways to make bread from materials that I can grow on my place.  Like grinding corn to make tortillas, or using potatoes, or legumes, or starchy vegetables to create a kind of bread.  Maybe not a sandwich loaf, maybe not traditional pasta, maybe not wheat cakes, but something bread like that comes from my garden.

So living in this way, fills up a lot of each day.  And meanwhile, I’m still binding books by hand for our family owned business, Pegana Press.

Grow Your Own Food - Eat Locally

My Buff Orpington layer flock (a batch of chicks I acquired in June of 2019), along with 4 Heritage Rhode Island Reds, and 3 Barred Rocks make a total of 25 laying hens.  They are watched over by 3 Buff Orpington Roosters.  This flock is about to be joined by 19 Buff Orpington pullets and 1 cockerel from the October 2019 batch of chicks.

I’m currently getting an average of 15 eggs a day.  When the pullets begin laying eggs that will  potentially double over time.

So far I only have one egg customer and am trying to use up eggs as quickly as I can.  I also give eggs away to anyone who comes to visit.  I’m hoping to get more paying customers in order to offset the cost of grain.  I see people looking at the sign as they go by, but people have gotten into the habit of buying everything in one place, in large corporate owned warehouse or grocery stores.

That’s something we need to have a conversation about.  If you’re my age, you remember that a lot of grocery stores were owned by people who lived in the community.  Remember that?  If you don’t it’s because the mom and pop stores of yesteryear are all but extinct.  That actually came about from a corporate business practice of moving into a community and underpricing products to drive smaller businesses out.  Once they have eliminated the local competition, they can now raise prices and offer products of their choice.  Not necessarily products that people in the community want or need, or are good for the community.  People get used to the “choices” that are being “offered” to them and eventually they will buy what they are “told” to buy.  That’s why we no longer have fresh local bakeries, local butcher shops, and local grocery stores in every community.  That’s why local nurseries have mostly disappeared.  Book stores...All the local businesses that used to make up “Main Street” and “Downtown” in towns and cities, are all gone.

Okay, so what?  Where am I going with this?  This is not a nostalgic stroll down memory lane for me.  There is a point to that last paragraph.  The point is, what happens when we have a pandemic (like the one we’re facing right now) that impacts the supply chain of food?  When people panic, they hoard.  They stockpile.  And that creates a problem because suddenly food becomes scarce.

So what to do now?  Plant food.  Right now.  Plant in window boxes, on balconies, on patios, in gardens and vacant lots.  Learn to forage.  Get cities and towns to plant food plants instead of ornamentals all over the place.  Trees that bear fruit.  This is really important.  When I went into town for my usual shopping trip, I wasn’t thinking about stocking up.  But I noticed the shelves were a little barer than usual.  When I started talking to someone stocking shelves at the co-op, he told me how Corona Virus was causing interruptions in the supply chain.  I hadn’t thought about it.  My response was to buy some quick growing cold weather crop seeds.  It’s still cool here, but I could get seeds started and transplant them out.  Things that grow at this time of year will be mature in 45 days.  That’s mid to late April.  I realized that there is no time to waste here.

So I want to encourage everyone who can to grow what they can.  The smaller the space, the more intensive food production you can potentially get out of it.  No space is too small.  And we can all be a bit more creative about what we think of as a garden.

Why aren’t we growing more food locally?