Still With the Chicken Coop

Okay, well, we're finally nearing the end of chicken-related work on the farm. Today, I spent a couple more hours with Graham working on cleaning out the coop. We swept the floor again, gave everything another quick rinse and scrub with the push-broom, and sprayed down the whole interior with hydrogen peroxide solution. This was the highlight of my workday because I got to wear a spray pack that was like something out of Ghost Busters. Here's a picture of me sanitizing the wheel barrows:


It's nice having all of this cleaning done, because we're now all ready for the garlic harvest! There's quite a bit of it, and we're going to be spending much of the next few days harvesting it and hanging it in the barn to cure. In fact, if it is necessary, we are going to work Saturday and Sunday to finish the harvest and then take off Monday and Tuesday. This will be the plan if the garlic is ready and if Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be rainy (which the forecast is predicting at the moment).

The rest of my day involved some light weeding, putting up a few more coyote urine posts, and pulling a few more diseased garlic plants. I am getting worried that the urine is not a practical deterrent for deer. First off, they are still losing plants to munching. But beyond that, we now have 12 urine posts around the perimeter of the farm. This is about a full bottle of urine, and most of it seems to evaporate in about a week. A bottle of urine is over 20 dollars! That's a lot of money to spend each week on canine pee. It would be nice if they could get the electric fence around the perimeter of the farm up and running again, but Patrick indicated that it would be a lot of work to fix it up.

Finally, one other thing I did today was squish some Colorado potato beetle larvae (while wearing gloves, thankfully). They're pretty gross, and quite the destructive pest. I didn't take this picture, but I thought I'd show you just so you had a visual:

Alright, everybody. If you buy local, you can "Beet the System":

With a-Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain

Alright, it was another cold, rainy day. It's actually felt a bit like English weather--rainy, sunny, warm, and frigid, all in one day. We began our morning by finishing up a few chores that were left from yesterday. I mowed a few pathways, Patrick and Colleen planted a few beds, and Graham thinned/weeded radishes. After that, it was on to cleaning and sanitizing the chicken coop. It is going to be used for hanging and drying garlic, so it needs to be spotless and sterile. That's quite the chore, let me tell you. First, we had to shovel out four to six inches of hay that was covered in chicken feces. This was loaded into the wheel barrow and dumped in the compost pile. Then Graham and I swept the floor as best we could. After that, one of us hosed down the floor and the other person scrubbed with a push-broom. Finally, we had to go back again and spray down the cracks between the floorboards and scrape them out with a backhoe. This took from about 10:30 in the morning until about 5:15 in the evening, with an hour for lunch in there. Here's what it looked like after today's cleaning:


It's still not perfect, but you wouldn't believe how much of an improvement this is. I could have taken a "before" shot, but I don't think anyone would want to look at that anyway. In any case, we still have a little more left to do tomorrow. After it dries out over night, we're going to sweep the floor again. Then we'll do another quick hose-down and scrub with the push broom. Finally, we'll use a 10% hydrogen peroxide solution to sanitize everything. It's a lot of work, but at least we'll have a good storage space for the garlic we'll be harvesting this week.

If you're curious about what everyone looks like, here's me, Graham, Colleen and Patrick (from left to right):



Also, I took some pictures of the hops that Brian and Rebecca are growing on-site. They have over 10 varieties of hops growing, including some crosses they made themselves:



Finally, here's some more of Brian's Celtic artwork. This is the coop for the laying hens (not the one we cleaned out today, this one is still very much in use by chickens):

A Rainy Day on the Farm

Last night as I was getting for bed, I heard the wind start blowing and wailing. It sounded like a storm was ready to blow through, so I checked out the weather. The forecast was for a day of rain and scattered storms.

When I woke up in the morning, the air felt heavy and black clouds looked like they were rolling in from the west. Hence, Graham and I hurried up and harvested some more of the onion seed for Colleen and Patrick. We were afraid if we left it longer, the wind would blow a lot of it away, and then the rain would get it wet. Wet seed is no good, nor is seed that has fallen to the ground. We got the last of it just in time--right as we stepped into the barn with our buckets of seed pods, it started pouring.

As the rain started coming down, I asked Graham what we do when it rains. He gave me a blank stare in response that communicated very clearly with me: "Well, Chris, we work anyway." I knew that was going to be the answer, but I was really hoping he was going to say, "We go back inside and watch cartoons until the rain stops. We wouldn't want you to get wet, Chris."

So we worked out the in the rain. All day long. Besides cleaning out the barn that the chickens were in, the rest of our tasks for the day involved various kinds of weeding. The only kind that's feasible on a very wet day is hand-weeding, though. Hence, we spent the whole day hand-weeding onions. It was a slow weed because the rain didn't penetrate deep enough to help the weeds slip out of the ground. Rather, it just made them slippery, yet no easier to pull out of the ground.



When I came back to the house after working, I discovered that the power was out. I knew it was out earlier, because Graham saw that it was out at lunch. But I was expecting it would be back on by dinner time. No such luck. However, Brian and Rebecca (the brewery owners) invited us over for dinner, so we didn't need to worry about the oven not working or the fridge being non-functional. While everyone usually eats pretty healthy food on the farm, tonight was a bit of an indulgence. They got a turkey fryer, and they used it to fry one of their chickens, some mozzarella sticks, zucchini blossoms, and homemade jalapeno poppers. We ate in the brewpub, and got to sample whichever beers we wanted.



What a great way to spend an evening without electricity! Good company, good food, and good beer. As we sat around talking, suddenly the power kicked back on. The sky also cleared up, and made for a perfect end to the day:

Chicken Slaughter and Farm Tour

Well, it's finally over for those chickens. I know I've been eluding to it all week. The meat birds reached 11 weeks old, so they were already a week overdue for the slaughter. A mobile slaughter team arrived here around 8am this morning and got to work. I offered to help out this morning for a few reasons: I didn't have anything else to do, I want to be helpful, and I'm looking to have new experiences. This certainly was a new experience. First, we had to finish moving the chickens from the coop to the barn so that they were close to the mobile trailer. When it pulled up, it looked just like any other full-size trailer hitched to the end of an over-sized pickup truck. However, this trailer had a rack to hang the chickens up by their feet, an electric stun-knife, a tank to scald the dead chickens in (to make the feathers easy to remove), an agitator that removes the feathers, a cold water bath, and a long counter for butchering, weighing, labeling, and bagging the birds. It took a crew of four people to keep the operation running, and they were very efficient with their work.

After the trailer was set up with electric plug-ins and a water source, it was our job to take chickens from the barn to the back of the trailer. Then an older man with yellow waterproof overalls, rubber gloves, and an electric stun knife would take the bird and hang it upside down by its legs. He'd then touch the bird with the dull end of the electric knife to stun it. After the bird was stunned, then he slit it's throat in two swipes. Apparently, this takes a bit of experience and precision. You want to get the major arteries in the bird's neck so it bleeds out quickly, but you don't want to cut it's head off or slit the esophagus since this can allow for bacterial contamination. The worst part of this process for me was that as I handed him birds, the would flap a little bit, and then they'd flap a lot after they had their throats slit. This was an involuntary response, even though they were already dead. Unfortunately, all of that flapping spattered around the blood dripping from the necks of the birds hanging on the same or nearby hooks. I had chicken blood speckled all over my shirt, hat, and face. Not pleasant. Plus, the rest of the blood dripped onto the trailer and started to turn into a coagulated mess by the end. Rebecca said that I looked queasy after looking down at that. After the birds are slaughtered, they are defeathered and butchered. Defeathering means scalding them in 160 degree water, then agitating them in a machine so that the feathers come out. Then the heads, feet, and organs are removed before they are put into a bag. Connell, Brian and Rebecca's Irish wolfhound, snuck off a few chicken heads throughout the whole process.

While I found the entire experience interesting, I have to say that this has just further affirmed my vegetarianism--I do not feel a need to ever eat meat ever again. Also, I will never ever purchase eggs or meat for guests that is not free range. As I mentioned earlier, the life and death of these birds was nothing but humane. When we carried them to the slaughter trailed, Brian even tried to make sure they faced away from the carnage so they didn't have to look at it. Of course, they wouldn't understand what they saw anyway, but you could tell that everyone really respected these animals. In fact, while I don't mind describing how this all went, I didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures of what happened because I felt like it would be distasteful.

The second half of my day was a bit less gruesome. I got to do a farm tour at another organic farm in the area. This guy was seriously organized. He had a lot of efficiencies built into his techniques, his rows were perfectly straight, and they never let the weeds get ahead of them. It made for a beautiful farm:



After the tour, there was a potluck dinner. I had no clue there was a potluck, or even dinner, afterward, but apparently I was told and just didn't process it. I hate showing up to something like that empty handed, particularly because I love any excuse I can find for cooking. Luckily, someone else I carpooled with didn't have a dish either, so we stopped off and brought a bottle of wine. That worked out just fine:


Then we stopped by an outdoor festival after dinner and listened to some live music.

Haying

On Saturday morning, I got up bright and early to help some of the neighbors with haying. The neighbors, Sylvie and Benoit, moved to BC from France so that they could keep horses, sheep, and do various other kinds of farming. They have some big, beautiful horses on the farm, but their size means they burn through quite a bit of hay:


To keep up with the demand, they harvest hay from their own land. A hay-baling tractor came around on Thursday and made small, rectangular bales. Our job was first to move them into piles of 6 or so, then we drove the truck through and loaded them up. They get piled in pretty high:




After loading the truck, we then drove back to the barn where they will be stored until the winter. This basically meant that we started loading bales onto the floor of the barn, and stacked them in a brick pattern until the field was clear. This was about 10-12 trips with two trucks, and by the end you had to climb up the hay structure we created to continue the pile. I could touch the ceiling of the barn, the hay was stacked so high.



While this was an enjoyable, challenging experience, I have to say I was beat afterwards. We worked from 8 until about 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon. It got pretty hot because you need to work in gloves, long pants, and long sleeves. If you don't take such precautions, the hay scratches you to bits. I actually meant to post about this experience last night, but I was so tired that I fell asleep at around 8:30 and didn't wake up until 6:30 this morning!

After we finished haying and having our turn in the shower, I had a very pleasant surprise in store. Sylvie cooked us lunch, and hosted us for a meal! I didn't take a picture of the house because I thought it might be a bit rude to do so, but they live in a cottage that might as well be in the French countryside. The door handles, light fixtures, floor plan, and the furniture all reminded me of being in France. The back garden was perfectly manicured, vibrantly green with highlights of colorful flowers, and a view of the mountains in the distance. I could see why they were willing to leave the French countryside for British Columbia! The meal was also incredible. I love the leisurely dining style of Southern Europe--there was a selection of cheese, several kinds of couscous/quinoa/pasta salads, freshly sliced avocado, potato and egg salad, three different kinds of olives, and plenty of cold beverages.

Here's the best I could do without treating their house like a tourist destination:


Finally, here's one I took of another farm on the drive home:

Harvest and Slaughter

Today was a day of witnessing the fruits of farm labor! In the morning, we bunched vegetables for the Saturday morning farmer's market in Sorrento. I helped collect salad mix for a bit, but then I got moved to other duties when we had all the salad we needed. I gathered up 16 bunches of kale, 8 bunches of collard greens, and few bunches of carrots. Harvesting kale or collards means taking the leaves closer to the ground--if you do it right, the plant will continue to grow and provide leaves all summer. After that, I brought all the bunched out to the side of the house and gave them a cold water bath to prevent them from wilting.

After harvest, I went back to the kitchen because I was on lunch duty. It was really hot out again today, so I couldn't really fathom the idea of eating hot food. Hence, I made a cold carrot soup. I am really pleased with how it turned out. I sauteed two large onions in about 4 tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter. I also added two medium cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. Simultaneously, I sliced and boiled about 7 extra large carrots until they were soft. Since I was in a rush, I gave the cooked carrots a cold water rinse and blended everything together with some cold water and ice. Finally, I added some fresh mint and basil I picked from the farm and a squeeze of half a lemon. It seemed like an original idea, but I found a similar recipe on the BBC. The same thing happened last week when I made egg rolls wrapped in collard greens--someone else had already done it, all the way down to the almond butter and chili flake dipping sauce.

Finally, I ended my work day by helping to move some chickens. They are going to be slaughtered on Sunday, so they needed to move from their coop to the barn so that the mobile processing truck can get easy access to them. It is harder to catch chickens than you might think! These meat birds don't move too quickly, but they sure do struggle if you try to pick them up. It was a rough job because of the heat, the weight of the birds, and the stench.


As a side-note, I have to say that I am not a fan of this breed of chicken. They are a commercial variety (I think Cornish-Rock hens) that is bred for maximum meat production. It only takes about 10 weeks for them to be plump enough to eat. These birds are so fat their legs can barely support them, and they only walk for a few steps at a time. I didn't expect that moving these particular chickens would be so gross-they spend most of their day laying around in their own feces.

To be honest, I was a bit sad to see how selective breeding could create a bird that can't even enjoy the good treatment they are getting on this farm. I mean, the whole idea is that the chickens are supposed to fertilize the hops and do a bit of pest control. But instead, they don't venture anywhere near the hops and just loiter around the food and the coop in a big, smelly cluster. In contrast, the egg-producing birds I fed the other day are graceful, active, and friendly little creatures. They take full advantage of the good treatment they get! Needless to say, I was pleased to hear that Brian is not going to get this variety of chickens next year. However, I can guarantee you that 95% of the chicken you've ever eaten was either this breed or a similar one. And most of them are not given free range access to an organic seed farm with high-quality feed and the right to keep their beaks.


After work, we went out to dinner for Patrick's birthday. It was a surprise, and I think Colleen managed to pull it off without him having any idea of what was going on! The dinner was excellent, the company was even better, and I enjoyed leaving the farm for a little bit. I have to say, Colleen and Patrick have been really great with involving me during my time here. If I WWOOF again in the future, I really hope I find hosts who are this nice and thoughtful.

Let's end with a picture of some of the Celtic artwork that's all over the farm:

Harvesting Onion Seed

The new thing I got to do today was harvest onion seed! As you know, the name of Patrick and Colleen's company is Stellar Seeds, so it makes sense that we would be harvesting some seed every once in a while. I am actually pretty lucky to get to witness this process, because it's pretty early in the season for this to happen. The farm apprentice, Graham, actually missed out on the first seed harvest of the year. He reads this blog, so he's going to be sad when he finds out!

After a rough morning of mowing and wheel hoeing, Patrick and I walked by the onions and he noticed that the seed pods were ready to be collected today. So after lunch, we all went out there with buckets and scissors to collect the pods. They showed me how to cup the pod with my hand so seeds don't fall to the ground when the plant is agitated. Also, I was instructed to take an extra 6 inches or so of stem along with the pod. This way, the few seeds at the bottom of the pod that are not completely ready can draw up some extra nutrients. This is supposed to increase your germination rates.

I have to say, as with many other plants, it's really interesting to see the seed-production phase of the onion's life cycle. Apparently this is fairly common for plants, but onions take two years to produce seed. That means that all of the young onions I've been weeding this week are actually not going to produce seed this year. Instead, they will be collected at the end of the year, put into cold storage, and planted again in the spring. Actually, Graham told me that each onion can be halved next year and then you'll get two seed producing plants out of a single onion.

Here are some flowering onion plants from a distance:



And the seed pods I collected:

Here's a row after harvesting. We'll get the rest next week after they mature a little more:


As for the rest of my day... it was mostly defined by the heat. I started an hour early today so that I could finish a bit early and avoid working during the hottest hours of the day. But it was still sweltering!

In the early evening, I met some new people. First, I met the family I'm going to help on Saturday. They have a tractor coming by to harvest/bale their hay, and then I'm going to help them with the haying process. I don't really know what I'll be doing exactly--moving it? Helping to load it onto a truck? Move it to a new field? Who knows, it will be an adventure!

Then at dinner, I met a nice couple that Patrick and Colleen invited over. I made a bit too much food yesterday, so they figured they'd have their friends over to help us get through it. One of their friends was from southern Illinois! That means that both Americans I've met while I've been here have been from Illinois. There was some pretty good conversation at dinner about climate change, factory farming, and similar issues. However, I didn't really participate much because I felt like I didn't know enough to participate, so it was better to listen and learn.

I'll leave you with another picture. This is where all of the tools and the tractor are stored: