It has been quite a week here at the farm. With so many updates, I’m not sure where to begin! Most of the changes have to do with the chicks and the barn status. Knowing that the chicks would soon be getting access to their outdoor run I decided to introduce them to their nipple water system. I made a smaller version than the larger outdoor fountain available to them inside their coop. I think of these as their fountains of youth! So I set the first one up and tried to train them to use it. It did not take long since they are mostly pretty curious and I followed the directions that were provided! 😉 Here they are taking a looksie. 
The idea is that they peck at the little nipples and they get a drip or two of water. This keeps their water supply clean and helps to eliminate any standing water which could grow bacteria. It also serves as a distraction since it is almost like a new toy to them.
I also was trying to give them a little treat after making tomato sauce the other day. I took the skins and leftover matter from the food mill down to their coop and put it out in an aluminum pie plate as if to serve them a bit of dinner. What an idiot I was…of course the shiny pie plate was a distraction that made them uncomfortable.
Duh! I took the scraps out of pan and put them directly on the floor and the crowd went wild! It was hilarious to see them running around the coop with a piece in their beaks as if they had captured the flag!
In the meantime, the painters arrived early Saturday and spent the day painting the barn. This was important since the chicks at 5 weeks old tomorrow are feeling the need for some additional space but their outdoor area still needed some painting. Scotty, Doug and Dave obliged me and got the run painted first before attacking the rest of the barn.
Looking much better now with a bit of color on the board and batten exterior!
So it was a big day today to finally put the hose of the outdoor water fountain in place and let the chicks begin to explore their new digs! They were cautious at first but then explored a bit further. 
They found another Farley gate for roosting purposes and have taken their first dust baths! 
Coulter now goes out with us each day to visit the chicks but as much as he likes all their activities, he may best enjoy the chicken on the screen porch as it stands still for his inspections!
On to the bees: We picked up and installed the new queen on Wednesday. Here she is in her little cage with some attendants waiting to ‘go’. She is “marked” with a dot of ink on her back so she is easily spotted in the crowd. I took a nail and punctured the sugar plug that separated her from the rest of the world and knew that her new subjects would eagerly eat thru the sugar to welcome her to the hive. 
I re-inspected the hive yesterday and sure enough, she was out, roaming the frames and hopefully filling lots of empty cells with eggs! This hive is currently being fed with sugar syrup to help them adjust. The next step for the bees is to test for mites which is best to do around August 1st. More on that later. I’m pleased that the assortment of sunflowers I planted near the back terrace are now really starting to bloom and the bees will enjoy this summer time pollen and nectar!
In the meantime, I’m continuing to process the harvest whenever I get a chance. The blueberry bushes are about spent (I’m almost relieved since the time commitment to pick is daunting) but I’ll pick a bit more here and there which should bring my total close to 140 pounds…that is a lot of berries! Dave continues to harvest twice daily and so far has a yearly cumulative poundage of about 900lbs! I have not counted how many bags of frozen produce I’ve tucked away in the freezer but his Excel sheet reveals that I have canned 355.5 jars (in various sizes) of produce so far this year! Whoa, that is a lot but much more to come! I’m just a tad bit behind since I’m finalizing my Missouri Botanical Garden presentation for Tuesday, August 2nd 6-7pm….be there or be square! I hope to share as much information as I can about Preserving Your Harvest! Thanks in advance to daughter Kate for her support on the Keynote presentation platform…without her, this would have been even more daunting!
We spent the morning off loading it (OMG, sand is heavy!) into small containers that we carried down to fill the pool surround in the coop. After many trips, we felt pretty good that the new brooder was ready, so I transferred all the chicks to their new home. As a well intentioned new chick mom – AKA “playground attendant” – I hung around and watched the ensuing activity. I’m glad I stuck around since the pool walls (ony 15″ tall) did not prove high enough to keep the chicks from lofting up from their food dish and then to the top of the wall…and out from there! Oh, drat and arg and all those other words I know so well!
Here they are in the crock with brine and ready for a weight on top to sit for a couple of weeks. The smell of dill is wonderful but also thrilling is the use of so many cukes!
Watch for more chick updates as well as name ideas which are becoming more obvious as they mature! So far, the four Easter Egger chicks are well named: 2 by the Moores – Petunia & Myrtle, and 2 by my nephew, Jack – Buttercup and Violet…all flower names since these are the colorful egg layers! More names in the next post!
The bees love to help out with pollination! 
So, much like other years, I have started with our favorite sweet pickle recipe and weighed up 9 pounds on each of the last couple of days to wash and slice up. 
I then pack them tightly – steaming hot – into pint jars before adding a sweetly spiced, cooked syrup that has thickened on the stove top in the background. Ouch to fingers!
This reliable recipe makes 10 pints of crisp, sweet pickles which I’ve done twice already in the last two days. I’ve already made 31 half pints of blueberry jam in addition to freezing countless gallon bags of them. If it weren’t raining, I’d be picking berries now to add to the 90 plus pounds I have harvested this year to date. Here are some of the pickles and blueberry jam jars cooling while waiting for labels.
The garlic bulbs have finished drying after two weeks on their screen bed and were ready today to trim and put in the “root cellar”, aka the basement. I cut their long necks and put them into the mesh bags I had purchased for this purpose and off they went to hang in a dark, cool corner of the basement where I will send my messenger, Dave, to grab a head every now and then for cooking during the coming year.
Dave started digging the potatoes recently and got less than three of the ten rows dug so far – weighing in over 53 pounds – before the rain started in so they are also in the cool, dark basement as well! We expect quite a nice continued harvest of Pontiac Reds to compliment more of the Yukon Golds as seen below. 
With all the processing I’ve been doing these days, I decided to wise up and get some bulk items to help keep the cost down. For instance, I found a great pectin supplier in a small, family owned company in northern California called Pacific Pectin. So instead of opening an individual package of Sure-Gel every time I make a batch of jam, I’m measuring out the equivalent amount from a 10 pound box. What a savings for a jam maker like me!
I’ve also taken to buying my sugar in 25lb bags. 
This requires some strong arms and pre-planning which I’ve been working on as well as the supplies for pickles shown here. Gallon containers of vinegar were on sale recently so I’m grabbing as many jugs and noting the amounts subtracted from each so as to keep my constant measuring sensible. 
When I have time, I pre-measure bags of sugar for specific recipes so that I have a system called ‘mis en place’ – French for ‘things in place’ – so as to keep the stress of the fast paced, heated cooking the simplest. This helped out when making 85 jars of strawberry jam!
Other crops are doing well and we are serving a large variety at mealtimes: turnips, broccoli, swiss chard, lettuces, scallions, peas and peppers and more. The tomatoes are just beginning to ripen and it looks as though we will have a good harvest. I’m investigating another method of preserving our harvest this year as I purchased a vacuum sealer recently. Everyone raves about these machines but I’ve been hesitant since I’ve been pretty successful so far with my other tools. 
So far, so good. I worked up some Swiss chard today into nice bundles for the freezer. I consider this another tool in my war chest…I’ll keep you posted as to my opinion of usefulness. 
So, besides all I’m trying to accomplish on the farm lately, I’ve been asked to give a presentation at the 
The chicks provided some of the entertainment and at one week old, are doing quite well despite eating us out of house and home as they are consuming at least 3 quarts of feed each day! Tail feathers are now apparent on some of the varieties. 
And we joined in for a group photo that included other JBS faculty members and their families! Happy Fourth of July! 
Seven Oaks Farm & Orchard 