San Diego Unified Farm to School Program

I saw a truck driving around town today promoting SD Unified's Farm To School program.  Didn't know anything about it so looked it up:  http://www.sandi.net/page/993

The program's goals:  We do not expect to meet them over night but we will use these goals as our guiding principles for implementing our Farm to School program.

• 15% of the fresh fruits and vegetables purchased will be sourced locally.
• Serve one “all local” lunch per month.
• Use sustainably raised hormone and antibiotic free meat and/or protein sources in school meals, use locally raised proteins when possible.
• Develop supplemental Farm to School activities and experiential learning opportunities for students.
• Create community partnerships.

Panera Commercial

While I don't think Panera's food is the best, I did however like this commercial:

Chicken Bath

We're going to be moving to a new house soon and turning our house into a rental.  So I've slowly been getting rid of the veggie planter boxes.  When I remove those boxes it leaves behind nice dirt baths for the chickies!  And the other day I caught them bathing:

My Next Chicken Coop

I'm up in Napa Valley doing the wine country thing...  We stopped past the Castello di Amorosa (http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/) for a bit of wine tasting and a tour of the castle -- and of course to see all their farm animals.

Anyway, while there I saw this neat looking chicken coop and I swear I'm going to have to do this sometime if I can find the right tree!!!!

What a nice long curvy ladder up to their coop!

Show Chickens on CNN

Ohmigoodness, will you look at these chickens!

http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/06/chicken-portraits/?hpt=hp_c3

http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/06/chicken-portraits/?hpt=hp_c3

Seriously, goto the link and look at all the pictures -- this is amazing!

Chickens strutting their stuff!

Chicken Toys!

Ohmigoodness, I bought the girls this toy:



They love it!  I fill it with dried worms, and then they kick it around the yard till they get all the treats out.  Only problem -- they work full time at it and it only lasts about 20 minutes!!  I need a BIGGER one!

Chickie Snacks

Mom and Dad tried growing watermelons, and were able to muster one about 4" in diameter.

We'll see if the chickies like this.....

...sometime later...

Yep, they did!!!

Cracking an Egg

So in a previous post (http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2012/10/exceptional-eggs-i-read-something.html) I said that what made an egg easy or hard to peel was related to its age.

And then yesterday evening I got my Rachel Ray magazine and saw this:

"the more acidic the egg (the lower its pH level), the more difficult it is to peel -- and an egg is more acidic when it is fresh.  Age your eggs in the fridge for 10 days or so before boiling them or fast-track things by adding a teaspoon of alkaline-rich baking soda to the cooking water."

http://www.tablespoon.com/-/media/Images/Articles/qd/2012/04/2012-04-05-how-to-peel-eggs-586x322.jpg

Feed

So I've been playing around with my chicken feed.  I had been using Scratch and Peck Naturally Free Feed:  http://www.scratchandpeck.com/products/nflayer   It's organic, non-GMO, no soy and no corn.  And is available on Amazon!



Anyway, the ladies loved it...  And it was delivered right to my door!  Well, I started thinking about it and realized I was paying $36 for the luxury of getting 25 lbs delivered to my door.

So I decided to goto City Farmer's Nursery and just buy the best feed they had, as I was sure it was cheaper.  The best feed they had there, as far as I could tell, was Modesto Milling, organic, no soy, no corn, 50 lbs of feed for about the same price -- $36 (twice as much feed, for the same price).  Granted, this was less convenient (I had to drive about 20 minutes out to the nursery, and 20 minutes back) and more difficult (50lbs is hard for me to lug).  But I thought the cost savings might be better, and maybe the chickies would like it more.

Well, the girls are only so-so with the feed.  Actually I think they don't like it to much.  We've probably got about 25lbs of it left.

So my husband suggested that I just go ahead and switch back to the Scratch and Peck feed.  And last night I did -- I got 25lbs delivered to my door, I mixed it with the remaining Modesto feed....

and.....

They loved it!  In fact, I think they're picking around the old feed and not really eating it.  Oh well.  We'll see now if there is any difference in the eggs.

Potatoes

This was a large bowl of boiled potatoes...  Man the chickies like potatoes.

Ms. B and the Chickie Gate

We made a little gate with some chicken wire, to stop the chickens from coming down the stairs and pooping all over the patio.  Here you can see the gate, and the ladies:

Ms. Butterscotch, on the left, has now figured out how to hop down, onto the steps, and then hop back up.

So she only does it every once in awhile -- and she doesn't go very far (because I haven't seen poop on the patio).  So I'm not sure what she's thinking when she does it.

But as you can see, from the first picture, Ms. Oreo is "thinking" about doing the same thing.

Hawks!

Ohmigoodness...  there was a hawk in my backyard this morning and the chickies were screaming under a bush.

I scared it away -- but I assume it will come back?  Does this mean I can't leave the chickies free ranging unsupervised anymore?  We had started to think we'd leave them out all day while at work (we haven't done that yet, but have left them out for hours on the weekend while we ran errands).

Anyone else in San Diego (city -- not the boonies) have trouble with hawks?  What do I do?

Neat Farm Website

Saw this cute site and had to share it:  http://www.rahalfarm.com/farm_fresh_eggs.php

http://www.rahalfarm.com/farm_fresh_eggs.php

I sure like the blue egg carton and cute label.  These folks are in TN.

Nice Site on Farm Fresh Eggs

I stumbled upon this good read about commercial eggs versus the all natural, free range, good for you eggs:   http://www.crunchybetty.com/12-things-you-should-know-about-and-do-with-your-eggs

http://www.crunchybetty.com/12-things-you-should-know-about-and-do-with-your-eggs

It's a good read with a funny ending about 1 out of 1 cats choosing farm fresh eggs over commercial eggs!

Raw Milk

We drink raw milk in our house...  specifically Organic Pastures brand whole milk.  I get it at Sprouts.

http://www.organicpastures.com/

I love it, since after starting to drink it my allergies went nearly 100% away.  It's really changed things.

Anyway, I digress.  What I wanted to say was that as the milk gets a bit old, we give it to the ladies.  Boy do they love milk.  And I can only imagine what the healthy raw milk does really good for their eggs!

Anyway, I encourage folks to give their chickies milk every once in awhile.  Does good for humans and chickens!

Regularity

Ms. B is pretty regular....  She lays almost every day of the week.  I think there's only about one day a week where she doesn't lay an egg.

Ms. Oreo is VERY regular.  Only on a rare occasion does she miss an egg.

I keep thinking I should try to figure out their cycles -- do some predictions on what days will be missed!  Eh...  sounds like alot of work.

Survey!

San Diegans -- please take my survey!!

I want to know how many chickens you have and what zip code you're in!!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W799KXL

It's quick, it's easy....  Thanks in advance!

Pretty Picture of Green Eggs

Saw this picture online an thought it was pretty...

http://www.lespetitesgourmettes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/greenblue.jpg

Update on Ms. B

She's an on-again-off-again layer.  Not every day.  Couple days in a row, then a day off, then a couple days.  Eh....  I'm ok with that.  Considering she didn't lay for MONTHS, I'm good with on-again and off-again.

She laid one leathery egg a few days ago, so I upped her calcium and protein.  And one day I think she stepped on her egg, because it was broken in half.

I'll feed her milk, yogurt, and meat some days when I think she needs to improve on her egg shell.  I hard boiled some eggs last night and one cracked and got nasty -- so I fed that to her this morning.  Folks at work get queasy when I tell them I feed my chickens leftover chicken and eggs.  What can I say?  It's perfectly ok to do that.

Blessed Event Confirmed!!!!

Oreo's egg vs. Butterscotch's

The Blessed Event?

Today might be the day that Butterscotch lays an egg.    Yesterday I caught her up in the nesting box, and Oreo on the ground screeching.  But alas, no egg.

Butterscotch is up there again this morning, doing some deep thinking.  And any minute it's going to need to be Oreo's turn (my ladies are like clockwork).  So I need her to hurry up and do her business!!

Wish me luck....  I think Butterscotch is 39 weeks this week.

The Great Eggstraction

Sometimes when I get home late I forget to take the ONE egg out of the nest box (I say one egg because, as you all know, Butterscotch has not laid an egg in months).  Anyway, tonight I forgot again.

So what we do when I forget is: go out, shine a light in the coop, and then get the egg from underneath Oreo.  Yes, she likes to sit on her own egg.  The chickens normally are terrified to be touched, but as it gets darker in the evening, they get stupid-er, and so it gets easier to touch them.

So here's a picture of us going in the nesting box, to get the egg.

Bumps on Your Arms?

Do you have bumps on your arms?  For years I had these bumps on my arms (like the shoulder/bicep area) -- felt like goosebumps -- every hair follicle had a little hard nodule growing out of it.  No amount of scrubbing would get rid of those bumps.

Well, awhile back I started taking Sprouts brand cod liver oil that contains vitamin D and vitamin A and it went away!

The day I noticed it was gone, I happened to also be reading a section in one of my health books about how vitamin A deficiency causes hyperkeratosis -- goosebump-like flesh on your arms!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperkeratosis

So it turns out that it was the vitamin A in the cod liver oil that caused the problem to go away.  But since then I've heard a few women complain about these bumps and I've told them my solution!

I don't use the Sprouts brand cod liver oil anymore -- I take my vit A and vit D separately now -- so I can't tell you how much A it had in it.  But if I remember right, it had about 1200 IU of A in it.  I didn't need much A to get the benefits of it, and I saw results in a short time (couple of weeks).

If you have bumps on your arms, try taking some A, or some cod liver oil....  just be sure to get a good brand...  And there are two types of A -- retinol (from animal products) and betacarotene (from veggie).  I'm not sure if both types work, but I was using the retinol kind (cod liver oil).

I'm Gonna Stew That Damn Chicken

Butterscotch still hasn't laid an egg...  ok, so she laid those two funky eggs a long time ago....  but nothing since!!!  How long will it be???  I think she's about 9 mos old now.

On a side note:  my coworker approached me today and asked if I would eat one of his chickens that he's since learned is a rooster.  His wife is ok with him killing it, but doesn't want him to eat it.  I said sure.

I just hope I don't get any ideas from this about Butterscotch!!!!!!

Parsnips

I just about killed myself trying to get my parsnips out of the ground this morning...  they went down deep.

Wanna See Two Chickens Take a Bath?

Birthday Card!

My Aunt-in-Law made me a birthday card and put the chicky-girls on it!  So cute!

It sure looks like Oreo and Butterscotch!!!

And yet another friend got tested for Vitamin D....

She had a level of 18 ng/ml....

So here are the stats:

Me -- 41 ng/ml
Hubs -- 39 ng/ml
Mom -- 15 ng/ml
Coworker 1 -- 18 ng/ml
Coworker 2 -- "very low", he didn't know what his level was except that his doctor was concerned.

Remember, "normal" is 40-60ng/ml.

Last post on topic:  

http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/06/moms-vitamin-d-results-get-your-parents.html

Cholesterol Smack Down

YES!  Finally, I have a come-back for all those people at work who harp on me about how I'm going to die because I eat an egg a day, and how my fatty chickens with their beautiful orange yolk eggs are probably producing massively cholesterol-filled eggs.

So I'm reading this book now -- "The Great Cholesterol Myth".  It's fascinating.  Anyway, I finally read the section that explains that this isn't the case.



Here is a quote from the book, that we can all paraphrase:

"The cholesterol you eat has a minimal effect on your blood levels of cholesterol, which is why the admonition to eat less of it and the prominent listing of cholesterol on food nutrition labels are not as significant as we are led to believe they are. If you eat less cholesterol, your liver will simply take up the slack and make more. If you eat more of it, the liver makes less. It is primarily, overwhelmingly made in the liver, though small amounts are made in other locations. For all intents and purposes, “manufacturing central” is the liver, and this is what responds to the “eat more/ make less, eat less/ make more” seesaw. The Framingham Heart Study found that there was virtually no difference in the amount of cholesterol consumed on a daily basis by those who went on to develop cardiovascular disease and those who did not. Egg-white omelet eaters, take note!"

Sinatra, Stephen; Bowden, Jonny (2012-10-15). The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease-and the Statin-Free Plan That Will (Kindle Locations 811-817). Creative Publishing International. Kindle Edition.

YES!  YES!  YES!

For all you chicken lovers out there who have friends who harp on them about egg cholesterol....  give 'em the cholesterol SMACK DOWN!

Mom's Vitamin D Results -- Get Your Parents Tested!

Mom got her Vitamin D test results back -- and they were really low.  15ng/ml.... where a normal range is between 40-60ng/ml.  Not good!  Mom's going to start taking 6000 IU/day to try to get her level up to 50ng/ml.

Get your parents tested!   http://www.grassrootshealth.net/

Refer back to:

http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-vitamin-d-results.html
http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/06/more-vitamin-d.html
http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/important-vitamin-d-test.html

Butterscotch laid eggs on May 21 and June 7.  That's 17 days apart.  If the old girl is "regular" then she should lay another around June 24th, Monday.

Standy by to see!

Update on the Hops

I'm referring back to this post:   http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/hops.html

Here are some updated pictures:

More Vitamin D

I've been posting alot about vitamin D.  So I thought I'd touch on something a bit humorous regarding it!!  Here is my cat, soaking up his vitamin D.  His name is Snickers.

I learned that while you can generate vitamin D from sunlight, you can't get it through windows.  Hence, the window is open for the Little Man.

And secondly, cats get their vitamin D from licking their fur.  So I was happy to see him take a bit of a bath while soaking in the rays.

Check out this fun link to learn more:  http://antranik.org/the-offbeat-reason-why-cats-and-dogs-lay-in-the-sun-and-lick-their-fur/

http://antranik.org/the-offbeat-reason-why-cats-and-dogs-lay-in-the-sun-and-lick-their-fur/

Came Home From Vacation and Found This.....

So my Mom was babysitting the ladies (and the cat) while I was gone...  She emailed me while I was on vacation and said that Oreo had laid two MASSIVE eggs.  

Her small eggs are just a hair smaller than a commercial egg.  So these two large eggs are REALLY big!!!!

Cracked one big egg open and look what I found -- two yolks!!

I guess I shouldn't complain -- check out this video about a monster egg:

Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Organic Farm

We vacationed last week in Albuquerque and Durango, CO.  In Albuequerque we stayed at a lovely inn:  Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Organic Farm http://www.lospoblanos.com/

Oh it was just the nicest place -- and the food!!  The food was AMAZING!

There were lots of animals on the farm -- chickens, llamas, goat, and peacocks!  Here are the peacocks:

They also had a white peacock!

They had some cute chickens too:

Some strange birds (my Mom says they are guinea hens!):

And more animals:

So lots of interesting animals, beautiful grounds, and the most fabulous food you'll ever taste!!  All the food was made with local/fresh ingredients from the farm!

Hubby's Vitamin D Results

I'm referring back to this post:  http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-vitamin-d-results.html

Well my husband got his Vitamin D tested by the same grassrootshealth.net group -- and it came back deficient!   It came back as 39ng/ml, with normal being 40-60ng/ml.

This is a bit strange, since several years ago he got tested and it was around 50.  But, I guess things change, people age...  His diet is definitely better, and he was supplementing with 2000 IU of D already.  But still low.

Anyway, glad we know this now, and we can fix it.

My mom just completed her test and sent it off..........

Beware of the Chickens

This was sent to my friend, for reasons not particularly known....  (sounds spooky, no?)

Have You Ever Seen a Chicken Eat Potato Soup?

Look at that messy mouth!

They're eating loaded potato soup from the grocery store!

Crafts!!! DIY

I made silver spoon plant markers.

How to make a silver spoon plant marker:

1) Get an antique silver spoon

2) Using a cloth to prevent marking, pound the spoon flat (including the handle) using a hammer

3) Then draw some guidelines with a pencil -- and take a 1/8 inch letter punch and stamp plant labels into it ("mint", "chives")

4)  Polish/clean the spoon

6)  Use permanent marker to color in the punched labels you just made

7)  Use steel wool to clean the marker off

Another Egg Comparison

I've got several Oreo eggs, and one Butterscotch egg.  Here's a comparison of what I found:

All the eggs I've gotten -- you can see that Oreo's eggs have some variation in color

Dark Oreo egg and light Oreo egg

Butterscotch egg and two Oreo eggs

Here are the eggs...  Butterscotch on the left (smaller) and the two Oreo eggs on the right...  not much difference