Instant Garden!

April 28th, 2012

This morning, we took a trip up to the Carrboro farmers’ market to buy pepper, tomato and eggplant transplants to put in the garden.

I still grow my own cucumber, squash, cut flower, lettuce and brassica transplants, but because of our lack of heated greenhouse space and the length of time that tomato, pepper and eggplant starts need to spend in the greenhouse (8 to 12 weeks), I’ve decided to let other people grow them for me.

In any case, we came home with a whole load of plants: Sun Gold and Juliet tomatoes, Ichiban and Burpee’s Best eggplants, Gypsy and Big Bertha peppers are just a few of the varieties of plants that we bought.

We spent all day installing trellises and drip irrigation and transplanting our new plants into a mat of hay mulch.

At the end of the day, poof! We had an “instant” garden.

We rewarded ourselves with a trip to the comedy dinner theater put on by the acting and culinary arts classes at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro. We enjoyed the spirited and well-rehearsed show and a tasty meal: polenta and a 15 minute comedic rendition of Hamlet as well as two other one act sketches. A very unique experience.

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A Fox in the Henhouse

March 11th, 2012

Over the years, plenty of predators have attacked and killed our chickens. Most of the predators have been opossums or racoons, who tend to kill one chicken at a time and eat at least part of the bird.

We do our best to protect our birds from predators, but we do usually lose a few chickens a year to them. In general, I think that we have been relatively successful in our efforts so far.

If you’re squeamish, don’t read any more of this post!

Each predator has a characteristic way in which they kill the birds. For instance, opossums tend to bite their heads off and suck/eat the chicken’s guts out through their necks.

We had heard and read about fox attacks, the proverbial fox in the hen house, and we have always been worried that a fox would attack our flock. However, in the 12 years that we have kept chickens, we had luckily never had a fox attack our birds.

Our luck ran out two nights ago. As soon as I went out to tend to the birds first thing in the morning, the devastation was apparent. There were chicken carcasses all over the pen. It was a bloodbath.

Six birds were killed, and three were maimed. None of them had been eaten at all. The predator had just gone on a killing spree and then left. It had to be either a fox or a dog. Since the bite marks on the birds were relatively small, we think a fox is the culprit.

After we buried the dead birds, and medicated the injured birds (one of them is still alive and hopefully well this morning. The other two didn’t make it), we set about moving the chicken’s pen to a location that’s about ten feet from our house.

We are also building them a new and even more secure coop. The new coop is built so solid that I was worried that it would be airtight, so we drilled a bunch of holes in it and installed some hardware cloth vents to allow air circulation.

The surviving chickens are still happily going about their daily tasks, but Dave and I are still pretty upset and concerned about them.

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First Asparagus Spear Appears

March 5th, 2012

After eleven years of putting it off, I finally planted some asparagus crowns last year. I put 50 Jersey Supreme asparagus crowns in the ground of our newly-created perennial area, right alongside our hops vines and blackberry plants.

The crowns grew last spring and made ferns that stood tall well into the fall. Then, they went dormant and I have dutifully been piling composted horse manure on them all winter.

For the past month or so, I have been checking our asparagus patch regularly, looking for evidence that our plants had made it though the winter.

Today, a big fat asparagus spear poking up through the mulch gave me my answer: at least one of our plants has made it though the winter! Hopefully, its brethren will start sending up shoots soon.

Even if the plants make a lot of spears, I have to resist temptation and keep myself from sampling them. Asparagus plants are supposed to be left to grow for at least three years before the spears are harvested.

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Franchise, Anyone?

February 20th, 2012

After attending a franchise trade show this weekend, I was struck by how little many companies offer to their franchisees in return for a chunk of money that is probably the franchisee’s life savings.  Typically, it seems that in return for about a $200,000 investment (70% of which could be financed by the franchising company), the company helps its franchisee negotiate a lease for commercial space, supervises the renovations of the space, provides two or three weeks training to the franchise and gives them an operations manual.  The company may or may not also help hire and train the first batch of employees for the franchisee.  Ongoing support seemed to mainly be provided in the form of a monthly newsletter and/or an annual convention for franchisees.

I was struck by what a sweet deal this seemed to be for most franchising companies and what a huge risk this was for the potential franchisees who were deciding which franchise business they want to invest their life savings in.  I was also particularly awed by the variety of companies that attempt to sell franchises:  custom laser etching companies, coffee machine sales and vending companies, and even companies that provide the service of painting glow-in-the-dark stars on homeowner’s ceilings are among the companies attempting to sell franchises to “qualified investors”.  How mind boggling is that?

If I were a less scrupulous person, I might start thinking about franchising the Blue Horizon Farm brand and selling it to potential investors.   I’d let them know that with my help, they might be  able to make tons of cash while setting their own hours and living off the land.   What a dream come true!  I could help them pick out a suitable farm in the geographical area of their choice and get their farm set up for them while they attend training at Blue Horizon Farm’s “corporate headquarters” in North Carolina.

When my franchisees would return from their training session, they would come home to a flock of laying hens, a young orchard full of suitable fruit trees, a couple acres of vegetables growing, a tractor and implements, an irrigation system, a couple of semi-trained employees, etc.  I would leave them a manual that explains how to use all of this new stuff and then I’d jet home with a smile on my face, knowing that I would be getting a big fat check from this new farmer every month.  Sure, they could call me for technical support every once in a while. . .  And I’d be glad to send them a newsletter with tips for running their new business.

What an idea!

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