Hello from Archie’s Acres. We know it’s been a while since we’ve posted but we’ve been busy preparing the garden and our critters for winter!
The first order of business was to remove all remaining produce from all plants before the first frost, which was about 3 weeks ago. We still had a surprising amount of peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, zucchini and cucumbers which was a pleasant surprise!
A portion of our last harvest for the season
The produce that didn’t make the cut for humans were given to the chickens and the goats, so everybody on the farm won. Especially the chickens.
Then we had to remove all remnants of the tomato and pepper plants. Leaving them around would invite disease to the soil that would effect our productivity next year. It’s a tedious job, but the reward is being able to have a big bonfire with all the dried plants. So that’s fun!
In the next week or so, we will then spread compost and chicken manure onto the garden before the first snow to help rejuvenate the soil. Our current chicken coop setup is basically that of a giant litter box. We filled the entire interior of our coop with sand and ag-lime (aka crushed limestone). This allowed us to scoop out chicken droppings with a manure form (think giant cat litter scoop) to collect for fertilizer. It’s working wonderfully.
As for the critters, we moved and re-positioned the goats’ and Tilly’s
The goats were not very helpful while we were trying to move their shelter
shelter to face the south east in order to protect them from the harsh winter winds from the west and the north. And we covered their favorite hangout area with pine chips to create a barrier between the cold ground and their feet and we put a fancy new coat on Tilly!
Tilly looks fabulous in her new coat
Winter Coop Preparations
We’ve been collecting all fallen leaves and shuttling them into the coop. We’ll also add grass clippings, pine savings and shredded paper. We’re aiming to get about 3-4 inches of material covering the entire coop floor. It’s called the “deep litter method” and worked well for us last year. Basically, the deep layer of organic material absorbs the chicken dropping and slowly composts throughout the winter. The material on the floor provides some insulation from the cold ground, and as it breaks down (composts) it releases some heat into the coop. Added bonus – in the spring, we have great fertilizer waiting for us when we clean out the coop. So far we only have about an inch deep layer throughout; a few of our large maple trees are stubbornly holding onto their leaves. We’re really hoping they drop them before the first snow or we may have some damaged trees!
So as you can see, we’ve been busy! As this season winds down, I promise to post more. I mean, what else am I going to do with all the free time we have? 😉
Life has been great lately at Archie’s Acres and we have some fun updates from the farm.
Weather is slightly more cooperative
We’re happy to report that the rains have finally given us some time to dry out. That said, we still get a little rain almost daily, but the 1-4 inch torrential rainstorms have slowed and the plants are finally looking and feeling healthy. Aaaaaand because of that it’s been a real tomato and pepper party over here!
Which leads me to happily announce that we have begun selling produce to The Log Cabin Restaurant in Galena, IL! How exciting is that?! It’s such an honor! We’re over the moon about it!
Farmer’s markets are fun!
Farmers market life has been great. We’re enjoying our time at the Rockford City Market every 2nd and 4th Friday and we’re loving our guest vendor spots at the Glenwood Sunday Market in Chicago! The next time we’ll be at the Glenwood Sunday Market is September 24th. We meet so many amazing people at these events and we love being able to learn from the vendors and local farmers around us.
It’s great when friends stop by to see us at the market! Bernie and Nancy it was so good to see you!
Exciting development for next year
We’ve also decided to begin a CSA program starting next Spring! For anyone unfamiliar, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Members sign up to receive a box containing fresh, organic, seasonal goodies from our farm. Once or twice a month (depending on your preference), we will deliver it to a convenient pick-up location.
We’ve created a form in the “Shop” section of our website where you can add your information and we’ll email you when we finalize plans. In the meantime, we’d still like to share our chicken and quail eggs with people after the Farmers Market season is over. But that’s all a work-in-progress.
Critters everywhere
Tilly thinks the bed is meant for her
Our farm pets are doing well. Moose is growing by the literal second! He’s as big as Archie right now and he’s not even 4 months old! He’s fitting in with the goats and Tilly very well.
On that note, Tilly is a diva. She demands treats and pets and she regularly steals Moose’s dog bed. She shouts at us from the pasture every time she sees us. It’s hard to believe that she’s only 4 months old (born April 21st) because she’s such a presence on the farm already that we can’t imagine life without her!
Another hen has hatched a couple of babies in the last week. She has 2 beautiful little chicks and she’s momming like a champ! Just today I watched her teach her babies about the automatic waterer that we have setup in front of their coop. It was really sweet to watch.
Yes yes, I realize that it’s been forever since we’ve posted an update. So I’ll do a top 10 list of things that we’ve done since I last checked in.
TOP 10 THINGS WE’VE DONE ON THE FARM…
1. Those blue egg layer Cream Crested Legbar and Whiting True Blue eggs finally hatched! We have 7 beautiful new chicken babies! I’ve been actively humanizing them by relentlessly picking them up, so they’re a friendly little crew.2. Our windbreak has been massively added to on the West and North sides of the farm by planting 25 arborvitae trees, 10 plum bushes, 10 serviceberry bushes and 10 nannyberry bushes. They’re all only about 2 feet tall, but seem to be doing well. Now we just have to wait 5 years…3. We tilled our entire 150′ by 35′ garden. Since we don’t own a tiller yet, so we borrowed our neighbors. Geez, tilling is hard work!4. We planted over 150 potatoes. Many many radishes, onions, peas, carrots and Brussels sprouts seeds went in the ground too….5. We re-potted over 150 tomato, pepper, cauliflower, flower and broccoli seedlings. Some of the rarer tomato and peppers seedlings will be sold at the Rockford Green City Farmer’s Market this summer for the first few markets anyway. We’ll be there every 2nd and 4th Friday until the end of September.Here’s the link to find out more about the market:
6. We built a deer and rabbit fence around the entire garden. The rabbit and deer population is impressive out here. When we come home in the evening, there are always at least 8 baby rabbits running across the driveway. And we learned last year that they are ferocious eaters!7. We weeded, re-roped and trimmed back our Centennial and Chinook hops plants to get them ready for Spring. This is the 2nd year for these hops so we should get an even better crop this summer! Last year we only got enough to do 2 batches of beer. So this year we’re hoping for at least 4 brewing sessions with our own hops.8. We just started hatching quail eggs! Last night, in fact. We have 20+ cortunix quail eggs in our incubator. So far 3 have hatched. They are so cute! And surprisingly loud. We plan to sell quail eggs this summer. Quail develop surprisingly fast, they’ll be fully grown and laying in only 2 months!Baby quail are so cute and tiny!9. We have moved all of our Iowa hatchery chicks out to a pen across from the chicken coop to get them acclimated to life outside. They’re all over 7 weeks now so they have all of their feathers and can survive the elements. Happy to report that all are doing well!The teenagers are loving life outside.10. We have finalized our farmer’s market paperwork with the Rockford Farmer’s Market. We’ve bought all of the licenses that Illinois requires for every single thing they can think of. And it’s a lot. We have an egg license, I have my ServSafe food handling certification, a food handling permit and our individual licenses to sell in each county where we plan to sell. Plus our LLC insurance, FEIN and sales tax ID requirements are all squared away. We have all the required packaging and labeling materials to sell in Illinois, it was tedious and over-the-top, but that’s finally done. Phew.Life is good here at Archie’s Acres. Spring has the trees and flowers blooming, the grass is green and the woods are coming back to life! It’s so fun to watch nature do its thing every spring.
For daily picture updates about Archie’s Acres, follow us on Instagram! @archiesacres
As Midwesterners, after struggling through blizzards and freezing temps all Winter, springtime is always welcomed with open arms. However, this Spring is extra special, because we now have a yard (5 acres of it) with copious amounts of garden space. And we are over the moon about it!!! At our apartment in Chicago, I only had a 4′ by 5′ area on our deck to use as my personal garden. I had just enough space to grow a couple pepper and tomato plants. But now our current setup is a lower vegetable/fruit garden of 150′ by 30′ and an upper herb/flower garden about 18′ by 18!’ I’ve always hoped to be able to put my green thumb to work!
150′ by 30′ garden?! Only in my wildest dreams!
Having this much gardening space is amazing. And because of the endless space opportunities, I went a little crazy on seed buying. We have some very pretty and unique plant seedlings growing in our indoor greenhouse right now. Tomatoes and peppers are taking up the vast majority of pods at the moment. Mainly because they are best started indoors before transferring outside, unlike our radishes, kale, mesculin greens, melons, arugula, corn, peas etc which are best grown from direct sowing.
100+ starter pods are sprouting!
Greenhouse sprouting success! 22 varieties of happy little tomatoes.
22 varieties of tomatoes
We have blue, tie-dye, green, chocolate brown, yellow, orange, pink, orange /red striped, purple of all sizes…the list is a lot longer. We’re so excited for you to see them! And we’re even more excited to sell them at farmer’s markets this summer! Here is just one of the 22 varieties that I’m super pumped about…
Tigerella tomatoes. These are going to be beauties.
We also have 7 bright and colorful varieties of belle peppers. Purple and chocolate varieties included, of course. Here’s one of my favorites…
Purple belle peppers; not only yummy but super pretty too!
We have 7 varieties of hot peppers. The shishito peppers are a personal highlight, I’ve been obsessed with them for over a year now! Shishito peppers are small Japanese peppers that have the sweetest/most pungent flavor, they taste like a belle pepper x 100, but they’re considered a hot pepper because 1 out of 10 is spicy. They’re so delicious, even if you get a hot one, which isn’t really that hot. I first tried them at Bangers & Lace in Evanston, IL. The head chef at the time, Justin Schaub, sautéed them and tossed them in with the fried cheese curds. The app was a real showstopper.
the color Purple looks great on food!
Not only do we have purple tomatoes and peppers but we have purple broccoli, kale, potatoes, cauliflower, green beans, Brussels sprouts, corn and tomatillos! We are not only growing delicious, organic food but we want it to be pretty food!
…and welcome to this, the first blog post of many to come. It’s the Monday after Daylight Savings time and the morning after a surprise (but not really all that surprising) overnight 4+ inch snow here in the Midwest. The chickens hate it but our dog, Archie, LOVES all the fresh powder everywhere! He’s been visibly smiling all morning, no exaggeration, as he runs laps around our small 5 acre farm in the fresh snow.
I’m guessing you’ve figured out where the name Archie’s Acres came from…
Archie is our 1 year old (turned 1 on March 4th) Australian Cattle Dog/Border Collie mix. We found him on a farm in Miles, Iowa near the hatchery that we visited last Spring, my only regret was that the farmer wanted us to take him immediately, but he was only 5 weeks, so we made up an excuse to allow him to stay with his mom for an extra week but still, taking him away from his mom at 6 weeks broke my heart a little. But he’s our little bear and he’s a barrel of personality and obviously, a total mama’s boy.
At this very moment…
we have 24 snow-hating chickens shouting in the chicken coop. I mean, I get it, they don’t wear shoes so snow is probably pretty uncomfortable to walk on. They also can’t see any grass, bugs or worms because of the snow, so I get that aggravation there too. So my temporary remedy for their unhappiness will be to bring them a huge bowl of oatmeal after I finish this post.
Chickens looooooove oatmeal…
…and if there’s anything a certified chicken lady loves; it’s making her chickens happy. Along with the 24 cranky birds currently throwing tantrums in the chicken coop, we have 2 injured chickens resting in a makeshift rehabilitation center in our garage. One of our best layers, Brownie our Isa Brown hen, injured her leg and is now confined to our cat’s travel carrier. She’s eating and drinking and in good spirits, she’s probably also really enjoying being warm and away from the snow. About 2 feet across from her is Newman, our lone Blue Laced Red Wyandotte rooster, he also has a busted leg. Chickens are very social creatures so there is something comforting about them having each other to recover with, not that I’m a fan of having 2 injured chickens, but it’s always easier to have a friend.
There is a such thing as a roost being too high…
I’m realizing now that the roosts in the chicken coop are too high off of the ground, they’re a good 10 feet high, the previous owners built them this way and since we had no idea what we were doing, being city dwellers and all, we just assumed they were just fine. So this past week has been all about building chicken ladders and ramps for the bigger birds to safely get down from the roosts in the morning. The drop is especially rough when they fly down out of excitement, which is basically only when I enter the coop with a treat. Because they know what it means if they see one of their humans holding a bowl!
Springtime is chick-time!…
So of course we also have 20 2-3 week old baby chicks in our homemade brooder in the garage. The brooder is a 6 foot tall wood wardrobe with 2 heat lamps inside. These babies were hand-picked from 2 different hatcheries in Iowa based on their breed’s egg color (in this case, they either lay blue or chocolate brown eggs), the rareness of the breed, their genetic broodiness and finally, some were picked to add a little unique coloring to the flock. As we approach farmer’s market season, it’s become important to us to offer a rainbow variety of egg colors since we discovered the vast color palette of farm fresh egg colors!
Chicken eggs come in a rainbow of colors…
To put it normally, there are so many awesome, natural egg tints and tones that exist in nature and that’s just so so cool! And if we think they’re THAT cool, other people need to see them too! So on that note…we are also currently incubating 14 eggs that I purchased and were shipped from a farm in Florida and a farm in Pennsylvania. These chickens will lay the most beautiful shade of blue/teal egg, naturally. Hoping for hens, of course, but considering our hatching luck in the past, the egg genders will be 3:1 roosters. But we’ll make it work no matter what the outcome because the thought of giving life to these sweet little birds makes me happy.
Our current egg color selection. It’s a mini-rainbow.
Our barncat is about to become a momcat…
Oh and on that note; we currently have our barncat, Lima, trapped in a makeshift delivery room in our garage. She is days, hours even minutes away from giving birth to what we guess are 4-5 kittens! She’s such a sweet cat. And if I’m being completely honest, she’s the nicest cat that we have! And she found us! When she arrived on our front porch last summer she was no bigger than a kitten herself, even though she had clearly just weaned or was still nursing kittens. She’s very small, her height seems to have been stunted, we’re guessing because of malnutrition, but regardless, she’s the nicest little girl. So cuddly and affectionate and appreciative. She will happily watch tv with us on the couch while our 2 actual indoor cats, Oscar and Tika, would rather not be touched and certainly not cuddled!
Our housecats are jerks…
Don’t get me wrong, we love our 2 cat babies that we brought into this marriage, but they are spoiled. So Lima is now more of a farmhouse cat than a barncat, which is a good and bad thing, we enjoy her cuddly company so much that we’ve taken her away from her work of being a master mouse hunter! So we’re looking forward to assigning posts to a couple of her kittens. One will be on mouse patrol in the chicken coop and the other will live in the garage. They’ll pay for their room and board with hard, fun work that they enjoy, which when you think about it, is a wonderful setup!
So back to the to-do list for today…
We currently have about 80 seed starter pods budding in our kitchen. We have a really fun variety of multi-colored peppers and tomatoes planted and prospering at the moment. We also have about 140 pods waiting to be used. But if I’m being honest, last night’s snow and the cold temps this week are giving us an urge to hold off on starting anything more at the moment but it’s the Midwest. Next week it will feel like spring. And then the week after that it will snow one more time. And then maybe after that it will be Spring for good. But maybe not. My wife is from NE Iowa and I’m from Chicagoland, so we know the games the weather plays. But to answer my own question, yeah we need to start some more seeds today. They need a 6 weeks head start before going into the ground anyway.
Pallet chicken coops are awesome…
We also need to finalize our pallet chicken coop and garden fence project by planning out the layouts and drawing up blueprints! We took about 30 pallets from a local tile shop with the intention of building a fence around our herb garden and a small chicken coop. As part of our future chicken breeding program, the four roosters that are currently 2 weeks old, will need to be separated from the hens in about 6 weeks and live in a bachelor pad.
Rooster bro time is important.
If there are no ladies around, they will live happily with each other bro-ing it up, watching sports and drinking beer like bros do. However, if they’re with ladies, they will fight each other to the death for alpha status. And we need these beautiful boys to be healthy and available for egg business this fall. There’s a very cool science about their specific breeds and uniqueness that I’ll explain later. And the roughly 2 foot tall garden fence will be to keep the rabbits and the chickens away from our herbs!
Well, we should probably get to work on today’s farm to-do list, and one of us should probably go check on Lima in the delivery room! Again, Welcome to Archie’s Acres!
