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We Thought it was Spring??

We hope you’re having a warmer Spring than we are. At this very moment it’s alternating between hail and snow outside and all the animals are upset about it. Goats wonder, "where is Spring?"

Even the cats and Archie are mad…at us, as if this weather is our fault. But Spring in the Midwest can be like this so there’s no point in complaining about it. Cold weather is a great excuse to take some time to read a book, cleanup your house, watching a movie or just relax. It’s actually a pleasant excuse to just take a break! And that’s awesome… unless you have crops to plant. We currently have 100+ potted seedlings hanging out in front of every South, East & West facing window in our home. Plus usually by this time we would have planted potatoes, onions, leafy greens, and peas in the garden but the ground is too frozen to get the potatoes in and too wet for the others.

Seedlings want to get outside
Plants congregating in front of our kitchen window

Getting a little stressful at this point…

It’s a major bummer. Time seems like it’s flying by and farmer’s market season is getting closer and closer. It’s stressful to feel so far behind so early in the season! We’re hoping to get these little plants in the ground at the end of next week. All that stress aside, the plants are happy in their current situation, but would be happier if they were outside getting pollinated by honey bees instead of an electric toothbrush. Oh which reminds me…we’re very worried about what this weather is doing to our bee hives. The cold Spring/extended winter could be disastrous and it’s too cold open up the hives to check on them. We don’t want to release any remaining heat in their hives and endanger them further. We’re staying hopeful though.

Our CSA signup has gone great. We still have 3 spots remaining so get one while you can!  https://www.archiesacres.com/sign-up-now-for-our-csa/

Hoping to have a post detailing prepping the garden and planting very soon!

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Archie’s Acres CSA Crops list

2018 Archie’s Acres CSA

In case you are wondering what we have planned for our CSA and farmer’s markets this Spring/Summer/Fall…

Here is a Partial Produce list!

(Estimated)

Month Harvested

Expected Crops

June-July

We will have potted plants available at our first few farmer’s markets so you can have your own garden! Patio sized tomato plant starts (these will do well planted in the ground or potted into larger containers that can stay on your patio or balcony), Sweet peppers, Hot Peppers, Eggplants, and Herbs

Greens: Swiss Chard, Lettuce (several varieties & colors), Spinach, Mesclun, Arugula, Beets, Kohlrabi, Kale, Pac Choy, and Radishes (Several varieties & colors)

Herbs: Sage, Cilantro, Basil, Dill, Rosemary, Thyme, and Tarragon

Onion family: Green Onions, Onions, Leeks, Shallots

Peppers:  Sweet Bell peppers in just about every color plus a few other sweet peppers, and lots of Hot Peppers (shishito, habanero, jalapeño, Carolina reaper, Anaheim, plus more!)

Tomatoes: We will have tomatoes in just about every color, shape and size this year. 20+ varieties to choose from!

Other goodies: Snap Beans (Green, Purple & Dragon),Tomatillos (green & purple), Eggplant (4 varieties) Cucumbers (3 varieties),  Okra (Red, Green & Orange), Sugar Snap Peas, Zucchini/Summer Squash (2 varieties), Cherries,  Black Raspberries, Red Raspberries, Blueberries, and Mulberries

August-September-October

Most of our veggies will keep going until the first frost. Plus we’ll get the late season crops (like melons, potatoes, etc). Leafy greens don’t do well in the heat but will resume after the August heat is over.

Tomatoes, Eggplants, Cucumbers, Green Onions, Leafy greens (e.g. Kale, Lettuce, Spinach, etc.), Peppers, Herbs, Zucchini, Snap Beans, Garlic, Radishes,  Onions,  Leeks, Shallots, Pumpkin, Kohlrabi, Beets, Apples, Brussels Sprouts, Delicata Squash, Acorn Squash, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Potatoes (Pink, Purple, Blue, & Fingerling), Peaches, Pears, Apples, and more to come….

I’ll share details of our potato varieties on potato planting day. Our seed potatoes should be arriving soon and we’ll get them in the ground as soon as we can work the dirt a bit better.

Another year – another garden adventure!

It’s going to be a fun year for us; we selected several new varieties to try and also kept the ones that did well for us the last couple years. If there is something you’re interested in that isn’t on the list, please let us know and we’ll see if we can add it!

There are still a few spots available in our CSA! Once a month and Twice a month options! Sign up here:  https://www.archiesacres.com/sign-up-now-for-our-csa/

Send us an email if you have any questions!

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Happy Spring from the crew!

Hello from Archie’s Acres!!

And Happy Spring!!

It seems like the weather may finally be heading in the right direction. Our lows may still be below freezing but our highs are in the 40s and 50s which is just enough warmth to allow us to work on spring farm preparations.

Tree Tapping Time!

This past weekend we tapped a few more maple trees since the weather was just begging us to do it. The general rule of tree tapping is that the daily highs should be at least in the 40s and the nightly temps should be below freezing. The reason for this is because the act of freezing and thawing creates a sort of pressure system inside of the trees that pushes the sap out. And some of our trees really have a lot of sap to give.

We drilled holes about 2 feet from the ground. Which is super easy when you have a good drill!

It was surprising how easy the whole process was. It took us about 5 minutes to tap 3 trees. Drill until you see a little moisture (about 2.5 inches deep at an upward angle) hammer in the specially made spile for tree tapping, connect a tube and put the other end in a cleaned bucket. And you’re done! We’ve already gathered around 3 gallons of sap and will, of course, keep you posted when we undertake the process of cooking it down to make syrup later this month.

Cold Frames FTW (For the Win)

Another exciting part about the weather cooperating is that we’ve been able to put the cold frames that we built into use! It’s our first year using cold frames so we wanted to guarantee a small amount of success. So even though it’s below freezing every night, we get a great warmup every day with the sunshine mixed with the 40/50 degree temps. We helped with  success by putting the cold frames in a South facing location so they get the most sun available.

We used cedar wood on our cold frame because of it’s natural resistance to rot.

But even with that, we planted veggies that are still cold hardy just in case of some crazy weather events, which we are fulling expecting to occur at some point. We planted 3 varieties of pretty lettuce, 2 varieties of chard (red and rainbow), pak choy, kale and spinach. That reminds me, I should go check for any seedlings!

In other news, we still have a few more spots available in our CSA sign-up! Check out our last blog post to get the info on it! https://www.archiesacres.com/sign-up-now-for-our-csa/

Cheers! And thanks for reading!

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Sign-up Now For Our CSA!!

 

Hello friends and followers of Archie’s Acres! We hope all of our fellow Midwesterners enjoyed last week’s Spring weather as much as our farm critters did, because it has already hightailed it out of here. Yesterday and today we’ve had heavy, wet snow and 20-30 mph sustained winds that have been throwing buckets and garbage cans all over the place. Needless to say, nobody is happy about it.

We’ve been busy starting plants for the upcoming market/CSA season. There are grow lights Everywhere! And I already can’t wait for them all to move outside. However, I’ll check back in tomorrow to update you on everything we’ve been up to lately. Here’s a quick teaser though…..we’re picking up some baby chickens tomorrow!!!

So back to the point of today’s exciting news post…we’ve finalized our CSA plan for 2018! We will be doing a once or twice monthly arrangement at 2 pick-up locations, we will also be regulars at the Glenwood Sunday Market again this year, on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month, so for convenience, that will be our city pick-up location. Our second location will be in the Oak Brook/Downers Grove/Clarendon Hills area, since we’ve had great interest there. However, because we’re a small farm, just starting out, we only have room for 15 “families” to sign up for our once/twice monthly CSA. (Please scroll down on our blog to re-read our post on CSAs if you’d like a refresher)

Reserve your spot today! Fill out the form below and we’ll email you our CSA agreement, go over some specifics about your personal produce requests, and coordinate preferences. Ok, so that’s it for now! Our sign-up cutoff is April 6th or until all 15 spots are taken. Thanks for reading, hope you’re well and we’ll check in tomorrow with a better overall farm update, including a list of the produce we’re growing! It’s a lonnnnnng list.  Oh, and we’ll include baby chicken pics!!

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Happy Snow Day!

Hello from snow drifty Pearl City! It’s been a while since we’ve last checked in. So let’s see, since I last wrote on Jan 15, we took a week long vacation to Mexico to celebrate our anniversary, took 4 cats to the vet for a mini-cold/flu outbreak, started seeds for early spring planting and added a few new products to our Etsy store! Most importantly, we’ve been busy enjoying the last weeks of a life with not THAT much to do.

Vacation sights!

We got a sizable snowfall last night, so the chickens are miserable, the dogs are happy, the humans have sore backs and the goats/sheep are busy making little walkways around the pasture, which is very cute. Archie, per usual, is the happiest dog ever!

Snow Floof!

He’s been running laps around the property all morning. And if we didn’t have 2+ foot high snow drifts all over the place, I’d run around more with him!

Our Etsy store is doing pretty well. We added a hops candle, some organic paw          wax and a couple new bath salts.

Hops-Infused Candles!
Click here to visit our paw wax Etsy listing.

Yesterday, I toyed around with making our own lotion bars, which worked out really well. I used a teakwood scent and they not only work well, but they smell great! Now I just have to find a better mold than the ice cube tray I made them in. Ha. Lotion bars are pretty cool little things though. They’re basically a bar of lotion. And the Shea butter dissolved quickly into the skin and isn’t messy. How am I just hearing about these?! We’ll list them soon. Because you’re going to want to try these out.

The seeds we started are all plants that need some extra TLC in pots indoors for a few months, like grapes, pear and apple trees, small pepper plants that we plan to keep exclusively in pots on our porch all summer, and onions, which will need several weeks to grow before transplanting in the garden. We have basically converted our laundry room into a germination room. It’s a teeny tiny jungle in there! But so far so good!

All in all, no complaints here. We plan to finalize our CSA sign-up by March 1st, so expect to receive more materials soon.

Also, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram! —-> Archie’s Acres on Instagram

And check out our Etsy store. Click here —>  Archie’s Acres Etsy Store!

We hope you’re all having a great day!!!

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Cold Weather and the Mammals.

Ha, the title would make a good band name. A lot of you have asked how the non-chicken residents on the farm were doing during the crazy cold weather we had here on the farm.

For starters, Archie and the cats (another good band name)) rarely go outside anymore. And when they do, it’s strictly “business” and they’re back at the door begging to come back in within a few minutes. Which was cute at first, but now, with all the furry bodies around, we have had to clean the house every couple of days. Otherwise there are furball tumbleweeds blowing across the floor, which is not cute.

The Goats, Tilly and Moose, the Livestock Dog

The pasture crew is doing pretty well, all things considered. Basically, they all just need a place to get out of the wind and snow. We have a half shelter that faces southeast (since most of the nasty weather comes from North and West) and it has several inches of pine shavings as bedding. On the nastiest days, we barely see the goats and Tilly at all.

Pancho and Lefty inside the shelter on a snowing day.

On our coldest days, they spend most of the day in the shelter keeping each other warm. Our goats are Nigerian Dwarfs and (despite what the name made us think) are very cold tolerant. This goat breed has evolved to be cold tolerant up to -40. Crazy, right?! It was cute to watch their bodies turn into little puff balls as their winter coats came in.

The tiny herd.

Tilly, our Katahdin sheep, is a hair sheep, so she doesn’t have the typical wooly body most people envision when they think of a sheep. Her breed basically exists for meat production and the need to sheer a sheep is an extra step that some farmers don’t want to take in order to process the meat. So they cut out the wool part all together, which is why we put a coat on her. Plus, she got sunburned this summer so her hair isn’t as thick as it should be. She seems to really enjoy wearing coats too. Which is adorable.

Tilly in her pink coat.

Moose, our Karakachan livestock dog, is the least concerned of anyone on the farm (humans included). He spends most of his day out of the shelter lying in the snow and keeping any eye on our frozen farm. Karakachans are originally from Bulgaria and were bred to be mountain livestock guard dogs so it’s in his genetics to be happy in cold weather. As with the chickens, plenty of fresh water and a bit of extra food has been given to everyone out in the pasture. We have a large stock tank that has a heater to make sure they always have water available. The goats and Tilly have hay in the feeder at all times and they get a mixture of livestock feed and beet pulp in the mornings and evenings.

They are always following in hope of treats.

The humans

What about us??? It takes us quite a while to get bundled up and steel ourselves against the biting cold, but depending on what we’re doing and how windy it is, it hasn’t always been too terrible. Yesterday, with the temp at about -1°F I was actually too bundled up and was sweating by the time I got back inside. Hauling 50lb bags of chicken feed and corn, 5 gallon buckets of water and hay flakes really gets the blood flowing!

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Brrrr! These temps are not kind to chickens!

The weather outside certainly is frightful!

We are in the midst of a very deep freeze here at Archie’s Acres, as is most of the country. For us, that means the highest temperature for the last 2 weeks has been a whopping 13 degrees with several days of sub-zero temps for highs. Plus, out here in the country, we get the benefit of unobstructed winds whipping across the corn fields. So keeping all the farm animals safe and happy is definitely more of a challenge lately. Especially the chickens, they are a constant worry for us.

Cold Chickens!

The chickens have been a big source of stress since the cold came. Our breeds are quite cold weather tolerant, but even with that, these temps are really crazy. We have had about 3 inches of snow on the ground since mid December and the sight of snow really weirds out most of the chickens, so only 4 of our chickens have ventured out of the coop since then. We get it, they can’t see anything to pick at, their non-white bodies in contrast with the snow makes them feel like a hawk or bald eagle target, yadda yadda yadda. Totally understandable.

A few of the girls venturing out of the coop.

However, since this horrible cold front came in, not a single bird leaves the coop. Which means there are 60+ crabby birds hanging out in a 25′ x 40′ coop all day. And since they aren’t able to free-range, they are going through food as fast as we can bring it.  I’ll make them oatmeal and omelettes and give them old soups or meat scraps to warm them up every day. Yep, they love meat, they are related to dinosaurs after all. We froze tomato, cucumber, squash, watermelon and cantaloupe cubes from the end of the summer just for occasions like this, so they get a variety of nutrients all winter long. And this cold snap makes us extra happy that we did all that winter prep work.

Crabby birds.

Water, water, water

One of the main ways to keep the chickens healthy is by making sure they have lots of water. Lots and lots of fresh non-frozen (obviously) water. It may seem strange but it’s the same for humans – the air is incredibly dry and just breathing causes more water loss than normal. On an average day, these chickens drink a ton of water and it’s even worse now. We have special waterers that have heated bases; however, even they are having trouble keeping up with the cold. So, several times a day, we end up trekking out to the coop to bring fresh water and do a wellness check. So far, we have only lost one chicken in all of this. Little Chipmunk. RIP.

Carbo-loading

Another issue is food. Again, this is the same for humans in this weather. We burn more calories to maintain our body temperature in extreme weather and so do chickens. Normally, we feed cracked corn very sparingly to our chickens, preferring more protein rich food. However, corn provides lots of carbohydrates with are a good source of quickly converted energy. We have been providing food several times throughout the day and make sure they get a good dose of corn before bed. We also give them popcorn and old cereal. They loooooooove popcorn and Cheerios!

Archie helping with chicken chores.

The coop itself

We do not have an insulated coop, which is pretty typical. And we won’t ever because in the summer, that insulation would turn the coop into an oven. Extreme heat is more deadly than extreme cold. Also, insulation would make ventilating the coop more difficult, and coop ventilation is very important for chicken health because all the moisture from their breathing and droppings needs to leave the coop fairly quickly. In cold weather, very moist air would collect on them if there was insufficient ventilation which would lead to their feathers being inefficient insulators. It also leaves them susceptible to frostbite. The combs and toes can be particularly tricky, especially with the roosters. A couple of our roosters have fairly large combs so we have slathered some petroleum jelly on them to help protect from the cold.   So with all of that in mind, our only supplement in the coop is to put a foot deep layer of leaves, pine shavings and corn husks on the floor of the coop. Over time, this layer will breakdown and release heat through decomposing, plus it gives the chickens something to scratch through and the layer provides a bit of insulation from the cold concrete below. We have also added extra pine shavings to their nesting boxes and to the shelves where the girls prefer to sleep.

All in all, everyone is doing ok. They are certainly not happy. But they are loving all the extra treats we’ve been giving them, so morale is pretty high. Rumor has it that it’s going to be 30 this Sunday! We can’t wait! I may even wear short sleeves!

 

 

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Integrating New Chickens into the Flock

Let’s Get Together

Since winter has now officially arrived, we decided it is time to integrate our young chickens into the main flock. We affectionately call these chickens the “high schoolers”. They’re a mix of Favaucanas, Whiting True Blues and Easter Eggers that we hatched this summer. These birds are awesome, they all have 5 toes instead of 4 and they’ll either lay blue or sage green colored eggs! At this point, they are about five months old and are definitely big enough to defend themselves from pecky older hens.

2 of the girls out and about after being released from their baby pen.

Integrating new birds into the flock can be tough. Everyone needs to establish/re-establish their spot in the pecking order. Happily, these high schoolers have been living in a pen just outside the main coop for a few months. Which means the older birds have gotten to see them and adjust to their presence. It’s important to wait until the young birds are almost the same size as the adults since chickens can be quite aggressive about letting everyone know where they stand in the flock. And giving each set of birds plenty of time to see but not touch each other is key to a smooth integration.

The male babies (white feathers) happily coexisting with our older roosters.

It has been about a week since we let the high schoolers out of their pen to free range with the others. Happily, it has gone quite well. Of course, there are occasional minor scuffles when someone finds a tasty treat but that is normal. So far so good. They even figured out that when Karen walks outside, rushing to the porch is a good idea; it’s likely treats will be involved. When I walk out, I’m mostly ignored or greeted with hopeful yet disappointed looks.

A few of high schoolers joining the adults in chasing Karen down for treats.

We’re happy to have everyone in one coop for the rest of the winter. It will keep them warmer and safer. Plus it means we have fewer waterers and feeders to tend to.

All the chickens happily being chickens together. 
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Awesome Beeswax Lip Balm Recipe

Honey Bees are Awesome!!

Most people think of only honey when they think of bees (obviously), but our honey bees provide us with another excellent product, beeswax!

Collecting honey from our bee hive.

Obviously we love that our bees give us honey.  We plan to keep expanding  and adding more bee colonies every year, and this means we’ll get to do even more fun things with the honey (think Bourbon Infused Honey). In addition to being yummy, the honey is also great in soaps, shampoos, moisturizers, natural cough syrups and lip balm. Plus it’s antibacterial properties make it great for cuts and burns.

Archie’s Acres honey.

But the other excellent thing our bees give us is beeswax! Beeswax is often forgotten about or it’s thought of as just a byproduct of getting that tasty honey. But we have really been embracing it. You can make so many things with beeswax. Like candles, cuticle creams and lip balm! If you want to make your own lip balm, check out the instructions below. We’ve included our special lip balm recipe.

Our current Lip Blam flavors!

But for anyone who doesn’t want to make their own or doesn’t have the supplies, you can always purchase some from Our Etsy Store. If you don’t see the flavor you want, just message us, we can whip up a custom order for you in no time.

For holding the tubes we use this handy pouring tray. You don’t need the tray though if you have great aim. Either way, I would recommend putting some waxed/parchment paper under the tubes to keep any spills off your counter top.

 

Print

Awesome Beeswax Lip Balm

Course Personal Care
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 13 .15 ounce tubes

Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp Beeswax
  • 2 tbsp Shea Butter
  • 1.5 tbsp Coconut Oil
  • ~30 drops Essential Oil/Flavor extract of choice

Instructions

  1. Using a double boiler, melt the Beeswax, Shea Butter and Coconut Oil.
  2. Remove mixture from heat and add Essential Oils and/or flavoring of your choice. Add small amounts at a time until you achieve the desired potency.
  3. Check consistency (optional); adjust as needed
  4. Pour into lip balm tubes
  5. Allow to cool completely before capping

Recipe Notes

If you're not sure the consistency is what you're looking for or want to check the scent/flavor, pour a small amount of the mixture onto a piece of waxed paper and put it in the fridge and put the pot with the rest of the mixture back into the double boiler to keep it warm. After a few minutes, take the sample out of the fridge and test it out. If it's good to go, simply pour the rest of the mixture into the waiting tubes.

If you need to adjust, do so in small amounts and check again until you find the perfect blend.

 

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