admine9519, Author at Morning Song Farm - Page 23 of 44
Our chickens are a treasured part of
Morning Song Farm and are living the Good Life. They spend their days clucking
and scratching freely on the farm, and are fed leafy green scraps and fresh
fruit. We supplement with locally purchased scratch that is not certified
organic, but have just sourced a Certified Organic (by Oregon tilth) soy-free
feed. They’re joined by our two llamas, Couscou and Dream A Little who together
have completely halted the coyote attacks on our pet chickens. Apparently,
llamas and canines don’t get along, and the coyotes give our llamas a wide and respectful
berth. Although everything else on the farm is CCOF Certified Organic, the kids’
chicken eggs aren’t. (Once a chicken is fed a non organic feed, they must be
taken out of the facility if you want your eggs to be certified organic.) But if
you are looking for a humanely raised egg source, from chickens fed with a
soy-free organic feed; you can’t do much better than our eggs. Commercial
production facilities, even organic ones, kill older hens after only a season or
two, to maintain feed to egg production ratios. Our chickens are allowed to live
their natural life spans, which adds to our feed costs. Also, many organic facilities have really stretched the term “free range” to mean “well, not in a 12″ box.” Our chickens scratch and peck under their macadamia trees and have ample space to roost in the rafters of their barn or tree branches. We don’t ever have to de-beak our chickens; they are not under stress and don’t peck at each other to the point of injury, ever.
Morning Song Farm and are living the Good Life. They spend their days clucking
and scratching freely on the farm, and are fed leafy green scraps and fresh
fruit. We supplement with locally purchased scratch that is not certified
organic, but have just sourced a Certified Organic (by Oregon tilth) soy-free
feed. They’re joined by our two llamas, Couscou and Dream A Little who together
have completely halted the coyote attacks on our pet chickens. Apparently,
llamas and canines don’t get along, and the coyotes give our llamas a wide and respectful
berth. Although everything else on the farm is CCOF Certified Organic, the kids’
chicken eggs aren’t. (Once a chicken is fed a non organic feed, they must be
taken out of the facility if you want your eggs to be certified organic.) But if
you are looking for a humanely raised egg source, from chickens fed with a
soy-free organic feed; you can’t do much better than our eggs. Commercial
production facilities, even organic ones, kill older hens after only a season or
two, to maintain feed to egg production ratios. Our chickens are allowed to live
their natural life spans, which adds to our feed costs. Also, many organic facilities have really stretched the term “free range” to mean “well, not in a 12″ box.” Our chickens scratch and peck under their macadamia trees and have ample space to roost in the rafters of their barn or tree branches. We don’t ever have to de-beak our chickens; they are not under stress and don’t peck at each other to the point of injury, ever.
At $8 a dozen, the price reflects the expense of raising chickens humanely and with feed that has no GMO or soy product. We only offer our eggs to our CSA members, along with our CSA box deliveries.
The Road Less Traveled, in concert with Morning Song Farm is offering a CSA canning class near the Road’s Santa Ana location on Saturday, May 19th, 2012.
Road Less Traveled • 125 N. Broadway – C Santa Ana, CA 92701 • (714) 836-8727
Tues-Sat: 11am-6pm Sun: 11am-3pm
Tues-Sat: 11am-6pm Sun: 11am-3pm
Delilah and Farmer Donna will post more info as we sort out all the details. Hope you can join us!
Enjoy our fennel, as it has a very short season. Now is the time to dry what you can’t use. Either lay out on your kitchen counter, or tie a piece of twine around the end and attach to anything in the kitchen (even a nail) that will allow it to hang to dry. Once dry, crumble into an air tight container for later use.
* Toss fresh or dried fennel on the barbeque to infuse its light, sweet taste to veggies, chicken or fish.
* Add fresh or dried to salads, dips and dressings
* Use in omelettes!
* Dry and use as a stomach settling tea, either alone or combined with mint, dried citrus peels, etc. Consider stevia as a tea sweetener.
Click on image to enlarge for easier reading.
Most of our mulberry trees are too young to produce much, so there’s not a lot of fruit to go around this year. But all larges this week received a small taste of a mix of our three varieties. Two are Pakistani and one is Himylayan, which looks more like a blackberry. You’ll note that the Pakistani fruit is sometimes less dark, indeed there’s an occassional ripe piece of fruit that is closer to white. The coloration of the fruit is much less uniform than, say, blackberries. There IS a mulberry that is ALL white, but it didn’t pass the taste test here; just too sweet and poorly nuanced. My favorite is the Pakistani, either one of the two kinds we grow has its fine points. The smaller, finer version has a sharper taste and aroma, and the fuller version is juicier and sweeter. I love them both. We have added a whole grove of mulberries, and expect to be in real production, this time next year. Can’t wait!
We had a sprout room failure between Tuesday and Wednesday morning. The thermastat stuck and heated the sprout room up to high and the entire room of sprouts failed overnight. So, Tuesday boxes received our amazing sprouts, Wednesday’s didn’t. Sorry!
Quick tip from Julie Janseen:
“I like to clean my lettuce as soon as I get it and have it all ready to eat so that making salads daily is quick and easy. The problem I encountered was drying it off–there is too much for a salad spinner and it is time consuming and wasteful to use paper towels – I am now putting my clean, wet leaves in a mesh laundry bag (Like what you would use for lingerie) and taking it outside and swinging it around until all the water comes off”” Not sure if others will find this helpful, but I thought I wouls share just in case.”