No doubt about it….
My 2 main reminders to myself for next winter:
- No Broilers during the winter!! They eat too much feed because the bug population goes away!
- Aim LATE lambing for January – the temps in Feb. are too unpredictable and it’s been a heart breaking year with 7 losses even with the heat lamps and such.
The broilers FINALLY go to the processor this Tuesday – and of course the nice people at the weather center are predicting snow. I can’t afford snow!! I need these birds processed and I can’t wait to count and find out how many there actually are left. The cold killed some – even with the heat lamp, three were grabbed one night by a hit and run predator, and probably a couple other losses are totalled in there. Way too much feed is going into these guys during this time of the year – major learning experience. Next year – we’ll do what we can late fall and hopefully have enough to hold through the winter. At least I know dinner on Tuesday will be a chicken!
I did get to meet one of the state vets because they are being processed at a USDA facility. In order to transport birds in VA, you need to have them tested for avian flu. Well, we passed (big shocker there) so the birds will be processed USDA.
After much thought on this, I feel better about it. Not because I cannot process the birds – I know I can. But there are other things I wouldn’t know to look for. Even if something happens in 1 in 1000 birds – I’d rather the birds I sell not have any of these issues. One is a green muscle where the breast meat is green – you wouldn’t notice until you cut into it – which of course at your dinner table it might just be gross.
So I guess it’s a give or take system….. I know a lot of people who process their own – which is great and this coming fall I will be processing the turkeys we will sell – but for the volume of chickens and doing this myself, no thanks – I’ll trust someone else with this, just like we do when we trust the beef, pork and lamb processors 
Well – In February good things happen as well. View our basement and Joe has already set up some of his trays with seeds for basil, cilantro and some other ones. Other seed orders start coming in soon and we have a great list lined up for this year!
Also, I am excited to say that I filed the paperwork for getting my kitchen certified. What this means is that I will be making fresh salsa and spaghetti sauce from our garden for your dinner table! I am very excited about this as it’s completely new to me. And if you ask anyone in our family if they thought I would cook something and people would actually pay to eat some they would laugh. But at the same time – they are all my biggest fans of spaghetti sauce and salsa (which is why they all wanted some in their stockings this past year!)
So be on the lookout for our new products! Jams and jellys will be in earlier than the sauce and salsa since we grow everything ourselves so I need to wait for tomatoes to come in. On the list will be a special salsa too made with a WHITE habanera pepper – so it will be HOT HOT HOT!
Have fun and keep reading!
