Author Archives: Rachel
Off to a Good Start
The garden is starting to come together. I’m feeling inspired to keep better records as well (more on that below). The first round of peas and the garlic are going strong. The fennel, spinach and lettuce starts have all been planted. Last night we transplanted most of our onions, though I’m starting to feel we may [Read the full story ...]
Catching some Levain (aka Sourdough Starter)
San Francisco is famous for their sourdough bread which runs wild around there. Fortunately we can all catch our own wild sourdough starter, which is also called levain. Levain is the French term for sourdough starter and has been used for centuries to make bread. Bread made with Levain may even be healthier for you [Read the full story ...]
Sour Crop in Chickens
A chicken with sour crop has an abnormally large crop. I had noticed that one of my pullets had this amazingly huge crop and that it didn’t seem to ever go down – even overnight. Picking her up and palpating the crop revealed that it was overly spongy and the size of a baseball. She [Read the full story ...]
The Tip Jar – Going Ad Free
Blogging is a labor of love. I love sharing with you what we’re up to and what we learn. I really hope that all of my readers learn a little something from our adventures and can become more self sufficient in their lives as well. I spend several hours every week researching, writing, finding guest [Read the full story ...]
What I Listen To
My life seems to revolve around farming even when I’m at my day job. Have I mentioned that I’m a landscape design consultant and project manager for a landscape architecture firm? It’s really not as glamorous as it may sound. OK, I admit it doesn’t even sound that glamorous. I spend 99% of my time [Read the full story ...]
Just a Fad
I’ve seen the statistic time and time again. During World War I and World War II our nation was able to produce a staggering amount of food in backyards. During World War II we were able to produce 40% of our food in backyard Victory Gardens (and backyard Victory Flocks). That’s impressive to say the [Read the full story ...]
The Story of Sick Chicken
Our chickens generally don’t get formal names – except for our one rooster, George, and our first three hens Crystal, Loretta and Patsy. Instead we give them nicknames based on their behavior or appearance. Like Blondie, Escape Chicken, Pamela Chicken (after Pamela Anderson because of her abnormally large crop that makes her look like she has [Read the full story ...]
Let’s Talk Security
The Old Gate Security. It’s something I never really bring up but I think it’s important that I discuss it. This time I’m not talking about food security, biosecurity or keeping your hens safe from raccoons. Rather I want to discuss keeping an unwanted two legged animal off your property. Over the past … Continue [Read the full story ...]
Sedona Meets the Ghetto Goats
Now that Sedona is pretty much settled in I figured I should write a post about how we integrated her in with our Ghetto Goats, Bella and Daisy. Several months ago I got an email from my friend Lynda, who with her husband owns Foggy River Farm in Healdsburg. She was needing to reduce … [Read the full story ...]
A Bit of a Treat
Our goat yard is in the shape of an L. This fall, while the chickens were still living with the goats, we had decided to fence off the leg and seed it with pasture seed. I wasn’t sure if we should seed it for the chickens or for the goats. After doing some research we [Read the full story ...]