Well, the market goers didn't lie; they really did want fresh chickens over frozen. I'm still convinced that many of them took the birds home and promptly plunked them in the freezer, but that's just me being cynical (and probably shooting myself in the foot as well since many of them probably read this!) Anyway, our sales were up about 500% from the week before which is pretty fantastic. I also did what I swore I'd never do and took some fresh lamb cuts to see how they would sell. For the first time and for not really knowing how people would want the cuts I'd say it went pretty well. I should have gotten the racks cut up into chops instead of leaving them whole because they're nearly a four pound product left whole and that's generally far too much for most people especially when the comment I heard the most was, "Oh, that's way too big, since I'm the only one who eats at our house." Seems like there's a lot of homes with a single lamb-eater. Too bad. Although I can't say it's any different at this house. hahaha.

Anyway, overall, a much bigger success. I really enjoyed my market experience. It was nice to be busy, be outside in the sun, talking with people, meeting customers, selling things I believed in. I always say there are other things I'd rather do with my Saturday mornings, but in retrospect after having done it for a couple weeks, if it wasn't such a hassle for Mark to keep the kids I'd seriously consider doing it more often, on a more regular basis. That would mean we'd have to have fresh chicken and lamb on a more regular basis as well however, which isn't as easy as it sounds. Oh well. We've got to figure something out for Thanksgiving weekend however, since we've taken orders for fresh chickens that weekend and also have a wedding in somewhereville NS (Sherbrooke) which we need to get to that Saturday afternoon. (Just looked it up on MapQuest and it tells me that we're a 4 hour and 3 minute drive- not including the kid-drop off at my parent's place... oh my....). Perhaps we'll do a chicken drop-off that Friday evening. It's unfortunate to have to miss out on all those Thanksgiving customers that Saturday though! We'll have a freezer full of PERFECT, fresh chickens ready for the oven and no one to sell them. Hmmm..any suggestions out there? Anyone want to sell birds for us? We'll give you one in return!? Bahahaha!
Moving on! We had a lovely anniversary. The pictures for this post were taken on the day, Sept. 9th and what a day it was (I highly recommend September weddings- the weather is heavenly). You can see the reflection of the mirror in the combine shot that Mark has a beer in hand. This is not a frequent occurance, just a brief celebration with me in the midst of harvesting wheat. He's finished the grains now and is just waiting for the soybeans to be ready (likely late October at this point). That is not to say that 'just waiting' means I see him any more than when he was combining. (Ahem.) He's been seeding out oats as a winter cover crop and moving the grains among the bins that we've got available, dealing with some roasting orders and working out contracts. Bizzy bizzy bizzy.

My double tooth extraction went swimmingly despite the fact that when I sat down, the dentist mumbles to me in a thick french accent that he's only 68, too young to have 'da cataract'. Um? Sorry? Oh, no big deal, he had one operated on last year and is going for 'de udder one dis fall'. Oh, well then, what a relief!? He grabbed the right teeth, so that's all that matters I guess...

Mark and Lucy stretching for a quick kiss during a visit to the field in the middle of harvest.

The kids are well and although the weather has cooled down considerably, life is still running pretty smoothly here. My peppers and tomatoes are having a hard time ripening, but I managed to make one batch of salsa yesterday. We're yet to try it, but it looks good in the bottles so fingers crossed. Am about to tackle pickling hot peppers for the first time as soon as I finish this post.
As a side project this year, I've taken on the role of music director for the Sunday School at our church (Summerside Presbyterian) which begins this Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it as the Sunday School hasn't really had a music component before and I still remember really loving that part of Sunday School when I went as a little kid. So I've been practising and remembering all the old favorites this week, along with Lucy's help. There's one that goes, "Hallelu-hallelu-hallelu-hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord!" and I usually do the 'Hallelu' parts and Lucy does the 'Praise Ye the Lord' part except she says, "CRAZY Lord!" instead. Pretty cute stuff if I do say so myself.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world!

Sally

Quick Note

More to come later, but wanted everyone to know that I will be having fresh lamb for sale at the market tomorrow. Come early to get your favorite cuts! This is a very limited time offer. So much so that it won't be happening again. Unless through some miracle it turns out to be the most lucrative thing since roasted soybeans.

Highly unlikely I think.

See you at the Summerside Farmers Market!!!

Sally

Market(ing) 101

Our display off the back of the truck, beside the entrance, when Mark and Co. showed up for a few minutes. From this picture it looks a bit 'shiftless' to me with the papers and things, but at the time I thought it was fantastic. (See blackboard photo below for full effect)

So the first show at the market for Barnyard Organics was ...bittersweet, I guess. Everyone says, and I got the impression that the first week is not a fair representation of what it gets to be like after some time, but since this isn't something we're interested in doing for the long haul it was only fair in terms of business.

As I mentioned in the last post, I was really hoping to get some names for lamb orders, which I did, and we got some orders for Thanksgiving chickens, but I have to be honest and say that we only sold one chicken yesterday. I'm actually embarrassed to put that on here, but this is supposed to be an honest account of our farm (although if that were true, there'd be a lot more arguing and 'discussion' included! hahaha). A couple of people asked for one, but then said they were too big and left. A couple other people only wanted fresh ones (which sort of annoys me, since most of the time they're probably only going to take them home and put them in thier freezer). And then for lamb, there was lots of interest, but most people only wanted a piece of leg, or a chop, or some ground lamb. I kept telling them that a side is only about 20 lbs of meat, but no one has freezer space anymore. I don't understand it! We've only got a medium sized freezer, but it's got a side of pork, a quarter of beef, a little lamb, and some chickens in there. Then all my frozen peppers, berries, pumpkin, etc. off to the side. What are people putting in thier freezers? Fudgesicles and chicken nuggets?! (Don't let me fool you into thinking I'm too good for fudgesicles and chicken nuggets, I've got those too, but....you know what I mean!)

The chalkbaord with our list of goods and logo (I'm so impressed with myself for the replica. haha!)

Anyway, so it was a little frustrating on the meat front, but encouraging on the edamame front. It sold out well. Because Tomoko doesn't have her booth at the market anymore, and she used to serve edamame with her sushi, lots of people knew what it was and wanted a fix. So we were able to fill that void. Then others were just curious and I was glad that I had made up a sheet called "What the heck is edamame and what do I do with it!?" which included cooking instructions, some basic info and nutritional information. We charged $3 for a half pound bag, which is a good sized serving and a few people took it home just to 'try it'. I feel pretty confident that anyone who tries it will want to try it again, so we'll have lots more available if we go again next week and I'll probably try to have samples available next time.

That is currently up for discussion because while we definately we made money, I don't think we made enough to cover my time and/or child care. Mark and his mom kept the kids, but it's a long, busy stretch with two kids from 7:30 to 1:30, so not to be ignored in the calculation of worth-while-ness.

One of the boxes, with oats and triticale. The other box had wheat and spelt. Not that anyone cared.

Maybe I'm just sour because we hardly sold any of my fancy wheat sheaves at all. I chopped the price in half (to $2 each or 3 for $5) about an hour after I got there, and even then only sold a couple. Lots of people walked by and thought they were 'cute', but only a couple people really picked them up or seriously considered them. Ya know how when you go to one of those Christmas craft sales and there's that one decoration that EVERYONE HAS GOT TO HAVE, because the right person is carrying it around? I think that's kind of the way with these things... I wonder if the well established flower-woman at the Charlottetown market had them, if they would sell? Or what they sell for in Halifax? Was everyone who looked at them too much like me and thought, "That's crazy! Those are cute, but I could THAT!" The thing is, we could all do it, but no one DOES! That's why we buy things... Anyway, that was my first lesson in expectations and being shot down. Since they're still perfectly fine, I can always take them back if we go again, and I was thinking that maybe corn stalks would sell too, but do I really want to waste my time if people are just going to smile at them?

It wasn't a completely negative experience however. All the vendors are really great. Gerry, the manager is fantastic! I felt the sense of community that I had hoped for. I met a lot of people who read this blog, which is always amazing to me, since it started out as a little 'newsletter' of sorts for family and friends and now seems to have taken on a bit of a following- if I could only translate that into $$! hahaha.) It was a BEAUTIFUL day and I had an outdoor booth (just plugged the freezer in outside-perfect!). I had a great spot, right by the door, totally unavoidable. I got to chat to people I rarely see. It was a morning without the kids! hahaha! I was also next to the market 'buskers'. There was the usual fiddler, then a piper came along who played the bodhran for a while and then a sweet little girl who did some tap/highland? dancing who were right beside me, and with the sun and breeze it couldn't have been a nicer day.
SO, we've got fresh chickens come Friday afternoon, and I'm shipping two lambs this week, which might be ready for Friday as well, so we could potentially hit up the market again next Saturday with lots of 'FRESH' meat. This a busy week though; with Mark likely combining everyday, our anniversary on Wednesday(which will amount to very little I'm sure with it being such good harvesting weather), I'm getting two wisdom teeth pulled on Thursday and friends coming to visit on Friday night, and chickens and lambs off to thier respective abbatoirs, so we'll have to see how things go.

I think I may have made this out to sound like a pretty bad experience overall, which it really wasn't. We sold all the edamame, some of the oat cover crop seed (which was kind of a last minute, thrown together, zero effort idea), all the sunflowers (which I actually took just as display, but that's all anyone wanted so I sold them for a $1/handfull) and made some good contacts for lamb. Probably for a first showing, that's pretty decent. If we were planning on being there long-term I might be more heartened, but when it's something we were hoping to only have to do when we need to sell chickens, it wasn't an overwhelming success by any means. Yet, I have a feeling I'll be back in just 6 days from now, trying it again. That will truly tell the tale of the future for Barnyard Organics at the Market.

Hope all is well on this chilly September night in your corner of the world. This weather lately has been heavenly. Warm days and cold nights are my dreams come true.

-Sally

ps. It was really nice to meet some of you readers! Thanks for the support!

This Little Piggy Went to (the) Market

Kent County Agricultural Fair, seen from across the river in Ste. Marie-de-Kent, NB.

And this Saturday that little piggy will be me!! That's right, Barnyard Organics is making it's Farmer's Market debut and the Spring Street Farmers Market in Summerside! WhoohooO!

I'm nervous and excited at the same time. Nervous that we won't sell anything, excited to be a part of it all. I've always liked going to the market, but wasn't so keen on spending my entire Saturday mornings there if I didn't have to. But we've got more chickens coming and although we haven't tried all that hard to sell the ones we've got now, we thought the market might open us up to a new demographic of people willing to pay for a premium product. The other big reason we're going is to sell the edamame. Anyway, I think it'll be a good experience if nothing else. My biggest hope, personally, is to get some orders for lamb, since there'll be two ready next week and 8 more along the next few weeks/months.

I've also spent some time this week putting together some decorative sheaves of various grains, tied up all purrrdy with a bow, since we know that it's the stuff that people don't need that they spend the most money on. (If you're a potential customer please skip this paragraph! haha!) Anyway, I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, but I'm pretty impressed with myself really. I've got winter wheat, triticale, spelt and oats, each looking very different and very pretty. I had great intentions of having all kinds of pictures of what I'll be selling posted to the blog as pre-advertisement, but alas, it hasn't happened. I've got pictures on my camera, but every toy ever created seems to require batteries, so my camera has fallen to the bottom of the list- even though it's far less annoying that a little train that pipes the same tooting song over and over and over and over and over.....
SO, you'll just have to come to the market for yourself to see what we've got. Or, you could wait until next week and I'll put some up here for you to see. If I were you, I'd go with option one.

So that's what's coming up, here's what's been happening;

Mark is currently enjoying his second day of harvesting the spring crops, yay. :)
We took a 'vacation' last week and went home for the Kent Country Agricultural Fair, which has yet to let me down. What a great time. Mom and Dad were camping at the fair, so we got to sort of take over the house and travel back and forth at our leisure-although I've come to realize that with a 1.5 year old and a baby, there is very little relaxing about 'leisure'. Thankfully I've got a couple great neices and nephews who babysat for us while Mark and I hit up the fair by ourselves (or rather with my brother Mark and his wife Lisa, who we always look forward to seeing and visiting with when we go to West Branch).
Mom accepted her Farmer of the Year award like the celebrity she is and made a really sweet speech that made me cry just a little. I don't know what it is about the fair, but it makes me awfully nostalgic and sentimental. And glad that I married a farmer and into agriculture.

Mom and Dad rode into the ring in a fancy horse drawn carriage, with the premier, Shawn Graham (waving wildly), which is just a little bit hilarious, given the family connection (my grandmother married Shawn's grandfather).

When we returned from home (meaning West Branch, NB for me) we attended the Meal in the Field (aforementioned in the last post) which was held at the Rossignol Winery in Little Sands, PEI. Beautifully done event. We were matched up with Joel Short from Georgetown Inn, who showcased our chicken in a sushi type dish. He served it as pulled chicken with an Asian glaze rolled it up in rice, in a cone of kelp. He also offered it in the more traditional sushi roll. Either way, it was delicious and definately a new way to enjoy it. We got to taste lots of great wines and snack on some really really tasty dishes. (Mark's fav was our chicken, mine was Roy Vandemaar's pulled pork sandwiches made by the chef at Stanhope Resort, although all the food was pretty Deeelish.) Nicely done event. Made me all that much more excited for the Organic Harvest Meal coming up September, 27th, also organized by Roy.

Anyway, am pretty exhausted and have a big day tomorrow, so off to bed I go. Stay posted for the results!

Hope all is well in your corner of the world!

Sally

Edamame? EdaYUMMe!

If you recall I wrote a post quite a few months ago about our growing edamame (corrected pronounciation= ed-a-MA-may) for the first time. I think I mentioned that I had tried it once when Mark's sister (who travels extensively throughout Asia) cooked it for us and I think I also mentioned that I hadn't really liked it. Well, last night the kids and I went out to the soybean field and picked off the plumpest looking pods. I was skeptical as I dropped them into the pot of boiling water. Then I promptly forgot about them. With the other three burners occupied, the oven full, two kids howling, a friend over trying to do a bit of work, and Mark on his way home for supper, the new edamame wasn't top of the list. Anyway, a few minutes later I remembered it and jumped to drain it, thinking that I had probably over cooked it. I dumped them into a bowl, sprinkled with sea salt (like I'd seen on the pictures on the internet) and set them on the table. A few minutes later, we were all delving in, delighted in the deliciousness of the delicate beans (ahhh, alliteration!). I had heard that you're supposed to treat them like an appetizer at a bar, like peanuts sitting on the table. So we sat around cracking them open and popping the little beans in our mouths. The salt made a big difference, but the beans had a very distinct but subtle flavour themselves. Everyone was sure I had buttered them (I had to stop and think for a second myself), because they had a real tender, buttery flavour, but nope that wasn't me. I think part of the mystery is that the pods are so tough and almost hairy that it's hard to let yourself imagine that inside there is a veritable bubble of soft, smooth flavour waiting to be enjoyed.

Anyway, the overall prognosis was that it was amazing and we look forward to more of it! Tomoko, our Japanese connection at the Summerside Market will be looking for some, and I think we may actually have a table at the market ourselves this Saturday. It will be good experience whether we do it again or not. We've got to sell our chickens before the next batch are ready and I'd like to get some orders going for my lambs, who will be finishing over the next few weeks (I hope!). So, look for us there!!

The few sunflowers that DID germinate this year are in bloom and beautiful!

I wrote that first part last week sometime and am only finishing the rest of this entry now.
I've got much to write about this past week, since we took a bit of a vacation from the farm and enjoyed some time at home (MY home, West Branch, NB) and then on Sunday took part in the Meal in the Field. But alas, all that will have to wait until I have more time, or a baby who sleeps during the day. Until then, hope all is well in your corner of the world!

Sally

Hey! Hay!

This'll be a quick one, because quite frankly there's not a lot to say. We've been haying, and finally finished a while ago. Since we ran out of hay last year and had to buy some, we went overboard this year and (hopefully/surely) have more than enough. We've got every nook and cranny packed full and between first cut and second cut I can't imagine what would have to come over my sheep to go through it all. I feel like now that I've put this in writing, it will come back to haunt me around April 2010. We'll see.

Besides that, there's not a whole lot going on. All the winter/fall cereals are cleaned up. The first batch of chickens are sitting in the freezer, waiting for us to get around to selling them, which we need to do before the next batch are ready. We may hit up the Summerside Market sometime soon if we need to. It may also be a good place to sell our edamame which should be ready any day now. THAT will be a learning experience.

We're participating in an event called "Meal in the Field" which pairs chefs with farmers and on Aug 31, a bunch of tents are sent up in a field in Caledonia (here on the island) and people are invited to come 'tour' the field and try out the various dishes created by the chef, showcasing the ingredients from the farmer. Should be interesting. It's being organizing by a young guy who moved to the island as a WOOFER and has now settled here with his own organic farm. He's got culinary background and is overall just an enthusiastic and ambitious guy. A good one to have on the side of organics here right now. He's also organizing the annual Harvest Meal which is put on the by COPC. I'm really looking forward to it. Both the Meal in the Field and the Harvest Meal. I think tickets will be on sale anytime now. This year it's moving even more upscale with Chef Michael Smith the head in the kitchen and it's moving to the Charlottetown Driving Park, which is an interesting and pretty venue.

Whew, that was a lot of plugging all at once. I don't have any pictures so I won't bore you any longer. I am heading home this week to go to the St. Maries Fair (more formally known as Expo Kent. It is always a highlight of my summer and lately since I'm not home to help Mom with the sheep, I'm the announcer for the sheep show. For a little community in southeastern NB it has one of the best livestock shows left in terms of exhibitions. The sheep show alone is the largest in the maritimes, as far as we know. This year there are over 80 entries in the sheep. Impressive really, mostly in thanks to my Mom who is finally allowing the fair to give her some recognition for all her work. She is the Farmer of the Year this year, which despite her insistence otherwise, is a big deal. And she is much deserving. Congrats Mrs. Wilson, Winnie, Poohie, Mom!
Anyway, if you're not doing anything the week or this weekend, you should really consider hitting up the fair in little Ste. Marie de Kent. It really is worth your while. Guarantee. And I'm not being paid to say that! hahaha.

Ok ok ok, enough with the publicity tonite. The soap box is wearing thin. And my eyes are wearing heavy.
G'night all. Hope Hurricane Bill is treating you nicely.
Take care,
Sally

Farmily

My husband is a happy man. The other day as I was enjoying the warm days and cool evenings (finally) and the lowering populations of biting bugs I said, "I love August" and he replied with a very emphatic, "I LOVE August TOO!". There is little about Mark that is emphatic so I had to ask why and he quickly answered, "Because I get to drive my combine." So there you have it folks, love comes in all shapes and sizes. We have in fact begun to harvest the winter cereals (grain that is planted in the fall, ready before the spring-planted grains) this week. You can just barely see the red combine in the photo above against the red barn, but there he is, smiling I'm sure. He's in a field of winter wheat, although you'll probably notice that there is a LOT of fall rye in there as well. That's sort of our custom mix. I was going to try and let on that we did it on purpose, but we used our own seed and it's near impossible to separate rye and wheat seed, so they get planted together. I doubt if we will be using this grain as seed again. For feed purposes though it's ok. Some people claim that too much rye in a mix can be a problem, but there's not all that much rye, it just looks that way because it's so much taller.

I've tried to make up for my lack of posting by including a lot of pictures today. Whenever I put up a lot of pictures I think of my mom, who is one of the lucky few still using dial-up internet, and wonder how long it takes her to load up my blog. So to make it worth her wait I've also included some of the kids.We hosted our annual family get together at our place this past weekend, and as usual it was my favorite weekend of the year (except maybe Christmas). It was a bit smaller crowd than usual, partly due to the fact that we just had the big anniversary do a month ago, but what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality. hahaha. Anyway, good times had by all and Lucy was in her glory with lots of people to watch and show off to.

Here she is in the feed cart ready to go water the chickens up in the pasture. Is that impatience on that face?

My garden has somehow flourished under my neglect and it's bean season right now. Holy smokes I've got beans coming out of my ears. I was a little worried when I planted them because it was my first time using seed that I had saved myself and wondered about my drying and storage capabilities, or lack thereof. Anyway, they are alive and well, producing like crazy. I love fresh beans, and Lucy loves to snap beans, but it might be time to start considering pickling mustard beans soon. I always buy a few broccoli transplants as well (since my own plants never do very well) and they are ready this week. Lucy helped me pick out the worms yesterday. She thought it was hilarious that they can hide so well and screeched everytime we found one. I think we caught them just in time, so I'd better go cut it all down today before they start eating and pooping all over it. Good broccoli though, and a family favorite in the vegetable world, so a keeper as far as I'm concerned.

We are involved with Nature's Crops this summer, as one of the sites on which they are using to see how various alternative crops grow organically. Below are some shots of some of the crops that are currently in flower. The small blue flowers are flax- I guess they are technically not part of any trial. Mark planted them as a surprise for me because I a)love how pretty they are and b)use the dried flax in some crafty sort of projects come fall. The orange flowers are calendula which is a really popular plant in the cosmetic and pharamceutical industry, but lots of other ways as well. We use some baby products that are made for calendula and have found that the best diaper rash stuff is made of the little orange plants (Weleda). Finally, the purple flowers are from the borage plant, also important in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and health food industries. The borage looks like it is doing especially well under organic conditions, if I do say so myself.




This is a picture illustrating the latest frustration on the accounting side of the farm. It's sort of become my realm and anything that goes wrong becomes my fault and this time it's sort of true. When I worked for the federal government they were getting rid of a whole bunch of old office supplies to get new stuff and I saw this beautiful heavy wooden desk in the throw out pile. Not being able to resist I drug it home one day and insisted we make use of it. It's really big so it's perfect for the office (I need lots of desk space), but it has one small problem; it doesn't like humidity and we made it live in a basement. Which means that any drawers that were open when it got humid are permanently open and any there closed are permantly closed. This makes for a not-so-happy Mark. It also makes for a very messy desk because I can't file anything away. Messy desk also means a not-so-happy Mark. He might be mad that I posted this picture, but it was hilarious last night when he decided he was going to show that desk who was boss. Braced his big self up against it and 'come onto 'er' as they say. Nothing. Even some extra cursing didn't bring 'er around. So as I type this, papers, cheques, invoices, statements, envelopes, money, all clutters around together in a big messy mish mash. Welcome to Barnyard Organics.

Here's another shot of Wilson, who is just getting the hang of his jolly jumper and loving it. The last picture illustrates us perfectly I think. Mark is taking it all in, Wilson is completley relaxed and sleeping while Lucy keeps things interesting and I try to document it.


Whew, big one this morning. It must be obvious that I'm kid-free this morning (well one is gone and one is sleeping). I'd better go make better use of my 'free time' by trying to tidy up this desk and do some farm books.

Hope is all is well in your corner of the world,
Sally