Dancing Doe Farms

Starting seeds

2011-04-03T18:05:00.006-05:00

Having lived in North Carolina for several years and being an impatient gardener, I always try to start seeds as early as possible (plus this way, if something goes wrong, I'll have time to try again*).

So far I've started leeks, onions, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower on my very rustic basement plant stand (basically four 1x boards - two making the sides and two making the shelves. The sides have about three - 1" nails right in the center about 6", 8" and 10" above each shelf so I can hang and adjust the height of my two - four foot double bulb shop lights (one over each shelf). I don't think it's sturdy enough to stand on, but it fits four standard starting trays (the long way on the shelves) very easily.

Anyway, I needed more space and wanted something for the living room because my basement is really too cold to start tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. So I built another stand that's nearly as rustic from 1x8" pine boards and 1 x 2s. It's similar to this one from finegardening.com but less fancy (and so far I have only two shelves because I had to start the first shelf over the giant 15 inch high speaker I bought used from my sister in about 1977!)

Because my living room is small and the stand is designed to hold the trays perpendicular to the shelf length, I didn't make it four feet long. Rather, the shelves are about 33 inches long and it just fits into one corner of the living room. With these dimensions, I can have six (three and three) standard starting trays going at once. (Originally I thought of this in November when I was wondering if I could grow some lettuce and spinach for winter salads. That I am just getting around to it in April gives you some idea of my personal get-to-it-ness!)

Lighting was going to be a problem though. Fluorescent fixtures are generally only sold in two, sometimes three and four foot lengths. Odd sized fixtures and bulbs are often more expensive. Hmmm.

Along comes YouTube and this fantastic idea for making plant stand lights using heat duct and compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Perfect. I bought an 8" five foot long piece of duct, cut it in half for two 30" sections, and installed the rods and light fixture (so far only one since I haven't been able to find a second fixture yet!) and voilà! Now we are really cooking.

But, I keep my house pretty cool since I'm going quite a bit, so maybe it would still be too cool for starting these warm weather plants. Hmmm.

Internet to the rescue again. Rope lights. Rope lights instead of expensive plant heating mats. I HAVE a string of rope lights (I'm trying to move to cf lights but had a string of regular ones I got on sale a few years ago). So temporarily, I've tied the string of rope lights to the the slats forming one of the shelves and have them on for a while each day to heat the trays.

By this coming winter, I hope to have both shelves strung with rope lights and thin dry wall or cement board on each shelf so I can heat trays if needed using a time for the rope lights and one for the overhead lights.

*My tomatoes and eggplant seeds have sprung up and are really doing well, but the peppers ... the peppers didn't come up at all - NONE of them! I used jiffy pots which I never use but had some from a sale (I try to get almost everything on sale). So, maybe that was the problem. Today I'm starting them all again - now it's late, but better late than never.

I'll report on the outcome of the shelf project as the seed starting progresses.

It's watercress time!

2011-04-03T10:32:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was beautiful and it wasn't snowing, raining, sleeting or otherwise dripping cold wet stuff from the sky. So of course we had to go down to the spring fed branch of the creek for the first watercress of the year.

It's not always easy getting to this little emerald patch of nutrition. Fortunately, the main branch of the creek was not too high and we found a couple of very large rocks to make a little stepping stone bridge though the shallowest part (which I always need my balance, er walking stick to negotiate!)

George volunteered to get the icy foot while I snapped a photo of the beautiful springy expanse of green.

We will sell a limited quantity of watercress. Email me or call and leave a message at 608 788-4039. Please give me a few days to fill your order. If it's raining, hailing, sleeting or otherwise nasty weather, I will probably need to wait to harvest more.

Sprouts

2011-01-26T17:52:00.005-06:00

In the dead of winter, when nothing's growing outside but the giant icicles hanging from the edge of the roof, how can you get some fresh food into your menu? SPROUTS!

From fall through spring, I try to keep a constant supply of yummy sprouts going in my kitchen. I don't have fancy equipment - no sprout trays, auto waterers or multi-layered sprout habitats!

All you really need is a jar (it helps if it is rather large and has a wide opening), some sprouting seeds (see below) and some kind of straining device. For the latter, I've used everything from my hand to a lid with holes punched in it to a screen. Recently, I bought a wire sink strainer for about $1.50 and it works great.

Here's how I do it:

1. Put about 1/4 c. of seeds in a jar and fill about 1/2 full of warm water.
2. Let it sit for a day
3. Using you hand or a screen, drain the water (but not the seeds) from the jar (apparently this is great water for houseplants)
4. Fill the jar about 1/2 full of clean warm water
5. The next day, drain again - don't lose the seeds!
6. The next day, rinse the seeds with clean water. Don't keep any water in the jar, just the moist sprouts. As they start to sprout, place the jar on its side in a window.
7. Rinse the sprouts with clean water one or two times per day. Shake and rotate the jar so all the seeds get sun exposure.
8. When sprouts are long and start turning green, put in a plastic bag in refrigerator.
9. If necessary, rinse them every once in a while, but I use mine up pretty fast so I usually don't need to rinse them - just grow more sprouts!

Seeds - I order mine from our food buying club (cheaper than anywhere else I've found). We get unadulterated, non-radiated organic seeds from Frontier Herbs which has a variety of sprouting seeds and mixes. You can also get them from some co-ops and health food stores and online. Make sure you get seeds designated for sprouting - many garden seeds are treated with stuff you don't want to eat!

You do need to be careful - sprouts in a moist environment can also breed bad things (Salmonella and e coli). I've never had trouble with my home-grown sprouts that are cared for and rinsed daily, handled with clean hands and refrigerated promptly. But, there's nothing guaranteeing your home grown sprouts won't sprout e coli and apparently there's not much you can do if they do! If you want to read more about the downside of sprouts, here and here.

I LOVE sprouts and, if you're not afraid, I urge you to try them for fresh veggies in the middle of winter!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T17:18:00.003-06:00

Well, here we are in the depths of winter (literally!) The chickens are bundled all snug in their coop, the processed chickens and summer vegetables are resting in the freezers and visions of next year's garden are dancing in our heads. (And our new snow dog, Anna, is happy, too!)

We will be raising prices for 2011, unable to continue absorbing increasing feed and fuel costs. Prices include delivery to your home or work (in the La Crosse/Onalaska area).

Lots of interesting things have been happening related to food, locally, nationally and globally. Here are a few interesting links:

* Info about the new food safety bill

* The Cornucopia Institute is doing great work - check out their reports

* It's cheaper being green

* You are what your father ate, too

* Though we're not part of the Cameron Park Market, here's a reminder that many vendors participate in the winter market at Three Rivers School, 901 Caledonia Street (Saturdays, January 15 and February 12)

* 10,000 steps (if you're looking for a New Year's resolution ...)

Those darned chickens

2010-08-02T20:08:00.004-05:00

Really, everyone ought to have a few chickens. Books have been written and films made about what amazing and interesting creatures they are.

Our latest chicken surprise came yesterday when we discovered that one of the "escapees" hatched 10 chicks. We keep the chickens in a large fenced yard to decrease the chance that a predator will get them or they will get to my vegetables (last year, they ate every last bit of my beautiful collard crop.)

Anyway, the rooster can escape and when he does, he always tries to lure a few hens out. We don't really need a rooster, but he's very beautiful and doesn't attack (unlike his father) and is actually a good protector of the flock* so we tolerate him.

So, the rooster had a few hens following him around - mostly the "wild" grandchildren of Mini, our black turken (pictured here). And apparently, one of the hens has been sitting on a nest right in front of our noses for three weeks and yesterday was the big day. Ten little black chicks have now joined our motley crew.

I hope to post a few pictures soon. For now, we need to be sure that the chicken-raised kittens we found last summer do not get to the chicks.

* Last year, George came home one night to a great commotion coming from the hen house. Apparently, the door had been left open and a great horned owl had taken it for a buffet. We lost one of our roosters as he tried to defend the roosting sleeping hens from this fiend. I know it's all in their "animal nature," but you can't help but admire the fight in these guys when their hens are at risk. (Of course, when they are strutting about the yard mounting every hen in sight, they don't seem so noble.)

Corn ho!

2010-07-30T20:58:00.002-05:00

It's still wet and weedy, but good ol' corn comes through again. I believe what is now ripening is Spring Treat. The Fedco catalog (by the way, if you want the greatest seed catalog on earth with lots of good info, variety and good prices, you MUST get the Fedco catalog!) says, "The choice of early corn cornoisseurs, Spring Treat continues to be our most popular sweet corn by a wide margin. We’ve tasted a lot of new earlies in recent years, but none have zinged our taste buds like this yellow sugary enhanced hybrid. Spring Treat ripens around the time of Sugar Buns, with longer ears that are easier to pick and with a rich corny taste that we hadn’t enjoyed since Intrepid. Not as sweet as Sugar Buns, but better eating quality, ear length and appearance than any other early corn."

So, $3/dozen. Grown without chemicals. Act soon! Corn comes and goes in the blink of an eye (increasingly, my whole life seems to be going that way! Except the icky parts, unfortunately.)

We also have an abundance of Eight Ball zucchini (round like a baseball - great for stuffing) and coming soon, nice pretty delicate yellow squash.

Beans are taking a break for a while but should be back in the next couple of weeks. I have turned to the Three Bean Salad diet and I'm not sick of it yet. Yum!

More soon.

Field of Beans

2010-07-18T15:38:00.003-05:00

Rip Van Maren, here. It seems like just yesterday it was May 1 and now it's July 18! Yikes! This is what happens when you try to live a double life in a single lifetime. My work in summer is like being shot out of a cannon. Add in the garden and chickens and suddenly two months have passed before I've had a chance to update this page!

First - beans. If you plant them, they will come! I usually plant lots of beans - mostly because I love to eat them. But also because you never know if the woodchuck will show up or if they will get rust or some other disease. Better to have too many than too few. Well, I had too many, so I pulled some up. But this also means I have enough to sell. Let me know. In addition to the green beans, I have dragon tongue wax beans (an heirloom breed from the Netherlands). Together they make a super fantastic three (or four or five) bean salad:

Cook a quarter of green beans and a quart of wax beans until just cooked (still a bit crisp), then plunge into cold water. Drain and put in a big bowl. Thinly slice a red (or white or yellow) onion into the bowl. Empty a can of black beans or garbanzos or red beans, drained, into the bowl. In a small bowl, whisk 3/4 c. cider vinegar, 1/3 c. olive oil and 1/2 c. sugar (or as much as you want) until well blended. Pour over salad and mix well. Refrigerate at least overnight. Gets better the longer you can wait.

Chickens - we've started processing chickens. So far we have 2.5# up to almost 5#. By the end of next week, we'll have some up to 6#. They've done very well this year and enjoy afternoons lounging in the long grass or among the corn.

Eggs - They are still laying! What more can I say.

The woodchuck ate most of the broccoli and cauliflower. I may try a fall planting if I can improve the fencing. Strawberries came and went in the wink of an eye. I am still waiting for our blueberry bushes to bear fruit. And waiting. And waiting!

More soon.

May Day

2010-05-01T13:34:00.003-05:00

What a beautiful May 1! It's perfect weather for working outside.

We took apart the hoop house which collapsed this winter under the heavy snow. We plan to rebuild the walls and reinforce the plastic tubing top for better load handling. We will definitely have it up in time for summer peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and basil. The hoop house definitely extends the season.

There are lots of blossoms right now on the strawberries so I hope we get a great harvest this year. We don't have a lot but have been expanding the area every year. Last year we froze more than we have been able to use so far. I hope we can sell some again this June. I never count on anything until I actually have them harvested, though, because in gardening (especially with chickens about), you never know.

We still have some loose chickens wandering around (it's the rooster! he lures the hens where we don't want them to be) which is fine except that they gravitate toward the seeds I've just planted and scratch things up. The rabbits are bad enough, but chickens can just hop over any rabbit fence. Last fall, just before I was ready to harvest the beautiful collards we'd grown and the day before we planned to capture the chickens for their winter quarters, the chickens ate all the collards! At least they got a good nutritious treat.

I sometimes say I practice "Survivor: Gardening" - a nod to the tv show and not a reference to any apocalyptic mindset. In addition to the normal disasters and set backs gardeners experience, it seems that sometimes I plant things and he-who-shall-not-be-named gets on the old tractor (or tiller) and the next thing I know, it's gone. I THINK this happened with some asparagus that I planted last year, but since I didn't make a photo record of it, I can't prove it (our memories are both pretty bad).

Our wonderful dog, Rose, the best dog in the world, is recuperating after spraining her leg last week. She has been diagnosed with Cushing's disease but seems to be responding well to her medication. In addition to being the best dog in the world, she used to be the best rabbit dog in the world, but now she doesn't see too well, so mostly now she is just the best dreaming-about-rabbits dog in the world.

Well, I'm off to pull sprouting rye grass from the onions (another Survivor: Gardening challenge - the section that was approved for planting by the tractor guy had apparently been seeded with rye grass (or oats) and now that my seedlings are up, I need to pull the other stuff (but the chickens will get them)).

Later today, I'll visit the asparagus patch and see what's coming up.

Spring rain

2010-04-25T13:14:00.004-05:00

I have to admit, I was happy that it rained yesterday during the Earth Fair. I actually think "bad" weather encourages more people to attend that event and, personally, I feel better about being there if I know it's not a good day to be in the garden.

We joined many other local food producers in the gym of Three Rivers Waldorf School, host of the event and got to talk to many old and new friends. Dancing Doe Farms donated eggs for the lunch and for a door prize. Please email me or call if you won the door prize!

We have our CHICKEN OR EGGS drawing at 3:45 p.m. as promised. I will post the winner soon.

If you missed the Acadamy Award nominated documentary Food Inc. when it was shown in La Crosse during earth week or on PBS last week, you can view it online through April 29 or rent it through Netflix. I highly recommend this movie. It really makes clear how far our industrial food system has come from the 1950s vision we have of the happy farmer raising fruits, veggies and animals on his little farm.

I believe we will have asparagus to sell soon. It's starting to come up now and, assuming we can keep it picked, I have a limited amount of asparagus for $2/#.

It's definitely tick season. After my trip to the asparagus patch, I found a very very small tick. Now I will be paranoid for several days and feel phantom ticks. Yuk! I don't mind the ticks so much, but I am afraid of getting Lyme Disease.

I will be updating our newsletter soon. Look for that with your egg order next week.

What's new?

2010-03-15T20:15:00.006-05:00

Hooray! The snow has melted! Now we have to contend with the shoe-sucking mud, but I'll take it.

Sunday, I re-fenced the sheep and then wandered down to the spring to check on the watercress. We're fortunate to have a spring that feeds into a creek. Our cress grows just at the head of the spring.

There was the watercress in all its beautiful green glory! I decided to snip some for George for his birthday and tried balancing on a log that had fallen across the stream. Of course, I ended up falling part way in and my boots filled with water. Ack!

But the good news is that we have some watercress for sale. Please call or email me if you'd like some delivered.

The chickens are super happy to get outside even if most of their yard is mud right now. We do have some rye grass in part of the garden, planted in the fall for "green manure" and will probably herd them over there soon so they can get some green matter. Once the weather stabilizes and things green up, we'll move them to the pasture (increasing Omega-3 fatty acid content and darken the yolks of their eggs).

I am still looking for new egg customers! Please let your friends and relatives know. If you refer a new regular customer, you will get one free dozen eggs!

We spent some time figuring out what to do with our garden hoop house - a structure made of plastic pipe and plastic sheeting that helps extend our growing season. The heavy snow collapsed some of the tubing so we are working at propping it back up. We'll start planting in there as soon as possible.

I saw a program on Wisconsin Public Television about "salad tables." These are growing trays with mesh bottoms built on legs. You can plant lettuce, chard, spinach and other greens, water and harvest "cut and come again" salads throughout the growing season. I'm going to make one and encourage others to as well. You can make them whatever size suits you. More info and plans are at the Maryland Extension Service.

We will be involved with the La Crosse Earth Week Coalition's Earth Month activities including having a booth and donating some food for the Earth Fair on Saturday, April 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Three Rivers School, 901 Caledonia Street. There are many great activities planned throughout the month. Check the calendar at their Facebook page.

Finally, if you might be interested in joining a food buying club (we order from United Natural Foods, Inc.), please let me know. We are always looking for new members. Our food is delivered once a month and we get a 6% discount on all non-sale items. Fore more info, visit our blog: MightyRiverBC.blogspot.com

About those fruits and veggies

2010-02-22T08:43:00.003-06:00

[These are strawberries we grew without chemical inputs or pesticides.]

Local food is becoming more and more popular and important! Franciscan Skemp Health insurance customers may sign up for local food and earn a $100 credit on their insurance premiums. Our farm was not included in the upcoming "Know Your Farmer" open house (no one told me about it!) but we are working to get on their list.

Why aren't we a CSA?
Because of our crazy work schedules, we have decided not to become a regular delivery CSA. Also, I wouldn't want to pay for stuff I don't really want and I think others may not want to either. Instead, we sell veggies and fruits as they are available by word of mouth, phone or internet orders. This summer I vow to update our site as soon as things are available. Regular egg customers will get info with their egg deliveries.

We usually have available (in season): asparagus, lettuce, chard, peas (snow peas, snap peas and garden peas), green and wax beans, strawberries (depending on weather), tomatoes, peppers (many varieties), eggplant, corn, summer and winter squash, cucumbers (slicers and picklers), pumpkins and sometimes potatoes. We often use organic seeds. Most of our seed comes from FEDCO, a wonderful cooperative whose catalog is truly the best garden reader ever published. We do not use chemicals or pesticides on our garden.

Why aren't we Certified Organic?
For a small farm, the cost of preparing for and being certified as organic - in time and money - is excessive, I believe. I am all for organics, and our vegetables are organically grown, but being certified isn't our focus right now. Some fairly well known gardeners have questioned the bureaucracy involved in obtaining official organic certification. Well-known long time organic farmer, Eliot Coleman has written, "In my opinion, 'organic' is now dead as a meaningful synonym for the highest quality food. Responsible growers need to identify not only that our food is grown to higher, more considered standards, but also that it is much fresher because it is grown right where it is sold."

So, right now we are concentrating on producing high quality great food (that we eat ourselves) and sharing them with people who appreciate local, fresh food. At the same time, we are looking into the requirements for the "Certified Naturally Grown" label.

In the end, the best thing is to find local sources for as much of your food as possible and get to know and trust your farmers.

How to eat a chicken

2010-02-05T19:22:00.004-06:00

Congratulations to Sara Baker who won a chicken at the January 29 Coulee Progressives State of the Union event!

She asked how to make it. Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. In a large heavy dutch oven, brown onion, garlic, celery. Put the whole (thawed) chicken in breast down. Add about 1 cup of broth or water (with bouillon if desired). Cook on medium heat for about one hour. Remove top and cut in large chunks of carrot and potatoes. Check the liquid and add more (up to one cup) if needed. Return lid and continue cooking for another hour or so. The chicken is done when the meat begins to pull away or fall from the bone. The internal temperature (measured at the thickest) should be at least 165 degrees on a meat thermometer.

2. In a crockpot - put the whole (thawed) chicken with carrots, onion, garlic, potatoes, and at least one cup of water or broth. Turn the crock to AUTO. Wait several hours (for me, it's a work day) until the chicken falls off the bone.

3. A couple of years ago, we bought a NuWave oven (mostly because the stove oven wasn't working very well). It's great. You can pull a chicken out of the freezer, remove the double bag, pop it on the grill and cook it @ 25 minutes per pound (frozen) or 15 minutes per pound (thawed) turning half way through. Also - you have to remember to pull out the giblets if there's a star on your label. When the bell goes off, there's your chicken.

The chicken skin, when you roast the chicken, acts like its own cooking bag, holding in the juices. In our house, the cooked chicken skin is the dog's treat.

Now, if you happen to have some home canned or frozen broccoli, corn, green beans, peas or other goodies from your garden, so much the better. And if you want to have a great salad (spinach, red onion, black olives, sprouts, hard boiled eggs, for example) and make some nice bread, well, you have yourself a great meal. Then pull out that nice canned or frozen applesauce you made last October for dessert. Yum!

What next? Pull the meat off the chicken and save it. Put the carcass in a big heavy pot with water, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, then cover and simmer for several hours. Strain liquid and use it for stock.

As for the leftover chicken -

* use it for sandwiches or in burritos or wraps
* chicken fried rice
* chicken salad

Well, you get the idea. One chicken gives us about a week's worth of meals, not including the great soup we can make from the stock.

Eggy New Year!

2010-01-03T16:51:00.002-06:00

Another year is here and with it, lots and lots of eggs. When the temperature dipped and the snow flew, all the wild chickens decided it really WAS better to live in the coop than wander about the farm searching for food and roosting in the pine trees. This means we (finally) have more eggs than customers right now.

We plan to do a limited number of chickens this summer and will soon send out ordering information. We believe we will also add a few beef cattle, depending on our schedules.
More info soon.

EARTH DAY!

2009-04-22T22:59:00.003-05:00

Today is the real Earth Day but Saturday, April 25 will be the official celebration in La Crosse and we'll be there (at least until 2 p.m.) with info about pre-ordering free range chickens (available July 1 or so), our new egg waiting list (for fall 2009) and more.

Our watercress patch, growing at the head of a spring-fed stream, has come back to life after several years on the "endangered" list. We donated some for the Earth Day meal and will have this available to deliver in the La Crosse area - our first veggie of the year! Right now the price is $1.50/bunch delivered. Please email us with your order or leave a message at 788-4039.

As the weather warms, we'll definitely have asparagus and maybe have some morels. Check back often!

In the mean time, see you at the Earth Day Fair - 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 901 Caledonia Street in La Crosse!

The long sleep

2009-02-02T20:46:00.002-06:00

The smell of seed catalogs has awakened us at Dancing Doe Farms and we are starting to plan our 2009 season of chickens, eggs and fruits and veggies. Right now, everything (including the last of the Brussels sprouts that I failed to chop down and collards) is under a thick blanket of snow. At least we won't start the year dry!

The chickens are mostly in their house these days. When it warms up, we let them out. They love to investigate the wood pile and enjoy getting table scraps, corn and oats. For some reason, egg production has picked back up so we are hoping to have more eggs available on a regular basis this spring.

We sold out of chickens last fall and hope to get our new chicken order form together soon. In reality, we can only process so many chickens, but if we can get orders in early it will help us schedule them this summer.

We'd love to sell more fruits and veggies this year and I vow to update this site much more regularly so we can become your "internet garden" as you search for organic, locally grown great food for your family.

More soon!

Beans are coming

2008-07-17T23:42:00.003-05:00

[But first, Avery won a photography prize! with her photo of the ridge above our farm, "Country Road."]

Our green beans are starting to blossom and we should have a good crop of beans coming in during the last week of July and beyond. I hope it doesn't rain too much - moving about in wet beans is a sure way to spread disease and end the harvest! One of our rows is being eaten by something - maybe a woodchuck or a deer. I have a short fence around them to keep out rabbits, but I think I may need to improve the fencing there.

We still have great big lime green very sweet snow peas and lettuce and chard. Cucumbers - both slicers and pickling type should be coming on soon, too.

Corn is exploding upward. The warm weather and rain has really helped. We've planted five varieties of corn including Spring Treat, Bodacious (our favorite) and Lancelot. I prefer sweet but still "corny" tasting corn but we're growing a real variety this summer with a variety of maturity dates.

Most of our seed has come from Fedco, a cooperative seed company in Maine that sells all kinds of organic and sustainable seed.

Strawberries Galore!

2008-06-24T19:23:00.003-05:00

Today we went out to pick strawberries and filled three large mixing bowls with them. That is not even counting the ones with blemishes which we gave to the chickens. They loved the fresh strawberries and went after them as if there were no tomorrow... or no more strawberries which is certainly not the case. If anything there are too many!

Things are growing!

2008-06-16T22:54:00.003-05:00

The rain did NOT wash away our farm (though unfortunately it did take a few of our meat bird chicks) and now that we are getting some pleasant sunny weather, things are really taking off. Right now we have lettuce, chard, snow peas and strawberries (all in limited quantities.)

We've started processing chickens, too. So far they are small - ranging from about 2 to about 3.5 pounds. We will continue processing through much of July with heavier birds available then.

The price of chicken feed continues to climb and we may have to adjust our prices later in the summer.

Our best laid chicken plans went awry in April! We were to have received 25 chicks to supplement our laying flock in April, 50 meat bird chicks in May and 50 more in June. Instead we received the 25 chicks in April along with 150 meat bird chicks! Yikes! We hadn't prepared space for that many birds and spent the day frantically constructing an indoor chicken corral. Now, though, everyone is comfortable in their hoop houses and we've had some pretty hilarious moments watching the hefty meat bird chicks practicing their flying skills - usually flapping wings and running down hill. Of course, when one gets started all the others follow. If you've ever seen that fantastic claymation film, Chicken Run, you'll know what I mean! I'm hoping to upload a video of this madness soon!

I also heard a very interesting interview with Paul Roberts, the author of the new book, The End of Food. Roberts examines the current agribusiness, global food system and shows why it it completely unsustainable. One point he made during the interview and in the book - Tyson's per CHICKEN (not pound) profit per bird is ... FIVE CENTS! Of course, the only way they can make money is to sell millions of birds. Maybe this is efficient, but I doubt that their birds get to lounge under an apple tree in the late afternoon and discuss the morning's scratching session or practice their flying skills.

We are probably NOT very efficient - we carry water to the birds so they can live on green pasture and have access to sun, fresh grass, exercise and bugs. We hand move their houses so they will have fresh pasture. We treat our birds humanely, even up to the processing. And we process the birds ourselves on the farm in small batches.

We are trying to reduce our dependence on commercial (non medicated) feed by raising the birds on pasture and feeding locally grown grains. This will also reduce our "food miles" cost. Apparently, more food miles are spent in production than in transporting food (though the average food item travels about 1,500 miles from farm to table!)

My goal this summer is to update our blog regularly. And I hope our daughter can upload some of her beautiful pictures soon, too.

In the meantime, please feel free to call 608 788-4039 if you're interested in chickens or veggies.

Local Food Fair - April 26!

2008-04-04T15:03:00.002-05:00

Look for Dancing Doe Farms and many other local food producers at the Local Food Fair at Cameron Park (Fifth Avenue South and King Street) on Saturday, April 26. We will be helping to celebrate Earth Week in La Crosse.

Stop by and pick up some interesting literature, sign up for an egg delivery, pre-order chickens and learn how you can order veggies fresh from our gardens to your door this summer!

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-21T13:29:00.000-06:00

We hope you have a happy healthy holiday with lots of good company, good conversation and, of course, good food!

We will be spending time with the chickens and watching the snow fall while we plot and plan for next year's bigger, better more bountiful garden.

We do have some chickens available right now. Most weigh about 5 to 6 pounds, but a few weigh as much as EIGHT pounds! These are free range, pasture raised big meaty birds. The cost, $2/lb., may seem high if you are used to getting factory processed birds from the grocery. Remember, our birds live pretty happy chicken lives, are free range, do not get antibiotics or growth hormones, are processed and frozen right away on the farm and are delivered to your door. AND we eat what we sell, and we are pretty picky about our food!

Check out "The True Costs of Factory Farming" from the Humane Farming Association.

Right now we have a pretty full egg schedule and hope to order more laying chicks early in the spring. Because our chickens spend most of their time on pasture in moveable hoop houses, we can't get chicks too early. They must be fully feathered before we move them out of the brooder. A female chicken has to be 16 to 22 weeks old before she starts to lay, so we hope to have more eggs available in mid to late summer 2008. BUT you can always call and ask - 788-4039 - sometimes we get more than usual and sometimes a customer takes a holiday so we have some extras.

Well, that's about it for now. We'll try to upload some pictures soon - though they'll mostly be WHITE. We are experiencing (the last?) real Wisconsin winter for a change.

Making the switch

2007-12-10T23:27:00.000-06:00

We are in the process of switching our web page to this blog. There won't be as many pictures but it will be easier to update what's happening on the farm.

Right now, we're covered in snow and ice! A real Wisconsin winter after all.

The chickens aren't too happy! Their nice green pastures are buried for now, but they still manage to scramble out of the coops to peck up the corn, oats and table scraps we give them every day. And they still manage to provide us with some wonderful big, brown eggs.

We hope to expand our laying flock this spring and would love to build our egg customer list! Please email us or call 608 788-4039 if you'd like to buy some eggs.

We still have frozen chickens, processed in August and September for sale. For $2.00 per pound you can have some great meaty, juicy birds - delivered!

I hope to upload some pictures soon.

Welcome!

2007-04-26T22:39:00.000-05:00

Things are getting started at Dancing Doe Farms and this blog will, I hope, let you know what we're doing and what's available. When we have pictures, we'll post them.

Please email us with your questions, comments and to order.

Right now, we're cleaning out the little chicken coop we built for our laying hens last fall (picture coming). The plan is that we'll put it up on trailer wheels and move it around on the pasture fenced by the electric net fencing we've been using for the past couple of years.

We are getting about three dozen eggs a day and would like to build our list of regular deliveries. If you'd like to get on the list, please email us! Right now we have space all days but Mondays and Fridays.

Lots of plants and seedlings are started now! We have about a dozen varieties of tomatoes including many heirlooms like Brandywine and Mark Twain, cherry tomatoes and paste tomatoes. The eggplant and pepper seedlings are up, too, and all the squash type seedlings, including melons, cantaloupe, cukes, pumpkins, watermelons, winter squash and gourds, have just popped up.

I'm trying to stay on a good seed starting schedule, but with the weather up and down the way it is, it's hard to say whether they've been started too soon or too late.

We'll find out!

Remember, email us with your questions or if you'd like to order eggs or chickens (ready in July and August.

More soon!