Category Archives: Quail Run Farm

Tippy

TIPPY
Guest Post by Emma Kieffer

I’m going to tell you about our dog Tippy.  We got her from my great uncle Mark, he got her to herd cows but she was too afraid so he gave her to us.  She is a very good dog.

Tippy is a great play mate, she is black with white on the tips of her toes.  One of my favorite things to do with Tippy is play chase, we chase each other around. Another thing like to do is to take her on walks, sometimes we walk her on the road but usually we walk her around our property.  Tippy is not very good at playing fetch but she is amazing to play fetch with when she wants to.

Tippy guards our farm. She looks after our farm animals by barking at predators.  We put her by the rabbits and the chickens, so that she scares off predators.  She warns us when a coyote or a raccoon are near our animals.  The main predator she scares off is coyotes, she barks at them and that scares them away.

Tippy has trouble obeying us.  She likes to chase after our cats.  We are training her not to chase the cats.  First we put her on a leash and we tell her to sit, second we put a cat in front of her, then we tell her to stay.  If she stays she gets a treat.

I love Tippy so much, she is a great dog.  She is one of the only dogs I’m comfortable around.

 

tippy

The Not So Common Mallow

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One of my little Mallow plants emerging, you can see the stems from last years plants dead and brown around the new growth. She will be a magnificent plant come summertime.

 

Every spring, when the snow has melted, finds me on the hunt for the first wild greens of the season, Dandelion is usually one of the very first wild edibles, but even before the Dandelion comes the quiet Common Mallow. She lies close to the ground with her delicate little flowers and unique leaves, she is usually called a weed and is sprayed and pulled, but she is much more.  As kids we would eat the little flower buds and call them cheesies, little did we know the whole plant was edible and how incredibly nutritious our little “cheesies” were.

The common mallow is part of the large family of Malvaceae plants that include cotton, okra and hibiscus. It is an edible plant that has been used for medicinal care as well as food. The fruits are round and have cheese-like wedges which give the common mallow its nickname, cheese plant. Mallow stems are flexible and come from a central point, often lounging on the ground. This wild edible is used as herbal medicine in a variety of ways. It is an anti-inflammatory, diuretic, demulcent, emollient, laxative and an expectorant.

Distinguishing Features: Common mallow is a winter or summer annual or biennial, freely branching at the base, with a prostrate growth habit. It is a low growing weed, with a deep fleshy tap root. The seeds germinate through the summer and broken stems can also root. This plant has stems that originate from a deep tap root and are low spreading with branches that reach from a few centimeters to almost 60 centimeters long.

Flowers: The flowers are borne either singly or in clusters in the leaf axils blooming from June to late autumn. They have 5 petals and are white, pinkish or lilac flowers that measure on average, 1 to 1.5 cm across.

Leaves: Common mallow leaves are alternate, on long petioles, circular to kidney-shaped, toothed and shallowly 5-9 lobed, 2-6 cm wide. Short hairs present on upper and lower leaf surfaces, margins and petioles.

Height: This plant can grow anywhere from 10 to 60 cm in length.

Habitat: The common mallow likes to grow in lawns, gardens, roadsides, waste areas and cropland. It originated in Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa and is also in the Americas and Australia.

Edible parts: All parts of this plant are edible. The leaves can be added to a salad, the fruit can be a substitute for capers and the flowers can be tossed into a salad. When cooked, the leaves create a mucus very similar to okra and can be used as a thickener to soups and stews. The flavor of the leaves is mild. Dried leaves can be used for tea. Mallow roots release a thick mucus when boiled in water. The thick liquid that is created can be beaten to make a meringue-like substitute for egg whites. Common mallow leaves are rich in vitamins A and C as well as calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron and selenium.

Similar plants: Marshmallow.

http://www.ediblewildfood.com/mallow.aspx

I have never used Mallow medicinally, but this year I will, I have a large patch in my garden area and her little leaves are calling to me, I feel like there is a treasure waiting to be discovered in my little Mallow.

Mallow’s repute as a ‘cure-all’ medicine in the earlier times was owing to the fact that the herb, particularly its roots, encloses substantial quantity of mucilage (a glue-like substance secreted by some plants that are rich in protein and carbohydrates). Owing to the high presence of this jelly-like substance in mallow, rural herbal practitioners recommended the herb to heal digestive and urinary tract swellings and irritations (inflammations). However, mallow is more popular for its therapeutic qualities of relieving the mucous membranes lining the upper respiratory system, particularly when suffering from colds. In addition, the mucilage present in mallow also has the ability to control coughs set off by irritation or inflammation. Mallow is popular even today and is beneficial in healing several other ailments. For example, American Indians as well as modern herbal practitioners recommend using poultices (moist substances applied to injuries) prepared from the herb or its derivatives to alleviate pain or soreness from insect stings as well as swellings in the body.

http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_mallow.htm

I am a voracious user of medicinal herbs, I have dozens sitting on my pantry shelves, and I make and drink herbal infusions (and make my family) daily.  It is exciting to me to find an herb, such as this, growing not only in my garden, but in abundance.  I take it as a sign, that she is to be harvested, used and loved.

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Cabbage

I usually don’t start seeds indoor, I find it tedious and I tend to forget them and I have a hard time finding a place with enough light.  I think is much easier to just direct sow in the garden and that is what I do for 90% of my plants.  There are a few exceptions, I do start tomatoes inside, because the need a longer growing season than we have, and cabbage.  Cabbage can actually be sown directly into the garden in the early spring, even before the last frost date and I have done it many times.  I have found over the years that the delicate seedling of the cabbage have a hard time withstanding the springtime winds that rip through here and I have much more success starting them indoors and protecting them until they are a bit stronger.

IMG_5899 These little guys are our summertime meal of cabbage sautéed in butter, this autumn’s baked cabbage with sausage and next winter’s sauerkraut.  We love our cabbage. IMG_5897 IMG_5896

Cabbage, a week later

Cabbage, a week later

Tomatoes a week later

Tomatoes a week later

Spring Eggs

After a long dark winter the girls are laying again!  Hens naturally stop laying as the daylight hours decrease, it is nature’s way of making sure the birds are using energy to keep warm and not on producing eggs that can’t be hatched or if they were to hatch would have a low survival rate in the winter.  To keep hens producing through the winter months some producers and back yard chicken keepers will supplement with lighting and heat.  Here at Quail Run Farm we don’t do that, we let the hens go through a period of rest, we believe this is healthier for our birds, keeping them in their natural rhythms as much as we can. It can be a little discouraging feeding birds all winter long and only getting a couple of eggs a day, but as stewards over these animals we take on the good and the bad that comes with each animal and give them the best care we can.

That being said, I did a cheer and fist pump when my little farm boy gathered his first dozen eggs this spring! We are now, again, producing enough eggs for our needs and will soon have enough to sell.

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Composting in Place

I have built and maintained compost pits and piles for many years now, when we bought our first home in 2002 one of the first things I did was mark out the garden plot and start a compost pile. I’ve long been a believer that we should use the things around us to their fullest capacity, while keeping in harmony with its order of creation. It never made sense to me to wrap kitchen scraps in plastic to rot in a landfill, or grind it up and send it down the drain. I feel that sending the leftovers of our fruits and vegetables back to the earth is honoring, and giving thanks to that which has been provided to us.

For a few years now I have flirted with the idea of composting in place.  The idea is that you don’t create a compost pile that needs to be watered and turned over and then eventually moved, you actually add the material to be composted in the place that you will eventually need it. I’ve never done it, I didn’t want to attract vermin, I worried that it would look horrible and that the organic matter wouldn’t break down fast enough. This year I decided I would give it a try. It’s a grand experiment. IMG_5900
I collected about a days worth of kitchen scraps, onions peels, banana peels, eggs shells and herbs used in infusions.  I didn’t add any meats or leftover cooked foods.
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For the first layer I lay down old newspapers and old homework papers, some egg cartons and left over bits of cardboard. A lot of organic farmers and backyard hobbyists won’t use certain types of paper or cardboard in their garden, saying that the glues and dyes are bad for the enviroment.  I don’t completely agree with that and I put all sorts of paper products in my garden and compost.  I think, with a few exceptions, that the earth is entirely capable of cleansing itself.  If you put concentrations of garbage and papers a central location, yes the ground will be poisoned, but that is not what I am doing, I am taking the bit that our family uses and facilitating the breakdown and cleansing.  They will be processed by microorganisms and turned into beneficial nutrients for plants.

After the layer of newspaper I spread out all the kitchen scraps, gross……
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And on top of that, straw, that will help absorb moisture and keep the mixture from getting too hot.
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Then on top of that, aged horse manure.
IMG_5904I got about two feet done in a fifty foot row….this might take a while….

Peas Please

This past weekend we were able to get the first seeds of the season in the ground.  As always the inaugural vegetable is our little lady The Pea. She is a fabulous little addition to the garden, her seeds can be planted very early and then they wait patiently for the right moment to germinate and send their crinkly green leaves into the early spring sunshine. She is happy to spread her roots in areas that aren’t the most fertile, creating green beauty, leaving more that she takes. Peas are a legume, they take nitrogen from the air and fix it into the soil, preparing the way for other, more delicate plants to make their home. Peas a great for crop rotation, they will travel the garden through the years making the ground better because of their presence.   IMG_5887 Because of the size of her seeds she is very easy for little fingers to sow. There is much excitement when the first blossoms and peas pods appear on her bushes, for the children know they had a part in their creation.  IMG_5882In the warmer days of May, when the summer heat starts flirting on the backs of our necks, we will be out picking our peas, giving thanks for the bounty and sharing it with others.

How Chickens Help the Farm

How Chickens Help the Farm
Guest Post By Emma Kieffer

I am going to tell you how our chickens benefit our farm. They lay colorful eggs for us.  They also give us meat.  They help us fertilize our gardens.

First I am going to tell you how they benefit our farm by laying eggs. Eggs make a delicious breakfast. Sometimes if we don’t gather the eggs they will hatch and a chick will come out. After we eat the eggs the shells go to the compost and make a great compost.

Next I am going to tell you how their meat benefits our farm. It makes a delicious Chicken Noddle Soup and Chicken Curry. We know that they are healthy and we feel more comfortable eating them because we know what they eat. After we eat the meat the bones are put in the compost. To me I like their meat more than store bought chicken.

Last but not least they help us fertilize our gardens. While they lay their eggs ,walk around and sleep they poo. Their poo is our fertilize. We first shovel out the chicken poo. Then we put the poo in the compost and let it sit, then we fill up Home Depot buckets and dump it on the flower beds.

All of these things are some ways chickens benefit our farm. They are so much fun to watch. I love to watch them free range, which means they eat whatever they want to.

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Ladies in the Spring

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Scratching around the dill patch, eating old seeds, bugs and new seedlings. Soon they will be fenced out of this area, but for now they can enjoy the forage and we have the benefits of their scratching and manure to fertilize.

 

Our chickens at Quail Run Farm are free range all year long.  At nights we close them in a coop to protect them from predators, but every morning the coop doors are open wide for our girls to explore and feast on fresh grasses and bugs, the natural diet of chickens. In the winter the girls tend to stick very close to home, they don’t like walking in the snow, so they either hang out in the coop or under the coop where they have shelter. When the days start getting longer and warmer, and the snow starts to recede the girls get adventurous again range widely across the farm, enjoying the new fresh grass, a welcome variety to their normal winter ration.

 

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Working hard turning the compost pile for me, eating bugs, worms and old seeds.