a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Author: theMan

Hen on the Dock

When Svenda sees me heading out to the dock to gather duckweed for the chickens, she comes running. She won’t wait on the grass for me to haul in a load of duckweed. She has to watch me scoop it out of the pond. What she and the other hens are after the most are the waterbugs, tadpoles, and other pond bugs that come out with the duckweed.

She almost falls into the pond while scratching through the duckweed, but she catches herself and goes back to looking for good things to eat in the duckweed.

June 14, 2014
Gathering Eggs

It’s easy to get distracted when gathering eggs. There are iris blooming, a hen exploring a stream bed, stewartia and dogwood in bloom. A tucked up pullover works just as well as a basket for collecting eggs.

Gathering eggs is an opportunity to see how the growing chicks are doing. The chicks below are figuring out where to roost for the night. Slowly, they’ll make their way up onto the main roosts where the adult chicks sleep.

These little chicks at four weeks are now on their own. This is their second night without their mother. She’s gone back to roosting with the rest of the chickens. The chicks have found a comfortable spot near where they used to sleep with their mother. They should be roosting soon.

June 13, 2014
Olympia Farmers Market
On a drive home from Vancouver, WA, we stopped in Olympia for a break and visited the Olympia Farmers Market. It wasn’t our intention to go to the Olympia Farmers Market, but when we drove to the bottom of Capitol Way, the main street of Olympia, we discovered the market and had to explore it.

The Olympia Farmers Market is the second largest farmers market in Washington State. From April through October it is open Thursday through Sunday. November through December it is open Saturday and Sunday.

It is housed in a large, wooden building, and has vendors selling produce (really great produce), meat, dairy, condiments, homemade crafts, nurseries, fresh flowers, artisans and restaurants. It’s amazing that a small town like Olympia has such an outstanding farmers market. In 2016 it will be forty years old.

With all the fresh produce we grow, I don’t need to buy vegetables, but I did get some plump kohlrabi which were very sweet and delicious. I also picked up a variety of unusual beans to plant for late summer picking. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, markets such as these will be the norm everywhere.
June 12, 2014
On the Trail

This Barred Rock mother is watching over her chicks as she takes them along a garden path. They are 25 days old and are confident enough to venture a ways on their own. But, she is always watching out for them. With eyes on the sides of her head, she can see nearly all around her without moving her head. So she can see what chicks to the right, chicks to the left, and chicks behind her are doing.

June 11, 2014
Out of the Garden Today – June 10, 2014

So what should I make for supper tonight? It’s an answer we all answer day after day. For some it’s going to a restaurant. For others, it’s take out. For others, it’s what is in the fridge or in the cupboard. For others it’s what they picked up in the grocery on the way home from work. For me the answer is in the garden.

Tonight I found raspberries, Chrysanthemum greens, garlic scapes, shallot greens, arugula, choy, sage and rosemary. Everything but the rosemary is going into a stir fry. The rosemary is going into rosemary crackers.

After “grocery shopping” out of the garden and making meals with just-picked produce for years, I’m spoiled. It’s nearly impossible to find food so fresh when we eat out. Very few places have gardens full of produce, which the chefs can go into and gather the produce they need to make your meal.

June 10, 2014