Roasting Summer Heat

We've had some HOT days on the farm the past couple of weeks. High temperatures have been over 100 degrees, but have mostly stayed in the 90's.  Some of our fruit trees and crops got a little wilted and a few leaves were even scorched by the heat even though they had been watered well. For example, our kiwi vines suffered some scorched leaves even though they get the “duck pond” water every morning. Our “duck pond” is a 20 gallon wash tub. Each morning we empty the water that is left from the day before out under one of two kiwi vines growing nearby. The water is yummy for the plants, since our birds “hop in” for a quick swim a couple of times a day leaving behind, well, their “leavin’s.”

A Khaki Campbell a few days old.

Because of the heat, our chickens have slowed down their laying, but our young (Khaki Campbell) ducks have just started laying for us! We’re getting an egg or two per day right now, looking forward to the days just ahead when we’ll be getting a  dozen per week. What do we do with duck eggs? Well, so far we have used them just like chicken eggs, although their taste is just a wee bit stronger. The duck eggs so far have been about the same size as the chicken eggs, but the yoke is bigger and the white is proportionately smaller.

We roasted a Muscovy drake a few nights ago for dinner. On a Muscovy, the meat is all dark meat, tender and tasty. We had heard that it tastes somewhat like beef, a fact confirmed by our children. One of our more finicky eaters exclaimed, “That’s goooood!” Therefore, Muscovy is definitely on the list of keeper livestock. They are a good meat bird, and don’t make any noise to speak of, unlike our Campbells, and like our Campbells, are prolific layers.

In the garden and “potting shed,” we’ve been seeding for the fall crops--broccoli, beets, lettuce, cabbage, chard, peas, etc. Still have some more to do, and should have been finished with this last month.

Because we have had terrible “luck” trying to grow veggies in containers (can’t keep the soil in the pot moist enough, for one thing), we made some “self-watering” containers out of five-gallon buckets to grow some tomatoes and peppers on our patio--maybe with some protection from the cold, we can extend the growing season a little. (Fresh tomatoes at Christmas, anyone?)  The water we’re using in these containers is nutrient-rich water from our aquaponic system.

This drawing is from the book, Urban Farming (pg. 142), which contains some great ideas for growing things in small places.

We’ll report in a month or so on how this container experiment is turning out, and offer some instructions on how to build and use one.