http://www.naturesharborfarm.comen-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssCopyright 2010Nature's Harbor FarmHello Again!
As hard as it is to believe, we are already planning for next summer's market season.  On a farm by July, how the current year is going to go has already been decided long before and once the planning is done we ride the roller coaster to the end each year.  We are constantly learning and deciding how we would like the next year to be different.  I'm always running out of eggs before I run out of people who want them so I'm getting ready to order more chicks to raise as laying hens.  I am going to place an order with Welp Hatchery http://www.welphatchery.com/index.asp to arrive around mid August.  I am offering you all the chance to order chicks to arrive with mine and I will brood them for you until they are past the delicate stage and ready to go outside.  Backyard chicken keeping is becoming quite popular again.  Hens are entertaining, make great pets, offer pest control, and give you great eggs!  Please look over Welp's website and decide which breeds you would like.  I would need to have your order by August 4.  The cost of the chicks and brooding service is $6.75 if paid in advance or $7.50 per chick at time of pick up.  Feel free to contact me with any questions you have about backyard chickens and suitable breeds.

To go along with your new chickens you'll need a place for them to live.  Brandon is now building moveable backyard coops for new chicken keepers.  They come in three sizes and can be moved around your backyard so that the chickens always have access to fresh grass and you don't end up with a dirt and mud patch in front of a stationary coop.  The coops are two levels with the roosting and laying area in the upper level and a screened area open to the grass underneath.  Pictured is a 4'x6' coop.  He can also build a 4'x4' or a 4'x8' depending on how many hens you would like to keep.

The roof is removable to access the eggs and bedding for cleaning.  There are doors on the bottom so that you can let the chickens out for play time when you are home.  I know how much my children love having chickens and I always say, "Who needs TV when you can sit outside and watch chickens?"

Our other poultry ventures are progressing.  Our mama turkey has three turkey poults that she has hatched out and there is one egg remaining.  She is proving to be a very good first time mother.  I have candled some of the guinea eggs that the cochin hen is incubating and they do appear to be developing.  I will be taking another batch of meat chickens for processing this week so I'll be back at Simon Kenton Farmers' Market on Saturday with fresh chicken.  That is the festival day at Simon Kenton Market so come out for music and other special features.

I harvested the first of my honey and installed my new queens into two new hives.  It only cost me one sting and a swollen finger and hand.  I hope to have some honey bottled for Earth Mother Market tomorrow. 

Good Night,
Heather Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com

]]>Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:02:13 -0500Greetings Everyone,
What a great summer we are having at our two farmers' markets.  So great that we are out of our pasture raised chickens until the next processing trip on July 30.  After much debate, I've decided to stay home from today's Earth Mother Market and from Simon Kenton Farmers' Market on Saturday, July 24.  There is so much to do around the farm that we have been neglecting.  I have an off farm job and when Brandon is home alone with our small children, it makes it hard for him to accomplish much needed chores.  I will really miss seeing everyone at the markets.  I'll be back at Earth Mother Market on July 28.  Come out today anyway because the musicians will be back again and Farm Girl Chef will be cooking dinner again.

Our Bourbon Red turkey hen is the proud mama of one little turkey poult.  It looks like that is all that is going to hatch out of her clutch of eggs.  I happened to walk into the coop as this little one was hatching and held the egg in my hand as it's little head popped out.  This is the first egg ever to hatch on the farm.  Next, we're hoping for guineas to hatch out from the eggs we put under our cochin hen.



Lots of people are asking me for honey and believe me, we want some too.  This is another reason for me to skip a couple of markets.  We are so busy trying to provide food for our customers that we are forgetting about ourselves and not getting to certain projects.  I have canning and freezing to do along with honey harvesting.  I will be harvesting honey this week and making up two new hives using two new queen bees that are going to be arriving in the mail either tomorrow or Friday.  They are being shipped from an apiary in Washington state.  I'm excited to bring in some new genetics to the area from honey bees that have been selected for parasite resistance.  I never treat my colonies with any chemicals for any of the many honey bee diseases and more resistant genetics will be a great addition to my bee yard.

Four sheep were delivered to the processor yesterday.  That was a little tough for me.  Yes, I eat my own chickens but it took me awhile to get to the point of being ok with that too.  I know that these sheep were treated with respect and kindness throughout their lives and that the meat will be the best I can offer my family.  I just hope that we like it!  Lamb has never been on our menu before.  The Icelandics and Shetlands are known for their very mild flavored meat so I hope that turns out to be true.

The sun is out and there is work to be done so I'd better finish this up.  Saturday, July 31 is the summer festival for the Simon Kenton Farmers' Market.  I will be there with fresh chicken and also a few of my laying hens for you all to see where your eggs come from.  I'll be talking about backyard chicken keeping and possibly beekeeping.  I'll have some information to hand out.  There will be music and other special events that day so try to come out for it.

Sincerely,
Heather Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com

]]>Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:00:40 -0500Hello Everyone!
I know these newsletters are few and far between in the summer.  It's hard to make myself sit down and write when there is so much to do outside.  Brandon is out harvesting for Earth Mother Market as I type which starts today at 3:00.  I wanted to let you all know about the great fun we'll be having there today in the hopes that you'll want to come out and join us.  Farm Girl Chef (aka Tricia Houston of Napoleon Ridge Farm) has started cooking at the market.  She cooks with items purchased from all the vendors and you can come out for a late lunch or dinner.  While your eating tonight from 5:00-7:00 we will all be entertained by a trio of local musicians playing traditional Irish music along with some original works.  David and Susan have been long time customers and friends.  They played on Saturday at Simon Kenton Farmers' Market and are very talented and a lot of fun to listen to.  It's hard not to jump up and dance a little jig while they are playing.  The market is held in front of the VA hospital on S. Ft. Thomas Ave.  Listen to local musicians while eating your local food dinner and then do your local food grocery shopping.  Sounds like a great evening to me!

Some quick farm news before I start packing for market.  Two of our sheep, Friendly and Valentino have gone to live at Gretchen's Greensleaves Farm.  They are doing great there and have endeared themselves to her just as they did to me.  Our Bourbon Red turkey hen is sitting on some eggs in the chicken coop and if all goes well they should be hatching soon.  I decided that I wanted some guineas because they are such tremendous tick predators and because, hey, it's one type of poultry that we don't have yet.  Since you can purchase anything on Ebay (I think you could sell pocket lint if it was shaped like Elvis), I bid on and won 19 fertile guinea eggs.  We stuck them under a very broody cochin (breed of chicken) hen who has just been pining away hoping for something to hatch and mother so let's hope for the best. 

There's always more to tell but I'm being summoned to help pack the truck so come see me this evening at the market for some great entertainment and enjoy the summer.

Sincerely,
Heather Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com

]]>Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:12:51 -0500Greetings from the farm!

I don't think I ever start one of these without saying something along the lines of life is busy, crazy, loony etc on the farm.  Well, for us it really did get crazy and scary a couple of weeks ago.  Some of you have already heard this and I'll try to keep it brief.  We were packing up the truck for the Earth Mother Market on June 2 and both of our precious girls were out in the driveway with us.  In one of those magic, awful moments when both of us and our five year old had our backs turned at the same time, our almost two year old ran downhill, tripped and hit her head on a wheelbarrow.  At least, that is my best reconstruction after the fact of what happened.  All I know is that I turned to find her bleeding and unconscious and unrevivable.  A call to 911 resulted in an Air Care flight to Children's Hospital where she spent a couple of hours unconscious, some time on a ventilator, and 24 hours in the pediatric ICU.  CAT scans and X rays and many specialists later, she has made a full recovery from a severe concussion and will have nothing more than a scar on her head to show for it.  For us, it's another story.  Our lives have been changed forever.  The sense of security I had feeling that as long as my kids were with me, they were safe is gone.  Panic sets in whenever one of them gets out of sight for even an instant.  This is making us take a hard look at how our farm is set up, how many different projects we have going on, and whether some things need to go in order to achieve the best balance between raising our children and having a successful farm.  As always, I'll keep you informed of the next transformations that Nature's Harbor Farm goes through.

So, what is going on right now?  Brandon is crating up chickens for the next trip to Bowling Green for processing.  I'll be heading out of here at 5:30 in the morning with a truck full of pasture raised chickens on my first solo trip.  Usually, we go together but there is so much catching up to do on the farm after losing days to Ella's accident.  Brandon will be working on the farm for the day.  I will have full coolers of fresh chicken for the Simon Kenton Farmers' Market on Saturday.  If you would like a chance to get the freshest chicken possible without harvesting it yourself then come on Saturday.  The chickens for sale on Saturday will not be frozen. 

The sheep could end up being a casualty of our reevaluation.  I love my sheep but Brandon is at the end of his rope with them and I can't blame him.  They will not stay in the fence no matter what we do.  We put up brand new electric fence this spring with a brand new charger.  The fence is so hot that it maxes out my fence tester at 10,000 volts and the sheep walk through it like it's not even there.  We are tired of chasing them out of the gardens and of having them eat chicken feed.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed that they get the message and realize that a key to long life and happiness is not believing that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence!

My bed is calling to me so I will cut this off for now.  I promise a more cheery letter the next time and hope to see you all soon at a market.

Sincerely,
Heather and Brandon Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com

P.S. Don't forget to look the farm up on Facebook.  Get quick updates more often on the farm.  Find out what is growing, what we are harvesting, what it's like to come home to sheep with chicken feeders stuck on their heads.....]]>Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:47:31 -0500Greetings Everyone!
Welcome to the new members of our little newsletter list.  I've been meaning to write one for weeks but busy doesn't even come close to describing our life right now.  In between rainy episodes Brandon is working in the garden and building chicken shelters.  I am trying to shear sheep and build bee equipment.  We are always working on projects, fence building being at the top of the list.  There is more going on than I can mention in one letter.

I had a lovely work day yesterday.  I spent time outside under the trees installing wax foundation into frames for more bee supers.  The supers are the boxes that go on top of the hives for the bees to put the extra honey in.  After working on the bee equipment for awhile, I switched to shearing sheep.  I shear using hand shears (like in the movie, Babe) not electric.  Doing these tasks gives a person a lot of time to reflect which is one of the things I love about farming.  I felt an almost palpable connection to all the farmers that have come before me.  Bee equipment has not changed since the invention of the Langstroth hive in the mid 1800's.  Sheep were sheared with hand shears long before electric shears were invented.  I'm sure some would ask why I don't use electric clippers since it would be faster.  I have many reasons ranging from I'm a lot less likely to cut the sheep with the hand shears than clippers to the sound of the clippers being more stressful to the sheep.  I think one of the biggest reasons for me though is not missing the experience of quiet time outside with a living, breathing animal and the quiet swik, swik sound of shears cutting through soft, beautiful wool.

As some of you have already seen, Brandon and I made the first processing trip of the year with our chickens and will have it for sale for the rest of the year.  We are raising Freedom Ranger chickens this year out on pasture.  They have more breast meat than the types of chickens we have raised in the past and the flavor is outstanding.  We have whole and cut up chicken and packages of livers, gizzards, necks, and feet.  One of the questions I'm asked most often is how to cook a whole chicken.  Whole chickens are easier than anything else to cook, I think.  Just take a whole chicken, rub it with olive oil, put it in a pan, add some seasonings if you want (salt, rosemary, and garlic are all good choices), cover with a lid or foil.  Put it in the oven at 375 ^o F for about 2 hrs for a 3.5-4 lb chicken and leave it alone.  It will be moist, tender and delicious.

Brandon is busy harvesting garlic scapes right this minute.  Garlic scapes are the flower stalk of hardneck garlic plants.  They are only in season for about two weeks and have wonderful garlic flavor.  They are great for omelets and stir fry.  They also make a wonderful garlic scape pesto.  Here is a link to an article on scapes and a great pesto recipe.  http://www.doriegreenspan.com/2009/06/i-seem-to-be-on.html

I'm looking forward to seeing you today at Earth Mother Market and on Saturday at Simon Kenton Farmers' Market.

Sincerely,
Heather Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com


]]>Wed, 26 May 2010 11:02:40 -0500Good Morning Everyone!
This is for the Simon Kenton Farmers' Market customers.  Sorry, but I've decided to stay home today.  I bet many of you will too.  I've been up since 5:30 getting ready but after watching the radar, I've decided that I'm not going to sit in the rain for the entire day.  Too bad the market wasn't yesterday.  I had a great afternoon at the Loveland Elementary School grounds talking to people about backyard chicken keeping.  The Granny's Garden plant sale will also continue today and tomorrow.  They had a large selection of plants and it benefits a great program for teaching children about gardening.  I hope you all have a great day and stay dry!

Heather Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com

]]>Sat, 01 May 2010 06:43:46 -0500Greetings!

Anyone who knows me knows that if I get started talking about the joys of having chickens it's hard to get me to shut up.  I'm excited to announce that I will get the chance to talk my heart out on Friday, April 30.  I will be speaking with those attending the Granny's Garden Plant Sale held at the Loveland Elementary School.  It sounds like a great event and a wonderful program.  I will be there along with a few of my chickens from 3:00-7:00 on Friday evening.  Come out and check out the sale to get some great plants and get a chance to talk a little chicken.  Here is a link to the Granny's Garden website for more information.  http://www.grannysgardenschool.com/

The farm is super busy.  We are building fence (one of these days we'll actually keep the sheep in).  We have chickens of all ages in three different houses, two brooders, and our second bathroom.  The turkey poults and silkie chicks are in the bathroom for some extra TLC since those baby turkeys are so darn delicate.  Lambing season ended with a total of 8 Shetland and 4 Icelandic lambs.  The winter was extremely difficult on honey bees in our area.  I've installed some new packages to replace some of my lost hives.  And the horses are still hanging out and overseeing everything. 

We are really excited about a new opportunity.  Brandon's beautiful Romaine lettuce has been purchased by some local restaurants.  It has now been served at Chalk Food + Wine, JeanRo Bistro, and Local 127.  The next time you're thinking about a place to go out to eat please consider one of the Relish Group restaurants.  They are very supportive of local farmers and go to great lengths to source as much of what they serve locally as possible.  Please check out this link for more on the restaurants.  http://relishrestaurantgroup.com/

Sincerely,
Heather and Brandon Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com]]>Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:27:01 -0500Hi Everyone!

I wanted to give everybody a quick (and late) heads up that the first Simon Kenton Farmers' Market is tomorrow, Saturday April 24.  The hours are 8:30-2:00.  It is located next to the courthouse in Independence, KY.  I'm looking forward to seeing many familiar faces and hopefully a lot of new ones also.  Hopefully, the rain will hold off until later in the afternoon.  Looking forward to seeing you!

Sincerely,
Heather Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com]]>Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:29:25 -0500Happy Spring Everyone!

Life is so grand and full of hope this time of year.  It's crazy busy too on a farm.  It's a time of babies, flowers, and optimism for the coming season.  Our animal population is skyrocketing.  We have been blessed with another uneventful lambing season.  We have five new ewe lambs and one new ram lamb.  We now have 3 generations of Shetland sheep because one of the ewe lambs from last year gave birth to two adorable little girls.  I continue to be so impressed with the hardiness and excellent mothering abilities exhibited by this little breed of sheep.  We have chicks ranging from 1 week to 8 weeks old and are expecting another batch of 100 on Friday.  Turkey poults (babies) are arriving in another couple of weeks and some new packages of honey bees will be here Sunday.  The first of the chicks that we have raised for the fast growing population of backyard chicken keepers have gone home with their new families.

The tom turkeys got totally out of hand with hormones over the last several weeks.  One of them became so aggressive that it was not safe to let our daughters outside and I had to carry a stick to do any work in the yard.  He always attacked from behind.  The other tom would do his best to keep the aggressor away from us so they were fighting constantly.  The behavior kept escalating until Julia got attacked by the turkey.  I asked her what she thought we should do with him and she declared "EAT HIM!".  He was delicious.  That was the first heritage pasture raised turkey I have ever tasted and I can tell you for sure that I'm never going back to supermarket turkey again.  Now the remaining tom doesn't know what to do with himself.  The turkey hen is tired of him.  He spars with his reflection in the car paint and in the windows.  He also has decided that he is infatuated with me.  He shows me his best courtship moves and is glued to my side when I'm in the yard.

Brandon, with the much appreciated help of his dad, has driven a lot of fence posts and hopefully we will soon have the marauding sheep permanently under control and I might possibly be able to plant a flower or two in front of the house and not have them dug up by dustbathing chickens.  He has once again reconfigured our gardens (hopefully for the last time) and disked the freshly plowed gardens today.  Lettuce is growing fast and is ready for harvesting this week.  In fact, the lettuce is growing so fast that I've decided to make a trip to Independence this week on short notice so that you can share in the bounty.

I am planning on being at the courthouse from 5:00-6:00 PM on Saturday, April 10.  Michelle Peluso will also have her delicious baked goods available for ordering.  The following items are available from Nature's Harbor Farm this Saturday:

1.  Grass Fed Eggs from free ranging hens: $3.50 a dozen
2. Romaine Lettuce: $3.00 a head- grown without the use of synthetic chemicals or fertilizers and protected from pests by an army of baby praying mantises (or is that manti?).

Products from Michelle Peluso:
1.  Jumbo cupcakes: $2.25 a piece-  She makes three different delicious varieties.  Specify whether you would like caramel frosted blackberry jam cupcakes, amaretto cupcakes, or fuzzy navel cupcakes.  Minimum order of 4 of one variety.
2.  loaves of buttermilk honey bread: $4.00
3.  Crumb topped blueberry muffins: $2.25 per muffin-minimum order of 4.

Please email me back by noon on Saturday with your order for eggs and lettuce.  Please email back by Friday at 6:00 PM with any baking orders for Michelle so that she has plenty of time to work her magic.

Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, and Gene Logsdon will be speaking at Xavier's Cintas Center Sunday at 7:00.  The event is free to the public and I predict it will be wonderful.  They are among the greats of sustainable farming and well worth the time to listen to. http://www.xavier.edu/campusuite/modules/calendar.cfm?cal_id=29136&grp_id=2516

Get outside and enjoy spring's beauty and we hope to see you all soon.

Sincerely,
Heather and Brandon Redden.
www.naturesharborfarm.com

]]>Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:04:29 -0500Greetings my Farm Friends!

Wow, what a difference a few days can make!  We feel like we've come out of a long hibernation here at the farm.  I don't think we realized how much of a funk this winter has put us in until the sun came out and made it pleasant to be outside again.  The lack of sun made it hard to even grow anything in the greenhouse for most of the winter.  We have put the winter time to use planning for the spring and furthering our education.  Brandon and I attended the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group conference in Chattanooga in January.  It is always such a great time and we learn so much.  I attended everything I could on multi-species grazing, pastured poultry, and marketing.  Brandon went to anything on growing lettuce and soil health.  He just loves all those critters that make up a healthy soil ecosystem.  Saturday, we will be attending the annual Bluegrass Beekeeping School in Frankfurt.  We always learn something new and it's a great place to get started if you are thinking of becoming a beekeeper.

Winter is also a time that we spend reading and watching whatever we can about farming and food.  I thought I would give a few recomendations for those of you wanting to learn more.  Some of the great books out there are:
1. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  by Barbara Kingsolver where you can follow her and her family through a year of local eating. 
2. The Omnivore's Dilemna and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan are both a great look at how we've ended up where we are in our western diet and definitely provide you with some food for thought.
3.  The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry is a most insightful look at how the dismantling of the small family farm has led to just about every social ill plaguing our society today.  Wendell Berry is a farmer from Kentucky.  He is a wonderful poet and fiction writer also.

And then there are the documentaries.  Super Size Me is so much more than a gross out film about eating at McDonalds although some of it is gross.  The part of that film that stood out the most for me was a look into a high school in Wisconsin for the "bad" kids that have been expelled out of their regular schools for behavior problems and how a switch to all fresh foods instead of processed in the school breakfasts and lunches has impacted the children's ability to focus and achieve at school.  And finally, there is Food, Inc.  I don't think I can say enough about this.  It is the single most impactful piece of film I've seen in my whole life.  The range of emotions that Brandon and I went through while watching it ran from disgust to anger to deep sadness to joy and all in about 90 minutes.  It is a look into the food industry in the U.S. like you've never seen before.  You get to see industrial corn and soybeans and the monster that Monsanto has become.  You see factory farms and the grip that Tyson has on poultry farmers in Kentucky.  You see how animals are viewed and handled in an industrial food system and you see how the farmers and slaughter house workers are used and abused.  You also see how our food dollars make a huge impact and that Walmart can be a force for good (I know, it's shocking).  One of the best parts is seeing and hearing from Joel Salatin, who is probably the single most inspiring sustainable farmer out there.  It is not appropriate for small children as it is graphic in places.  Everyone needs to see this film.

If I'm not careful, this is going to turn into a book so time to move on.  Everything is hopping here at the farm.  Brandon is starting lots of seeds, the bees are flying, chicks and lambs are arriving, and the chickens are laying like crazy.  I am planning on coming to Independence for a drop off on Sunday, March 14 at 1:00 PM.  Please make careful note of the day and time since this is different from my normal (whatever that is) schedule.  Michelle Peluso will be coming again with her baked goods if you would like to order from her as well.  
 
Available this week from Nature's Harbor Farm:
1.  Grass Fed Eggs:  $3.50 per dozen-We have eggs in abundance right now so no one will be limited on the number you can get.  Now is the time to stock up!
Pasture Raised chicken parts:
2. Gizzards: $3.75 per pound
3. Hearts: $6.50 per pound
4. Feet: $3.25 per pound-great for soup
5. Necks: $1.50 per pound-also great for soup.  Feet and necks also make tasty and healthy supplements for a dog's diet.  Chicken bones are safe for dogs to eat as long as they are NOT cooked.  Cooked chicken bones splinter and can kill a dog (or cat) when lodged in their throats.
6. Wheatgrass in 4 in. pot: $3.00-Great for your indoor kitties or for juicing.

Products from Michelle Peluso:
1.  Jumbo cupcakes: $2.00 a piece-  She makes three different delicious varieties.  Specify whether you would like caramel frosted blackberry jam cupcakes, amaretto cupcakes, or fuzzy navel cupcakes.  Minimum order of 4 of one variety.
2.  loaves of buttermilk honey bread: $4.00

Please email with your orders by 5:00 PM Saturday evening.

Sincerely,
Heather and Brandon Redden
Don't forget you can now follow the farm on Facebook also at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Natures-Harbor-Farm/216328054616?v=wall
]]>Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:27:25 -0600