Lila

Just over a week ago, Jonathan and I went up to Windy Acres Farm in Orlinda, TN and picked up the newest resident of Ecotone. Lila is a four month old 3/4 Dutch Belted and 1/4 Milking Shorthorn calf, and will produce roughly 2-3 gallons of milk a day when she's mature.

Lila came to live with us for two reasons, the first of which is to move ahead of the chickens and pigs in the pasture rotation, eating the tall grass down for the critters to follow. The second reason, of course, is to provide milk and other sources of protein to the humans and other animals on the farm. Since arriving at Ecotone, Lila has stayed in the backyard, hiding behind the dove aviary during the heat of the day, and venturing out only in the evenings to graze and provide the occasional "Mooooo".

Gleaners

Speaking of eating free, I'm happy to report that we're now participating in the Food Reclamation Project, a program organized through Hands On Nashville. Vendors at the Nashville Farmer's Market support the project by donating their "less-than-prime" produce (read: flawed, mostly superficially, thrown away due to our fickle industrial food aesthetic) to a group of volunteers who further sort it into human-grade quality and not. The former is then delivered to local feeding agencies and homeless shelters, while the lesser quality foodstuffs are reincorporated into the local agro-ecology.

Until recently, most of this food was directed to local community gardens for composting, which is one great way to remove organic material from the waste stream and put it back into the food cycle. Now, however, we are coordinating with the project to pick up this busted, bruised, and slightly moldy (but sometimes astonishingly perfect!) food two days a week for the Ecotone sounder. Last week, I could barely fit it all in my truck!
As you may know, pigs are remarkably similar to human in digestive anatomy. With single chamber stomachs they are omnivores, and are well-known for eating most anything and everything you put in front of them. This, of course, doesn't mean that they should or would eat those things, if given a wide variety from which to choose; but it is why they are traditionally considered unclean to eat. But it's also exactly why pigs were domesticated: because of their remarkable ability to turn all or most agricultural by-products into edible animal protein. Whether it was compost from the garden, whey from the dairy animals, or scraps from the kitchen, pigs are a crucial part of the feeding ecology for many smallholders and householders - that is, those subsistence agriculturists comprising three-quarters of the world's population.

In this sense, I've been thinking about how this project in general, and the pigs roles in particular, are good examples of gleaning, an ancient set of practices associated with the common rights to gather the remainder left in a field after harvest. Needless to say, all the pigs at Ecotone are happy to oblige in this role, and sometime in the future - after we've helped turn that so-called waste into protein - we'll return it to the project in the form of food.

Radical Agrarianism 3

Wendell Berry now appears ready to go to jail in civil disobedience against the proposed national animal identification program (NAIS). You can hear him here.

Eat free or die!

Working the Piglets

Last Thursday, Ben from Pleasant View Mill came down to the farm and taught Jonathan, Jennifer, and I how to "work" hogs, which includes ear notching (for ID), worming (only as necessary), and, of course, castration. We worked the 8 piglets from Sadie's litter, of which there was one female and seven males. We castrated all but two of the biggest males, and so have one gilt, two boars, and five barrows for sale out of that litter.

We also tried, unsuccessfully, to convince Ruby to let us do the same with her litter. As I was sealing her in the farrowing hut to gather the piglets without being killed by an angry sow, she jumped out over the top, screaming like a dinosaur the whole time! Needless to say, it was sort of scary, both because she was clearly upset, and I was afraid of her hurting herself. Once out, however, she barked loudly, calling her piglets together, and off they went into the bush for a full day and a half before I saw them again. We plan to try again in a few days. Of the six piglets in this litter, I know from observation that there are at least two gilts, maybe three, and we'll castrate at least one of the males.
If you're interested in getting a piglet out of this litter, please do consider sending a deposit soon, as they're going fast! For feeders, please send $50 per hog as a deposit, with the remaining $50 due at pick-up. For breeders, please sent $100 per hog as a deposit, with the remaining due at pick-up. The prices for breeder quality stock are $250 for gilts, and $350 for boars. I am interested in trading piglets for unrelated stock as well.

Egg Count 6

The May egg count stands at 238 dozen, or 2,856 eggs, which is just under 8 dozen per day. The number of hens in Flock #1 has dropped slightly this month, and the heat seems to have slowed them down. Instead of the hens laying all the eggs before early afternoon, they appear to be breaking up into two groups, one finishing before late morning and the other beginning in the late afternoon. Because Flock #2 has yet to start laying, I don't have any firm numbers on the feed to egg ratio this month. Here are some photos my friend Scott took during his recent visit to Nashville and the farm.

Egg Spots

Several folks have mentioned that they occasionally see a spot of blood in an egg. Now I just assumed that this was because our hens run with roosters, but I've done a little research and this is not the case. Here are the main points I found.

Eggs with a visible blood spot occur in less than 1% of all eggs laid, and are safe for consumption. The spot is caused by the rupture of a blood vessel during the formation of the egg, and can be removed with the tip of a knife. In industrial situations, all eggs are candled and those with spots culled. Interestingly, blood spots are more likely to occur with hens laying brown eggs. Not only does the color of the shell make candling more difficult, the genetics of these birds predisposes them to lay eggs containing spots.

Each yolk begins within the hen's ovary, and is enclosed in a sack containing blood vessels facilitating its development. Normally, when the yolk is mature it is released from the "stigma" or "suture" line, which is the only area of the yolk sack free of blood vessels. When on occasion the yolk ruptures at another point, the small blood vessels supplying the yolk with nutrients rupture, thus causing a spot of blood to appear on the yolk or in the white.

Importantly, this spot fades over time, and so a bright blood spot indicates a very fresh egg! This is because, as an egg ages the yolk takes water from the albumen and dilutes the color of the spot, making it unnoticeable. Once I learned this I realized that the people reporting such spots were, in fact, receiving eggs laid that same day.

Eggs that you buy in the store are, on average, two weeks old before they reach the grocer's shelf, let alone your fridge and belly. Until now there have been times when I am a few eggs short on a given day's order, and will go out to the nesting coop to get a few. These are the eggs that, more than likely, contain the spots. Since learning this, I've begun to let eggs sit for a day or two before distribution. (Just FYI: Ecotone eggs are always less than a week old; in fact, we sell all the eggs we have every two or three days.)

So, in short, these spots indicate an extraordinarily fresh egg and, aside from aesthetics, are completely safe to consume and enjoy!

Sire for Hire

A few days ago Rambo embarked on his new career as porcine stud. A new farmer friend from Chapmansboro came down with a trailer and some goat's milk to see if Rambo might be interested in taking a ride to meet her Duroc sow, Mackenzie. With patience at first and then a firm shove, sure enough Rambo was interested. Here are some photos Dani sent of him taking a breather after the trip, and of his new mate. We're hoping to get some good hybrid vigor off of this pairing, which given her looks seems likely.

Piglets 2

I noticed yesterday that Sadie didn't eat her breakfast, and sure enough by sunset she farrowed 11 piglets! This morning I found one dead, though not apparently laid upon, and couldn't find yet another. Jen went out a little bit later and found a piglet shivering by the hay bale outside the hut. I must have walked right by it. But that makes 10 healthy piglets in Sadie's first litter.

Piglets!

Last night Ruby became a sow, farrowing 8 piglets by dawn, with 7 6 still living! Though I haven't counted exactly, they look to be mostly males, which would confirm an old saying that early litters are large and mostly female, while late litters (as this one seemed to be) are small and mostly male. Here's a video and some photos Jen got this morning.

Fruits of Our Labors

This is now the view from my bedroom window, a nice showcase to three of our recently completed projects.

First, the strawberries. Since we don't yet have a deer-proof fence, I had to scratch my head a bit to find a place I could grow these sweet treats without all the rabbits, deer, chipmunks, you-name-it nibbling away all the good stuff. Eureka, the roof! This gently sloping metal roof gets plenty of sunlight, but is 15 feet off the ground. So I constructed this little shelf to hold the containers, and now whenever I need to water the plants I just open my bedroom window and tiptoe out to them. As you can see, a few little red beauties are already ripening.

Beyond the roof (actually down on the ground below) is our new clothesline. For about a year I've been hanging clothes on the clothesline I installed, which has been slowly sagging and leaning ever closer to the ground. So C.J. erected this awesome new clothesline, pictured here supporting three full washer loads.

To the right of the clothesline you can see a wooden structure, our brand-new dove aviary! If you look close enough, you can even see three white doves perched inside. They seem very happy in there, cooing softly on warm spring evenings, with plenty of room to spread their wings, fly around, and test out all the different places to perch and preen.