The first fall frost welcomed us in the fields this morning. You know there is no turning back to summer once frost has hit, even if, as they are forecasting this Thanksgiving weekend, it is followed by a balmy Indian summer spell. While some vegetables resist, and even relish, frost (brocoli, jerusalem artichokes and lettuce, to name a few), others, such as eggplant, peppers and zucchini, wilt at the first hint of sub-zero temperatures. Cooler nights in September triggered the seasonal migration of mice from field to farm buildings, where relative warmth and shelter beckon. As a result, the latest additions to the farm a couple of weeks ago are two 6-month-old cats, Castor and Pollux. We have high hopes that they will grow into tough barn cats, guarding seeds and grain and keeping the mouse population under tight control. While neither the mice nor the cats seem to mind, the warehouse, which is nice and cool in the heat of summer, has turned ice-boxy – a frigid 4 degrees Celsius this morning. Usually, when we assemble baskets, they go into the cold room for a few hours’ storage before loading up the delivery van. No need this morning though — we simply left the baskets on the assembly shelves, like veggies on a fridge shelf.
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We are often asked how our eggs get their color – so thought it would be nice to set the record straight: our white hens (Leghorns) lay white eggs, our others (Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds) lay brown eggs. When young (i.e. 18 to 24 weeks), hens produce smaller eggs; older hens produce larger eggs. While in the prime of youth – until about age one year – hens lay beautiful eggs, whiter-than-white or dark brown, and often. As they age, they produce fewer eggs and their colour changes: the white becomes creamier, and the brown lightens. The two colors remain quite distinct, but they are definitely paler versions of their original shades. Egg yolk color is straightforward to explain: the egg yolks become darker as the season progresses and our hens eat more vegetable scraps and insects. When fed only grain (during winter, for example), the yolk is much paler.
We’ve spent the past three months carrying water from house to barn for the four sheep we bought from our friend André last December, feeding them hay and grain. Three months of effort that have paid off big – in the guise of the recent arrival of three lambs, with a fourth expected any day. “They’re pregnant,” André had said of the ewes, when he delivered them along with the ram reportedly responsible for their state. We had our doubts: their wool was thick, and their teats well hidden. It happened very quickly: in a matter of days, we sensed a change in the ewes’ disposition and witnessed the telltale “drop” of their udders. They lambed swiftly during the night and in the early morning, we would find the stall in pretty much the same state as we had left it the night before, plus a lamb or two. To ensure they got their fill of colostrum, we had to force them to suckle in the first hours after birth. Their survival depends on it. We’re knocking on wood in the hopes that they’re off to a good start – fortunately, wood is plentiful in the old barn that shelters our growing flock.
It is time to overcome our writer’s block. Two months have sped by, far from the computer, but never far from the farm and farmwork. We had left off at fieldwork to be completed…We never did get around to mulching the garlic with straw; it will have to wait until spring. To avert boredom during the long winter months, we decided, 75 laying hens not being enough of a challenge, to acquire three (pregnant) ewes and a ram. This foray into larger livestock has necessitated a small-scale barn re-furbishing and twice-daily treks from the farmhouse to the barn to provide them with food and drink. Spring will bring the additional excitement of lambing – we’ll be checking for signs of impending motherhood diligently as time progresses. We are planning to add to the barnyard crew in coming months – where there is hay and feed for some, there will be more for others. We’ll post pics on the website with each arrival. In the meantime, the next couple of months will be filled with agricultural training, crop planning and…ice-rink car-pooling.
We finally succumbed to the subtle pressure of friends and family for whom a farm without farm dogs is not a farm. Allow us therefore to introduce you to Maggy, a two-year-old black Labrador retriever, and her five pups, now four weeks old. We would have liked to know the father, but what matters most is that mother and pups are healthy, and the pups are growing by leaps and bounds. We picked them up at the SPCA – an organization that works hard to find new homes for animals abandoned by their owners. We are acting as a foster home until the puppies are old enough to be adopted. We won’t be keeping them all – the mum and two pups will be more than enough.
To dog-lovers reading this: that leaves three puppies to be adopted…
As March ends, it is time for us to order our laying hens to ensure they arrive towards the middle of May. Hen selection seems easy enough, but it’s more complicated than it appears. Unlike broilers that arrive as one- or two-day old chicks, layers come aged 18 to 19 weeks. They usually start to lay within a couple of weeks. The question is – which hens to choose? Our research seems for naught as we quickly find out breeders don’t sell chickens by breed, but by color: “What’s it going to be? We have red ones, white ones and grey ones.” After a few frustrating calls, a friendly breeder finally explains that the “whites” are white-egg-laying Leghorns, the “reds” are those of Rhode Island fame who typically lay brown-shelled eggs, and the “greys”, our favourites, are Plymouth Rock hens, whose shells have a pinkish hue. Plymouth Rock layers are sought after as much for their meat as for their eggs. The aforementioned hens have well-established pedigrees that reach back to colonial times and even Europe. At the beginning of the last century, farmers in nearby Oka bred the Chantecler, a hardy hen capable of weathering cold Quebec winters and a prolific layer, to boot. We have been told that it is the Chantecler, a species now on the verge of extinction, that is the most commonly depicted rooster on Quebec weathervanes.
Our answer this year: we’ll take the white ones and the grey ones, please.
Preparations for the 2010 season are in full swing. We are busy completing our warehouse, the cold storage area and our chicken coop. The warehouse is an old barn which we have converted into an all-purpose building, re-cycling old barn planks from the self-same barn to create a cold storage area, a vegetable work area, a washing station, a general purpose workbench and a mezzanine which will serve, among other things, as extra storage space. Building a cold storage room is done in stages to ensure its long-term usefulness. Building materials and techniques are selected to minimize the negative effects of condensation on stored crops. The cooling system has to satisfy peak performance requirements in order to chill large quantities of fresh-picked field vegetables.
On Monday we laid the foundation for the chicken coop – weather permitting, we will raise the walls and complete the inside layout in the next week or two. We expect to house thirty-something layers this summer, along with a few free-range chickens. We’ll let you know as soon as we have organic eggs for sale – once the hens settle in.
The 2012 Season is Here!
“It’s only February, but our seeds have arrived, the tractors have been tuned and except for a few sundry winter chores, we’re gearing up…” (read more, or cut to the chase and download our registration form)
Arlington Gardens welcomes you (see our photo gallery)
