When we say we feed sprouts... We are talking real sprouts! Not soaked grain that is almost sprouted but grain with inch long roots and green sprouts!
Not every batch turns out this good, depending on the heat of the sun, but we try!
Follow along our adventure as we make the transition from corporate city life to the world of natural farming. Each day brings a new experience and brings us to a deeper understanding about the life and spirit that made America great. At our farm we do our best to give the animals we raise a natural, free, happy, stressfree lifestyle. Our mission is to learn and share how to manage a farming operation that is both profitable and humane.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Pear Harvest 2013
Pear Harvest time is here! This year we asked for volunteers to help harvest the pears which worked out beautifully for everyone. The farm received many extra pounds of pears for animal feed, and the helpers took home as many free pears as they wished, as well as having a grand time !
We give a special thanks to the owners of the old pear farm, which has not been worked for several years, in allowing us to harvest these pears for organic animal feed.
These pears will go a long way to finishing both the pigs and the turkeys at a great savings to the farm.
At the end of the day, best estimate is that we collected close to 6000 lbs of pears! Good job everyone!
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| Everett sees a pear he wants! |
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| Can he reach it? |
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| almost! |
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| The farmer in the trees... with knee pads? |
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| Levi wears daddy's hat for protection from falling pears! |
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| Noey and Kaelyn sitting on the kubota waiting to fill pear buckets |
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| Hunter found one, or two, or three... |
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| And Uncle Bradley fills many buckets |
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| Grandma with the most important job... Baby watching! |
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| Add caption |
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| The team hard at work |
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| Did he just eat a pear? |
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| Marissa picks pears and holds the little ones, talent! |
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| Daddy, Hunter, and Levi hard at it |
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| Why is this man smiling? |
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| Everett returns to the kubota for another bite.... |
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| The line of cars for the volunteers |
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Little Sprouts Pear Day is Here!
We would like to extend an invitation to you that we just sent to all our customers for a fun day picking pears from a local wild growth orchard.
here is the invitation we sent to our customers:
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Hi
You are invited to join us for another Little Sprouts Work Event! The project this time will be fruit harvesting!
We have made arrangements with one of the local fruit companies to strip the fruit from an unused pear orchard. These pears are organic and "wild growth" since the orchard has not been worked in several years. There are good pears on the trees yet ready to pick, preserve, eat, whatever... and fallen pears on the ground great for animal feed. We will be doing both.. collecting fallen fruit from the ground as well as picking what can be reached on the trees without a ladder. NO LADDERS will be used nor allowed for safety reasons.
You are welcome to come and work as much as you like, and take home your own set of pears at the end. You are welcome to make it a family event, bring the children, plan for a picnic lunch or dinner, and enjoy yourself!
Date: Wednesday 9-18
Time: 630am till dark (around 8pm) you are welcome to work any hours between this, just let us know your preference.
Bring: buckets for collecting and taking your own pears home, plenty of water (no running water at the farm) and food for meals.
Wear: dress for cool morning and evening, hot day, and prepare for tall grass and burrs in places.
FYI: there is no restroom facilities on or nearby the farm.
This is a great family friendly way to work on the farm, help us feed these animals, keep pour prices down, and just have a good time!
Please RSVP by email or phone by Tuesday evening if you plan on attending!
Thanks!
Dave, Brenda and the Little Sprouts
541-826-4345
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Honey made from... High Fructose Corn Syrup?
Most people just dont realize, we didnt, that most commercial honey, even local, is not actually "pure " honey. There is a common practice of bee keepers harvesting all the honey at once, and feeding the bees sugar or even HFCS to sustain them until they can replace the honey.
Now, sure, I understand that this doesn't actually get into the honey itself. But stop and think, is this good for the bees? The bees do produce the honey, so doesn't it make sense that something that compromises the health of the bees will compromise the quality of the honey? do you want to buy honey from weakened bees?
One promise we make to you is that Little Sprouts will never follow this practice. Our bees retain enough honey at each harvest to live on until the rebuild the supply. In essence, we only harvest the surplus. AND if feeding supplementally is ever necessary, we will only feed honey, not sugar water. This does increase the cost of the honey by lower production per colony, but it is well worth it in the end to us. We simply wont sacrifice any of our farm animals or insects for the sake of o higher profits or production.
Here is a link to an interesting recent study that shows a link between HFCS and bee health decline. Worth a read.
http://phys.org/news/2013-04-high-fructose-corn-syrup-tied-worldwide.html#jCp
Now, sure, I understand that this doesn't actually get into the honey itself. But stop and think, is this good for the bees? The bees do produce the honey, so doesn't it make sense that something that compromises the health of the bees will compromise the quality of the honey? do you want to buy honey from weakened bees?
One promise we make to you is that Little Sprouts will never follow this practice. Our bees retain enough honey at each harvest to live on until the rebuild the supply. In essence, we only harvest the surplus. AND if feeding supplementally is ever necessary, we will only feed honey, not sugar water. This does increase the cost of the honey by lower production per colony, but it is well worth it in the end to us. We simply wont sacrifice any of our farm animals or insects for the sake of o higher profits or production.
Here is a link to an interesting recent study that shows a link between HFCS and bee health decline. Worth a read.
http://phys.org/news/2013-04-high-fructose-corn-syrup-tied-worldwide.html#jCp
The new Bug Hotel
If you have been following along the blog, you may remember I recently cooked our first batch of Blaptica Dubias inadvertently putting the boxes in the greenhouse on a warm day. Since then we re-ordered another set of 500 adults. When this second set came in, we first placed them in a single big tub with some egg cartons to let them acclimate to the climate of southern oregon and rest from their long journey.
Today was the day to get them into their new breeding homes. We have come up with our own preferred method of housing after trial and error and much research. I call these "Bug Hotels". Let me explain:
We are starting with 3 colonies, each in a separate tub, about 3 feet long, 1.5 feet wide wide smooth tall sides.Each colony will start with 1/3 of the initial breeders, or about 150 - 160 in this case.
At one end is a snuggly packed set of six 18 egg cartons, paper of course. This forms the "living quarters" where they will spend they daytime sleeping and hopefully breeding. Then there is the "patio area" formed by two more 18 egg cartons opened and laid across the ends and tops to form sort of a transition area and play area.
At the other end is the "feeding area". There are 2 paper plates side by side. one with chicken feed (non-gmo, organic with high omega 3 ). The other plate contains fresh moist veggies. This provides a much cleaner area for them to eat separate from living If hte paper plates get soils or too wet, we just replace them. It makes keeping track of food consumed and any chance of mold much easier.
This design, with separate areas for living, playing, and eating make it easier to maintain. If anything molds, its easy to see and remove, the bedding stays dry always, the amount of feed available is always easily visible, cleaning is simple. Overall, I like it for breeding colonies.
The eventual plan is to have this connected to a growing colony via a climbable tube. The tube will be too small for the adults to enter, too slick to climb the outside. But as the babies are born and grow they will be free to explore the tubes and find their way to the growing colony. at that end they drop out into the new colony and cant reach to get back so they stay. This makes it sort of auto harvesting. Since the breeders live for 12 to 24 months, this shoud be a useful system to allow collection of use of hte offspring while maintaining a consist breeding colony. Thats the theory anyway.
Here are some pics of the new setup:
Today was the day to get them into their new breeding homes. We have come up with our own preferred method of housing after trial and error and much research. I call these "Bug Hotels". Let me explain:
We are starting with 3 colonies, each in a separate tub, about 3 feet long, 1.5 feet wide wide smooth tall sides.Each colony will start with 1/3 of the initial breeders, or about 150 - 160 in this case.
At one end is a snuggly packed set of six 18 egg cartons, paper of course. This forms the "living quarters" where they will spend they daytime sleeping and hopefully breeding. Then there is the "patio area" formed by two more 18 egg cartons opened and laid across the ends and tops to form sort of a transition area and play area.
At the other end is the "feeding area". There are 2 paper plates side by side. one with chicken feed (non-gmo, organic with high omega 3 ). The other plate contains fresh moist veggies. This provides a much cleaner area for them to eat separate from living If hte paper plates get soils or too wet, we just replace them. It makes keeping track of food consumed and any chance of mold much easier.
This design, with separate areas for living, playing, and eating make it easier to maintain. If anything molds, its easy to see and remove, the bedding stays dry always, the amount of feed available is always easily visible, cleaning is simple. Overall, I like it for breeding colonies.
The eventual plan is to have this connected to a growing colony via a climbable tube. The tube will be too small for the adults to enter, too slick to climb the outside. But as the babies are born and grow they will be free to explore the tubes and find their way to the growing colony. at that end they drop out into the new colony and cant reach to get back so they stay. This makes it sort of auto harvesting. Since the breeders live for 12 to 24 months, this shoud be a useful system to allow collection of use of hte offspring while maintaining a consist breeding colony. Thats the theory anyway.
Here are some pics of the new setup:
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| Kaelyn helped sort out the new breeders and get them divided into the three colonies. Can you believe she is holding 500 bugs that that bucket? |
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| Here is the new colony layout, with living on the left, eating on the right, play space in the middle. Its like a vegas hotel for bugs! |
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| Here are the three colonies stored in the corner for now. We still need to decide on a permanent home for them. |
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