It's Been a Long Time, We Shouldn't Have Left You...

We can't believe it's been almost four months since we last wrote a blog post! Spring turned into summer, and summer produced some crazy hot, hot temperatures, and what else can we say? We've been working tremendously hard these last few months out in the fields, at the markets, and around town.

Now for a brief little recap:

You might already know that our grow space at our homestead in Affton is around 1/10 of an acre. While it's surprising to see the bounty such a small space can produce, we started searching earlier this year for ways we could acquire more land on which to grow more crops. Our search ended once we met Virgil and his wife, Margaret – farmers in nearby Fenton, Missouri (St. Louis County) whose property spans 500 acres in the middle of subdivisions and strip malls.  

We've been renting a few acres from Virgil and Margaret, and if you follow us on Twitter or Facebook, you might have already seen photos of what our plot looks like and the transformation its undergone while in our care. 
(keep reading...)

CSA Coming Your Way!

It's true.  We've decided to do a CSA this year, with pickups to be held at our booth at the Schlafly Farmer's Market.  We're doing things a little differently than how typical CSAs are set up:  We are offering shares in more affordable tiers of $500, $200, or $100.  This is structured so that you get to enjoy our specialty produce and still have enough money in your pockets to spend throughout the farmer's market.  It also serves as a great introductory CSA plan if you're a newbie to CSAs, if you're hesitant to sign up for one based on expense, or if you're afraid you'd waste unused produce.

There are roughly 30 market days at Schlafly from April-October.  Our $500 share provides for pickups of items at nearly every market date, with the value of each pickup being $18-$20.  The $200 share allows for half the number of pickups (to be set up, for example, every other week, or however you like), with $15-$17 as the value of each pickup.  The $100 share provides a small taste of the items we offer, with pickups valued at around $8.  It won't be enough produce to fill the fridge, but it'll provide a great opportunity to sample and try our unique items.
(keep reading...)

End of Fall Update

With it being just hours away from the official start of winter, we don't want to let the seasons change without providing a recap of all we've been able to accomplish this fall.

If you've been following us on Twitter or Facebook, you know we built ourselves an outdoor kitchen last summer (primarily to beat the heat while still being able to cook amazing meals).  In the early part of fall we were blessed with an upgrade to our kitchen:  a six-burner, two-oven Wolf range with a flat top.  It's been in use virtually every day since we got it, and it's so enjoyable to cook on.

In animal news:  We obtained more squab to replace the ones killed by the raccoon last summer, and they seem to be doing well – pairing off and making nests.  We've also begun raising quail again, and nearly two dozen quail chicks hatched just a few days ago.  We also hatched a handful of ducklings, and welcomed two litters of rabbits to the homestead.

We managed to get our garlic and spinach in the ground before the cold temperatures set in, and we'll let them grow throughout the upcoming winter and spring before they'll be ready to harvest next year.

Now that the days are short and the nights long, we keep warm by staying indoors – flipping through books and seed catalogs, carefully planning what we're going to do next year.  We've got plenty of exciting things in development, that's for sure, and we can't wait to share them with you in the upcoming months.

'Tis the Season for Tomatoes

Not only did our Matt's Wild Cherry win highest brix at yesterday's The Good, The Big, & The Ugly Tomato Festival, but our tomatoes are also featured in this month's Sauce Magazine, on stands now. Check out the stunning photos of our tomatoes taken by Greg Rannels.

We Had a Baby!

...a duck baby, that is. Say hello to the first duckling to be successfully hatched by YellowTree Farm!

There Grows the Neighborhood

We're featured in the cafe section of the current River Front Times! It can be found on local newsstands now. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out here, and be sure to view the slideshow.

Join us at the Urban Country Fair

With this year's Farm Aid concert taking place here in St. Louis, YellowTree Farm is pleased to announce that we've been invited to participate in the Urban Country Fair - an event taking place at Tower Grove Park the day before the big concert. There will be live music, food, demonstrations, and games. We'll be there to provide information about urban homesteading. If you want to learn more about raising backyard poultry, intensive gardening, or eating locally - look for us on Saturday, October 3rd! Learn more about the Urban Country Fair by clicking here. Danielle will also be volunteering at the Farm Aid concert, so keep an eye out for her if you plan on going.

For Sale

Available now:

carrots
celery
cucumber
herbs:

black opal basil
chamomile
genovese basil
lavender thyme
majoram
nasturtium
oregano
purple basil
sage
shisho
summer savory
szechuan buttons
tarragon
thyme
tulsi tea/holy bail
winter savory

lettuce greens
pears
peppers (mild)
peppers (stuffing)
plums
potatoes
squash
Upon request:
chanterelle mushrooms
honey
rabbit
Available soon:
melons
tomatoes

Our produce and herbs are organic, heirloom varieties and we don't use any Bt or chemical sprays.
e-mail justin@yellowtreefarm.com to place an order and arrange a pick-up.
(pictured: part of the herb garden)

What's growing right now

Here's a look at what's growing right now. It's June and we've got tomatoes on the vine starting to turn; peas, dry beans, and green beans being picked each night; cucumbers and eggplants are flowering; and the corn's grown taller than the both of us.

May recap

We've lagged behind on the blog posts lately, as the wonderful springtime weather has allowed us to get plenty of work done around the homestead. May was eventful: We've had two litters of rabbits born, tasted honey from our bees and collected some bee pollen, and eaten salads nearly every day made from our own greens. The bok choy grew in quite nicely and we've enjoyed eating that a few times as well. Neighbors and family members have been dropping off various canning jars that they have collected for us - and we've managed to put a few to use by making strawberry jams, canning Swiss chard, and finding novel uses for lemon rinds. On Mother's Day we treated our family to a dinner consisting of a couple of our own chickens. Most exciting is that our garden's thriving and growing more with each passing day.

Homestead news: Goats

The goats are getting settled in. They're fun to have around and they're certainly more quiet than most of the dogs in the neighborhood!

Progression

The bees have arrived!

We picked up a little over 20,000 Italian bees on Monday. I have to admit, I was scared at first. Turns out they're friendly! Our neighbor, Craig, kindly built us two hives and we put them up on our roof. This is going to be a fun adventure.

Gratitude

Thank you to Slow Food St. Louis! We were awarded a biodiversity grant by Slow Food St. Louis to help fund some of our projects. The proceeds will go towards the aquisition of rare Java, Partridge Plymouth, and Araucana chickens, as well towards our continued work with over 70 different varities of heirloom vegetables.

Homestead news: Compost

So THIS is what our driveway looks like these days! We had a truckload of compost delivered earlier in the week.

...moving all this compost up the hill and into our backyard is certainly going to be a challenge.

Homestead news: Sod

The grass is coming up! We're finishing the removal of the sod in our yard and our neighbor Mike's yard. Time to grow food instead of a lawn!

Got Milk?

We are so excited to announce that we have two Nigerian Dwarf goats reserved from Deborah at: www.nigeriandwarfdairygoats.com - a young doe (pictured) and a small whether to keep her company.

Here are some facts about Nigerian Dwarf goats, and goat milk:

• The goat was the first animal to be domesticated, besides the dog.
• Nigerian Dwarfs are small, and typically aren't taller than 21 inches high.
  
• They're very popular as pets, in part because Nigerian Dwarfs are gentle, easily trainable goats and they do especially well around children.
  
• They require little space and are inexpensive to keep.
  
• More of the world's people consume goat milk than cow milk.
• The breed gives a lot of milk for their size, averaging 2.5 pounds per day.
• Their milk has very high butterfat and protein content. The higher protein means we get more cheese from the milk.
• It also has a much lower bacterial count than cow milk. So you don't have to pasteurize goat milk.

We will be very eager to see how much of our dairy needs can be met by having our own backyard pet goat.

Worms!

Our composting worms arrived in the mail the other day. Their new home is the compost bin situated beneath the rabbit hutch - worms love rabbit poo, they break it down fast. We took this idea from some of our old farming books. If things go alright, we should have millions of worms by mid-summer that will be used in our other compost piles. This system of vermicomposting eliminates our dependence on fertilizers and adds micronutrients to the soil.

Animal news: Chicks

We took a trip out to Fulton, Missouri over the weekend and picked up some chicks from a local hatchery. We got a few araucanas, some silver laced wyandottes, and a handful of bantam seabrights. They should start laying eggs around the end of July.

Incubator update

Well, our first attempt at incubating eggs didn't work out so well. Much to our disappointment, none of our cinnamon queen eggs hatched.

We're trying again, though, with a couple dozen quail eggs. We've managed to keep the temperature more stable than last time, and hopefully we'll have better results. These little eggs should start hatching around February 25th.