Listen Up

"Life isn't about [making money].  It shouldn't be about that."

In case you missed it last Friday, Justin was featured during a segment on KWMU's "Cityscape" program.  Collaborating with Sauce Magazine, Cityscape aired a story on urban farming in St. Louis. Producers caught up with Justin to get his take on what caused him to become passionate about urban farming as a way of life.  

If you missed the segment, listen to it here:

http://kwmuweb.streamguys.com/Cityscape/091611bweb_small.mp3  Justin's part begins around the 03:37 minute mark.

Looking to Learn More?

Thinking about raising your own flock of chickens for eggs?

Wondering if a goat would make a great lawnmower?

Next month, we'll be teaming up with the people at Brick City Gardens to lead a workshop on raising livestock in an urban setting.  You can learn the in's and out's of caring for and maintaining a variety of animals like chickens, ducks, goats, rabbit and quail.  We'll teach you a myriad of things including what legalities to be aware of, proper ways of slaughter, and tips on how to succeed.

The event will be held at Schlafly Bottleworks, Maplewood on Saturday, April 30th from 9:00am-12:00pm.  Cost is $40.  To pre-register email Sue at brickcitygardens@yahoo.com or call (314) 630-5910.  Learn more here.

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.

Giving Thanks

First and foremost, thank you to our neighbors:  Mike, Cheryl, Megan, Bob, Sharon, Craig, Kevin, John, etc.  They generously let us use their land, they give us encouragement, they build things for us (Craig built both our beehives and our composter), offer us help (especially John, our bee mentor), and they never complain.  We couldn't do what we do without the supportive neighbors we have.

Thank you to the network of restaurants, local grocers, and individual customers that buy from us.  They keep our business going and growing - pushing us to grow new and different vegetables and meats.

Thanks to our family for helping with the needs of our farm from time-to-time, happily eating the food we cook, and listening to us constantly discuss our new projects and passions.

Thank you to the St. Louis community, food bloggers, journalists, Kitchen Conservatory, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and the folks at Homegrown.org for having an interest in what we do.

A special thank you to Stephanie for recently designing our wonderful new logo.

We want to give thanks also to Slow Food St. Louis for supporting our heritage breed, heirloom vegetable, and squab projects the past two years.

Thanks to the new friends and contacts we've made:  The brothers in Waterloo, and Joe, our squab breeder. With their knowledge and help, we've got some very exciting things in store for 2011 and the years to come.  

Last, but not least, thanks to Nature for always being there.

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.

A Year of Urban Farming

Now that 2010's in full swing, here's a look back at our first year...

Fall's Bounty

As the nights grow longer and the weather turns colder, there's still work to do on the homestead. This is how our kitchen cabinets look these days. We've been canning a lot: turning crabapples into mustards, making jams and butters, and finding various ways to preserve our green tomatoes.

We're still waiting on our fall crops of broccoli, beets, and kohlrabi to grow bigger. Meanwhile, our daikon radishes have gotten huge! It's surprising to look around the garden and discover what's still growing: leeks, onions, peas, beans, and chard. Some vegetables seem to thrive better in cold weather, like our lettuces which are finally coming in, and it's interesting to note the differences in taste through the various seasons.

All the unseasonably pleasant weather lately has been a blessing for our chickens. After the raccoon attack last summer, the egg supply in our fridge looked dismal. However, now our younger hens have matured before the cold weather sets in, and we're collecting more eggs daily!

Farm Aid

The folks at Farm Aid and Homegrown came to town last weekend and it was a huge success. We were graciously invited as guests to the Farm Meets Fork dinner that Friday night. Chefs and farmers from all over the area came together to provide delicious bites to eat in the Central West End that evening. The food was great and it was nice to see so many familiar faces. Saturday was the Homegrown Urban Country Fair at Tower Grove Park. We provided information about YellowTree Farm's success so far, and we met so many inquisitive people who wanted to learn more about urban homesteading. We brought one of our hens, Bill Murray, along and she was a hit with the crowd. The weather was perfect for the Farm Aid concert the following day, and we had a fun time enjoying the music with our friends. Thanks again to Cornelia of Homegrown.org, and the rest of the Farm Aid staff!

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.

Summer update

The end of July was a busy time for us. Most notably, we no longer have goats - for several reasons. But we do, however, have about 45 pounds of goat meat in the freezer. We also participated in a couple benefits for Slow Food St. Louis: Earlier in July at a special dinner held at The Crossing where some of our produce was featured on the menu, and also at Slow Food's annual Art of Food benefit toward the end of the month where we donated a basket of produce and a tour of the homestead to a lucky bidder.

Sadly, we lost about 15 of our chickens last week - some we've had for over a year and had grown very attached to, and others that would have just begun to start laying eggs any day. A raccoon had eaten a hole through the wood of our chicken coop, and we awoke one morning to find the hens dead. We are thankful that 5 survived, and we're contemplating what to do about acquiring more birds for our flock.

These days there's always work to do: Various plants are done growing and we're taking them out of the ground, and it's also the time of year when we need to get our fall crop ready to be planted. The popcorn in the front yard has recently come down, and we've been enjoying the delicious sweet corn from our side yard. Our fall corn crop is about 2 inches tall so far, the cucuzza squash is starting to get huge, and we're picking peppers as fast as we can. Gleaning has also become a favorite activity of ours, as we scour St. Louis for unclaimed plums, apples, and pears. In addition to all this, we're expecting the two new litters of bunnies to be born this week.

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: 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.