Van's Journal

2011-01-21T13:18:00.004-06:00

Lots of Texas 1015 Onions, shallots and garlic

Tomato Seedlings, about two weeks from germination. Looking good so far!

A photo of our chicken coup with a hoop. Notice the brooder box inside. This box is kept warm with a heat lamp.

2010-12-21T10:57:00.002-06:00

Full share contents for the week of Dec. 21st, 2010: Sweet Potatoes, micro radish, micro arugula, grapefruit, head broccoli, two heads cauliflower, two bags baby leaf salad mix

2010-12-13T10:32:00.003-06:00

Shown here are the Full Share contents for the weeks of Dec. 13th, 2010: 2 bags baby leaf salad, greens, radishes, grapefruit, sweet potatoes, cabbage, turnips, mushrooms

2010-12-06T10:23:00.000-06:00

Shown here is what Full Shares received the first week of December, 2010:
Cabbage, 2 heads cauliflower, green beans, new potatoes, micro green blend, white mushrooms, and 2 bags of baby leaf salad mix,

2010-11-29T09:45:00.001-06:00

Full shares for this week, Nov. 29th received
new potatoes, grapefruit, micro green blend, eggplant, baby arugula, salad mix, radishes and green beans

2010-11-25T12:30:00.000-06:00

Smoking Turkeys for Thanksgiving. Trussing them is time consuming, but carrying them 120' to the smoke house is a challenge.

2010-11-13T12:06:00.000-06:00

What a lot of fun; our 5th and final Farm Dinner of 2010. Chef Jon Buchanan in charge of the kitchen

2010-10-26T11:08:00.003-05:00

Shown here are students from the Kingwood Montessori School touring our farm on a day trip excursion. A visit through the corn patch, a visit with the pigs, a short hay ride.

2010-10-12T11:48:00.004-05:00

Via our good friend, Chef Paul Lewis, we were invited to attend the "Outstanding in the Field" event held over at Jolie Vue Farms in Chapel Hill. What a great venue and evening. Wood Duck Farm contributed the arugula salad and micro basil.

2010-10-02T11:31:00.003-05:00

Photos of our Oct. 2nd 2010 Farm Dinner.

2010-07-28T10:52:00.010-05:00

Last week completed our 2010 Spring CSA program, so we now have a little extra time to savor some of the summertime treats such as this homemade peach ice cream w/mint, courtesy of our friend Lesia.

I was able to attend my 35 yr. High School reunion over in Savannah Ga last week. While there I was able to get a taste of some good BBQ, "Georgia Style" as well. Maybe one day we'll have a similar sign here at our farm. What do ya' think?

Back to the farm, we usually peak in tomato production around the July 4th weekend. The cloudy days have prolonged this season, but our plants are growing tired.

We're still picking every other day, but our yields are coming way down.

The irrigation tape where the cantaloupe, cucumbers, squash and zucchini were planted are now being removed, with the plastic mulch being pulled up beginning next week.

Ever wonder what makes those holes in your tomatoes? Well here is the main culprit! A little green worm. No tequila for this guy.

Big wind gusts this past weekend, tore the plastic off one of our small hoop houses that we use for storage. Just another thing to repair.

Kids from the City of Conroe Day Camp came for a visit earlier this month.

Here we are discussing how we irrigate plants using our pond for water storage.

Taking a break from the summer time heat in one of our walk-in coolers.

(Life is such a blur sometimes, as evident with this photo. LOL)

Ah' the rigors of entertaining and feeding hungry kids. "Everyone ready for lunch from the grill?"

No the lens is not dirty; this shot was taken through the front screen door. Who would have thought? ;-)

"Burgers and dogs" after a grueling morning touring the farm. Now we are talking about some major appetites!

A Summertime Sunset here at the farm.

Moments such as these reminds us "why we do what we do!"

2010-06-28T12:46:00.034-05:00

Two of these piggies are sooo excited to see me as they are about to be fed. Not sure you can make it out, but the "piggie" on my left is "mooning me." A friend of mine said the mooning one is "just a precocious wild thing!!!"

Lots of tomatoes still on the vines.

We are still picking the tomatoes a little pink to try and stay in front of all the stink bugs, possums, crows, and squirrels.

Speaking of varmints, you know the cantaloupe are ripe when they start getting eaten by the raccoons.

Such as the number some "coon" did on this cantaloupe. Must have been "finger licken' good" as not much is left.

Monday, one of our harvest days.

Not sure what type of bird (white) this is, but it is neat to watch how patient they can be. Real hunters as they stand in our marsh until something tasty swims within reach of their beaks.

Princess, our guard cat, was born in 1993. She is the last of five siblings and still going strong.

Our "guard rabbit?" Nope, just a friendly "cotton tail" out munching for some tasty grass, or maybe some of our salad greens.

We've had this sign denoting our farm at our gate for a few months now, but have never really publicized it online. Many thanks to Chris Hill at Hill Design for the graphic design and Mike Harris at VCI Group Visual Communications for the actual sign. It really makes a difference as both Chris and Mike did a fantastic job.

June 2010 Farm Pics

2010-06-20T14:07:00.001-05:00

Two busy bumble bees inside a zucchini blossom.So what do you think they're "buzzing" about?

Fresh harvested bulb fennel and broccoli. The fennel is excellent when roasted or added to a soup.

Rinsing fresh picked cucumbers. CSA share holders will attest that we had a bumper crop this year.

A good dose of compost was added prior to transplanting these tomatoes. We are "pushing the envelope" with our third tomato planting this season. Maybe we'll get lucky. Notice we have drip tape irrigation, but absent the black plastic mulch as it would make the soil too hot. Weeds are apt to be a problem though.

We're a little behind, but the watermelon plants seem to have benefited from the 10" of rain we had a few weeks ago. Now if we can just keep the weeds down.

Sun breaking the tree line on a summer morning. Good-bye shade as it is going to be hot picking squash today, like every day.

Cantaloupe about ready for harvest?

Pink and green tomatoes on their trellis. If could we only get the stink bugs to go away. Why don't the birds eat these guys? I guess they're not too tasty; thus their name!

Ground level view inside one of our trellised tomato rows. We use a walk-behind tiller to keep the weeds at bay.

Bed of spring onions about ready for harvest. I can attest that these are so tasty on a baked potato. Cheese burgers too!

Fifth graders making Salads at School

2010-06-10T13:31:00.000-05:00

On the last day of school, I decided to help some of the fifth graders at Cryar Intermediate School in Conroe get some "hands-on" experience in making salads. The mixed greens and veggies were grown here at Wood Duck Farm. Shown above, two fantastic helpers show off their culinary efforts.

Serving salad to the class and their teacher, Ms. Gallagher.

Here I am slicing our homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers as students attentively watched on. A rising chef in this group?

Dude, I got the croutons! Guess who this is?

The end result! A tasty assortment of our fresh picked cucumbers, tomatoes, mixed greens combined with fruits, nuts and croutons. Hopefully these students found out that salads can also taste great and be a better alternative to fast food!

Late spring vegtable production

2010-05-26T14:54:00.006-05:00

Bulb Fennel growing. ready for next week?

Broccoli beginning to head out. Ready for cutting next week?

La Soda Potatoes growing

Pigs have the right idea, taking a nap and avoiding the afternoon heat!

Cucumber plants still young in this field

Weaving tomato plants

More weaving

Cantaloupe next to the tomatoes

Spring onions not ready yet

Tilling beds for salad production

Dumping compost onto a trailer to be spread onto one of our fields

2010-03-21T14:27:00.018-05:00

Dang it's windy today. Afraid that our "coup with a hoop" was going to become airborne, I decided to lower the front-in loader to act as anchor. Hopefully this will work until the winds subside later tonight. The broilers are ready for some sunny warm days as well.

Dual purpose greens? These guys were pretty pleased to find yellowing baby carrots, kale, arugula and microgreens being their dinner. After getting a belly full, they decided that they made a pretty soft bed as well. Aah! one of them was already settling in for an afternoon nap.

Picking up roots. We've already burned one pile about this big. We disk and pick up roots... we disk and pick up roots. I think we are finally finished to the point where we can hopefully begin planting this fresh ground.

Between the deer and the wet winter it has been a tough year for our strawberries. We've secured an electric fence that will hopefully deter the deer a little better. With the recent warm days, we're beginning to see a few blooms as well.

These tomato plants, about a month old from seeding, are ready to go in the ground. Waiting on "mother nature."

Hopefully they'll be producing some "riipe mayters" by mid to late May.

2010-03-12T04:11:00.007-06:00

Another sign of spring? Love is in the air! Not sure if you can make it out, but this photo left is a pair of "woodies" that I took from my window earlier this week. No my lens was not dirty, it was a foggy morning. With mating season forthcoming, the aggressive drake appears to be "flirting," whereas the hen is playing "hard to get" as she is paddling fast enough to make a wake. Sooo do ya' think the turtles are going ".....get a room dude!"

Coup with a Hoop? aka a "chicken tractor" Well last night the chicks spent their first night outside. I got up and checked on them around 2:30 am and they seemed to be okay as they were all huddled together. No critters as of now. We strung a double strand of electric fence wire around the lower 10" of the coup to persuade our neighboring coyotes and raccoons that other fare may be easier prey. The logic with this contraption is to be able to pull the coup, along with the chicks, to fresh ground/pasture after a few days.

This broilers are three weeks old now. They are usually ready for "you know what" at about six-seven weeks. Hopefully they'll weigh out around 5-6 lbs. These are Cornish Rock crosses, known for fast growth. They seemed real happy to get our of their brooder and into fresh air and scratch around in the soil. Our next batch of chicks, due on March 24th, will be Red broilers.

2010-03-05T04:06:00.016-06:00

Bird houses? Well kinda'. Our friend Chris, a biologist with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept., stopped by the farm and gave us a few Wood Duck Boxes. We'll place them on poles in various spots within our seven acres of wetlands. While we have a pretty good duck population already, we're looking forward to this experience as well. Maybe we'll get a "Kodak Moment" or two. Every spring, beginning in about May, we get three or four "broods" (baby duckings in groups of 5-12) swimming about the ponds. So cool to see them develop over the course of the summer. And no we don't hunt them.

Lots going on here at the farm over the past few weeks. Here we are spreading our second broadcasting of dolomitic limestone. This application of lime raises our native acidic soil pH to a more neutral reading, ideally near the 6.5 level. A neutral pH allows better nutrient uptake by the plants.

Cutting salad greens with scissors. These guys are surely thinking when are we going to get a machine that does this?

Aah! Baby tomato plants are so happy to be basking in the afternoon sun. This variety is known as "Early Girl", a vine growing (indeterminate) type. Hopefully these will be fruit bearing by mid May, weather permitting.

Speaking of loving the sun! These little piggies are enjoying their version of "spring break." Plenty of relaxation in the sunshine with lots of food! Sorry guys, your pen is an alcohol free zone.

In our last post, we showed you the Baby Rock Cornish chicks that we acquired. Now about two weeks old, they have about doubled in size, i.e. my son holding a chick. Hopefully this weekend they'll be introduced to their new home, a "movable chicken coup" aka a "chicken tractor." The theory is the chicks can range feed, spreading their "personal fertilizer" along the way. After a few days in the same spot, the coup will be dragged a few feet forward, providing a cleaner living environment and helping our soil along the way. FYI these are broilers, so we cannot get too attached as they'll be ready in about five more weeks.

Back in December we decided to clear another acre or so on a nice sandy knoll located in front of our farm house. The cut trees go to the mill to make newspaper, so the next time you're reading a paper ....? In any event, we'll hopefully be able to get some of this ground planted this spring. The trees in the background are adjacent to one of our ponds. Perhaps a great place for a picnic?

Recent Farm Pics

2010-02-17T17:49:00.000-06:00

Photo of a nice bed of arugula beside some mizuna mustard.

Another stage of baby greens growing in one of our hoop houses. Gosh it has been a long wet cold winter.

Photo of our guys picking green beans back before the first frost in December 2009. The yellowing was from too much rain.

One of the recent additions to the farm for 2010 are baby pigs. This girl has found out how to get the water going! We are short one pig from what we believe was a coyote attack. Now their living area is protected with electric fencing.

Oh yes and we had a new arrival this a.m. of 60 baby chicks. These are Rock Cornish Crosses; known for efficient growing. These chicks should average about 6 pounds in seven weeks.

More of the same. Hopefully in about two weeks these chicks will be moved outside where we can rotate their living areas so that their "poop" will help build our soils. The real challenge will be protecting them from predators such as raccoons, owls and hawks.

And now the infamous "Big Bird" standing in one of our lettuce houses. Big feet make a big mess in the soft composted beds. Fortunately he didn't eat the lettuce, just curious.

Another pic of Big Bird.

Okay this completes my first farm update on Van's Journal.

2010-02-03T09:29:00.000-06:00

Taken November 2009. Here's Van checking out the greenbeans growing in the greenhouse.

2010-01-21T10:41:00.001-06:00

Full share contents for the week of Dec. 21st, 2010:

sweet potatoes
grapefruit
micro radish/blend
micro arugula
2 bags baby leaf salad mix
2 heads cauliflower
1 head broccoli