Blueberries - NEW LOWER PRICE

Right now, there are so many berries coming on that our supplier is dropping the price.

If you want to bake, jam, or freeze, this is your week.

$5.75 per pint or 2 pint for $11

Certified organic, Wooster OH.

Blackberries

Our grower for these has a really unique setup. His berries are trellised on a wire like vines at a vineyard. In the spring when they are flowering, he can remove a pin and fold the bushes over to one side. This develops all the fruit on one side of the plant. He has his briar patch set up to optimize sun exposure for size and early maturing. These berries are large, plump, and sweet-tart. Not pucker type blackberries.

Sold by the pint basket. $5.75 per pint or 2 for $11

Peaches - Freestone Glen-Glo

This week, the first free-stone peaches have arrived! This means when ripe, they come off the pit easily.

This week's peach is larger than last week with a brighter colored flesh. Sold in 2# bags, $4.25

Transparent Apples - a great saucer

This is the first apple of the season. Don't get this apple confused with one you'd put in your lunchbox. The Transparent is an old-fashioned variety prized in the country for its low pH and ability to sauce easily. This makes it great for canning.

Use this apple to make home-made applesauce, to braise with a pork roast, or bake in a tarte or pie.

Sold by the half peck (about 5#) and peck (10# ish) bags.

A mixed berry pie bursting with the flavors of blackberry, blueberry, and black raspberry. Topped with a sweet crumb topping.

Made with our signature crust of local butter, pork lard, and whole wheat flour, and topped with a sweet crumb topping.

6 inch pies - $9.45

9 inch pies - $22.75 (about 3 times the filling as a 6 inch)

This isn't a great photo - just one I quickly snapped over the weekend to antagonize the staff that Thanksgiving is closer than we think.

Yesterday, the final group of heritage turkeys left the "brooder" and advanced to the turkey barn. I even hauled in 29 mature toms and hens for harvest as each year we replace part of the breeder flock with younger, more productive hens and toms.

This was one of the first hatches

Back in March and April, a majority of these heritage birds hatched. Every 14 days from the beginning of March to the beginning of May we "set eggs." This means we collect eggs and check them for fertility. This is called "candling." A clear line is shown when the egg is fertile.

Eggs are then put in an incubator where they are kept hot (99 degrees) and humid (90%) for 28 days. The incubator slowly rocks the eggs back and forth.

The chicks then must fight their way out of the egg. From there, they go to the "brooder," a setup where heat lamps keep them 99.5 degrees for the first week, then the temperature is gradually decreases.

The logistics of multiple hatches is a challenge

We can't keep enough hens to hatch all the eggs at once. That means feeding a large group of hens for a full year to get eggs for 2 weeks that would be usable. There is no way to make the math work.

We set the eggs every two weeks and then have to carefully "group up" batches of turkeys. This can be challenging due to the nature of livestock to fend for themselves first. If we put a young group with an older group, the older group would protect the feed and water, starving out the younger, smaller group. How do I know? Don't ask.

So, the two groups are brooded separately under heat lamps. They are then moved to a new, foreign home. Neutral territory one might say. It's in another building.

Next, two groups are in the same brooder, separated by a wire mesh wall. From there, those two groups are moved together to another new home in a bigger barn. We keep grouping them up carefully until about now. The next two weeks they will spend time co-mingling in a 5,000 sq ft barn until the smallest birds are large enough to survive outside.

The last move is outside to pasture to finish

We just finished preparing the heritage turkey barn. This includes new bedding, hanging a water bell, and installing their perches.

The perches are very important. The heritage turkey wants to perch up high off the ground at night. We built this out of wood and fence pipe. It's about 10 ft tall with wire netting underneath it. This allows the manure to fall thru but keeps the birds from getting under the perch into the unsanitary conditions.

The turkeys will then be out on pasture until the Friday before Thanksgiving!

This year's hatches have been very good, and we should (hopefully) have nearly double the number of heritage turkeys as last year.

A repeat from last week, for those who missed it.

Eggs are one of our best-selling items, and we need to have them every week of the year.

The hens don't always work that way though. A hen's egg production is dependent on everything from age and nutrition to hours of daylight.

So, to stabilize the supply, we have multiple neighbors keeping small flocks of hens. The goal is to have hens of different ages so that when one flock is low in production, the others can fill in.

Right now, Jay (one of our bigger growers) is between flocks of hens. By that, I mean his old hens aren't laying and his new hens are just beginning. This is when you get Pullet Eggs. 

The Pullet is a Young Hen

On a farm, the term chicken usually refers to the laying hen. The term broiler refers to a meat chicken.

The genetics are different. Broilers grow fast and put on a bunch of meat quickly. They are harvested before they reach egg laying age.

A hen is generally a smaller framed chicken that has been selected for its ability to lay eggs consistently and efficiently.

It takes almost 20 weeks until the first eggs are collected. Because of this, it is difficult to keep a new flock and your existing flock on the same farm. Generally, young hens (called pullets) are bought from specialized operations where the farmer specializes in starting a hen.

He then ships them to their new home at about 15 to 16 weeks of age.

The Hen starts laying slowly and small eggs

At first, a hen will start to lay a few eggs per week. They are small at first. These first eggs are called pullet eggs and usually not marketed.

There is nothing wrong with them, they are just small.

For about a month, the hen lays small eggs, and they gradually size up to about 2 oz (large egg). At week 22 or so, the eggs are usually large enough and marketable.

Egg production is determined by many factors

In addition to age of the hen, the egg production is determined by the amount of energy and protein in the diet, the number of hours of daylight, and even temperature.

When it's too hot, they won't eat as much. When they don't eat as much, they don't lay as many eggs.

Further, their hormones are stimulated by hours of daylight. Less than 14 hours and production dips.

Oh, and lastly, hide and go seek. That's the game a pasture based farmer plays when he has to find eggs the hens hid on pasture. Not all eggs make it back to the nesting boxes for easy collection.

Celebrate the Pullet Egg for just $1.85

Usually, we try to utilize all the pullet eggs in the kitchen for everything from cookies to eggnog.

But right now, Jay is getting a lot, and we need help moving them quickly.

Pullet Eggs - small eggs - are on sale for just $1.85 per dozen.

Like the weather, subject to change.