Happenings on the Ranch

1. The thermometer in the greenhouse reads “The devil called; he wants his furnace back.”
2. Just looking out the window at what needs to be harvested makes you sweat.
3. 15 minutes outside requires 25 minutes inside and 2 liters of water.
4. You hallucinate that each vegetable you pull off the plants is yelling, “Pick me! Pick me!”
5. The day’s weather page in the Old Farmer’s Almanac says, “Don’t even ask.”
6. Both you and your chickens are walking around with your wings up trying to stay cool.
7. When your spouse compliments you on your “healthy glow” they’re referring to your sunburn.
8. Instead of going out the open door, the dogs just stand with their legs crossed.
9. Your hay fork gets stuck in the bale because it melted.
10. The calendar says July.

Many of you who enjoy our eggs and stand in line to get them at our farmer’s market locations will be pleased to know our eggs are back!  We’ve taken care of the licensing issues and I now have a routine (somewhat) for grading and weighing the eggs.  The process is still a little bit slow right now so I’m not bringing as many eggs to market as I’d like.  But I have no doubt that as I get faster the process will also get faster.

However, the bad news is because the heat skyrocketed this week our hens’ egg production is down.  Anytime it gets over 85 degrees, the fewer eggs the hens tend to lay.  Unless you house them completely indoors all the fans in the world won’t make much of a difference.  Even though they have plenty of water and plenty of shade the heat and humidity just does a number on their systems.  We have a few more younger birds that are just beginning to lay so we hope that will make up a little bit of the difference, but our egg production will not be at peak levels again probably until the end of August.  Just a heads up!

In other news, I think our internet connection problems have FINALLY been completely resolved.  Apparantly a lighting strike during one of the storms hit the phone company’s switch and caused it to not only blow out service but to blow many of our modems, too.  They came out and replaced it but we continued to have sporadic problems until early this week.  The good news is we are now back to fully functional so, not only will I be able to post more often, I’ve now been able to get back to updating our weekly harvest page.  Now you’ll all be able to see what should be available for you at our market locations and on the farm.

Additionally, if you are a person who likes to preserve what’s in season and would like to find out about bulk pricing, please shoot me an email or leave a comment.  We generally offer tomatoes, beets, green beans and corn in large lots for canning and freezing.  There are minimum quantities but if you want to preserve a lot of the good stuff we’re getting in right now it will definitely save you money in the long run!

Until next time!  ~Karin

If you saw my post warning those of you that live within the city limits of Kansas City on the Missouri side that the city council was working to pass an ordinance regarding urban ag, here’s a follow up.

After an outpouring of emails and phone calls with folks unhappy about the proposed ordinance, the city council modified the code slightly to be a bit more accomodating while still trying to make the higher end neighborhood associations happy.  While the ordinance is not perfect it’s better, and the council is required to review the code again in 6 to 12 months.  Here’s what was changed in the new ordinance:

- Home gardeners can sell their excess produce from their home, no permits required.
- Community gardens can sell produce on-site.
- Market gardens (defined as Crop Agriculture) can have employees, but need a special use permit to sell on-site.
- “Row crops” are now allowed but no one that sells on-site can grow row crops in their front yard.  So, essentially, you can grow row crops in your front yard so long as you don’t sell it on-site, but you can take it off-site for sale.  If you want to sell on-site, you can’t grow row crops.  Make sense?
- Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) needs a Special Use Permit to operate in residential districts. If you get a special use permit, you can run your CSA, have on-site sales, and accept apprentices and interns. (Big step forward from the previous version of the ordinance).

Overall, the ordinance changes are much better but still strict enough to make the neighborhood associations happy.  I see it as a nice compromise.  Yay for urban agriculture!