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shane
shane
10 years ago

We make a breakfast very similar. This is what we put on ours:

sourdough bread buttered and pan toasted
fresh over easy egg
pepper jack cheese
chunky guac

chunky guac
2 avocado diced
tomato diced
sweet onion
cilantro
lime
jalapeno
garlic powder
cayenne
salt and pepper

Mix it all but dont mash it, keep it chunky.

RonBoots
RonBoots
10 years ago

Another great show Jack. Listening to your homestead plans always gets my mind going on new ideas for my place.

deb
deb
10 years ago

A fun post.couple questions:
I think you mentioned this but do you know what regulations are to sell processed meat from your birds?

What specific purpose do the geese fulfill on the farm?

Will we ever get to see your cider apple list?

Wish we were closer, I would sure take Upgrayed!

deb
deb
10 years ago

O! Never mind, I see the link in your show notes for the apples… thanks!

shane
shane
10 years ago

This is a poultry processor that we are planing to use in Campbell TX. They dont have processing on the website but spoke to them a few months ago about it.

http://windymeadowsfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/p/how-we-farm.html

Jerry Ward
Jerry Ward
10 years ago

A couple of questions from my point of view.

I would like to do a test run of 25 ducks. I am considering digging some ponds in my low ground as they should fill with ground water. How big would I need? Should I try one large one or two small ones? Also I’ve had a huge problem with aerial predators with my chickens, how would I protect ducks?

Second, I’m in S.E. MI and would also love to do a cider apple orchard. Is there anything on your list that indicate trees for the north? Are there some that are not on the list that would work in the north?

Brandon
10 years ago

Jack love the show long time listener love the forums. I am a fitness coach and yoga instructor after listening to your show on duck eggs I went and did some research and the health benefits of duck eggs over chicken eggs is great. Duck eggs have twice the nutritional value of a chicken egg and stay fresher longer due to their thicker shell. Duck Eggs have more Omega 3 fatty acids ..something you can actually see in the salted pickled eggs the Chinese love to eat. Omega 3 is thought to improve everything from Brain health to healthy skin. Duck Eggs are an Alkaline producing food, one of the few foods that leave your body more alkaline which is a great benefit to cancer patients as cancer cells do not thrive in an alkaline environment. Chicken eggs are an acid food leaving your body more acid. Great health benefits I am going to tell all my client to start eating duck eggs.

(The New) Mike Cornwell

Jack, I meant to tell you my recent experiences with Dwarf Mulberry. I planted 2 of these in this medicinal garden in the front of my house to be little nice looking bushes, hoping that MAYBE they would be waist high or so, and bushy. Well it didn’t take long for me to realize how vigorous these plants were so I knew I needed to move them.

Another one I left out, in the middle of summer in a pot with 2 inches of soil in it, never watered the tree, and it busted through the pot into the ground, growing to be 8 feet tall with at least a 2 inch in diameter trunk. (All on its little lonesome).

So I found a place for them to give them more room so I started digging these things up. Goodness gracious. The larger one that rooted through the pot had at least 5 taproots on them an inch and larger in diameter and 5+ feet long. The others were similar, one of which busted straight down through the ground that I had to cut. This is in very very heavy clay, and in a year that had extremely little water (never watered them).

Without a doubt they are the most robust and vigorous “dwarf” plants I’ve ever seen. I imagined how much biomass you could create planting these intensely and pollarding/coppicing them to animals.

(The New) Mike Cornwell

Its only been one year, and before I gave up on them being in the front garden areas I cut them back severely. I did however get to eat one! It was a mulberry. Which is extremely impressive that I got even a single fruit off of it in the first year.

Let’s see how they do this year…

I think the ones I had were roughly what you’ve described. They were probably not thicker than a pencil when I got them and they had barely any roots on them. Ison sold basically a pack of 5 of them for like 10 bucks or something. I want to see what a hedge row of this can do. It might even be something that I build some wind barriers out of.

I am curious how much they’re not crazy about your alkaline soil? The shallow depth I don’t think would bother them, they’d just reach out all over the place. But its obvious they have no problem with the most lifeless contractor red clay ever. (Front yard barely has any top soil, just the crap brought in)

norcal mike
norcal mike
10 years ago

Jack, I’d be interested to see a couple of your pekin eggs next to a couple chicken eggs in a frying pan once they’re laying. I boasted to my wife how much better and more orange the duck eggs would be, only to be proven wrong (mercilessly). In our experience the jumbo pekin eggs were better than store-bought chicken eggs, but nowhere near as orange as our chicken eggs. The quail eggs were the same, except they come with the added annoyance of being tiny. Maybe it’s the insect populations around here…

Richard Hauser
Richard Hauser
10 years ago

Alternate fencing idea: Couldn’t you just get a long masonry bit and a hammer drill, then drill a 9″ deep hole and drop a length of rebar in it?

My other thought was to Hilti regular posts in the ground.

We do similar things where I work and they can get a hole in concrete in a couple of seconds and that is way faster than I can dig a post hole.

(The New) Mike Cornwell
Reply to  Richard Hauser

Interesting. You’ll obviously dick up your bits in the dirt, but who cares right?

Richard Hauser
Richard Hauser
10 years ago

Masonry bits are designed to drill through concrete and rock, so any bit of dirt covering is like a wood bit going through drywall before hitting wood.

I was thinking to make this even look nice, you could cover the rebar with a length of PVC pipe and a cap. That would also make dealing with electro-net easier. It also will put a whole bunch of holes into your bedrock that water can pour into and freeze and then allow roots to follow to speed up rock breakup.

Richard Hauser
Richard Hauser
10 years ago
Reply to  Richard Hauser

You can always go with heavier rebar or even tubing depending on load for specific use case, but again just an idea. I was just thinking that you are probably going to be reusing specific areas for paddocks so a pre-drilled hole in each of the corners seems like an easy way to move fencing or at least throw the idea out in case there are a different circumstance than yours where this would work.

Les
Les
10 years ago

Tons of useful info in today’s show. The narrative about the way things organically evolve is a wealth of knowledge for people doing similar things at their own places. Those aha moments are just priceless and rarely come from a book. This will be the third year of our site as well and I can totally relate to what you mean when you are saying that “this is the year”. I’m saying it myself. I think a great topic to do a segment or show on would be to touch on the Sch. F a little bit. Is the farm a separate entity now or part of another corp?

Great show!

Brandon
10 years ago

Jack I understand your argument and it’s a valid argument. Just like I go to these gyms and they sell supplements that suppose help these guys get bigger and ripped I have never taken a supplement in my life and guys ask me all the time what I am taking. I think its same thing as pasteurized milk is it better or worse for you guess it depends on the person there body. I have been to many health conferences some people be leave like you some people be leave like me I agree without and hard evidence its hard to say. I am not mad I am an MSB member I always support show thanks for the reply.

Andy
Andy
10 years ago

Thank you Jack for the show and the list of cider apples. What was the apple nursery you mentioned? I couldn’t understand the first word of the name but the second was “creek” and you said they specialized in dessert apples. Thanks!

(The New) Mike Cornwell

I ordered 15 southern varieties from him for my house, and just put in another order I think for 13 more for a test orchard at a buddies to couple the 15 more varieties from Big Horse Creek (if I can get an email reply from them). That’ll put us at trying something like 40 varieties of apples here to see what works. As of right now we are going FULL-ON hard starting a “fruit-works” company to include heritage southern apple cider, wines from local fruits, etc.

Thanks for the link to northwest cider supply, I hadn’t been there yet.

(The New) Mike Cornwell

I hadn’t finished listening until just now where you get into the cider part. I can’t help but laugh how often we’re doing very similar things, even when I have no idea that you’re up to stuff.

If you’re interested in working together on some of this let me know. I’m literally in the process right now about choosing this 40 acre property to put up a cider orchard, enough to make a serious amount of cider.

(The New) Mike Cornwell

Of course when I say “a cider orchard” I’m not (at this moment) putting up a 40 acre cider orchard… but you get my point. Hah.

Hircus
10 years ago

If anyone is looking for cider apples and lives in the north, check out St. Lawrence Nurseries. They have over 200 types of apples, all grown in Zone 3 on the Canadian border. They have apples I’ve never seen anywhere else.

http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/

James Smith
James Smith
10 years ago

Hey Jack I think I heard you say $1,500-$1,600/month profit on 100 laying ducks? Is that right?

Andrew aka stash
Andrew aka stash
10 years ago

Jack, I thought you were an advocate of the chicken tractor, not the paddock shift system. It would be great if you could debate the topic with Paul Wheaton on one of these podcasts one of these days.

Andrew aka stash
Andrew aka stash
10 years ago

Cool. Point well taken.

Tyrtaeus
Tyrtaeus
10 years ago

Where is the niche for ducks? Inn other words, if we consider geese as a small cow (herbivore, lots of manure), are ducks fitting the chicken niche of field hygeine? Would you run leader follower after geese and hogs? Something like weeder / cleaner / rooter / cleaner?

Ann
Ann
10 years ago

More cider apples for your list:
Bittersharp: Frequin Rouge, Redfield, Geneva Crab
American unclassifieds: Granniwinkle (blended with Harrison), Newtown Pippin, Virginia Hewes Crab, Wickson Crab.

I have tasted excellent single varietal commercial cider from Redfield, Newtown, Hewes Crab and Wickson Crab (different producers). My best guess is that Hewes and Wickson would be excellent additions in Texas. Probably anything Foggy Ridge Cider in Virginia is growing is worth trying in your climate.

I would like to get some more German/Swiss/Austrian cider fruit here, as I think it might be better suited than the English fruit, but I’m having a hard time finding sources for scions and information.

PS Just met some great cider makers from Austin Eastciders at Cidercon. Don’t know if they are distributing to the Ft. Worth area yet. If not, road trip!

Ann
Ann
10 years ago
Reply to  Ann

It’s a great list. I have about 40 varieties, running out of room! Other folks to look at are Greenmantle Farms in California, who took over Albert Etter’s orchard. Not too thrilled with their propagation policies, and most of what they sell needs a longer season than I have, but the Etter legacy (Wickson Crab, Etter’s Gold, Pink Pearl) is still compelling enough that I pay attention. A reason why cider makers love the Wickson is the high sugar levels for fermentation, and I would guess some of the other Etter varieties have similar characteristics.

The Austin guys are an example of the national need for apples. There’s a huge pent-up demand for the right, local, fruit. It doesn’t make sense for me to ship them fruit or juice when I can sell it all here five times over. Or make my own.

Ann
Ann
10 years ago

They’ve trademarked the names, which I don’t care about, but then on the <a href="http://www.greenmantlenursery.com/fruit2008/sweetmeat-crab-hybrids2008.htm"Sweetmeat Crabs page, it says,

NO UNAUTHORIZED PROPAGATION OR SALE OF TREES.

NO SALE OF FRUIT WITHOUT LICENSE.

I say, WTH? I give them credit for caring for Etter’s orchard, but this is thinking small. They talk about how these would be great for cider, but who’s got time to deal with “authorizing” propagation and getting permission to sell fruit. I get cider trees propagated and grown out a year for not much more than what they want for a bench graft. They aren’t in the same game as I am. So I haven’t followed up. I will be interested to hear if you find out anything. I’d trial some here if they aren’t a PITA.

Carl
Carl
10 years ago
Reply to  Ann

Just tried some Austin Eastciders Texas Honey Cider. Pretty smooth! Reminded me a little of champagne.
Got some apple seeds on order. Should be interesting.

Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster
10 years ago

The solution to your fencing issues is something that is done across the west. Rock baskets as posts/structure support for your fence.

Chris
Chris
10 years ago

Jack, you mentioned that a chef is buying your duck eggs. I would like to do the same, but don’t you need some kind of license to sell food to restaurants? Or is that just a State of Florida thing? I know a local farm sells their eggs and whole chickens with a pet food license at the farmer’s market, but I’m guessing that wouldn’t fly in a restaurant 🙂 Is there a way around that?

gator bee gal
gator bee gal
10 years ago
Reply to  Chris

Makes sense. It sounds like Texas is a good state to do business in!