Thanksgiving is over, Black Friday is in the books, and the Christmas shopping season is underway. Need help coming up with gift ideas for those farmers on your list? Hobby Farms is here to help! To get your started, we’ve picked out five tool- and machinery-themed gift ideas that are perfect for farmers.
Pole Saw with Pruner
A pole saw allows you to cut high tree branches without a ladder or aerial work platform, which dramatically simplifies the process of removing dead and/or troublesome branches. You can opt for a pole-mounted chainsaw, but manual saws also work well. I have a telescoping model with a built in pruner operated by pulling a string, and I’m delighted with its performance.
Any farmer who likes to keep their trees looking neat and tidy will love to have a pole saw in their toolshed.
Portable Power Station
Does the farmer in your life need a quiet, easy-to-use, off-the-grid source of electricity for remote farming projects? Then they need a portable power station.
This is basically a high-capacity battery (rechargeable via electrical outlet, solar panel or car charger, for example) that can output power through a variety of common connectors: household plugs, USB, etc.
When I need to cut lumber far from a regular electricity source, I use a small and lightweight portable power station to recharge batteries for a circular saw. I have multiple batteries, so I can switch one out and keep cutting while the other recharges. It works great, and that’s just one example of how a portable power station can be used.
Three-Way Hitch Adapter
One of the handiest pieces of equipment I’ve used this year is a three-way hitch adapter installed at the hitch point on the back of my garden tractor. The adapter allows me to install a hitch ball for towing large trailers while still keeping open a hole for the clevis pin of clevis fasteners used by smaller trailers and yard carts.
For good measure, there are two other openings on the hitch adapter that are designed for attaching chains and tow ropes. Before acquiring this three-way hitch adapter, I was frequently removing and reinstalling a hitch ball depending on the type of trailer I needed to tow. Now I can conveniently tow either one with the same hitch.
Simple Soil Tester
While in-depth soil tests are best left to experts at laboratories, the basic qualities of a planting location can be easily gauged by any farmer with a simple soil tester.
I have a four-way handheld tester that operates by inserting the end into the ground and pressing a button to measure the light level, soil moisture, soil temperature and soil pH level. It helped me a lot when searching for the right location to plant blueberries (which require acidic soil), so a simple soil tester is a good place to start when analyzing potential planting locations.
A Subscription to Hobby Farms Magazine
We’ve saved the best for last when it comes to gift ideas for farmers. For inspiration, innovative ideas, equipment reviews, tips and tricks, farming news, instructional projects and much more, a subscription to Hobby Farms magazine brings recurring joy to mailboxes all year long.
Muscovy ducks are known for their appetite for insects, including flies. By allowing Muscovy ducks to roam free-range in areas where flies are present, they can consume large quantities of flies, larvae and other insects. This reduces the population of these pests on the farm.
Besides being a nuisance, flies and other insect pests can be a serious problem on a farm. It’s estimated that stable flies alone cost the livestock industry $2.2 billion per year. That isn’t counting houseflies, face flies and horn flies, which all spread diseases and reduce feed efficiency and milk production. Methods of control include predator wasps, insecticides and mechanical control, all of which can be expensive and not always effective.
On the contrary, keeping Muscovy ducks is a simple, cheap and natural solution that could work for small- and large-scale farms.
Researchers in Canada have tested Muscovy ducks as an alternative way of pest control in swine and dairy facilities. In field trials, Muscovy ducks were effective in controlling more than 90 percent of the adult and larvae fly population in closed calf and sow pens. The ducks didn’t require any supplemental feed and had access to flies, water and spilled (wasted) feed. At the conclusion of the studies, the ducks were easily sold for twice the original cost of the ducklings.
In addition to the studies, there is also plenty of anecdotal evidence of people using Muscovy ducks on their farms. The ducks follow the livestock around and even snatch pests off their hides while the livestock are resting. Muscovies are also said to control mosquitoes, fleas, ticks and other insect pests as well.
Linas T/Adobe Stock
Beyond Bugs
Many people keep these ducks for other reasons as well. Muscovy ducks have a tame and gentle disposition. When they get familiar with you, they’ll follow you and even waggle their tails like dogs when they are happy to see someone. This makes them popular as pets. They also have good-tasting meat, which some say resembles lean pork, and are good producers of eggs.
Moreover, for lovers of quiet, these ducks don’t quack.
The Muscovy duck breed is native to Mexico as well as South and Central America. It seems to have no connection to Moscow (once called Moscovia or even Muscovy), and why it bears its name is a secret unknown.
It’s a large duck, with males weighing up to 15 pounds and females half the size. Muscovies aren’t derived from the wild mallard stock such as other ducks and are as much related to the goose as to the duck. They come in many colors, the most popular being white and black. Probably the most distinguished feature of the Muscovy duck breed is its mask and red caruncles on the face. These are bigger and more prominent on the males. They are also good fliers and have strong sharp claws, which they use to roost in trees.
Raising Recommendations
Raising Muscovies is easy, with minimal costs. Muscovy ducks are a healthy and robust breed, though they can be susceptible to cold. Therefore, it’s best to start with ducklings in spring or summer. Provide them with a nonmedicated chick or duckling starter along with eggs, greens, boiled peas and grit.
You’ll also need to provide them with some niacin supplements. Boiled peas are a good source of niacin, as well as brewer’s yeast. After they are 2 weeks of age, phase out the baby feed and switch to a grower/starter feed containing about 15 percent protein or start mixing in 20 percent rolled oats to lower the overall protein level.
Muscovy ducks are even less water repellent than other breeds, so it’s very important to keep all water pans very shallow to avoid drowning. Even mother-raised ducklings should be best kept from swimming until they are at least 2 weeks of age.
After they are 2 to 4 weeks old, Muscovy ducklings can be let out to forage on insects and grass supplemented by unmedicated layer feed. However, don’t to let them swim until they are fully feathered on the belly.
Although Muscovy ducks aren’t as messy as other ducks, they still need water. They should be able to dunk their heads to lubricate their membranes and require water while eating to soften their food.
A kiddie pool will work well. A pond is ideal. In winter, a warm bucket of water is greatly appreciated.
Despite being a half-wild breed (they have even become a pest in some parts of Texas and Florida), Muscovy ducks will need shelter at night to protect them from cold and predators. Any secure, well-ventilated and draft-free enclosure is suitable. Adding a deep layer of litter will help keep them warm, and providing roosting places will be greatly appreciated.
Barbara C/Adobe Stock
Eggs & Meat
Muscovy ducks typically start laying eggs after about six months. As seasonal layers, they take a break during winter and resume laying in February. Unlike other breeds, they don’t lay eggs continuously.
After laying 15 to 20 eggs, the Muscovy duck will become broody and take a break, even if you remove the eggs. They lay about 60 to 120 eggs per year, which doesn’t make them the best breed for egg laying. Nevertheless, their eggs are large, nutritious, tasty, and a great byproduct of efficient fly control for the homestead.
Muscovy ducks are excellent mothers and will raise ducklings by themselves. They have a longer incubation period of 33 to 35 days and diligently sit on the eggs all the time, occasionally taking breaks to come out and eat. They can even be used to hatch eggs of other poultry and waterfowl. Muscovies can raise two to three sets of ducklings a year, making them a great duck breed for self-sufficient meat production.
Muscovy ducks have dark red and very lean meat that is highly prized for its taste, similar to lean ham or veal. They reach butchering size in three to four months and are a popular heritage meat duck breed.
Muscovy ducks are a great addition to any homestead. So, if flies are a nuisance on your farm, consider adding some of these wonderful ducks as a low-cost fly trap that also provides perfect egg laying and meat production.
At a Glance
Muscovies love foraging on pasture, where they convert slugs, snails, mosquitoes, weeds, tender grass, berries and other edibles into tasty, lean meat and eggs. Muscovy females only lay around 50 to 100 eggs a year, but they make devoted broody birds that will gladly set their own eggs, as well as those belonging to other waterfowl, and vigorously defend their young from perceived enemies. These birds can make friendly, fascinating pets, too.
While all other farmyard ducks developed from the wild Mallard, the domestic Muscovy arose from a perching, hole-nesting tropical duck species, the wild Muscovy.
Domesticated by the indigenous peoples of South America, this large breed served as an efficient, pest-eating source of meat and fresh eggs for centuries, and still does today. Some sources speculate the breed’s Russian name came from a shipping company (called the Muscovite Company) that may have ferried these ducks from the New World to Britain during the 1500s.
Muscovies are monsters of the duck world, with drakes tipping the scales at around 15 pounds and females weighing about 8 pounds. Some unkind people call these ducks ugly. More enlightened Muscovy enthusiasts describe their appearance as unusual: vivid red skin adorned with fleshy “caruncles” surrounds the drake’s eyes and bill, while the female’s face has a less warty appearance.
Muscovies flaunt a number of different color varieties, including White, Chocolate, Blue and Black.
Thanks to their tropical roots, Muscovies tolerate hot weather well (always provide them with water), but they do need shelter during freezing weather. Unlike domestic ducks derived from Mallards, these quackless fowl utter quiet squeaks and hisses, making them a good breed choice if noise is a concern. Use caution when handling these hefty ducks: Muscovies possess powerful wings, clawed feet and strong, hooked bills, as well as the feisty disposition to wield them.
This article originally appeared in the Nov./Dec. 2023 issue of Chickens magazine.
Fall temperature and precipitation changes make it tricky to keep everything hydrated and not drowning. Summer’s stable heat and lack of precipitation remind gardeners to water daily. However, in the fall temperatures drop and rain increases—it makes it easy to lose track of your plants hydration levels, especially before your boxwood reaches a more drought-tolerant level (around 18 months old).
Very quickly drought stress can appear on your boxwood plants. Read on for symptoms and solutions for drought stress.
Freezes and frosts dry a plant out quickly and unexpectedly. They attack the plant’s root system, which can be unable to replenish itself through photosynthesis. Boxwoods planted in full sun and unprotected from winds will die quickly.
Drought stress first appears as orange or bronze foliage. In severe cases foliage will turn a dead, wheat color, which is the same for all evergreens.
Is It Fungal?
Looking at the plants, you may be concerned about a fungal disease, which can also turn foliage similar colors. You can certainly have samples sent to labs for proper diagnosis, but a few key indicators are:
The pattern of symptoms. If the discoloration is random, it tends toward fungus. If it is uniformly patterned all over the boxwood, drought stress is more likely.
Has the plant lost leaves? Loss offoliage is usually more fungal, while still-attached foliage is an indicator of drought stress. Any stress, however, can make the plant lose its leaves.
Browning pattern. If the leaves have brown in the center of the leaf or more evenly throughout, it is likely a drought issue. If there are spots over all the leaves, a number of fungi conditions could be present.
What to Do If You Suspect Drought Stress?
First, lighten the load. Any new offshoots will steal energy from the plant recovering, so prune and shape up the plant so it has less coverage to maintain. Anything that looks really dead needs to go.
Next, you want to fertilize. If it is Spring or Fall in your area, now is a good time to give the plant fertilizer. Make sure to pull back any mulch you have close to the area. Remember, boxwoods have wide, shallow root systems and can be damaged by over-fertilization. Apply fertilizer throughout the root zone, extending beyond the crown of the plant. Keep fertilizer from coming into direct contact with foliage, trunks, and roots.
Then you want to mulch. This will help retain waterings. Make sure there to put down about 2-3 inches of mulch.
Finally, test your soil. Boxwoods prefer a neutral soil pH (6.2-7.5) and require adequate drainage, with ample amounts of organic matter.
Boxwoods are hardy shrubs and can bounce back. Stay on top of nursing them back, and keep aneye out for any symptoms of fungal infections that may creep up while the plant is stressed.
This time of year, as the weather gets cold again, I start to organize my seed orders. Before the holiday season starts, it’s essential to put seed orders in before favorite varieties sell out. Fall also offers us, as home gardeners, a good opportunity to prioritize spending towards a regenerative activity—growing food next spring.
I like to cruise through the online seed catalogs at Johnny’s Selected Seeds, High Mowing, Fedco, Ferme Tourneseol and William Dam and other great sources in my region. (Hobby Farms also recommends Jung Seed and Territorial Seed Company.) I prioritize my time to explore both new varieties and old favorites.
I also do this with nursery catalogs for fruits, berries and nut trees for my food forest.
Approaching Seed Catalogs
First, I highlight all the crop sections of major interest so I can easily zone in on sections to which I will give more scrutiny. For instance, carrots have been an important market garden crop for me for years. Even though I no longer sell carrots commercially, they are an essential homestead crop because of their root cellaring value for my family.
Next, within the sections of crops, I will put a check next to all the favorite crops from year previous that I know I want to continue to grow.
I will also cross out those I am no longer interested in. Why would I drop a crop? Maybe a particular beet variety was more susceptible to boron deficiencies in the northeast and I am looking for something with improved quality in these conditions. Or perhaps I have changed my focus away from a colorful carrot that I love but know needs to be harvested early, and I understand my focus has shifted to sweet storage varieties.
Then I will scrutinize any varieties that are new in the catalog and review their growth requirements and overall crop characteristics. I am always wary of seed catalog claims, which should be read with a consideration for what you already know about a crop. Sometimes (for example) a claim of sweetness in an heirloom carrot means that, if harvested on time, it is sweeter than other heirloom-colored carrots.
Overall, it is important to pay attention to varieties that are long-time favorites, with a good track record. You should also try some new varieties in a limited capacity to see how they perform in your soil and for your needs.
Potentail Solutions
Also, I always pay particular attention to information in the seed catalogs about varieties that may lead to solving a particular problem I am facing. Is there a disease resistant variety or early maturing variety? Can I find a variety better for my soil type?
Over the years, I have stayed clear of long Imperator type carrots because they just grow too long for my clay soil I also like to focus on limited early maturity varieties. I want some fast-growing and tasty carrots, but mostly I need great storage carrots for my cellar—carrots that will store exceptionally well for months.
Then I pull the data from all the varieties I have selected to grow. I note:
Price per gram, ounce or seed count
Days to Maturity (DTM) of the variety
Any key attributes that are important to my crop plan
All this data goes into a spreadsheet that I keep for my crop plan. From there I can calculate how much seed I need based on the number of row feet I want to grow of a crop with certain planting density or seeding rate (seeds per row foot, like three seeds per 12 inches). This gives me a seed order with all my crops and seed packet sizes, and calculates and my total cost.
Now I can easily budget by removing seeds or adding, sometimes focusing on cost savings by eliminating multiple varieties of the same crop and increasing the packet size of one of these varieties (improving the cost per seed). Bulk seed orders always save money, so I may also ask friends, neighbors and colleagues if they’d like to order together.
As the seasons change and our gardens are now (mostly) asleep for the winter here in the north, we turn inside the home and tend to do a lot more cooking and projects we’ve put off during the growing season.
Once the temps drop, a switch flips inside me that gives me the desire to cook all things “cozy.” Root vegetables begin to make a frequent appearance on our dinner menus at this time as well. We enjoy roasting all types of root veggies, including radishes, turnips, beets, celeriac, rutabagas and sweet potatoes. Root veggies are also delicious mashed and eaten in place of traditional mashed potatoes.
Of all the root vegetables, my mom favors parsnips. I have to admit that they aren’t on the top of my list, but I do enjoy them. However, I do love parsnips fermented and eaten as a pickle. This is also the case with radishes. Root vegetables are actually very delicious fermented and do very well in keeping their texture and crunch through the process.
If you have some extra parsnips around from Thanksgiving, give this simple fermented parsnip pickles recipe a try.
Yield: 1 pint jar (2 cups)
Ingredients
Main
1/2 lb. parsnips, cut into 1/4 inch coins
1 garlic clove, smashed
Brine
2 tsp. coarse kosher salt dissolved in 1 cup of water
Instructions
Wash parsnips and trim off the ends. Cut into 1/4-inch coins. Do not peel, as the skin aids in fermentation due to bacteria that naturally occurs on the skin of the parsnip.
Fill a clean pint-sized canning jar with the parsnips and garlic. Pack the jar well without bruising or crushing the parsnips.
Once the jar is packed, pour in the brine until the beans are completely submerged and covered by at least 1/2 inch of brine. Be sure to leave 1 to 2 inches of headspace in the jar (space from the top of the beans to the rim of the jar). Leaving some space will help keep the ferment from bubbling over during fermentation.
If you have a small fermentation jar weight, add it to the jar to hold down the produce under the brine. Remove any small pieces of food that float up to the top of the brine, as anything above the brine will increase the risk of mold and ultimately the ferment spoiling.
Wipe off the rim of the jar with a clean dampened towel. Add the canning jar lid and tightly screw on the ring.
Fermentation
This is a five- to seven-day ferment. Ferment at room temperature, ideally between 60 and 75 degrees F, and keep out of direct sunlight.
Check on the ferment daily to make sure that the brine is covering all the produce. If any produce has floated above the brine level, use a clean utensil to push it back below the brine.
Burp the jar daily. Unscrew the lid briefly and tighten it back on to allow any built-up gas to release (and avoid possible jar breakage or the ferment from overflowing).
Taste test your parsnip pickles after five days to see if the they have fermented to your liking. They should be garlicky and tangy. If they still taste as they do in their raw form, allow them to ferment another day or two and taste again until they’ve reached your preferred flavor.
Fermentation does not stop once the ferment is transferred to the refrigerator, however it does slow the process way down. The taste and texture of your fermented parsnip pickles will continue to change, therefore this ferment is best enjoyed within 12 months.
Side Notes
If you do not have a glass jar weight, you can improvise by using an easily removable, small, food-grade glass dish that fits inside the jar. Or, if you have a smaller glass canning jar that can fit into the mouth of the jar you are fermenting with, you can use that to keep the produce pushed under the brine.
If you are unsure if your water is safe for fermentation, you can boil it and allow it to cool to room temperature before stirring in the salt to make your brine.You may substitute fine sea salt instead of coarse kosher salt if you prefer—the measurement will remain the same for this recipe.
It is completely normal for the brine to turn cloudy during fermentation. This is a sign that fermentation is progressing as it should.
This recipe has been adapted from Stephanie Thurow’s WECK Small-Batch Preserving with permission from Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
Fire makes a dandy servant and a wicked master. But fire in the home, farm or homestead will only become your master if someone in your household is careless. As my college suite mate told me: “Being careful means being full of care.” That one sentence changed my entire approach to life, for the better.
Hopefully, everyone in your family and on the farm holds a similar safety view. That mindset is one of the keys to fire safety. Fortunately, many sources for learning how to be safe, such as Red Cross, exist, so I’ll leave you to them. Let’s then focus on the fun parts of managing fire at home and on the farm.
Best Firewood
Once ignited, oak burns long and slow and puts out very little creosote. That’s what you want for wood heat in a fireplace or wood stove. Other trees comparable to oak include hickory, maple, beech and other hardwoods. But any tree that drops its leaves in winter—the functional definition of hardwoods—will burn well, if not as long, as oak.
In the backyard of my first home, I dropped all the bubblegum-pink crepe myrtles and all the young pecan trees for my woodstove and opened space for a bigger garden. I gained heat, sunlight and muscle all in the same project.
Evergreen trees such as pines and cedars—also called coniferous trees or softwoods—will burn but shouldn’t be used in a wood stove or fireplace. They’ll line your chimney with creosote that will eventually burn inside the upper part of your flue and could catch your house on fire. Evergreen logs and branches, however, can be used safely in a firepit.
Other sources of pine wood for firepits are wood scraps from construction sites—except for pressure-treated wood, which is full of chemicals that shouldn’t get in the air or water. Also, the many pallets that otherwise would be dumped at the landfill can be repurposed and used in firepits. Underground, they’ll slowly decompose and give off methane gas which is many times worse than carbon dioxide for causing climate disruption. It’s better for the environment if pine pallets that can’t be repurposed—for one of my Hentopia chicken coop designs, for example—should be burned for heat rather than dumped.
You may be able to get your hands on pallets made from heavy oak at stone yards. These pallets hold heavier loads of flagstone. The wood is already seasoned and free. If you can get a few of these pallets, stack them evenly, drop a chainsaw through them at a spot where you won’t hit any nails, and reduce them to chunks that will fit in your wood stove or fireplace.
Kinds of Kindling
To get your oak—or other hardwood—logs burning requires a good fistful or two of kindling. For kindling you’ll want to use softwoods—aka evergreens—such as pine. Softwoods have oils in them that burn hot and fast compared to hardwoods such as oak that burn long and slow. Fallen pine branches can be broken up or pine logs can be split into slender pieces roughly the size of a carpenter’s pencil or a big carrot.
Most scraps from construction sites are pine and can be easily split into sizes good for kindling. In other words, kindling is the intermediate step between fire starters and firewood.
Fire Starters
You could spend a bunch of money buying the chemical-loaded fire starters that are sold in catalogs. Or you could just divert items from your garbage, recycling containers or farm refuse piles for free fire starters.
Scraps of cardboard ignite easily and now that we buy so much online, I’m sure you have a stockpile handy. Pizza boxes also fit that bill, plus any fat drippings in there will provide an excellent accelerant.
If you’re not re-using paperboard egg cartons for your own farm eggs, they catch fire easily and get plenty hot enough to ignite kindling. Dryer lint has a place as a fire starter as well, especially if you only wear cotton clothes. If you run lots of polyester (basically plastic) clothes through your dryer, better to just trash your dryer lint as burning plastic just creates pollution.
Even stale tortilla chips have enough oil in them to ignite and inflame your kindling.
Newspaper is the classic home fire-starter. Local newspapers also play an important role in sustaining democracy and supporting small local businesses. So don’t forgo a subscription! And just think how satisfying it will be to burn up those editorials that you disagree with.
The great outdoors around the farm also supplies free fire starters. Pine needles contain flammable oils. Other dried-out evergreen fronds—even spent Christmas trees—easily ignite. Culinary herbs such as rosemary, lavender, oregano and others all benefit from a springtime pruning to maintain their figure. Their fragrances and flavors come from oils that will ignite readily.
Stash any of these outdoor clippings in a container that keeps them dry and safe from sparks. Use them indoors or out to get your kindling going.
Fire Remnants
Once the fire has burned down and cooled, your fireplace, wood stove or firepit will have valuable materials left over that can be repurposed to, in some cases, save money.
Any chunks of charcoal, I scoop up and toss in the compost bin. That’s what stone age people of South America did and today we call it biochar. The microscopic hollow spaces inside charcoal make great homes for beneficial microbes.
Toss them in the compost bin so that when the compost gets added to the garden the nutrients and microbes stored in the charcoal will benefit the garden. The charcoal also absorbs and holds water.
Any ash left over that has cooled can be set aside and used as a substitute for store-bought lime. I apply firewood ash every year to the vegetable garden and the herb garden to keep the pH high.
I burn pallets, so I use a magnet caddy to easily gather up the nails after the fire has cooled. That’s a carpenter’s tool for gathering fallen nails on a job site. It’s on wheels, has a long handle and a lever that disengages the magnet so you can drop all the picked-up nails into a bucket or nursery pot.
Once or twice a year I take all my metal scraps to a scrap yard to sell, then buy cool bits of metal for neat trellises and other projects and grab lunch at a nearby BBQ joint. It’s important to have fun little rituals like that as part of sustaining a happy homestead. And what better rituals are there than safely keeping the home fires burning?
Home Fire Safety
One day, I looked at our home fire extinguisher and wondered if buying the cheapest one had been a dumb idea. I found a local vendor and bought two much better extinguishers: one for the kitchen and one near the wood stove.
They weigh about 10 pounds each and cost about $70 apiece. I felt a lot better.
But I didn’t want the old cheap-as-heck extinguisher to go to waste. So when our teenage niece came to visit, I figured it was a good time for us all to practice putting out fires. We took the cheap, 2-pound extinguisher outside, learned how to pull the pin on it, aim at the bottom of the fire (or at the bottom of a tree in this practice session) and spray side-to-side for a few seconds each.
It was fun, exciting, educational and timely.
About a month after our niece had returned home, a knocked-over candle set her family’s tablecloth on fire. She was the only one with the presence of mind—and the experience—to use the extinguisher effectively and put out the fire.
If you’re doing something with fire outside, have a hose nearby with the spigot already turned on. Outdoor fires can also be put out with a blanket or with a shovel and a pile of dirt—anything that will deprive the fire of air. But indoors, you’ll want an ABC-type extinguisher that can handle every type of household fire.
And get something in the 8- to 10-pound range that will last long enough to put out common fires. Learn more about home fire safety the Red Cross site.
This article originally appeared in the Sept./Oct. 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.
When Rebekah Power’s sister-in-law asked her to take care of irrigation duties on her property while she was out of town, the task wound up igniting Power’s own decision to start a hobby farm.
“As we sat on her porch watching the water flow through the grass and the animals, we both knew we wanted our own piece of property,” recalls Power, who now runs Power Farms in Arizona alongside her husband. “That was the pivotal moment that spurred us into action to start looking at properties—which led us to where we are today, on 3.3 acres in Queen Creek.”
Taking a moment out from homesteading and hobby farming duties, we spoke to Power about the appeal of sunflowers and early hobby farming lessons. We also got into overwintered strawberries.
From the outset, Power recognized the importance of fencing when it comes to establishing and maintaining a hobby farm.
“One of my favorite memories from early on is when we’d load up the truck with snacks, water and the kids, and head out to work on projects in the back,” she recalls. “Since our main pasture didn’t have any fencing, we had to build it ourselves. Every Saturday we would head out and set posts until it was too hot or we were too tired.”
Eventually, week by week, Power and her family were able to complete the job.
“My oldest was a huge help running around to grab tools, and even the two younger kids could help here and there,” she explains. “But the most important thing to me was the fact that we were all out there together. I didn’t even care if my kids wandered off to play—just the fact that we were outside together working towards something for our property made it so meaningful for our family.”
Out of this experience, Power says she “learned to let go of the parental expectations and to treasure the hard work and time spent together.”
“Growing sunflowers was a new fun adventure,” says Power when asked about the prominence of golden-rayed flowers on her hobby farm. “I’ve always loved them: They are easy to grow in zone 9b, and my garden had plenty of space for them.”
Getting sunflower specific, Power says she started with Mammoth Sunflowers—”it’s so cool having them tower over our heads and droop down to drop seeds”—and that this year a friend gifted some Red Sun Sunflower seeds that resulted in “such beautiful colors.”
Looking back over this year’s bounty, Power says that strawberries emerged as the stand-out crop.
“I planted one or two plants late in the summer last year and they overwintered and spread all over the garden beds,” she says. “It was such a treat to go out in the mornings with the kids and pick all of the strawberries.”
Admitting that it was “honestly hard to abstain from eating them all,” Power adds that the family wound up slicing a bunch of strawberries to top strawberry shortcakes.
Naturally, Power has already reserved spots on her land in anticipation for next year’s strawberry fiesta.
“I have found it so rewarding to have a project go full cycle for our hobby farm,” says Power when reflecting on the nourishing nature of Power Farms.
“When I plant seeds in the garden, grow greens that I can feed to the animals and then process the animals into food for our family, it is such a gift. It feels like we’ve been able to embody a practice that has been somewhat forgotten. We aren’t perfect by any means—but we try to do what we can and it is really enjoyable.”
Welsh Harlequin ducks may be considered a relatively new breed, but they are gaining popularity across the United States and Great Britain. With their calm, sweet natures and high egg production, these ducks offer poultry enthusiasts so much bang for their buck.
History
The Welsh Harlequin breed originated in Wales in 1949 and was bred by Leslie Bonnet, a British Royal Air Officer. Mr. Bonnet developed the Welsh Harlequin when he hatched two mutual light-colored purebred Khaki Campbell ducklings. Mr. Bonnet used these two ducklings to breed what is now called the Gold variety of the Welsh Harlequin breed.
For the next 30 years, Mr. Bonnet distributed Welsh Harlequins worldwide, including selling some ducks to Eddie Grayson of Lancashire in 1963 and hatching eggs to John Fugate from Tennessee in 1968. These gentlemen would play a crucial part in the Welsh Harlequin breed’s existence and development in breeding today’s Welsh Harlequin.
In 1968, Leslie Bonnet lost his Welsh Harlequin flock to a fox attack. Mr. Bonnet contacted Eddie Grayson, who still had some of the original ducks that Leslie Bonnet had sold him in 1963. Mr. Grayson agreed to breed Bonnet’s original ducks, and the Welsh Harlequin was saved from extinction. Mr. Grayson later wrote a Standard for the breed.
The same year, John Fugate imported some hatching eggs from Leslie Bonnet to the U.S. By 1980, Fugate’s original imports were confined to two small flocks. Mr. Fugate imported eggs in 1982 to broaden the breeds’ gene pool and enlisted the help of Dave and Millie Holderead (Holderead’s Waterfowl Farm and author of Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks). Some of Mr. Fugate’s imported eggs hatched a new color, which Dave Holderead named Silver.
Silver was accepted into the American Poultry Standard of Perfection in 2001 and is the most popular color in the U.S.
Color Varieties
Gold is the breed’s original color and the only color recognized in Great Britain. Gold Welsh Harlequins have no black pigment and sport bronze wing speculums in their feathering. Drakes have a green and bronze head with a white ring at the base of their neck.
Breast and shoulders are covered in showy mahogany feathers laced in white with a creamy white underbody. Legs and feet are orange, and bills vary from yellow to olive green. Gold females are considered fawn color, with a mid-brown rump. Like the drakes, females also have orange legs and feet, as well as an orange bill with brown spots. The lacing pattern on the wings gives the drakes and hens a lovely tortoiseshell look.
The most popular color in the U.S., silver drakes look like their wild mallard cousins. These drakes are true beauties, with shimmering green heads, silver bodies and blue wing speculums. Silver females are creamy white with black markings on their backs. Females also sport blue-wing speculums. Unlike their gold cousins, silver females’ bills and feet are black and fade to dark olive green during the non-laying season.
Khaki is the least popular of the three color variations and occurs rarely when an individual duckling hatches with the Khaki gene. These ducks look like their closely related cousins, the Khaki Campbell. While Khaki Welsh Harlequins may not sport the dazzling feather patterns of the gold and silver varieties, these ducks are a beautiful brown and have a beauty all their own.
Temperament
A Welsh Harlequin’s temperament may be one of the leading causes for these ducks’ growing popularity. When handled daily as ducklings and throughout their adult years, Welsh Harlequins are calm, not easily frightened, and considered one of the calmest duck breeds.
Unlike other lightweight duck breeds, this breed is ideal for family pets and good with children. Both drakes and ducks (females) have happy-go-lucky personalities, are easily tamed, and are affectionate with their families. Welsh Harlequins are entertaining ducks who love being with their favorite human. While they don’t always like being picked up as adults, they love to follow you around the yard. They have a reserved and quiet nature around strangers.
If you’re raising ducks for family pets, choosing to raise Welsh Harlequin ducklings versus purchasing adult birds is advised.
Egg Production
Welsh Harlequin females were bred to be excellent layers, just like their Khaki Campbell cousins. But the egg production has declined over the years. Today, Welsh Harlequins lay an average of 100 to 200 eggs annually.
While most females lay pearly white eggs, a few occasionally lay eggs tinted in blue or green.
Interesting Facts
Welsh Harlequins are considered one of the most broody duck breeds recognized by the American Poultry Association (APA).
Ducklings can be sexed by the color of their bills when hatched with a 90 percent accuracy, with drakes sporting a dark bill and females a lighter color bill with a dark tip.
Drakes have a high libido, so avoid housing multiple drakes with the females.
There are many reasons for the Welsh Harlequins’ growing popularity, from excellent egg production to mothering skills. But their award-winning personalities might make them one of the most popular duck breeds today.
Taiwanese-American farmer Li Schmidt talks about growing Asian-heritage crops, growing crops for seeds, small-scale farming in Taiwan and preserving cultural foodways.
Hear about how Li started her Cultural Roots Nursery, in Northern California, in 2020, as a result of the pandemic rather than in spite of it. Most of Li’s customers are Asian American and have encouraged her to grow a broad range of plants from the diaspora community, leading to Li pursuing some creative seed sourcing in addition to looking to a handful of US-based seed companies. Learn how Li has figured out how to grow these mostly subtropical plants in the hot, dry climate of California’s Central Valley.
Check out a short list of Cultural Roots Nursery’s crops:
Bitter melon
Long beans
Taiwanese basil
Shiso
Bo Ju Hua chrysanthemum tea plant
Taro
Ginger
Goji berries
Tong Ho chrysanthemum greens
Li talks about traveling in Taiwan, visiting with farmers and chefs, and learning about the food system and farming there. Hear about the accessible small-scale crop processing and infrastructure there and how this interplays with the food culture there. Li gets into the importance of cultural foodways to her work and way of living.
Learn also about the California Farmer Justice Collaborative, which started out as a group formed to pass California’s Farmer Equity Act in 2017 and now focuses on farmer support and legislation. And Li tells us about the Cal Ag Roots storytelling project that she works on with the California Institute for Rural Studies, unearthing the historical roots of agriculture in California.
Listen to the end to hear Li’s favorite meal using the Asian-heritage foods that she grows.
Turkey tail mushrooms look like turkey tails! Thankfully their lookalikes are not harmful, though they don’t have the benefits that we’re looking for in Trametes versicolor. “Versicolor” means many colors, and these mushrooms do come in many colors, always looking like a turkey’s tail.
You’ll want to check out these handy step-by-step instructions for identifying turkey tails from other species that look like them. When they are fresh, their colors are so bright, especially the reds and blues.
They can often be found quite dry, though they can also appear dry when they are, in fact, fresh. You’ll find turkey tail mushrooms on many kinds of wood (including your firewood piles), and, in the forest, large flushes are common on fallen limbs laying along the ground. You can even find turkey tail mushrooms in suburban backyards! They seem to be everywhere in the U.S. that mushrooms can grow.
Storage—With or Without Beetles
Turkey tail mushrooms store well in paper sacks. If your finds are somewhat aged, there may be beetles living inside. These bugs will start breaking them the mushrooms and, with only a few small holes or places where they have been chewed, you may not notice as you harvest. If you do notice, try to leave those for the beetles and hunt for a fresher flush.
If beetles have secretly gotten to them, you’ll know it eventually. They’ll make more and more little tiny holes and chewed places around the edges, and even send little beetles crawling out of your storage sacks.
I simply freeze them in that event. This will stop the beetles from eating the harvest all by themselves. The I double my amounts for brews with that batch, since they’ve been partially harvested already.
Preparing Turkey Tail Mushrooms
Many different mushrooms are praised and prized for their special compounds. Turkey tail is a fine substitute for harder-to-find species such as reishi and chagga, and the species is much more accessible here in the scrubby overgrazed woods of my Kentucky home.
I make a winter tea from turkey tails, and the process for fresh or dried is the same—a low, low, low simmer over hours (or overnight). Some of these most desirable compounds need heat and time, coupled with solubility in water, to break down the cell walls that protect them from being digested in our bodies. As we gain access to these polysaccharides via a long hot water bath, our bodies also gain access to their effects.
A tea made from turkey tail mushrooms might taste yummy or bland, depending on the season, freshness of the mushroom being harvested, and time spent brewing it. The flavor is subtle enough to blend easily into soups and meld with other tea ingredients.
At the first sign of any winter wellness imbalances, we brew up turkey tail tea in our household for everyone. jim mcdonald speaks of the effects of long-brewed turkey tail (along with reishi and other mushrooms) with a beautiful analogy about our immune system.
Some elements of our immune systems come to alarm quickly and actively, causing multiple byproducts in our systems. The immune system stimulation gained from mushrooms is not that—this tea is not for emergencies but, rather, more like a training or an exercise. It will remind your immune system how to function by sending certain beneficial messages.
jim pointed me to this scientific article making a case for turkey tail as an immune toner.
I blend the dried mushrooms in a spice grinder and grind to a powder, then mix it with seaweeds and other dried mushrooms (such as reishi, chicken of the woods, chagga, shiitake or oyster ) for medicinal soup broths.
As I say, turkey tail plays well with others. Enjoy it on its own or with other ingredients. It’s an excellent first mushroom to look for, but (as always) be sure you have a knowledgeable forager who has found and identified them before.
I like to hunt for turkey tail mushrooms around the time that I see other people hunting for wild turkeys. This kind of turkey, however, is much easier to catch!
