Twin Oaks Farm - Dec 20, 2009

Monday Dec. 14, 2009 - Today was warmer but still cool, overcast and gray all day. The big activity for today is to move the square where the chicken and duck coups are located. That means we have to leave the birds in their coups while we take down the portable electric fence, set up the fence posts in the new locations then disconnect all the automatic watering devices to all the coups and move the coups and all the watering hoses. Then we reconnect everything and run the wire around the new fence and then let the birds out. Like a lot of things on the farm it's a simple enough task but it takes the two of us about two hours to complete. I should take some pictures of the old squares so you can see how the chicken fertilizer helps the pasture. There are 8' x 12' rectangles of green, green grass in the pasture of brown winter grass, and in the summer when the grass is growing so much faster it will be about a foot tall, so it's definitely worth it. The next task for the day is to pick mandarin. There is some kind of wild critter visiting the mandarin trees, probably at night and eating too much of the fruit, so Renee has decided to pick the crop clean. Today we will pick two of the four trees complete of their fruit for preserves, the other two trees will wait until later in the week and that fruit will be sold at the market. After picking the two trees clean we spend the rest of the day in the commercial kitchen peeling and cooking the fruit, this is the priority for the day and so today's eggs and those from the weekend have to wait. In the late morning we notice the walk-in fridge is acting up again and make the call to the AC repairman. Renee tells them she wants to process chicken this Thursday and she really needs the thing to be reliable. This time it's a different technician, the company is actually two brothers that took over from the father and this one is the namesake of the company. He dives into it and takes the freezer door off the hinge so he can get in and out easily while he is isolating the refrigerant leak. It takes him a couple of hours and he even takes the time to clean the door hinge so it works better, noticing also that the nylon bushing in the bottom hinge is mushroomed and probably needs to be replaced to get the door to close with less effort. Hopefully this is the permanent fix for the thing.

Tuesday Dec. 15, 2009 - This morning is warmer and it's raining. All day long we get a on and off drizzling, just enough to keep things wet and slippery. During the morning feeding we move all the coups forward by one length to new grass, the coups will remain there for a day or two and then we'll move them again. For the rest of the day Renee has to go to Panama City to get canning and labeling supplies and a new propane bottle from Home Depot. There's a boat load of eggs in the walk-in fridge so the mp3 player is a must. Before starting I get it all loaded up with the usual news and interviews to get me through the day. From around 10:00 to 5:00 I'm in the kitchen looking out the window at the chickens, an incredible seven hours at the sink in the commercial kitchen cleaning three buckets of duck and four buckets of chicken eggs, taking a break every two hours or so for lunch or a cup of tea. I can feel it in my back but the aches are getting smaller and you'll be happy to know that the pounds are dropping off. Two weeks ago I went to the storage unit and dug out some old pants that were down a size and now they're already starting to feel loose. That's the real good news.

Wednesday Dec. 16, - 2009 In the morning the weather is slightly overcast and cold, but the sun comes out mid morning and it turns into a really nice day. Today we have to get ready for processing 61 broiler hens tomorrow. Step one is to move the broilers from the pasture up to the side yard next to the commercial kitchen. In preparation I clean the tarp we use beneath the coup and Renee uses the riding lawnmower to move a small coup into position. Then she spreads the tarp out inside the coup and I pick up the corners so she can get it into final position. This is one of the really small coups, no laying house or stooping rail, it's really light weight, in fact in a high wind it could be a kite. The chickens aren't fed after 6:00 pm the night before and the tarp is to prevent them from scratching the grass and feeding on insects, this insures an empty gizzard. With the coup ready the task now is to move the hens around ten at a time using the modified plastic storage container. It's just a plastic box with a snap on lid, but the lid has two large square holes cut out of it. We place the hens into the box and then put a perforated cloth over the top so they can't see out and get all worked into a panic, then put the lid on top and snap it into place. Place the box in the trailer behind the riding lawnmower and transport the hens from the pasture to the side yard and make sure they have adequate water for the next 24 hours. Next is to get out all the processing equipment from the barn and set it up on the sidewalk next to the commercial kitchen. If you want more details about this you can read a older post from day 5 describing the various workstations for this process. All the equipment is out from the barn and set up, we have a partial bottle of propane and the new full one, the only thing left is to move the stainless steel tables from the kitchen to the sidewalk and then setup the 10' x 10' tent over them. We use two tables this time because we will have a total of five people working which is one more than the first time. Next is to clean some organic lemons and oranges that Renee bought by the pound for her preserves but is going to sell at a markup. Each piece of fruit has to be cleaned with a small plastic brush the size of a large toothbrush, like the size for a cow or horse. The bristles of the brush get into the pores of the fruit and clean out all the dust and dirt which makes for a very cosmetically appealing piece of fruit, then they are hand dried and placed in plastic containers for display. Item last for the day is the evening feeding and then clean the chicken eggs to keep ahead of things.

Thursday Dec. 17, 2009 - Cold morning and gray all day with the threat of rain but no rain. Today will be a record setting day, we will process 61 chickens with the help of five people. Paula and Renee will take the hens from the coup and slay them in the cones, then dip them in the hot water pot one at a time until four of them are ready to be placed in the de-feathering machine. Then Paula will cut off the heads and feet and place them under running water in the outdoor sink on the deck near the kitchen. The three eviscerators, Tony, Mary and Ann will then take the birds one at a time and remove the hearts, livers and gizzards and then put the remaining guts in a single bucket so they can be spread over the compost pile later. The third person doing eviscerating makes a big difference, it really speeds things along and we finish up the last bird around 1:30, then break for lunch. It's only appropriate that we should have chicken for lunch today, with black beans over white rice and more boiled vegetables. Before lunch Mary tells us she is getting the last of her processing equipment from the shipper this week and will be ready to process her first group of birds on Sunday and asks if we can help her out. Both Renee and I agree to meet her at her farm in Tallahassee on Sunday morning at 9:00. After lunch the cleanup effort starts, everything has to be cleaned with warm soapy water and then sanitized with chlorine solution, then put away in the garage or barn. This takes the rest of the day and I'm happy to say that it's easy to put away the processing equipment in the new streamlined barn, CONTROL is slowly overtaking KAOS. After the evening feeding I clean the days chicken eggs because tomorrow will be spent getting ready for the farmers market on Saturday and we need to stay ahead of the game as much as we can. Dinner is leftovers from lunch.

Friday Dec. 18, 2009 - Today the weather is still cold but with a drizzling rain added just to make things exciting in a boring kind of way. I take care of the morning feeding while Renee gets more preserves ready. The next task for me is to pick about half the remaining mandarin crop and clean them for the market. Now we have to start getting the van ready but there are two garbage cans of compost from the Hilton. Renee picked these up on Tuesday when she was in Panama City to get supplies and they have been in the van since then, getting very ripe if you know what I mean. So I get the riding lawnmower w/ trailer, a pitchfork and a shovel, then load the compost into the trailer and head out to the compost pile in a light drizzling rain. Yuck, this weather is terrible, I mean it really sucks and it's cold to boot! Spreading the compost doesn't take hardly any time at all but then cleaning the garbage cans thoroughly well in the rain is a really choice activity but it has to be done because the restaurant wants their cans back and we want more composting material ... oh how the world turns. I feel like the postman, delivery come rain or shine but in my case it's "must be cleaned". The clean cans are loaded into the van first, up near the front behind the drivers seat so the tent/awning can go in next and then two portable tables behind the passenger seat towards the rear. Directly behind the passenger seat, through the side doors will be all the preserves and fresh fruit. From the rear doors all the igloo coolers go in one at a time on top of the two tables. When it's finished the van is just about filled to capacity and it's packed nice and tight so nothing really moves around in transit. With that done I'm just about ready to leave for Tallahassee and then I remember I have to pack my things since I'm going to be off for Christmas for the next two weeks. Back in my room I start to look around at all the stuff I have brought out to the farm, two bags of clothes, a full book bag that I haven't had time to even think about and my laptop with all it's accessories. Ok I think, about a half hour to pack and then I remember Renee asked me to clean my bathroom because she will have company over the holiday. So there's another 45 minutes. Finally around 7:00 I'm on the road.

Sunday Dec. 20, 2009 - This morning is very cold, when I get to my truck the dew from last night has frozen on the windshield ... burrr ... this brings back memories of cold Indiana winters when I was in high school. But those memories include snow on the ground and I'm glad I don't have to deal with any of that! Mary of OrchardPond Organics (here's the link http://www.orchardpondorganics.com )is processing her first batch of chickens and I agreed to come out at 9:00 to help out. Her farm is on the outskirts of Tallahassee and it takes about fifteen minutes to get there. On arrival I see that Renee is already there, her and Mary are setting up a large hot water heating tub to dunk the chickens prior to being de-feathered. This tub is about 30 inches square and about 24 inches tall which is a lot larger than the 5 gallon pot we used at Renee's, plus it has a monitoring system built in to keep the water temperature at 150 degrees and it comes with an accessory that allows us to dunk four hens at a time which just happens to be the number the de-feathering machine will hold, and guess what, they are made by the same company. Hmmm, note to self, this looks like a good combination. Other than that one piece of equipment the setup is the same. Also, Mary has a large three compartment sink in the middle of the yard that she uses to clean veggies and there are two stainless steel tables set up, one off of each side, for the evicserating and then behind the sink are five pails with ice water and a table for labeling the birds once they have been bagged and weighed. A nice orderly setup, things should go pretty smooth. After another half hour the water temperature is ready and more volunteers have shown up to help. There's Mary and Renee, myself, Mina and Lydia who work for Mary, Jenny, an intern from Minnesota and Dick who is a friend. This is quite a work force except for one thing, no one else except Mary, Renee and myself have any experience, so first there has to be some quick training. The first batch of four birds come out of the defeathering drum and Renee does a demo on each of them. She explains what she is going to do and then starts the process and before finishing hands the bird off to one of the volunteers who then ask questions while they finish it up. After the second batch of four the wheels are rolling. In a few short hours we are finished with all the birds. After a short break for coffee and bread we start the cleanup phase and I jump straight to one of the nastiest jobs because I know I'm going to end up there in the end anyway so why not just start there and skip all the little stuff. The slaying station, or throat cutting station is the messiest if the messy. It consists of the eight stainless steel cones, their stand and the plastic three segment bucket below that catches all the blood. One of the other volunteers had cleaned all the cones while we were having coffee but then had to leave for another engagement, so only the stand and the bucket are left. I think the girls won't want to deal with this so I just go for it. I round up some warm soapy water from Jenny the intern and use an abrasive backed sponge to get it all spic-n-span clean, it takes about 30 minutes for both items. Then Mina shows up in an electric golf cart and we load up the equipment and take it all to the storage area. At this point all the big stuff is put away and I see that only Mary and Mina are left and they are putting hoses away and other odd chores. I offer to stay if they have other heavy work and Mary says that's ok and thanks me for helping out, then offers me my choice of the birds in the fridge. I comment something about one of my sacred tenets in life being to never turn down free food and that something in the four pound area would work just great for me. While I'm selecting my future dinner we have a short conversation about how to keep in touch through her website so if I'm able to I can help her out the next time she's ready to process. Ten minutes later my boots are in the back of my truck, tomorrow's dinner is on the passenger seat and I'm on the way home.

I'm taking a Christmas break from interning but I'll be back after the New Year. Soon after Jan. 1 Renee is going to order new broiler chicks so this will bring the entire chicken experience full circle, I don't want to miss that!

Merry Christmas everyone!