Lock up your baby chicks!

I'll relay this story, because I think it's still hard on D.

I love animals, but never thought much of birds until I lived up in Olinda where the owner had a huge chicken coop. Long story short, I got hooked. Who knew they could be so personable?

I think it's worth raising your chickens from babies even though it costs a bit in feed before they will start to lay (about 6 months in). Get them from someone who is going to give you healthy, strong birds. D's first chickens were wild birds the neighbors trapped for him, but the eggs never got very large, and the leader of the pack was REALLY mean. She killed my dove - stuck my dove in the neck with her beak! Of course, in the wild, chickens eat doves - so she was only doing what she had learned in the wild to survive.

It was hard on me just the same.

Anyway, it's much more fun to have friendly birds greet you at the door in the morning and eat out of your hand. The eggs are much bigger, so it's worth it on that level too (we paid $5 a piece for pure bred chicks).

But this is the story of our first group of babies - the ones D can't talk about.

I went to Vicki and Chris in Puklani to pick out 8 beauties (Not sure if she wants me to publish her #, so if you are interested in getting some, let me know and I'll get it for you). I put them in a large dog kennel because they were so tiny. I encouraged Daren to spend time with them so they would be bonded to him. The first couple weeks, he sat diligently on the front porch holding each one in turn, every day.

D build the girls a nice coop and after a couple weeks of being kept in the dog kennel on a heating pad, they were ready to fly, literally. So we tucked them into the new coop.

A few days later, we awoke to disaster - 6 of the 8 babies were gone - no where in sight. We knew the dogs couldn't have gotten in - so we were baffled as to what had happened until we found a small mongoose size hole dug under the fence.

We were both devastated. Only Edie and Mo survived. We have Mo today, though Edie turned out to be an 'Ed', so when he began to crow, we returned him to the breeder after she promised he would go to a good home.

We got a new crew from Vicki who was very sympathetic, but Daren didn't sit on the porch with them. I know he likes the new girls, but I think the loss weighed too heavy on his heart to get bonded as he did the first time around.

Here's our homage to our first chicken crew:

"Edie" - later known to be "Ed" - won the cutest portrait award.
(Americana - they lay blue and/or green eggs)

Georgie, so named for her mustache (Barred Plymouth Rock)

Hen - short for Henrietta (Barred Plymouth Rock)

Mirabella - so named because when she grew up, her feathers would have been iridescent, like a fairy.

(Black Sex Link)

'Poo' - short for Pualani, which means "heavenly flower" in Hawaiin.
This loss may have been the hardest for D

(Buff Orpington)

Rosie - so named for her color

(Road Island Red)



Daisy - my little sweetie. I loved them all, but Daisy and I had a special bond

:(

(Buff Orpington)

And Mo, our sole survivor, so named because as a baby, we could tell her apart from her sister by the darker red line of fluff on her head that looked like a Mohawk.

(Road Island Red)

Lesson: Until your babies are 10 weeks or older, you are at risk of loosing them to Mongoose.

Mongoose are very good diggers. Unless you run the edges of the cage into the ground at least a foot (which is still no guarentee), or pour cement to secure the bottom, then keep them inside the house or in a tightly secured cage to avoid setting up a mongoose smorgasbord. After our loss, we dug a foot and a half down, ran chicken wire into the ground at an angle, and reinforced it with buried rocks as well as topical stones around the perimeter.

Soil Testing

We decided a basic soil analysis was a good idea after talking with Steve Wilson of Kumulani Farms. I used to live on the property where his farm is, but unfortunately at that time I was not interested in soil and growing things (maybe fortunate for him though because I might have been glued to his leg - he’s such a wealth of knowledge!).

I thought we would be testing for toxins and things like that, but apparently that's not only expensive, but isn’t really necessary unless you have a specific concern about toxicity. If you are concerned about heavy metals, do a layer of cilantro as a ground cover and it will pull the toxins out of the soil, just like it does in your body. Pretty cool, huh? (Steve tip)

There is some discrepancy as to whether you can eat that ground cover when it's done it's job. Steve says eat it – but I wouldn’t unless someone can answer the question where those heavy metals get to, and so far I have no clear answers on that. If the cilantro metabolizes the metals, then OK. But I’ve never heard of heavy metals being metabolized. As I understand it, cilantro binds to the heavy metals in the body so they can be excreted with your mornin’ business, specifically because we can’t metabolize them. So I am a play it safe gal – if you are really concerned about heavy metals, get rid of the ground cover – and not in the compost bin!

We chose to do several basic soil samples because we seemed to have such varying soil qualities. D will have to explain more specifically about basic soil construction. But the bottom line is that different phases need different basic nutrients. So you can start out with some nice growth only to have it wilt, brown, or fail to fruit if you are lacking what the plant requires.

The lab we used was great (recommended by Steve).

Perry Agricultural Laboratory, Inc.
15241 County Road 138
Bowling Green, MO 63334
(573) 324-2931

They weren’t expensive ($37.80 for two soil samples) and they were willing to get on the phone with me and do a little interpreting. We got some important tips about what would happen to our trees down the line if we didn’t take action, about using chicken poo, and other long term considerations.

BTW: For those of you who don’t know, Kumulani Farms in Olinda is where the annual Body and Soil conference happens, and from what I understand, it’s well worth the entrance fee not only to get inspired, but to learn invaluable and practical tips on making any size garden flourish. As Steve will tell you, it’s all about the soil. Early registration discount coming up fast (12/20). Check it out.

Natural pest control for beginners

I think having great results straight away is key for new gardeners. That way a larger percentage will carry on encouraged by success growing more and more stuff and expanding into a bigger area sooner.

For success, firstly you should find out what grows well in your area, Maui has many microclimates so the things that grow well in Kula on the slopes of Haleakala may not grow at all in Heulo near the ocean.

Soil is very important. The healthier the soil, the healthier the plant which greatly reduces the likelyhood of attack from bugs and greatly increases the yields......If you were to just dig down and stick in a plant willy - nilly chances are you will end up with a very sad anemic looking veggie, on the other hand if you were to dig down nice and deep, say 18”-24”(Make sure you dig up the first 6” and set aside as it should go on the top mix, this is where most of the micro-organisms live and they help greatly in the growth of plants) mix in some organic compost, organic chicken poo and trace minerals and water daily when it’s hot and dry, then you should be well on your way to eating fresh, healthy home grown veggies…….

For a more indepth analysis on soil preperation and health, check out this link:

http://www.soilfoodweb.com/sfi_approach1.html

One of the main things new gardens need help with is the control of pests that want to eat the food before you do. As time goes by you will need less and less of this concoction until eventually you will need none at all, that is if you plant the right flowers and plants to attract the beneficial bugs that feast on the non-beneficials, the idea being that in a totally organic garden you will have a system of pest management where everybody gets to eat and forever!!! Sure you are going to lose a plant here or a leaf there, but in the grander scheme of things it’s really not a big deal. But before you get established beneficials in place, here is a natural pest control remedy the good people at Kula garden center gave me (I tweaked it a bit as the cayenne pepper clogged up my sprayer):

To 1 qt water add ½ t cayenne stir well and let steep for several hours and put through a sieve then add

1 t doctor Bronner’s peppermint soap

1 t Neem oil

½ cup rubbing alcohol (helps break up and spread the neem)

Put in a sprayer and spray your plants in the morning…..Bugs don’t like that muck!!!!

We really perk up our plants with a FREE gallon of compost tea which we got Friday at Eco-Island Supply. Check with them before you head down to make sure the offer is still available.

Eco-Island Supply

Backside of Haiku Market Place 
810 Haiku Rd #394 
808.575.9171

Happy Eats

Kale Salad recipe (easy – yummy!)

Blue Scotch Kale (also called Dwarf Blue Kale, and other variations of these words) is the best, and in my opinion, the only kale to use for this salad. It's light, sweet, and really easy to grow here on Maui. Slow to bolt, frost and drought resistance, it just keeps on giving. Three starts have provided us salad almost daily for 7 months. The plants are really tall now, and have slowed down production since the ground cooled this month, but still showing no signs of stopping.

Note: this kale preperation can also be thrown into other salad mixes because the leaves become mild and soft.

Recipe:

6 stalks of Blue Scotch Kale

2-4 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (Landmark is the best)

1 small tomato

½ cup sunflower seeds

dressing:

2 oz lemon juice

2 oz olive oil

2 oz Braggs

Tear the leaves of 6 stalks into small pieces leaving out the thicker spine parts, unless you like an earthy crunch. Pour 2-4 tbsp olive oil over leaves and ‘massage’ firmly. Don’t be shy, get in there and work it Swedish style! You want to break down the fibers in the leaves and make sure the olive oil fully coats all the bits. The leaves will turn darker and reduce to about half the bulk.

Throw in feta, finely chopped tomato, and sunflower seeds.

In a separate bowl, mix dressing. I find a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 combo of lemon, olive oil, and Braggs is best, but flax oil is also nice, and you can adjust the saltiness and sourness to suit your pallet.

Just brought this to a Thanksgiving feast where the entire meal was incredible, and yet everyone was talking about the salad :)

Enjoy!

Why we do what we do...

We LOVE Good Food!

(Good for the Aina, Good for the heart, Good for the body and soul)

Here's an early crop, back in the day when we thought we could grow anything and everything -

...And we got a lot!

In time we learned that certain things thrived, and others did not.

Our big winners have been arugula, Blue Scotch Kale, rainbow chard, basil (note on planting and replanting to follow), celantro (you need the seeds that don't bolt), radishes, white/yellow onions (slow, but beauties), cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini.

Our big losers have been brocholi, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kumbucha squash, and carrots.

Tomatoes are hard to grow here, but D has been diligent and the one's we've gotten have been fabulous. He's grown heirloom's - the Black Krims have been the winners, though it's been fun having all the colors. The trick is that tomatoes really need a lot of sun, and they need to be covered on Maui from the dew because they get the creepy-crud (powedery mildew) really badly. So don't try tomatoes if you are expecting a big yeald or live any further towards Haiku than Makawao. We hear of success in Kula where it is much dryer.

Big LOVE...........1lb 4oz Beefsteak

D has an amazing recipe for all natural bug spray he got from Kula Ace.

The Homestead -"'eat your lawn"

We decided in April it was time to eat our lawn.

Daren had made efforts to have a garden the year before when I didn't live here. He built some nice raised boxes and grew lettuce, herbs, potatoes, and few other bits and bobs - but the inspiration was lost when he got busy with work.

I am of the thinking that for most of us, it takes two to make a garden happen, at least the kind of garden which endures season after season producing food. What I wish for everyone is someone to garden with. We've found that the support to actually make it happen comes out of the synergy of both of us (though admittedly, D does the majority of the 'heavy-lifting'). If there are lone gardeners out there - maybe we can be your support.

So this was the near the beginning...

(You can see we've put in fruit trees on the left and there is a box going in at the end)

Here in Hawaii, it doesn't take long for things to really take-off.

60 days later...

We had to drill out some cement found under the lawn, and the soil varied quit a lot - from brown, fluffy and loamy to red volcanic clay. Our desire was to have everything be organic and symbiotic, so we turned to D's friend Dan for his 30 years of permaculture experience.

We've learned A LOT about soil and bugs and nutrients and companion planting - and we've connected with some good garden info as well as garden and food suppliers along the way. So if you love good food, we hope to get you hooked up with the best upcountry Maui has to offer.

2 Acres and a tractor

D came home last week with a big grin, "you'll never guess what happened."

I thought he had won the lottery, and in a way he had.

2 acres and a tractor have been offered to him to farm and he's going tomorrow to to meet with the property owners to secure the deal. Triple-Cool-Farms the dream is becoming a reality.

Stay tuned for photos and lots of good info. Our idea with this blog is to continue to share our successes and failures with you to inspire and save time in your own farming and gardening endeavours.