Wood Duck Farm

January 21st, 2011

One man's trash is another man's treasure, or perhaps compost anyway? A few weeks' back, I was visiting with a friend at the farmer's market about what we fed our pigs and chickens here at the farm An interested customer, overhearing our conversation, asked me if I would consider retrieving vegetable scraps from a private school cafeteria there in Houston with the intention of composting them etc.  While we still have yet to work out the logistics, the prospect of creating a "loop of sorts" is intriguing. By now you're probably thinking "...Loop? ..What the heck is Van talking about?" Well think about it. Kitchen scraps (everything but meat) is retrieved and then fed to the pigs, they do their "business," their "business" goes back into the soil as nutrients, the soil produces more healthy plants and we return to Houston with our veggies for our CSA members.  While it is not a perfect eco-friendly model, it does create a subtle demonstration of how we (we being the school, our CSA members and the farm) can make an attempt to sustain the planet.   "Okay now you're thinking maybe Van's looped, huh!"  All kidding aside, wonder what would happen if more farms and consumers created a similar "community loop?"  Not sure, but I'm thinking Al Gore will be proud.

What's Growing:  The recent rains have really helped our onion and garlic plants. Our tomatoes, residing in the greenhouse until transplanted next month, are about two inchs or so tall. This week we seeded pac choi, napa cabage, broccoli, cauliflower and more. More compost/nutrients need to be applied in our fields, but hopefully next week we'll get beets, carrots, and spinach planted.  Oh, and I forgot to mention turnips for you turnip lovers! For a few recent photos of what's growing visit this link Our Farm Blog  . 

Spring 2011 CSA Program:  Interested in participating in our next program, but not sure what you get? Well you can visit Our Farm Blog  and get an idea, via photos of what full shares received back in December. (You'll need to scroll down a tad from the top.) FYI Partial shares receive about 1/3 less than full shares and are geared towards the two member household.  We are pleased announce that the fine staff at Smart Meals has agreed to be one of our pick up locations for our CSA program. Smart Meals is located at the corner of Shepard & Westheimer, which is on the cusp between the Montrose and Upper Kirby area of Houston. A link to their website can be found at Smart Meals .   Our Spring CSA registration form can be found at this link  Spring 2011 CSA Registration . We think we have simplified the registration process to be just a few clicks and some of contact info and then pay with your credit card.  If you'd rather mail in your registration, you can go to this link WDF CSA Mail-In Form    We have added an Alternating Week option to our Full share size. The Alternating Week option is for those not wishing to receive a full share every week. So with the AW option, a farm member receives a Full share every odd week of the ten week program, i.e. weeks 1,3,5,7, and 9.   In addition to adding the Smart Meals location this week, we have made some inroads in Pearland, Clear Lake, and the Museum District of Houston.  More information as it develops. Let us know if you are interested in becoming a host and/or know of someone/ some place for one our pick up locations.  We currently deliver in the Houston and surrounding areas, visit CSA Pickup Locations for a current map/listing.  For inquires email us at csa@woodduckfarm.com or call us at 713 876 8645 for more details.

Grass Fed Meat/Egg Subscription Program: It is official; we are now taking registration for the Meat Subscription program.  You can register online at this link CSA Registration. Scroll down to middle of your screen. After reviewing the feedback from about 68 respondents, we have created two choices, 1) our Full Share priced at $210 for a three-month program and/or 2) our Poultry Share priced at $165 for three months. You can add on a dozen eggs with either program (a dozen eggs for the entire 3 month program for $15.)The Full Share will average about 11-12 #s and generally consist of one or two whole chickens, 30-40% ground meats (sausages, ground beef), a roast cut, and possibly a ham steak and/or Canadian Bacon. The Poultry Share each month will be comprised of approximately three young pastured chickens and a Chicken sausage or "kid hotdogs", (made with no pork, beef or "weird" by products.) In case you are wondering, 11# of meat will occupy about 25% of the space in an overhead "refrigerator" freezer.Shares will be packaged, frozen & delivered once per month to your choice of our pick up locations located in the Houston area. Too much meat for your family? Consider splitting a share with a friend. I have included some samples below of what you may receive.  The first month will likely be March, which should coincide with our Veggie CSA deliveries.

Twitter: Yep! We've taken that step.  Not sure yet how Twitter will integrate with our farm activities, but we can now say that we're not electronically dysfunctional. (Well perhaps we are?) For those of you that are "tweeters," you can find me @woodduckFM.

Visiting the Urban Harvest Farmer's Mktl on Saturday morning?  Please stop by and say hi!   
 

WDF has facebook page, but this link will take you to Van's page, from there you need to search for Wood Duck Farm. Go figure huh.
 

All the Best,

Van Weldon

Cell 713 876 8645

www.woodduckfarm.com

email csa@woodduckfarm.com