Our Local Foods attended the 2009 Earth Day Fair at Park Circle in North Charleston, SC this past Saturday, April 18. It was a really well attended event, and we had a lot of information about the farm, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture sign-up forms), and plant starts to give away to help people “green” up their patch of Earth. Here’s some photos of the day:
Our Local Foods at Earth Day 2009 in North Charleston, SC
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We have 300 chickens on the farm now - they arrived last weekend. We have a chicken tractor for them to live in (see the picture below). The chicken tractor is a chicken house built on a trailer. Our Local Foods would like to acknowledge the incredible design of the chicken tractor by George and Celeste Albers of the “Green Grocer” on Wadmalaw Island (just outside of Charleston, SC). The house has booms sticking out on each side with a shrimp net draped over it that hangs down to the ground. This area is approximately 25′x35′ which is the area the chickens have to run around and feed in. Each day, while the chickens are in the house, the trailer is moved a bit to a new spot, and the chickens are let out to roam around. At night, the chickens go back in their house to roost, and egg laying is also done in the nesting areas. The reason for moving the tractor each day is so there are plenty of new bugs and such for the chickens to find and eat. In a nice symbiotic way, the chickens also dig up the topsoil, add some fertilizer to the soil, and reduce the insect count.
Our Local Foods Chicken Tractor
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-April 8, 2009
Today we finished potting up plant starts for the Plant Sale this Saturday, April 11. We have a “hoop house” full of potted plants (and a few flats) that are ready for putting in the ground, now that the weather is warm enough for them to thrive outside. We have tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and many other vegetables, as well as some nice flower starts. Be sure to drop by and see us at 215 Coleman Blvd in Mt. Pleasant (near Shem Creek) - sale starts 9AM.
Well, we almost got washed away yesterday. The report was more than 5″ of rain in 12 hours… so now we’re trying to dry off. We’re never ones to complain about rain - sometimes we just wish we could control when and how much comes down. But, there’s a lot to do in the fields, so we’ll back out as soon as the ground dries enough to get back in there.
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Yesterday we got Adaptive Gardens of the Lowcountry up and running at Thornhill Farm in McClellanville. This program helps high school students with disabilities by engaging them in horticultural therapy. The horticultural therapy aspects of the program are handled by Catherine, and Our Local Foods is involved in helping provide infrastructure and support however we can. The students are from Georgetown HS and they did a great job getting the planter boxes filled with good soil, and then started the planting. Stay tuned for updates as their garden grows!
…some pictures of the adaptive gardening program
- Maria
Last week we put the potatoes starts in the ground. In total we put out about 3000 plant starts. It is about 100 days to harvest, although delayed harvesting is OK too. So, look for potatoes in late May. We are also fast & furious on the rest of planting for spring and summer. If you’re in the area, drop by and see what we’re doing.
- Maria
