We’re busy getting settled into a new site, so bear with us as we work out the kinks. We’re also getting settled into a new farm in a new state.

If you had asked me months ago where I would be heading into the July 4th weekend, I might have said, almost boastfully, but certainly optimistically….”done with haying and starting up workshops….” However, the reality behind that isn’t as bright.

While many things are ahead in New England this year, our hay crop is not. The weeds, on the other hand, are rampant. Nevertheless, there’s lots of work going on, and we’re busy trying to bring our neglected fields back into shape.  We are also coming to grip with the lack of outbuildings and the fact that this farm has been fallow for over 3 years. That means bugs, weeds, sapplings and everything Mother Nature does to reclaim a place has gone on here unchecked.  It turning out to be a bigger project than I imagined.

Meanwhile, several new structures have been built to house the poultry out on pasture–part of the reclimation process. A willow nursery and gardens have been hammered in and the orchards a yielding fruit despite being unkempt and a withering frost late in May.

We are still waiting to get a flock of sheep on the place, but we were fortunate enough to finds a sweet Jersey and Guernsey to get our dairying program up and running. Milly–the Jersey–is currently being milked and we are eagerly awaiting Hazel’s calf in a few weeks. I’m barking mad on a good day, but I must say that I am totally besotted with my darling girls. And while they do tend to tie me down twice a day, I can’t imagine life without them at this point, as they make my cheese experiments and the food for the ducks and pigs all possible.

Speaking of which, we fell into 6 piglets soon after we moved here, adn although not what we would have chosen, we are grateful to have the little squealers. After a rough start–we got them at 3 weeks old–they are going strong now. They are finally getting the hang of being out on pasture and have only this week discovered what mud is for….

Likewise, the ducks are finally thriving now that they are out on pasture. We had a very rough start with them this year and lost more than I care to think about. All part of the learning curve I guess….

If you want to see some more photos of the farm, check out the Flickr set for Claddagh Farms.

Technorati Tags: Maine, farming, agriculture, Claddagh Farms, podchef, moving, livestock

This Autumn & Winter I am proud to announce a series of workshops on food & farming skills. These have been all summer in the making and I am really excited to be able to host these events for you.

We’re going to kick things off simply on October 10th with a Poultry Processing Workshop. Come to the farm to learn humane chicken slaughter methods, plucking, eviscerating & processing. This course will be great for beginners, chefs & cooks who want to know where there food comes from. A variety of topics will be covered in this one day course & and a light lunch will be served.

Next, on October 17th, I will be hosting a rabbit processing & sausage making workshop. Come and learn about keeping rabbits for meat, processing rabbit & turning them into common cuts or sausage. We will also be discussing sausage

making techniques & making sausages. This is a one day workshop & a light lunch will be offered. You will also get to bring home some fresh rabbit or any sausages you make.

At the end of October we will be offering a two day split workshop on all things Pig & Pork. Our annual Porkshop is the culmination of an almost year long project each Autumn of raising Artisanal Pastured Pork. Join me on October 27th for Part One as I kill, scald, de-hair & process our annual pig using traditional on-farm techniques. This is a one day Hands-On Workshop including making blood sausage, paté & headcheese. A light lunch & snacks will be served. For those spending the night before, a simple breakfast will be available the morning of.

Part Two begins on October 31st, after the carcass has hung for a few days. This course ia all about sustainable pork production, pig rearing, & Home Butchery techniques. We will also cover Bacon Curing & Simple Charcuterie.

After a brief tour of the pig park and talk on raising pigs, we will return to the kitchen where I will demonstrate how to cut up a half-pig, pointing out the many options and cuts along the way. We can also discuss cooking methods and recipes as we come to each cut.

Once the belly is freed from the carcass I will discuss & show how I made dry-cured bacon for both long-term traditional non-refrigerated storage and the more common sweet bacon we are all familiar with. Afterward we will adjourn to sample a selection of rustic, farmhouse porky delights made with the whole beast.

The space for the Porkshop is limited to 15 participants for each day. Book early! Lunch is included. Extra meals & Accomodation options are available upon request for those wishing to come early, stay late or remain on the island for the week. Please contact for details.

Finally, to cap off the production year and to ring in the New Year right–a New Year’s Duckfest! Join us on the farm from January 1st to 3rd, 2010 for a very special event.

Chef Kate Hill will be joining me in “kitchen studio” for three days of Duck! Kate is a renown authority on duck cookery, especially Duck Confit & Cassoulet. On New Year’s day we will meet & cook a fabulous authentic Cassoulet. This is slow food at its finest. The ingredients will be sourced locally & we will be cooking with my own farm-raised Rouen Ducks.

Although just ducklings now, by New Years these beauties will be ready for cooking, having lived an Autumn on local grains, garden bounty and as authentic a French diet for ducks as I can follow here in the Pacific Northwest. I can’t wait!

On the 2nd & 3rd we will be exploring, with Kate, the wonders of the duck, including how to make Confit, use duck fat, and talk about the ducks themselves, the Rouen breed and how to process them. I am sure it will be a food filled extravaganza to ring in the New Year right!

Details to follow.

For more information on any of these workshops please contact me via email (podchef at gmail dot com) or via Twitter–@podchef From there we can make further arrangements & discuss details.

Technorati Tags: workshops, porkshop, smallholding, cooking classes, cooking lessons, farming, education, butchery, skills, slaughter, rabbit, pork, chicken, hogs, pigs, ducks, confit, kate hill, casssoulet, new years

It has been a while since I have posted anything about the polytunnel on this site. Since I first put it up there have been many changes and seasons. This latest video shows how I’ve restored it over the winter.

Technorati Tags: polytunnel, gardening, farming, agriculture, horticulture, grow your own, hoop house, greenhouse

This year, the apple harvest was late. I don’t think I’ve ever made cider as late as November before. But, it was a bumper harvest.

Not only did we get a huge crop from our 5 small trees in our own orchard–probably one hundred and fifty pounds of Cider Apple varieties, among which were some Kingston Blacks and Cox’s Orange Pippins. But we managed to get several hundred pounds of apples from various neighbor’s orchards and abandoned orchards which date back to the 1890’s.

This weekend I fired up the Cider Press and made something like 18 gallons of cider. 10 are fermenting in another part of the house right now. We also managed to put up 22 quarts of applesauce, several pints of apple butter, and 22 loaves of a Norman-Style Rustic Apple & Rye hearth bread.

Was it a lot of work? Yes. But worth every minute of it because we have now stored an amazing amount of fruit up for the winter–all of which cost us only our time. In addition to picking out apples for the apple sauce, apple bread, apple butter and cider, I also sorted out the most unblemished and undamaged fruit to keep for as long as possible for fresh eating. My goal is to not have to buy any apples until at least January when the cold weather makes it impossible to keep fruit in the shed due to freezing.

Technorati Tags: apples, cider, orchards, fruit preservation, food preservation, canning, eat the seasons, local food

Just an announcement–the website was hacked and some malicious code has been running. Hopefully, this has been corrected, and hopefully it did not effect you. It did take some time to figure out, and I am not 100% sure it is all fixed yet. Meanwhile, I have also updated the website software, so if you notice anything out of the ordinary, please let me know.

Today dawned clear and cold. A rare day in January for around here. It is the first day in weeks where it hasn’t rained or been blowing over 20 mph. On Saturday we had winds up to 60 or 75 mph. The power went out during the night, but was back on in the morning, meaning the outage was on the mainland.

The day was so unexpected the girls, I and dogs went for a long walk before 7:30. A Realtor was showing the property and it got us away to feed the beasts and enjoy a chilly, but heartwarming sunrise. Now, it is all sniffles, mugs of tea and coffee.

There is so much to do, seeds to order, and video to edit, but I must take advantage of the weather and get outside to work in the garden. I’ve also got to clean the chicken tractor and get it ready for a breeding set of cockerel and hens. I’d be out at it now, but for the girl’s school.

Must cull some old biddies. Already reduced down to one cock from seven. Over 40 hens, but only 1 egg today. Should plant in the Polytunnel this afternoon.

Technorati Tags: weather, diary, gardening, hens

Many of you will have noticed that you can no longer purchase Bokashi Buckets, or Bokashi Bran from this site. At first this was due to supply disruptions and difficulties in getting the products. But after a while I decided that perhaps it was best not to continue to stock these items.

Let me explain. The Kitchen Garden Company is based on a small island. At first a mail-order element to our business seemed a perfect fit. However on second thought the extra shipping and mileage placed upon the items we were distributing began to weigh on our conscience. Items come on to the island via plane or boat, once they have been picked up on the mainland. Big items such as bulk containers of Bokashi Buckets means that more trips to the island must be made increasing the overall load of distribution for everyone. Once on the island, the packages are delivered, then I have to store them in a heated building to keep them nice and reverse the procedure to send them out again.

More than once people from the local area contacted us to purchase Bokashi Buckets and we made special arrangements and went out of our way to deliver the buckets at no extra cost, without ridiculously sending them through the post. In the end it became too much. What began as a venture in bringing cool “technology” to the farmers’ markets we were attending–where, by the way we found a great resistance to the ideas of Bokashi–had become a practice with a growing and unnecessary carbon foot print.

This is not to say that we no longer support Bokashi and we are continuing to experiment with it every day. We have expanded our use of EM and Bokashi on the farm and will continue to educate and develop new ideas about their use. We will also continue to offer Bokashi Buckets and locally made Bokashi Bran at our workshops. We are also planning on expanding our video series about EM and Bokashi and their uses. We are also working with one of the UK’s bigger suppliers of Bokashi Buckets and Bran in continued development of ideas.

In the future, when we relocate to the mainland (do you know anyone who wants 34 acres on a bay on an island?) we will resume offering Bokashi Buckets and EM for sale from our retail location.

However, in the meantime, we are more than happy to recommend our wholesale supplier, who also retail their product–Sustainable Community Development. For International customers please check here. They sell everything you need and more. Thank you for continuing to read this blog and supporting The Kitchen Garden Company.

If you are looking for more information about Food, Farming or the Politics of what we eat, please consider subscribing to our free weekly podcast or check out our sister site–The Kitchen Garden Network. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: podchef, gastrocast, bokashi, em, sustainable community development, carbon footprint, kitchen garden network, gardening, farming, agriculture, efficient microbes, effective microorganisms

This is me, caught in the act, during the San Juan County Fair. I was cooking Paella and discussing the importance of local foods and the need to buy from Farmer’s Markets. You can hear me speaking at this event here.

Technorati Tags: podchef, gastrocast, cooking, paella, san juan county fair, cooking demonstration, podcast, teaching, culinary, local foods, farmer’s market, farming

The Kitchen Garden Company is happy to welcome the newest member of our team–Rowan!

Rowan is an 8 Week old English Shepherd puppy who has joined us from Arkansas.

She is in training now to help round up the chickens and is busy making friends with an older brother–Barkley–and the two mousers. When she is a little bigger she will start to help with the sheep and calf.

Technorati Tags: rowan, english shepherd, puppy, dog, working dog, herding dog, farm collie, farm dog

Gastrocast #40Originally uploaded by podchef.

A test blog using a recent Gastrocast flickr photo.