Name This Chicken!

 

Help us name our chicks! We still have three without names! They are getting bigger, bolder, and enjoying farm life! What do you think we should call this sweet chick?

Can You Spot the Chickens?

Our chicks are enjoying the grass!

Compost Here!

Do you want to compost, but don’t have the space, the garden needs, or energy? We can help! Kindred Ground Farm is excited to announce we will happily take your compost materials weekly. You can simply save them and bring them to the farm during pick ups on Mondays or Thursdays from 4pm – 7pm.

If we do this together we can reduce material in landfills and increase the nutrients in the soil of Kindred Ground Farm. By helping to make our soil even more nutrient rich we will likely see increased crop yields which means more food in weekly shares!

This is a great opportunity for both Kindred Ground Farm and our shareholders. You can bring as much or as little as you want. You can bring it weekly or once a month. We recommend saving it in air tight containers outside until you bring it to the farm.

If you have any questions please ask. We look forward to this new endeavor with you!

Things to compost are:

·                 Animal Manure (not pet waste)

·                 Cardboard Rolls

·                 Coffee Grounds and Filters

·                 Cotton Rags (clean)

·                 Dryer and Vacuum Cleaner Lint

·                 Fireplace Ashes (not from black walnut wood)

·                 Fruits and Vegetables

·                 Grass Clippings

·                 Hair and Fur

·                 Hay and Straw

·                 Houseplants

·                 Leaves

·                 Sawdust

·                 Shredded Newspaper

·                 Tea Bags

·                 Wood Chips

·                 Wool Rags (clean)

·                 Clean Yard Trimmings (no chemicals at all)

Things to NOT compost:

·                 Black walnut tree leaves or twigs

o                Releases substances that might be harmful to plants

·                 Coal or charcoal ash

o                Might contain substances harmful to plants

·                 Dairy products (e.g., butter, milk, sour cream, yogurt) and eggs

o                Create odor problems and attract pests such as rodents and flies

·                 Diseased or insect-ridden plants

o                Diseases or insects might survive and be transferred back to other plants

·                 Fats, grease, lard, or oils

o                Create odor problems and attract pests such as rodents and flies

·                 Meat or fish bones and scraps

o                Create odor problems and attract pests such as rodents and flies

·                 Pet wastes (e.g., dog or cat feces, soiled cat litter)

o                Might contain parasites, bacteria, germs, pathogens, and viruses harmful to humans

·                 Yard trimmings treated with chemical pesticides

o                Might kill beneficial composting organisms

Compost dos and don'ts from the EPA.

Welcome to Our Chickens!

Our baby chickens have arrived! We are so excited! I picked them up this afternoon and am so happy to have our very own Kindred Ground Farm chickens!

We have nine chicks: three Americauna, three Guinea Hens, and three Silkies. They are all babies so we have to monitor them carefully. They will have plenty of play time and fresh air, but will sleep inside our house in totes for a few weeks! Once they are a little bigger they will be sleeping outside of course!

They start to lay eggs around 6 months of age, so it will be awhile before we have egg producing chickens but in the meantime we will play with them, hold them a lot, and let them discover the farm. They need to be held and touched frequently so they are accustomed to human hands for when we collect eggs. Our eggs will include colorful shades of blue and green!

I will be learning a lot as we raise our chickens. My homepage might have to change to Backyard Chickens! If you have knowledge to share, please do!

A big thank you to our shareholder and chicken expert, Markette, for all her assistance and knowledge today! You are an invaluable resource and are much appreciated! And thank you for weeding too!

Zucchini Pickles!

Are you looking for a new idea for this weeks zucchini? Lisa has sent us a recipe for Spicy Zucchini Pickles that sounds both easy and extraordinarily delicious! She said her family started eating them in just 24 hours after putting them in the fridge! That is what we call Almost Instant Gratification! 

To get the recipe please visit The Etsy Blog post by Kimberley Hasselbrink. Let us know if you make these and send us your photos too please!

Thank you Lisa for sharing! We are excited to test these!

Using Herbs

With so many delicious herbs in our shares we thought it might be a good time to share a link on stir frying with all of our shareholders! Stir frying is a quick, delicious, and often nutritious way to get a meal to the table!

This is a link to the basics of stir frying! Enjoy and let us know what you make!

For Love of the Field

You've heard of speed dating, but have you heard of Weed Dating? Farmers get their fields weeded and singles have the opportunity to meet new people in three minute summits. Perhaps, not quite a summit, but a brief meeting while weeding. Quite literally a way to weed out the field and weed out Mr. or Mrs. Wrong!

Several farms around the nation have hosted Weed Dating events over the last couple of years. Much like traditional speed dating (whoever thought “traditional” and “speed dating,” would be in the same phrase?) females are assigned a specific spot and the males rotate through meeting, greeting, and quickly conversing. Only instead of chatting over beverages, couples chat while weeding the vegetable beds.

It is an interesting idea and has a lot of potential in this day of rushing everywhere. What do you think? Should Kindred Ground Farm move into the match making business in a few years?

If you, like we did initially, doubt the authenticity of Weed Dating, visit MSNBC to read more about it!

Monday Greeting from KGF

When you wake up to this, you know the day is going to be a good one! Wishing you a beautiful day and week!
See you soon for your pick up!

Check Your In-Box

Your weekly Kindred Ground Farm Newsletter will be popping into your in-box shortly! Let us know what you think of this week's recipes, what you might plan to cook this week, if you "make the switch," and if you plan to buy eggs!

New Vegetables

Expect green beans in this coming weeks or next weeks share! They started budding this week! The rain should help them along!

Farm Fresh Pasta Sauce

Do you want to change up your pasta? Is it always the same thing? Red sauce and spaghetti, red sauce and penne, red sauce and spaghetti…

This week after you steam or boil your snap peas or snow peas, place them in the blender with about ¼- ½  cup of the cooking water (depending on how many peas you used) and puree until smooth. Add garlic scapes, chives, basil, onions or any other veggies you like. Add 1 tablespoon margarine or olive oil and puree again to desired consistency.

Pour over cooked pasta. Suddenly pasta has a whole new look and taste! This is a great way to eat extra vegetables! You can do a mix of half jarred or homemade red sauce and half green sauce over the pasta too if you really want to pizzazz the colors on your plate!

Adding tomato to the green sauce mixture adds delicious flavor, but the color tends to turn to shades of brown, which some people may not like. It does taste great though!

Let us know if you make this fast, easy, and delicious green sauce!

Sunny Sunflower!

 

Check Your In-Box!

The Kindred Ground Farm weekly newsletter is hitting in-boxes momentarily! Check out News from the Farm for lots of updates, reader recipes (Yum!), and more!

See you soon!

Lettuce Ideas

Lettuce goes great with salad. But we all know that already, right? But what about lettuce wraps? Using lettuce instead of pita, taco shells, rolls, or bread brings a fresh, low carb twist to any meal.

For great lettuce wrap ideas visit How to Make Lettuce Wraps and let us know what you try. And more importantly, take photos and send us the recipe you use please!

Pop Quiz!

What’s green on the outside, red on the outside, has black seeds, and tastes juicy, sweet, and just like summer?

Watermelon!

The watermelons are growing folks!

Recipes Sought

Dear Shareholders,

Thank you for being a part of our 2012 Season! It is so exciting to have met all our new shareholders these last two weeks and to reconnect with returning shareholders! Your enthusiasm and excitement brings me much joy!

I hope you are having fun with your vegetables and herbs! Many of you have shared that some of these veggies and herbs are new to you and your families! I know it can be overwhelming and daunting to leave with a bag of never seen before green things! However, so many of you are telling me about your delicious creations! You are being bold, creative, and making excellent, healthy food!

Will you please take a few minutes and share your recipes with us? We have recipe cards and pens at each pick up or you can email us at kindredgroundfarm@gmail,com (with photos too if you have them!). We will use the recipes in upcoming newsletters or post them here. (Hint, hint: we have a yummy recipe from Meg in the next newsletter for Quiche using three ingredients from the share!).

Thank you for being part of our community! See you soon! Happy Independence Day! Have a wonderful day celebrating and be safe!

Fondly,

Tammy 

Lemon Balm Ice Cubes

For extra zeal and zest place one washed lemon balm in each square of an ice cube tray, then fill with water. Freeze as normal. Serve these pretty and tasty ice cubes in lemonade, ice tea, water, or any specialty drink where a zip of lemony flavor would be delicious!

Enjoy!

Minty Monday, Anyone?