GrowingGroceries.com | A Sustainable Farm in Louisiana

Farm Update

6 Comments 02 March 2012

I’m developing a trend here, it seems. Every fall/winter I go on a posting binge, only to fall off the wagon as soon as the days start getting longer and I’m spending less and less time at the computer. I guess it’s time to stop fighting it? All the same, you guys deserve an update, [...]

Blog, Gardening

“Why I am Sad”, or, “Satsumas Are Nearly Finished”

2 Comments 17 December 2011

There’s a town, not too far away from me, called Satsuma. I thought I’d start off by mentioning that. It’s a pretty lame town, and I guess I don’t really want to talk about it. So. Satsumas are pretty popular in most areas of the country right now, in fact, I remember reading a somewhat [...]

Blog, Chickens

Deciding Between a Homemade and Commercial Brooder Box

2 Comments 12 December 2011

A long time ago we built a brooder box out of 2×2′s and plywood. It was simple; I believe we got the plans from an extension service pamphlet, and it didn’t cost very much to build. We started by using it outdoors; it had a plywood top with hinges. We built an attached sunporch for them [...]

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Composted Feathers for Fertilizer

4 Comments 05 December 2011

So we’ve been making a pile of chicken feathers for about two years. Yah, out of context it does sound kinda weird. You see, Feather meal is a rather expensive, but very good organic fertilizer. It’s like 12-0-0 or something like that (to lazy to Google it, that’s your job now). My friend Luther uses [...]

Blog, Humor

My Complicated Relationship With Geese

0 Comments 04 December 2011

It all started two years ago, in the late summer. We have an acre of blueberry plants, and an acre of grass is quite a lot of grass to cut. Especially in the summer, when the bahia grass decides for a few months span to devote it’s energy to taking over the whole planet; before [...]

Articles, Chickens

A Brief, No-Nonsense Guide to Raising Meat Chickens at Home

5 Comments 02 December 2011

I run into a lot of people lately who are interested in raising their own chickens for meat. I think this trend is really neat, and in this article I will show you how easy it is to get started raising your own broilers! There’s a lot of distrust in industrial agriculture among folks, [...]

Blog, Mushrooms

Morel Patches Finished

0 Comments 17 November 2011

…So I took an hour this week to go ahead and finally make use of those bags of spawn I was sent. I made the outdoor patches near an old oak tree out in our woods. Morels can stand a little bit of filtered sunlight, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Also, the location underneath [...]

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Putting Up Cross Fencing

0 Comments 16 November 2011

So the past few weeks we’ve been working on cross-fencing the property. With several hundred broiler chickens running around, good fencing becomes very crucial to keep out the multitude of foxes, coyotes, dogs, possums, and possibly swamp monsters (you can never completely rule out swamp monsters….anywhere!). Sadly, when we purchased the farm, there was no [...]

Blog

Magnolia Murder

1 Comment 10 November 2011

I sell free range chicken and mushrooms. To be a little more specific, I sell free range chicken and mushrooms under a magnolia tree. At the farmer’s market in Covington, La to be exact. It’s a small magnolia tree, but a tree nonetheless. I used to sell under a healthy, vibrant magnolia tree. Nowadays, [...]

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Finally some rain!

1 Comment 09 November 2011

I honestly can’t remember the last time we have had any rain, and I spent some time thinking about it. We got a little this morning, just enough to wet the ground, really. But I went out to the pasture and noticed it was enough for the ryegrass I planted forever ago to come [...]