a little change in plans

due to fire fighting academy the first week in january, i will not be able to attend tuesdays in the park. instead i will be there the last tuesday in december (29th) AND the second tuesday in january(13th). on both events i will have all my normal meats/sausages

pastured pork bratwurst

maple sage breakfast sausage

whole beef, burger

premium goat chops (prime cuts of steak)

so please stop by for some good food, i will be grilling samples weather permitting

america the beautiful park in colorado springs tuesday dec 29 and jan 13 from 4:00 till 5:00

see you there
kenny

90-Year-Old Medal of Honor Winner Ordered to Remove Flagpole

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check this out, i can't believe it

http://www.thefoxnation.com/american...emove-flagpole


i wish i lived closer, i would go chain my self to that flag pole, just like the hippies do to save the redwoods.

Col. Van T. Barfoot, I Salute you

and fuck the HOA and their attorneys

CFAM 6th anual Holiday Market

well it is official, i will be at the CFAM holiday market this year. coming next sat the 12th of dec. it will be at the Cottonwood Center for the Arts. 427 E Colorado Ave in Colorado springs. 9am-4pm

here is the flyer for the event
holiday2009.pdf


come join us for the holiday market. i will be there with all my wonderful meats and sausage, including

grass finished whole beef burger
maple sage breakfast sausage (links)
maple sage breakfast sausage (bulk for making your own patties)
Gluten Free Bear Bratwurst

and if the timing allows, a small batch of fresh Oyster Mushrooms

i don't want to admit it......

but winter is here

over the last week or so we have had almost 2 feet of snow and several inches are still on the ground in many areas. we also have 2 days of snow predicted tomorrow and thursday, could get a couple of feet. all this before Halloween. looks like it is going to be a long wet winter.

the last farmers market was a couple weeks ago, i did not make it to the last day as it was predicted to be stormy and cold. as it turned out it never got above the low 20's and there was a huge multi car pile up in the springs due to ice on the highway, glad i stayed home.

for those of you that would like to get some of my sausage or other products, i will be at the America the Beautiful Park (same location as the wednesday CFAM market this summer) in colorado springs on the first tuesday of each month. roughly from 4:30pm-5:30pm same time as the larga vista milk share pick-up. i will be bringing a small selection of goodies each week and might be grilling up some samples, so come on down. if you have something specific you would like email your request to me at
i can prepackage your order and have it ready to go when you stop by

i have plenty of the gourmet ground beef, maple-sage breakfast sausage, both links and bulk and a limited supply of the gluten free beer brats. we have also started some winter cooking greens in the greenhouse, chard, beets, cabbage and such. hope to have some ready next month. also in the works, gourmet mushrooms, oysters first and maybe some shitake and lions mane, if there is the interest. oysters should be ready first of the year, maybe sooner. if you would like to be kept up to date on what i will have at the park thru the winter send me an email and put "farmers market mailing list" in the subject. i will be sending out a newsletter the week before each park appearance and will continue with a newsletter thru the summer as well. if there is the interest i can attend the park more often as largavista will be there each tuesday thru the winter and i would be happy to join them.

i hope everyone has a safe and happy winter and if i dont see you at the park, i look forward to seeing you at the market next summer.

thanks
kenny

PS: if you havnt already check out a new blog by my partner
http://www.renderinglard-butterpoweredbike.blogspot.com/

going green, doesn't end on the ranch

sustainability is something that we should focus on through out our lives, not just with the food we eat/grow. with this in mind and a little help from my partner i (we) have dusted the rust off our bikes and started riding. some times it is just a little ride for exercise and fun but other times it has been rides to the store (she does this far more often than I, but I'll get better) if you see me riding by say hi. you will know it is me cause farmers/ranchers dont do spandex...lol. with all the shopping we (read "she") have been doing we are constantly looking for ways to carry more gear. we have the rack on the back and some saddle bags ( i think they call them panniers) but when we saw these MADSEN Cargo Bikes we were pretty excited. they look like they could really be a green grocery getter. have any of you out there ridden one. let us know what you think of them.

trying out a new row cover in the garden

well after that frost and the realization that the cold nights are taking a toll on fruit production i have decided to put up some row covers. here is the first one i cobbled up from materials i had on hand.


the basics of this row cover are rebar stakes pvc hoops and some 6mil visquene. i cut some 18 inch stakes from a length of #4 rebar (half inch) then i cut 20 foot sticks of thin wall half inch pcv into 3 pieces, about 6 foot 8 inches each. i pounded 2 rows of stakes 4 ft apart and bent the pvc into the hoop shape and slipped them over the stubs of rebar i left sticking up (about 3-5 inches) i tried different spacing of hoops. if you look at the picture the 4 hoops on the right end are 3ft apart and the hoops on the left end are 4.5 ft apart. i think the closer spacing worked better to support the plastic. the plastic comes in a 20ft wide roll 100ft long. i rolled out 8ft and cut it off. when i spread it all out i had a 20ft x 8ft piece this was pretty easy to handle and get over the hoops. i just used a little dirt on the extra foot of plastic on each side to hold it down. the 20ft lenght wasnt enough to close the ends. after a couple nights it does not seam to be making much differance in the low temp inside so i have decided to close the ends up and hope it does not get to hot during the day. i think i am going to try just stacking a couple bales of straw against each end to close them up.

ps one of my pigs had babies the other day, i should have some pictures to share soon.

thanks
kenny at the ranch

back to the garden, dealling with frost in august

well doing this dry land thing has not been so tough, water wise at least. seams the biggest problem right now has been the cold nights. the set fruit on my squash plant just fall off after a few days and the beans are growing real slow. then to top it all off we had a frost. yes a frost in august the 8th or ninth i think. my beans and squash took the brunt of the damage. nothing died but they sure got set back a bit. i will try and put up some row covers to protect them from the next frost