Well, I know I love looking at pictures of gardens, so I thought I’d share ours. It is coming along well, but we haven’t eaten anything (except the herbs) yet. Hopefully this year marks the start of a regular harvest from a spring and fall garden in East Texas. We also hope to keep expanding it enough each year to eventually have some extra for you! In the meantime, check… ... Continue reading
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Who is Top Cow at Shady Grove Ranch? Part 2
Welcome to part II of our “Who is top cow at Shady Grove Ranch?” series. First we introduced you to Gordita. Now we will introduce you to another cow that we bought alongside Gordita, one of the first group of cattle at Shady Grove Ranch. … ... Continue reading | 1 Comment
Guest post: Nick Puffer’s 60 lbs in 16 weeks
Hi, I’m Nick Puffer. I’m a full time Web Marketing / SEO Specialist for Downtown Motor Company in Gulfport, MS and also work part time for Starbucks as a Barista. In between jobs, I run a blog about diet and exercise with a focus on becoming more organic. Over the past 3 years I have striven to become more healthy and have gained a passion for learning about the effects… ... Continue reading
Chick Training
Laying Chick Training
Check out our photo essay of transitioning our baby laying chicks to pasture from the brooder house. These chicks are about 6 weeks old and love their new home. Here is a photo essay about how we train baby layers to thrive on pasture. These babies are about 6 weeks old and are doing great!
- Since I’m always behind the camera, here’s me (Jerica). Bundled up and ready to load up the chicks!
- Here is the destination. These are the big chickens, the future flock-mates of our little birdies…
- …once they get trained to stay inside of this electric fence. They need a little time to learn not to hop through the holes. (sorry for the blurry picture)
- Here is the “training facility.” It is a portable pen the provides a physical barrier for the chicks with the option to train them to electric fence.
- Here is how you move 250 pounds worth of babies to the pasture.
- They get plenty of air in here while we load them all up.
- Peeping out the sides.
- Ready to go check out their new home.
- Here is Matt’s cheap and effective solution to keeping the panels upright on windy days, which are most days here at the ranch.
- Matt demonstrates how his panels easily unlatch and swivel.
- Entering the paddock.
- Look at all that green grass ready for little beaks to nibble!
- Yum, yum!
- The release! They are excited about the grass!
- Party at the Cadmans’!
- This is their house, enclosed on 3 sides to give them protection from the wind. There are roosts built in so they get used to roosting off the ground, like they will do once they are released into the big chicken flock.
- A few days later, Matt added the electric barrier so the chicks get used to avoiding it. In a few months, these little gals will be laying beautiful brown, white, and green eggs for our customers!
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Who is Top Cow at Shady Grove Ranch? Part 1
Who is top cow at Shady Grove Ranch?
This is the first of a series of articles on our favorite breeding cows at Shady Grove Ranch. We have invested a lot of time and energy into our grass-fed beef herd and would love to share with you about some of our favorite personalities in the herd and why we like them so much.
The first is without doubt our favorite
What Grade of Grocery Shopper Are You?
Check out our short article to decide if you are flunking out at food or excelling at eating when you shop for groceries. Will you try to improve your grade this year?
2012 October Farm Day
Farm Day was a hit at Shady Grove Ranch! We had a small group, which was lovely for taking our time and having plenty of interesting conversations about sustainable agriculture. Once everyone had arrived, we loaded up onto the hayride to collect eggs. Matt hooked us up to the tractor, and away we went!
We had all the workers and the egg baskets. Toby… ... Continue reading | 1 Comment
ETBU Students Visit Shady Grove Ranch
Last week we were able to welcome some students from East Texas Baptist University (ETBU) who are interested in learning about sustainable food production. Earlier this summer, Dr. Cassie Falke contacted me about bringing some of her students to the ranch to learn a little bit more about the connection between people and food. We love to share what we do, and what better way for someone to learn about… ... Continue reading
Is Spinach Really A Superfood?
I was recently reminded that the world at large perceives that vegetables are healthier than meats, though no one really seems to know why. You often hear the word “superfood” associated with health-food-store favorites like kale, spinach, blueberries, and walnuts. You never think about foods like salami and cheddar cheese, mostly because they are salty, fatty, and generally considered to be deliciously unhealthy.
But on a per-calorie basis (because… ... Continue reading
Bird’s Eye View of The Life of a Chicken
Bird’s Eye View of The Life of a Chicken
Among the misunderstandings that abound concerning industrialized products, probably food production has some of the most. Marketing committees have developed clever ways of giving facts and presenting half-truths so that the pleasant pastoral images evoked when a shopper sees “Farmer Joe’s Free-Range Eggs” on a label that he or she feels comforted to know that the hens that gave those eggs… ... Continue reading | 1 Comment