Jeff Berning

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since Jul 08, 2012
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CA . 3000 ft elevation, mostly southwestern slope , zone 9a
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Recent posts by Jeff Berning

The other farmers and vendors at the farmers market.
My apologies,  I'm not sure what I was thinking not addressing the safety issue that i pointed out. Also i was having internet issues this morning and it appears that somehow I posted all my pictures twice.

I cut down a small tree to use to retain the area that I backfilled. I try to keep any walls or steps as short as possible for the ducks. In the spring I'll spread borage seed , transplant oregano and rosemary here and put up a fence to keep the birds out.
4 years ago
I feel like the timing of the harvest is the main difference. I harvest chickens when they're ready and I have time.  I dont take into consideration exact age of the bird.  Ducks on the other hand are easiest to pluck at 7,12 1/2 and 18 weeks. Ive started raising Pekins for meat. Ive been harvesting them at 7 weeks,  they get big quick.  I take the drakes from our egg laying flock at 18 weeks , once all their feathers are mature. Ive tried to do it at 12 1/2 weeks but havemt been able to hit the matk and have had a pin feather battle both times. But 7 and 18 eeksseem to work well for me.

The other difference , at least for me, is the fat. I save every bit of duck fat and skin when butchering to render down.  Duck fat has become my primary cooking fat.  I dont save and render chicken fat.

4 years ago
I like process chickens 2 ways, since I did both today I figured I'd show both. Large roosters I pluck and small roosters usually get skinned.  While I'm waiting for my pot of water to heat up, I pick a few of the smaller roosters to skin.

I only skinned 4 birds to stay within the process and store in an hour requirement. I feel like I get more out of the smaller roosters when I quarter them and I save on space in the freezer.

After those 4 were in in the fridge I went back out and the pot water was almost boiling. Just in time to coral 2 roosters to for round 2.

After the chickens are processed I let them rest in the fridge overnight and will freeze most of it tomorrow morning.

The 4 carcasses from the skinned chicken will be made into stock.

I clip the toenails and freeze feet for dog treats. The necks hearts and liver will be turned into a gravy for an addition to their food.

I'll let the gizards sit over night and clean them in the morning. Then marinate in buttermilk and fry them duck fat.
4 years ago
"The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeys the laws of nature because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective or individual."

Mikhail Bakunin
4 years ago
2020 started out looking like a recipe for disaster, in hindsight we've had a pretty good year. Don't get me wrong, I miss going places, doing things , seeing people , hugging friends and making money. But it appears we've weathered this part of the storm pretty well.

In January I was was at trade show in Las Vegas and there was a lot of covid talk going around. I had decided there that it was going to be a tough year for glass sales. So I figured it might be smart to double down on the farm. In 2019 we started selling our excess produce and eggs at a farmers market and I already wanted to step it up in 2020. Now I had no excuse not to. So I filled the incubator with chicken eggs, ordered more ducks, placed a seed order and put up more fence.

Market season went really well. We ended up doing 2 markets. Sold out of eggs and produce most weeks. And the markets provides us with the little social time we needed so we could remain sane. There had been talk about doing an online farmers market for several years. This year they decided to make it happen. It's picked up pace through out the summer as people found out about it and has continued to do well after the outdoor market season come to an end.

My wife is an online teacher and I'm usually a glassblower with a studio at home. So we've been practicing isolating and social
distancing for over a decade and have managed to work out most of the kinks that can come along with it.

It wasn't the easiest year, there were plenty of struggles, but all in all its made us realize how fortunate we are.

4 years ago

Ben Gorski wrote:It has medicinal uses as tea.  what else do you want to plant in it's place?

Some plant will have to grow there lest another out-competes it.



If it tastes anything like it smells. I'll pass on the tea.

If you cut it back it takes about 12 monrhs for it regrow. I've also found if you attack the root system enough it will slow its regrowth and grasses and wildflowers can start to reestablish.

The roots break fairly easily and that's what makes it hard to eradicate.

If it wasnt for the mountain misery, the hill would probably be covered in grasses and wildflower 4 to 5.moths s year.

It served its purpose after the logging. The hillside is still place and it kept lots of small trees from popping up, by choking out almost everything but the manzanita.  
4 years ago
I have 3 acres I'd like to finish fencing off into paddocks and start utilizing, but first things first, the mountain misery battle. About 25 to 30 percent of the areas is covered in thick islands of mountain misery. The property was logged in the 80s and post logging the mountain misery did what its supposed to do and it took over.

We had mountain misery at our old house ( 1/3 of an acre) and it took me about 6 or 7 years to get it "under control" ,I dont think you ever actually get rid of it. I thought maybe someone here might have a different way to approach it.

I've burned it , cut it and pulled it and it always comes back the next year. People also use goats to graze it. I've found 2 things to be effective.

The first one is pulling it out by the roots for several years in a row. After 3 or 4 years you can get rid of most of it.This is the most effective way to deal with it, but that's easier said than done in the rock hard soil we have. I did this in our old garden. Once you pull most of it and get other things growing , it becomes easy to deal with. Every year there's a couple little sprouts , but those are easy to pull out. When the soil is loose you can pull out long root systems easily.

The second is cutting it back and getting something that grows fast to compete with it. I found this out on accident. At our old place we had some mint in pots and I noticed that it was starting spread into the beds that I didn't want full of mint. I put the pots at the edge of the yard where I had pulled the mountain misery back recently. Several years later when we moved, there was a thick bed of mint with no visible mountain misery.

We have several dozen ducks and will be getting 2 pigs in the spring. My thoughts are , weed eat and rake the area I want to clear. Spread forage seed, lightly mulch and water.Then when the area is ready let the pigs or ducks into the paddock to forage, disturbing the roots of the mountain misery. And then come through and rake out the roots and repeat the process.

The general concensus among old timers ive talked to ,and the USDA is repeated use of herbicides is the only effective way to deal with it That's not going to work for us. There a pdf from the USDA called "Ecology and Manipulation of Bear Clover in Northern and Central California: The Status of Our Knowlege" .That does a really good job describing what's known and what's been tried.  I tried to link to it,  but I don't appear to be as smart  as my phone this morning .
4 years ago