In this video, we wanted to share with you our reflections on being working farmers, and how juggling a baby and work tasks work out. This video is especially catered towards other farmers who are considering growing their human families… Giving them a few insights about how to include your baby in your farm life from the beginning!
KW Homestead
Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013
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Not All Liver is Created Equal…
Livers might not be a part of your usual diet, and if they’re not, now is a great time to start supplementing your body with this super food.
Traditional livers bought in an average grocery store don’t benefit you as much as you might think. Although they carry many of the same micro nutrients as our livers, they also carry the toxins that the animal, which has been raised in a cage or inside and fed subpar feed, has accrued in its organs throughout its life span. The liver is one of the organs that holds onto all of the toxins and chemicals that the animal has come in contact with or consumed. So while these livers carry positive nutrients they also carry detrimental ingredients as well. But, KW Homestead’s chicken livers are only beneficial! Because our chickens are raised on pasture and fed non GMO feed that is fresh, high-quality, and local, their livers are as clean as can be! This means that when you supplement your diet and your family’s diet with our chicken livers you can only expect good things.
Liver is a Nutritional Powerhouse
Did you know that a 100g serving of chicken liver provides MORE THAN HALF of the recommended daily amount for iron?!
One serving, around 3.5 oz of chicken liver, offers 172 calories, more than 100 of which come from protein! This serving contains 25.8g of protein, which provides MORE THAN 40% of your recommended daily amount for protein.
Wonderfully, chicken liver is a complete protein because it contains ALL of the essential amino acids, which are those that your body cannot produce. One serving provides MORE THAN 50% of the requirement for all essential amino acids!
One serving also supplies MORE THAN 100% of the recommended amount of vitamin A, folate, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, and B12 and MORE THAN 50% of your daily needs of choline, vitamin B6, and niacin.
This makes liver an ideal food for pregnant and nursing women. Emma made sure to eat tons of pate during her pre-pregnancy journey! People who eat Paleo or Weston A. Price diets can trust that our livers provide a healthful, clean, and nutrient dense energy source.
Many folks also enjoy feeding livers to their pets, especially those feeding a raw diet. Liver is certainly one food that your dog won’t turn down!
A Few Liver Recipes
Our two favorite ways to cook with liver are by creating a pate with butter and spices and by making a liver dumpling soup. Both methods have their merits, with the dumpling soup perhaps better suited for folks who don’t love the taste of liver.
Happy eating!
Sometimes we forget to videotape our breeding flock of turkeys during their “carefree” season: winter. As usual, the males spent most of the day showing off for each other, while the females were off in search of snacks. You can hear Emma gobbling on this video to motivate the toms to respond. They sure are some fun, noisy critters.
Our two dogs, Bolt and Coona, make a really great mouse hunting team. Bolt, the quicker of the two, has lightning fast reflexes and can snatch a mouse straight out of the air. Coona, who is the hound, usually flushes mice out to Bolt by rushing in between feed bins and spooking them out in his direction. It’s fantastic to watch their cooperation!
While Coona is the second-in-command mouse hunter, she is the leader when it comes to duck and chicken herding. We recently noticed that her legacy as a hound/shepherd mix, makes her an excellent and very focused duck and chicken caretaker. Because our birds are pasture raised and free ranging, they are often ending up in places where they shouldn’t be! One of these places is the backyard. The backyard fencing is cattle paneling, which means that birds can easily slip in and out of the yard. Until recently, Jason or I would herd the ducks out of the yard ourselves before letting the dogs outside, but ultimately some would sneak right back in. It took us only a few days of watching Coona interact with these daring ducks to realize how gentle she could be when herding them back through the fence towards the woods. Bolt, on the other hand, has always needed a bit more coaxing in order to be gentle with the birds. He just gets so excited!
Coona impresses us every day with how much she loves her job. She will quietly and contentedly lay near the back fence waiting for a chick to pop through and then slowly, and with complete focus, usher the chick back through to his side of the fence. Bolt is often watching this… He usually keeps a check on himself so that he doesn’t chase the birds too intensely or grab one with his mouth. It’s amazing to watch Coona be so delicate with ducks and chickens. She interacts with them very lovingly, with great tenderness, and with great concern for the rules. We would love to be able to say that we taught her to be such a great herding dog, but it’s just not true. It’s in her blood!
Considering the great working team that Bolt and Coona are, it’s no wonder that they have a fantastic time outside together securing the homestead and caring for the animals!
Our 2-month-old son, Uhtred, loves being outside! He’s met all of the animals, and the turkeys are his stand-out favorites. He loves the noise! Check out this video of our pasture-raised. free-range, non-GMO heritage turkeys being herded around the yard by Uhtred!
Now that the turkeys are reaching maturity, the toms are getting frisky and excited to battle each other for hen affection. Even though the hens ignore the boys, the toms sure do have fun messing with each other!
Our trio of geese stand guard over our free range, pasture raised flock of Red Ranger broilers. Their presence protects from aerial predators and they deter four-footed creatures with their ridiculously loud honking! Check out this video to hear them sound the alarm, even though it’s only us approaching. Good job, geese!
There’s nothing quite like a fresh picked muscadine grape that has only traveled the distance from the vine to mouth via your hand. No sprays, waxes or added sugars necessary. These delicous fruits are a great pick for organic gardeners, and others interested in edible landscaping in the South.
Muscadines (Vitis rotundifolia) work so well here in North Carolina because they are our native grape. They are resistant to our most common pests and diseases, such as Pierce’s disease and Phylloxera which can wreak havoc on popular V. Vinifera cultivars like Merlot, Cabernet, and Chardonnay. While these familiar favorites can be grown in NC and other Southern States, you have to be careful with variety and site selection for your vineyard, and pay particular attention to rootstocks and soil characteristics before planting your backyard vineyard.
Fresh picked Muscadine Grapes
While planting muscadines on your property is definetly a productive option, wild muscadines are extremely common in our forests and woodland edges and are a great option for wildcrafters and foragers. In fact, this harvest of grapes was one we foraged from wild vines growing along the edge of our pond.
Wild muscadines tend to ripen over a period of a couple weeks in late summer/early fall, so it often takes multiple trips spaced out over time to gather the fruits from one vine. Of course you won’t get them all, and many birds and mammals will feast on the ones left behind or drop to the ground. On our farm, the free range ducks, chickens, and heritage turkeys relish these sweet treats as they fall from vines that can reach up to 60 ft tall in the canopies of oaks, hickorys, and pines.
Wild Muscadine Grape Vine Ready to Harvest
Wild vines aren’t always the most productive, and the ones that are growing in mature trees are often too high to harvest anyway. The best vines are those that are growing along smaller trees and shrubs that are easily accessible to human hands.
Once you find a vine like this, one option is to tend to it like you would a planted vine. Selective pruning to remove dead wood and overgrowth of foliage, as well as some light pruning of nearby vegetation to let in some more light will help to ripen more fruit. Some vines can even be lowered onto supporting vegetation that is makeit easier to harvest these delicous grapes.
This type of “wild encouragement” is an easy way to increase fruit yields that benefit both you and nature. As long as you are careful, and make sure you aren’t messing around on protected property, this can be a very positive human interaction with the landscape.
Whether you’re planting improved varieties of muscadines or foraging from wild vines, these vigorous natives are delicous fresh out of hand, or in wines, jellies and jams. Happy picking!
We are excited to announce that we now offer delivery for our pasture raised chicken, duck and duck eggs to customers in the Greensboro, NC area!
We love seeing customers at the Farmers Market, but sometimes you just can’t make it!
We realize that sometimes it’s hard to get to the farmers market, but that doesn’t mean you want to go an entire week without your delicious, free range poultry fix. So, we decided to offer a delivery option to our local customers, both old and new.
Delivery Fees and Protocol
For now, until we get our new online store fully stocked and functional, we will be taking delivery orders by email. We’ll then let you know your delivery date, and ask that if you will not be home, to leave a cooler with ice packs by your front door, preferably in the shade.
- Orders $150 and over receive free delivery!
- Orders $40 – $149 have a $7.95 delivery fee.
- Orders $30 – $39.99 have a $9.95 delivery fee.
- Orders $15 – $29.99 have a $14.95 delivery fee.
- Orders under $15 have a $22.95 delivery fee.
The more you buy, the lower the fee! Of course, all orders picked up at the farmers market in Greensboro are always free.
These fees also apply to our Chicken CSA customers who would like to take advantage of home delivery. In this case, we will use your discounted price to figure out the delivery fee. For example, our Deluxe Chicken CSA is $4.99/lb, so if you order two 4.5 pound chickens, your product total is $44.91 (9 lbs x $4.99) with an added delivery fee of $7.95. You could also add other items, like a dozen duck eggs, to this order if you like!
So remember, don’t feel down the next time you can’t make it to the farmers market, simply shoot us an email (ourochreway@gmail.com) with your order, and we’ll make sure you get your favorite humanely raised and harvested, duck, chicken, and eggs.
SPECIAL!!! This week enjoy 10% off all chicken parts! From boneless breast to juicy thighs! Expires after Saturday August 26, 2017.
Being a farmer: hard.
Being a pregnant farmer: Waaay harder!
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