Eggs and Garden Porn

January is a cold and dreary month for us farmers and avid gardeners, that is until we start getting in the mail our garden seed catalogs. Ben calls the catalogs - Garden Porn. It makes you want and long for things that you can't yet have because the ground is a frozen solid chunk of earth and its so cold nothing will grow..... these catalogs make us long for (and possibly even yearn for) Spring to arrive so that we can dig into and smell earth in our hands.
Ben and I have agreed that the catalogs that are really picking at our interests this year are : http://www.rhshumway.com/  and the Bakers Creek http://rareseeds.com/ . Wow totally drool worthy. A new one that we happened to receive this year is http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/ . Amazing the seeds available and great information.  Needless to say our list of seed purchases keeps growing.

Last night, Ben and I sat at the table for over an hour, pouring over catalogs, deciding what seeds to get for our home garden and then ones to use for the market garden. We are excited about this new endeavor we are trying. The first big meeting for the Independence Farmers Market is this month. We are so glad that we're going to have the opportunity to participate in this wonderful market.

Now on to the chickens - we have 34 hens and 2 ducks that are our egg laying machines and they are doing us proud.... most of the 34 hens are just now turning 6 months old - and we are starting to be over run with eggs. Its a wonderful thing after raising them and caring for them to see the "fruits" of the labor we put in.
This week alone - Sunday through Tuesday - we have had 52 eggs laid. Thats right... pick your jaw off the floor. We are ecstatic !

As the new year begins - keep an eye out for Phantom Chicken Farm - we are growing and trying new things.