The big news this month is that we finally harvested a couple tilapia!
We’ve been waiting a year and a half for this day.
It’s been a fun learning experience growing produce in our aquaponics system. But, the thing I’ve been most looking forward to is getting to eat a fish.

As exciting (and yummy) as it was to eat this fella. He’s really not all that big for being in the tank for a year and a half. He only weighed about half a pound. Statistically he should have been 2 – 3 pounds by now.

I have two theories on why our fish aren’t growing as quickly as we expected. One – We aren’t feeding them enough. Or two – Their water is slightly too cold for optimal growth. This breed tends to grow larger in year round warm water.

Farmer John fried one fish for lunch. We fried the other for dinner. One small fish for a family of five wasn’t exactly an over abundance, but we made it stretch and enjoyed every bite.

We shredded up the fish fillets for tacos. Because we needed more protein for our tacos, I also diced and sauteed homegrown chicken.

One of my favorite meals just got better.
I could eat street style tacos for weeks and not get tired of them. I always make them with chicken. Now I can enjoy them with tilapia, too.

These tacos are so simple to make and so delicious. I always eat too many.

Ridgetop’s Chicken or Fish Street Style Tacos

• corn tortillas (fried in vegetable oil for about 30 seconds on each side)
• chicken (sauteed in vegetable oil and taco seasoning)
• fish (we used tilapia fillets, fried in butter)
• lettuce (chopped)
• shredded cheese (we like cheddar or jack)
• black olives (sliced)
• salsa (we use homemade, but whatever you like will work)

I can’t express enough how thrilled I am to harvest these fish. It is very rewarding to feed my family in this way.

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Our aquaponics system continues to thrive, even through a little mishap we had early in the month.

IN THE GROW BEDS

Peppers, tomatoes, swiss chard & okra are all doing well.

The back grow bed is going wild & crazy with two types of produce: Eggplants & Mexican Sour Gherkins. They love it there. We are picking Sour Gherkins by the handfuls daily.

AERATOR

This isn’t new, but I don’t remember posting about it.
In the main fish tank is a simple aerator. It is a piece of tubing with small holes in it. One end of the tubing is connected to an air compressor, the other end is placed in the fish tank.

TILAPIA

The tilapia are doing well. However, there was an incident.

The pump quit working. I’m not exactly sure how long it wasn’t working. Not longer than 24 hours. But, even just a couple hours could have been harmful to the fish. The aquaponics system depends on the water being moved from the fish tanks to the grow beds and back. It moves fish waste out and plant nutrients in. In our set up, it also adds a bit of aeration to the tanks.

Thank goodness the tilapia’s odd behavior clued me in that something wasn’t right. I’m sure I would have figured it out anyway, but my first clue were the fish. Many of them were near the top of the tank, taking little gulps of air. They don’t ever hang out at the top.

I started looking around and sure enough the water wasn’t moving. My heart sunk. Farmer John was gone for the week and I am not mechanical.

I was worried about the fish. They were stressed and in need of oxygen. The aerator wasn’t hooked up. About a week prior, we poured concrete in the Man Shack, which is where the air compressor had been. The air compressor had been moved and wasn’t set back up, so the aerator wasn’t running.

Now to find the problem. Eventually, I figured out that it was the pump. It was still getting power, but for some reason wasn’t pumping water. Thankfully, we had another pump. There are a lot of variables to setting it up, so I called our friend and he helped me get it going.

Problem solved. And, no fish seemed to be harmed by the ordeal.

CHANGES & UPDATES

In July, I wrote about a new pump Farmer John put in the aquaponics system. It worked great. But… it still wasn’t exactly what he wanted. It moved a lot of water, but it was loud and used quite a bit of electricity.

So, he found this smaller pump at Home Depot and installed it. It seemed to work ok. But, it made an obnoxiously loud high pitch sound for a small pump. Not long after we got it, Farmer John was saying how he wondered if something was wrong with it.

This was the pump that went out while he was gone. I’d say he was correct in thinking something was wrong. The pump went on the fritz after only having it about a month.

Now it’s back to the pump he got in July.

I’m thankful for another successful month with our aquaponics venture. I’d prefer a less eventful month where everything works as it should. But I’m happy to be eating fresh, homegrown produce and that all the fish survived the pump failure.

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It seems a little strange that it’s already the end of August and we haven’t done much preserving of our our garden harvests. We didn’t plant a ton of zucchini this year. So, we have enough to eat, but not a never ending supply. Other squash and cucumbers are the same way. I had hoped to can salsa and marinara, but we didn’t have much luck with tomatoes this year. We did can 37 quarts of peaches, but the peaches weren’t from our orchard. Our herbs are doing well, but I haven’t preserved them like I should have. There are lots of onions & potatoes that will need pulled soon. Maybe we’ll have time to preserve a few things now that summer is winding down.

OUR GARDEN

THREE SISTERS
The beans went crazy and produced lots this month. Many of the pumpkins and gourds are looking great. But, the corn is only doing so-so.

KALE & CUCUMBERS

TOMATOES
Top: Our tomato plants this year haven’t done too well, but we are getting some red tomatoes.
Bottom: Many yellow cherry tomato plants reseeded or regrew from plants last year. However, they’re growing in a very weedy spot of the garden, making them difficult to pick.

SQUASH

AND MORE
Left: One lone sunflower grew out of the hundreds of seeds I planted.
Right: An entire section of the garden is a weedy mess. Boo! What a waste of space. We just haven’t had the time to keep up.

AQUAPONICS & GREENHOUSE

Produce in the greenhouse is doing very well. We’re getting eggplant, Mexican sour gherkins, okra, peppers, ground cherries, & tomatoes.

BERRIES, GRAPES & FRUIT TREES

Top: The grapes are doing fantastic.
Bottom: We’ve picked only a couple ripe apples. When I think of apple trees, I think of old trees covered in apples – so many they’re falling off the branches. We don’t have that.
Not pictured: The only berries we’re getting are wild blackberries. They’re a blessing and a curse. They are delicious. But, they are invasive & thorny.

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Our aquaponics system appears to be in good shape. The plants are growing well and look good. The fish are growing and we haven’t had any floaters. The nitrite and ammonia levels are at 0, so the biological filter is working well. Since installing a larger pump last month the water clarity has improved. All is well, at the moment.

CHANGES & UPDATES

Farmer John is constantly improving our aquaponics system. His newest addition is making floating beds for growing lettuce in its own separate, smaller system. He cut a barrel in half for the floating beds and will use an old aquarium tank for the fish.

IN THE GROW BEDS

The Mexican Sour Gherkins have taken Okra’s spot as our top producer this month. There are hundreds of the little guys growing in those vines.

Left: However, the okra is still producing well.
Right: We’re still getting red tomatoes from the scraggly, old tomato plant.

Ripe for the picking this month are eggplant & peppers. I love these guys. As far as produce goes, I think they’re gorgeous.

BUGS

A variety of bugs enjoy the greenhouse, too.

TILAPIA

Most of the tilapia are in the main fish tank now and are continuing to grow. They also continue to be difficult to photograph.

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Weather

Not much to say except that March was a very wet month.

The door on the Rhode Island Red coop got left open one day & the chickens, of course, got out. They didn’t care that it was pouring down rain. They were just happy to be free. They were soaked to the skin, but still spent the day scrathin’ & peckin’ in the great outdoors.

One particularly stormy day lightning was directly outside our house. That was a weird feeling. We don’t typically get much lightning & certainly not so close. Lucky for us, the only thing it seemed to ruin was one port on the router. This is/was the only port with cables going outside to the satellite dish.

We did have a few nice days, though, & the chickens enjoyed taking dust baths.

Flower Beds

Thanks to a local nursery sale & Costco, one day I came home with many new plants. The next weekend I went back to the nursery & grabbed more of the heather. I have the perfect place for it.

The thistles & blackberries are making an appearance. Damn it! We’ve lived here for 6 years & the Canadian Thistle is still my nemesis.

Gardening for Food

While I do most of the work in the flower beds, Farmer John does most of the food-type gardening. His favorite method for starting seeds is mixing his own soil & creating soil blocks. These little guys were started in a tiny soil block. Once germinated Farmer John moved them to a larger soil block.

The seeds I ordered arrived!
Farmer John ordered the seeds that will eventually turn into food in our pantry. Later, I ordered some fun stuff. I ordered a variety of flowers, including sunflowers, wildflower & rudbeckia. I also ordered 5 different types of pumpkins & gourds. They will mostly be used for autumn decorating, but also to feed the chickens. And, I ordered a bunch of herb seeds. The herbs will be used for cooking, and again, also for the chickens.

Chicken Keeping

Are you going to feed us or just stand there taking our picture?

Blue Copper Marans rooster & Black Copper Marans hen enjoying a nice day in their covered run.

The Littles from our February hatch were moved from the brooder to a raised sectioned-off area in one of the coops.

Another batch of eggs were set in the incubator on March 1st. Three weeks later, we had more chicks, including our first Marans of 2014.

March 27th, I placed yet more eggs in the incubator. This round, we have for the first time this year, Rhode Island Reds. I also added in our bluest Easter Egger eggs. I have hatched these eggs before, but at the same time as all the other EE’s, so I’m not sure which chicks have come from these eggs. I want to see specifically what these chicks look like.

Aquaponics

The aquaponics system is slowly, but surely getting set up. All the tanks are in place.

And, the plastic is covering the greenhouse.

Goats

The big, unexpected news of the month is that we got 2 Nigerian Dwarf Goats. They are super cute, full of personality & have been keeping us busy.

Random Pics of Good Ol’ Country Living

Mr. Quail all fluffed up & ticked off that I’m disturbing him & his lady. He really is a grouchy little thing.

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Here at Ridgetop Farm & Garden we process our own birds. This post is about how we do it. So, if you’re squeamish or not interested in how the live chicken ends up on your dinner table you might want to skip this post.

THE CHICKENS

Sometimes we purchase Cornish Cross chicks for our meat production. Other times we process cockerels that we hatched a few months prior. The advantage to raising Cornish Cross is that they are bred for meat, so they have a nice, big breast come butchering day. Ironically, that is the same reason people choose not to go with Cornish Cross. They grow too big, too quickly.

Our broilers live in a chicken tractor that gets moved around every couple days. They eat grass, weeds & bugs. We also give them a gmo free, high quality feed that we get from Buxton Feed.

PROCESSING DAY

When they grow to a good size we have a processing day.

The chickens are placed head down in a cone. Farmer John slits their neck & they bleed out. It’s quick & there’s very little thrashing around using this method.

Next, they are dunked in 140° water. If the water gets over 150° the chicken skin tears.

We use a Whizbang Chicken Plucker to pluck off the feathers. It is a huge time saver.

The chicken is placed in the Whizbang Plucker.

The Plucker is turned on and the chicken gets spun around while the rubber fingers catch & pull off the feathers. Spraying water while the plucker is spinning rinses off the feathers. It’s messy, but it works great.

In about 30 seconds your bird is feather free.

Next step is cleaning the bird. The feet, head & neck are cut off and the innards removed.

A typical Cornish Cross will weigh a little over 4 pounds when all clean.

We put the bird in a shrink bag, dip it in hot water, let it rest a few minutes & put it in the freezer.

It is a lot more work & more expensive to raise & process your own chickens than to buy them from the store. But, it is much more rewarding to be self sufficient. Since we started butchering our own chickens I haven’t once wanted to buy chicken from the store. I haven’t needed to – our chicken is delicious!

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Over the summer, we grew wheat for the first time. It was a fun experience for all of us.

Growing the Wheat

We started the process with tilled soil.
May 19, 2013

Left: Seedlings coming up. June 10, 2013

Right: Coming in nicely. July 17, 2013

Left: All of a sudden it really took off. July 30, 2013

Right: August 4, 2013

My favorite thing about the wheat was how pretty it was, especially at sunset.

Field #1

The largest wheat field was over by the coops. The chickens were able to free range in this area.

The chickens loved it. By summer’s end, the wheat was gone.

Harvesting Field #2

We don’t have special tools or machinery for harvesting wheat. So to reap our harvest, Farmer John used a weed eater.

The kids & Farmer John hand picked up the down wheat stalks. Then they threshed the wheat by shaking the seed heads into a garbage can.

The wheat kernels at the bottom of a garbage can.

Shaking the wheat into a garbage didn’t do a complete job of removing the inedible chaff. They used a fan to blow away the chaff & the wheat kernels fell back into the garbage can.

Dumping the wheat & chaff into a bowl for another round of using the fan.

After the final time using the fan, we were left with this. The chaff was picked out & we had a beautiful bowl of wheat.

All that work was condensed down to this jar. We don’t have plans for it, so for now it sits on our kitchen counter. Farmer John would like to grind it into flour or we might just feed it to the chickens.

It was fun to go through the complete process of harvesting wheat. It grew very well here & was definitely worth the effort. Letting the chickens free range in the wheat was awesome. It took nearly no work from us. I’m really not sure, though, how much money it saved us in buying feed since we still had to buy feed for other chickens. Hand harvesting the wheat took too much time to be worth the effort, but was a great experience for everyone. I even bet Farmer John would like to harvest it again some time.

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In the Spring of 2012, we decided to raise turkeys for the first time. It was a great experience, but cost more than we expected. Here’s the run down on our expenses.

PURCHASE COST

We ordered 3 different turkey breeds:
6 Giant White = $42
5 Bronze Breasted Bronze = $35
4 Rio Grande = $40
Shipping = $20
Purchase Total = $137

FEED COST

May = $90 (13 turkeys)
June = $95 (13 turkeys)
July = $140 (12 turkeys)
August = $150 (12 turkeys)
September = $105 (9 turkeys)
October = $70 (6 turkeys)
Total Feed Cost = $650

TOTAL COST(ISH)

Purchase Total = $137
Total Feed Cost = $650
Total for 9 Turkeys = $787
Total for 1 Turkey = $87.40

The Giant White & Bronze Breasted Bronze Turkeys ended up being around 26 pounds when butchered. That meant they were about $3.36/pound.

It’s personal preference whether the turkey is worth that amount of money. But, I can say everybody who’s tried the turkey has thought it was the best they’ve ever had.

THE REALITY IS IT COST MORE THAN THAT TO RAISE OUR TURKEYS

The $87.40 was easy math. It’s really more complicated than that. That cost didn’t include housing, feeding supplies or butchering costs. Our cost on those items was about $800. I’m not sure the best way to include these expenses. Although, we paid for these things, they will be with us longer than the turkeys.

Farmer John built a Turkey Hut to house the turkeys, which cost around $275.

He also bought a waterer, which he thinks is the best type for turkeys. It was around $30.

We didn’t have to pay anyone to butcher the turkeys because we have the Whiz Bang Chicken Plucker. But, we paid $500 for this best invention ever.
To make the monetary matters even more complicated, the 2 Rio Grande turkeys weren’t processed that first fall. They take another year to mature & get to butchering weight. So, we kept them around & ended up getting babies from them. That’s got to be worth something on the positive side, right?

HOW WE LIKE TO COOK THE TURKEY

Our favorite way to cook the turkey is in my mom’s electric roaster.

Well, that was confusing. Plus, I’m not sure I really want to know the exact cost. It’s an expensive hobby/way of life. But, our kids are learning a ton & we’re showing them the benefits of good, homegrown food.

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