Spring break...950

we are now doing test harvest on all the stages of the sunshines to identify the characteristics of the meat in each stage.

it took me a while to write this blog because my first attempt was deleted because of bad internet connections... =(. hay!!! anyways...

dinner was great. Spring chickens were tasty and most of all.... TENDER!. our house staff dressed them live from the farm. we roasted four chickens for five adults (2 pregnant women, 2 big boys and our dear mother) and my precious baby alaine.

stuffed and marinated only with lemongrass, ginger, garlic, onions, salt and pepper, nothing more and nothing less. =) roated in turbo broiler for 1.5 hour at... 260 degrees.

alaine was suppose to have chicken arroscaldo but when i checked the tenderness of the meat, we decided to let her have her first adult food meal! =).. yes, it was memorable indeed. she enjoyed the chicken as well and ate both white and dark meats. (NOTE: she only has four front teeth!)

the family had a great time eating, scrutinizing and commenting about the qualities of each part of the chicken. evern the spring chicken's breast was tender and... TASTY. i bought lechon sauce from baliwag just incase somebody wanted some gravy with their chicken but whala!... the lechon sauce was barely touched! the only sauce that everybody used was PINAKURAT VINEGAR, as dressing for the stuffings, and not for the chicken.

contrary to what i expected, the spring chickens were meaty, the bones were small but firm (at 32 days!) the average dressed weight of each chicken was 750 grams (live weight 950 grams). all along i expected the chickens to be all bones, no meat, but they proved me wrong. =).

a ready market would be our only concern for selling this type of meat... would Php 150 SRP be an acceptable price for a piece of good, tasty and melt-in-your-mouth tender spring chicken? you tell me...

FIRST HARVEST

Yesterday was the 34th day of the sunshines. the average weight of the big ones are 970 grams.

there are still the small ones and i have decided to give them away to my caretaker for food, definitely not for raising.

Their appetite for food and water has doubled and we are adding more feeders and waterers.

Monday would be their first day of ranging. i am excited to see them range. am sure it will be like going to the beach for them. hehehehe

I always take pictures of them whenever i visit the farm. this gives me s snapshot of what the condition of the sunshine's and the brooder.

we are now having a hard time sourcing dry sawdust or rice hull. i hope we solve this problem before we load the next batch of chickens which will definitely need more ricehull and saw dust.

FIRST HARVEST, i harvested 6 chickens from the farm yesterday. i chose the bigger ones and bought a chick box where i put them.

WHY 6? its one chicken for each family member.

on the way home, I dropped by the market to buy two bundles of lemongrass and headed to our house immediately so dressing can begin.

At home, our yaya took charge of dressing the chicken but had to pass the torch to our help because she had to attend to my kyonie daughter.

I realized that its not easy to dress chickens. they started around 6pm and finished around 10am. well, they are not professionals and its their first time.

one of them chopped the onions, garlic, ginger and pounded the lemongrass which we will use as marinade.

i left for a dinner meeting in makati and when i returned they were still cleaning the chickens! i told them to call it a night and just marinade the chicken tomorrow.

The average dressed weight of the chickens are 750grams in 34 days.

TODAY, as i write this blog, my dependable house staff are preparing the chickens and putting all the stuffings inside for tonights action!

i called my mom and my brother to invite them for dinner. they are excited. and so am i!!!

we are going to have turbo roasted chicken, oh sorry! turbo roasted sunshine! hehehehe... i had 5 chickens prepared and my daughter is going to have her arroscaldo sunshine.

till my next blog... most probably after tonight's dinner! buurrrpp... hehehhe

500G

called up la ferme yesterday to check on the chicks...

one the sunshines just broke the 500 gram mark... 510 grams at 22 days to be exact. =)

the smaller chicks are catching up and i sure do hope that they break the 500G mark next friday.

hope things get better from this point on.

fingers crossed. chin up. eyes wide open. let's get it on! =)

after the rain... the sunSHINES...

1 to 21

am posting the pictures of la ferme's sunshines from day old to 21 days.

came from the farm yesterday and had mixed emotions.

the chicks are doing better from last 2 weeks when the rain was pouring like no tomorrow. it was a good learning experience for me of course. 2 chicks died but the third chick was saved by jomer, the son of our caretaker. he wrapped the almost dead chick in a used shirt and kept it beside him all night... the next day, the chick was better and was starting to eat again. =) touching huh? =) he is a natural when it comes to taking care of the chicks. when it comes to vaccine time, jomer takes charge and moves smoothly and swifty. lorna and jomer are now incharge of the chicks while william is incharge of the mahogany trees.

motherly instinct

lorna, is now incharge of the chicks because mang william is busy with the mahogayn trees. with lorna on the floor since last week, the chicks are better, slowly catching up on weight and the brooder is cleaner and in is better shape. i guess ladies are more caring and motherly by nature, i even catch her talking to the chicks sometimes. hehehe..funny.

25 to 100 watts

changed the 25 watt bulbs to 50 and 100 watt bulbs yesterday and waited till 7pm to observe the difference before i left the farm.

well what do you know??? the chicks were now warming themselves up under the bulbs. doc rey was right... be a keen oberver... la ferme is located around 800-1000 meters up the mountains of baras, rizal, and as such the weather at night could be cold specially during the rainy and ber months. i was surprise to drive through fog on my way home last night, yes!, fog! but not as heavy as tagaytay fog.

hot air rises

we left the screen door without cover so fresh air could go in and left a little space at the ceiling where hot air can escape. the analogy that i used when i talked with doc rey was... "its like being under the blanket in an airconditioned room".

unity in diversity

the variance in the weight of the chicks are a bit disappointing. at 21 days, the biggest being 460grams and the smallest at 200 grams.

we changed to standard industrial feeders yesterday (only Php 20 each!). why? because the remedial old-cut-up tires were taking up too much space and the chicks are lying on the tires which might contaminate the food and make it hard for hungry chicks to eat.

we also separated the chicks below 400 grams from the bigger ones. so they could eat better and not compete with the big sunshines.

malunggay

the chicks where soaking wet 2 weeks ago because we forgot to put cover on the brooder. but i believe that what got the chick through were atovi and malunggay leaves!

yes. we do feed the chicks cut up grass and malunggay leaves.=)

we plan to start free ranging the bigger chicks next week after their last vaccine. =)

there you have it! POULTRY101! =)

till then...

loaded...

we finally loaded sunshine chicks in our farm yesterday, august 29, 2008... pictures to follow.

last touch

came from the farm yesterday with my handy man, mang fernan.

he and mang william are making the final touches to the brooder... installing the the light bulbs, some wall panels and the doors to the brooder.

hopefully we get to load the chicks before august ends. =)

am excited at the same time nervous... whoo..

what made me smile today

this has nothing to do with la ferme but la ferme made this moment happen.

when i set up the mulitply site of la ferme organique, i sent invitations to all of my contacts from my pan pacific email add ( FREE AD...our fuel retail and distribution company. diesel? galsoline? kerosene? anyone?) to join la ferme's multiply site.

the response was touching.

A NEW INSPIRTION. one of my friend, who i dearly value and hold in high respect, responded to my invitation and told me that one of their child was recommeded to have an organic diet. he congratulated me in advance and told me that they would surely be my customer. i was so touched by the warm greeting but more than that,it moved me... gave me more motivation to pursue this project. am so happy that this project will not only give me fulfiilment but also help and make other people happy.

to my dear friend and his child, thank you for adding to my inspiration. you made my smile today.

MISSING MY STUDS. a lot of you might not know that i had a one year teaching stint in De La Salle University. i taught business and specifically handled business plan writing and implementation. i invited some of my students to join my multiply site and they accepted. i would have invited others but i do not know all their email addresses.

anywayz, i visited some of their sites and saw their pics and their products. left some messages and started writing this blog. why? coz i miss my students and miss teaching. Sorely! coz i know i would not be able to teach again in the near future. it took a lot of time from me and our business.

LUXURY. my one year teaching stint gave me a lot of fulfillment but affected our business. exapansion was delayed and sales took a toll. teaching took so much time from me but i enjoyed it. i was tired but was happy and fulfiiled. well, as my guru tatay ed morato once said. teaching is a luxury. well, yes tatay ed. it is indeed.

PROUD. i am proud to have taught them, more proud of their thesis but most proud of my students. yes, i miss them indeed. all of them. i taught them life not only business, learned with them and spent one year of my life with them. (a big, big smie!)

SAME FULFILLMENT. i know that organic will give me the same fulfillment but would never replace teaching in my heart. i hope to see my studs one day, hopefully at the farm over a bottle of wine and a lot of organic food. that would be a good day for organic farming. =) cheers!

it's all good!