The Iowa Children's Museum Grown Ups' Night

As the garden comes to an end, this week will be our last weekly pick up. On Thursday night 9/10, from 6:30-9:30 pm, we will be hosting a fund raiser for the Children’s Museum. (http://theicm.org/event/grown-ups-night-pizza-party/)  Tickets are only $30 per person, which includes pizza, dessert and drinks.

Chris and DeeAnn Grebner will have Provender here, making their phenomenal, brick oven pizzas. There will be local beer (and root beer) on tap, wine and Keven B.F. Bert will be singing his soul-inspired brand of blues, all for a good cause. 

We invite you to join in on the fun, go to their site and RSVP. It looks to be a lovely evening and we can't wait to see you out here.

 

Goat Happy

We are so pumped! We had a delicious and inspiring morning, visiting Belle Chèvre in Elkmont, Alabama.  Our heads our swarming with ideas. The Walker Homestead vision of the 'home of happy hens, fun goats, and organic veggies' just got closer.

We met the charismatic and delightful owner, Ms. Tasia Malakasis (Chief Cheese Officer), who will be invited to visit Iowa as we very much look forward to her sharing her success story with the students of John Pappajohn Entrepreneur Center (JPEC) at the University of Iowa as well as her culinary artistry with the Iowa City community in the spring of 2016. More to come!

The Summer Promise of a Fall Harvest

The road from town is closed through October but ...
the detour is worth the drive.

Mulberries Ready for Pickin'

For our CSA families, the mulberries are ready to pick! You are welcome to pick you own when you come on Thursday to collect your goodies. Other than harvesting mulberries for yourself, your goodie bag should look the same as last week: onion, kale, lettuce, spinach, arugula ,Swiss chard, and a lovely dozen of eggs.

CSA 2015 has Officially Kicked Off

The first week was welcomed with beets, onion, kale, lettuce, spinach, arugula, a little frozen sweet corn and a lovely dozen of eggs. This week will be an encore. As will be the schedule for the season, we will begin picking at 4:30. Bags should be ready to collect by 6:00 pm each Thursday. If you come earlier, you can help collect and your bag may be done early as well. Come around to the back yard for pick-up. You are welcome to join us for an ice tea (or other beverage of choice) and say hi to the layers and the little chicks or you can collect your items and be off to start your evening.

PS. The little ones are growing fast. We have a mother hen who has adopted the 64 chicks and is being a very good mama ---So sweet to watch her tend to them.

Morning in the Vineyard

As we listened to the news last night on the criminal charges filed in food safety case against egg producers in Reuters Iowa and saw the stretches of building on top of building where their hens are kept for production, it gave us great joy and pride that our eggs are from truly pasture-raised, free-ranging hens. This morning, our laying ladies greeted the day in the vineyard area, keeping the vines insect free, the grounds well fertilized and themselves well-nourished and healthy. This is how every egg should be produced. 

Welcome CSA 2015!

CSA Families-

Welcome to 2015!

This past Saturday, we started our Georgia Jet Sweet Potatoes slips and the March seedlings indoors. See below planting/harvest schedule for 2015. Not reflected in the image will also be sweet corn in July/August and mulberries this summer that you will be invited to pick once they are ready to harvest.

Of note:

• Kick-off gathering on Thursday, May 28, 5:30 – 7:30 where all the CSA families will have an opportunity to get to know one another. We will provide the food, smoking a chicken that evening, and ask everyone just to bring their beverage of choice.
• Pick up will be each Thursday where you get eggs and your fresh edibles for the week.
• We will give you a heads up early in the week via the blog of what to expect on pick-up day: http://walkerhomesteadcsa.blogspot.com/
• The other party dates are 25-Jun and 24-Sep, (which are also the dates you pick up your CSA chickens).
• If not already paid, your CSA payment of $400 is due in April. Checks can be made to Walker Homestead CSA.  
• Let us know if you want organic eggs laid by pasture-raised, free-range chickens prior to that CSA season start. We sell them for $3.50/dozen with the egg carton returned for reuse.  Drop us an email and we can bring them to the hospital or the Tippie College of Business.

Bob and Kristy Walker

3913 James Ave SW

Iowa City, Iowa, 52246

319-330-5326

walkerr735@gmail.com

CSA 2015 Gear Up

Spring is coming-Time to kick in the CSA.

CSA 2015 membership: June - September $400
 

- Approx. dozen brown eggs/week from pasture-raised, free-range chickens

- Organic vegetables with seeds from Seed Savers of Decorah, Iowa (Sample Vegetable List on Back)

- Approx. 5+ pound whole chickens (1 mid-summer and 1 fall)

- Chickens originate from Murray McMurray Hatchery of Webster City, Iowa

If buying additional items or a non-CSA member
 

- Buy the dozen: Eggs $4.00/dozen ($3.50 if returning carton)

- Buy the pound: Chicken $5.00/pound

 

Benefits of pasture-raised, free-range hen eggs over supermarket eggs from a processing plant:
 

- Age - Fresh this week vs. supermarket eggs tend to be 1-2 months old. The f resher the egg, the richer the flavor. Note: fresh eggs are more difficult to peel so if wanting for hard boiled eggs, sprinkle backing soda in water while boiling or have them sit in the fridge for a month.

- Yolk Color – Influenced by diet. Yard hens that forage for bugs and greens will produce a deeper yellow, almost orange color yolk.

- Nutritional Content - Up to six times more vitamin D, two times more omega-3 fatty acids, more vitamins A and E and up to one-third less cholesterol. *2007 Mother Earth News Study.

If interested in items, contact:

Bob and Kristy Walker

3913 James Ave SW

Iowa City, Iowa 52236

319-330-5326

walkerr735@gmail.com

Joy : Farmer's Table

Joy noun (ˈjȯi) Sharing your passion with others, such as love for land and food. We have the great privilege of hosting a Farmer’s Table dinner this Valentines weekend. Chef Chris Grebner is an extremely talented culinary artist. His passion is to bring together the food producer with the food consumer, over a four to seven course meal on the property where the food is produced. These evenings are exquisite with an eclectic group of people coming together to enjoy meeting new people, fine foods and conversation, and having their own beverage of choice in the beauty of a country setting.

Bon appetite.

  

Benefits of Working and Living off the Land

I have a new hero: Stamatis Moraitis, pictured below and featured in the New York Times Article. It speaks to the health benefits of working and living off the land and adopting a life style within a carring community. It makes me want to move forward with getting goats and to next year’s harvest of grapes for our first wine.  As we prep for spring and make decisions on how we are structuring the CSA for 2015, the ladies are still producing up to 2-3 dozen eggs a day! At the moment we are selling eggs for $3.00/dozen.  Let us know your orders and we will work logistics.