This is Kerbey Lane’s second annual Urban Farm Open House. It was such a success last year, we are thrilled they are back for another outstanding Meal in the Field! Actually, this chic dinner is a wonderful showcase of the season’s best harvests with Kerbey Lane’s signature touch. Join us for a delightful dinner under the pecans on the farm. See you there!

Urban Farm October menu

We’re pretty excited to share with you Austin’s newest non-profit supper club benefitting the Dell’s Children Hospital and the Sustainable Food Center. The Chef’s Table dinner is the brain child of Executive Chef Jason Dodge of Peche and mixologist Michael Menley. This uniquely intimate affair includes thoughtfully prepared and locally sourced food and cocktail pairings, as well as the opportunity to converse with the chefs about their creations – all in a Farm to Table setting. You don’t want to miss this evening. More information at http://atorridaffair.org

Is it cliche to talk about the weather?  I mean we’re all really tired of dealing with this weather, that’s for sure.  I don’t remember anything like it in my lifetime, and I certainly don’t have any experience to draw from for how to farm in it.  This picture is of our squash – on drip irrigation.  It’s sad state is not because it’s dry.  It’s just flat hot.  And I can’t fix that.  Everything in the field is very high maintenance right now.

Things that we are direct seeding outside are barely germinating.  Here you see we are harvesting some very happy okra, along side of a new planting of swiss chard that I’m trying to get started under some shade cloth.  Silly me.

I’m having a little better luck in the greenhouse – broccoli and cauliflower – but  they’ll be ready for transplant before too long and I can’t put winter crops in the field with 107 degree temperatures!  It’s certainly interesting and definitely unchartered territory for us.  

We are learning about native lambs quarter (wild spinach), a great summer green for sauteing or in fresh salads, and purslane, another summer green for salads or soups.  These crops seem to thrive in our Texas heat.   And in the mean time, thank goodness for okra!

My friend Daryl over at Ape99.org helped me set up a Black Soldier Fly Grub Composter in the chicken pen yesterday.  I’ve been wanting to try this forever so I was very excited to get his help, (and starter larvae!!).  We propped two 55 gallon food storage barrels in the chicken run and fed them with wood chips and ripe veggie scraps.  We covered the main opening with chicken wire to keep the hens out and placed a tray under the barrel opening to catch the self-harvesting grubs.   I’m just learning about Soldier Flies, but it appears there is no down side with these critters. The adult female fly (non-biting, non-stinging, non-disease carrying) lays her eggs near the food source where the larvae hatch and begin their voracious feeding. They reduce the food scraps by 95% in a matter of days, including meat scraps, bone, etc… When that stage of their life is complete, they quit eating and crawl out of the food source. In this application, these highly nutritious little guys will have very interested chickens waiting right outside the barrel for them! The idea is win-win-win: Compost EVEN your meat scraps, make your chickens soooo happy, and reduce the amount of purchased chicken feed. I will be documenting all this, of course, so I”ll let you know if this little experiment pans out. I just love a plan.