Creekside Natural Farm, Minooka, IL – Blog

Mr. Big (the rooster) has been living with our little boy alpacas because the hens were picking at his feathered feet. A few days ago Lexi (the hen) decided to join him. She spends her day with him then flies back in with the hens at night. I guess she’s not ready for a commited relationship yet -LOL

Cucumbers, tomatoes and basil sprouting in the greenhouse, a volunteer petunia, daisies and my view of Jet through the greenhouse window..

Working in the greenhouse today.

I’ve been busy ordering this morning – 300 strawberry plants, 150 asparagus plants & 17 lbs of seed potatoes!

We will have eggs throughout the winter.  If you are interested in chickens or lamb,  we are almost sold out of both.

We’ve finished most of our fall chores just in time. The garlic is planted, the dead plants have been pulled, the tomato cages have been put away for the winter, compost has been added to next years asparagus and 100 daffodil bulbs have been planted on the berm to replace the tulips that were eaten by the tunneling rodents. 

We had a very productive day yesterday.  We left @ 4 am to head down to Arthur, IL for chicken processing and came home @ 5 pm with 103 packaged chickens in the freezer, 3 gallons of real (raw) milk and a re-finished antique pie safe that was made by my great-grandfather in AR.

About half of the chickens were pre-sold, so we will have them for sale from the farm until they’re gone. You can either call (815)467-5259 or e-mail pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com with any questions or to arrange a pick-up time.

They are available 3 ways – whole heritage breed, whole double breasted & cut-up dbl breasted and are all $4.00 per lb. The heritage breed chickens are better used for soup and make a very rich stock.  The double breasted are a more meaty chicken with lots of breast meat.  These chickens were all raised outdoors and fed organic feed (no GMO grains).  Because we only raise 100 at a time, we are able to do some extra things with our chickens.  We move their portable structure at least once per day so they are on fresh grass, we fermented their feed for better digestion and also gave them organic apple cider vinegar and chamomile tea in their water.

I’m not selling the milk, but thought the picture was interesting for those who have never seen real milk. I skimmed the cream from the jar on the left and will make creme fresh with it.  The jar on the right has not had the cream skimmed, but if you look closely you can see the line dividing the cream from the milk at about the same level as the milk in the jar on the left. I will make mozzarella cheese and yogurt with the milk.

The pie safe still needs the handles and glass for the doors, so I’ll post a picture of that when it’s finished.

We have bok choy (Chinese cabbage) in the cooler.  It has a  very mild flavor because of the cool weather. It’s great in stir fry or can be sauteed in olive oil with some garlic like other greens.

$4.00 per bag

We have a limited amount of lamb available.  They came here the 1^st of May from an organic farm in Shefield,IL that raises Katahdin sheep.  Katahdin sheep have been developed to have a mild tasting meat.  They don’t have wool or lanolin that gives lamb a stronger flavor. 

They were raised outside on our pasture on their natural diet of grass & hay. They were never given any type of grain and did not receive any antibiotics or growth hormones.

We have chops & ½ legs available for sale.

Chops are 4 oz each/2 per package – $10.00 per package

½ Leg is average 3 lbs – $12.00 per lb

If you would like to purchase lamb, you can either call 815-467-5259 or e-mail pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com to make arrangements to pick it up.

U of I will be hosting a Field Day at Creekside Natural Farm on Oct. 19th from 9 till noon. The fee is $5.00 per person to cover refreshments.  If you would like to get a closer look at what we do here, contact James (info above).

I made what will be our last batch of Heirloom Tomato Salsa for the season.  Same ingredients as previous batch except this time I roasted the garlic instead of the peppers.

Fortunately we did not get a frost last night! Our tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, okra & cucumbers will continue to produce until we do – hopefully not for a few more weeks.