Killing bunnies (and other fun stuff)

For those of you following along, you'll notice that our posts are jumping out of order from how we said we'd post. Work on our new farm has stepped up some more, and we've decided to skip over the posts from Santa Barbara to Kentfield for the moment to highlight a couple recent events at our current stop, Omi's Farm in Napa, California.

Omi's Farm is a 20 acre farmstead with quite a diverse mix of animals and plants. The back portion of the farm is home to a five and a half acre vineyard, full of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes with juice destined for the opaque wine bottles that seem to be everywhere in this region. Moving forward from the vineyard is a large chicken coop and approximately 50 chickens of many breeds, all producing eggs of different colors. To the left of the chickens is pasture for male sheep and childless females, with the other females and their children in the adjacent pasture. To the right of the pastures is an open area with the farm house, outbuildings, rabbit hutches and pens, turkeys, and several fruit and nut trees. The farm grows apples, pears, figs, passion fruit, walnuts, cherries, peaches, plums, and pomegranates in the orchard area, in addition to a garden full of tomatoes, chard, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, corn, and eggplant, among many other vegetables.

Tending to the animals and plants is a daily chore. We begin our days with breakfast around 7:30, followed by feeding and changing water for the rabbits, chickens, and turkeys, as well as collecting and washing chicken eggs and taking kitchen scraps to the chickens. After the animals have been fed, we spend some time helping take care of the propoerty, harvesting fruit and vegetables, and caring for the garden before breaking for lunch and heading back out to do some more work.

Because the farm raises animals, it follows that those animals are being raised for a reason. Those cute, fluffy bunnies fetch $25 a piece on the meat market and, from what we've heard, taste delicious. We had the opportunity to, along with Kirsten and a fellow WWOOFer, Jordan, slaughter and clean five bunnies the other day. The process was a bit greusome for those of us unaccostumed to it, but Kirsten made a good point: those animals gave their lives so we can eat a healthy, tasty meal later on. We won't post the details of the process, but if you're interested in learning more, or checking out some pictures, feel free to email either one of us.

Caring for the animals is an important part of farm life here. Kirsten and Jim work hard to ensure that the animals have a healthy diet, clean and safe housing, access to fresh water, and medical care when needed. Even with all the attention paid to animal health and welfare, problems do arise. Before we arrived on the farm, one of the female sheep passed away due to an unknown cause. Just the other day, that sheep's lamb was found dead in the field as well. Kirsten had noted a couple days prior that the lambs had some swelling around their jaws, and had called the vet to see if it was something to worry about. When the lamb passed away, the vet was called in and noticed the swelling of the jaws, known as 'bottle jaw,' as well as pale skin on several of the lambs. She explained several likely causes, and suggested we take the lamb to UC-Davis for a necropsy to discover the cause of death. Jim decided it would be a good idea to follow the vet's advice, and we made the hour long drive to UC-Davis to drop off the lamb. The next day, we were told that the problems were caused by a parasite the lamb had picked up, and the rest of the flock was put on a medication plan to eradicate the parasite.

Without the help of the vet and the staff at UC-Davis, many more of the sheep might have died. The knowledge of toxic plants (one of the possible causes for the sheep's ailments) and parasites made it easier to determine the cause of death, as well as the likely reasons for the parasite introduction--either a new member of the flock, or contaminated soil that was dumped at the farm recently. Understanding the interactions between the land, the animals, and our actions is important if a farm is to run smoothly and sustainably.

--UPDATE--

Rabbits are delicious. We had our first opportunity on the farm to try rabbit meat last night. Kirsten cooked up a fantastic rabbit chili, which we ate with tortillas, polenta with sauteed veggies and jalapeno cream sauce, and some delicious salsa verde Jordan made. Farm life is certainly tough.