Samford Local Growers Public Offering Part Deux

I have been a part of the Samford Local Growers since the first meeting at the Old Catholic Church back in the middle of 2008. It has been a great experience meeting other like-minded people who are interested in growing fresh organic local food in their backyards. The information shared has allowed me to garden that bit more effectively in the new-to-me climate of South-East Queensland. As well, the local knowledge in the group has been invaluable.

The group generally gets together every couple of weeks. Our meetings are at members properties and involve selling and/or swapping food-related produce, plants, and seeds. We also have morning tea and tour around the host's garden. There is lots of discussion around gardening and how certain plants perform. I have obtained quite a number of plants through attending these meetings and it is great sharing knowledge.

The group recently decided to provide our home grown organic produce to the wider public in the Samford Valley. Our first public offering was at John Scott Park on the 11th of July. Our second offering was at the Samford Valley Markets on the 8th of August. Both public offerings went very well, and our second one certainly had twice the produce available as compared to the first. The reception from the public was very good with many of the local growers (including me) selling out of most of the produce. The majority of the produce was picked fresh that morning, which is something that is simply not possible in the retail shops.

Our plans are to continue selling at the Samford Valley Markets, held on the second Saturday of every month. And who knows, we might even increase the frequency of our offerings in the future.

Chicken dance

A proper chook coop is long over due. While we have not had the chooks for that long, I had wanted to build a chook coop at the end of last year or beginning of this year at the latest. Of course things have not gone quite according to my idealist schedule. Our little girl often has that kind of impact on plans.

Although in reality, the biggest issue with progression of the chook coop was the design plans. The location for the coop is in an area which gets quite wet during heavy rain falls. Even though Rhode Island Reds are a hardy breed, I do not feel that it is all that nice to have them in damp conditions. Thus this meant either a concrete slab or raised chicken coop.

I really liked the idea of a raised chook coop, particularly after seeing one of the members of the Samford Local Growers constructions. His design was based on a BuildEazy chook coop design with a few tweaks such as a flat roof design. The dimensions for my coop are 3.6m by 1.8m, so I am doubling the size of the basic plans. This is so that I can divide the coop into two sections for future purposes.

With a raised coop design, I figure that rats and mice will have a hard time getting access to the interior. I also plan to allow the chooks access to underneath the chook coop as part of their main run, thus it will provide valuable shade during the heat of the summer.

There is still a fair bit of work to complete as only the platform of the coop in place. But at least in the mean time it will allow my little girl a great place to perform her chicken dance.