2015 Cow

We've clearly gotten a bit spoiled with our purchase of half a cow every year. It's delicious, affordable, and obviously of high-quality. We buy from a random family we found off Craigslist. They have been great to work with it, and haven't even raised their prices in the past three years. Unfortunately, they are reducing their herd and it's unlikely they will have any extra to sell next year. Cue the panic! 

This year's cow was slightly smaller than the last. All in all, our half ended up at 268 pounds, hanging weight. We spent a total of $898, which got us:

Ground beef - 40, 1 lb packages

Stew meat - 8 
Soup bone - 5 
Heart - 1 
Liver - 3 (we had 7 last year. Wyatt is sad)
Brisket - 1
Rump roast - 3
Chuck roast - 9
Cross rib roast - 2
Flank steak - 1
Round steak - 8
Sirloin tip - 8
T-bone - 6
Ribeye - 5
Short rib - 6
Round Bone roast - 4

2014 Egg Tally

This year we added four new chickens, bringing us up to a total of 8. We felt that was a few too many for our city lot to handle, so we ultimately rehomed two. Whitney, one of our original Barnevelders, was a frequently talkative lady, and ultimately had to get the boot. She also had some strange summer egg-laying strike, so that was a somewhat easy decision. Annie, one of our new chicks was flat out not suitable for city life. She SCREAMED. You'd let her out and she still screamed. While I had an emotional attachment to Whitney, Annie was lucky she didn't become dinner. Don't worry, our wonderful chicken store was happy to take them off my homes. I believe Whitney was rehomed, but Annie is still there (and still screaming). 2014 Egg Chart by Chicken Butters: 124 eggs Sara: 146 eggs Tina: 119 eggs Whitney: 54 eggs Ali: 103 eggs Ethel: 106 eggs Josie: 81 eggs 2014 Egg Chart by Month January: 21 eggs February: 16 eggs March: 65 eggs April: 78 eggs May: 79 eggs June: 56 eggs July: 40 eggs August: 59 eggs September: 107 eggs October: 90 eggs November: 79 eggs December: 6 eggs The Americauna's egg laying is noticeably down, although I believe they laid more months out of the year compared to 2013. They got hit with a molt and the darkness of winter means they stopped laying in October this year. Sara redeemed herself for last year's broody shenanigans and hasn't had another spout. Lucky for her, she was on my rehoming short list! The new gals have certainly earned their keep! Once they started laying they came on strong, and minus some weird winter molt for Josie, they've laid all winter. Ironically, she started laying in the proper spot post-molt...

2014 Garden Tally

Apples -2

Basil – 3 lb

Beets – 22.29 pounds

Birds eye pepper – 75

Broccoli – 5 lb 1 oz

Bulgarian Carrot – 10

Cabbage – 11.16 pounds

Carrots – 10.78 pounds

Cauliflower – 4 lb 3 oz

Corn – 16.91 pounds

Cubanelle pepper - 1.65 pounds

Cucumber – 9.71 pounds

Garlic  14.9 oz

Green Beans – 17.78 pounds

Lettuce – 4 lbs

Onion - 36 lbs 7.5 oz

Plums – 11

Potatoes – 32.85 pounds

Raspberries – 1 qt

Spaghetti Squash – 29.2 pounds

Serrano pepper– 39

Tomato – 26 pounds

Tomatillos - 7.03 pounds

Zucchini – 39.20 pounds

This comes to roughly 270 pounds of food.