Radio Acres Farm Alternative Gift Sale

Vendor FAQs

What kind of vendors are you looking for?

Vendors who make and sell their own original, handmade craft products or artisan food items are invited to apply. You must be present at your booth on the day of the sale. We are not looking for Tupperware-type products or of the mass-produced nature.

How can I apply?

Fill out the form below and send an email with pictures of your products to radioacresfarm@gmail.com. We will respond within a week.

General Info

Booths will be set up outside throughout the farm, and will consist of a 4x8 size table. Smaller or larger tables available on request. No splitting booths please. 

Vendor Fee

The fee for a booth is 10% of your total revenue from the event. 

The annual Radio Thanksgiving

*Note: it's been awhile since I blogged.

We fostered a baby, and then we had a baby. Enough said.

The grandest tradition we have here at Radio is our Thanksgiving feast. This was our fourth annual bash at the farm, complete with homegrown turkeys and over thirty friends and family.

Certain aspects of our celebration have evolved over the years: our first Thanksgiving at Radio included a Tur-duck-en, because we had raised both ducks and turkeys... and who doesn't like them all smashed together with stuffing? I thought that initial tur-duck-en was delicious as I sliced off a piece and tried to determine which meat was what, but subsequent years with store-bought ducks were not as tasty.

Eventually, all turkey recipes have been replaced by one simple and efficient cooking tool: the deep-fryer. We've concluded that a vat of boiling oil cooks the tenderest, tastiest birds. And you can't mess around with turkeys that you've raised yourself. They are quite the investment.

Our potlucking has evolved as well. We have gotten better about sharing the load of the Thanksgiving meal, and this has continued to increase the culinary handiwork displayed and consumed. This year we had friends bring some particularly delicious whipped yams with sage, of which I heard many inquiries for the recipe. Our newest housemate broke out his churro (or sausage) maker and deep-fried some jalepeño-chedder churros with a honey glaze that we could not eat enough of. And a certain good fortune brought a whole tub of mini-croissants leftover from a holiday office party that I put in a new stuffing recipe. It turned out delightful. The recipe is below, because this stuffing is too good to have just once a year.

Needless to say, before the food we were like

and then after platefuls of deep-friend Thanksgiving goodness we were like

What has stayed consistent, and by far is the best part of our Thanksgiving traditions is the eclectic group of people that joins us. We usually have family both near and far that pilgrimages to the farm for the food and grandchildren. We also welcome neighbors, friends, and friends of friends to come and join our feast because (literally) the more the merrier.

So if you ever find yourself wondering what to do on Thanksgiving, come and join the family here at Radio. We'll save a turkey leg or two for you.

churro making

kids and lemons

November. And bunnies.

November marks the beginning of the holiday season for many, a season of joyful gratitude, wonderful friends, family and good food. This November also brings for us the first round of our newest project - bunnies. We scored a Copper Satin buck (pictured) a couple of months ago and he couldn't wait to get busy with the Californian girls we have. The results are these cute little gray and brown bunnies that will be ready to eat in another month or so.

Bunnies, like all of this farming stuff in general, are something that none of us grew up with (aside from maybe as house pets.) That said, there've been some good learning experiences for us. We are opting to raise them colony style, meaning no little cages and no separation of the male. So far so good, except the babies can still squeeze through the chainlink fence. We are trying to figure out a way to keep them in, but at least they come back every afternoon for food. We figure soon they won't be able to squeeze out any more.

C and E are enjoying having babies around, but they know better than to give them names at this point. While processing animals is still tough emotionally and physically, I really value everything that it's taught my children over the years. They have always known the value of a life taken for food, and they struggle with it sometimes. They know not to waste meat that's on their plate, and they understand why we choose not to eat meat at certain restaraunts.

Raising children in this way has also been an unexpected learning experience on life itself, and what death is. It's made me realize how much I missed out on this as a child. I remember my parents hiding a pet from me that had died, hoping to shelter my young heart. We adults that grow up in cities far removed from things like farms have this misconception that we are doing kids a favor by hiding uncomfortable realities from them. I think seeing these cycles- the beginnings and endings of life here- in plants and seasons and animals, teaches so much about these important truths of life. I always struggled with death as a child and young adult, and I believe that my children will understand and cope with this better because of the reality they've been raised in- the pain and the beauty that comes with it all.

Spring Weekend CSA!

Get your greens! We don't do a normal CSA program here at Radio, but this weekend we're harvesting our spring crops, and bagging it up for you to make some 'delish kale salads or green smoothies.

Our bags are $7 each, and YOU choose what goes in it! There are also other extra goodies to add on if you'd like.

Fill our your order form here:
http://tinyurl.com/radiocsa

Let us know what you make with it!

"Udder"ly Ridiculous

People Often ask, "What's it like living on a farm?" First, I correct them that we are a small URBAN farm. There is no big red barn or tractor anywhere.  But then I answer, "living on a farm opens you to a myriad of experiences you would otherwise never even knew were possible."

For example, I have learned how to massage a turkeys swollen crop to help digest its food and keep it from fermenting.  This is a tricky process for one person and can result in putrid smelling turkey burps and vomit.

I have learned 10 different ways to kill a chicken, skin a rabbit, dispose of a dead gopher, and bury a goat.  I've kept chickens in large tupperware bins in my basement and had ducklings swim in my bathtub.

But this evenings task tops the list of absolutely weirdest farm tasks:  Shaving our dairy goats udders.   To those of you wondering, Yes, I did use my own razor; and those Mach 3 blades didn't work so well either.

As I sat lathering Beverly's teets up with my Burt's Beeswax shave cream, I furtively glanced around to make sure our neighbors weren't peering through their window curtains at me.  As I jogged back into the house to grab some scissors I contemplated the fact when most people drink milk, they probably never think about how udders are inherently hairy and that hair needs to get shaved off, or strained out before it makes it to your glass.

I was finally prompted to undertake this task because I was tired of fishing out goat hairs from my cereal bowl.  Make no mistake, we do strain our milk through some pretty spiffy filters before it goes in the fridge, but every once and a while one still gets through.

So...Beverly is a "brand new" goat and ready for some hair-free milking, and I am left with a ruined razor and a slightly abashed feeling I can't quite shake.

Turkey Time

Last post was about Food Day, but certainly tomorrow is the USA's true food day. We're having friends and family join us at the farm (lonely? let us know!) and this past weekend we harvested our turkeys in preparation for the feast!

Did you know that the turkey is the only animal native to North America that was domesticated? It's believed to have been domesticated in Mexico, and spread northward, ending up on our thanksgiving dinner plates. Did you also know that turkeys are some of the ugliest  strangest looking birds you'll ever see? They have all kinds of things hanging off them or bulging out of their face. Poor birds.

Our friends from She Shoots He Scores came to visit for the weekend and shot this amazing video of the farm.

Happy Thanksgiving from Radio Acres! May you eat good food and love those around you tomorrow.


Radio Acres Farm from SheShootsHeScores on Vimeo.

Planting in the heat

Last Saturday was the hottest day of the year. Make that the hottest day in 24 years. If only we could have been even a tiny bit clairvoyant when we planned our planting party back in the springtime. Instead, we skipped the beach, broke out the rototiller and invite some friends over for some manual labor. Some explained that their thermometer told them not to come (which was exactly what we would have said to ourselves).  But a few brave souls bared the heat and came over for some gardening and some beer.

This small community event was co-hosted by the good folks at the Coffee & Tea Collective, and featured some Radio food and Atomic beer. It's ultimate goal was to put in the ground what could be a Radio Acres Tea blend. So chamomile, marjoram, mint, lemon basil and other herbs hit the dirt. Lemon Verbena and lemongrass got cut and dried, and new rows were added to our farm, which we're all very excited about.

No one passed out, which we thought was a success. It was fun to hang out with other people in San Diego that are excited about local food, and we made the beer last late into the evening, when the weather began to cool.

This weekend, blessed by a marine layer that's just beginning to fade, we're planting our fall garden and getting our irrigation going. Here's hoping the harvest will be plentiful!

If you like, today you could make your way over to the C&T Collective for an artisan cup of joe, and then stop on over at Tiger! Tiger! for some tasty beer, come on down to Radio to plant some seed, and you can recreate the weekend for yourself.

Party Favors. More pics here. 

A collective planting party

We're teaming up with the Coffee & Tea Collective to host a planting party at Radio Acres this Saturday. A potential Radio Tea blend could be the product of our labor! Please join us if you can! 

 

Harvest days

While we haven't gotten as huge of a tomato harvest as I would have hoped, and the majority of our tomato plants are dying back (from a still unknown plague), our cherry tomatoes are the clear winners this summer. They keep coming, in beautiful colors and explosive tastes. 

 Also a prolific summer producer... our patty-pan squash. They're huge, and come in the greatest shapes. They remind me of something you'd find in the sea. Sea-squash, perhaps. Anyone have any good patty-pan recipes?

Summer of the Volunteer

Our garden has been slightly disappointing this summer. We're experiencing some crop fail due to one or more of the following:
a. gophers
b. fusarium wilt   
c. root knot nematode (of which BJ promptly made up a song about)
d. some soil deficiency
e. one of the other million problems that can affect tomatoes. 

But what hasn't failed us are the plants that have sprouted up due to falling fruit from past seasons, or our compost. These are what one would call a "volunteer". And they have been awesome.

We've got tons and tons of tomato volunteers, of different varieties. 

These volunteers need no tomato cages. They're happy to sprawl out wherever they can, letting their fruit hang out in the wind. 

They grew up in wily places, like in between our asparagus beds, siphoning off water and curling up the feathery asparagus leaves. 

And the most impressive volunteers of all? A mysterious pumpkin, producing what some visitors have named Big Bertha, and her man, and their love child. 

So thanks, volunteers, for saving our summer crop. Although you make us feel slightly inadequate as we try and grow nicely cultivated rows that fail, we appreciate your unbridled fruitfulness, and will definitely partake in your abundance. Please share with us the secret of such strong growth. 

"This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how" -St. Mark

Panoramic Views...

Of course, it doesn't even look like this anymore. The guys are building so fast I can't take pictures fast enough.

Home Improvement- the BIG build

The grandest and most costly project at Radio Acres to date.  Before April, I used to think the biggest farm project we had under taken was building our chicken coup.  While we were still in escrow we had 30 baby chicks living in our apartment, bought an old playhouse on craigslist for the henhouse, and we're buying materials. Then before we even packed a moving truck, we were building their coup and stringing chicken wire.  

Yes, that was a humdinger of a project. But this one takes the cake.  We are adding about 600 sq. ft to the farmhouse.  Which sounds modest, but is almost 2/3 the size of the current house.  So we are excited for the space and the extra bathroom.  

It has been an ordeal to get permits from the city, but we eventually prevailed and since April 1st we have been pouring concrete and framing.  Jeremy's uncle has come out from Arizona to help us, since we all are truly construction novices and he has been invaluable in accomplishing everything.  

I (BJ) have been Ron's primary assistant and in construction terms, I think my position is called unskilled laborer.  Which includes, pounding nails (I haven't graduated to nail gun yet), busting up concrete with a sledge hammer (I did eventually graduate to jackhammer) and moving lumber around the worksite. Here are some pictures of the progress. We hope to get the roof on by late this week!

Momentum.

It's so exciting and freeing to be able to dream a little again on our hopes here. This weekend we had a work day with some friends who wanted to get their hands dirty and do a little digging. It was awesome and inspiring to see how much work could be done in such a small amount of time and also to see what a loving community we have around us. We are finally moving again. This electric current of ecstatic excitement seems to be flowing through all of us, bouncing off of each of us and inspiring us with the potential of this land.

 We also received an order of chicks last night! Its been a while since we've had babies in this house, so that's really exciting. We couldn't resist throwing some of the rare and exotic breeds into the mix, so we got a few that we've never had before like White Faced Black Spanish, Minorcas, Salmon Faverolles, a beautiful little Polish top-hat and a Turken! Sarah took a bunch of pictures which I am sure she will post soon, but here are some generic ones off the 'net that I found to give you a little show of what we're expecting...

These pictures are off the Murray McMurray Hatchery Website, which tends to be the place that we order most of our birds. We've had really good luck with them thus far and have never had anything but good flocks of really happy, hardy babies arrive. Can you tell which breed is which?

Farmers Market and workshop

Come visit us at the Southeast Farmers Market tonight at its new location!  Market St., JUST WEST of Euclid on the south side of the street.  Can't miss us!  We will be hosting a winter seed planting workshop from 3:30-5:30, you get to go home with your very own seeds, ready to grow!  We'd love to see you there.

Labor Day Reflections

In honor of Labor Day, Jeremy and I slaughtered the last two of our meat birds. We may have some roosters that we hatched ourselves lurking in our flock, ready to crow at dawn on some unsuspecting Saturday, but for now, the meat bird raising project is officially done.

With my hand deep in the warm innards of a newly-dead rooster, and on this holiday that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers, I thought for a moment about the men and women working in the often unbearable conditions of our meat factories. Think Tyson, Jimmy Dean, a big packet of ground beef that you bought for tacos. When you kill your own chicken, you understand the sad, smelly, and complicated work harvesting meat is. Imagining doing that 8-hours a day (or more), in deplorable working conditions, and with little compensation make me realize how cheaply we get the meat that we eat (in America, daily or every other day).

It is often immigrant or refugee communities that take these types of jobs. When I was working with Sudanese refugees, many were moving to the midwest, towns that had big meat-packing factories, because there was steady and available work.

Thankfully, we are caring more about the way that our meat is raised... free-range, grass-fed, hormone and pesticide free. This no doubt affects the working conditions of the people that harvest and package our meat as well. But let us continue to care about and figure out ways to advocate even more fiercely for the humane working conditions of our meat as well. And collectively, let's say a prayer of thanks and protection for the workers that are doing the hard job of providing us all with the meat we love to eat.

If you'd like a more hands-on experience of how hard it is, I can call you when the next rooster crows...

More information on the meat packing industry.

Spring/Summer Garden Review

I've been wanting to do a review of our spring/summer garden, to keep a record, and also to note what has worked well in our garden beds and what hasn't worked so well.

We're still figuring out our light patterns and temperatures, not to mention the weather has been pretty cold this spring/summer (and real hot lately!).

These are some of our first true attempts at gardening in the beds we built last year.

Here are my grades for our gardens.

Lettuce and swiss chard: A, possibly A+

We got tons of different lettuce, growing throughout the spring and providing us with many salads. Our lettuce has bolted by now, and we're just saving some for the seed. The chard grew just as well, and is still going for us.

Basil: D

I've been unhappy with our basil plants! Small leaves, straight to flower. No good.

Kale: A+

Tons of hearty kale. What do you do with so

much kale? Make kale chips, put in green smoothies, make some of those gross

sounding kale cookie recipes? [gag]. I've been

thinking about

harvesting most of it, pureeing it, and freezing it in ice trays so you

can easily put them in green smoothies (which are pretty good, despite what my husband says.)

Squash: A

We got a great summer squash: the patty pan squash. That fruited early and gave us tasty little squash. A volunteer sprouted up in one of our unplanted bed, and we're still not sure what it is. And another volunteer heirloom pumpkin set up shop near our compost bins and is going strong. We'll be set come halloween.

Corn: D

Our corn has sucked this year. The stalks didn't grow very well. Something(s) ate some of our ears. We need a better spot for them.

Tomatoes: B

We're growing four kinds of tomatoes (maybe more?). Emerald evergreen, violet jasper (fav name), brandywines, speckled romans, and your typical red cherries.

We're just getting ripe tomatoes... yay! I was unsure if our tomatoes were going to turn out this season...

but we fertilized them and they're plumping up.

We're also growing peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, and more.

Here's some pics of our harvest so far...

Victory Workshop!

Just an FYI to anyone interested, RADIO ACRES FARM will officially be collaborating with Victory Gardens San Diego  to offer a mini-workshop on how-to backyard chicken =)  It will be at 5:00, this friday at the farmers market.  The People's Produce Project Farmers Market runs from 2:00 to 7:00 pm every friday on Euclid, just north of Market.  Follow the signage...