What's Happening at Sow and Tare?

January 2024!

Welcome to the Sow and Tare monthly newsletter! I want to give a special thank you shout out to everyone who joined the email list, and ask for patience as I learn the website and email list process. The below newsletter shares a little bit of inspiration, what happened in December, what's going to happen in January, and what Sow and Tare is currently offering for workshops/consulting, merchandise, and local products. Enjoy, and I hope to see you at our Monday Live Chats every Monday at 6 PM Pacific Time on YouTube!

A Little Bit of Inspiration:

Did you set goals for 2024? Sometimes people set tons of goals or very detailed goals, setting expectations where they would like to be ideally. This is great to write out the steps you need to take to get to your "ideal". However, once written this can be an overwhelming experience for a lot of people. I suggest two things to help with this:

1. Break down your large goals into smaller accomplishable steps. This will help you get to where you want to be by focusing on a bite-sized piece at a time which is less stressful than looking at the whole goal all at once.

    

2. Treat your goals as "improvements". Identify things you are already doing which you can improve. Look for ways to improve efficiencies in your life--how can you do the things you are already doing more efficiently or faster? Once you have this down, you will have more time to accomplish additional improvements and larger goals.

My goals this year are based mostly on improvements and not on larger goals, although there are some larger goals such as the Learn! Hatch! Grow! Hatching rental program and the Quail University Course on Raising Quail in Aviaries! If you missed my 2024 goals video, you can watch it here.

What happened in December:

Cook With Me Live! We had our December Cook With Me Live Members-Only Event and it was great! We baked Challah, a braided Jewish bread made with saffron as well as making "mice on snow" cookies! If you would like to become one of Katrina's Kits and attend these Members-Only events, click here to join. I have made a playlist on the YouTube channel only members can see so if you become a member, or if you are already a member and you missed an event, you can even go back and watch the replay of past events!

Winter Garden! After missing out on planting a fall garden, I planted a winter garden! I'm sure I'll plant more before winter is over, this is a good start though! Click here for the video.

Bred the New Buck Rabbit! As Mr. Parmesan is retiring, I needed a new buck rabbit. Our new buck had his first breeding with Ravioli and Rigatoni. He was a little slow to learn the romance and eventually figured it out. Click here for the video.

Finished the Fire Cider! I made another batch of fire cider this year and bottled it up for the spare refrigerator. Fire cider is awesome to use especially in the winter months and when you've been around sick people. Click here for the video.

Another Broody Quail in the Raviary! I had a quail go broody in the Raviary--unfortunately, she got off the nest too much and did not hatch any. Quail go brood quite often in my aviary and raviary--they need eggs and to feel safe! Click here for the video before she got off the nest.

Testing New Rabbit Feeder! Risotto bunny is the first to test out a new rabbit feeder with a screen to let the feed dust fall through. She volunteered for this task after she somehow pushed her feeder out of place and almost down to the chickens. Click here for the video.

What's coming up for January 2024:

Cook With Me Live! This is a members-only event for Katrina's Kits! If you are a member of Katrina's Kits, next Saturday, January 13th at 11 AM Pacific Time, we are getting together Live on YouTube to cook something together! We will be making pear and cheese raviolis with a garlic cream sauce! Click here to join us. If you would like to become one of Katrina's Kits, click here to join. This has been a super fun event so far, and I encourage people to join us for some fun!

Quail University Course: Raising Quail in Aviaries!

I am starting to prepare a course for Quail University on Raising Quail in Aviaries! This course will be available through Quail University later in 2024, as it will take a while to film, edit, and be reviewed before it goes live! In the meantime, if you haven't taken Quail 101 from Quail University yet and are at all interested in raising quail, I highly recommend this course; you can sign up using my affiliate link here.

Naming the New Buck! The new buck needs a name! His Mom's name is Pineapple, so I figure we should name him something fruit-themed! We will be discussing potential names on Monday's Live Chat (January 8th starting at 6 PM Pacific Time), I will narrow it down to a few choices and everyone can vote on teh Community Page! I plan to announce his name on the Live Chat on January 15th! Keep watch for the Live Chats and community page for voting!

Aviary and Raviary Compost Clean-out! We are currently working on sieving TONs of compost out of the aviary and raviary! Watch for the video coming up and click here for a video showing how long it takes me to manage the manure in my aviary with deep litter!

Ravioli and Rigatoni! Ravioli and Rigatoni (rabbits) are due to have babies soon! I sure hope they are pregnant, as we haven't had baby bunnies (kits) since Penne and Risotto were born in June! Wish them luck!

Looking for Fly-Fisher-people! Do you tie fishing flies? If so, I'd like to talk with you about using feathers and what people are looking for with regards to raw materials for their flies. Please email me if you are interested in trying out some feather methods.

Making the Ultimate No-Waste Chicken Feeder! I'm doing it, I'm putting this in the newsletter so it gets done! I have plans to make the Ultimate No-Waste Chicken Feeder in January (ok, yes, I know it was on the list for December--now it's on the list for January) --this is the same design as the Ultimate No-Waste Quail Feeder with larger holes and slightly different placement. The ladies have figured out they can get the feed out of their current feeder with their feet, so hopefully this new one will prevent this behavior.

Learn! Hatch! Grow! Hatching Rental Program!

The incubators have been tested, and I will be working on finalizing paperwork, insurance, etc. necessary for the hatching rental program! I will be making a list of people for this program once it is ready. In all reality, the program itself will likely start in January. If you are local to Gilroy, California and want to pre-sign-up for this experience, please email me here.

Retiring Parmesan! As my regular viewers know, Mr. Parmesan, my original buck, has been "shooting blanks". He's getting to be an old man, so I am looking for a retirement home for him. A lot of people process old bucks, however, I feel he gave me a lot of babies and deserves to live out his retirement, therefore, I am looking for a good retirement home for him--he will gladly trade loving pets for magic poop sure to make your garden grow even better than Jack's beans...did you know rabbit manure is a cold manure and you can use it directly on your plants? It's magic! If you are local to me and want to be Parmesan's loving caretaker, please email me and we'll see if you are a good fit for him.

Workshops and Consulting:

I offer workshops and consultation as requested.

Click here for workshop details (garden tours, hatching rental kit, raising coturnix quail, canning, butchering, vermiculture and more!)

Click here for consulting details (garden planning, course curriculum development and review, and more!)

What Products are Available Locally:

As always, you can find products for sale (both shipped and local pick up) on the website here.

Tree Collard and Borage Starts! Tree collards and borage starts are available!

Eggs: I only have light on the Raviary (rabbits and quail) right now, so we are getting a limited amount of quail eggs (no supplemental light in winter=no eggs), so I am not taking large orders at this time. Let me know if you would like some eggs and I will save some back for you.

Herbs: Fresh herbs currently available include French sorrel, winter savory, culinary sage, spearmint, and hot and spicy oregano--there is also some lemon verbena left--until more frost comes.

Pineapple Guava (Feijoa): These yummy fruits are ripening, they are super tasty!

Purple Bearded Iris: Now is the season for separating irises, and I have some amazing dark purple bearded irises available. They are starting to poke up through the soil to grow!

More! I likely have more than I can think of right now, and can make crafts to order. If you want to see if I have something else available, email me here.

Sow and Tare Online Store:

As always, you can find products for sale on the website here. We have merchandise including T-shirts and sturdy canvas bags in addition to our farm products.

Discount Codes and Affiliate Links:

For your easy access to quick discounts on fun things and to access affiliate links, visit my website here. There's tons to choose from and worth looking into.