Rainbow Ranch Farms members getting directly involved with the farm chores.

Thank you!!

Debbie cleaned the 28' brooder, and prepped it for the next batch of baby chicks.

Mary arrived during the afternoon and prepped the harvest barn for Saturday morning harvest.

Sherry, just got back from Nebraska, came by the farm to clean out one of the 6 coops and place fresh bedding for the beautiful birds which are out on the range and pasture.

This morning there will be a custom harvest on site, here at the farm,

To view photos and videos, read comments and review feedback of farm members participating and volunteering at Rainbow Ranch Farms, please visit our facebook page.

Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food!

Buy Fresh, Buy Local! and thank you for supporting your local, small family farm.

Poultry CSA's are scheduled to be shipped out on Monday, July 11th and Monday, July 18th.

Please check you email for UPS Quantum View Tracking Number.

Any Questions? Please call 1-760-868-6206.

How We Lowered our PRICES In a Climbing Market!!

Some folks are wondering how we were able to lower our prices, when so many product prices are on the rise due to fuel prices, stock market losses and grain costs.

We are not driven by grain prices, especially since we do not grow, feed or use any grains, therefore our dependancy on grains is not present.

We do however have to buy gas for our car, and we use it mostly for farm related use anyway. Our cars are all paid for and our insurance is low, these 2 things add up when calculating the price of fuel.

Many farmers are flooding the feed stores in hopes of finding ANY cheap grain or filler to feed their livestock, they are awakened by the rude truth that pasture grass bales are not affordable anymore (exceeding $22.00), even alfalfa (not a grass) has increased in price (in some areas 1 bale can be $19.00)

1. We grow most of our livestock feed, from pasture grasses, root crops, raw goat milk to bugs and vegetables (NO GRAINS)

1A. Our heritage birds, breed naturally and have a great hatch ratio, which offsets our costs of buying day-old chicks from a hatchery

1B.Our cattle, hogs, sheep and goats are all natural breeders also

2. R.R. Farms has a small, private and active member base that keeps us very busy

3. Rainbow Ranch Farms operates with volunteers, farm members, sustainers, neighbors, family and freinds which really help with keeping overhead at bay.

4. We are debt-free and do not take out loans or make crazy investments.

5. We practice sustainable, permaculture and bio-dynamic farming, which keeps costs low

6. We re-use, recycle and reduce waste at every possible corner, this is good for the environment and ecologically safe.

7. We do not spend our members money on advertising, fancy websites, promotional certifications etc

8. We take our time with new projects, we save the money for the project and then make it happen

9. When we find a savings, we always pass it along to our farm members

10. We grow foods, grasses, flowers, ++ that are compatible to our zone and thrive in our harsh conditions. We do not pretend to be in Hawaii or create false growing environments. We do not use any pesticides, herbicides, sprays and they are never needed, here.

10A. It really helps when getting seeds, that we have a reliable, honest and true heirloom and organic source. This year we went a different route and we have been blessed with goodness all around.

It is not easy, it is a job where we work from 4:00am until sun down. It would be a lot easier if every day a new challenge would not surface, but ALAS! everyday offers a new challenge or situation that must be addressed or contained.

Truly sustainable, permaculture farming is not a money making venture by any means.

Our specialties stand in categories, alone (by combination). We are the first and only farm to modern date to have combined these specialties and be moving ahead, successfully.

To learn more about our specialties, please visit www.rainbowranchfarms.com or call us 1-760-868-6206

We are now working on an entire web page of wonderful organic, heirloom and natural products produced by our farm members, sustainers, growers, co-op's, and supporters.

Vegetable, fruit and dried goods C.S.A. Programs!

Our farm members will soon have the options to add-on to orders, homemade, raw cheeses, artisan breads and baked goods, jams.jellies, preserves, condiments, avocados (seasonal), figs (seasonal), dressing, fruits, vegetables, heirloom seeds, balsamic vinegar, starter plants, Gold award winning, olive oil,  bath and body products, all made available by our talented, and wonderful Rainbow Ranch Farms members.

Some products are certified organic, others made with certified organic ingredients, No G.M.O's, and some are from heirloom sources.

Members will have the options of adding into their weekly or monthly shipments, or available for pick-up at the farm.

All products are California made!

Direct contact information will also be made available to each producer, market and artisan.

If you are a Rainbow Ranch Farms member, and would like to have your products featured on our ADD-ON page, please contact me 1-760-868-6206.

This page is currently under-construction and we hope to have it up and running before September, so please keep checking back!

Today we will be collecting unwelcome bee swarms and bee settlers from local residents and businesses in our community. The calls came in earlier this week and we have prepped the empty bee hives for our new arrivals.

Tom, One of our farm members who is also a volunteer, has volunteered to build us a new, custom bee hive, using one of our oldies, but goodies as a pattern. This should promise to be very interesting, Tom is a master carpenter, with over 45 years experience, he is amazing and can build or fabricate anything!!

One of the bee hives we will be collecting is located inside a water meter, another  inside a trash can (this is a first)), another is in a dresser inside a barn and the last one is under some construction material.

We collect bees within our local communities in a humane manner and  relocate the bees with low stress to both the bees and me LOL-LOL.

We assess the bees on location and make an educated decision on how to safely remove them and where they will be housed, we then determine  if the  queen will be replaced with another one from a certified source (Italian or German), in an attempt to keep a good, clean and safe  - hive.

We have successfully been collecting and relocating bees for over 10 years, we are very proud to continue being a part of the solution.

We keep bees here on the farm.

This morning we harvest more chickens.

Fresh poultry deliveries are being made to Los Angeles.

The winter pasture grasses are now dried, and the spring and summer pasture grasses, flowers, native weeds and vegetation are taking over. The crops are flowering and we are seeing the results of our labor.

The heritage, free range chickens are enjoying the pasture, scratching for insects, foraging through the tall grasses and natural vegetation.

Some of the Heritage, free range turkeys are already feathered and ready to fly out of the brooders and into the pasture.

Egg laying ducks, chickens, game birds, Indian game and turkeys have been working very ahrd to keep on laying through this heat.

Turkeys that have gone broody are setting eggs, everywhere.

This month we are preparing to harvest 6 lambs, 2 whole steers and 1 large hog for our farm members.

If you would like to participate in any of our CSA  programs, please call the farm. To learn more about Rainbow Ranch Farms, please visit our Local Harvest Listing.

Today we have a work shop: chicken harvest this morning. Selections were made last night for today's harvest.

This morning, participants are traveling from Wrightwood, Baldy Mesa, Phelan, Pinon Hills, Pasadena and Santa Barbara.

How to select poultry for processing

How to process Kosher Style

Humane handling, from start to finish

Scalding without compromise to the skin and meat

Proper plucking, to U.S.D.A. standards

Proper evisceration

Inspection of each and every carcass

Packaging, to U.S.D.A. standards

Chilling

Delivery to market

To be considered for our future work shops, please contact the farm 1-760-868-6206

Please check your email for tracking numbers.. If you are expecting a shipment and do not get a tracking number by 3:00pm today, please do not panic.. simply call me. 1-760-868-6206

Today, we are shipping CSA boxes, please check your email for UPS tracking numbers. All tracking numbers will be in your email box on or before 3:00pm.

If you are expecting a shipment, and do not get a tracking number, please do not panic, simply call me 1-760-868-6206.

Thank you! 

Farm Pick-Up Is Scheduled for Sat. June 4th 10-11am.

If you have any questions, please call me 1-760-868-6206

Yes, you are welcome to bring your dog: please keep on leash and protect your pet from the larger livestock, and prevent your dog from attacking the birds and lambs.

I have dogs here, one is a fixed female and the other is a fixed male, I also have farm cats! ENJOY!

If you need to confirm an order, please do so by Friday, June 3rd.

Luau pigs and Roasters are completely sold out. Thank you! Pork shares are still in full swing. Please contact me 1-760-868-6206 for more information.

As many of us know fresh pork belly or Fresh bacon slices have very little flavor without being seasoned, brined, smoked or cured. Here are a few ideas:

The first article is by www.3men.com, thank you!!

Introduction

Bacon is made from fresh pork which has been cured (preserved with salt) so that it will keep for longer. There are two main methods of curing:

Dry Curing

Wet Curing

http://www.3men.com/bacon_making.htm

A very informative article by www.3men.com, thank you!!

The second is by Chow Hound Thank you ..

First time cooking PORK BELLY report

THE WINNERS ARE:

Alison D., Katy B., Eric N., Jeff C., Kerri N., Stephan G., Chris D., and Beth H. S.

THE PRIZE:

EACH WON 5.0lbs of fresh pork for pick-up at the farm on May 7th. Saturday 10:00am -

Monday we harvested one of our Grande English Hampshires "Opey". She has always been quite the BIG-HIT here on the farm.

SPECIAL OFFER:

Yesterday, we offered a short and exclusive "Special Offer" to participants where some of our farm members where offered the opportunity to win 5.0lbs of Free Fresh Pork.

The amount we offered was a 1/2 portion of our personal full share!!! the rest was already spoken for by farm members.

NO CORN, NO SOY, NO WHEAT, NO GRAINS, NO G.M.O'S & GLUTEN FREE

This English Grande Hampshire sported a hanging carcass weight of 400lbs - WOW - INCREDIBLE: Heritage breed, free range, grass fed, grass finished on our exclusive proprietary, Certified Organic Blend - Hundreds of us watched over time as she performed and finished WITHOUT ANY Corn, Soy, Wheat, Grains, NO G.M.O.'s and Gluten Free!!!!

WHAT WE OFFER:

Heritage, rare and endangered healthy happy....

Pork, beef, chicken, game birds, goat, duck eggs, thanksgiving turkeys, turkey eggs, lamb, chicken and game eggs.

NO CORN, NO SOY, NO WHEAT, NO G.M.O's, & GLUTEN FREE!!!

OUR CERTIFIED ORGANIC - EXCLUSIVE PROPRIETARY FEED BLEND (patent pending) offers naturally occuring vitamins, minerals and amino acids: NO SUPPLEMENTS NEEDED!!!!

ABOUT OUR LIVESTOCK:

HERITAGE CHICKENS, GAME, DUCKS and TURKEYS: Our birds range the property freely, they pasture, breed, scratch, fly,  weed the gardens and forage.

HERITAGE PIGS: Talk about free range.. the destruction is daily LOL-LOL, 12 piglets running everywhere, sows, boars and piglets rooting, turning the soil and mowing down the grasses. Scatching posts, everything is a scratching post!!!!

HERITAGE PURE BREED CATTLE: How many times are we going to replace the passion fruit plants?? Range, pastured, grass fed, grass finished - running, playing, jumping, belowing (Oh So Loud)and geeze, how many scratching trees do they really need? We can not keep up with all the brushing: we need volunteers to brush these giant, beautiful creatures daily.

GOATS: Need I say how spoiled rotten these cuties really are, I mean 24/7 pasturing a 5 acre mountainous and desert landscape in Apple Valley, and fed an exclusive high end grass diet and our feed blend. A temperature contolled birthing barn, lined with straw, sheets, blankets and everything cleaned 3-4 times each day.

All the tree branches and leaves are the same distance from the ground...REALLY??

LAMB AND RANGE CATTLE: Our ranges, pastures, herds and processing methods are all managed by one of the foremost experts in the livestock, meat and processing inspection industry, not just here in the U.S.A. but also parts of Europe and South America, we work directly with the best.

Lamb and open range cattle are 100% free range on large, lush green pastures, filled with custom selected seeded blend pastures, native and nutritious grasses, wild flowers and natural vegetation, all year round, NEVER TO BE SUPPLEMENTED!! No Corn, No Soy, No Wheat, No G.M.O's, and Gluten Free:

OUR SPECIALTY:

We specialize in heritage, rare and endangered heritage livestock breeds.

Pure food for the purist at heart

Fresh, Fresh, Fresh...... Fresh meat!!

All our livestock are Humanely Handled.

Traceability and Verified.

Pastured, grass fed and grass finished

Heirloom and Certified Organic feed and gardens 

No Corn, No Soy, No G.M.O's and Gluten Free

We breed, grow, harvest and offer as nature intended

We PRODUCE, GROW and HARVEST everything we offer without any pesticides, herbicides, artificial or sterilized manures, hormones, steroids, anti-microbials or antibiotics.

When you want to watch your food grow, Select you chicken or turkey, collect your eggs, when you want to be involved in knowing your food, volunteer, know your farmer, select your goat, buying local, buying from sustainable farms and having control over how you feed your loved ones...we are your connection to sustainable food, located in the California Mojave Desert.

To learn more about Rainbow Ranch Farms, or to find a farmers market, shop, specialty store, butcher shop, co-op, or custom delivery service near you that carries our products, please call: 1-760-868-6206.

NOTE:

Every vendor, co-op, market, C.S.A., restaurant and small business who offers or carries our products for retail purposes, are carefully screened for truth in advertising, honesty, reliability, traceability and ethical business practices. We offer 100% satisfaction guaranteed.. 

HERITAGE TURKEYS

9 heritage (rare & endangered) breeds

Thus far we have hundreds of heritage turkeys reserved for 2011 thanksgiving! We offer 9 heritage (rare & endangered) breeds, grown out on pasture, grass fed, free range and grass finished on Certified Organic Fodder, beneath the warm sun and fresh breeze.

NO CORN - NO SOY - NO WHEAT - NO G.M.O.'s & GLUTEN FREE!!!!!

Orders are still coming in for heritage thanksgiving turkeys....

Grown out on pasture, grass fed, free range and grass finished on Certified Organic Fodder.

I am happy to discuss these subjects, please call me direct at 1-760-868-6206

SELECT YOUR TURKEY AND WATCH IT GROW!!!!

Our prices have stayed the same over the years and we do not anticipate an increase in prices. Our High Quality meats and customer service is second to none.

I am happy to discuss these subjects, please call me direct at 1-760-868-6206

NO MEDICATIONS - NO ANTIBIOTICS - NO MUTANT BIRDS!!!!!!!!!

This year we will also offer "Harvest Your Own Turkey" Workshop, here on the farm. We offer fresh shipping direct to your doorstep, on the week of thanksgiving and pick-up at the farm, as well as several drop -off points throughout California.

COME VISIT OUR FARM - VISIT YOUR TURKEY!!!!

Our gourmet turkeys will be available at a few small ma & pa health food stores, co-op's, specialty stores and C.S.A.'s..Call the farm for details 1-760-868-6206

I am happy to discuss these subjects, please call me direct at 1-760-868-6206

HUMANE HANDLING - SAFE & CLEAN RANGES!!!!!!!

Our turkey chicks are laid and hatched naturally here at the farm, and we also reserve heritage day-old turkey poults from a local, sustainable family hatchery from 1-2 years in advance: by doing our part, it helps to preserve the true heritage breeds of rare and endangered breeds often classified as critically endangered due to so many farmers (small family, commercial and industrialized farms) growing commercial giant white (broad Breasted White) and broad breasted bronze turkeys that grow to market weight as soon as 10-14 weeks from hatch.

Know Your Farmer - Know Your Food!!!!

I am happy to discuss these subjects, please call me direct at 1-760-868-6206

WARNING!

Growing commercial type turkeys often means that the farmer is using a commercial corn and soy based feed and most often this feed is medicated, sprayed with pesticides, and filled with antibiotics, digestive aids,and fillers, especially snce these types of birds are prone to many types of mutating diseases, such as, sinusitis, heart disease, lung disease, respiratory disease and so much more.

Commercial type turkeys are designed to feast on commercial feed 24 hours per day and grow quickly, often too fast for their organs to keep up. Some farmers find it funny that these turkeys get so big that the birds can barely walk to get water or find it some what entertaining that the birds suffer from leg problems too, and often are ridden to the ground until butchered.

Take a moment to ask yourself, "where does all that contaminated manure go"? "Do turkeys deserve torture"? and "why do we continue to support these sorts of practices"?

Ask to visit the farm, ask to see the feed tags, ask what breeds of turkeys they are growing, take pictures and do your research and get to know your food.

I am happy to discuss these subjects, please call me direct at 1-760-868-6206

Make an informed decision to buy healthy, happy food that is environmentally freindly and sustainable.

BUY LOCAL - BUY FRESH - BUY SUSTAINABLE -

I am happy to discuss the above subjects, please call me direct at 1-760-868-6206

          

I am happy to discuss the above subjects, please call me direct at 1-760-868-6206

In times of technological change, internet gaming, texting and teenage advancement: We are very fortunate here at Rainbow Ranch Farms to share our farming with good wholesome folks of all ages!

MY SISTER AND 3 NEICES:

2 days ago my sister and my 3 nieces came to visit, the children are from 8yrs to 13 years old.

The girls jumped right in, w/feeding cattle, baby piglets, sows, boars, Dexter calves, egg layers (collecting eggs), turkeys & ducks  OH MY!

The little one (8) had an Idea, of moving the roosters into the green aviary from the larger range, (it was a great idea) we got right on it, my sister, Dennis & I carried the birds, one by one to the small aviary, my 8 year old niece, got the gates, brought the feed cans over & organized the move, all while my 11 year old niece was shoveling mulch over the new organic grass seeds in the pasture.

While my sister & I got to chatting, the girls noticed it was time to water the crops, they began to fill the hand watering cans, pull hoses & do what was needed, then came time to brush the cattle too.

My 13 year old neice (very brave) was inside the corral with our 11 year old heifer & various cows & bulls getting to know everyone, all while making sure they were all brushed, cared for, well fed & that thier auto-water had clean water supply, she felt comfortable & safe around these giant beasts w/horns.

It was joyuss to see young people (my sister is 8 years younger than me and a corporate guru) getting involved, getting their hands dirty, doing what came naturally to them & feeling comfortable w/ all the livestock, the crops & old fashioned farming.

We all had good times, the children especially!

2 DAUGHTERS

My 2 daughters (21 and 23 years old) are very supportive of our family farm and they always have been, both are level headed and interested in the reality of the world and not stuck into video games, as so many are today, and we do count our blessings.

My eldest daughter (23yrs)is self reliant, a self starter, and is in upper management of a large company in Georgia and often travels for business.

My youngest daughter (21yrs) is self motivated, Independent and is self employed here in Southern California.

They are always interested in what's new on the farm and excited to learn of farm news.

Fiancé

Dennis had to finally stop going to work every day and stay here on the farm.

As a pilot, he has flown private, commercial and cargo - since Junior High School he has been a pilot, then came the United States Air Force, for a decade of service.

When he returned to civilian life and still a full time Captain, Dennis could not wait to build stone ovens on his time off, build BBQ's, make pizza, homemade wine, raise chickens, make homemade cheeses and butter..

It is so funny how life takes us all in different directions, as if we are on a map and someone is moving thier fingers across it...LOL

Dennis is so happy to be on the farm full time, and so am I.

OUR FARM MEMBERS ARE #1

It is so true! Dennis and I really love what we do and nothing compares to the importance of our farm, farm members, sustainers, family, freinds, customers and neighbors, pulling together to make beautiful things happen in the organic food world.

We are a family farm with all the support of our entire family. I could not imagine going back to my old work, or even letting my hobbies interfere with all that we have built with the great help of so many wonderful people.

We are all here for each other building our futures and securing our food supply for what may be ahead.

God Bless You All and Thank you!