Protein Crops at Our Farm

Our goal is to provide 100% of our protein from our farm.  Big goal, yes, and probably not possible, but we can get close to it.

Our current plan is each week to have the following as the basis of our protein: chicken or duck, a panier dish twice, egg based meal twice, a runner bean dish once and goat once.   We sometimes purchase salmon from local fishermen, and once a friend of mine retires (he already bought his retirement home on Whidbey) we’ll go fishing a few times each month, adding to our protein supply from the abundance of the sea that surrounds our Island.

We purchase organic grains from Canada for our goats, chickens and ducks, and hay from a Coupeville farmer, so we are not self sufficient, and with our little five acre farm in the woods we will not be.  My goal has always been to sell enough farm products to pay for the hay and grain but we are a ways away from that.  There is a demand for our goat-milk products but Washington State law makes it extremely difficult for a small farmer to sell it legally.  There is also a strong demand for organically raised free range chickens, but the work of butchering them is not worth the price we can get.  I don’t mind working for $5 per hour selling real estate (sadly in this market it might be accurate), but I won’t work for that wage butchering chickens.

Some Runner Beans set out to dry

Runner Bean Poles

The runner bean, Phaseolus coccineus, is our favorite dry bean crop, and the only safe bean crop to grow in the climate where we are located.  We grow two varieties, Painted Lady and Scarlet Runner.  I grow two full beds of them, making a tee-pee out of old cedar posts (approximately 1”x1” x 7’), planting six seeds at the base of each post in late May.  We’ll usually get about 4 gallons of dried beans from this planting.  This year our harvest will be half of that.  All other dried beans have failed here, either having a small crop or turning to mold before ripping.   In the US the scarlet runner is widely grown for its attractive flowers by people who would never think of eating it.  The dried bean is large and can be used in any receipt that calls for a lima bean.