Windmill Farms–It’s Not Just a Farmer’s Market

Windmill Farms isn’t your ordinary farmer’s market. For one thing it is available every day, rain or shine. The old fashioned barn and windmill grace the side of the road just off the 101 freeway on Thompson Road in Arroyo Grande. As cars whiz by on the freeway they might miss this special place, but if they slow down and make a stop, they will surely enjoy the adventure of a visit to Windmill Farms.

Approaching the Farm you will see old fashioned western wagons and a quaint trolley car. Nearby is a field with sunflowers and corn growing high. As you walk through a vine covered archway you might feel like you are entering into a magical world especially when you glimpse your first view of the garden. Brilliant blue pottery is surrounded by potted roses of white, red and yellow. Brightly colored ceramic flowers and little toadstools accent the green foliage of the plants. Here too are fountains and statuary. Benches situated on the gravel pathways offer a place to rest and enjoy the peaceful scene. Mounted on the front of the building is artwork featuring whimsical cows and chickens.

The garden at Windmill Farms specializes in a variety of roses and succulents. “We decided on these two types of plants because of the hardness of our water here,” commented Lorna Kirk, owner of the Farm. Lorna and her husband bought the property in 2000 when there was only the front small barn building on the site. They have since built onto that structure, greatly enlarging the capacity of what the barn can offer. Inside you will find a myriad of items from the pesticide-free fruits and vegetables that they grow on their adjacent farmland and on a farm in the Central Valley to an eclectic and colorful assortment of gift and culinary items. You will see beautiful gift items, crockery, natural lotions, soaps, fragrances, and oils, cards, tableware, decorative art, collectibles and more. Specially made up gift baskets are also available.

In the main part of the room are shelves stocked full of a wide variety of gourmet foods, sauces, jams, preserves, breads and mixes. “Most of the gourmet foods are from California suppliers and local sources,” Kirk said, “we like to support our local farmers. You can sample anything you might be interested in before buying,” she said, “this way you won’t be disappointed."

 

Outside in the Critter Corral visitors can walk through and pet or feed the animals. There are goats, sheep, donkeys, pigs, turkeys, and Guinea fowl. The goats in particular strike interesting poses as they reach over the fences to beg for your attention. Throughout the year the Kirks host school groups to come and see the animals and take part in a little of farm life. Kirk mentioned that they do breed the goats and will sell kids.

Special events take place at the farm. In the fall a large supply of pumpkins are put outside and people and kids come from far and wide to make their special pumpkin selections. “We are also excited to be starting to host the Central Coast Garden Club here,” Kirk said. The Club will meet there on the 4^th Sunday of the month at 2 P.M.

If you are looking for something special for that person who has everything, this is a good place to come to find something unique whether it be gift items, gourmet food, coffee, and tea, or lovely roses and garden art. Or perhaps you might just like to sit in the garden with a cup of gourmet coffee and a delicious raspberry scone! Windmill Farms is open from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. in summer and until 5 P.M. in winter. Do stop by, you won’t be disappointed.

(This article was published in the Winter 2012 issue of the Access San Luis Obispo County Visitor’s Guide – www.slovisitorsguide.com)

Turkey Trot

Wow, it’s not a good time to be a turkey!

Of course you know there is a vast difference between the turkey that hits your table on Thanksgiving Day and the wild turkey. What you might not be aware of is that turkeys are not native to the western states. Back in the days of the pilgrims these birds were abundant in the eastern forests. A truly American bird, they were found only on this continent until the 1600’s when the Spanish explorers took a few birds back to Spain where they bred and expanded. In fact this bird was so American that good old Ben Franklin proposed it be chosen as the national bird and symbol of our country instead of the eagle. Time and extensive hunting practically wiped out the species until massive conservation efforts were put in place. Thanks to transplantation, wild turkeys are now in all the states except Alaska.

These are the largest game birds in North America. They stand about four feet tall and can reach up to 24 pounds. There are gobblers or Toms, hens, Jakes (first year males) and Jennys (first year females). Gobblers are adult males that have bronzy, iridescent body plumage with black tipped breast feathers. Another characteristic of males is the “beard” that protrudes from the breast. They also have an upward curving spur on the lower legs. Gobblers have less head feathers than hens. Hens are smaller birds with light-brown breast feather tips. Hens sometimes develop beards too but they are always smaller and thinner than a gobbler’s.

There are five races or sub-species of wild turkeys in the United States. Eastern, Osceola, Rio Grande, Gould’s, and Merriam’s. Merriam’s turkeys are the ones you will see in California. They are distinguished from the others by the nearly white feathers on the lower back and tail margin.

Adult males have a distinctive mating call – “gobble, gobble.” The head of the aroused gobbler becomes a combination of red, white and blue – pretty patriotic when you think about it.

Male turkeys have other interesting characteristics such as the Snood or Dewbill, a drooping apparatus that hangs down over the beak, and the wattle, a bright red loose bunch of skin hanging from under the beak to just above the beard. Apparently the only function of these items is to cause hens to swoon. A male turkey can change his head from red to blue in minutes and the climax of his performance is when he fans out his tail and puffs up his body feathers to appear huge and round. This just about clinches it for the lady turkeys. Lovemaking is bound to ensue!

Eight to 12 eggs are laid and begin hatching in 28 days. The young are capable of leaving the nest soon after hatching.

Wild turkeys form into flocks based on sex and age. The brood (hen and her poults) forms into hen-brood flocks. Adult males form flocks that rarely associate with hens until breeding season. Young males separate from the brood and form Jake flocks.

Domestic turkeys couldn’t be more different from their wild cousins. They are larger (can weigh up to 75 lbs.) and gain weight quickly. This is not due to hormones or drugs but is a factor of breeding. Domestics are white in color and cannot change their head color. Their snoods are always red. And poor beasts, they are unable to breed, a consequence of having developed over-sized barrel chests that don’t allow the birds to get close enough to mate. Artificial insemination produces all the domestic turkey flocks. Did you know there are two types of domestic turkey – the female line consists of males and females, whose job it is to produce eggs, and the male line, also made up of males and females that are bred to produce meat.

Dumbness is equated with being a turkey but this is only true for the domestic variety. Wild birds are very wily and wary. Ask any hunter. The domestics are so passive they don’t even know enough to come in out of the rain and there are documented cases of turkeys drowning in a downpour.

The biggest difference between domestic and wild birds is that only the wild ones can fly. They don’t much like to but they can, quite well. They can clear a 60-foot tree within 100 feet of takeoff and travel several miles at 50 miles per hour.

The turkey is a successful bird in every sense both in the wild and in the supermarket. Nowadays most of the products on the store shelves are made of turkey – turkey ham, turkey bacon, and turkey pastrami.

So on Thanksgiving Day while you are enjoying that turkey leg or breast, remember the great contribution this very American bird brings to us -- food for our table and a pleasure to watch in the wild.

PHOTOS

Turkeys have made a big comeback in California and are seen far and wide on farms and ranches and sometimes even in town!