ANIMALS

GOATS

Spring 2011 saw the addition of three grade (ie: not purebred) Nubian goat does to our farm!  In December 2011 we added a young, purebred buck.  What a wonderful addition!  Goats are smart, cuddly and love to eat the willows, maples and spruce which fill in our shelter belt!  They are also big fans, like us, of winter squash like pumpkins!  We’re having so much fun hanging out with our goats, taking them for walks and photographing them for the blog.  They are so personable; each is a little individual with her own likes and dislikes.  Mabel, for example, loves to have Farmer Man rub her face; she will lean against him, close her eyes and just ‘bliss out’.

Mabel, Goldie and Chocolate have, hopefully, been bred by our little Randie ,the buckling, and by May or June we should have kids and milk.  The purpose of the goats is to supply ourselves with milk and cheese, and to add some year-round income to the farm by producing goat milk soap and lotion.  We’d love to produce cheese for the Farmers Market and our CSA families, but it is a complicated process requiring the building of a commercial kitchen.  Maybe in the future…

In the meantime, you’ll be able to follow the goatlings as they grow up!  Check out our blog ‘The Vine’ for updates!

CHICKENS

We have a small flock of laying hens for eggs.  At this time we have forty nine hens and two roosters: the gorgeous Rocky the Rooster, a Barred Rock seen in the picture at left, and an Ameraucana called Buddy!  Our little flock includes six white Leghorns, 25 Black Sex Links, 4 Ameraucanas and 14 Isa Browns.  The Leghorns give us white eggs, the Browns and Sex Links lay brown eggs and the Ameraucanas lay blue eggs!  All eggs, regardless of shell color, are the same in taste and nutrition.  The flock is pastured, meaning that they have a large fenced field to roam around in during the day, happily scratching for bugs, weeds and seeds.  At night, they return to the safety of their coop to roost.  Eggs are available at the farm gate for $3 per dozen, we are five minutes east of Brandon.

Like everything we do, the chickens are raised chemical-free!  They are not fed growth hormones, needless antibiotics or artificial stimulants.  You may be surprised by the difference in a farm fresh egg!  Our chickens get to be…well, chickens, just acting naturally!

 

 

BERKSHIRE PIGS

We custom raise pastured pork for people.  Each summer, we bring in piglets of a heritage breed called Berkshire.  These are black pigs which produce a rich, dark meat.  These pigs are raised on pasture: free to roam and root, fed with a mixture that does not contain any antibiotics or growth hormones.  They also get, of course, lots of vegetables!  Each Farmers Market or CSA day means good treats for the pigs!  Anything deemed unsaleable because of blemishes, bug damage and such is fed to the pigs!  In the Fall, they are delivered to East 40 Packers and then each customer makes their own arrangements for cuts, curing, choice of sausages and such.  It’s a great feeling to go into the long, cold winter with a freezer full of naturally raised pork.  Contact us for more information!