Your local farmers....

I've been reading a fantastic book. It's by one of my favorite authors, Joel Salatin. If you are wanting to learn out the food system, check out his books. Our local library carries them. I tend to check them out & love them so much that I end up ordering them to refer back to often! 

There's a great section in the book that talks about how some people consider farmers unintelligent, that they don't know better & stay on the farm, not furthering their education. This couldn't be further from the truth! Farmers are quite intelligent and care about their land. So while many of their friends go to a popular college & move away for a high paying job, we go to college, spend the same amount of money for our education, then come back to the farm. Farmers won't get rich, but it's a passion. It's a desire to leave this land in better shape that we when we got it. It's a love of the animals, a desire to educate our small towns and to provide the option for people to have healthy food from a sustainable source. 

So, with that being said, here's a little background on My Farmer and myself. 😉

We were high school sweethearts. 💕 We were set up on a blind date. I was a city girl, he was a farmer. After high school, we went to a 2 year college. We got married 1/2 way thru our college years. We pushed on & finished. We both got our degree in Business. My Farmer majored in Retail, I majored in Marketing. We started farming while in college, borrowing some ground from My Farmers family. My Farmer worked off the farm to pay for the future farm we wanted, while I stayed home to raise our children. Two farms later, we are where we belong. We have both furthered our education. My Farmer takes many classes each year to learn new methods about sustainable farming, mob grazing, etc. He also works off the farm at a major university's research farm. So he farms around the clock! I am a few months away from receiving my Bachelors degree in Elementary Education. While I'm in 'school mode', I will continue on to receive my Masters in Education & Agriculture. 

So take comfort in knowing that your food is our full time job. We love each animal and sometimes we are up all night long during a difficult birthing process or to protect baby lambs or goats from predators. We weather storms to protect our animals. We spend every waking hour making sure all are comfortable, have fresh water and are healthy. Our days & nights are spent producing high quality, safe, lean, beyond organic foods for our family and yours!

We love the land, we love our animals & we love our job.  We are Right Where We Belong. 💕

Planning ahead...

The past two weeks were 'last minutes throw togethers' a at dinner time. I didn't plan ahead very well and felt like I was playing catch-up each evening. I have been rushed around with farm work taking up more & more time, also increasing my own school work load so that I can take my summer off to enjoy with my kids, along with all of the kids activities and field trips and the numerous field trips taking place here. So I sat down this afternoon with a stack of new recipes that I printed off and planned supper for each night this week.

I'm not sure which night is which yet, but here's the line-up!

Ranch Chicken Sandwiches with homemade potato chips and broccoli with cheese.
Pepperoni Pizza Burgers with homemade french fries and a side of raw veggies and ranch dip.
Speedy beef & bean burritos with Spanish rice and fresh sliced tomatoes
Fried Round Steak, Potatoes Au gratin and I've yet to figure out which veggie will go with this!
I am leaving one night free because we will either grill out, have homemade subs or possibly go out to eat.

Saturday night we had breakfast for supper, so I whipped up a bit extra for My Farmer to grab a quick breakfast sandwich each morning before heading out on the farm.

I'll post pics & recipes soon!

Friday & Saturday I ran down to some of our Amish friends to shop at their greenhouse to buy plants for my garden. My Farmer already had everything planted by Saturday afternoon! We have tomatoes, and lots of them, cucumbers, broccoli, watermelon, banana peppers, basil, cantaloupe, zucchini, green peppers, maybe more! Ha! I know that My Farmer planted 64 tomato plants for me!!! Early Girls, Better Boys, Beefsteak, grape tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, sweet 100's, stripy cherry tomatoes, pink tomatoes, striped tomatoes, LOTS of tomato variety!

Here's my first batch that I purchased!

A trying night....

Last night, My Farmer checked the cows after he got home from his other farming job. He noticed one of our cows in labor & things just seemed a bit off. He watched her, then left to let her labor for a bit. He went back about 15 minutes later & not much had changed. So we all went down as a family to check her again. My Farmer & I thought we had better walk her up to the corral to keep a closer eye on her. My Farmer started walking her from the back field up to our corral while the kids & I drove the 4 wheelers & opened gates for them. Two hours later, we got her in! What should have taken 15 minutes took us 2 hours! She decided she could do things on her own, so she ran thru hot wire, decided to go for a swim in one of our ponds, and would tease us by getting within feet of the corral gate, then turn & go the opposite way! We finally called the rest of the herd up & just ran them all thru. We just separated her out once she was up there. She felt more comfortable with her herd nearby. (She's one of our younger cows.) 😉 

My Farmer was able to check her and it looked as if the calf was really big, making her delivery difficult. So he decided that she would need help during her delivery. My Farmers dad stopped by & was able to help out! Actually, My Farmers dad has even more experience with farming & was able to jump right in! (It's so nice having family nearby!) they were able to get the calf delivered pretty quickly, but sadly. It didn't make it. It was a huge heifer calf & was so pretty. Sadly, the labor & delivery was just too much for it since it was so big. 

I am so glad that all 3 of our children were able to be there with us & witness the entire process. It's a hard lesson, but one that they took in stride. We've watched countless births from 4-wheelers, trucks, our yard and porch, but this one was different. This one was hands on. 

After checking the cow, we decided she would recover just fine. So we let her out of the corral and she walked to fresh grass, ate a bit, then moved right back in place with her herd. 

A lot is happening...

Wow! A lot has happened since my last post! We have held two field trips and booked many more for this Spring! I have 4 booked in one day next week! 😬 We love sharing our farm with others & teaching them about the type of farming we do! We hosted 37 children & their chaperone along with 2 teachers. (It was a local preschool.)

 We gathered all of the children on the square hay bales to talk to them first. We welcomed them, thanked them for coming, talked about how things would work & gave out a few warnings, (stay with your group, don't wander off, ask before petting.) Thrn we broke them into groups. We were able to have 2 high school students spend the day with us helping talk about animals, moving groups, etc. 

I took my group to our Tamworth pigs first. I had our pigs in a trailer and asked the kids to guess what was in the trailer just by using their ears. The kids had so much fun guessing! I explained how the pigs are a year & a half old, both had babies in their bellies & how both mommies came from litters of 10! I explained that these are a heritage breed of pig & they LOVE grass to eat! The kids were surprised to learn that pigs don't actually stink! Pigs, (just like any animal) in a feedlot will stink! Animals with fresh air, grass, and room to roam, won't smell! Then I let the kids stand on the edge of the trailer, a few at a time to pet the pigs.

Then we moved over to the Holstein bottle calves. We have 4 and the kids loved hearing about how cows produce milk and beef. We talked about the size of the bottle and let the kids pet them.

In our front, bottom field, we had a herd of beef cows and the bus got to drive right next to them. The kids thought that was great!

Then we moved over to the turkeys. The kids enjoyed hearing the tom turkey gobble. His defense is to puff up really big & gobble to protect the hens. One of our turkeys even laid an egg during the field trip!!! The kids thought it was so cool! We talked about how turkeys give us eggs to eat and meat, especially for sandwiches & Thanksgiving!

Next, we moved over to the quail. Not very many children knew what they were, but loved seeing how a full grown bird could be so tiny! Again, we explained that they are used for eggs (which are very tiny) and meat.

Our next station was the ducklings! The kids enjoyed quacking at the ducklings and watching them play in the water.

Our next stop was the goats! We had a friend, one of the high schoolers, bring her momma goat and the twin babies! She got the twins out for the kids to pet! This was a hit!

We also had another friend bring her hair sheep over. We had 2 babies and they were so sweet! The kids loved petting them also!

The following station was our laying hens! We talked about laying hens, meat birds and what we got from them. Sadly, our chickens were a bit frightened & wouldn't lay an egg for the kiddos!

We also had our bunnies for the kids to pet & play with. The bunnies were so good and the kids loved how soft they are!

Finally, I took kids over to a table and helped them plant an organic seed, (either organic tomatoes or cucumbers) in organic soil and biodegradable pots. Then they got to take them home.

The kids had a little time to revisit their favorite animals for a bit before leaving. They each got a picture on a tractor & were sent home with a treat bag full of coloring sheets, stickers, etc. 

It was a great day and we really enjoying being able to educate both kids & adults!