since my arrival to stillwater, minnesota, on april 2nd, with my recently purchased 1985 ford f250, and my pup francis, i have yet to sleep more than 7 hours and have eaten most my meals standing up. Francis and i stayed in the recently restored "big" red barn, for the first month. While we were waiting for olivia's arrival and the warm weather, i built a green house, brooders, chicken coops, duck coops, plowed fields from sod, planted starts in the greenhouse. whew, that was a busy month.
when olivia did arrive the first of may, francis and i were very excited, now the three of us could work in the persistent rain. spring in minnesota reminds me of winter in portland.
we have been both working hard to amend the field, build planting beds, and have now begun our planting. yes, this is memorial day weekend, so we are behind. However, i am encouraged by the greens, they look wonderfully buttery, and seem to be a monument to the life we are cultivating. In the next few weeks, we will be planting, planting, planting, then mulching, mulching, mulching. We will build our drip line irrigation system. Build a market display, and a roadside stand.
we have sold 6 full shares and 1 or 2 working shares. total we are offering 10 full shares and 5 working shares. so we are almost there. we also just recently signed up with the white bear lake farmers market(thanks mary for taking us). The white bear lake farmers market will start the end of june as will our shares. that will be a crazy week. every-time you do something for the first time, it most always goes a little rough around the the fray.
oh yes, i want to mention that we have 10 broiler chickens started, they are available for a pre purchase price of $18, and will be ready for 4th of july weekend. We will also be offering stewing hens in the fall.
our broilers will be raised in floorless pens, where we will move them to fresh pasture everyday where they will consume 20% or more of the food from forage and grass. this enables us to have healthy birds that don't need antibiotics(its in the grass already).
the stewing hens are retired laying hens. they live quite a bit longer than the broilers, and produce wonderful deep yellow sturdy eggs. Our layers move around everyday as well, they live in a mobile eggmoble, and are protected with electric netting. so they get plenty of grass and forage. the result is wonderfully delicious eggs, and outstanding stewing hens for making soups and stocks.
we like to use the stewing hens to make a large broth and freeze it for later use in whateva.
if you are interested in turkey, we plan to offer for pre purchase as well, turkey day turkeys. they will be on the same everyday pasture rotation plan as the layers, and broilers. so chances are they will exceed all of our hopes for delicious sustainable thanksgiving day meals.
the work ahead of us is daunting, exciting and feels rewarding. Thanks to the help from our many friends whom have spent already many hours helping out on the farm. special thanks to molly and erik for their hard work, and encouragement(and the olympic granola bars). And thank you those whom have trusted us with your hard earned money to provide you with freshies. thanks for giving us a chance!
