Our farm, our products, our animals.
PRODUCE
As the growing season starts, produce variety is limited. As the season continues variety and bounty increase, once again becoming limited towards the end of the season. This, of course, is due to our relatively short growing season.
Each year we look for feedback from our customers, what you like and dislike, what you would like to see more of, or be offered more of at markets or CSA.
We also try to grow specialty crops, and have been increasingly more interested in the heirloom varieties of crops such as potatoes, tomatoes and carrots.
Over the last few years we have been able to put up a number of hoop houses (greenhouses over the field, with crops growing directly in the soil) which will aide us in expanding our growing season, and allow us to control the crop’s climate a little better. Check out crops by season here:
CHICKENS & EGGS
Our ladies reside in a comfy coop with a plenty of nesting boxes, an indoor area to hide from the rain, as well as access to an outdoor area to scratch in the dirt. Of course, they do need to be fenced in to keep them safe from as many predators that roam the neighborhood.
In the summer the girls eat a diet of our organic vegetables, in the winter they are supplemented with non-GMO grain.
HONEY
About our honey, Honey?! We have bee hives at the edge of our fields for our flighty friends. The bees pollinate all of our crops, which is why sometimes we get some funny looking vegetables! After the crops have been pollinated and the honey has been made, we then extract the honey comb and transfer it to the freezer.
Freezing the comb protects it from infestations of wax moths. Warm, gooey honey can be eaten directly from the hive, but freezing also benefits the storage of honey. After three days in the freezer, we remove it and let it warm back up to room temperature before removing the caps and emptying the honey into the spinner. After spinning for about 20 minutes the honey is then ready to be filtered and bottled and make its way to your table for tea! Honey has an indefinite shelf life. If it crystallizes, simple place the jar in a pot of water on the stove and simmer until it becomes golden an beautiful again.
OXEN
The oxen are Daren’s hobby, I guess every farmer needs a hobby to use up all that spare time they have in the off season (LOL). The oxen are trained to walk together in a yoke and obey commands. They can be utilized to pull plows and cultivators in the field; to pull a wagon and give kids a hayride; to pull logs away from where a tree fell; or drag a sled full of concrete blocks in competitions at fairs.
Daren has trained several different teams over the years but currently has two teams trained to work on the farm. Moe and Curly are Chianina Holstein cross and Eli and Sam are Dutch Belted or as we like to call them, the “Oreo” team.
“It reminds people how things used to be done,” he says. “It takes a little more time than if we were to use a tractor, but people aren’t used to seeing it. They’ll stop in and ask questions or get the kids out of the car and take pictures. It’s an experience.”