Self-taught farmers confidently raising chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs. Our focus is on practices that are environmentally harmonious and respectful to our livestock. We appreciate the beauty around us, clean eating, fermenting, and responsibly utilizing the bounty of the land. If you like thinking for yourself, continuous learning, and connecting with the homesteader lifestyle, check us out.
Beautiful red roses grow amok here in an area that clearly hints at having once been a well-tended terraced garden. I choose to let the vegetation grow wild – and have been rewarded with sumac berries, peonies, lemon balm, yucca, and other delightful flora. The roses, as with many of the other flowers here, aren’t just pretty faces – they’re edible. And wouldn’t they make a lovely wine?
Continue reading “Winecraft: Ruby Red Rose”
Integrations can be an exciting, but difficult, time: this is when young (or newly-added) animals join the resident group. For poultry, this can be a dangerous time, and it needs to be managed carefully. After weeks in tractors that were moved twice a day to fresh pasture, the goslings were finally ready to join the adult geese.
Continue reading “Around The Farm: The Great Gosling Integration”
It was a hot and humid day. The honeysuckle perfumed the muggy air with its seductive fragrance. I ventured out, dressed from head to toe (for sun and tick protection), to harvest honeysuckle blooms, many of which seemed to be intertwined with brambles. Soon, my nitrile gloves were ripped to shreds – but, sometimes, sacrifices must be made in the pursuit of the land’s wild bounty.
Continue reading “Winecraft: Heavenly Honeysuckle…And Blotto Bees”
The two groups of goslings have been doing a great job of cropping down the pasture. Using secure low tractors to contain them allows us to manage their grazing (and get our daily workout). And they are voracious grazers!
Continue reading “On Pasture: Grass-fed Gosling Mowers”
As we were moving tractors this morning, I noticed some unusual tan objects clinging to the shadecloth. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they were the molted skins of cicadas – Brood X had arrived!
Continue reading “Around The Farm: Brood X Is Here”
