Check out our new section with RECIPES from our farm! Stay tuned! More awesome recipes will be added frequently.

Tuesday
Jan242012

Open Farm Day Saturday, February 4th! 

Mark your calendars! We're going to be hosting another “Open Farm Day” coming up on Saturday, February 4 from 11 am to 2 pm. PLEASE RSVP NO LATER THAN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND AT MIDNIGHT (LINK AT BOTTOM).

 

The purpose of “Open Farm Days” is really to cultivate community between us, as your farmer, and you, as our supporters. Showing you around the farm, brings us great joy too!

 

The farm tour will begin promptly at 11 am. This is a very laid back and brief overvue of the farm. Children are most definitely welcome as part of this and will enjoy seeing the animals in action. The tour will be finished up with a casual “Q & A” time with Farmer Jason.

 

Lunch will be served at 1 pm. For those of you who wish to enjoy some of the meat raised on our farm, lunch will be optional and an additional fee. We also welcome the option to bring a picnic-style lunch and enjoy it out on the farm.

 

Lunch options will include either Apricot-Glazed Pork -OR- Smoked Chicken Quarter with Broccoli Salad and Mashed Sweet Potatoes. There will be a child's plate option with a hot dog and sweet potato fries.

 

PLEASE RSVP NO LATER THAN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND BY MIDNIGHT- LINK BELOW!

 

Cost for Tour:

$20/family (includes up to 2 adults and unlimited children)

$10/individual

 

Cost for Lunch:

$10/plate

$6/child's plate

 

We hope to see you out at the farm on Saturday, February 4th!

 

CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT RSVP FORM

Saturday
Jan142012

Hatching Eggs

As often as we can, we like to hatch our own eggs from our own layers.

 

The majority of eggs on our farm are fertile eggs because we have roosters with our layers. We have a pretty good amount of chicks that hatch because of this.

 

When we want to hatch eggs, we go gather a batch from out in the chicken coops and put them into our incubator.

 

Obviously mother hens have the absolute best hatching rate, but in order for us to hatch chicks the eggs must go into a controlled environment for 21 days. The eggs have to be turned and rotated twice a day. Most incubators will do this for you. The temperature has to be set between 99 and 102 degrees (100-101 degress is optimal). There has to be a bit of humidity in the incubators as well. We acheive this by placing a pan of water in the incubators or wet sponges.

 

You can 'candle' eggs to see if they are fertile or not. This is a really cool process! You basically look at the egg with a light source (flashlight works) in a dark room. If its a fertile egg, you can see an embryo forming that looks like a black dot at about 8 days into incubation. If its not a fertile egg, the egg will appear clear.

 

We stop turning the eggs about 2 to 3 days before they are supposed to hatch so that the chicks can start making 'pip' holes in the eggs and work their way out. The temperature will also stay about 100 to 101 degress. If you've never seen this process, it is a sight to witness and so fascinating watching the chicks work their way out. It's really hard not to want to help them get out of their shells, but them building up the strength and endurance to break out of them will help them survive once they make it out.

Once the eggs are done hatching, we'll move them into a different brooder box with wood shavings, food, and water. At this point, we'll try and keep the temp at about 95 degrees or so. They'll stay in an environment like this until they feather out and can withstand being outside. From that point they'll live the rest of their days out in the pasture with the other layers.

 

Hopefully they will earn their keep by laying beautiful and delicious eggs for all of our wonderful customers to enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This girl is never far from her daddy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The incubators and brooder box.

Friday
Jan132012

Doing

It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,

or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,

whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions;

who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,

and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,

so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

President Theodore Roosevelt

(photo credit, Kaylyn- 7 yrs old)

Friday
Jan062012

Lessons Learned in Farming:::: Part 1

This post started out as a “Top 10” kind of post. But, as I've sat and thought about the many facets we've learned about farming, the list definitely exceeded 10. Which, in turn, means that I knew very little when I began farming, but I've learned a whole boat load since. I'm very encouraged by this even though I still have a long ways to go.

The list grew so large, that we'll break this post up into a few series of posts. So, here are just a few of the things that farming has taught us.

 

1. Even if you are having a bad day, the animals have to be fed and the chores have to be done anyway.

  They don't know it's Christmas, you have the flu, or that your best friend has died. Nothing has taught me responsibility more than this simple realization that I have a few thousand animals around the farm that solely rely on me.

We don't even do the dairy side of farming, but I can tell you that I truly admire dairy farmers. Milking is something that has to get done sometimes twice a day everyday. Farmer Bob at Stryk Dairy is one of the hardest working farmers that I know.

 

2.You can't always control the results, but you can control the activity.

As I mentioned in the previous post, weather is something entirely out of your control. There was no way to predict the extent of the drought that took place this past summer. But, it was one that will go down in the history books. Our farming didn't come to a halt. There were (and still are) tons of animals in the pastures. For example, we had meat chickens that were dying due to scorching heat temperatures. So we had to figure out how to put misters in their shade structures to keep them cool in the shade. We couldn't have afforded for everything to just stop or throw our hands up in defeat.

Whether it be weather challenges, predators, sickness, or a logistical challenge, we've had to continue to press forward and make adjustments accordingly. One of the biggest things we've learned since becoming farmers is to adapt and overcome.

3. It might be a smelly job, but someone has to do it.

I will not ask someone else to do a job that I'm not willing to do myself. I think this is a good life lesson in general to learn. The stinkiest, dirtiest, and nastiest jobs on this farm (and if I'm honest, there are lots of those around a farm) are all something that I've done and still do. There are no options for me not to do them because at the end of the day, they have to get done.

4.Make friends with old timing farmers.

There is much wisdom to be gained in learning from these farmers. I've greatly benefited from befriending neighbors of mine who have been ranching and farming for generations. And their willingness to offer information and knowledge is a treasure.

Farming is becoming a lost art. If you don't believe me, listen to this shocking statistic. According to a census taken in 2007, the average age of a farmer has increased roughly one year in each census cycle, from 50.3 in 1978 to 57.1 in 2007. The majority of farmers are between 45 and 64, but the fastest growing group of farm operators is those 65 years and older. This statistic is worrisome. We know this to be true when our family attends farming conferences and seminars. We are by far some of the youngest people in attendance.

One of the main reasons why we have chosen to be a transparent and open farm is to bring awareness and advocacy to the american family farm. We want to play a small part in empowering the next generation of farmers. The good news is that these small farms are possible and we want people to be encouraged by this. More and more people are turning towards locally grown and raised agriculture. Farmer's Markets and CSA's are on the rise. Our customer base is growing which indicates to us that this is all worth while. In turn, this makes us feel good about the food we are putting on people's tables.

5.Chupacabra's DO exist.

Not really.....sort of. Along with the drought this summer, came a series of 2 weeks worth of predator attacks and a loss of 140 birds. For a small farm, that number is a pretty big blow. After several nights of lost sleep from all night stakeouts, Oscar (our right hand farm hand) killed a weird looking creature of some sort. What we determined this beast was based on the photos we took and a quick google search, was what some out there were calling a Chupacabra.

It was fun for a brief moment to think that we trapped and killed a legend. We know that Chupacabras are basically folklore fiction of a cryptid creature in the americas rumored to prey on livestock. But, we still sent the photos off to Texas Parks and Wildlife who gave us the honor of replying a one-liner email that stated “It's a mange coyote.” The end. We believe that to be true as well, but we still wanted to make sure.

On that note, I'll close with this lovely gem of a photo that hopefully won't give you nightmares. It may however at the very least induce goosebumps. This thing was nasty!

Tuesday
Jan032012

Reflections of 2011:::: We're Thankful

As we reflect upon this past year and life on the farm, we can’t help but give thanks. Even in the midst of trials and obstacles we have much to be thankful for. There is always good to be found.

We’re thankful that we’ve survived the worst drought in Texas in decades. There is no doubt that this summer proved itself to be the biggest challenge that we’ve ever faced since our farming days began. We're humbled by realizing that at the end of the day, we have no control over things that affect us daily. Like the weather, for example. Working outside regardless of buckets of rain, misty snow (sometimes), blistering heat, or chilling winds has helped me to understand just how small I am in comparison to the bigger picture. We can't choose our circumstances. We can only control how we choose to walk through them.

We’re thankful that we’ve gotten to farm yet another year. As we’ve went from greenhorns to more seasoned farmers, we’ve witnessed the land slowly come back to life flourishing with animals. When we began farming 4 years ago on this 113 acre farm, we had dreams of it becoming a one-day farm with real animals grazing out in the pastures. That dream has now became a reality. There is no doubt that this is a happy farm with happy animals. If you don't believe us, pay a visit to the farm and you'll very quickly become acquainted with “Onyx”, our Spanish goat turned companion. And we use the word “companion” very very loosely here as he is more like the resident “pest”. But, these are the small things that bring us much joy.

We’re thankful for each and every customer that have decided to bypass the grocery store and support a local family farm. We fully realize that picking up your food at a predetermined location and the farmer himself helping you load your meat in your car is just not as normal as going to a grocery store. Nor is driving directly to the farm to purchase your meat for the week in which your meat came off it's pastures. We continue to be amazed by this time and time again. Our customer community is growing. One of the greatest blessings of being your farmer is getting to know you and your family. Meeting the people that we feed and knowing them by name is truly something very special to us.

We're thankful that our family grew by one more litte girl this year. This brings the grand total up to “5 chicks and a farmer” living on this farm. This farmer is greatly outnumbered! Exie Jo is doing well. She is a dainty, smily, bouncy, healthy baby girl. It's hard to believe that she will be one at the end of this month! And her sisters are smitten over her.

One of the things that you can be expecting from us as your farmers, is to be more diligent in staying connected through this blog. The irony of a farmer blogging is comical since there are no laptops to be found out in the pastures. However, we want to closely connect you to your food even more, the happenings on the farm, and build relationships with each of you.

Another thing that you can expect from us, is for us to continue bringing healthful meats and eggs from our farm to your table. Thank you for being on this journey with us. Farm life is continuously changing and growing. There is no doubt that we will even face challenges this year. As we look back on 2011 with much to be thankful for, we look into 2012 with much to be hopeful for.

Oh, and "Onyx" the farm pest says,"Happy New Year" too!