Getting Closer, Getting Closer

Though I’ve lost quite a lot
I am still in control
They can keep what they’ve got
But they can’t have my soul
And if I don’t have this all worked out
Still I’m getting closer, getting closer
I still have far to go no doubt
But I’m getting closer, getting closer…

- lyrics and song: Billy Joel “Getting Closer” from his 1986 release “The Bridge”

We are getting closer to having piglets!  Last night we experienced a line of pretty  big thunder and lightning storms.  So what do you suppose one of the pregnant Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs decides to do?  Challenge the humans to a test of nerves.  It became the game: “Who wants to stand by a metal animal fastened to metal fence posts, located on the top of a hill, in the dark in a thunderstorm and talk to the piggy”?   My husband and I were volunteered, and my mom drove to town to purchase more flashlight batteries.  We scratched her ears, and talked some sense into the pig, even though we assumed that it would be a long night, thinking that she would go ahead and have the piglets last night.  The weather couldn’t be much worse — with our “luck” that is the way that it should have happened… but it didn’t.

Back story: Last year we had goats somewhat unexpectedly give birth in the absolute worst places and in the most foul of winter weather — birthing them into a puddle of ice and water, mere feet from cover — with precipitation (sleet/freezing rain) thundering down.  That was a long and difficult birthing.  Before that was a Galloway Gelbveih cross heifer who was not very friendly and who needed assistance and wanted none of it.

Back to the present: So we have yet to experience a farrowing.  After calculating out her due date, she is about four to nine days early — but I don’t think that ever stopped a pig from giving birth. We have decided, though, against modern pig farming technique, NOT to use either the farrowing crate or to confine the pig to a small room and use rails.  We are going to allow this to be completely natural.  Pastured, and with humans present, but allowing the pig to move about as she needs to in order to get more comfortable and relieve any labor pains.  Please wish us luck.  We might need it.

In other baby news: One of our rogue chickens who had crept off into a dark corner in the loft in the barn, and layed about a dozen eggs, has successfully hatched  a number of them.  It is exciting when we make these lovely little unexpected discoveries.  This chicken will probably need to be moved to a safer location in order to allow her to defend and raise her chicks – though it is the plan at the moment, to leave her with her own young and take care of them… again, in a natural, normally maternal way.

When was the last time you heard of a farmer who left their chickens to hatch their own eggs and raise them as they would if they were free animals, and not farmyard animals?  I guess that is what makes Wells Tavern Farm a little bit different from other farming operations.

 

Mordred and Cookie

So, two of our springing heifers have calved thus far. There are two more to go. The first was last week to Edwina, who calved with a heifer the kids call “Cookie” a long-legged calf with lots of white spots.The second cow, Guinevere, calved two days ago with the largest bull calf I have ever seen a Jersey birth unassisted. He will be called “Mordred”. She was in great health both before and after the birth, and seems to be a very calm and willing milker.

With four first-calf heifers springing at the same time, it could be awful to teach them to be patient and calm while milking, but so far, Gwen and Ed have proven to be very, very good cows.

 

Mmm Burger. Happy Independence!

It was very nice meeting many new customers Thursday at the Northfield Farmers Market. What was the most popular cut sold of Wells Tavern Farm’s grassfed Belted Galloway Thursday? Hands down… Ground Beef Patties. Yup. Hamburger.

For inspiration and a mouthwatering experience, I heartily recommend that burger-lovers listen to the National Public Radio audio story that ran during Morning Edition on Friday. Adam Perry Lang taught NPR’s David Greene how to make that perfect burger while toiling over a George Foreman Grill in NPR’s mail loading dock. Listen to the story by clicking HERE.

You can trust that our ground beef is free from the nasty and all too pervasive E. coli O157:H7 contamination.  Our product is processed, sealed and labeled in packages under USDA inspection  through the entire process… last week we delivered an animal to the butcher and, as always, the USDA inspector comes out of the facility to visually assess the general health and well-being of the animal intended for processing, before they come out of the trailer.  Because we have happy and healthy animals, the animal proceeded through to the holding facility and processing.

It seems unbelievable to me that a farm would try to slip a sickly animal or diesased animal into a facility to make into food we eat.  Yuck.  We are what our food eats.  We are only as healthy as our food is!  How could they?  Also, why would anyone sell a product that they are not thouroughly proud of — a safe, inspected, properly handled piece of meat that is of the highest quality possible?

Repeat business, happy customers, word-of-mouth — those are the basics of sales that sustain small farmers who can’t afford to advertise, buy freezer space in major supermarkets, or who don’t raise enough volume of animals a year to justify other means of more widespread marketing.  By keeping sales local, we must keep the quality of the products that we sell exceedingly high.  We take this quality standard very seriously.

Speaking of quality and truthfulness: you should hop in the car and take a ride down the road beside our farm, and watch the Tamworth pigs frolicking in the field alongside the dirt road.  They are behind animal fencing and three strands of very hot electric fence. Within their pasture they have shade and sun and created their own little muddy wallow area.  Watch the pigs root up the earth and gnaw at the maple saplings.  It is nature in motion.  That is what farming is all about.  South of their pasture is the sheep and goat pasture, and West of the Tamworth pasture is the elder Lilac Turkey pasture (the parent stock we hatch eggs form in the spring), and to the North is the rotating Belted Galloway and registered milking Jersey cow pasture.

Happy Independence Day.

 

Burgers for the Fourth of July

Celebrate your Independence with local grass-fed Belted Galloway Beef Burgers! It will mark your independence from unsustainable factory farming and you too will be joining the hundreds of locals who have discovered local meat and vegetables products which are available seasonally, direct from the farm or at local farmers markets.

At the farmers markets you can talk to the actual farmer. Not the very knowledgeable butcher or other paid employee, but the actual person who does the actual farming — who can answer many of your most pressing questions. You might even be amazed by the depth and breadth or their knowledge and wit.

As recent members to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, I know that I have referred back to their website many times in the last few months, in order to have the scope of the heritage breeds and to really understand the threat to their survivability. I often get questions at the farmers markets from passersby, or new customers, who wonder why we can’t just raise the breeds that everyone else seems to have raised, or their neighbor raises, or that they read about in a magazine. The simple answer is that we deeply believe in conservation. Additionally, we believe in the inherent value in the unimproved breeds — the ones that we have chosen to raise are all perfectly suited to our climate, to grass-fed and pastured farming and to a long and slow maturity. The care and attention to detail as the animal matures is a process that we really enjoy here at the farm. Our animals have names and receive individual attention. Well, not all of the turkeys and chickens have names, but many of them do: there are quirky chickens who practically jump into your arms at night, as she feels the need for human attention and love. There are the fifteen turkeys who have taught themselves how to open the rabbit cage door and drink from the rabbit waterer. There is Mrs. Goosey, without whom, rounding up the ducks and geese each night would be nearly impossible.

Each animal on our farm is valued for their individual traits. We are small, and like it that way.

Burgers for the Fourth of July will be available at the Northfield Farmers Market tomorrow from four to seven, rain or shine.  Follow the signs once you get into town.  Easy access to Route 91, and a great place to pick up a nutritious church supper for your family for an affordable price, as they serve during the farmers market.

Pork Update: Bacon, Sausage, Chops, Ham Steaks…. Yum!  All available in September.  We have secured a date with our processor and we should have the products back in Shelburne in September, smoked and cured and tasting unbelievable.

Turkey Update: It is NOT too early to reserve your Thanksgiving Turkey.  I have a dozen reserved already for November, and could easily add you to the list… remember that we have always sold out about a month before Thanksgiving.  We have FRESH, pastured, heritage breed, LILAC Turkeys for Thanksgiving. We deliver up to about 25 miles.  Pick up at the farm is also an option.  $4.50 a pound.  Rave reviews from customers last year.

 

First Birthday with Garlic Scapes

Last night we celebrated Peter’s first birthday, and I made a simple centerpiece of Coyote Hill Farm’s (Bernardston) Garlic Scapes in an Evenflo bottle of Peter’s.

If you have yet to eat yummy scapes, visit them at the Northfield MA Farmers’ Market later today, from 4-7… where you can also take the family and pickup dinner — tonight the menu includes Shepherds Pie prepared by the Trinitarian Church. Follow the signs to the site, and pick up some Wells Tavern Farm beef while your’re there!

For a great recipe for Scapes Pesto, follow this link.

 

Dirty Job(s)

My four year old loves the television show, Dirty Jobs, on the Discovery Channel. An “everyday Joe” host named Mike, who incidentally is the current spokesperson for the new Ford television advertising campaign, and who is a trained opera singer (!) is the poor fellow who has the pleasure participating in one of a few real dirty jobs. Apparently, everyday, there are people other than farmers, who get really, really dirty and stinky while earning a living.

On the evening news, it was reported that for seventeen of the last twenty-two days, it has rained in NYC. I am not sure if that statistic is the exact same number for Shelburne, Massachusetts but it is sure close, if not too low. All that rain makes an awful lot of mud — the soil is saturated — absolutely sopping wet. At least I don’t have to spend a lot of time watering the garden yet this year!

Tuesday means that Wells Tavern Farm will be selling pastured, heritage and local meat and eggs at the Bernardston Farmers Market from four to seven. Thursday is Northfield Farmers Market from four to seven. Rain or Shine. (I have linked the market names to the weather forecasts for each town!)

These Farmers Markets are, perhaps, my one opportunity all week to be really, kind of clean — or at least mud-free.

In other farm news, we are now members of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, the pioneer organization in the U.S. working to conserve historic breeds and genetic diversity in livestock.  Since that is what our farm is also all about, I thought that it made sense!

 

*sigh* … more rain…

Life on the farm? Rainy and wet.
Lets see, Thursday afternoon from 4 to 7 p.m., I was standing under a market tent in the rain, trying to vend grass-fed beef, pork and eggs in Northfield. The wind picked up around 5:30, and other vendors tents, which were not shielded from the gusts, were lifting a little.

I was very, very lucky to have a space shared by Severance’s Maple Products of Northfield, who have many grades of maple syrup, candies, sugars and other products available weekly. They have a great little Maple Sugar Shack (a trailer) that they bring to the Northfield Farmer’s Market – and Thursday they set up a tent beside that structure– which did a fabulous job of shielding us all from the wind.

Coyote Hill Farm from Bernardston offered beautiful, sculptural and tasty garlic scapes, their own strawberries, tomatoes, mushrooms, flowers and other fresh produce, Leyden Glen Farm brought a freezer stocked with local lamb, Bloody Brook Farm was present with fresh produce and there were lovely plants – both flowing and started veggies, available for sale by a cheerful, hard-working local green-thumb.

It was too bad that by and large, the fruits (or meat and vegetables) of our labor (”s”, collectively) went unnoticed at the market due to the weather.  Be it known, that day in, day out, regardless of cooperation by the weather, the humble farmer is toiling:  in the fields, the barn, the greenhouse, at the market.

We will be there. Will the customers?
I cannot neglect the two, brave customers who despite the torrents, came over and purchased products from Wells Tavern Farm – a half dozen fresh duck eggs, and a beautiful little Sirloin steak. Thank you. Thank you very much.

As I  drove past our pastures, going home Thursday night after the market, the sheep were nibbling grass, the goats were tucked away in their shelter, the pregnant Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs were stretched out, enjoying the opportunity to wallow in a mudbath. The turkeys and chickens had retreated into their night housing, and the ducks and geese were happily flapping and squawking. The cows? The Belted Galloways are not much perturbed by the rain, as they have a double-coat, some genetic temperature sturdiness and lots of hairy insulation. The Jerseys… well, they are a dairy breed, and have very little “insulation” in the form of extra coat, layers of fat, or sturdy constitution. They are very lovely animals– much more “refined” than the weather-oblivious Belties.  I looked into those large Jersey eyes,  rain drenched and yearning for some kind of attention (extra food, a hearty brushing, etc.) and that night I instantly understood how they felt.

“Me too,” I thought.

Perhaps Tuesday’s market in Bernardston will be warmer, or drier… perhaps both?

I told Gloria from Coyote Hill Farm that I would post some pics that I took of the vendors in the rain, and her beautiful produce.  I will.  Later.  :0

 

Sun! People! Yippee!

Finally a beautiful sunny day yesterday. It was magnificent. Blue skies, and for a bit, we had puffy clouds, which gradually disappeared (I know that is fairly unscientific, but you know…) and were overtaken by more blue sky.

It was a fabulous day for the Bernardston Farmers Market. Northfield Farmers Market is tomorrow, and the forecast calls for rain and thunderstorms. I am planning to show up at the very least, and when the storms are too close, then I will go home.

A word to the wise: If you are looking for Heritage Belted Galloway Beef Roasts, call or email me, and I will bring some to the markets. When I attend the markets, I bring a few of the most popular cuts: mainly steaks, ground beef, patties, stew and kabob meat. Just a quick call will ensure that I have the quantity and specific cut that you desire.

Incubator update: the incubator is finally off. Unplugged and not turning, or beeping or chirping. It is eerily quiet in the house now, without the hourly 26 beeps and semi-hourly 50 chirps. The birds are all hatched. We should be able to weather any storm with the variety that we have hatched on the farm this year!

It looks like a lot of eggs in November and December again — if the birds all begin laying at five to six month of age like they normally do!

The four Jerseys who are due to calve soon, are beginning to “udder up” and their milk is beginning to come in — this is getting exciting!

 

And a Chicken in Every Pot, or at least in “Many Local Pots”

Our heritage, free ranging poultry breeds are considered dual purpose birds: they are good for eggs and meat.

When a laying hen no longer produces what she was designed to do (abundant egg production) it’s time to convert her into a “Stewing Hen.”

Slow cooked (which is a must) for several hours in a stew or soup is worth it, though, because the flavor of the bird can be outstanding. They are a perfect excuse to make any stew or “ethnic” meal, such as a chicken in peanut sauce, or an Indian dish based on chicken.  In a crock-pot, these hens make an absolutely wonderful meal when cooked until the meat falls right off the bone.  Keep in mind that the juice makes an extremely flavorful broth for soups or other dishes, and should not be overlooked.

Chicken and dumplings or a pot of chicken soup.

Both come from a hen that has had time to grow into a very nice sized bird and has developed great tasting meat.  Our Light Brahma Stewing Hensare now available. Quantities are limited.  These whole Stewing Hens are $3 a pound.  They have never had medications, antibiotics, been exposed to radiation, exposed to/treated with Trisodium Phosphate, fed steroids, chemicals, un-natural hormones, or other creepy things that are common in the poultry business.  If you want a chicken, please call 413.625.2797 or email me. Thanks!

 

Dampen the Crops, Not the Spirits

“Ooh – I didn’t see that big black cloud hanging over me
And when the rain came down I was nearly drowned
I didn’t know the mess I was in..” -”Heading for the Light” The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 (1988)

I am not sure why the Traveling Wilburys song lyrics came to me today, but they did, and here they are. I remember nearly wearing through the cassette tape by playing that Vol. 1 release repeatedly. Great music.
The damp weather is great — for crops. It is less fine for farmers markets, but as you know, they happen rain or shine.

No spirits were dampened today in Bernardston at the weekly Tuesday Farmers Market. The customers came out — maybe just the regulars with fewer casual browsers, but the compliment of farmers were there, us included, and it was another fun day meeting and greeting.

Thursday the forecast is for more rain, and I will be setup in Northfield from 4-7, with many assorted cuts of Grassfed Belted Galloway, and a Pastured Gloucestershire Old Spots Boneless Tied Shoulder Roast. Ask about whole duck and whole chicken. If the chickens, most of whom are currently molting, cooperate, I might have between six and ten dozen eggs for sale as well.