WellsTavernFarm’s Weblog

If you are looking for a wonderful fresh, local and pastured heritage turkey for your Thanksgiving table this year, we have two left. Please call the farm phone number to inquire or reserve. That number can be found on our website, www.wellstavernfarm.com. Dressed birds will be available Tuesday the 20th.

Everyone is thinking and talking turkey at this time of year. It is quite exciting, really. We have never raised turkeys before. They are very much like chickens, though a little reptilian, very, very dim witted, and    m u c h    bigger.

It seems like there are lots of backyard folks, and farms in the area who decided to raise turkeys this year, though the ones that we have noticed in backyards and in barnyards mostly seem to be of the broad-breasted or white varieties. Since we have not raised either of those two varieties before, I should not “knock it” before trying it, but something about a bird that has been genetically urged to create abnormally huge breasts that their legs cannot support — birds who cannot naturally breed because of their insane proportions… somehow just seems wrong. They probably taste fabulous. It is a shame, though that they cannot be allowed to live and create offspring.

We are raising a very endangered variety of turkey, the lilac. Yes, we got the poults last spring with the intention of eating some of them, but, in our defense, from the beginning, we were, and still are, keeping the most beautiful ones to raise and further the breed.

National Public Radio has covered the turkey subject a length on two different programs today — which is very exciting for me, since I work at a local public radio station. It is pretty neat to be “working” and enjoying learning and hearing about “what you do” (raising animals — specifically turkeys) at home. The two shows that covered turkeys today were Living On Earth, and Weekend Edition Saturday.

Weekend Edition Saturday

HERITAGE TURKEYS — Frank Reece isn’t happy about this country’s turkey crisis. He’s raising what he calls “heritage” breeds of turkeys on his farm in Lindsborg, Kansas. His mission? To preserve strains of turkey that have existed for centuries, but now make up a smaller portion of the turkey market.

Living On Earth

LET’S TALK TURKEY — Almost all of the turkeys eaten in the United States are the same species, the Broad Breasted White. But as Living on Earth’s Bobby Bascomb reports, heritage breeds of turkeys, like the Bourbon Red and Blue Slate, are making a comeback.

The Wells Tavern Farm incubator (my birthday present) is heating and turning fertile heritage breed, Delaware Chicken eggs presently — we believe that there are 21 viable chicks about two weeks away from hatching. Very exciting. It almost makes it worth it to have a rooster greet you ALL MORNING and EVENING with his incessant and piercing crowing.

Cow — did I mention the Jersey Cow yet?

We have fresh raw milk! We are home-pasteurizing it; and it is fabulous for drinking, making butter, custard, pudding, and putting in your morning coffee. There is n-o-t-h-i-n-g like the cream line on a Jersey cow.

The children, ages 5, 4, and 2.5, shook a half-pint of cream last night until they created butter. It didn’t take very long, and we enjoyed it on our multigrain sourdough bread that I made into garlic bread, along with whole wheat pasta and sauce.

It is pretty exciting around the farm. You should stop in and get some fresh eggs or milk!

How LOCAL are you shopping? Are you like me, and pick up everything in the grocery store and read both the ingredients and look for where it was manufactured or made? What stores are you shopping at?

I have a few off-farm jobs. We have to in order to purchase the grain and hay and supplies for our farm. It is our goal to farm full-time (with no off-farm employment) as soon as possible…though that will be a few years off. Anyways, I was stocking shelves last night, and read a new sticker that was placed over the box that used to read Made in the U.S.A on these envelopes… and it now reads (courtesy of the sticker): Made in Mexico.  I then straightened the shelves and prepared to leave the store for the night, and realized that about 30% of the paper products that I was pulling to the front and making look pretty were manufactured in Mexico.  I have nothing against Mexico, but found it strangely interesting.

Food. We love food. We all need food.

But really, have you tried our eggs? They are hormone free, antibiotic free, pastured brown eggs from chickens that were exclusively fed pasture scratchings and organic feed from Vermont. We’re trying to keep it local.

My other job is in public radio at WFCR– where we are fund raising. If you haven’t made a pledge, it is a very community-minded, and local thing to do. I keep thinking that I may be the only public radio farmer out there.

Really, the eggs are great– you’ve gotta try them today.

Here is Myles with a goat. We love our goats as well as the chickens. Come by and visit. We’d love to see you!

We made it through another Halloween in Shelburne. After getting suited up and ready for the Rag Shag Parade in Shelburne Falls, we found that one of the goats had two ticks on her… so we removed and burned up the ticks, THEN went to the parade… and basically missed it — apparently seven minutes late in Shelburne Falls means that you are out of luck.

We had also had some bad luck with the broiler chicks that we are raising… we are apparently killing then by allowing them to eat as much as they want. When the poultry suppliers say that the chicks should be fed for twelve hours only, and then have their food removed from the pen, I guess that they really mean it. We have lost five chicks so far.

We still have lots and lots of fresh brown eggs available.

I received some fabulous gifts for my birthday last week — an incubator with egg turner and all of the extras, and an egg candler. We will be trying our hands at hatching Delaware chicks within the week. My Americunas (blue/green egg layers) will be arriving in a week and a half. I figure that they will miss out on laying for Easter, but will be by June/July 2008.