My mom is a gifted self-taught genealogist when she is not working at her paying job or on the farm. She says that our family tree contains clothiers, shoemakers and felters (hatmakers). So I have “making things” in my genes.

One of the more recent additions to her research on our tree is information about Henry Gregory. He seems like quite the character!

June 16, 1640: John Leonard complaines in an action of the case against Henry Gregory for taking more recompence for driving home of certaine stray sowes than his share come to, & for taking of more pigges with his sow that his share comes to. This case and those immeditely following are recorded in the note book of William Pynchon, the Springfield magistrate, which is now in the possession of the Law School of Harvard University. A photostat was kindly lent me. Some of the pages are damaged. In the Leonard case, the jury decided against Henry in the sum of 8 shillings. It seemed impressed by evidence of “sixe pigges” and only “5 teates drawen.”

Whoops! Apparently Mr. Gregory (who was of the shoemaker family) was caught with one too many piglets with his sow – the evidence being that only five teats were being used by the piglets who belonged to his sow. The research and commentary in the paragraph above is from Ancestors and Descendants of Henry Gregory, comp. by Grant Gregory. Publ. 1938.

It is nearing Thanksgiving and time to reflect back on family, memories and reasons to be thankful.  I have (put a deposit down on) a sow who will have piglets at the end of January/beginning of February. I have two of the most inquisitive and smart little boys that a mother could ever want. It is about a week before we process this years turkeys for Thanksgiving and distribute the main course for fifty-two tables of hungry diners.  And we have our health.  All is well on the farm despite the last few days of torrential rain.

As the temperature drops and the blustery winds cut through our clothes and chill us to the bone, we are eagerly building and reconstructing animal housing for some new additions to the Wells Tavern Farm animal collection.

I have researched (to death) pig breeds, and chosen for temperament and taste (in the opposite order), the Berkshire Pig was the winner! We have a trio of pigs coming next week: a Tamworth Sow, a Berkshire Sow and a Tamworth Boar.  They will be added to our Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs, and the Red Wattle/Large Black crosses.  These pigs represent a hefty investment  in purchase price and commitment to feed through the winter – but, we anticipate that they will not only provide us with hours of fun porcine landscaping, and some wonderfully tasty pork products in Fall 2010.

We have also committed to purchase two grass-fed Belted Galloway steers.  One is a lovely nearly full-grown, very spirited steer who has a sixth sense for when an electric fence is alive, and the other is incredibly long-bodied yearling steer.  They will be added to the pasture in early December.

The final purchase is a drop dead gorgeous late spring heifer calf  (a female) who is a Murray Grey. The Murray Grey breed is unfortunately, not a heritage breed.  As faithful readers know, we attempt to raise mostly heritage breeds.  We try to do this whenever it is feasible.   Backstory: There is nothing technically wrong with the Belted Galloways that we graze.  They are a slow-growing, compact and tough little beef animal. Murray Greys are quicker growing, friendly, hornless, medium-framed (larger than Galloways)  and produce more tender meat [Murray Greys produce marbled beef carcass without excess subcutaneous or inter-muscular seam fat of the type that is preferred in Japan and other Asian markets.] Not that we have any reach into the Japan or Asian markets, but that marbling and tenderness sounds intriguing.  So, the plan for this calf, is to grow her out, breed her to either our White Galloway Bull, or to another Murray Grey (artificially) and then raise her calves.  So we won’t be able to see if the marbling and carcass quality is what the scientists say that it is for about three-four years:  raise her and breeding her at 22 months old, nine months gestation, and then a couple of years to raise her calf.

Yes, I have created calendars that tell me which animals we will be “processing” during which months for the next three years.  It takes an awful lot of forethought to accomplish meat in the freezer for sale.  The way that I control the quality of the finished product is by starting with quality stock, raising it on grass and high quality feed (for the non-beef animals on the farm) and then raising it for months and months and months, and then taking it to the right slaughterhouse where animals are treated humanely (they have prohibited the use  of electric prods, and allow an acclimation time for an animal to calm down after transport for a few hours before processing, while offering them hay and water) and we know that the meat that we transport back to the farm, is the meat form our animals.  It is not “mystery meat” that perhaps came from someone else’s animals  — it is, without a doubt, our animal that comes home with us.

The process of farming is long — the long view needs to be taken at all times.  When we pay for three hundred dollars of grain a week at the feed store, we need to take some deep breaths and take the long view.  It is not every week that we hit three hundred dollars — just seasonally when the turkeys are at their largest and closest to processing.  Similarly, it is not everyday that we invest in nearly three thousand dollars of animal acquisitions.  Long view.  We plan to be here to see how it all pans out in three years 

Sorry.

All of my turkeys are reserved. If you have not received my email with recipes and a photograph of our turkeys, than you did not make the list.  We have had phone calls, emails, people stopping on the road — all manner of reservations, and I have been so busy with keeping track of them.

If you are interested in getting on the mailing list for next year, than please contact me at your convenience. Let me stress that there is really no time that is considered ‘Too Early’ to get onto a list for the following year.  Even though our turkeys are all reserved for 2009, you might be able to get a local turkey from Diemand Farm in Wendell  – they don’t have a website, but you might give them a phone call and see if they have any left.

Boy, the farmer gathering last night at Leyden Glen Farm was great.  Many thanks to Julia, Kristin and Mark for hosting a lovely little dinner party.  The leg of lamb was wonderful, as was the Coyote Hill Farm mashed  Gilfeather Turnip and (whole) Brussels Sprout dish topped with Parmesan Cheese, the Severance Maple Farm Baked Beans, Linda’s Applesauce, and we got many compliments for our sausage and cheese meatball appetizers.  We had a wonderful time eating our harvest.

Here is a recipe that I unearthed in my search for a quick and simple sausage recipe to share at the party last night.  I did not make it for sharing last evening, but it sure sounds like one to try!

Sausage Cake

1 lb. Sweet Italian sausage
1 cup cold black coffee
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cup self rising flour
1 cup chopped nuts of choice
1 cup raisins

Add sausage and coffee and mix in a big bowl. Add granulated sugar and dark brown sugar, mix well. Beat in eggs. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and salt, mix all ingredients well. Add flour, mix well. Add chopped nuts and raisins, mix well.   Do not grease the pan!

Pour in angel food cake pan and bake in 325 degree oven for about 1 hour or until inserted knife comes out clean.

During the holidays it is commonplace to soak a cotton dish towel in Rum and wrap it around the cake and put it in the refrigerator for about two weeks. Cake may also be decorated for any holiday.

What happens when a bunch of farmers get together for a Saturday night out, together? I am not sure, but my husband and I will find out tonight, as we have been invited over to Leyden Glen Farm for a get-together with the farms and farmers who faithfully participated in the rain and wind blown Tuesday Farmers Markets through the summer and into the fall in Bernardston. This is just a little seasonal social wrap-up, as I understand it. The great part, though, is that we are all bringing a dish to share. It had to be a dish that features a product that you grow (raise, etc.) Now, if you are a veggie farmer, I can see bringing a potato or squash (storage veggie) dish — seasonally appropriate and all of that, and if you make maple syrup, I can see a wider variety of possibilities: a pie, cookies, even a meat dish — who knows… and then there is us. We sell meat. Tasty meat from grassfed beef, lambs, pigs, turkeys, chickens, goats, and eggs… all of the proteins on the farm, really. So, when I decided to feature SAUSAGE for the “dish to share” I thought that the playing field was wide-open.

Do you know how many sausage recipes there are out there that are truly horrible? It was astounding. I read through countless cookbooks (good thing that I collect them!) before I found a couple of recipes that were real contenders. I thought that I had decided on The Recipe for about twenty-four hours, and then changed my mind yesterday morning… so out went the Fennel Shallot Sweet Italian Sausage Quiche (though I will share the recipe here, another day) and in came two much simpler recipes.

We’ll see how the vegetable farmers like what we bring for sausage dishes!

The kids are not coming to the dinner, we have secured them with grandparents for the evening. The four year old will not be listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio this evening because of that — is it strange for a four year old to watch television, namely “Between The Lions” on PBS, and say:” Mommy! Look! It’s Mister Fred Newman from the radio!”

Is there something sweet about that statement happening in 2009?

I thought so.

Well, at least we didn’t get the snow that was possible last night. It was another cold night nonetheless.
How do we begin our mornings on the farm? Get up, pour a cup of coffee, and look out the window and see where the turkeys are in the yard. I am serious. Recently, our shortened daylight hours are spent herding the flock of turkeys back from the road and the neighbor’s lawn, and the vehicles in the driveway, and any other shiny object that the birds find interesting.  One turkey will get it in their head that they want to explore something and go.  The bird closest to it will wonder what the first bird is doing, and follow.  Next thing you know, you have a flash mob of turkeys doing something that you wouldn’t necessarily want them to do in a very public and inconvenient place.

Herding turkeys is a bit like herding cats. There are submissive females who you can talk to using turkey calls, and they will follow you to the ends of the earth without any fuss, but the associated tom turkeys with the females are a bit of a problem. They are alpha males and a little bit aggressive – more so if you are short and tentative – like my four-year old son. So some of the birds need to be led (the hens: a la Pied Piper) and the toms need to be herded (a la cats). It is a full-time job to simply keep the birds safe during the day.

Nights are another story, for another day…

Speaking of turkey, the “Great Turkey Countdown” is on!  We have some Heritage Pastured (really a misnomer — they are Free Ranging in the very most Free sense of the word!) Turkeys available both as Fresh and Frozen, for Thanksgiving 2009.  Still $4.50 a pound. (Still a great deal) Vegetarian fed, never fed scary byproducts, meat products or medications.  The varieties that we have are Lilac, Standard Bronze and Bourbon Red, all heritage (heirloom) varieties.

Additionally, we still raise a Tasty Pork Product. For Bacon Lovers there is the Thick Cut Maple Syrup Cured Hickory Smoked Bacon – $8 a pound.  Wonderfully Flavorful (when was the last time you have a flavorful chop?) and Tender Pork Chops – assorted cuts – assorted prices.   Kid-friendly (my kids love it!) Sweet Italian Sausage (without casings! Bulk, ground) is just $8 a pound.  And then there is my favorite sausage, the Breakfast Sausage, also $8 a pound.   Our pigs are raised in pastures (they actually, usually stay in the pasture fencing) and fed vegetarian diets which include New England processed grains, vegetables and milk from our Registered Jersey cows (very high butterfat, deep cream line, tasty milk).  The pigs are all Heritage Varieties – if they were vegetables, they would be call Heirloom varieties – Tamworth, Gloucestershire Old Spots, Large Black and Red Wattle.

…Just a thought… you know… because we will sell out before Thanksgiving.  So far, we have reserved birds for:

Wendy & Vin, Karen, Bev & Bill, Gloria & Ervin, Kurt & Kayce, Louise, Haynes & Nancy, Bill C., Jay, Brian, Wendy, Ed, Whiney, Fred, Mary, Garth, Donovan & Meggin, Michelle & Justin, Adrian, Jackie, Dan, George, Mark, Jessica, Ryan,  Bill W., Dena,  Joan… and two co-workers of Wendy’s!

You could add your name to the list with an email to carrie *at* wellstavernfarm.com

Are you eating locally — is your “radius” 100 miles, or 250, or the Eastern Seaboard? You are amazing for your committment, and I applaud you.

Have I got a meal for you! Thanksgiving Dinner! — our turkeys are truly local. One variety of heritage turkey was hatched and raised on our farm, from stock that we keep year-round. They live healthy, happy lives on Western Massachusetts soil, and are processed locally enough to keep their mileage under 100 miles, round trip.

What do you get other than a real local dinner? A fabulous tasting bird to share with family and friends. You get warm and fuzzy points knowing that you did business with a “Local Hero” family farm. We enjoy raising the birds, and by doing so, assist in conserving the varieties — very old strains of birds that just take a lot longer to grow up than the White Broad Breasted Turkeys that most people eat at Thanksgiving. We have put in a considerable amount of research and time into deciding the most tasty and the most threatened varieties of bird to raise, and have then gone ahead and (in two varieties cases) found the chicks, (and in all cases) raised them for nine months to get them up to size. We can personally assure you that our birds ate only clean, never-medicated feed, vegetarian only grains, and really did appreciate the grass and sunshine on pasture here on our farm.

We hope that through your flavorful dinner, our conservation efforts will bring the spotlight onto these magnificent breeds and perhaps entice others through word of mouth, to raise these lovely varieties of heritage turkey: Standard Bronze, Bourbon Red and Lilac.

It is time to order your turkey for this Thanksgiving. We look forward to hearing from you.

Anyone out there with connections read this blog?  Can you see if we can turn up the heat for another month or so — we awoke to a snowstorm this morning.  That is just not right for the middle of October.  It is difficult enough to deal with cold weather when it comes in November, but half a month early — geesh.

Predation and Freezing temperatures are driving me crazy.  We have lost a couple of turkeys recently to very large predators.  i believe that the predators have four feet, and are probably of the cat family. They eat the head, neck and a little bit of the breast, and leave the rest of the bird.  I feel terrible every morning when we find another turkey life lost.

This morning I was freezing cold, and so were the turkeys.  We plan on somewhat cool, but not wintery, weather for raising the turkeys for Thanksgiving.  Because the very cold weather has come so early, and the predators have been active, I am in a pickle:  We need to protect the turkeys from other animals and the weather.

The best solution that I have been able to come up with, is one that I am not entirely happy with… what do you think?

Dear Select Customers: How would you like to enjoy a tasty heritage variety pastured turkey from Wells Tavern Farm, already frozen for Thanksgiving this year?  Some of our birds are ready for processing (depending on the size that you are looking for) and we can arrage processing for you, and delivery of a frozen turkey either sooner, or later —

See? I am not really into changing the process three-quarters of the way through the season — we have been providing Fresh Turkey for Thanksgiving for a few years, and that is what people come to expect… but, I suppose, for the good of some of the birds, this is the next best thing.

So, what say you?  If you are not already totally in love with idea of  having your turkey processed in November for fresh turkey (never frozen) for the holiday, what about a few reservations from people, NOW, for FROZEN turkey.  You can still get one for Thanksgiving for fresh, and put this one (frozen) away in YOUR freezer for Christmas, or a gift for a neighbor or co-worker.

If we are able to process a dozen or more turkeys sooner rather than later, than our farm will be better able to protect the remaining birds from predators, and the weather.  We do a great job of hatching our own turkey eggs, and raising little chicks up into big birds — but, somewhere along the line, we run out of barn space for the birds when they gain that extra 15 plus pounds each (taking up MUCH more room) and are now “large flying dinners”.

Looking for Turkey, fresh or frozen? I can take care of you.  Please send me an email through our website: www.wellstavernfarm.com

Thank you!

We just provided a mini-farm tour to Joseph Sebarenzi who will be speaking at Smith College in Northampton tomorrow evening.  Sebarenzi is a Rwandan who is living a life of love, compassion, and forgiveness, even after his Tutsi family was murdered in the ‘94 genocide.   The story is recounted in his published memoir entitled “God Sleeps in Rwanda: A Journey of Transformation”.  He is the former head of the Rwanda Parliament.

I have not yet read his book, but you can bet that it will appear on my short list of things to do now.  What a treasure of inspiration and such a lovely surprise visit from him!  He said that he grew up on a farm in Rwanda, and had cattle, goats, sheep, chickens — “but not those”  he said – pointing to the turkeys.  We stood for a few minutes watching and calling to the turkeys, and talking about the reasons for his dislike of pigs.

Here are the details for the Smith lecture tomorrow:

Lecture  “God Sleeps in Rwanda: A Journey of Transformation.” Joseph Sebarenzi, former head of the Rwanda Parliament will discuss his book, which traces his life as a Tutsi youth in rural Rwanda, and the political maneuvering of which he became a victim after the genocide. Reception and book signing to follow. 7:30 p.m. Neilson Library Browsing Room (The Neilson Library is located off of Green Street in the center of the Smith College campus.)