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From Here to There

Last year the journey started on March 18th. Our shearer came to shear the sheep and we opened the farm to the public so they could see what we do. Then in February some of the wool went to a fiber mill in Vermont. Junction Fiber Mill in White River Junction, Vermont is a woman owned mill. I dropped off 15 pounds of raw fleece from our sheep and in the course of a month(Which is a crazy fast turn around time) these ladies turned 15 lbs of fiber into roughly 10 lbs of gorgeous soft 3 ply yarn. Each skein of yarn was 297 yards and bouncy, soft and naturally a creamy white color. I was so excited to get it back and posted on our Facebook page immediately with a picture of Genevieve holding the yarn in the parking lot of the fiber mill. Shortly after, a woman that had come to shearing day reached out to me asking to purchase some skeins - my first yarn customer. Maryly is an artist [...]

2023-01-12T18:47:44+00:00January 12th, 2023|

Rendering Fat

I love cooking and baking, and one of my favorite oils to cook in are animal fats. Previously I've only rendered pork fat into lard. But this year, after processing the chicken carcasses into broth I had a lot of beautiful fat that had to be skimmed off before canning the broth. I didn't want that to go to waste so I scooped it off and set it aside in the freezer. When I had 4 lambs processed this fall, I asked the butcher to save any fat trimmings for me to render down as well. Rendering fat is super easy, and although its a little time consuming, it's easy to do while you're already preoccupied in the kitchen. Over the last week I took pictures of the process I use when rendering sheep fat - this process can easily be used for pork and beef fat as well. Step one - break out the crock pot or a large stock pot. I love using the crock pot for big batches of pork fat, [...]

2022-11-02T00:42:45+00:00November 2nd, 2022|

Raising Chickens – 2022

This year we raised the most chicken we've ever done, 120 birds in 3 batches, and we processed them all on farm with the help of some very good friends. Sean and Naomi made it possible to slaughter and process all the birds on our property. With their expertise, and good company we spent three days, 8 am to 4:30-5 pm  processing birds. It's a long day, and tiresome work but much more bearable thanks to them. We now have whole birds, breasts, legs(thighs and drumsticks), tenders, and wings available for sale at Aunt Clare's Self serve farm stand in Plymouth NH and by appointment at our home farm in New Hampton.

2022-09-23T23:56:07+00:00September 23rd, 2022|

A Sad Wednesday Morning

6 years farming > one wednesday morning   Farming in New England has many hardships, some are unique to New England and some are the same ones found across the world. We’ve been very lucky in the past six years of having livestock. We’ve lost chickens here and there to the occasional fox or hawk, due to our own negligence, but we have never lost a sheep to a predator. Something I was very proud of. To me it showed that we could live side by side coyotes and bears without having to fear for our sheep. In late summer and early fall I’d still get nervous when the local pack would wander through and we’d hear their yips and howls. I knew that if they were hunting they’d be silent, so the noises they made were welcome, even if it did keep me up with my spot light scanning the pasture for coyotes. The coyotes had plenty of food available to them in the woods that surrounded our house and they respected our [...]

2022-09-16T12:47:40+00:00September 16th, 2022|

Saying “Yes”

This year at the beginning of 2022 my New Year's Resolution for the farm was to have a year of “yes”. To me this meant that if an opportunity came my way I would do it, ready or not I’d say yes. The first “yes” came in the beginning of March. While scrolling through facebook someone on a sheep page mentioned the YCP with the application form for shepherds. Curious, I read through it and learned that the YCP, Youth Conservation Program, connects kids 9-18 with farmers of heritage sheep. In April the farmers are given a list of essays written by the kids and they get to choose which child will be the recipient of a year old ewe. In May the farmers and the kids all meet at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, where the ewes are given over to their new farm. Throughout the year the kids must show the ewe at two fairs, breed her in the fall, and use her wool in the spring, whether they sell it [...]

2022-09-16T12:42:21+00:00September 16th, 2022|

Planting in the snow

Once January comes around I find my self quite impatient to get started on the veggie and flower gardens. The garden is buried in snow, the temperature hasn't been above freezing in the past 10 days and I'm eager to see something green. A few years ago I stumbled upon a facebook group called "Winter Sowers". Trudi, the original winter sower, developed this unique and easy way of starting seeds. I've never been good at starting seeds indoors. Between lighting issues, lack of space for all the individual pots, water spills, and children that love to help to the point of unhelpfulness, and throw in some cats and new puppy to the mix, there is no safe place inside to start seeds. Anything with the slogan "K.I.S.S."(Keep It Super Simple) is right up my alley and that's why I love winter sowing. Winter sowing is the method of planting seeds in the winter in clear containers and then setting them out side. The most common recycled container is the milk carton. I start by [...]

2022-01-29T16:23:13+00:00January 29th, 2022|

A Farmers Education

All of us are always learning. It's a part of life. But on occasion we are given an opportunity to truly educate ourselves. In the past two months I was given four unique opportunities from customers and visitors. to learn something new, and expand my knowledge on topics I new a little about already. My first customer had questions about soy and corn as feed for our livestock. Specifically our chickens that are raised for eggs and our broilers. I had heard about alternative feeds but never looked into it solely because of the price. However, when a customer asks, I should have the answers, and if I don't, I'll do my best to find them. I had already known that a healthy chicken is an Omnivore. Chickens eat seeds, berries, vegetables, insects, mice, voles, and snakes. In truth if given the chance chickens will eat any meat. The most common pelleted feeds for chickens have corn, and soy in them, Chickens need a lot of protein and soy beans are a cheap easy [...]

2022-01-20T14:32:20+00:00January 20th, 2022|

Berry Happy Kids

Since Nick and I bought our house back in 2019 we have been so busy haying, fencing, and all around farming somethings have gotten pushed to the back burner. One of those is keeping up with our lawn. Once the grass gets about 6 inches, so maybe once a month, the weed whacker and lawnmower get used. But from the lack of mowing we have an incredibly diverse ecosystem. An ecosystem that is more entertaining and educational then any grass lawn. Our children are learning how to forage. Every season there is a new crop to reap that we didn't plant. Since we stopped mowing our lawn we now have food that is growing simply by Mother Natures design. In the spring from April to May we have violets that cover our yard in hues of purple and white. The flowers are edible and although they don't taste like much "raw" they make a great jelly. Then the lilacs come out and once again we harvest the flowers and make a sweet, honey like [...]

2021-07-05T11:45:07+00:00July 5th, 2021|

Shearing

On the farm there are many different occasions to look forward to. Some come around more frequently than others, but shearing day is only once a year on our farm. This past year we had our shearer, Gwen, come on March 7th. She comes in the morning with her Icelandic sheep dog and her special clippers to shear our sheep. As an experienced shearer it takes her less than 10 minutes to shear one of our ewes. The morning before shearing the sheep all get locked in the barn for three main reasons: 1) We don't want the sheep to get wet. A damp or wet fleece makes it difficult for the clippers to cut the wool and can make the wool mold after its put into bags for storage. 2) We want the sheep to have empty stomachs. It is best for sheep to be shorn on empty stomachs since they'll be on their backs and bent into uncomfortable positions for the shearer to clip all the wool. and 3) when the sheep [...]

2021-06-06T18:57:27+00:00June 6th, 2021|

The Dog

Every farm has a dog. I can't think of a single farm, big or little, that doesn't have a dog. Farms and dogs just go together like bees and honey. If you come up our driveway there is a very good chance that you'll be greeted by a black and white rocket running straight for your vehicle tail raised and wagging while barking the entire time to let us humans know someone is here! JD will be circling your vehicle as you slowly creep up the driveway and will very impatiently wait for you to park so he can get patted and show you his favorite ball or some stick that he found in the woods in hopes you'll play fetch with him. For the most part JD is a companion dog for us. He follows Genevieve almost everywhere around the farm, or she'll be following him. He hangs out in the garden with me during spring planting, follows behind the hay wagon in the summer while we pick up bales, and is a [...]

2021-01-04T19:52:49+00:00January 4th, 2021|
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