This and that
Hi all,
AS you can see it has been quite some time since my last entry.
We are currently sold out of EVERYTHING
We are no longer selling cryovac bags, too much of a pain in the arse, people want 10 bags, 50 bags ect, not worth the effort and with everything else we have to do it just in't worth it.
Our new hog processor is GREAT, I talked with them today as the only thing I was not satisfied with was the size of the sausage and the casing thickness, that will change with the next batch. ANother change will be no NITRATES in any of our smoked and cured stuff, I got that cleared up also.We fed corn the last pig for the last 30 days and it really made a difference, they were still on grass but supplemented with corn.
The farm market is going "Holy smokes" great, lets see what 2007 brings. Being the Market Master has been an added draw on my resources, working full time, running the farm and that to is a bit much, I MUST reduce my workload.
Finances are VERY low this year, even though business is OUTSTANDING.... we are trying to grow and add the things we need, we are also working on a Connecticut Dept of Ag matching funds grant, it must be in by Nov 17th so that is taking a lot of time.
We have been doing public speaking and will most likely be on Connecticut Public Radio's "Food Smooze" with Faith Middleton, she loveddddddddddddddddd our pork and will be doing a taste test of our chicken, she was at the farm and hopes to come back when she can spend more time.
We have been in the local papers at least 3 times this summer, Sarah has added this all to our web site along with some testimonials.
I screwed up some orders this year due to my workload, there just is not enough hours in the day, we have done no brush clearing and have not yet fenced in the remaining area of the ox pasture, maybe this winter I can get to it.
A real bright spot has been Andrew, he is a young sailor stationed here in Groton and he e-mailed me stating he wanted to learn how to farm and would trade labor, I though yeah right this will work out, how many people actually want to farm for free...well I was certainly wrong, he has been a God sent.
Andrew loves hard work, is a very fast learner and the only one I trust to process a chicken from start to finish like I want. He got his first blister here and has become a very close friend of the entire family. Andrew was at the YRD II party (which is held each year on the anniversary of Jaime's death) and he is also invited to share thanksgiving with us, we will hate to see him get transfered.
We have lots of piglets with more that were both on October 7th and 5th these will be ready around june or so.
Next year we will try doing some ducks, only 50 for the first year to see how they go and how much work they are, if we get this grant we can add a duck tractor to our other tractors.
Speaking of the grant, we will be asking for funds to purchase 3 storage bins of 4 1/2 tons each, this will really help us in that I won't have to drive to manchester each week, that runs about $25.00 in gas alone. We can have 4 1/2 ton delivered for a delivery charge of $35.00
Also we will build more chicken and turkey tractors and more brooders so we can bring our bird count up to 1000. We won't go over that because we would have to have them commercially processed and I personally don't want to eat any chicken shit...and thats what you get with commercial processing.
Sarah has the web site all up to date with new order forms and other things, hopefully that will last for a while so we don't have to ask her to make more changes.
I haven't done a thing on the siding, still trying to get the bilco door fixed and the sliding glass door done, there just is not enough time to do everything.
Our pastures are doing well and the chicken tractors do help a lot, maybe in two years we can finally start selling beef. I know I have predicted we could sell beef in 2007 but it just is not going to happen.
We have had 4 calves born this year, 3 girls...Margie, Sylvia and Lottie and one boy Andrew. Andrews real name is Scarlet's Andrew, I will try to get some pictures but now it seems that our camera isn't working right. Lottie looks funny in that she has extra hair on her ears so she looks like she has bows in her hair...
Gues that is is for now, I will really try to keep this up better.
Cheers,
Craig
AS you can see it has been quite some time since my last entry.
We are currently sold out of EVERYTHING
We are no longer selling cryovac bags, too much of a pain in the arse, people want 10 bags, 50 bags ect, not worth the effort and with everything else we have to do it just in't worth it.
Our new hog processor is GREAT, I talked with them today as the only thing I was not satisfied with was the size of the sausage and the casing thickness, that will change with the next batch. ANother change will be no NITRATES in any of our smoked and cured stuff, I got that cleared up also.We fed corn the last pig for the last 30 days and it really made a difference, they were still on grass but supplemented with corn.
The farm market is going "Holy smokes" great, lets see what 2007 brings. Being the Market Master has been an added draw on my resources, working full time, running the farm and that to is a bit much, I MUST reduce my workload.
Finances are VERY low this year, even though business is OUTSTANDING.... we are trying to grow and add the things we need, we are also working on a Connecticut Dept of Ag matching funds grant, it must be in by Nov 17th so that is taking a lot of time.
We have been doing public speaking and will most likely be on Connecticut Public Radio's "Food Smooze" with Faith Middleton, she loveddddddddddddddddd our pork and will be doing a taste test of our chicken, she was at the farm and hopes to come back when she can spend more time.
We have been in the local papers at least 3 times this summer, Sarah has added this all to our web site along with some testimonials.
I screwed up some orders this year due to my workload, there just is not enough hours in the day, we have done no brush clearing and have not yet fenced in the remaining area of the ox pasture, maybe this winter I can get to it.
A real bright spot has been Andrew, he is a young sailor stationed here in Groton and he e-mailed me stating he wanted to learn how to farm and would trade labor, I though yeah right this will work out, how many people actually want to farm for free...well I was certainly wrong, he has been a God sent.
Andrew loves hard work, is a very fast learner and the only one I trust to process a chicken from start to finish like I want. He got his first blister here and has become a very close friend of the entire family. Andrew was at the YRD II party (which is held each year on the anniversary of Jaime's death) and he is also invited to share thanksgiving with us, we will hate to see him get transfered.
We have lots of piglets with more that were both on October 7th and 5th these will be ready around june or so.
Next year we will try doing some ducks, only 50 for the first year to see how they go and how much work they are, if we get this grant we can add a duck tractor to our other tractors.
Speaking of the grant, we will be asking for funds to purchase 3 storage bins of 4 1/2 tons each, this will really help us in that I won't have to drive to manchester each week, that runs about $25.00 in gas alone. We can have 4 1/2 ton delivered for a delivery charge of $35.00
Also we will build more chicken and turkey tractors and more brooders so we can bring our bird count up to 1000. We won't go over that because we would have to have them commercially processed and I personally don't want to eat any chicken shit...and thats what you get with commercial processing.
Sarah has the web site all up to date with new order forms and other things, hopefully that will last for a while so we don't have to ask her to make more changes.
I haven't done a thing on the siding, still trying to get the bilco door fixed and the sliding glass door done, there just is not enough time to do everything.
Our pastures are doing well and the chicken tractors do help a lot, maybe in two years we can finally start selling beef. I know I have predicted we could sell beef in 2007 but it just is not going to happen.
We have had 4 calves born this year, 3 girls...Margie, Sylvia and Lottie and one boy Andrew. Andrews real name is Scarlet's Andrew, I will try to get some pictures but now it seems that our camera isn't working right. Lottie looks funny in that she has extra hair on her ears so she looks like she has bows in her hair...
Gues that is is for now, I will really try to keep this up better.
Cheers,
Craig
posted by Footsteps Farm | 6:40 PM
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