FARM CAMPS ARE OPEN!
After last week's newsletter highlighting some of our plans for 2025, I received a flurry of emails asking about the summer farm camps, which I had failed to mention. Yes, we are planning on having the farm camps again this year, but were still working out some of the details last week regarding dates and logistics.
Good news we have finalized those details and have opened up reservations for the farm camps as of this morning. However, there are a few changes we are planning for this year. First and most significant, each week will be open to all ages of campers, from seven to seventeen. That will allow siblings and friends to attend together even if they are not close in age. We are also changing up the agenda a bit for each week of the three weeks of camps. While all the camps will include help with daily livestock chores around the farm, the first camp will have some special sessions on chicken and poultry care, the second week more of a focus on dairy cows, and the third week of camps will have some special sessions on raising pigs. And we also plan to leave plenty of unstructured free time for the kids to play in the woods and the creeks that run through and adjacent to the farm.
APOLOGIES
In last week's newsletter I mentioned that we had a new farm manager and team at our Dundee location last season, and also a challenging year, in particular with respect to the raw milk and egg production. My intent was not to blame the new crew for our challenges, but in rereading that paragraph I can certainly see how some readers might interpret it that way. I apologize to all of our farm team members from last year, I know many worked extremely hard and gave everything they had to help us succeed, and I appreciate that effort. We've had many challenging years even with the most experienced crews, and that is unfortunately the reality of regenerative livestock farming.
FARM STORE UPDATE
We finally have received a new shipment of many varieties of Ethereal chocolate, produced in nearby Woodstock. And a restock of the Tourmaline Hearth Products (simply tallow, tallow lip balm, whipped tallow balms, beard oils, eye serum) hand-produced by our long-time staffer Mallory from our own beef fat and other animal byproducts. Plus lots of sourdough breads/cookies/treats from our magnificent local bakers.
Our favorite artisan sausage makers at Hometown Sausage Kitchen (HSK) in East Troy Wisconsin have been busy converting our pastured pork trim into all kinds of delicious sausages - we are stocked on most flavors of brats, Kielbasa, chorizo, and breakfast sausage right now. And we have started bringing HSK all of our pork bellies to make into delicious nitrate-free bacon - we have a good supply on hand for the next few weeks.
Last night I made some shrimp and sausage jambalaya with the andouille it was really fantastic...that might become a regular staple meal at home.
Produce in the store this week includes a new shipment of local organic potatoes from Igl Farms in Wisconsin, green cabbage, local Oyster mushrooms, local microgreens, carrots, celery, red and orange bell peppers, local autumn and butternut squash, red/white/yellow onions, sweet potatoes and garnet yams, Bosc pears, Michigan apples, avocados, lemons, and ginger/shallots/garlic
That's it for this week, looking forward to warmer weather next week and some hints of spring coming soon???
Cliff, Anna, and the Farm Team