I was moving the beef herd to a fresh paddock this evening and walking through the lush waist high grass they were eagerly munching on. All the rain we've had in the past week has turbocharged the pasture growth after a dry May. Although some of the grasses are now going to seed there are lots of forbs and clovers down below that makes for very good grazing.
On the topic of beef grazing, we are hosting a pasture walk next Friday, June 19th from 1 - 4 PM at our Elkhorn Farm (one hour north of our Dundee Farm). Sponsored by Farmers Rising and This Old Farm, we will tour our beef grazing operation, and talk about how we move the herd up to 4x/per day, see a paddock before and after grazing, and learn about beef carcass yields and cuts from Matthew Sims of This Old Farm, one of our beef processing partners. For those interested in our organic pasture-raised laying hens/Hen Pen we can drive across the street at the end of the beef talk to see the girls. Register here for the pasture walk.
In other farm news, we processed our first batch of No Corn/No Soy (NC/NS) broiler chickens of the season on Wednesday, so we will have fresh whole and cutup chicken available in the farm store this weekend through Sunday at closing time.
We do charge more for the NC/NS chickens as they are more expensive to raise than our standard organic/pasture-raised broilers. First, the organic NC/NS feed is more expensive than the standard organic corn/soy feed, and they grow slower so we have to keep them an extra week or two (more labor/more feed). They also eat more feed to achieve the same growth, and finally they almost always weigh less (smaller carcass yield) than our regular chickens. Its the quadruple cost whammy we have to deal with.
The Farm Operations crew at our Dundee location are stretched thin right now and working some long hours. We have decided to add one more full-time Farm Hand position to help out…this is an entry-level job that will be dealing primarily with livestock and poultry care. We haven't had a chance to post the job yet but if you are interested or know somebody who might be a good fit send me an email with resume or work history.
“MEET THE MAKER” EVENTS THIS MONTH
Saturday June 20th – Olga Boldyreva, founder of Mion Artisan Soaps and lotions will be showing off all of her natural skin care products. 10 AM - 1 PM.
Sunday June 28th – Rob Hermany, founder of Kaleido Greens will be at the store sampling a variety of his micro-green medleys. 10 AM - 1 PM.
FARM STORE UPDATE
As noted we have FRESH NC/NS CHICKENS in the store this weekend through Sunday, while supplies last.
We restocked the Ethereal Chocolate bars and brought in some new local chocolate products including Ninja Turtle Bars, Dubai Bars, Butter Believe it Cups, Nuttin but Crunch Cups, and Hella Tella Cups.
Fresh produce from our on-site gardens: Garlic Scapes, Bok Choy, Sugar Snap Peas, Red Radishes, Red & Green Leaf Lettuce, Various Kale, Spinach, Turnips, Mint, Cilantro, Parsley and Rhubarb. And fresh local microgreens and mushrooms.
Fresh produce from our network of downstate Illinois farms: Red Beets, Green Leaf Lettuce, Carrots, and Sweet Potatoes.
Other organic produce in the store includes: Pomelos, Oranges, Mandarins, Avocados & Mexican Limes, Apples, Red, Gold and Russet potatoes, Red & Yellow onions, Garlic, and Apples.
Join our Saturday farm tour to see all of our farm animals up close. Every week at 1:00 PM through Thanksgiving. This is a 75-90 minute guided tour around the farm on a hay wagon, with stops to visit all the different animals we raise. Reserve your seats on our website or purchase tickets in the farm store.
That's it for this week, we look forward to seeing some of you next Friday at the pasture walk. Please remember to bring us your leftover shopping bags and egg cartons so we can recycle them!
Cliff & Anna
