FARM HAPPENINGS
Spring is in the air! We enjoyed a nice sunny 60ish degree day yesterday and took a long walk around the farm with the dogs…and noticed little green buds of clover starting to emerge all over from the dormant fields. Of course we are back in the 20's today with snow forecast for this afternoon, but we know spring is not far off. Our first batch of chicks is scheduled to arrive on March 31st and for us that is the official kickoff to the growing season. Just over four weeks away!
We have a new batch of Berkshire piglets on the farm, they are still small and cute so a good time to visit them before they grow into the big uglies in a few months. They are located in the winter pig area just north of the farm store parking lot. Usually we have some expired organic produce available near the store for a hands-on feeding experience. Watch the fingers though they can be a little nippy.
Egg production has bounced back up in recent weeks as we began straightening out some feed-related challenges. The warmer weather and longer days are helping as well. Most days we still have the 3-dozen limit on eggs so that we have them available for more customers, that helps keep eggs in stock for most of the day.
We are “expecting” a busy month of calving for the Moo Crew, with five Guernsey calves due in March. The projected due dates are evenly spaced throughout the month, but the calves rarely come when expected. Only one of the March calves is due to a heifer (first-time mom) so we are hoping for smooth births and if all goes well quite a bit more milk available by month end.
NEW ONLINE PORK BUNDLE AVAILABLE
Anna has created a new 15 lb. pork bundle containing a variety of our artisan sausages including the Maple Sage Ginger Breakfast Links, Chorizo, Farmers Hot Breakfast Sausage, Fresh and Smoked Kielbasa, Smoked Andouille, as well as different varieties of bratwurst including Plain Brats, Jalapeno Brats, and the popular Packer Brats. Check the website listing for more details and ingredients list for each variety.
“MEET THE MAKER” EVENTS COMING SOON
In recent weeks I have been profiling some of our local vendors that provide the healthy and delicious food items that we sell in our store. Asst. Store Manager Jeff suggested that we setup a series of “Meet the Maker” events at the store on weekends so our customers could actually meet and chat with those folks rather than just read about them. Great idea Jeff!
We are in the process of developing a schedule with most of our local farmers and vendors to setup a booth outside the farm store on a Saturday or Sunday morning for a few hours to showcase their products and talk about how they are produced. That schedule will likely include Anna and I and probably some of our farm staff as well. We plan to advertise the schedule in this Moos-letter as well as in the farm store. Stay tuned as we fill in more dates, for now we have the following events scheduled:
Saturday, March 7th - Meet our on-site veggie farmer Karolina Kowalczyk, talk about spring planting, no-till organic production, compost, and signing up for her weekly CSA. 10AM-1PM.
Saturday, March 28th - Meet Fisherman Mark from Bering Bounty as he discusses fishing the ice-cold waters off Alaska, his favorite fish recipes, and samples of his catch. 10AM-2PM.
FARM STORE UPDATE
I picked up the last of the winter pork from our processor this week so we are SUPER WELL STOCKED on pastured-pork inventory for now and many months to come. We may occasionally run out of bacon or different varieties of sausage or brats as we wait for the artisans at Hometown Sausage Kitchen to smoke more bellies or produce more sausage from all the stored trim, but we have a lot of pork inventory to work through over the coming months.
Fresh organic produce in the store this week includes Mandarins, Kumquats, Oranges, Comics pears, Kiwis, Grapefruit, Meyer Lemons, Avocado, Ginger Root, Carrots, Butternut squash, Parsnips, Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Sweet Potatoes, as well as Michigan apples, igl Potatoes, microgreens, and mushrooms.
New products in the store include Hazelnut Flour from Hazel Heart Farms in Gays Mills, Wisconsin.
That's it from the farm this week. Please remember to bring us your leftover shopping bags and egg cartons so we can recycle them.
Cheers,
Cliff, Anna, and the Farm Team