Jacob's Reward Farm

One of our fiber CSA shareholders inspired the Chicken Sponsorship Program:

 Here's how it works:
We buy a ready-to-lay pullet and feed her for a year. You get a Sponsor Certificate (suitable for framing!) and a card with ten punch spaces on it. I'll punch your card once for every dozen eggs you get this next laying season. You get first priority when the eggs start coming and the demand rises. You can name your chicken if you like, but I plan for them all to look pretty much the same, for reasons I'll be happy to explain to you, away from the children or the tender-hearted.
Cost: $50 the first year. If you sponsor a chicken again in subsequent years, the cost will be $30.

Egg lovers who don't necessarily want to sponsor a chicken can also buy an "Egg Lovers" card and get ten dozen eggs for $35. Present your card for a punch and get a dozen eggs.

Folks who purchase their eggs a dozen at a time will pay the usual $4/dozen.

Find more details on the website: http://www.jacobsreward.com/jr_eggs.htm

My friend and mentor, Susie Gibbs of the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm is doing something extraordinary: She's giving away a beautiful starter herd of mohair goats, to a deserving fiber shepherd or shepherd-wanna-be. They just have to write a compelling essay about why they would be the right shepherd for Susie's flock. This lady is the real deal. If I had any chance of owning these wonderful animals, I'd keep this info to myself and increase my odds of winning. But I don't. So check out her blog post for all the details, and good luck.
http://www.fiberfarm.com/2009/09/a-mighty-big-giveaway

Cindy T.
Jacob's Reward Farm

This past Saturday the shareholders of the Jacob's Reward Farm CSA held our first "Herd Health Day," by weighing the sheep, trimming their hooves, haltering the alpacas and trimming some feet.  The weather would have been absolutely perfect - sunny, brisk, except for the 30 mph wind!  That gave us a little trouble.  But all in all, the day was a complete success.  A couple of the shareholders had never even been to the farm yet, so the event marked their first visit to see their "investment" up close.

New customers continue to find us here on Local Harvest, and we're so grateful for this avenue to connect with locavores in the Collin County area.

A special hello goes out to Amanda and her family who visited the farm today and took home a couple dozen very fresh eggs.

For more current day-to-day updates, see our "other" blog: www.jacobsreward.blogspot.com.

And the Texas sun sets on another beautiful Texas day...

We did it!  Yesterday we launched the Jacob's Reward Fiber CSA - the first one we know about in Texas.  Our alpacas and sheep are hard at work growing wonderful fiber that we will shear this spring and process into roving for spinning, and then distribute to our shareholders.

We know that part of the gift of farm life, is, well, farm life.  Our customers love our fiber products, but they also love coming to breathe the fresh air, get some dirt under their fingernails, and actually connect with the animals that provide the fiber they love.

Our Fiber CSA will provide more than just great fiber.  We will help people enjoy a special connection to the land, through regular e-Newsletters, blog posts and scheduled events here at the farm.

Shareholders don't have to already know how to spin - one of our best benefits is a free spinning class!  Spinning is a fun, relaxing, and fascinating craft that has been handed down for thousands of years - you can do it!  If you love yarn crafts of any kind, you need to learn how to make your own yarns from locally grown and loved fiber animals!

Contact us if you have more questions about participating in this historic Fiber CSA!

Happy New Year!  I've accomplished one of my small, immediate goals:  I started the Yahoo group for people in Collin County, TX who either produce local food and fiber, or shop for it.  I'd like to invite anyone in the Collin County area to join the group and join in the discussion:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/CollinCountyLocalFood/

This group will network together, promote farms and products available in our area, and support the idea of taking back our nutrition and our agrarian heritage.  There are people around who are doing the work, and others in the area with money in their hands, ready to spend.  I want to put these folks together.

I'm working toward another goal, which is to find out about fiber CSAs.  We all know pretty much how it works with vegetables (buy a share of a farmer's harvest up front and then receive a share of the bounty as it comes out of the garden), but there are a couple of fiber farmers in the country who have adapted the principles to their own products, namely, wool and yarn.  I really want to investigate whether this model is right for our farm.  Stay tuned.

Ongoing maintenance projects are taking up our time right now.  The weather is fairly nice, for the season, so we must get some things done outside.  We finished the run-in shed in the south pasture - a project that has inched along for many, many months.

Always more to do than daylight to accomplish it.  That's why we have Tomorrow.

God's blessings,
Cindy
Jacob's Reward Farm

Wow.  How exciting to be starting out here on Local Harvest.  Like many of the family farmers here, my dream began in my heart many years before it started to take shape in reality.  I lived in the suburbs for 15 years before we actually got to our small acreage and home.

Now I'm learning that, not only can I grow some food for my family and raise some cool animals who might contribute to their own upkeep, I can also network with a growing group of folks who are doing the same thing.  And I can learn from them.  And my dream can get bigger, as I see others growing enough to provide products to customers in their areas - people who value the dream.

I'm excitied now about finding those people in my area who are trying to make a go of a family farm on a small acreage, and also those folks who want fresh food and fiber.

I've been networking for several years with spinners and knitters, and have built a small market for my yarns and rovings.  I hope to increase that, as my yearly harvest increases, and also add customers for my egg business.

If you're in the Plano/Allen/Wylie area here in TX, please let me know and we can work together to build a strong LocalHarvest community right where we live!  I'm currently looking into starting a Yahoo list to support a group of like-minded folks, so let me know and I'll keep you up to date on developments.

God's blessings,
Cindy