Pleasant Valley Farm

Now that we've gotten a few open weekends under our belt, it's easy to be right back in the summer/market routine.  The weather has been great for both the garden and the hay fields, and we're still working on getting our first cutting hay raked and put away in the barn. Dan is actually raking right now, and I'll be helping him get a few loads in the barn before dinner tonight.  After dinner,when the shadows begin to fall across the garden rows, we'll work on keeping the weeds at bay in the garden.  Also, tonight Hirsch's will come to pick up a pig, and we'll be grinding sausage this week.  We'll cut and season the meat Thursday, let it marinate in the fridge overnight, then grind and package Friday night so we'll have fresh offerings on Saturday.  Earlier today I cleaned out the incubator, then put new eggs in the hatcher.  I moved rabbits around and added another tractor to the number of pens in use (and that will need feed and water daily now), both to utilize grass instead of pelleted feed and because I have a new litter of bunnies on the way. Other tasks I also have to fit in this week include mowing the lawn, getting chicken feed, canning rhubarb, bottling vinegar,  mucking stalls, potting some herb starters, and taking poultry and possibly some rabbits to the livestock auction.  Although it always seems as though there is no season where I don't feel busy, this is perhaps the most jam-packed part of the whole farming year.  I'm also trying to finish my monthly email newsletter, get it sent out and also posted online and keep the website price list up to date, as well as blog.

As you can imagine, that doesn't leave much free time, although Dan and I have been taking some time to do things (away from the farm) that we enjoy as well.  While we have to be responsible to the farm, we also don't want it to rule our lives so completely that we can't take a break or take time for ourselves.  That's important, too, no matter what your occupation or how much you love it.  We also see a lot of folks here in Tionesta who are on vacation, as Forest County has the highest percentage of seasonal residences anywhere in the country.  Lots of people have camps or cottages that they come to in order to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  We love our seasonal visitors, and find that once they visit our farm stand, many make it a point to stop by again the next time they are in our area.  It becomes a destination, a sort of attraction, that they add to their vacation schedules.  

However, lately  I've been getting a pretty high volume of emails asking me to go out of my way to coordinate pickups for folks at times other than our business hours.  They're on vacation, they tell me, and they would just rather come by Thursday.  Or Friday.  Or Saturday evening or sometime Sunday. Maybe Monday morning.  When it's convenient for them.  Some even give me a window of 5 or 6 hours, they'd like to be there sometime during that window, say between 2:00 and 7:00 PM , depending on traffic and all.  (I wonder if these same people are annoyed when a plumber or cable guy gives them the same sort of time estimate!)  In the past, I've bent over backwards to coordinate such pickups.  This year, I'm learning to say no.  I certainly don't mind accommodating someone who is picking up a whole pig or half a cow and needs to come another day because of a lack of a chest freezer at camp. But it's important to me to have some down time as well, and it's not worth it to me to cut a canoe trip or evening with friends short because someone wants to stop by for a dozen eggs or two pounds of sausage.  In the past, when I had been that accommodating, my kindness has been repayed by folks showing up on a totally different day (early) because they "felt like taking a drive".  Or showing up with a minivan full of family and friends who expected me to drop everything and give them an hour long tour along with the $7.50 in farm products they were buying (which I did).  And it seems that, after going so far out of my way to oblige their request, it was a one-time transaction.  The folks who really value what we do, who are regulars, find a way to get here when we are open.  And you bet I'll be more than happy to work with someone I know as a good customer, whether it's a meat pickup or allowing them to come over to get manure for their garden.  But I'm learning to say no to the out-of-the-blue requests from people I don't know.  While it may sound harsh to be told to come Saturday only, the truth is that we do so many different things, without outside help, that even though I am home, I'm often not able to drop what I'm doing to cater to someone else's schedule.  If I indulged every request, I'd have nothing to sell because nothing would get done.

The bottom line is that farmers are busy, busy people.  Just because they may work from home doesn't mean that the public is welcome anytime.  And if you want your farmer to make a special exception for you, be courteous.  Make sure you have enough of a relationship with your farmer that they at least know you by first name.   Make an appointed time and stick to it, just the same as you would with your doctor or lawyer.  Make it worth your farmer's time- don't expect to drop by anytime for a transaction of a few dollars.  If you expect a private tour, be up front about it.  Don't expect one otherwise.  We know your time is valuable, but please remember that ours is as well!

It seems summer is finally here, bringing lots of sun.  We've even had some 90+ days here at the farm already, which have sure helped to dry things up after the rains of spring.  Other than crops like lettuce and beans, which we plant small batches of throughout the summer, the garden is in.  Most of  the seeds are showing at least tiny sprouts.  On Saturday, Dan hoed a bit of corn up to check its germination, since none were showing through the soil.  It was hard to believe, but by Sunday afternoon, the rows of corn were clearly visible, with 2" tall plants! The transplanted plants, like peppers, tomatoes, and squash are thriving as well.  We're even seeing blossoms on the peppers and a couple of tomatoes! We got by with no frost on any of the transplants, which is a wonderful thing.  While it may seem too late to worry about frost, just two years ago our last frosty morning was June 2!  

This year, however, June 2 was noteworthy for another reason...it is the earliest we've ever been able to put hay up.  After cutting some hay Monday, we had a few hot, dry days, and we were able to rake and load the first wagon loads of the season last night.  It's amazing to begin putting dry hay away in the barn, while it seems summer has barely arrived we're already storing what we need to get through winter.  But at the farm, there is no such thing as planning too far ahead.   There is also nothing like the smell of fresh cut hay as it fills the barn!  On days like this I wish I could bottle it for a sniff of summer during those long, cold winter months.  We were also very fortunate that although sunny and breezy, the temperatures dropped into the 70's,  much more tolerable for all the physical labor of putting up hay.  Dan has cut more, so with a little luck weather-wise, we'll be loading hay again in another day or two.  

With all this sun, the only thing I'm falling behind on is my computer work.  I confess I've been a bit behind on blogging, and my June newsletter isn't ready yet either.  But you just can't feel bad about that when you've got hay in the barn and the weeds are (temporarily) at bay in the garden.  The sun is shining again, so it's time to log off and get out there! 

Saturday is the official start to our farm stand season. I'm excited and overwhelmed, as usual.  Excited to see our returning customers, excited to make new friends as well.  I love being able to provide wholesome, responsibly grown food for my neighbors.  Excited to see what this growing season will bring, how new vegetable varieties will fare, what new canning creations will come out of my kitchen.

 But overwhelmed, too...I've been slowly freaking out about the garden.  The things I had planned on having for sale this weekend, by and large, just aren't ready to harvest.  We planted them at what should have been the right time, but chilly temperatures and too much rain means they are taking longer to mature.  Dan says not to worry, that folks will realize it's been a hard year to farm, they won't expect much this first week. But then I remember the lady who asked me if I wasn't hiding just a couple tomatoes behind the counter opening week last year.  Despite the fact that we just set out the transplants Monday, I'm pretty sure that I'll hear that again this week.  And I do see part of my job as a farmer/farm stand manager as educating customers about what is possible when you are growing and eating seasonally.  In education circles, this is not a crisis, just a "teachable moment".  But at least my rhubarb isn't letting me down- if nothing else, I'll have tons of that!

 It's also overwhelming to think that I won't have another free Saturday until December, but that is farm stand life.  I'm just fortunate that I no longer work away from the farm, and that Dan works with his brother, so we can take time during weekdays to do things that most people have to save for the weekends.

 The table won't be bare, either.  I have a nice selection of canned goods- flavored and home fermented vinegars, a variety of jams, mustards, and two barbecue sauces, including a brand-new creation.  When spring hands you rhubarb and you're sick of making jelly, you get creative...and end up with Sweet & Tangy Rhubarb-B-Q Sauce!  I'll have fresh herbs and even a few pots of chives after thinning my own bed. We're heading to Chambersburg today to pick up our raw milk cheese (it's the only thing we sell that we don't make ourselves) from Whispering Brook Cheese Haus.  I'll also be heading to Hirsch's to pick up our beef and our lamb kielbasa on Friday.  We'll have eggs too.  

It's a busy time.  I also hope to can just a few more batches of things, maybe dry some herbs.  The stand needs scrubbed, tables recovered, signs and price tags need to be made.  Maybe weed the garden, definitely mow the grass...which means blogging any more thoughts will need to wait til next week.

We hope to see you at the stand on Saturday! Come visit us between 10:00-2:00, right here at the farm! 

When raising livestock, there is nothing more important than having animals with a strong instinct to care for their young.  A new mother who refuses to let her baby nurse is frustrating and angering, especially when you end up having to bottle feed poor baby.  Those animals are not kept around the farm long, whether it is a goat, sheep, cow or whatever.   

We've had several nests of rabbits born over the past few weeks, and all had seemed to go very well.  Rabbits tend to be a bit more unpredictable, I don't know why, but I've had does that did wonderfully one litter and then terribly the next.  Since the rabbits are more for my own enjoyment than farm income, I tend to be a bit more sentimental about who I cull.  Plus, since the gestation period is only about a month and you end up with 4,6, or even 8 rabbits each time, you're not investing a whole lot in a lost litter compared to, say, a cow who carries for 10 months and has only a single calf.  But the other night, as I did chores, I could tell something had gone wrong with the litter that was in the hollow log in an outdoor run.  It was rainy and cold, and there was a baby bunny outside.  In the past, with a different doe, it meant that the wind had carried much of the mother's fluff she uses to build the nest away and the little blind bunny (it takes a few weeks before they open their eyes) had crawled out looking for warmth.  In that case, I merely had to block the wind, put the baby and the fluff back in the nest, and Scotchie, the mama bunny, took care of the rest. As I investigated, though, the rest of this nest was dead. The whole nest needed to be cleaned away, as it was pretty gross.  This doe had been feeding these for a week prior, so I don't know what happened to make her abandon them.  I picked up the soggy little living one.  Dan thought it was dead too, but I saw that it was moving and making small, pitiful noises.  As I climbed out of the run, I found a second baby from the same litter, in the same cold condition.  It had crawled even farther.  

Now I had a dilemma- what to do with them?  Trying to get the doe to care for these seemed as good as just letting them die at that point.  It would  be less cruel to just put them down, at least it would be quick.  Option #2 would be to try and hand-raise them.  I've tried this before, even going as far as carrying the tiny things to my job (even to a staff meeting 40 miles away!) to feed them regularly, but unlike with the sheep and goats, I was not successful in getting them to eat, and they died anyway.  Losing babies is always hard, it's worse when you're directly responsible for them that way.  So I mentally ruled that out right away.  So I could put them down...or...there are 2 other well-cared for nests here at this point.  One contained babies just a day old, and I hesitated to disturb it more than I had that day by checking for stillborns.  I didn't want to place these little ones in there, who already were long shots at surviving, only to upset another mama and lose another nest.  No, that wouldn't be a good idea.

 The other option was the doe I call Hunny Bunny.  She has a litter of very well fed babies who are about a week older than the orphans.  Hunny is diligent about her nest- removing the fluff during the hot spell we had recently to make sure they don't overheat, putting them all back in the nest box and covering them when the temperatures dip again.  She also doesn't get upset when I handle the babies.  That could work, but at this point the orphans are cold and wet.  So I took them inside, put a dish towel on my bathroom counter, and gently blow-dried them to get them warm quickly.  They began squirming and trying to suckle my hand.  I couldn't just let them die without trying something.  So I went back outside and opened Hunny's pen. I placed these little ones with the rest of the litter, covered the whole group back up, and hoped for the best.  I had no doubt that Hunny would still care for her babies, but I was unsure about the orphans.  Would she notice?  Or care?  I figured the worst that could happen is that she would throw them out of the nest and I would find them dead in the morning.  Or they would be dead in the nest anyway, due to the stress they had just undergone.  Either way, it seemed like a slim chance, but one worth taking.

Yesterday morning, I went to see if they had made it though the night.   If she hadn't fed them, it would be obvious at this point.  At first, all I saw when I moved the fluff was a bunch of sleek, healthy rabbit babies.  No dead ones, and nothing out of the nest either.  But I had to find the two I put in there to make sure.  As I looked, I realized they were right on top, warm and with full bellies.  They had eaten, Hunny had accepted them, if not as her very own, at least as ones she was willing to care for.  It may get a bit tricky when the others open their eyes soon, but for now, all is well.

The tan/grey one in the center is one of the fosters, its grey sibling is just beneath! The "big sibs" seem to be surrounding them and everyone is warm on this rainy morning.

April showers are still falling here at the farm, making it hard to get much done outside these days. I've been so excited to spend my first spring on the farm full time and have been anxiously awaiting conditions outside to dry out so we can begin the spring field work prep with the horses. Last year, I have photos of Dan plowing on April 15, with a trail of dust behind him because of the dry weather. This year, it's hard to even take the plants out into the greenhouse without losing a boot in the mud and slop. But such are the realities of farming; I honestly can't think of a job that requires more patience or that is more weather-dependent.  I just keep my fingers crossed that the sun will find its way back, the soil will dry out, and we'll be able to get plowing.  I'm looking forward to trying my hand at more of the machinery this season.

Even though we have yet to plow a round, though, doesn't mean things here have been slow! April is always a busy month. Lil's calf continues to grow, and we've let the pair out in the pasture to join the rest of the herd. He loves the freedom and runs and plays- it's so cute I often find myself stopping what I'm doing just to watch. While we had discussed milking Lil, we decided not to. She's an older cow at 13 years old, and we felt it was best not to tax her body too much with milk production. Most Holsteins have a productive life of just 3-4 years, so this shows what a difference using heritage breeds such as Dexters can make, as this is likely Lil's 10th or 11th calf! However, we still have plans to try milking, as our other Dexter cow, Finni, is very close to calving. So close, in fact, that we penned her up in the barn last night. While I'm sure she would rather be out in the pasture, we don't want to take any chances. It will be her first calf, and we want to make sure it's born in a safe, clean, dry place. It's also easier to keep an eye on her there to watch for any problems. We're optimistic that everything will go smoothly, but it's always best to be prepared to give assistance if necessary.

In addition to calves, we've had other babies born lately too.  There are fluffy, moving nests of rabbit fur with tiny bunnies inside. Also, the incubator is a busy place this time of year! We've hatched out a variety of fuzzy chicks as well as our first few Pekin ducklings of the year. We also had another batch of Bourbon Red turkey eggs ready this past weekend, and every single one hatched. We're so thrilled with how this has gone. While we definitely wanted to be sure of hatching enough turkeys to supply our farm's Thanksgiving bird orders, we would also like to see if our hens will hatch out poults naturally. One hen has been sitting on eggs for a couple of weeks now, but as I had been collecting all the turkey eggs at that time, I'm quite sure she is not sitting on her own eggs. If the hatch is successful, I'm pretty certain she will be the proud surrogate mother to a nest of goslings! The other hens have been laying in some crazy places, and most of the nests I collect to discourage them from using. I do not want a turkey attempting to hatch eggs on my front porch furniture. Likewise, I don't want them sitting across the road. They found a brush pile which has been heavily used for nesting, but I don't like them crossing the road. It's also in the woods, and the other day, when getting the morning paper, I noticed gobs of white feathers all around. They were unmistakably from one of the Royal Palm hens, and my heart sank. It was a lot of feathers, pulled out in hunks, the kind of evidence of a predator attack. Eggshells were also scattered around and licked clean. I went into detective mode, trying to figure out what had befallen my bird, but I couldn't find blood or body parts (like a wing) nor could I find any animal tracks in the leaf litter. Discouraged, I went to check on the birds near the turkey pen to get a head count. At first, I thought I counted all my Palm hens, but that couldn't be...I thought I must be mistaking an escaped Delaware hen (also white with a bit of black markings). But there they all were, with one looking a bit scruffy from missing feathers. No blood or signs of injury though, and she is doing well. So I definitely don't want a hen sitting for a month in that spot! However, the hens have finally made a nest I'm ok with...it's right next to the house in a secluded spot that should be safe. I hope one of them sits on it. They must all be using it to lay, as I counted 17 eggs in it last night! I removed some of them as it was too many for a single bird to cover, but I'll just try to keep the number reasonable and see what happens.  

We did have a day or so of nice weather last week, and Dan and I took advantage. I got some necessary pruning done on the blueberry bushes, and Dan finished up work early and we did get out into the garden. Although we haven't worked up the soil, there was a stretch that had been covered by landscape fabric over the winter which was weed-free. After a single pass with the tiller, we had a nice stretch of bed to plant. It's pushing the season a bit, but we were excited to get some seeds in the ground. Some garden plants can tolerate a light frost, which is still very likely, so we planted beets, carrots, radishes, peas, chard, lettuce and a variety of other salad greens. We also put in onion sets and some seed potatoes. It was great to get our hands in the soil, if only for an afternoon! We also tilled up a small spot in my herb garden and planted a few strawberry crowns. While I don't anticipate growing enough berries to sell by the pint or quart at the stand, it's something I want for myself. Dan though it was a great idea, so we picked up crowns of Ozark Beauties, an everbearing variety. Most strawberries are June bearers, meaning you need to wait a year for the plants to establish themselves before you can harvest any fruit. But because these are everbearers, with a little luck, I may even have a few berries by the end of summer. I'm excited to see how this goes and decide if I want to put more berries in the garden in the future...perhaps someday I'll even be able to offer strawberry jam!

April sure has been a roller coaster, weather-wise, so far!  We're not even 2 weeks into the month and we've had everything from snow to thunderstorms to 80+ degree temps!  We're hoping things will even out and dry up a bit soon so we can get serious about preparing our fields for planting.  Getting the horses harnessed up and making the first few rounds with the plow says spring more than anything else here!

The started sprouts have been getting some good greenhouse time, and I see new growth daily.  I'm getting ready to start some more things that we'll want to plant as seedlings, but in the garden rather than the greenhouse.  This will include some of our open-pollinated and heirloom tomatoes and peppers as well as things like zucchini and squash that just don't need greenhouse space, but that we want to get a jump on in preparation for our sales season.  We are also hoping, if the weather cooperates, to get in some serious work on the greenhouses this weekend.  We plan on putting up plastic on one of the metal frames for our tomatoes, cukes & peppers.  We may also tear down one of the frames that is not in good shape.  There is also some repair work to be done on the small one I'm currently using for seedlings.  The back end of that greenhouse was made of untreated wood and is in rough shape.  The recent winds went a long way towards removing the plastic on that part, so we'll work on that and tearing down the lumber supports.  We've tossed out ideas for what we'll do with that space next- it could be anything from an asparagus bed to a new pavilion for poultry processing. 

But the most exciting event of the recent past was definitely on Sunday.   We have been hatching chicks for the past few years, and have over a thousand healthy chicks under our belt, so while it is exciting and fun, it's also not groundbreaking when the first fuzzy chicks of the season hatch.  Our incubator has also brought other birds to life, in the past few years we've had good luck with ducklings, quail and even peachicks.  We've also tried goslings, but they seem to require such high humidity that they don't hatch well, especially if we need to balance it with the needs of the chicken eggs in the incubator at the same time.  So we just let the geese do their thing, it works much better.  Our hope this year was that the Bourbon Red turkeys we bought last year would lay eggs and we would, for the first time ever, be able to hatch our own poults.  We've found eggs everywhere, it seems.  The hens have rejected my cardboard nest box in the safety of the turkey coop.  Instead, I've collected eggs from the yard, the woodshed, the bad part of the greenhouse, my front porch furniture, and the most popular spot, the neighbor's brush pile across the road.

 Since this is their first year to breed, so many things could go wrong.  Are they fertile?  Will the first eggs be viable? (often the first eggs laid by a chicken don't have as good of a hatching rate as ones from a slightly more mature hen.)  Did I find the hiding spot before the eggs got too cold?  Will we have any luck at all???  We set our eggs weekly, so that they don't get too old & lose viability.  The first time I set turkey eggs, I had a total of seven.  They take 28 days to mature (chickens take 21) so this weekend was the time to find out what, if anything, was going on inside them!  I had hoped that at least a few of the first eggs would hatch.  I was optimistic we wouldn't fail totally, but  was prepared to call even two poults a success.  I pulled out the hatching tray Sunday morning after hearing telltale peeping.  We had chickens in there too, so I saw a rainbow of adorable fuzzies...Barred Rocks, Cochins, Phoenix chicks...and two little turkeys! SUCCESS!  I removed all the dry birds to the brooder pen.  Then I snuck a look and noted that other eggs were also pipped (showing the first cracks as the bird works its way out).  More chickens and also more turkey eggs.  In the end, we had what we considered a monumentally successful hatch with 6 of 7 eggs producing a healthy baby turkey!

 We are looking forward to more hatching this weekend, including a bunch of Mille Fleur bantams from purchased eggs, more of our own variety of chicks, lots more turkeys and possibly a few ducklings as well.  I'm confident we'll have success, but as the saying goes, you really can't count your chicks (or poults) before they hatch...

What a weekend! I was so happy to be a part of Pittsburgh's Farm to Table conference, but it sure made for a few long days. I'm fortunate that one of my sisters lives just a few miles from downtown, so I was able to stay with her and have some help setting up Friday morning. My greatest worry about the conference, since this is an entirely new venue for us, was if I was bringing enough stuff. I wanted the table to look full all the way to the end. I also wanted to have a profitable weekend, so part of me wanted to sell out completely!

 Always a family affair- sister Laurel and I finish setting up

Friday started out slowly, as many folks had to work, but it did get busier as the day progressed. I had a nice time talking to a reporter from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper, so I was hopeful that we'd get a mention in Saturday's edition. During the afternoon, more people we in attendance and stopped by. It always makes me smile, about half of the people had no idea where Tionesta was (or how to pronounce it) while the other half knew from coming here to a camp. Many even described in painstaking detail how I could find their weekend getaway! I sold some jams, talked to some lovely people, and got ready for the evening food tasting by setting up an electric roaster and cooking a leg of our pasture raised lamb. By the time 5:00 PM rolled around, the tasting hall smelled like my lamb. I set up my table with a selection of jams & mustards to sample and purchase, along with thin slices of our farm-raised ham. I put on my apron and gloves, got out the cutting board, and began slicing lamb for samples as well. We were told that the tasting was sold out (all 500 tickets!) and I had a line of people around the table pretty much all night. I got lots of fabulous feedback on everything we offered, especially the meats. I was even told our lamb was better tasting than a local farm, also doing the tasting, that is a high-end restaurant supplier and locally well respected around Pittsburgh. That really made me proud of what we do. People also couldn't believe that I cooked both the ham and the lamb in pans with nothing more than some water because they had such great flavor. I let people know that I cooked them as simply as possible because I wanted to showcase the flavor of our meats, not my cooking skills. All in all a great day, but after 12+ hours on my feet (in heeled boots, no less) I was ready to head back to my sister's and relax for the night.

I got back to the conference center Saturday morning with a Post Gazette. After I made sure my table was ready for the masses, I took a quick look for the promised article about Farm to Table. It was really nice, and I couldn't believe how much of it came from my conversation with the reporter. He detailed when I would be speaking, what the topic was, where & how we farm, and even gave a fantastic description of my Carrot Cake Jam! (To read it for yourself, click here:http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11085/1134851-34.stm) Saturday was much busier, and I had a number of folks excitedly ask if this was the jam featured in the paper, and it was very cool to be able to say yes. I even had one lady who told me that she had no intentions on coming to Farm to Table, but changed her mind and came just to get her hands on my jam. Wow! Not surprisingly, I sold out of Carrot Cake Jam. I also sold out of Ginger-Garlic mustard, pickled beets, and the hot and mild pepper rings. By the end of the conference, I didn't have much inventory left of anything, really, but the table looked respectably full and I made far more than I had dared hope.

Saturday was also the day of my big presentation, titled “Heritage Livestock Breeds: What They Are, Why They Matter, and How to Find Them.” I was really impressed that people stopping by the table would get excited when they realized I was the speaker, and they let me know that mine was one of the things they had planned on attending. I was very pleased with the turnout. My Powerpoint full of animal photos loaded without incident, and the speech itself went well. For those of you who missed it, basically I started out by defining a breed of livestock, emphasizing that these were created by people for a specific purpose in a specific place. Heritage breeds have become endangered not because they don't do their jobs well, but because agriculture has changed so dramatically. There simply isn't demand for family milk cows or draft horse power like there was 150 years ago. These breeds are becoming endangered because of habitat loss, and that habitat is small, family farms. To understand what industrial agriculture has become, we looked at a few photos and touched on the basics of beef (feedlot conditions), pork (confinement & gestation crates), dairy (inbreeding of the Holstein breed), chicken (broiler hybrids and heath issues), turkey (Broad breasted whites & their inability to breed), and eggs (confinement in egg cages). I then had photos of the heritage animals that call our farm home. I talked about Barred Rock, Polish, Phoenix, Blue Cochin & Delaware chickens, Toulouse geese, Bourbon Red turkey, Dexter cattle and Belgian draft horses. I talked about the strengths of each breed and why we raise & how we use them on our farm. I mentioned the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy and the work they do to conserve and protect these animals. I gave reasons why people should care about these animals- the fact that biodiversity means food security, because a larger gene pool will be more resistant to new diseases and climate change. That supporting heritage breeds will mean supporting smaller scale & family farms- these breeds are endangered because they don't do well on industrial levels. Although I'm no nutritional expert, I talked about the benefits of heritage breeds-they are virtually always raised in pasture-based operations, so I used some studies from www.eatwild.com to talk about nutritional benefits. I talked about taste and about the Slow Food Ark of Taste program. I let the folks in attendance know what they could do to help these breeds, first and foremost being supporting them by purchasing the heritage products directly from farmers. That they should feel free to ask for them at restaurants-if enough people do, change will happen. I let my listeners know that they can join groups like the ALBC without being a farmer if they find that saving endangered livestock is a cause they want to support and get involved. For those interested in starting a backyard flock, or other livestock, to consider heritage breeds. I let folks ask questions, and was amazed that they were less about the topic in general and more about our farm. I think people have a real desire to become more connected with the manner in which their food is produced and with the farmers who are producing it, and that is great. 

All dressed up & ready to present!

After the speech, it was a short downhill slide to the end of the day. I had a wonderful time, but I was ready to pack up, drive home and trade in my dress pants for jeans, and get back to the spring routines of hatching, caring for seedlings, farm babies, and waiting for the day when we can begin prepping the fields with our team.   

It's getting busy here! First of all, next weekend is the Farm to Table conference, so it's time to put the finishing touches on my presentation about Heritage Livestock breeds and the slideshow full of pictures I have to go along with it. I'm also making sure I have brochures, jams, signs, and everything else I'll need to make my table look nice and full with homemade goodies for sale and information about the farm. I'm so excited to be a part of this, I think as farmers, we really need to do a good job of informing the general public about how food is grown and where it comes from, especially when you are trying to convince them that it truly is better to buy from a family farm. So I'm excited to be the “expert” speaker about Heritage Livestock, I think lots of people would support the efforts to save them and use them on family farms, but most folks just don't know that they exist. I'm hoping to change that, just a little! I'm also really excited about my table in the exhibit hall. Of course, the opportunity to make some extra money is nice, but I'm really looking forward to talking with people about our farm and how & why we do what we do. So if you're in the Pittsburgh area, or already planning on going to the convention center and taking in the event, please stop by and say hello! (For more info & tickets, visit www.farmtotablepa.com)

I was also excited to attend a grazing conference last week. While you might think that there is nothing difficult about animals eating grass in a field, there actually is much more to know than that. What species of grasses or legumes will work best for the animals you want to raise is important. So is management, like how many animals are in a field and how long they are there- anywhere from rotating small pastures every 12 hours to just letting them roam a large area all summer can be done. There are advantages and challenges to each and I was glad I went because I learned so much. It was also really exciting to listen to Dr. Temple Grandin and what she had to say, both about handling animals in a humane way and also about animal welfare issues and how as farms, we need to be sharing what we do with the public, since most folks are generations removed from farms. And she encouraged the farmers in attendance to think about the practices we use- if we wouldn't want the public knowing we handled our animals in a certain manner, shouldn't we be doing something differently?

The past few days have certainly felt like spring is in the air here at the farm. Almost all the snow and ice has melted, leaving the usual muddy mess behind. Inspections of the garden plots revealed ruby red rhubarb poking through the soil, along with herbs- I spotted chives, oregano, sage and lemon balm with new growth. The seedlings I started in flats are also progressing nicely. Each day I take them out to the greenhouse for some sun, then bring them back inside to avoid any cold temperatures overnight. I've also been spending a fair amount of time on egg hunts. I was elated to find a turkey egg on the floor of the turkey house on day this week. Doing a project in the backyard later that evening, I went into the woodshed to get something for Dan, which was good as I found a turkey nest with 6 eggs in it! I would have been more vigilant, but as this is the first year we've raised a breeding flock of turkeys, we weren't entirely sure when they would begin to lay- we had thought it would be a bit later in the spring. So now I'm always keeping an eye out for those crazy birds and where the next stash may be. I've set up a nice, comfy nest box on the floor of their turkey coop, which they happily ignore in favor of the open floor, the back of the greenhouse, the middle of the yard, or (my personal favorite) the one that laid an egg on the couch that sits on the front porch. When you live on a free range farm, egg hunts aren't just for Easter! The pullets are also laying better each day, and I expect to be setting a few of their eggs when we next put eggs in the incubator. Besides the turkey eggs, we're also getting duck eggs, and also eggs from the Phoenix & Cochin hens. I saw the first goose nest of the season as well, but I'll probably leave those eggs alone. Goose eggs need so much humidity, they are tricky to do in the incubator, especially if you're hatching chicken eggs too, which we will be. The geese do a good job of sitting on their eggs, so we'll just let nature take its course.

Did you remember to set your clocks ahead this weekend?  Another welcome sign that spring's coming, but I hate it.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy having more daylight in the evenings, but I hate the out of sync feeling you have for a few days.  It also makes the evening chores weird- this time of year we start about 4:30 PM, which gives us enough time to feed everything as well as take care of any unexpected tasks- think fixing the French drain that iced over and caused water to leak into the barn again or fixing the electric fence because Wilbur the boar hog is trying to get loose.  So the critters are used to eating about 4:30-5:00.  They have their own routines, and instinctively know it's time to eat.  The horses will whinny from inside the barn when they hear footsteps (somehow they can tell human from cow, goat, etc!)  The cows return from the far reaches of the pasture to wait by the barn for their hay.  So for them, we bump chores "back" by an hour after the change, which means that in reality they are eating just when they expect, but it always throws me off for a few days. 

Tomorrow I'm going to DuBois, PA for a grazing conference.  One of the nice things about not working, besides all the wonderful stuff I get to do here, is that I can now go to some of the seminars and workshops to see how other folks farm and how I might improve what we do here.  This grazing workshop is really the first one I'll be going to, and I'm excited.  While grazing may not be the most engaging topic ever, it's so important to what we do.  That being said, I'll admit that my main reason for going is the keynote speaker, Temple Grandin.   For those who've never heard of her, Temple is an autistic woman who also has a doctorate in Animal Science.  She's renown for her ability to understand animals and has been instrumental in reshaping slaughterhouses across the country to make the handling of the animals there more humane and less stressful.  In my "previous life" before farming, I earned a Master's in Social Work and did work with autistic kids.  I also loved animals and one day came across Ms. Grandin's book called Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior.  It was fascinating and a wonderful read, even for those with little knowledge of livestock or autism.  It gives a lot of insight into animal intelligence, and even why dogs do what they do.  In the meantime, I've heard hers is such a remarkable story that there's even a movie about her out now!  So I'm really excited to go and listen and learn tomorrow.

These is so much going on here at the farm as well!  We're seeing signs of new growth all over the place.  The rhubarb is pushing tiny crimson buds through the soil, and there are deep purple, fern-like shoots in the horseradish patch.  The herb garden perennials are coming back to life as well- an inspection this weekend revealed new leaves on the sage, oregano, and lemon balm, as well as new shoots of chives, already 2" tall!  Inside, I've got cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and herbs sprouting in the flats I planted, and so I now watch the outdoor temperatures to see when it's safe to set them out in the greenhouse for some good spring sunshine.  The pullets have begun to lay in earnest and we're beginning to save their eggs for hatching.  In fact, this time next week I hope to have chicks hatch!  

But possibly the most exciting news for me is that we have another lamb.  Now, once lambing season kicks off, it's not quite as exciting since you've been watching the woolly bundles of joy leap and play for some time now.  But this one is kind of special.  After the whole Sheepie tragedy I watched my other ewes for signs of anything amiss.  Unfortunately, another one of my young ewes seemed a little off within a week after Sheepie's death.  So we brought her in, caught it early, and seemed to get everything straight.  (At least that's what I thought. Dan wasn't entirely convinced that she was ill, but agreed that we should treat her anyway, as the medicine that treats is also used as a preventative.  Better safe than sorry and all that.)  I didn't blog about it, as it was just too hard emotionally to get so many notes of support, then lose the fight anyway the first time around.  However, this has a happy ending, as this ewe, Lisa, has been fine for a month now, but you never know about the baby.  This morning, before Dan left for work, he let me know that she'd lambed unassisted.  Just a single, but alive and healthy and both mom and baby were doing fine in a lambing jug in the barn.  I'm still out of whack, sleep-wise, and forgot to ask if it was a ewe or ram or if it was any color but white.  I went down to the barn to check on them later and found her to be pretty wary of me, although she did take a treat from me.  So I didn't bother to inspect the little one, as it seemed to be doing just fine, resting in the back corner of the lambing jug, and I hate to interfere with the bonding, especially with the younger ewes. Lisa is Rosa's daughter, and Rosa always seems to throw uniquely colored lambs.  Rosa is black, and has had lambs that were all black, black with white markings (esp. on the face & head), and last year the one I called "Speckles" because he was brown and white speckled all over (I so wanted him to be a ewe, so I could keep it instead of processing it in the fall!).  Lisa herself is black with a touch of white on the face, but Rosa's ewe lambs this year are both pure white. (Still adorable, but I do love the fun colored ones!)  So I was about in shock to see this little one...not white, or black, or even brown, but what seems to be a charcoal gray with white all over, which Dan totally failed to mention.  I'll be interested to see what it looks like when it's been dry for a few days, but really an eye-catching sheep.  And I hope it's a girl, since males don't stay nearly as long on the farm, but we'll just see...   

March always makes me feel like we've made it through winter's worst. Although I know we'll still get some snowstorms, ice, sleet and all that wintry mix, on other days the snow begins melting and, for the first time in months, we can see the fields instead of just a blanket of white. The days are getting longer, birds are returning from their southern winter hangouts, and it's easy to feel spring coming on.

It's hard though, because as much as I want to dig into the soil and get things underway, I know we aren't safe from frost here until June. Yes, really. Two seasons ago our last frost was June 3. It's a hard balance to strike between getting an early jump on crops and not losing whole fields of plants that can't handle a cold snap. One exciting project this year is returning a greenhouse or two into operational growing space. The plastic has been off of them for several years, and we had considered tearing down the metal frames since they aren't really all that attractive if not in use. One is still slated for being torn down, as it's pretty beat up, but we're excited to have plans to recover another one or two in plastic and put them back into production. This will allow us to put plants out earlier and to have things like tomatoes and peppers earlier in the season. The greenhouse veggies will have all the flavor of our field grown ones, because we still plant them right in the soil, not in pots or hydroponically. The structure is just used to get the soil up to planting temperature earlier, and to keep the plants warm during the inevitable spring cold snaps. Since we'll be able to transplant the seedlings outside earlier, that means starting the seeds earlier too, so I've got trays planted with tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers and herbs. The hardest part was resisting the temptation to start everything right now, but we'll hold off on crops, especially the vining ones like squash & pumpkins for a few more weeks, otherwise they will get too big for their pots before we're able to successfully transplant them outdoors. But it is good to have trays full of seeds, I hope to see sprouts very shortly!

Another exciting sign of spring is eggs. Birds don't usually lay eggs in the winter, because it's not a good time to raise chicks. Generations of selective breeding have made chickens lay more eggs over a longer period of the year, but there is always at least a bit of slowdown in the winter. The days are getting noticeably longer, and it's signaling the birds to begin laying in earnest again. We're also beginning to get eggs from our layers which hatched last September. We've gotten eggs from some of the Barred Rock and Delaware hens, and it's certain that we'll soon be seeing blue eggs from our Ameracauna girls, too. While it's wonderful to have plenty of eggs to cook and bake with, this time of year I get most excited about hatching chicks. The quiet hum of the incubator, along with the periodic beeps letting us know the eggs are being turned, have become a sign linked in my mind with the arrival of spring over the past few years. There is nothing like opening the door to the incubator and pulling out a tray of downy chicks where just eggs were the day before. We set eggs for the first time this season yesterday, and we will be hatching our first few babies in about three weeks. We'll be hatching every week after that until sometime in late May, when we'll be collecting eggs to sell at the stand again. I'm also on the lookout for duck eggs, and I have a feeling it won't be long before the large eggs of our Toulouse gees begin appearing around the barnyard as well!   

  We had a couple days of spring thaw here last week. The snow all but melted (so much so that the creek in the barnyard overflowed its banks with nothing falling from the sky!) and the temperatures were in the 50's to near 60. Something about that kind of weather is enough for me to feel like spring is coming, and it's time to get busy with all the winter projects if I have any hope of completing them before we start plowing. The warm weather meant not just the snow was thawing, so it was a great opportunity to get the frozen manure out of the corners of the hog pens and chicken houses. It felt like spring cleaning!

The next project we stated was replacing the main rabbit hutch. I enjoy my rabbits and usually keep 5-6 does (females) in the main pen, plus I have smaller & moveable pens to separate out the buck (male) and any does about to give birth or pens of young rabbits I'm raising up to sell. But the main hutch has been in bad shape for some time. It was well-used when it came here quite a few years ago, so it's simply lived out its useful lifespan. Wood is rotting and sagging, wire needs replacing, and we decided it wouldn't be worth the effort to try and rehab it. So Dan told me to dream up some plans to make something really interesting, and we'd figure out what would be possible with the materials on hand at the farm. So I came up with a nice big living space (8' x 3') with two separate lofts(2' x 3'). While you don't normally think of bunnies as climbing animals who would use a loft, our girls are well used to ramps. They have a nice yard to play and graze in, and use a ramp to get into the hutch where the food, water and shelter is. So we put two lofts in. I fancied it up by outlining bunnies on the doors, Dan cut them with a jigsaw, and those are the windows. We have real windows in the center, and large doors with wire on the bottom. This pen should last for a very long time. The sides are made from cast off pieces of steel roofing. The roof is green and the sides a nice purple. Once we escape from the deep freeze, I have some leftover paint in nearly the same shades for the wooden parts. It's a great thing to get all the construction leftovers from Matt & Dan's contracting business...we always find uses for them at the farm, and they never go to waste! Literally, the only thing bought for this pen was the hardware cloth for the floor. The rest was found and/or recycled!

 The purple bunny palace, or our new hutch.

I know it's hard to see...but here's Dini up in the loft (it doesn't help that she's all black, except for her nose...)  It did not take long for them to adjust to the indoor ramps! 

It's a spring thaw here at the farm!  Although it's a great change of pace not having to break chunks of ice from all the water buckets, the packed snow has become so slippery that it's pretty much a matter of when, not if, I land on my rear while doing chores.  The best I can hope for is that it's not on a big cow pie!  

As I mentioned last time, we have babies!

Here's Char's pile of piglets- there are 8 total, 6 mostly black like mama and two of the blue butt coloration like Wilbur.

and here's double trouble...Rosa's twin ewe lambs, who are already beginning to bounce around and play!

It's somewhere between snow and mud outside, but luckily for me I have lots to do here inside!  The Farm to Table conference in Pittsburgh (www.farmtotablepa.com) is coming up March 25 & 26.  It's official that I'll be presenting at 2:30 PM on Saturday, so I've been polishing up my presentation as well as putting together a Powerpoint full of pictures of the animals to show as well.  I'll also have a table in the exhibit hall, so I'm inventorying what products I can take to sell, putting together some signs with information and photos of the farm, and prepping to be part of the Friday evening food tasting as well.  While it is work, I enjoy this kind of stuff and I'm really excited. If you attend this conference, be sure to stop by the Pleasant Valley Farm table and say hi!

The impossible happened this week...Dan and I actually took a bit of a vacation from the farm! We joke that even if the world ended, we'd still have to do chores before we left. While I'm not taking anything away from vegetable and crop farmers, the garden has a down time. You can go on a tropical vacation over the winter if you please. The plants won't suffer terribly if left alone for a day or two mid-season. Having as much livestock as we do, it's very rare that we can get away as a couple, even overnight. I think the last time we did was October of 2009, and that was just for a night. There is a reason raising farm animals is called “animal husbandry”; in a sense, you are married to your animals. They need to be cared for every day, without fail, and whether or not you are tired or ill. You need to care for them when they are sick, and be there for births. Your schedule revolves around their care every single day of the year, including holidays and weekends, since there is no magic day when the animals won't be hungry. I can't count the number of times we have been visiting friends or family locally, only to leave in the middle of the gathering because it was chore time. Please don't get me wrong though, I love my critters, I do choose to live this way, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world. But we all need a bit of a break now and then!

Both my mom and Dan's parents live in the middle of the state, just far enough to feel like a mini vacation, and we had been looking forward to visiting on this little trip for some time. There was a pretty small window of opportunity between the holidays and the start of lambing season/piglet time/starting seedlings that we could leave for a few days. Dan's brother Matt agreed to tend to the livestock and the woodstoves in the house while we were gone, or it wouldn't have happened. Matt lived here on the farm for many years and visits us all the time, so the animals know him and he knows them. I can't think of anyone else I could trust to get everything done! We had planned to leave earlier, the end of January, but then Sheepie got sick. Caring for her meant putting any leisure plans on hold. We fought through that, but I'm very sad to report that in the end, it was all too much and she didn't make it. We did our very best, but it was a difficult condition to treat successfully. Then Nutmeg, one of our oldest ewes and consistently the earliest to lamb, had a healthy little ram. We knew the rest of the sheep would soon follow, and Char was expected to have a litter of piglets in mid-February as well, so for us, it was now or never. Baby season is just too much to put on someone else, even a great farm person like Matt.

So Dan and I visited family and took in some local sights from Sunday to Friday. It was nice, but it's great to be back home too. The house was warm and the animals were well-fed and thankfully, none of the animals gave Matt any trouble (except for Puff, my fluffy cat- he demands attention from everyone!). My replacement hens, although close to full grown, seemed like they grew while I was gone. And it seems as though we got back just in time. As we were doing chores last night, I noticed Rosa wasn't following me around looking for snacks as she usually does. I got her into the barn, and by this morning she had two beautiful, healthy ewe lambs. We also knew Char was close and have been watching her and giving her lots of extra bedding, and this morning, eight tiny piglets were busily nursing. The temperatures here are warming a bit, the snow is melting from the rooftops, and with all these babies, spring can't be far behind!

Despite the fact that it's still bone-chillingly cold here, there are signs of spring on the way.  Perhaps that groundhog was on to something!  The days are steadily getting longer, giving us a slightly longer window of time to get evening chores done without flashlights.  I have been hearing many more wild birds calling from the trees, and while I haven't seen a robin yet, I doubt it will be too much longer now.  Our mail ordered seeds are steadily arriving in the mailbox, which make me anxious for the ground to thaw.  At the end of the year, I'm ready for the end of the garden season; it's a welcome break from weeding, planting, harvesting, and canning/drying/storing.   At this point of winter, though, I long for something fresh and green.  I miss planting, harvesting, eating, canning, and yes, even weeding. Of course, in my mind the new garden will have less weeds, less bugs, and more produce than ever before.  (Reality has yet to set in!)  But I do miss it and I look forward to the time when at least I can get the indoor seedlings started (tomatoes, peppers, and such).  I'm trying to get better at it each year, because there are just so many more interesting varieties possible when you don't need to rely on what the local garden centers are carrying!  I also try to get more comfortable with working the horses each year, so I'm looking forward to using some machinery this spring that I haven't in the past.  (Check out www.pleasantvalleyfarm.weebly.com/field-work.html to see photos of Dan & I, our horses, and equipment!)

The last sure sign of spring around here is, of course, farm babies.  I've mentioned the heartbreak of the ones we lost, and there is nothing to do now but move on.  We noticed that another one of our ewes, Nutmeg, seemed to be very close, and even though it's a week or so early for her, we put her in the barn.  A healthy lamb greeted us this morning as we did chores.  I'll check on her soon to  make sure all is well and to see if there are two babies, as she normally has twins.  

Winter has definitely set in for the season here. We've had quite a few inches of snow fall since the beginning of the year, and today's temperatures are only in the teens, with a wind chill closer to zero. I know it's cold out when the rabbits prefer to stay in the hutch instead of spending a good part of the day in the outdoor run (which I can see from the warmth of my kitchen counter!) While we do have plenty of animal chores to keep us busy, especially breaking up ice to insure everything has access to water, it is probably the slowest time of the year on the farm. No butchering in sight, months to go until field prep begins, no garden bounty to preserve, and I've already finished putting together the seed orders for our 2011 garden. (I'm already watching my mailbox for them to arrive!)

So, what do we do with all this free time? All the things we've put off until we have time for “winter projects”! I've done some interior painting around the house, and plan on repainting our roadside signs in the next week or two. Dan repaired the back door to the produce shed and did some winterizing by putting up batten strips in the rear, making it more weatherproof for the feed and other things that always end up getting stored there during the months we're not open. But, depending on the weather, not every day can be spent outdoors. I spend a lot of time on the business end of things now, meaning lots of computer time. The start of the new year means I'm starting out new records for everything from feed records to finances, and I'm still mastering the art of spreadsheets. We're also reviewing when to expect babies, and how soon we need to adjust where the moms-to-be are being kept and how they are fed. (We will be expecting our 2011 crop of farm babies to start arriving as early as next month, with lambs, rabbits and piglets coming due!) We will likely begin to hatch chicks in March, so I'm already planning when and how I'll separate the breeding flocks. Also, since I do all the advertising, it's a good time to review any online listings of the farm for accuracy and work on any new pages I'd like to get online on the website before spring. Other yearly business tasks include reviewing our business cards and brochures, seeing if changes need to be made, and deciding if/when to have more printed. It's also the time of year when association memberships are up for renewal, so it's a good time to look critically at the organizations your business partners with, both to determine if it makes good financial sense to be a part of them, but also to make sure the values you hold are the same as what the organization is promoting. There is so much to running a farm; you need to stay on top of all the things a regular business does, like finances and inventory and the like, but also so much more since you're in the business of raising living things. It seems as though I've fallen behind when I'm not actively planning 6 or 12 months down the road. While that may seem like an exaggeration, it takes 18-24 months for a cow to reach butchering weight (plus nearly a year gestation if you're breeding them), or 6-7 months before a chicken will lay a single egg. This all has to be taken into account well before you plan on offering a product, be it spaghetti squash or homemade sausage. So taking a month or more to review what works, what hasn't, and planning what needs to be done, how you intend to do it, and what tools, seeds, materials or livestock you'll need is a necessary part of the process.

It's also time to spend on ourselves. Dan has been excited to make progress in the forge, and I love to help him. It's fascinating to watch, in my opinion! I've also been catching up on some reading and working on research for a presentation I'll be doing in March. I also find winter to be a wonderful time to spend in the kitchen. I love being around a warm stove on a cold winter's day, so I've been pursuing my goal of making a decent loaf of bread, as well as slow simmered soups and other goodies.