RainySunday Ranch

Raising Livestock with Respect-Growing Healthy Food-Living Connected Lives Herbs, fruit, veggies, you can find all of it growing here at RainySunday. We strive to grow healthy food that tastes great! Healthy food starts with the soil; we test our soil for mineral composition and supplement where and when needed. We amend the soil with compost from here on the farm; our gardens are powered by bunnies, goats, chickens and ducks (all goat, chicken and duck manure is well composted before use). We then purchase open-pollinated and heirloom seed, starting the majority of our plants from seed here at the farm. Seeds are started in the greenhouse, outdoors, or in the garden beds, depending on the variety and the time of year. Some plants are grown from purchased (or traded/swapped) plants, roots, or cuttings; these would be plants like lavendar, rosemary, grapes, berries, asparagus, and fruit trees. Some plants were already well-established here at the farm like a pair of old gravenstein apple trees, sweet fennel, an Italian plum tree, American chestnuts, and wild raspberry and blackberry. We cultivate as much by hand as we can, choosing to use a broadfork, a hoe, a walking tractor and other small hand tools whenever possible. This allows us to be in close contact with the soil, and the plants so we know how everything is growing and what we need to do to best nurture the gardens. We do not use any chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. We fertilize with properly balanced minerals and compost, we control pests with chickens and ducks (in the off season) as well as picking off any unwanted critters by hand, and we weed with our hands and a hoe. Herbs, fruit, and vegetables are harvested at the peak of ripeness and made available at our booth at local farmer's markets and here on the farm. In 2017 we are operating a friends of the farm program (our unique version of a super flexible CSA) to help local families have access to more healthy food! We also raise Nigerian Dwarf goats at RainySunday. Our goats are bred with mindfulness towards correct conformation, plentiful milk production, easy milk-ability, and calm, friendly personalities. We strive to equip ourselves to make breeding, management, and farming decisions by seeking out educational opportunities including conferences, seminars, classes, mentors, and lots and lots of reading and research from those with more experience and new information. We check our choices by being involved with a quality registry (ADGA), showing our goats in sanctioned shows, and participating in performance programs like DHI milk test and Linear Appraisal. This allows us to make good choices that work on our farm to raise healthy, productive, friendly dairy goats. We milk our does twice a day while they are in milk and show them, which means we want them to be easy to handle and enjoyable to be around. We love what our goats provide for us, but we also just like their company! We spend a lot of time taking care of the goats throughout their lifetime, and that starts when they are babies. Most babies here at RainySunday are hand-raised by our entire family. They are friendly and truly enjoy being with their people. Our kids are a big part of this process; helping bottle-feed, teach to walk on leash, and lots of cuddle time! The milk from these healthy, happy goats is used in handmade goat milk soap, made with quality oils, fun fragrances, and mica for beautiful color combinations. Poultry raised at RainySunday have plenty of access to pasture, a varied diet, and provide us with endless entertainment and eggs for our customers, from our chickens, ducks, and turkeys.