Posted on 24th September 2008 by Mish in food | frugal
butchering, farm, food, frugal, lamb, meat, organic meat, pastured meat
Saturday was killing day for three of our sheep. These three were meat sheep that we didn’t particularly enjoy having around. They were unfriendly and a little rough on our pasture fences. We still have two remaining Romney ewes that we intend to keep and possibly breed again.
Mark Durkee is a local legend. He’s been featured in several books including a great book about a farm near here called “Harvest,” and John O’Brien (another local legend, you may have heard of his movie “A Man With a Plan” – if not – find it, it’s wonderful) has featured him in his latest movie (or at least that’s what Mark told me on Saturday).
Mark is a true Vermont character. His career has been killing, skinning and gutting all sorts of animals. He does it, not because he enjoys the killing, but he likes being his own boss, he knows how to do it well, it brings him some cash and he can spend his days doing other things – he also, I think, likes traveling around and spending the morning with the farmers.
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Technorati Tags: butchering, farm, food, frugal, lamb, meat, organic meat, pastured meat
Posted on 15th April 2008 by mishakennedy in gardening
farm, garden, gardening, organic
We have finally reached a day when we have less snow then open ground on most of our property. Over the weekend, the sheep were finally able to break loose of the barn and get out in the barnyard a bit. We had them fenced in the barn at one point because they were able to walk on top of the snow and hop over the 4 foot high fence.
They have not been shorn yet, as we have an open barn (three sided post and beam), but it’s supposed to be very warm this weekend, so we’ll have to get that done. We didn’t breed our sheep last fall, so no little lambs this year, but I was unprepared to be the sheep’s midwife this year as we just had Kiara in October and I knew I’d have enough sleepless nights!
We are also preparing the chicken house for new chicks in May and I am preparing myself for our first turkeys. I have had chickens before, but never turkeys – so this will be something new and interesting! But, we’ll also have fresh, organic turkey for Thanksgiving this year – so I’m pleased with that. I hope that all goes well and I can cultivate a few customers for this first batch of turkeys – otherwise we’ll be eating a lot of turkey this winter!
I just planted the first outside mesclun and spinach – so that’s always a little exciting. And I am eagerly looking at our seedlings everyday – hoping to see new growth or a new sprout. They are doing well.
This will be my first venture into market gardening, so I am trying to keep good records (better than my homeschooling ones, I hope!:-) and find a few things that I really want to concentrate on. I plan to sell at the Chelsea Farmer’s Market this year – and a few of the smaller ones around us. I’d like to see some of the smaller ones do better and become more regular. There are a couple of large markets near us, but they are very big, fairly expensive and a little more “touristy” than I like. I’d rather hang out on a Wednesday afternoon with people from town!
Liam (my 10 yo homeschooler) is very into the farmer’s market idea and is ready to sell anything! So, I’ll have to find him a niche he can cultivate, as it were. He likes the idea of selling potted herbs and making things from dried herbs – so we’ll try and work on that…hmmm.
We are currently working on a plan to sell organic fresh-frozen baby food (The Vermont Baby Company) and fresh-frozen prepared veggies. Got to get those labels in order!
OK, back to work… and if you know anyone who wants a turkey…
Technorati Tags: farm, garden, gardening, organic
Posted on 1st April 2008 by mishakennedy in frugal
family, farm, frugal, humor
It took four of us to lift it into the truck. The evaporator. The spinning wheel that would turn the sap from my maple trees into gold. Or rather, amber. Pure Vermont amber-colored maple syrup.
It looked rather benign on the showroom floor, but it was, in reality, a beast of black metal and bolts. Attractive really, with the potential for greatness, but now that it was in my truck, I had no idea what to do next. It came with instructions, this beast (called the arch, really just a modified woodstove) with the shiny silver pan (the evaporator) – divided into three chambers for maximum sap flow – but only for putting it together. There were no instructions on how the sap actually turned into syrup.
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Technorati Tags: family, farm, frugal, humor
Posted on 13th June 2007 by mishakennedy in food
cow, dairy, farm, food
I know – it sounds crazy. why would I buy my own cow? But after reading this article from Salon.com about organic milk (which costs almost $10 a gallon even here in dairy-friendly VT): http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/04/13/milk/index.html?pn=3
Did you know that large dairy farms – non-organic ones – feed their calves chicken manure? I have chickens and that’s just disgusting.
Not to mention rBGH and the whole Monsanto business – http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm
So – I did a little basic math. I have enough pasture for a cow to eat along with my sheep and llama for five good months out of the year. So I’ll need seven months worth of hay at $3/bale. That’s $650. Plus I’ll need about $500-$750 worth of grain a year – $10-$15 bag per 50lb bag per week. So far I’m at $1400. If a heifer costs me $1000 and I have her for 10 years, that’s about $100 per year. I’m not including the cost of vet care – yet. So – about $1500 a year for a cow – and we get all the milk, butter and cheese we can eat (I’ll have to figure in the cost of rennet at some point).
I spend $1820 a year in milk alone. $1300 in butter and about that much in cheese. Wow. That’s almost $4500 a year in dairy products- and that doesn’t include yogurt, sour cream or whipped cream on occasion.
I think I’ve made my decision…we’ll have to see what the rest of the fam thinks…
Technorati Tags: cow, dairy, farm, food
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