Our dream of a family ranch/farm began over twenty years ago. We were young, falling in love and thinking of our future together. As we began our lives together and our family grew to a whopping 7 children we have seen the increased need and desire of ourselves and our neighbors to be more aware of where our food comes from and with which techniques. We have studied and practiced sustainable and natural techniques for our animals and gardens for many years and love what it has done for our family. Our blog is an effort on the part of our family to share with you the learning process, the fun experiences and fruits of the family farm.
Chickens were our first farm animal and boy were we thrilled with the taste of our first fresh eggs. There is nothing like the smile you get on your face the first day you find a fresh egg in the chicken coop. Our children still get excited and all want to go gather the eggs just to see how many we will get today! When you taste the difference for the first time you may feel as if you have been cheated your whole life, I know I did. They have so much flavor compared to the store bought version.
As the first gardens were put in the chickens became a nuisance as they dug up seeds and pecked at the fruits that were supposed to be for us! We adopted "Cubby" one late fall to help the next year and help he most certainly did. We trained our corgi to keep the chickens out of the flower beds and garden. As unbelievable as it sounds his herding instinct came in handy and "Cubby" not only held a place in our hearts but he became our first working dog. As long as he lived we never had chickens in our gardens again!
The first garden attempts were... well... lets just say learning experiences. As I remember growing up, my dad often had a garden that he planted, cared for and harvested mostly by himself as my mother I am sure was busy with raising us 3 girls and running a home. So I unfortunately learned little from him and had to learn on my own. As growing seasons came and went I learned important lessons; chickens love gardens, too much or too little water both spell disaster, weeds will take over if you don't do a little each day, and oh boy the harvest is worth all the blood, sweat, prayers and tears you have to put into a garden for that first crispy cucumber and that first taste of sun ripened juicy heirloom tomato!
My love of growing things has inspired me to produce fruit, herbs and vegetable for our own CSA program. A Community Supported Agriculture program is a weekly share in the naturally grown produce from our farm. Last year we sold five shares and this year we offering more shares. This year we are offering a smaller share of produce for twenty weeks at $10 per week. We already have potatoes, leeks, onions, radishes, spinach, beets, swiss chard, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, english peas and blackberries planted. We have started our tomato and pepper varieties in the greenhouse and are planting more veggies daily! We are offering a large variety of vegetables including some that we hope will be new to you. We also will be selling produce at a local farmers market if there are extras you would like ask we hope we have just what you are looking for.
These are a couple garden pics from our 2013 season.
If you are interested in having some fresh vegetables and herbs this summer we will be happy to serve you. This weekly Taste of Fresh Veggie Pack will be available for pickup in Gilmer on Wednesdays or at the farm on Saturday. You will pick your day and that will be your pick up day for the season. If you can not pick up that day have a friend or relative pick it up for you. The pack will have three or more varieties each week. For example one pack may have parsley, onion, spinach radishes and broccoli; then another basket may have green beans, tomatoes, basil and garlic. The contents will totally depend on season and success. Remember you are buying a share of the harvest! The deposit is half and is due when you sign up and the remaining amount is due at the first delivery date which will be the beginning of April.
Our next animal adventure were pigs. A dear friend gave them to us. "Bacon" and "Porkchop" became our friends as they greeted us with their soft snorting sounds morning and evening. They lived a happy farm life until they became escape artists and then they had to go to colder climates. The children adjusted well as they were young and it took some time at the processors. The bacon and sausage were superb!
This is a handsome Zebu bull, they are an incredibly interesting breed of cow. After having several other breeds we are now raising Zebu. They eat a greater variety of forage and are drought tolerant. They are the original small breed of cattle. The smaller breed is easier to handle and provides an amount of meat and milk more appropriate for a family. We were milking one last spring and she gave just over half a gallon per day verses our jersey who gave over 5 gallons each day. Recently we butchered our first farm raised beef critters which when processed was just 200 pounds of meat verses a large breed that can be 600 pounds of meat. These family sized animals eat less and there is less waste in the end. Again I was surprised at the taste difference, I had no idea that fresh, farm raised, grass fed beef hamburg could have so much flavor! The hamburg, stew meat, jerky and roasts for the slow roaster beat any we have ever had before! We are currently taking orders for fresh beef.
We will be sharing our projects in progress and new ones with you through our pics and daily articles. Please share this with others that might be interested in us and our farm products. As the produce ripens we will have a couple events on the farm. In July we hope to have a homemade salsa contest and for the fall maybe a pie social! These events will be for family, friends, neighbors and farm fans; that we might share in the bounty of good fun, community and harvest. Thank you for your time and interest in our new blog. Angie Robertson
