The actual farming life

So, what happens in the farm on the winter?

Not much, really. We have the daily care of making sure the waterers are working. Henry puts out round bales every few days, and we check to make sure that all is well. But, winter on the farm is relatively quiet. It's a nice break that way because we are plenty busy in other areas.

For the meat-side of the business, we're doing once-a-month drop offs in Toronto. We send out an email with all the details, people pre-order, and then we hang out at Tinto's (and drink coffee and eat their yummy food), while we wait for people to come pick up their orders. It's been going really well, and we've even had several new customers try us over the winter.

The Guelph Organic Conference was last weekend. I was on a panel called The Future of Farmers' Markets representing producers. It was really interesting to hear about the behind-the-scenes politics that can go on at these markets. It also makes me realize how much I love the Sorauren Park market. It was so great for us last year, and I'm looking forward to it starting up again this year. I was talking to one of market managers, and he mentioned that he was interested in getting me on the advisory committee. While I'm not sure I have the time, I would love to do it. I've always been passionate about farmers' markets as a consumer and a producer, so it would be great to have more say in how this market works.

It was also really good to see a bunch of familiar faces at the conference. I didn't actaully attend any workshops, but I spend a number of hours wandering around the trade show, meeting and talking to people. It really helped reinforce for me that this is where we should be. After ten years or marriage, I don't know how many different jobs, this feels like a calling. It was neat talking to people who have been doing this kind of thing (organic farming and direct marketing) for 30 years and thinking that I can see Henry and I in their position in another 30 years.

In other news, Henry has started a job working for FarmStart and the Ecological Farmers of Ontario. He's the Training and Resources Coordinator (I had to look that up online). I think it's perfect for him. He'll be coordinating their education programs (teaching and farming - his two specialties). It's a bit nuts right now in that he's trying to finish his MA thesis as well, but this job brings an economic stability to our lives and allows us to use our farming income for the farm. Hopefully, those two factors and the reduction of our debt load that getting bought out of Russet House Farm (a good thing but a topic for another post) brings will allow us to buy a farm in the next year or two.

Updates

Well, it's been over a month since I last posted.

Oops!

That doesn't mean I haven't been obsessively composing posts in my head during that time. I have been. It's just the distance from my brain to the computer is rather large it seems. Anyway, there are a few things I thought I'd update you on.

1. We've been selling our beef at the Sorauren Park Farmer's Market. It runs Mondays from 3-7. If you're in the neighborhood, come visit us. It's been so great meeting and getting to know people. Everyone has been really supportive and excited about what we're doing.



2. Here's a link to the Slow Food event I mentioned earlier.


3. We had a surprise calf! It turns out that one of the cows we bought was pregnant. Henry went to do chores one day, and there he was. The cow was really too young to get knocked up and wasn't able to take care of the calf. We've been bottlefeeding him. Henry named him Knuckles because it took him a few days to stop walking on the knuckle of his foreleg.

Knuckles and Moses

Don't worry, Knuckles won't be dinner. Instead, he will become a lead steer, which means we'll use him to help us lead the cattle wherever we want them to go. Because we bottlefeed him, he pretty much comes running whenever he sees us. Cows are herd animals - and greedy - so if one of them goes toward something, the rest have to make sure they get their share.

Since we didn't want Knuckles to be lonely, we bought a heifer which we named Niko. We're bottlefeeding her too. I'll get a picture of her up as soon as I get a chance.

So, let's see - right now, I'm bottlefeeding two calves and still nursing my son. Hmm.... Any bets on who gets weaned first?

Competent

As I was doing chores last night, I noticed that the bulls had gotten through a gate and into a paddock with some heifers and steers. Now for obvious reasons, we don't want the bulls with the heifers. I stood there debating what to do. Henry was 45 minutes away and in class. I could have left them until he got home and hoped for the best, and I was tempted to do this. BUT, I decided to try and use some grain to lure the bulls back to their paddock, and what do you know - it worked!

As I was telling Henry this, and I mentioned that I had to keep checking to see which ones were the bulls. His response - "They're the ones with the bigger heads." Umm... that's not where I was looking.

A Winter's Tale (Tail?)

I'm no Pioneer Woman, but I think these shots turned out decently (despite my lack of Photoshop. Sigh).

The view from the hay loft.


Secret Agent 005 and her bodyguard.

Dreaming of spring.


The blue door of the barn.

Cows, cows, cows

That is the creative way Henry calls the cows when he feeds them. We are now the proud owners (once we make a downpayment) of 30 Black Angus stocker cows. We'll raise them through the summer and then have them butchered and sell the meat straight to customers, a food coop, and possibly, a local butcher.

This farm to table system is not as popular as it should be. I'm sure many people have heard about how the family farm is dying. It used to be that farmers would raise their cattle and then sell them to the processor who would butcher the cows and wrap them in plastic for the grocery store. With the advent of factory farming, a lot of small family farmers can't make money finishing cows in the traditional system. (Obviously, this is more complex than I make it sound here.)

Recently, we've been meeting farmers who are marketing directly to the customer. This does several things: a) cuts out the middle man, putting more money straight into the farmer's pocket b) allows customers "to know" their meat. (I haven't done a lot of reading on this yet, but apparently, meat that is raised organically is higher in Omega-3s than traditional meat.) This is ideal for smaller farmers, although we know people who have started a coop and are selling their meat together on a larger scale.

We're excited to get involved in this. This fall, we butchered five of our own beeves (an animal raised and slaughtered for beef), kept half a cow for meat (yummy, yummy), and sold the rest. It was exciting to finally get a taste (haha) of what farming could look like for us.

Check out Eat Wild if you want to find a farmer near you!

Dropping fast

So this morning which started out with such promise - a new blog, sunshine, etc. - has gone downhill alarmingly quickly. So downhill that I am now sitting with a spoon, peanut butter (the ground up peanut stuff) and certified organic fair trade chocolate chips.

I pay my bills online and did so today. Unfortunately, I sent the payment for my credit card to an old credit card that is no longer active. That means I now get to spend several hours phoning back and forth between my bank and the credit card company while my money floats along in outer space. ARGH! I hate it when I'm stupid

In farming news, my husband is perusing the Gencor catalogue and comparing Angus bulls' rates to a bull we're interested in buying. We're also trying to think of a name for our personal farm enterprise, but I haven't really had anything click. H is partial to bird names. Suggestions?