Chicama Run Farm Blog

Many of you know we are currently hosting 2 kids from Northern Ireland.  It’s been a fun week honestly and it’s completely different than what we expected.  Ok - 2 - 11 year old boys is very interesting to say the least but what FUN it has been.  Even Joe stated he’d do this again because they seem to just slip right into life.  Now 1 is a city type kids - and the chickens and all that is new you can see on his face.  The 2nd one is just as fun to watch discover and see new things.

Well - we’ll see how much of the pumpkin patch gets done.  The BEST grass grew over last years patch.  Can’t grow grass this good anywhere else on the farm but Joe started plowing it all up yesterday.  We are just so late with everything that who knows how much will go in - but we will try and pull it together. 

At least the veggies are all coming up!  Tomatoes are coming in - peppers are coming in….. everything is coming up!!  What fun!!  And I can’t wait to make pickles - I miss the fresh dill pickles I made last year - I ended up selling them all and I had only I think 2 jars.

Well I was going to butcher chickens today - but it was raining when I woke up.  So it will have to be put off until later this week.  Hopefully we’ll have a full fridge by our “Farm Market Day”

I’m going to blog about this because I’m frustrated.  I received an email this morning in an almost threatening tone about our pigs.  I say threatening because they blocked my emails from getting to them!  So they didn’t give me a chance to respond.

Our pigs are ALL finished off on pasture period.  Yes, since our large blacks JUST gave birth for the 1st time our pork hasn’t been born here and I am completely open with that.  We had 7 piglets and hope next year to get more.

The last pigs we got were commercial hogs - weighing in at 175-200 pounds.  They come here and burn off 10-20 pounds pretty fast with all the running they do then they start to gain weight.  They are NEVER taken from the place we get them straight down to the butcher!  I don’t agree with that practice and it’s not what I sell PLAIN AND SIMPLE!! 

I guess what bugs me is that this person apparently talked to the person who raised these hogs up (that takes research) and even found out the weights of the pigs.   Then sends me an email asking about it - yet blocks me from responding.  Give me a break and grow up!  Plain and simple.

If you have an honest question - email it, call, whatever and then let me respond.  I don’t have anything to hide (or else why would I open my farm up to so many people so many times per year?!)

Ok that’s my quick 2 second rant for this morning.  I’ll write a positive email right after this because honestly this one just pushed a button when I couldn’t respond and I needed to get it out.  Poor Joe will have to listen to me in a few minutes as well.

Some of you know - most of you don’t (I don’t always share THAT much - well ok - I like to talk…. but still)  We are going through the Foster to Adopt program in Loudoun County.  We are looking to adopt another child or 2 (or 3) that has been in the foster system and for whatever reason their birth parents have given up their parental rights.  We started classes yesterday.  There are 27 HOURS of these classes to teach us what to expect.

Besides being the “oh what a great thing..” to “you all are nuts….” it’s still an interesting process and amazing that there are this many children waiting EVEN IN RICH LOUDOUN COUNTY!!  It’s truly eye opening once you realize how many kids are in “the system”.

As a mom though - I want to save all the children.  It’s the reason (as bad as this may sound) I’m no longer allowed by Joe to go to the pound - why? Because I will adopt an animal.  It’s a given 99% of the time (hello?  Look at the farm……. we were just going to have 25 chickens and 6 llamas!!  I promised!!)  This program pulls at every string in my body to help them and in addition - because of all the paperwork, wouldn’t it just be easier to have my own baby? 

No, I wasn’t meant to have more children.  I had 2 rough pregancies and I won’t put myself back through that (even though I am 20+ pound LIGHTER than when I got pregs with Jacob).  Plus, I was adopted as an infant - and was given a dang good life.  I want to be able to give that to someone else - that’s just plain and simple.

If you ever wanted to just LOOK to see how many children are available IN THE UNITED STATES - just visit http://www.adoptuskids.org  You can even refine it to Virginia if you want and be prepared to have your heart strings pulled - even Joe’s were yesterday when he actually LOOKED at the site.

Now I will pass on (because I never would have learned about it if someone didn’t tell ME) the information for Loudoun County.  Bet you didn’t know they need more foster homes and adoptive homes?  Did you know the classes are FREE to go through and you aren’t REQUIRED to do anything if you pass them?  Also did you know they will search OUT OF STATE if they don’t find someone in Virginia for you?  http://loudoun.vhost.vipnet.org/services/foster.htm  At the bottom Francie’s email address is wrong - just add an ‘e’ to the end of it BEFORE the @ sign.   My soap-box remark…. maybe look into adopting the kids in the US before looking overseas - there are plenty available and in need - of ALL ages.

So there has been a good discussion going on about what is pasture-raised on a regional “Heritage Farming” email group I belong to….  It started out as figuring out hay issues for winter…. then moved into the what is pasture-raised…  It’s funny how it seems to depend on the person and their actual farm.  I’m just going to share my last couple of posts which might get you thinking as well.

“We raise up broilers - the cornish crosses.  They are the LAZIEST birds and NASTIEST things we raise.  And as much as I respect Salatin, I don’t think a tractor is appropriate for them.  My reason behind this is that they will not move - period.  I raise mine behind a portable electric fence.  They have to go to the coop at night and come outside to eat or drink - they have to WALK.  Mine take 10-12 weeks to get to the same size one in a tractor does in 6-8 weeks because they actually get exercise.  If I put the food closer to the coop - they would walk that far and then stop and never get up the rest of the day.  So my thinking is that if you have a bunch in a tractor with food & water right there and they only have to walk each day you move the pen - how can that be healthy for them?

Ok - that’s just my opinion once again.  I know I can start a WHOLE argument on this one and debating - but it’s just something that popped into my head when I was reading your post.”

“For the large black we have - they don’t seem to root up a ton - and the 1/4 an acre (it may be more - I have no idea) is perfect.  They run, play and all have their “own” space to get away it seems. 

I think it depends on your pasture.  I run 100-150 birds in 1 Premier fence (164′)….. HOWEVER the grass is VERY long this year down by that pen to the point we have to mow it because we lost some “in the jungle” of the grass.  Now last year - the same amount of birds were behind 2 fences.  Oh and the 10 ducks are back there too and a neighbor threw a hen with her chicks in that coop as well - LOL. 

So I think it depends on YOUR farm and YOUR pasture.  We are running 3 groups of hogs BESIDES our own.  But a group may only mean 1-2 and up to 5.

The taste doesn’t change in my opinion with the cornish UNTIL it is a HUGE bird - then it seems to lose flavor.  I think DRESSED they are perfect at 3-5 lbs.  I have some “meat makers” from Mt healthy that I am experimenting with because of health issues.  I’m just not sure.  My problem is time.  I have been 3 weeks without chicken because of losses due to the flood and it’s killing me.  It’s about $200-300 I am losing per week because of no chicken sales.

Mine are more pastured I guess you can say.  In an effort to stay neutral with most people I will say that they just get more exercise than one in a tractor (as I watch 5 try and catch a bug….. and the DUCKS win!)  And I do think it makes a difference on taste and quality - but I’m not sure the direction - if that makes sense.  We had a 4lbs birds for dinner one night and my husband thought it was the best we had done so far.  But then the 5lb one - he wasn’t thrilled with. 

Now I AM finding that the birds from Mt Healthy vs Moyers seem to take longer to grow in general (Cornish X’s) so I’m waiting to see how their health issues are - so far NO losses of them at all this go around (last time they got flooded and nothing I could do about that so it didn’t work as a test run). 

I’m finidng this an experimental year with maybe some changes next season.  I like the meat makers from Mt Healthy (heavy breed males) but I’m not sure how long they will take and that can be an issue - but then if I ran soemthing like that VS the cornish I would just need to plan differently - but the price is right up my alley ($30 for 100 birds or I think it was $32 for 200 of a different type!)”

The farming experiment continues…..

I received an email this morning - and I wanted to share it and my response so that hopefully everyone will understand what is going on.  I HATE increasing prices and I always feel guilty when we do.  But we do make the animals pay for themselves - we aren’t in this to get rich.

“I love your products and have supported you right along the way–as I do most of the local folks…

I’m truly worried that you are going to out price everyone else.  I know that prices are going up, really I understand that, but I can still get free range organic eggs locally for 3.50 a dozen.  Why should I keep supporting you when you are raising your prices so quickly, way faster than others?  I truly want to be able to support you and your farm but you are soon going to be out of my reach…

Thanks for listening.”

“thank you so much for your email.  At a lot of other markets in the area  INCLUDING Leesburg, eggs are now selling for $5.00 a dozen (Potomac Vegetable Farm had them this past week at $5).  I wish it could be less.  I was actually at Bloom the other day and regular (non-organic) Bloom Brown Eggs were $3.00 a dozen.  So it is affecting everyone down to the commercial producers.  During this time of year with the heat as well production does go down instead of going up.  We get about 5-10 dozen LESS eggs per day than we did 2 months ago.  It hurts us all, especially when feed prices went from $9.20 a bag to over $11 and I buy it by the ton.  As everything goes up - food prices are going to do the same.   3 years ago our eggs were $2 a dozen - a bag of feed was $5.00.  I wish I could keep it down which is why we are only raising it by 50¢ and watching closely our feed prices and trying to get it to stay at $4.50, but we do like to warn our customers what is happening and we like to be upfront. 

I hope this helps you understand that we aren’t “out to raise prices” because we want extra money - it is because we have to account for the raising cost of feed for the animals and the only thing I ask of my animals is for them to pay for themselves.”

Now I have seen eggs for $3.50 a dozen and usually they are people with just a few chickens doing it as a hobby - and if I was buying 1-2 bags of feed a week I could get away with that too.  We have 800 that need to be fed.   We also have the expense of not reusing egg cartons.  I know it’s goofy, but actually it is illegal to reuse egg cartons in Virginia.  Since we sell almost 150 dozen a week, we want to stay safe and protect our farm from all legal probing.  I’m not going to risk everything we have worked for in the last 3 years over an egg carton :) 

And as a small boast - there is a reason our eggs sell out every week and you have to get to the market before 9:30am if you want them (and we have been bringing over 50 dozen a week right now).

We run the numbers on everything EVERY time we get something done.  Butcher a steer - we run numbers to make sure no price changes need to be made.  Same thing with a pig.  Now for chickens - we do it when we get the feed bill and we see how many dozen we have been getting each day and how much feed we use.  It’s a cycle and we go with it.  If feed goes back down - we adjust accordingly (feed gets delivered this Thursday and we’ll see). 

We hope not to lose too much business from the 50¢ increase.  But we know that everyone’s pockets are tight - including ours (imagine $4.75 a gallon for diesel to run the tractor! not to mention $130+ to fill up my truck which is taken to every market and is used to transport the animals to the butcher!).

So remember we don’t increase prices because we WANT to, it’s so that we can even out our costs plain and simple.

It’s honestly amazing how fast the Spring moves through.  We had an awesome time at the Spring Farm tour with probably 1000+ people visiting us over the weekend!

Joe finally got some plants in the ground this past week.  I have started butchering chickens here and the kids have been done with school and are actually asking for more school work (we’ve had 3-4 weeks off already).

I just want to brag for a minute.  I’m not the sewing type.  Never really learned besides the basics - and not for lack of my mother’s trying…. but today I made a sundress for my daughter and I whipped it right up thanks to a friend of mine telling my they have fabric already with the elastic in the top.  Hey I can do 2 seams!  So here it is - my 30 minute sun dress for my daughter :)  I also made her a “baby doll” shirt and the extra pieces went towards putting real clothing on the Bratz dolls she has.

See I actually made something!  Ain’t it cute???  Yep I like to brag if I do something never done before.

Well need to go - it’s about time to gather eggs

I’ll start off with the large black hogs.  We took in 2 last week to be butchered (our 2 smaller boars since we had 3).  Last night came home with all the meat and I was curious about the taste and a little worried - some people swear by what is called “boar taint” and since our boys were intact (still boars instead of barrows) I wanted to make sure they didn’t taste funny.

Well I will tell it quite simply - the pork chops were some of the best tasting I have EVER had!  It tasted like PORK!!  I know - look at me funny all you want but it had a stronger pork taste.  I am hoping that all the items have this wonderful taste and I will be sad when it goes away.  We finally got to try bacon as well and again LOVED it!  More of a meat taste than the stuff we have had previously.

Don’t get me wrong - I will never go back to store bought pork as long as I have hogs available to me - it’s a totally different taste.  But in the past we have always had traditional/commerical crossed hogs which are bred to gain size faster than the heritage meat.  I love that meat - and I am a sausage nut, but this pork topped everything we have had - INCLUDING our Berkshire hogs in my opinion.  The meat is a little darker in color which makes you think “off” at first but it was incredible. 

So if you want to reserve a heritage hog - definitely wait until we have more of these as they are yummy!

I’ll stop bragging and ravign about this meat for a minute and move on to cell phones with the kids.

This week I took the kids into a Verizon store to get them cell phones.  Now, 1st things 1st - THEY pay for them.  That’s right!  With the llama beans they sell at the market starting this week and Jacob works for me at the market on Saturdays they earn enough to pay for their service.  They have NO text messaging, NO web access, and on top of that I have to put in the contact information of everyone I ALLOW them to call and to call them.  What a great feature as it is wonderful that most people we know have Verizon and it won’t cost them minutes to call them.  But man I can’t wait until the novelty of these things wears off!!  They call each other constantly and call me for goofy stuff.

Good thing they start school work next week.  We got the books in this past week and I am SOOOO ready for them to start up again.  We are doing the curriculum from Rod & Staff.  It’s a Christian curriculum and looks to be awesome.  It’s a lot more involved than what they did last year and I am excited about that.   They both completed last years work and tested just fine (right at average to just about above average).  Jacob is in 6th grade with 7th grade math… and Alexis is in 3rd grade all across the board.  I hope over the summer that we will breeze through some of it (social studies doesn’t look too hard for either of them)  The curriculum looks a lot more traditional in nature - hardback school books and having the assignments written on notebook paper.  It also seems a lot more complete than what we did last year.

We shall see - my patience is running thin at the moment with everything that is going on with the farm and family life.  Putting priorities in order is REALLY needed and something I truly need to think and work out some days.

Well today we went to church.  It’s been awhile and I really think it’s needed.  So I did my research to try and find a church that can combine my thoughts/views with some of Joe’s (he was raised Catholic and I was raised Methodist) so I was looking for a traditional service + (very important) a good kids program.  I wanted something established that wasn’t going anywhere.  I found on the internet a church that seemed to match what we are looking for.  It listed Sunday service at 10am - hey we can make that!!  Because Joe works until some unknown hour on Saturday nights I wanted one a little later, plus we do have chores to do in the morning.

So here’s our adventure…… we get to the church about 10 minute before the service is supposed to start….. the place had a TON of cars yet it looked like a small church.  There is NO noise!!  I mean dead quiet out there.  It was a little freaky to say the least.  1st building…. no one there…. 2nd one (actual church) it’s very very quiet so I open the door and it’s THE END of the service or at least close to it!  The pastor stops the service so we can find seating…. 10 minutes later…. fellowship time!!

 Ok - it was just a special weekend where they combine the early and later service together and it happens only about 4 times per year.  The people where extremely friendly and I’m sure we made quite a 1st impression!  We promise to get there on time next week.  I am hopeful about this church as we felt welcome and it was a good mix of people - young and old.  Fingers crossed!

On to other stuff - the kids finished their school year!  They tested and apparently I did not ruin them as they tested in the dead middle.  So we are gearing up to start their next year of schooling since we do this year round.  I plan on taking a different approach to it this year as I honestly felt it was a “warm-up” year and get used to mom being the teacher.  It’s still a learning process for both myself and the kids but I think we are trudging along pretty well - though I must admit we have our moments!

Farm life is taking off - and of course it is since it’s Spring!  We are now getting 220 eggs PER DAY and had 300 more laying hens delivered and they haven’t even started laying yet!  Soon we will be getting about 350 eggs PER DAY - WHEW!  Joe installed a dis washer in the garage so I can wash eggs out there.   I know what you are thinking “Dish Washer???” Well on the rinse cycle - no detergent - in 6 minutes it can rinse off about 7 dozen eggs in warm water!  That totally saves my hands and now since it is seperate from the inside one - I can wash dishes more often without having to worry about needing to wash eggs.

We are now supplying Tuscorora Mill & South Street Bakery with 15 dozen eggs each per week which is exciting to have our product in stores.  Then Whole Foods contacted us this past week making it even more exciting - THEN a little specialty grocer is interested also!  Things are looking up for us which is great.  

I will be at the Leesburg Market and Lovettsville Market this year - and Jacob will be helping me in Leesburg on Saturday mornings.  It should be fun and busy!!  It will be nice having help - and he’s learning the cash register so I don’t have to be the only one knowing how to operate it on the Spring Farm Tour as well!

Time to wash and package up eggs to deliver tomorrow!

What an incredible day outside.  Why am I stuck inside no matter what I try to do?  Besides working on the website, getting stuff ready to sell at the market, and so much more - I just can’t seem to get organized enough to get outside and stay there!

Joe is out doing fencing - the pigs broke out the other evening and luckily we caught them and got everyone (including our big sheep and the llama) back in the field for the night.  That was fun (not).

Kids are playing down by the creek - so at least they are outside.  No computers on days like today!  We are even planning on cooking out and having burgers.  YUM.

This is the time of year stress starts kicking in because we can get so busy.  It’s why we need a break in the winter time, yet we don’t seem to be getting one at anytime.  I tried to take a weekend off and it didn’t happen - we needed the money to pay for stuff that had to be ordered so I needed to get to the market.  It’s funny, most people don’t realize how expensive it is to farm. 

Want to know why your eggs are $4/dozen instead of $2/dozen which is what I was charging 2 years ago?  Feed went up from $7 per 50 lb bag to about $11 a bag - and that’s only if you get it a ton at a time!  Need fencing?  I don’t even want to get into that pricing!  Chickens themselves start out at $1.25 each including shipping.  Heck and to stay natural without all the chemicals including fertilizers - it’s a $5 per bag difference.

Is it worth it?  Some days yes - some days I would really rather be out on a cruise ship sitting by the pool being waited on by some cute pool guy :)  But on the whole, I wouldn’t trade it in.  It’s fun, it’s active, and it’s actually something that is fun to watch grow no matter how much work goes into it.   But honestly, if you were to ask me today if I would have done the same thing if I were to do it over - I’m not sure what my answer would be.  I wouldn’t trade the land in for anything - I love all the space we have.  Would I have my little ark of animals?  I’m not sure if I would have expanded it this much.  I think now I would love to stream-line it but not sure where I would do that. 

I know it sounda like pouting and a little regret.  But somedays it’s like that, most days it’s not.  I think about it more as I do the taxes for last year and SEE where all the money went.  It’s scary!  No wonder not many people want to strive to be farmers.

Oh well - off to be back outside and help Joe do something.   Then it’s on to the next thing