2023 second quarter newsletter
rotational grazing kicks into high gear; farmers' market redux; pig area gets repairs and revamped; rabbits galore!; Elijah's active lifestyle
A late afternoon in early June…
Rotational grazing season kicked off in late April, along with our first foray into retail meat sales at the downtown Hickory Farmers’ Market. We have started with selling pork and lamb, as a kind of experiment to discover a niche (or niches) that our farm could fill in the local food economy.
After eleven Wednesday markets and two Saturday markets, here’s the breakdown:
Hickory Farmers’ Market sales of packaged retail cuts April 19 - June 28, 2023. Pork shown in blue, lamb in green.
On a mass basis, we have sold similar quantities of pork and lamb (52% pork, 48% lamb, by mass).
Since lamb sells for more than pork, we have made about 58% of our gross income from lamb sales versus around 42% for pork.
Not surprisingly, lamb burger (ground lamb) and pork country sausage have been pretty popular.
Milhouse (left) and Jessie snouts-down in a regenerated pig forage paddock.
Pig area repair
We finally got the fallen tree cut up and the damaged fencing and gates removed; repaired the fence, built a new gate, rehabbed the farrowing pen, cleaned and reoriented the rainwater tanks, sowed forage seed and rejuvenated the front cell of the pig area.
Christmas Eve, 2022
April 2023
June 2023
And none too soon as our sow, Jessie, is due for piglets sometime in July or August!
Videos & a podcast
A few short video clips depicting our rotational grazing operation for sheep and goats.
a bucolic start to the 2023 rotational grazing season (late April)…
What to do when your wife brings home a pickup truck load of Jacobs lambs gifted to us from another farm? Train ‘em to the electric fence!
And then introduce them to the rest of the flock!
morning rounds checking on the sheep and goats (mid June)…
Here’s a podcast interview I did with my friend and collaborator Jeff Paine. Jeff and his wife Mel run Austin, TX based Break It Down, a food waste hauling, resource recovery, and composting business.
From the podcast blurb:
Formed in 2009 out of the couples’ rented duplex to provide a yoga studio, a coffee shop, and a juice bar with a way to steer their compostable waste away from the landfill and into something ecologically friendly, Break-It-Down has grown into business serving around 800 clients in the greater Austin area, and as far south as San Antonio and as far north as Waco.
In this conversation, Jeff and Josh sketch the history of Break-It-Down, the challenges they have faced, the successes they’ve attained, the quirks, the headaches, the lessons learned, and the creativity that goes into their innovative R&D processes for figuring out better things to do with food waste than entombing it in a landfill. In their schema, composting is the lowest rung on the resource recovery ladder. Their current food waste up-cycling repertoire includes high-end dog food and treats, and nutrient rich bonemeal fertilizer for gardeners and landscapers.
In this wide-ranging convo Jeff and Josh talk about the advantages and disadvantages of an academic path in life compared with on-the-job-training earned from developing a small business. And they talk about how this affects Jeff and Mel’s philosophy as parents, in particular how it informs their non-traditional approach to schooling for their two sons.
So many rabbits!
In late May Magda gave birth to about a dozen babies.
Here are a few, just a few hours old…
Four-to-five days old…
A week old…
Ten to eleven days old…
One month old…
Elijah activities
Elijah turned seven months old at the end of June. He is growing and developing so fast! He has tried, and liked, a lot of new foods. He says “Ma-Ma” and is soooooo close to saying “Da-Da.”
He’s becoming more active and interactive every day. He often comes with us on evening rounds to check on the animals and garden. I’ve been taking him for rides in the bike trailer, and he has made his swimsuit debut at our local YMCA pool!
Keep in touch, and please come visit!
Elijah looks pretty happy!
I think we could do with a few more photos of those baby rabbits though.
And if I was in your area I would have hopefully helped with the lamb chops sales... when I was looking at that breakdown, I am a bit surprised to see mince do so well, it’s something I’ve always been wary of!
Farms looking great!