Early summer newsletter
lambs, goats, lavender, & fun with poopy duckwater
SHEEP & GOATS
Summer is here with hot humid weather and frequent rain storms! The grass is growing and the sheep are grazing.
We have rotational grazing groups on our land as well as on three nearby properties, for example this group of wily Jacobs wethers…
…and a big group of Shetland, Katahdin, and Shetahdin mamas and babies not far away.
We also have new goats in the family, including this Kiko buckling who is still awaiting a name...(suggestions?)…
Dependable mama Clarice had triplets (!) recently.
We were having dinner with some friends at the picnic tables near the goat paddock and Clarice decided to go into labor. It was an exciting evening! Two girls and a boy. All three kids are doing great.
Production is in full swing and we have a wide array of lamb and goat cuts available: leg and shoulder roasts, rib and loin chop medallions, kebab/stew meat packs and burger, ribs, shanks, bone pack for making broth, and organ meat. See our meat products page for ordering info.
We also have a variety of pork sausage, rabbit, duck and chicken eggs, a range of seasonal produce, and farm handicrafts (sheep wool pet beds!) and swag available. See our farm products pages for more detail.
LAVENDER
Our lavender harvest this June was about twice what we got in June 2024. Thankfully we had some great volunteers out to help with the harvest and making bundles.
Our lavender was a big hit at the Downtown Hickory Farmers’ Market Lavender Fest!
Through careful research we found that we can graze the sheep in the lavender fields and they will eat the grass but leave the lavender alone. This is a great way to stack functions and get multiple high value products out of one small plot of land. We’re planning to expand lavender production and offer additional services like seasonal photography (for weddings, engagements, etc.).
FUN WITH DUCKS & CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS
Our duck eggs have been another big hit at local farmers’ markets. But anybody who has raised ducks knows that they are messy. They poop everywhere! A lot! Especially in the water.
I’m actually grateful that they poop so much in their water tub, since I use the poopy duckwater to “fertigate” fruit trees and berry bushes and grape vines. For example, my pear saplings planted four years ago are loaded with fruit thanks in part to duck-poo fertility.
So the ducks are for fertilizer - the eggs are a bonus.
But I am always trying to find clever ways to get more out of our agroecosystems, and I can’t resist a try-it-and-see water project.
Here I have rigged up a 12 volt DC wastewater macerator pump (commonly used in RVs and marine applications) to suck up the poopy duckwater and pump it into a mini constructed wetland.
The pump is powered by the two PV panels shown in the photo above, and is controlled by a programmable DC controller unit wired up through the box on the wall.
I put a couple water hyacinth and water lettuce plants in the wetland tub a few weeks ago and they have started to multiply bigtime! (Note that these are invasive plants and so shouldn’t be used if there is a risk to a nearby water body).
The water hyacinth and water lettuce take up nutrients from the poopy duckwater. This partially cleans it before it flows by gravity back into the ducks’ water tub. Make-up water is supplied by gravity flow from rainwater tanks.
Ducks love to eat water hyacinth and water lettuce so I am using their wastewater nutrients to grow a portion of their food, thus cutting our feed costs.
I’m still working kinks out of the system to get it operating seamlessly. Once things are optimized and in steady-state I will do a water quality study to quantify how much actual improvement is happening.
Once I’m happy with everything I will do a detailed how-to write up and post it here in case people want to replicate or adapt the system.
HANDS IN THE SOIL
I had a moment to reflect while working one morning recently on all our hard work here over the past few years. This place was an overgrown wasteland/dump when we took over in 2020. Vision of the possibilities plus a lot of hard work are starting to pay off. While harvesting potatoes from our backyard kitchen garden recently I had a profound, almost spiritual experience of witnessing what it means to build soil, and by extension to build local resilience.
man, I don't know if this will be the right time, but if you don't name a goat Bertha Butt at some point, I'd say you're missing some kind of opportunity.