I had my goods for sale at Montpelier for the first time yesterday. I still have a lot to learn about effectively selling my goods. Don’t forget your tent! The market was on Saturday morning. On Friday evening that I realized that my pop-up tent was 150 miles away in Keene, NH with my parents. Continue reading “Lessons from the Farmers Market”
Category Archives: economics
The Scary Part
There is a point in starting your small business where you realize that you are all-in. You have a bunch of money all tied up with processors like butchers and yarn mills, and you wait for your product to come back. This is a tale of three products. On the bright side – The firstContinue reading “The Scary Part”
Looking Under the Hood
This post is going to be about meat and finances. If you are mostly here for the cute lambs, that’s totally cool, of course, but this post doesn’t have any of those. We will be back to our regularly-scheduled programming next post. *** We are excited to announce that we will be having lamb sausageContinue reading “Looking Under the Hood”
More Goodbyes
Many of you who follow this blog know that Caseous Lymphadenitis has been an issue in the flock in the past. After an aggressive eradication campaign, the whole flock tested negative in March. However, my last CormoX ewe, Meadowlark, developed a very large and very concerning abscess on her cheek last week. Even though sheContinue reading “More Goodbyes”
Fertility
We bought our farm as a foreclosure, for those who may not remember from last year. Some of the fields had been grazed by a pair of horses, and other areas were hayed for a few years. As best we can tell, no inputs were added because after we took a cut in late July,Continue reading “Fertility”
Wool Culture
I am a frequenter of Ravelry, a knitters’ and crocheters’ forum with 7 million users worldwide. I have a favorite group with a mostly social focus that I like to participate in, but I also read other discussions to keep tabs on what people want from their wool products. I want to make sure IContinue reading “Wool Culture”
Pork and Soybeans
Talk of trade wars in the news gave me some thoughts. I’m not going to wade into politics, but I will wade into farming. Given their intelligent, social nature, I feel comfortable saying that pigs are some of the most abused animals in factory farming. According to a recent article in Civil Eats, 75% ofContinue reading “Pork and Soybeans”
Ode to a Truck
For five years, I have been driving a 2003 Tacoma 4×4 V6 with a series of terrible truckcaps. We bought a truck in 2013 when we accepted the fact that we needed to stop putting livestock in our Nissan Versa. Those of you who know me in person or who meet me should askContinue reading “Ode to a Truck”
Animal Welfare Approved
Cloverworks Farm is pleased to announce that our farm is now Animal Welfare Approved! We are excited to join the program and proud that we’ve been able to meet their requirements. We were granted a derogation to continue long-docking tails for breeding ewes. It feels good to have recognition of our humane efforts in notContinue reading “Animal Welfare Approved”
Conferences
I don’t know why I don’t like conferences. Maybe I’ve been to too many with poorly-trained presenters, or too many that are barely 60% relevant to what I am doing or want to be doing, or maybe it’s just the tables and the notepads and the boring small-talk. The Vermont Grass Farmers Association Conference isContinue reading “Conferences”