One year ago today, Matt and I bought the farm. I know that I’ve described the effort we have made to restore it, to revitalize it, to build a barn and some infrastructure and a life on it. Last night, I walked out to feed the calves one of their three daily feedings of milk. Continue reading “One Year on The Farm”
Category Archives: meat
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”
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”
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”
The “Shovel” Problem
Are Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) sheep hardy enough?
A Day about Pigs
We are having a little piggy-roast next weekend in honor of Matt…getting older, let’s say. We brought a live pig home last week. She was cute as could be – a 60lb gilt (young sow) with endearing eyes. She loved the apples and sheep grain I offered and would batt her long eyelashes atContinue reading “A Day about Pigs”
A Few Weeks In
We’re now a few weeks into living and working our new farm. Huge changes continue. We separated the ewes and the lambs again. This time, it’s so that we can breed the adults for January and February lambs and breed the ewe lambs to have babies in May, when their bodies will be more matureContinue reading “A Few Weeks In”
How to Evaluate a Potential Farm
I didn’t think it would be easy to find a farm. But I didn’t think it would be this hard, either! Matt and I have been looking at farms for over a year at this point. We know that we need about 50 open acres, and we just want a modest house. Our budget isContinue reading “How to Evaluate a Potential Farm”
The Problem with Sheep and Pickle
Matt and I are making steady progress in buying a property and establishing an enterprise on it. We have 25 more sheep reserved, we have found a property we are hoping to buy, and we have much of what we need to begin making hay as soon as we see some promising-looking land. ThereContinue reading “The Problem with Sheep and Pickle”
This Week in Review
Content Warning- Real Farming. If you’ve read my Facebook Page recently, you’d know that we had a really fabulous and successful lamb open house. My goal for the open house was to share the joys of lambing with the public, and I would say “Objective Achieved.” I’m committed to running this farm open-source, so thatContinue reading “This Week in Review”