JERICHO SETTLERS FARM

Why we love working with Healthy Living Market

2010-11-11T20:57:00.000-05:00

This story by Love Tomorrow Today tells it all...

Hug Your Farmer! from lovetomorrowtoday on Vimeo.

Look at those Leeks!

2010-10-29T02:17:00.000-04:00

And one happy parsnip picker!

The Richmond Elementary school kids came down to our leased farm in Richmond Village to harvest Leeks and Parsnips for their school lunch program. Always good to get kids and parents on the farm to see where their food can come from. In this case - right out their back doors on a village farm!

To see more pics go to our Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerichofarm/

Montreal Sausage Trip

2010-06-22T23:33:00.000-04:00

Spent the day researching sausages up in Montreal. The goal is to produce some incredible sausages from our meats. We perused 3 different locations in Montreal: Marche Jean Talon, Little Italy and Marche Atwater.

Here are some pics of the day!

Poor Farmers Pallet Potato Planter

2010-05-12T22:25:00.000-04:00

Works Great!

Birthday Boy!

2010-05-04T21:40:00.000-04:00

Asa turned the Big 5 today! Here he is relaxing at camp with his littler sister Hazel who turned 5 months.

We got off the farm for the past few weekends to enjoy the nice weather up in the Northeast Kingdom, where Christa's folks have a camp on a lovely lake. We slept in, ate great food, canoed, played games, read books... started to feel like regular folk for a change!

Busy Spring!

2010-04-22T20:18:00.000-04:00

The farm animals are generating offspring...

and the Farm Crew is laboring in the fields!

We couldn't farm very well without them.

Eating out of the backyard

2010-04-11T06:26:00.000-04:00

Our patch of wild leeks out in a wooded section of our backyard. The gastronomical possibilities are mind boggling!

Washed and cleaned ready for eating...

The result... sauteed wild leeks in red wine and balsamic vinegar, mesclun from the hoophouse, our farm's 100% grassfed beef, Does Leap Farm Caprella.

Beverage: raw milk, local wine or homebrew.

Ironman

2010-04-09T06:53:00.000-04:00

Giroux Body Shop - a farmer's friend! These guys are great, if i have a thorny issue with some farm machinery or equipment I take it to them. Countless times I have taken a photo of another farmers piece of equipment and had them build it for me. Or I come up with an idea on a piece of scrap paper and Steve fine tunes the drawing and specs before building.

Here they are at some of the machines they use to fabricate metal parts and pieces. I bought a 6 ft section of square steel tubing as a tool bar for one of the farm implements. A tool bar is just that, a bar that you add various farming tools to such as: cultivator shovels, disc hillers, etc.

My imagination and pocketbook are the only limiting factors with these great folks in the next town over (Hinesburg, Vermont).

Other Farmers Iron

2010-04-07T02:38:00.000-04:00

I have a fondness for Farmers Iron. There I've said it and I am not ashamed!

My favorite iron pile is at my neighbor Ed's dairy farm down the road. I have bought my share of iron from him over the years, and have never been disappointed.

The coolest piece of iron he has is a rock picker, made in Montana! I could use it on the home farm which consists of Peru Stony Loam (emphasis on stony). The other land we lease has few if any rocks on it and most of the veggies are grown there.

I took a friend up today to see Ed's rock picker in the pouring rain. It was decided that it was too much iron for his small rocky plot.

Later in the day after making deliveries to Burlington stores, I stopped off at the Intervale to chat with Thomas of Arethusa Collective Farm about tractors (of course). He showed me the beautiful Allis Chalmers Gleaner Combine he purchased last year from a farmer down in Addison County. Thomas uses it for beans and harvesting seed from cover crops grown on their organic farm.

Spring has Sprung!

2010-03-31T22:13:00.001-04:00

Some photos of Spring!

Annual sheep shearing with Sally's sheepdog keeping the crew in check!

Asa enjoying some Sugar on Snow (with a pickle) at a sugarhouse in Huntington, Vermont.

Seeded Transplants are up in the greenhouse and ready for the field hoophouse.

How to get a "G" home

2010-03-25T22:31:00.001-04:00

Picked up an Allis Chalmers "G" cultivating tractor today in Brookfield, Vermont. I bought it in the fall from an old dairy farmer who runs a sizeable dairy operation (look at his JD corn harvester). He saw it on a trip in the southern states and had to have it. That was about 4 years ago and he found that he doesn't use it much anymore.

So after dropping off 15 lambs this morning for slaughter, I headed with the livestock trailer to pick up the "G". I was taking a chance on whether it would fit in the livestock trailer, but I remember it having the wheels on the narrowest setting. It was a squeeze, but it fit in just fine and was easier to fasten down than on a flat bed trailer.

This "G" might be going to a vegetable farmer in Burlington who has been on the lookout for one. Its gone already!

Early Spring!

2010-03-17T21:30:00.000-04:00

We have had some beautiful weather this last week...40s, 50s and 60s for the weekend. Lots going on around the farm. The laying hens are roaming on the vegetable fields adjacent to the hoophouse, they are going crazy for the worms and greens. Lots of planting going on in the hoophouses, put in some early potatoes today. Spinach is taking off in the hoophouses, as is the fall garlic planting. Many seeds being planted in the greenhouse for future transplants.

The pigs are enjoying the sunshine lolling around their round bales of hay and digging deep for worms. Mostly they just sleep in the warm sunshine.

Don't know how long this will last....but its nice while its here!

Beer or Eggs

2010-03-08T04:28:00.003-05:00

When I gave a workshop at the Vermont NOFA Winter Conference on our winter production of eggs and mentioned what we sell a dozen eggs for, quite a few folks gasped at the price ($5.00 a doz at the Farmers Markets). They said they could never sell eggs from their farms for that price. I suggested they ask their customers what they pay for a 6 or 12 pack of beer (it will likely be more than a dozen local eggs). Then point out to the customer all of the things they can use those eggs for: baking, scramble, sunnyside up, poached, hard boil, egg salad sandwich, pound cake, omelet, pancakes, waffles, deviled eggs....

Those local eggs are better for you than beer, and you don't need to show ID to purchase them!

For more egg related info from our farm, check out a recent Burlington Free Press article about our winter egg production.

Cheers!

christa and asa drawing lambs

2010-02-21T20:21:00.001-05:00

christa and asa drawing lambs
Originally uploaded by Jericho Settlers Farm

Here is a great photo of Christa and Asa on the pasture at The Barber Farm land we lease in June of 2009. Christa is drawing some pictures of the mother ewes and their lambs. Spring 2010 will be here before you know it!

January Thaw!

2010-01-28T22:26:00.003-05:00

Let me tell you about the wind! It howls around these parts when the weather warms up. We had our "January Thaw" and 3 ft of snow disappeared in a few days. Of course the warm southerly winds made a mess of things to.

When I drove up to our leased farm to feed the cattle, I noticed something didn't look quite right down the pasture road. So I drove down aways and there was our egg mobile turned upside down! Luckily the laying hens are on the home farm in the hoophouse for the winter.

I get to add another item to the list of things to do on the farm this spring!

Winter feeding of our beef herd

2010-01-19T21:06:00.003-05:00

Winter feeding
Originally uploaded by Jericho Settlers Farm

Guess what our cattle eat in the winter time?

Hay, minerals and water.

Here is a photo of some of the calves from this summer bellying up to the bale. This was during early January with nearly 3 feet of snow on the ground!

Hoophouses in Winter

2010-01-17T23:33:00.002-05:00

Hoophouses in Winter
Originally uploaded by Jericho Settlers Farm

We received around 2 1/2 feet of snow in early January, on top of another earlier foot of snow. As you can see the two field hoophouses are fairly well covered. We shovel snow from the sides and knock off snow from the roof so we can get some light for the greens growing inside. Our Winter CSA members got some great sweet spinach in the mid January Share!

New Hoophouse

2009-12-04T01:33:00.008-05:00

We finally finished putting up a large 30ft wide by 140ft long hoophouse for the winter laying flock of 800 layers. They have been out on pasture until now. The will spend the winter roaming around in the hoophouse adding fertility for next springs vegetable crops.

Thanks to Charlie, Matt and Steve for putting in the groundposts.

Thanks to Adam and Matt our trusty farm hands for building the house and for braving the winds while putting the plastic on!

Thanks to Ed Persons of Ledgewood Farm for making incredible hoophouse frames and providing excellent service!

Happy Birthday Hazel & Christa

2009-11-22T07:24:00.003-05:00

How Vermont Farmers prepare for having a baby:

1: Wash carrots for CSA, 12 hours before birth.

2: Make Poppy Streudel 10 hours before birth.

3: Have a healthy baby girl at 4am on your Birthday!

Happy Birthday Hazel and Christa!!

Everyone is healthy and happy. Come by and see the new addition to the farm at the December Winter CSA pickup.

Shearing Sheep

2009-04-01T21:55:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago, Jim and Liz came by to shear our small flock of Montadale Sheep. As luck would have it, it was cold and spitting snow. We moved the operation into the tent were the gilts had farrowed their piglets. The piglets have been weaned and you can see them in the background checking out the operation.

Liz and Jim put on leather soled slippers and work on a piece of plywood, that allows them to keep their footing as the move the sheep around to shear and hoof trim. They worked fast and efficiently.

They look a bit scrawny after getting sheared. Jim says they look great for grassfed ewes getting ready to lamb by mid May!

Check out the video at the bottom!

Vermont Raw Milk

2009-03-22T20:25:00.004-04:00

Our friend Adam runs Essex Creamery in Essex, Vermont. He lives on an apple orchard, bakes incredible bread that he sells at the Farmers Markets, and milks 4 Jerseys for Raw Milk that he sells from the farm. He feeds them high quality hay in the winter and pastures them during the summer.

This is the milk I remember growing up on. I milked (by hand) a Guernsey-Jersey cross that we called "Cookie". The milk was rich, golden, creamy and sweet! Exactly what Adam's cows produce.

If you have not tried raw milk you owe it to yourself. It is unbelievable and unadulterated! You can skim the cream off to make butter or yogurt, or you can just drink it right off the top like I do. I always fight for first pour at our house!

If you are in the Burlington, VT area give Adam a call (802) 922-2808, and see if he has any milk left to sell! For more information on raw milk go here.

Winter Farmers Market

2009-03-15T08:17:00.002-04:00

Christa helping a customer at the Williston Farmers Market yesterday. We had plenty of potatoes (Green Mountain, Keuka Gold, German Butterball) and crisp, juicy carrots.

Our Pasture Raised Pork and 100% Grassfed Beef sold well as did our eggs from Free Range Hens.

We even managed to sign up a few families to our Summer CSA!

Its always good to see folks come out and support local farmers and crafters. We will be back for the last winter market in Williston on April 11th. The next Burlington Winter Farmers Market is March 21 at the Memorial Auditorium. If you have not made it - go it is a great event!

Soap Making

2009-03-07T06:53:00.007-05:00

Our good friends Mari and Laura came over and helped us make some soap!

We have a lot of pork and beef fat in our freezers and thought we might have a go of turning fat into soap!

If the soap comes out well we may even sell some in the future.

Thanks Mari and Laura for teaching and guiding us in the fine art of soap making! Visit the BLOG about their beautiful Vermont farm.

Meals from the Farm

2009-02-25T22:56:00.002-05:00

Here is a local meal that is cheaper than going out to a restuarant!

100% grassfed lamb chops
roasted fingerling potatoes
winter carrots
goat cheese from a neighboring farm
glass of raw milk

All raised on our farm, except the dairy products which are from neighboring farms.

What a delicious, nutritious, local meal. Folks you can eat like this every day year round, cheaper than you can shop at the store or go out to restuarants!

Find your local farmers and support them - they are growing great food for you and your family!

Columbia River Sturgeon

2009-02-21T22:07:00.003-05:00

Here is a video of a Columbia River Sturgeon (White Sturgeon) at the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River of Oregon/Washington.

This species of sturgeon can reach up to 12 ft and weight 1000+ pounds!

A week away

2009-02-21T21:57:00.006-05:00

We got off the farm for a week to visit friends and family in Washington State. Here are some photos to prove we actually were not on the farm!

Asa's Tractor Build

2009-02-04T23:04:00.002-05:00

Asa is making some pretty cool things with his LEGO parts. He made this the other day - a nice 2WD tractor!

Farm videos on YouTube

2009-02-04T22:52:00.003-05:00

We have some videos up on our YouTube channel for those folks that can't make it out to the farm, but are curious about how we farm.

Our YouTube channel is http://youtube.com/user/jerichovtfarmer

Summer-Fall Photos 2008

2008-11-12T22:30:00.011-05:00

Another Busy Summer and Fall with no time to post to the farm blog. So here is an update in photos of what we have been doing!

Happy 3rd Birthday Asa!

2008-05-04T21:41:00.003-04:00

Asa celebrated his 3rd Birthday today!!

He got some Thomas trains and a Roundhouse to store put them in.

Then he got a handmade toybox (red box on right) that his papa & mama made for him. Lets see if he can use it to house his toys!

Piglets & Pasture

2008-05-04T21:22:00.008-04:00

Some friends came by today to buy some piglets that they will raise for food. Their kids really enjoyed watching us catch those fast piglets!

Kris takes a piglet while her little boy looks on. He seems pleased!

The two piglets are in a crate for the ride home. They have a nice big place to run around when they get to their new home.

The market pigs are on some lush new pasture - boy do they like it! They graze for a while before they start rooting.

Here is some video of the pigs eating grass - in case you don't believe that they do!

Farming starts with a "G"

2008-04-28T05:52:00.005-04:00

Christa on a new (0ld) farm tractor: the Allis Chalmers G cultivating tractor. Only about 30,000 of these were built for market gardens from mid 1940s to mid 1950s. These are great tractors with the tools mounted on the "belly" of the beast. In the photo is a basket weeder on a tool bar which is ground driven and has bent hoops that turn up the soil between the plants. You can add other tools such as a seeder, disc hillers, and of cultivating shovels. This G has a manual lift seen just to the left of Christa's head. You pull down on the lever to lift up the belly mounted tool, either to fine tune the depth you want it to work at, or to get it out of the way when heading out of the field.

This is a gas powered tractor that we may one day convert to run on electric. We liberated this tractor and a nice mix of implements (seeders, cultivating shovels, plow, disc hillers) from Canada last fall. The other G we found about 15 miles away - it resides at a farm we are leasing a few miles down the road.

Here is a shot of the "G" heading down the field. You can see the narrow tires straddling the seed bed, and the disturbed soil thrown up by the basket weeder. The hoophouse on the right is where we overwinter our laying flock and you can see the material they leave us after their tenure. We apply this composted manure to the fields and disc it in. Other manure that is not so composted goes onto our compost pile.

Christa working hard again, pitching some well composted donkey manure onto our small garden plot at home.

The other day we saw what looked like pools of oil on the ground in front of the house where we park our car and truck. But it didn't quite look like or smell like oil, so we dipped a finger and tasted the liguid and found it to be Vermont Maple Syrup! Just then around the corner comes our boy Asa with gallon jug in hand, syrup all over his face and shirt. We explained to him why this was not ok (the spilling of a fine Vermont product which cost $35 a gallon).

For punishment we made Asa train our apple tree limbs to become more horizontal (just kidding).

Sugarin Time!

2008-04-21T06:57:00.009-04:00

The Bryan Sugarhouse in Jeffersonville, Vermont. Lisa & Beckner Bryan operate a 20,000+ tap sugarbush on a beautiful farm.

Interior of the sugarhouse with boiling pans and evaporator.

Another interior shot of sugarhouse. Beckner about to give Asa a sample of this years crop of maple syrup.

One of the many 50 gal drums of Maple Syrup made from the Bryan Farm. They wholesale most of their syrup.

Asa checking out the ATV with tracks. He likes any kind of farm equipment.

Three turkeys bid us goodbye after our visit to the sugarhouse. Thanks Lisa, Beckner, Lucien and Merritt!

Snowfarmer, Cultivator, Sledding

2008-03-16T09:59:00.004-04:00

Asa and Mama posing next to their snow farmer!

Here is a recent purchase for the Farm: a Williams Tool System. It is a large metal frame with tine weeders. It also came with cultivating knives, hilling discs and gauge wheels. It has a 3 pt hitch to attach to the back of our tractor. This tool will allow us to significantly cut down on our hand weeding. The tines allow for blind cultivating of crops after seeding and just before the seeds come up. Some crops can even be cultivated with the tines after the plants are up: pumpkins, potatoes, corn, etc. We bought this from a vegetable farmer up in North Troy, VT.

Asa sledding down the hill behind the house. He really enjoys this fun activity, even when he wipes out!

Local Food Everyday!

2008-02-21T21:54:00.006-05:00

Who needs to go to the store (wasting time and fuel) when you can eat from your local landscape - courtesy of your own agricultural labors, or your local farmer(s).

Just about every time we sit down to a meal, we are thankful that we eat a diversity of local food from our farm. We really are fortunate to have 2 chest freezers full of our 100% grassfed beef and lamb, pasture-raised pork and chicken, vegetables, berries and chicken stock.

100% grassfed hamburger, potatoes, squash, pickles, and raw milk

We have plenty of root vegetables to eat during the winter - most stored in our old farmhouse root cellar: potatoes, carrots, celery root, beets, brussel sprouts, parsnips, and turnips.

Root vegetables from the root cellar and pantry

In our pantry on the first floor of the house we have canned tomatoes, pickles, berry and tomato jams, garlic, onions, squash, pumpkin.

Fruit Cobbler from summer fruit

We also make and smoke some link sausages during the winter, and I have a Ham aging down in the root cellar that will be 2 yr old Prosciutto this spring! Of course we have our farm fresh eggs year round.

Smoked sausage made from our pork and beef!

The only items we pick up from the local general store (Jericho Center Country Store - oldest continuously operating general store in the great State of Vermont, having just celebrated 200 years as a general store!) is milk and fruit. Well .... also some Vermont beer and ice cream on occasion. Though my brother-in-law Brian is a homebrew meister and usually keeps me supplied with the local brew!

So if someone tells you that you cannot eat local foods year round - tell them Bullpuckey! It is easily done, better for you, and affordable.

Winter Fun

2008-01-13T06:18:00.000-05:00

Here are some photos of the family playing in the snow outback of the homestead.

This was about 3 weeks ago. After a big January thaw - we have no snow!

Asa and a horsedrawn cultivator outback in the woods -

we may have to pull this out and put it to work on the farm!

Asa skiing on his grandmas old wooden skis at 2.5 years old. What, your kid isn't skiing yet?? Good skate technique I might add.

Winter on schedule!

2007-12-06T21:46:00.000-05:00

We received about 15 inches of new snow this week. Snow this time of year is about right for Vermont. Last year we didn't get any real snow until mid February and we got hit with 31 inches in 6 hours!

For most of the pigs its the first snow of their lives. For our sows its their 3rd or 4th. They don't seem to excited about it, but the market pigs sure enjoy playing in it, running around, scratching themselves on the trees and rocks in their pasture. Just think of the joy that those confinement raised pigs never experience.

market pigs playing in the new snow!

Sows eating some bread.

The laying hens don't venture too far out into the snow. They must have an aversion to white. If the snow becomes dirty they walk out onto it. They do like to eat the clean snow though.

Busy Summer!

2007-11-02T05:43:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posting to the farm journal - its been a crazy, busy summer!

Here are some photos of various happenings on the farm during the summer.

Hosting a Pastured Poultry Workshop

2007-07-31T23:08:00.000-04:00

Christa and I hosted a pasture walk workshop on our pastured poultry operation. We also walked around and showed folks, the pasture-raised pigs, lamb, laying hens, and vegetable operation. We had over 40 folks show up from all over the state.

Jenn Colby of the University of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture, did all the hard work of putting anouncements and flyers together, and providing some great snacks on a hot and humid evening. The center and the Womens Agriculture Network hosted this pasture walk.

Those assembled got to see our outdoor setup and chick barns for raising birds on pasture for the first 2 weeks, then our day range system of letting the birds roam free instead of keeping them in pasture pens. At 8 and 9 weeks we process the birds. Our pasture-raised chickens come packaged with great flavor!

We had been to many of these great pasture walks in the past and came away with a lot of new ideas. It was great to be able to return the favor to the Vermont farming community. I hope they learned something useful.

Vermont Heating Fuel

2007-07-07T22:40:00.000-04:00

Asa sits on a 2 cord pile of green firewood delivered by Clifford Lumber in Hinesburg, Vermont. This pile will be stacked to air dry, then unstacked during the winter and put into the woodstove to keep us warm. We go through 3 to 4 cords of wood during the winter. We also have backup heat from an oil furnace that also heats water, but the woodstove is the primary heater of the house.

Nothing like homegrown fuel to keep you warm on those cold winter chore days!

Beautiful Broccoli!

2007-06-28T22:59:00.001-04:00

Christa has grown some beautiful broccoli this year! The heads are huge - almost the size of a dinner plate!! The taste is incredibly sweet. The secret....composted chicken manure that we spread on the fields from the chicken hoophouse this spring. Another benefit of a diversified farm!

Using Old Farm Implements

2007-06-28T22:50:00.000-04:00

I chained up an old horse drawn spring tooth harrow to do some weeding the other day. Its only about 3 feet wide which means alot of passes to pull up weeds. I have another harrow just like it that I plan on joining together with this one.

I picked up this harrow and a few spike harrows (kind of like large nails attached to a frame) at an old farm this spring. A guy was cleaning up around an old barn and I stopped in to say hello and ask if he had any old farm machinery he wanted to part with. He did and he talked about his uncle that farmed the land with horses many years ago. Those old implements have now found new life on a new farm.

Pasture Farrowed Piglets

2007-06-02T22:51:00.000-04:00

Three out of our four pregnant Tamworth Gilts (first pregnancy, after their first they are considered sows) farrowed (birthed) their first piglets out on pasture! They had 10, 10 and 9 respectively. All are healthy and vibrant. The other adults and boar on the same pasture are very gentle when around the piglets. Two of the gilts chose to farrow next to the two round bales I dropped in the pasture a few days ago. The third farrowed at a fence corner in the dirt. I later brought over some mulch hay.

I was concerned about the recent thunderstorms and resulting rains causing hypothermia for the piglets, but they have come through fine. They obviously stay close to their mothers for heat and they snuggle under the hay for additional protection and warmth. So far so good, we will see how many piglets are left after weaning them from their moms (in about 3 weeks).

Farm Education

2007-05-26T23:18:00.001-04:00

Christa is teaching a group of local school kids and teachers about the "3 point hitch" on our farm tractor. She spent a good hour and a half walking the kids through the farm, looking at animals and vegetables and talking about where your food choices come from. Its never to early for farm education!

Christa gave another farm tour this week at our CSA Potluck. It was held on a lovely evening and there was a great turnout! We doubled our Summer CSA share this year and it SOLD OUT incredibly fast. All who attended got a tour of the livestock and vegetable fields and finished with a wonderful potluck meal. We served up our chicken and pork and not a speck was left at the end.

It is great to visit with the folks who support your farm. I hope they enjoyed the potluck as much as we did. We look forward to seeing more of our shareholders over the summer and for another farm potluck in the fall!

New crop of lamb and beef

2007-05-26T22:56:00.000-04:00

About two weeks ago we picked up 66 beautiful spring lambs from a young couple in the northern part of Vermont. We visited their farm in the winter to look over the newly born lambs and to see their operation. We were impressed and decided to buy lambs from them this spring.

Here you can see Chris and his friend Tarik weighing a lamb. There is a gate at each end of the scale, one to let the lamb in, the other to let them out. We pay the farmer by the pound for the lambs.

Once we got them all weighed we tricked them into our livestock trailer with a bucket of grain. They were pretty packed in our trailer. We hoped to make just one trip, but thought better of it for the lambs comfort, unloaded some lambs and made two trips.

They took to their new home and started munching on grass right away. They look great and by fall will by nice and fat for harvesting.

Our shipment of Devon-Angus beef yearlings arrived today. Here they are getting off the livestock trailer. There is plenty of grass out in the pastures and I am glad they are here to graze it. We could have used them about a week ago to keep ahead of the growth!

Ed's Farm

2007-05-15T22:24:00.000-04:00

This is a photo looking south from Ed's farmstead. Ed has been here on this farm since the 1950s. Its been a dairy farm and now he raises some beef and a few horses as well as hays quite a few acres on his place and around town.

Ed holds quite a few appointed positions for the town. I don't know how long he has held them, but I bet its been a while. They include: Animal Control Officer, Fence Viewer, Inspector of Lumber/Shingles, and Weigher of Coal. The last two positions are probably obsolete as these are not in use much like they were years ago. Some Vermont towns remove these appointed positions since they are not in use. I suspect ours will when Ed feels like he can no longer serve. Ed says he is 72, but he looks and works like he is in his 50s.

His farm has a wonderful assortment of old farm machinery on it and whenever I think I might need a part or an implement I give Ed a call. That was the case a few weeks ago when I was looking for an old hay wagon to build a moveable chicken coop. So I called Ed and asked if he knew someone who might have an old one for sale. He said "Yup... me". So I hurried on over and he took me back through a maze of machinery and showed me an old wagon frame. Just the ticket. We settled on a price and just the other day I finally got over there to pick it up. The tongue was rusted up a bit so Ed and I heated and lubed it up to unfreeze it. He hitched it to the tractor and ran it around the farm turning it back and forth and finally it loosened up enough for me to drive it 6 miles down the road to the farm.

Tyler and I will be working on getting a coop built on this frame over the next few days. Then we can move their housing around the pasture instead of being locked down to one location.

We younger farmers are fortunate to have the old timers around. I like to visit with them and hear their stories. You can sure learn a lot from them just by listening. And when I visit Ed my ears are wide open.

Potato planting

2007-05-14T23:18:00.000-04:00

Christa is sitting on the transplanter seat dropping cut seed potatoes into a furrow that is dug in the soil by a metal shoe. There are two metal wheels behind the metal shoe that close the furrow. The photo is from the back of the tractor, Christa is traveling backwards at a slow pace. the field that we prepared is about 550 feet long and it takes us 20 minutes to plant this distance with the transplanter. I planted a few rows by hand and it took me 50 minutes per row.

We are planting on some nice sandy loam soil at a farm about 2 miles south of us. We plowed and harrowed a 2 acre piece for this year. A short term rental has been signed on this plot and we are looking forward to growing crops on this soil. The folks who own the land had been vegetable farmers about 20 years ago, so they are very knowledgeable and I pick their brains often.

You can see the farm truck in the distance and the white marshmallows are wrapped round bales. The sames ones that I fed the pigs this past winter (I take the wrapping off of course).

Another Alexander!

2007-05-10T22:53:00.000-04:00

Say hello to a new farmhand this season! He is a bright, young, strong 2nd cousin to Christa (my lovely wife). He has a degree in forestry and is finishing up a masters at UVM in teaching.

We have Tyler sharing in some of the fun tasks on the farm: collecting eggs, transplanting vegetables, working on irrigation setup, and planting potatoes. He will get the full farm experience this summer - you can be sure of that.

Birthday Boy!

2007-05-04T23:14:00.000-04:00

Our boy Asa turned 2 years old today!

He got a drill and a ride on the potato digger!

What more could a boy ask for?

Spring Work

2007-05-01T21:56:00.000-04:00

Everybody's working for the weekend!

The pigs are working on their new pasture...

Christa and Brian are cleaning out the chicken litter from the hoophouse...

Christa is tilling rows for pea planting...

The work never ends...

It makes the homebrew disappear though - thanks Brian!

The long awaited arrival of the vernal equinox

2007-04-22T05:47:00.000-04:00

I don't want to shout it out too loudly, but I think spring might be in our part of Vermont. These last few days have been in the 60s and yesterday and today in the 70s! Our ground needs this warm weather to dry out as it has been very soggy. We havent been able to get into the fields to plant our vegetable transplants which should be in the ground by now. We should be able to get some in over the next few days.

We just got the 370 or so laying hens out of the vegetable hoophouse (their winter quarters) and across the road onto new pasture. We hearded them via poultry netting to a livestock trailer. It didnt work very well. As it got dark they all wanted to head back to the hoophouse and were starting to pull down the netting, quite a few got out but we managed to start grabbing birds and getting them into the trailer. A short trip across the road and into their perimeter netting on the new pasture where they huddled together - and the job was done. The boots came off and the homebrew was swilled around 1130pm. We need to figure a better system for next year!

I have been building a makeshift wood and tin laying shack for to house their nest boxes. Eventually this summer we will build a larger structure on a hay wagon frame that we can pull around with the tractor. The birds have settled in and producing great tasting eggs - and lots of them! The peak of egg production is upon us!

The pigs are out on pasture and boy they were happy to get on some new ground! The piglets born in November/December are sizing up well and should be ready for market starting in June/July. We have 3 sows that should farrow in the next few weeks and another 4 gilts that should have their first farrow in May or June. I am working on fencing off a section of pasture along with a tree island for sow farrowing. The plan is to put in some mulch hay, a few A-frames or tarps to keep the rain at bay and let the sows select and build their nest and have their piglets. I am looking forward to seeing how well they farrow outside the hoophouse. Which reminds me - I need to start digging out the hoophouses and composting their contents so we can get plants into the ground! Lots of work to be done around these parts - enjoy the weather!

Upgrading greenhouse benches

2007-03-21T06:40:00.000-04:00

Last year we cobbled together some pallets and scrap wood to make greenhouse benches. In the past year we have visited some farmers and their greenhouse growing systems and decided we needed to make some changes.

We made another farm investment by moving from wood to metal pipe and building roll-away greenhouse benches. The frame is made out of tubular greenhouse pipe the legs are adjustable, and their are 2 pipes on the top of the frame that allow you to roll a frame that sits on top (see photo). We built the top frame of 2 x 4 lumber and then bent some roofing metal that holds seedling trays.

The next improvement in the greenhouse system is a recyclable water supply. It is a very simple system that contains a livestock tank and a sump pump. Plastic water pipe (main line) is connected to the sump pump outlet with feeder lines coming from the main line to each greenhouse bench. At the top of the greenhouse bench is a "T" ball valve and 3/4 inch diam pvc pipe with a few holes drilled into it to allow water to flow on the metal pans. The bench is tipped toward a gutter that is attached to the side of the greenhouse frame that takes the water and dumps it into the livestock tank at the end of the greenhouse. You fill up the livestock tack once and recycle the water through the season. This allows for warmer water going to the seeds and bottom watering of the trays.

We are still fine tuning the system, but it should already allows for efficient use of greenhouse space and less time spent watering. Come by the greenhouse and see how it works!

Time to Farm

2007-03-01T19:59:00.000-05:00

We were a nation of small farmers not more than 50 years ago. These were small family farms on 100 acres and less. The primary income producer was the dairy cow with a milking herd of 10 to 40. These farms also raised pigs, chickens, eggs, horses and vegetables. These families preserved the foods they grew (canning vegetables, smoking meats, rendering lard) for year round consumption. The younger generation lived with and learned from the older generation who passed down their knowledge.

Our farm is not so different from this earlier model of farming. We raise a diversity of livestock and vegetables for sale to the community and we preserve and store meat and vegetables for our own consumption during the winter months. We are currently 2 generations working together on the farm and a young 3rd generation tagging along.

About 5 years ago we set up a cardboard table with extra garden produce to sell along the road that runs by the farm (see photo above). This spring we have made the decision to make a living from this and other lands that we use in our town. You don’t read much about young families jumping into farming full-time, least not those who don’t own any land (we lease or have handshake agreements). The media seems to report all the doom and gloom of farms going out, land lost to development, dairy farms dwindling, etc. We think they should be reporting the successes of new farms.

We have made a sizeable leap from 5 years ago – and we still do all the farming ourselves. Last years purchase of a used tractor and some old farm implements have helped us be a bit more efficient since we increased the amount of land that we cultivate. We raise a diversity of livestock and poultry focusing on raising them outdoors on pasture. We have embraced the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model of providing nutritious, organically raised vegetables to many families in our local communities.

We have received great feedback from our customers over the years and our business has grown to the point where we believe it can support 1 and ½ families. Neither of us worked high paying jobs while we started farming, and we don’t have trust funds to bail us out of poor decisions. We saved and have never incurred debts (save a small house mortgage). We live simply and we work hard at what we love to do: grow great food for our local community.

So this spring we are both excited and scared for what the farming future may bring, but life is too short not to go after what you want. Hope to see you on the farm!

Snow Excavation

2007-02-22T18:50:00.000-05:00

The Valentines Day blizzard has ramped up our chore hours! We have been hauling day old bread on a tobaggan along a snowshoe path to get back to the pigs. Prior to the storm we had been driving right up to the pig feeding area with the bread. So after a quick cost-benefit analysis we decided to hire our local excavator/snow plowing guy to come to the farm and excavate a driveable path to the chicken hoophouse and the pig feeding area. This will allow us to drive pig and chicken feed right to the animals, and reduce our chore time. Time is money goes the old adage!

The chickens haven't noticed a big change in their environment even though they went through a blizzard that dumped nearly 3 ft of snow! They are happily spending their winter in the hoophouse doing what chickens do: eat, drink, scratch through the wood chips, take dust baths, and lay eggs. They might have been in for a crushing suprise if we didn't clear off the snow from the top and sides (2x) during the storm.
You can see the snow piled up on the sides of the hoophouse in the photo. The hip board just above the snow is 4 ft from the ground. Its been melting a bit in the recent warm weather. It will have to be shoveled away if another snow storm arrives soon.

Vermont Sausage Fest!

2007-02-19T09:47:00.000-05:00

Nothing like homemade sausage and bean soup on a snowy winter day!

We had some friends over to make some fresh sausage from our pork and beef. Everyone pitched in putting together spices, mixing the meats, adding and drinking some wine, and stuffing the meat into casings (sheep intestine). We have an old cast iron Enterprise sausage stuffer that I got from my Pa. We even smoked a few links in our poor farmers smoker that my Pa and I put together a few years ago when he came to visit us in Vermont.

Everyone had a good time. Becky read stories to the kids, Asa and Finn played a duet on the piano, the menfolk talked about the best method for cutting handmade dovetails, and Christa made the awesome bean and ham soup. All stomachs were full, warm and satisfied by the afternoon - which made for good napping conditions!

Happy Plowingtime Day!

2007-02-18T17:48:00.000-05:00

Christa and Asa are in front of the new (used) farm truck on Valentines Day. Our Toyota Pickup truck is on the way out so we decided to look for a used truck with a larger bed and more power to haul a livestock trailer. We lucked out and saw an ad in the paper for a truck with a plow up in Underhill. We took a look at it, drove it around a bit and decided the farm should purchase it. The timing could not have been better!

The Nor'easter arrived on Valentines Day and by the next day we had 31 inches of new snow! Fortunately the air temperature was cold (single digits) enough to produce light snow. Nevertheless, we were busy over the next two days as the snow fell and we plowed our driveways, shoveled paths to the pigs and chickens, and shoveled snow away from the greenhouse and hoophouses. Fortunately we did not have any structures collapse, though quite a few dairy barns across the state did collapse and some animals were lost.

One of our Tamworth sows chose to farrow the evening of the storm. She farrowed 8 piglets, but only 4 were alive when I fed her the next morning. She eventually lost the remaining 4, probably due to crushing. She is a large sow and the space in the hoophouse we had her in was likely not big enough. That coupled with the cold weather may have been a contributor to the deaths.

The other pigs were having fun in the snow and taking a last lap around their field before the snow really piled up. The next day I had to shovel a path from their water and feeding area up to their hoophouse. They happily took off in single file down their snow trail!

Happy Birthday Pa!

2007-02-07T15:57:00.000-05:00

My pa would have been 71 today. He was born in Minnesota in 1936 on the Fasching Family Farm. He was the youngest boy of 12 kids. When asked how big his family was when he was growing up, he was always fond of saying "I am one of 5 brothers and each of us has 7 sisters".

He was a good man and kind father raising 4 kids on his own. He taught me the value of hard work and schooled me in the old ways of working on a farm: making sausage, milking cows by hand, putting up hay with a pitchfork, caring for livestock, growing and making your own food, and shoveling manure. That upbringing surely shaped my life today.

I really miss him.

Visiting the Lambs

2007-01-29T07:57:00.000-05:00

Asa is sizing up the lamb herd for the 2007 growing season.

We made a visit to a sheep farm up in Hyde Park, Vermont. A young couple has been raising sheep up there for nearly a decade. We went to see the quality of their lambs for a possible purchase this spring. They have a nice healthy group of animals overwintered in a large coverall barn (think large hoophouse).

We don't have our own breeding flock of sheep, so we purchase lambs in the spring from Vermont sheep farmers to raise on our pastures during the summer. In past years we have bought lambs from a few different farms, this year we will likely purchase all from one farm. Vermont farmers supporting Vermont farmers - makes me feel good!

Asa is drawn like a magnet to tractors, so we put him up on a nice little Kubota tractor at the sheep farm and he had a good time pretending to drive the fields. It won't be long before he can reach the pedals. Then my tractor driving days will be numbered!

Asa's Throne

2007-01-19T09:48:00.001-05:00

Asa finally has a place at the table! I finished his handmade Windsor Highchair. It has two coats of milk paint (a great non-toxic finish) sea green over a coat of red. Then two coats of an oil varnish mixture rubbed out and finally a coat of paste wax for protection from spills. This is an heirloom chair that he can pass on to his kids, and his kids to their kids, and so on...

If you are interested in purchasing a handmade Windsor Chair (adult and/or child chairs) see my chairs and other handmade furniture at: www.jerichosettlersfarm.com/windsorchairs.html

What's for Lunch?

2007-01-15T13:06:00.000-05:00

Todays Menu: local hay, winter pasture, and day old bread for dessert

Occasional menu items: outdated dairy products, cheese

The 4 Tamworth growers in the foreground are tearing into their meal. The breeding adults in the far background are doing the same. These groups are separated by two strands of electric fence. They sleep/nap in their hoophouse which is bedded down with mulch hay.

I have weaned the grower pigs and adults from feed grain for the following reasons:

The cost of feed grain has gone up due in large part to new ethanol plants buying up midwest corn to convert to fuel,
I would like to reduce inputs to the farm that travel long distances (and their associated transportation and fuel costs),
I continue to look for ways to support other fellow Vermont farmers,
I can reduce the waste stream by transferring outdated foodstuffs destined for the landfill to growing great pork (It truly boggles me just how much gets thrown away in our society).

The pigs are still getting grains, but in a different medium as bread. Adding local hay - which they do eat, and outdated dairy products makes for a diverse diet and ultimately a better tasting product. None of this is new, the old-timers used to feed pigs much in the same way and a fellow Vermont pig farmer raises great pigs with these foods and got me excited to do the same.

So if you see what looks like a homeless person digging through a bakery dumpster at night with a flashlight clenched between his teeth - don't be alarmed (and please don't call the cops). It's just your local farmer turning bread into pork!

Winter CSA

2006-12-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was our 3rd distribution for our Winter CSA. Though its not much like winter in Vermont this fall with temperatures in the 40s and 50s.

Our shareholders picked up the following at our farmstand: lettuce greens from the fields- mesclun, spinach, arugula; carrots, onions, potatoes, leeks just pulled from the garden, parsley, celery root, 3 varieties of winter squash, garlic, scorzonera, parsnips, beets and turnips! Great local food for fall and winter meals. Our very popular Winter CSA continues into February!

We also have a variety of packaged meat cuts available (pork and grassfed beef), farm fresh eggs, and homemade Lard from our pigs. So stop by the farmstand to purchase some great holiday food, we are open from 10 am to 6 pm.

Pure Vermont Lard

2006-12-19T10:26:00.000-05:00

We spent the weekend rendering the Tamworth pork fat we got back from the butcher. Everything went smoothly and we made 8 quarts of 100% pure creamy lard from about 18 lbs of fat. Here is a great link for describing how to make lard.

Lard is a great in baking and makes the best pie crust - very flaky! It is a great source of Vitamin D - the pigs store it in their fat from the summer sunshine! Try finding pure lard in your grocery store - YOU CAN'T! Its only available from small farms like ours who take the time to make it.

Available at our farmstand - the first batch is almost gone. Don't worry we plan on making more!

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-14T07:58:00.000-05:00

The cutting of the holiday tree was performed by Christa with oversight from Asa. Christa's brother has a small plot of christmas trees on the farm. He has a U-cut business every year for local folks to get a tree.

Have a happy holidays and eat some good food produced by your local farmer(s) this holiday season and throughout the year. Your health will thank you for it. Our holiday menu will feature ham from one of our pigs, root vegetables, salad greens, pickles and pumpkin pie from the garden. The only items not from the farm will be the beer (though if we are lucky it will be homemade) and dairy products.

Pasture-raised Pork Chops!

2006-11-27T14:29:00.000-05:00

Asa holds a blade-steak chop from our heritage breed of pasture-raised pork. Look at the color and marbling of that pork chop! For comparison, go to the supermarket and look at what the pork industry (confined pigs on concrete, 100% grain diet, antibiotics and hormones added) produces and packages. Which meat would you rather eat and which farm would you like to support?

The taste and flavor of our pork is amazing. How do we do it? We give the pigs room to roam, rotating them through pastures. They drink fresh water and eat a diverse diet consisting of pasture, worms, grubs, cheese, garden vegetables, apple drops and Vermont milled grains.

piggly wigglys

2006-11-17T18:51:00.000-05:00

The Farm's first piglets! The two Tamworth sows we recently purchased just had piglets about a week apart. The first sow was bred to a purebred Tamworth boar, the second sow (in photo) was bred to a berkshire boar. Her piglets came a week after the first sow. They have some black spotting on them. All are healthy. Each sow farrowed 11 piglets and each lost one when we found the new piglets in the morning- so they ended up with 10 piglets each.

Both sows are in the same section of the hoophouse we built for them this fall. They share a well bedded space that is 10 x 25 ft in size and they also co-nurse. All the piglets sleep together in a pile and when a sow lays down and turns on her side they all run up to nurse. We will wean the piglets from the sows in about a month. The piglets will continue to stay in their section, the mama sows will be turned in with the boar for breeding.

Planting the Stinking Rose

2006-11-02T22:41:00.000-05:00

Christa planted nearly 3000 bulbs of garlic this fall! I didn't get a chance to help her as I was building the livestock hoophouse - so she can claim all the credit and glory for next years garlic crop. She is planting some new varieties that we recieved from a friend down the road. He is a botany professor that loves garlic so we swapped varieties. We also swap garlic with non-botanists.

You can always tell when winter is coming - Christa starts to wear her ski beanie. I don't think she has ever planted garlic without a beanie on her head!

Multi-use Hoophouses

2006-11-02T22:06:00.000-05:00

I am a hoophouse convert! These are great structures for growing vegetables and flowers. You can extend the growing season on both ends (early spring, late fall) by using a hoophouse. It is an unheated structure with one layer of greenhouse plastic. The only heat generated inside the hoophouse is during a sunny day - unless you add some animals! Which is what we are doing this year. We are overwintering 200 laying hens in our 20 x 96 ft hoophouse that grew tomatoes, peppers, and celery root this summer. The hens get to roam out on the garden beds and use the hoophouse to get out of bad weather, for water and to lay eggs in their nestboxes. The nest boxes are attached to the plywood end wall near the doors (at the far end in the photo to the right. When the snows come -and they will its Vermont after all- the hens won't journey onto the snow, so we will add mulch hay to the inside of the hoophouse for them to pick through for grass seeds and to absorb their manure. In the spring when we let them out into the pastures we will compost the mulch hay that has accumulated. It eventually will make it back onto our fields as finished compost!

We built another section of hoophouse within the fenced pasture this fall. We had enough hoops from our used hoophouse frames we bought last year to build this 40 ft long section. This hoophouse will house our breeding group of sows, and some young pigs that we are growing out for spring processing. This house has an electrical box and a water hydrant in it -for watering pigs and keeping water from icing up by using electric de-icers in the water tubs. Hauling 5 gal pails of water out to pigs in the deep, dark, icy grip of winter is no fun! The pigs always have access to the pasture. They get 9 acres of fenced pasture to roam during the winter if they choose, they can use the hoophouse during bad weather and for sleeping quarters. The sows are free to use it for farrowing. Adding alot of dry mulch hay during the winter and the heat from a sunny winter day will keep everyone warm and dry. Pigs do fine outside in the winter and in snow - they just need a place to get out of the wind. Once spring arrives we will get the pigs onto their pasture paddocks and free up the hoophouse to grow vegetables and/or flowers. All the accumulated mulch hay will be composted and later added to the gardens.

We believe in using our structures year 'round, that is the beauty of being a small diversified farm. If we only grew vegetables these structures would be dormant for about 5 months.

Vermont Prosciutto

2006-10-13T19:02:00.000-04:00

Hanging from the beam of our 1800s English style barn is my experiment in creating Prosciutto (aged ham). The leg is from a boar (intact male pig) that we had butchered this spring. I salted the leg for about a month, brushed all the salt off and its been sitting in our summer kitchen all summer (stays cool in there) and i finally got around to hanging it in the barn so it can continue the aging process. I still need to render some lard from the pork fat i have in the freezer. The lard is applied to the leg which helps the aging process. It takes a year or two to create prosciutto and you don't know if you have succeeded until you slice some off and taste it. So next spring or fall I will report back with the results!

Asa's Windsor High Chair

2006-10-13T18:59:00.000-04:00

I finally made some time to get back to work on Asa's Windsor high chair that I started last winter. I have a woodshop in the attached woodshed to our old farmhouse. We have a copy of a copy of the work order for the construction of this woodshed that spells out the work to be done by whom and at what cost (part to be paid in cattle, part to be held in a note). It also includes a list of materials for the job and some math scribbled about. The date of the document is 1833.

Anyway - the legs and arm spindles on Asa's chair are from an old maple tree out back that I harvested since it was dying and crowding another nice maple. I split out firewood size sections of the maple, rounded them out with a hatchet, then chucked them in the wood lathe and turned them to shape. The seat - of poplar- is chopped, carved, drawknifed and spokeshaved to shape with old hand tools. I still have to finish the curved arm and back, back spindles and head crest. Once that is done it will be painted and waxed for Asa to put to work.

A visit to camp

2006-10-13T18:31:00.000-04:00

We made a visit to "camp" up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The visit was partly to get off the farm for a bit (24hrs anyway) and to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Christa's folks own a small camp on a lake -as you can see in the photos. We seldom get up there since we started farming, but with no broilers to raise, lambs all shipped to the slaughterhouse, and the gardening winding down, we made some time to get out with Asa and enjoy walking around and canoeing on the lake. The day we drove out was very warm for early October - in the 70s.

Planning for hot-dry-freezing weather

2006-10-02T19:17:00.000-04:00

We made the decision that the farm needs to invest in a reliable water source for summer vegetable crop irrigation, pasture irrigation and livestock watering in summer and winter. So we made a sizeable investment by having contractors tap into an existing drilled well on the property and bury water line w/hydrants and powerline to our crop fields, and pasture. We have been tapping into the house shallow well down across the road near a stream. We were lucky it was a wet year and had no problems watering our livestock and crops. But we could see the writing on the wall for the future growth of the farm, the need for a reliable water supply on the farm, and the honest fact that I don't want to haul water in 5 gal buckets for the pigs and laying hens this winter!

The Late Blight!

2006-10-02T19:03:00.000-04:00

Our potatoes and tomatoes got hit by a late blight. Blight is caused by a fungus that eats away at the fruit and vines. It came in on some wet, cool, windy weather in late August and within a few days the plants started to wither and die. We sent a sample to the University of Vermont Plant Sciences Dept and they confirmed that it was Late Blight. So we have to destroy the blight affected fruit and all the vines through fire or deep burial. Fire is more exciting so we went that route. But we are bummed as we planned on having hoophouse tomatoes through October and we had to destroy alot of green fruit that were on their way to ripe tomatoes! That is farming though, you roll with the punches and move on. I am glad that we are a diversified farm and can rely on other sources of income from the farm that are not affected by plant disease: The beef, pigs, lamb and chickens are all doing well and will be "harvested" this fall.

Ernesto damages chicken pens!

2006-09-04T13:15:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Ernesto - downgraded to a tropical depression - brought some mighty fine winds to our farm! Two of our 6 pasture pens we use for moving our chickens across the fields were blown over and bent. We lost 12 birds due to crushing and hypothermia (rain and wind). We spent half of the day repairing pens and getting the birds back under cover with food and water. They looked much better later in the day. We hammered in some steel posts at the corners to hold pens down. Should have done that the night before and could have saved ourselves and the birds some trouble!

Celebrity Farming!

2006-09-04T12:59:00.000-04:00

Do you ever feel like someone is following you while you are doing farm chores? It happened to Christa last week. Our farm and the farmers were being filmed for the Womens Agriculture Network (WAGN) program. They will be including our farm as part of their online curriculum - streaming video. Christa was a graduate of their program about 5 years ago. So the Director Beth, Film man Jeff and Sound guy Chris followed us around while doing chores and then sat us down and interviewed us about how we got started in farming, what the challenges are, and what the future holds. We hope our farm and experiences are helpful to other prospective farmers. We need more small farmers to grow good food and connect with their communities!

Vermont Pastured Meats

2006-08-16T12:23:00.000-04:00

The sun is shining and the grazing is good!

The lambs are looking fat and happy grazing on their paddock. They get a fresh slice of pasture every 1 to 2 days. No grain for these ruminants, their physiology is set up to process grass and they do a wonderful job of converting it to lean flavorful meat. Lamb is a favorite of our customers and we sell out of them early every year - even though we have increased the numbers we graze on our farm every year!

Our pigs like their pasture as well. We give them a larger paddock to graze and root around in. We move them to a new piece of pasture every 2 to 3 weeks. The pigs are monogastric (like us humans) and we supplement their pasture with cheese cut-offs from a cheese plant, vegetables, out of date store milk, and occaisonally some grain. The resulting pork has unbelievable flavor from pigs raised in this manner! We still have pork available and will be sending a batch to be processed in October. Visit our farm at www.jerichosettlersfarm.com to learn more about what we raise and grow at our family farm and how to purchase these and other healthful meats.

Outdoor Chicken Party

2006-07-11T20:30:00.000-04:00

We processed our first batch of pastured poultry last friday. They have been on pasture the day we got them as chicks in the mail. They have done suprisingly well considering how wet it was this spring! There were quite a few days when i had to put down some old hay in their pasture pens to keep them out of the water flowing through the pasture.

The photo shows our holding pen for the birds (244 of them) next to the processing area near the barn. You can see the broiler brooders in the background housing the 3rd batch of poultry (the 2nd batch is out in the pasture pens). I went with this setup this year and it worked well. I gather the birds the night before processing from each pasture pen and drive them to the pasture holding area, set up a canopy and hang waterers from it, set up a perimeter fence and outside that electified poultry netting. From the evening I put them in the holding area until we process them early the next day, the birds do not get any grain (though they eat grass and clover in their holding area). This makes the processing a cleaner affair.

Yours truly is on the right evicting a few unruly customers from the beer tent! I grab three at a time to give to our helper and chicken processing guru who processes the birds. After they are killed, plucked and gutted they go into a cold water tub. Christa retrieves them from the tub into another tub and goes over them picking out pin feathers, cutting off their oil gland and sorting them into cold water tanks for customer birds and home birds.

The customer birds end up in a larger tank (stainless steel milk bulk tank behind Christa in the photo to the left) filled with water and ice to cool the birds down. We break for lunch and then pull the birds from the bulk tank, drain water from them, insert giblets, bag them, weigh them, put on labels and then rest them gently into the refrigerated produce cooler. They age there until the following day when the customer comes to pick up their fresh pastured poultry.

Chicken produced and processed in this manner results in a far superior product than the mass produced chicken you buy in the supermarket. Our birds are raised humanely on pasture, supplemented with grain, drink fresh water daily and have plenty of room to roam. They are the best tasting chicken you will ever eat! Guaranteed!

The hand trowel is mightier than the tractor bucket!

2006-07-11T20:23:00.000-04:00

Our boy Asa cleans out compost from the tractor loader. He is the only one that will volunteer for this job and as you can see he takes it seriously!

Superior Beef Genetics doing its thing

2006-05-19T14:20:00.000-04:00

Devon/Angus cross yearling steers are on the pasture! We will be grazing and finishing these beef on our neighbor's pasture. Grass and water will be their diet and the result is high quality, flavorful beef for our customers. Go to our website to order %100 grass fed beef today!

The grass fed genetics in these animals are from The Bakewell Reproductive Center. The Center is a purveyor in the best of grass fed genetics for cattle. Some of these animals will also be marketed to Hardwick Beef, who purchase %100 grass fed and finished cattle from Northeast Farmers. They require a strict grass finished protocol. Visit their site to learn more.

We will report on the progress of these fine animals throughout the season, so come back often to read more!

In Like Finn!

2006-05-15T08:23:00.000-04:00

The tomatoes are in our first hoophouse! We finally got the house ends completed, beds formed, drip tape layed out, and the tomatoes put in. My lovely wife Christa is doing the transplanting of some very large tomato plants. They have done well in our greenhouse. We will have 3 rows of heirloom tomatoes in the middle and a row each for peppers near the hoophouse sides. We are excited about growing vegetables in our hoophouse, it will provide us with earlier crops for our Summer CSA and farmers markets and will allow us to extend the growing season into the fall for our Winter CSA. How does crisp, succulent spinach from November through February sound?

Finn is my Pa's name and the name of our good neighbors' son (little Finn) who is a frequent farm visitor.

How to spend a nice spring day...

2006-05-03T12:04:00.000-04:00

at an auction waiting to bid on an old tractor and farm implements! I traveled to the other side of the State (Fairlee, VT along the Connecticut River) to have a look at a 1964 tractor with a loader. I also noticed some farm implements that would go well with the tractor and help us on the farm. This was a consignment auction with a lot of farm implements and tractors of varying ages and conditions. Of course they start auctioning off the small misc. stuff and it wasn't until about 3pm that the tractor I had my eye on came up for bid. Its hard to spend a nice day waiting around while there is plenty of work to do back on the farm.

A lot of folks where checking out the tractor in question - a 1964 Massey Ferguson 65 Dieselmatic with Multi-Power. It had a New Idea loader, chains on the back tires and a homemade counter weight on the 3-point hitch. I didn't think it would go for more than $3000. The bidding started at $2000 and quickly went up to $3200. I hadn't even jumped in to bid at this point and was hesitating to do so. I kept thinking of the prices of other used tractors with loaders that have been selling for $5000 to $9000 in various ads and other auctions. I knew we could use this tractor on the farm and it could reduce our time on some tasks, so I was doing a cost-benefit analysis in my head when the price jumped to $3400! The auctioneer was looking for the next bid at $3500. My hand shot up and a few more bids later the tractor was headed to our farm!

A used 2 bottom plow and disc harrow were added to the mix - so now we can prepare vegetable beds and incorporate cover crops and compost with this set of tools.

Vermont Plowing

2006-04-21T09:51:00.000-04:00

We do things a bit different here in Vermont. We plow backwards!

Our good neighbor, man of few words, local tractor and farm implement guru - Arnold, came over to plow up some new vegetable ground for us. He hit a wet spot in the field and had to pull the plow out backwards.

We had last years hogs on this section of ground, providing a source of nutrients and doing a bit of plowing on their own! We had hoped to have the ground plowed up last fall, but the weather did not cooperate. Just before Arnold showed up, Christa and I just spread 1 ton of lime on the new plots with a hand spreader. Heavy, messy work but we are used to that.

Since we don't own a tractor we rely on our good old neighbor. So far the arrangement works pretty well. Our neighbor gets some spending cash, we get the heavy work done in a timely fashion, and we don't have to make payments on a tractor or fix the damn thing all the time. Though I do find myself lingering over the farm classifieds for a nice old tractor....

Shoulder to Shoulder

2006-04-17T08:27:00.000-04:00

We are raising a heritage breed of pig this year. We were fortunate to find Tamworth piglets from a Vermont pig farmer who raises excellent piglets! The Tamworth is a rare breed that was once numerous in the states on small family farms. The era of big factory pig farms that raise pigs in confinement led to the decline of this breed - they do not tolerate confinement. They are known for their good mothering skills, mellow nature, flavorful meat, and most of all their ability to thrive on pasture eating grass, grubs and worms! They take a little longer to grow out to market weight, but the taste of their meat is worth it. We are excited to raise and offer this rare breed of pork!

WELL, Well, well

2006-04-11T07:58:00.000-04:00

Christa and Chuck are standing in front of the old well site on the neighbors farm where we will be rotationally grazing beef and lamb. We are planning on pumping water from here to a storage tank that will then gravity feed to water tanks on the pasture. We and the landowners are excited to be grazing animals on this beautiful farm. Last fall we had a fence contractor put up a 6 strand Hi-tensile fence surrounding 25 acres of level pasture. We should have 25 head of beef and 20 lambs grazing here within a month.

Get to Work!

2006-04-07T10:19:00.000-04:00

Our little boy Asa exhorts his parents on while lending a hand in building greenhouse benches. At 10 months he has the work ethic of a frugal old time Vermonter - right down to the afternoon nap!

Its never too early to teach your young'ns the value of a speed square.

Greenhouse Redux

2006-03-23T11:39:00.000-05:00

Our first greenhouse is finally complete! We got an estimate to wire the 'house and it came in at $2100.00! Minus the fill that the 'house sits on - we have done everything ourselves. We continued that trend with the wiring and kept the $2100.00 in the bank. The greenhouse is 20 x 60 ft and is next to our farmstand. The wife will be moving seedlings in there shortly. She is currently building tables out of pallets to hold seedling trays.

Greenhouse Gods

2006-02-06T07:09:00.000-05:00

Framers Blues: Framers not Farmers. Actually I shouldn't feel too blue as the weather has been nice to work in (40 F in Vermont in February!). Still grinding away on framing the ends of our greenhouse. Worked with the wife and she came up with a nice design that allowed us to use a - barely enough length- section of 1x10 to put on the peak. I think she just won the geometry teacher role for our new boy!

I have been framing with material bought from a pile of rough cut hemlock lumber ( 10 to 12ft sections of 2x10) that I purchased years ago from a neighboring garage sale. The garage sale was in the garage, but I asked what might be in the shed and lo-and-behold their was a jumbled pile of misc. lumber. I made an offer then waded in to sort out the goods. It has been sitting in our barn for about 5 years. Most of it is knotty so not great for woodworking (side hobby of mine) but its good enough for framing. I have been ripping the 8inch wide boards in half on the bandsaw. Kind of hurts to do that, but cheaper than driving and buying 2x4s at the local hardware store. I did find a nice 10 inch wide, 10ft section with only a few knots. I am saving that one out for making windsor chair seats.

So we completed one end (the bidness end) of the greenhouse, and got a good start on the back end. Still need to put on the greenhouse plastic, hang the heater, hook up the propane, and do the wiring. I'm not too worried - the wife still hasn't ordered the seeds yet!

Growing For You!

2005-10-13T17:41:00.000-04:00

We grow many diverse vegetables and flowers for sale at farmers markets and through our CSA.

We raise grass fed meats: pastured poultry and pork and 100% grass fed lamb and beef.