Superior Beef Genetics doing its thing

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!

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...

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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.