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I'm sorry I haven't been updating for a couple weeks. Thanks for keeping an eye on our blog. Spring has been sooooo busy! But it's been good busy...you know what I mean?
Here's what's been happening. I plan to blog about all of it in the days and weeks to come.
First, I'd like to thank everyone for the great feedback on the profile in Hometown Focus as well as the mozzeralla cheese article I wrote. It's been fun hearing from you! If you missed it, you can find it here. Lots of people have tried and succeeded! I acutally havent' heard from a failure yet.
We have just finished selling about 50 half hogs. They are all (but one) safely tucked away in their owner's freezers ( and tummies!).
Calving has started! Here's a photo....blogs are boring without at least one photo.
We took a bunch of hogs to McDonald's Meats in Clear Lake MN for USDA processing. That meat can (and will) be sold at Natural Harvest in Virginia, MN, Tower and Ely Farmers Markets, and right here off the farm!
The first batch of baby chicks is in the brooder!
A winter's worth of manure needs to be scooped up and spread on the fields.
The fields need to be disced and planted.
We picked up the USDA meat in Clear Lake, delivered to Natural Harvest, and filled our freezers here at the farm!
On a personal note, we have our oldest graduating this year and are racing to finish an addition on our house.
We have a couple Head Start groups coming to visit again. This year, I swear I'll get photos!
Shannon still has to squeeze in a little firewood making....our wood shed in running low a bit too quick.
And we are still milking twice a day and dealing with all that milk.
Keep checking in...I'll fill you in on all the stuff I mentioned.
Hopefully with our new faster connection, our new computer, and the changes the web page service has made to make
photos easier to upload, I can blog more often.
Our computer was soooooo slow and full of stuff. Recently DSL became available to those of us who live on a dead end road off a dead
end road off a county road. So, moments ago 2 nice fellows left here after hooking us up.
What a difference.
Please note that our email address has changed to wycoff@frontier.com
Check back soon to see what else we've been up to here on the farm.
We've been on the go the last few days. Friday night was the Natural Harvest Food Co-op's (if you haven't checked out their new website..you should) annual meeting. Since we sell our pork at Natural Harvest, we were invited to put up an informational display. Maggie Montgomery of KAXE radio gave us an interesting talk about her year of eating locally. She and her husband ate a 100 mile diet for a year! Wow. Hats off to them. A great dinner showcasing local producers was served. I had a pleasant evening visiting with some awfully nice folks.
The next day Shannon, Maggie (our daughter Maggie, not Maggie Montgomery from KAXE, of course!), and I set up the same table at the Mtn. Iron Community Center for the first annual Iron Range Earthfest. It was an expo sort of thing with a focus on sustainable living. I was very impressed with the variety of vendors and displays and thought the turnout was great for a first year event. I look forward to next year.
Sunday kicked off our daughter, Taylor's, horse competition season. In order to be at the WSCA show on time we had to leave by 6 AM and didn't get home until 9 at night. She had a good time and did well - so it was worth it. Luckily Shannon was home to chore morning and night. Although when he calls Roo in for milking, so doesn't come very well. For some reason she comes better for me. We need to work on that.
Tuesday, I attended a conference in Duluth. In the first session, local producers had an opportunity to meet buyers from restaurants who were interested in serving local food. In the second session, we listened to people who make their farms more profitable by either offering guest accomodations, tours, educational classes, or festivals. It was food for thought.
Today I am staying home to farm and keep house (after the last few days the housekeeping is sorely needed!)
The last couple of months we had the pleasure of delivering our pork three times and beef once. We really enjoy meat delivery days. Our customers are such friendly people and seem genuinely excited when we show up. We have such nice little visits at each stop - sometimes it's at a customer's home or workplace, sometimes it's a central meeting place, sometimes it's right at our farm. We have lots of old customers who reorder, along with new customers who either saw our name somewhere or were referred to us by satisfied customers. Our customers range from the Grand Rapids area to Ely and the North Shore as well as everywhere in between ! What a diverse group of people! They come from all walks of life and all of them have different reasons for buying meat from a small farmer.
Most just like the taste of old fashion pork (and beef, and chicken) better, others are concerned about supporting the local economy and want to stick it to Big Agri-Business. Some try to avoid food that travels thousands of miles to reach us. Still others are practical folks who want to fill their freezer once when they have a few extra dollars. Lots are concerned about the safety of conventional food. Many believe in a combination of the above reasons. We are thankful for each of the folks who buy our meat. I try very hard to follow up each sale with a call to make sure that they are pleased with the meat and the processing . This also gives me a chance to answer any questions they may have been hesitant to call and ask.
The fun thing about having a diversified little farm is that you are never bored and everything changes from season to season. Custom Extempt pork and beef sales are done until fall -although we are collecting names for our order list so be sure to call 984-3235 if you are interested in meat for the fall.
And now...let Chicken Season begin!
Well, I heard back from the camera shop. My wonderful camera is a lost cause. With a heavy heart, I spent hours on the Internet shopping for cameras until I found one I think I'll be happy with.
We try to shop locally as much as possible. We think it's important to keep small businesses in business, so I called the camera shop in Hibbing. He is out of stock of my wonderful new camera model, but he hopes to have one next week - and I plan on snapping it right up.
When I do, I'll be able to post pictures of baby pigs and young calves and other fun stuff.
Last night, I made a marinated pork kebob that I barbequed. It was served with pita bread, a tasty sauce, chopped tomatoes, sweet pickled peppers, and shredded letttuce. Some of my family likes to make it into a sandwich, and some eat it all separately. It's drippy and yummy. I served it with rice. It was so pretty that I told Shannon I should photograph it and post it on our website with a recipe. And I will the very next time I make it. Which should be fairly soon, since we all just love it!
In fact, I think I'll do a weekly blog post called something like What's for Dinner? I'll include a photo and recipe using our different meats. This sounds like fun, doesn't it? Stay tuned!
It is with tentative steps that with I am wading into the Internet. I spend a great deal of time reading the blogs and web site of other farmers, but I just don't know how many people will want to read about us. This does seem like a good place to keep our customers up-to-date on where their food comes from when we aren't able to chat face to face with them. It also seems like a great way to introduce a potential customer, one who might be too shy to call us on the phone, to the ins and outs of local meat. Perhaps after they read a bit about it and "meet" us on the Internet, they'll call and really get to know us. Shannon and I have three great kids and the five of us live on an old farm in Embarrass, Minnesota. Here we raise pork, chickens, and beef which we sell off our farm, at the Farmer's Market, and at Natural Harvest Food Co-op in Virginia, MN. It's a great life.