Missing Willow Farm

The Animal Welfare Approved program audits and certifies family farms who are raising their animals humanely, outdoors on pasture.  We applied for this certification for our lamb a few months ago and just found out we’ve been approved.  We were visited by an auditor who flew in from Kansas to see our little operation.  There are pretty stringent standards that we were already meeting.  The program requires very detailed record keeping so we moved our animal records from a calendar journal into a spreadsheet for ease of the annual program audit. We were already using a certified humane kill slaughterhouse.  We’ve been told that hardly anybody gets completely certified on their first try and here we are.  As miserable as most animals are treated in commercial facilities, ours have a good hormone-free life.  They have a big pasture, a barn for shelter, huge dogs to protect them, the best care and loads of attention.  And if Purina made sheep treats as well as dog treats, we’d surely have some!

 

 

 

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Seed Savers Exchange provided this year’s organic seed potatoes.  Our local customers enjoy ‘different’ potatoes so we purchased three different kinds; All Blue, French Fingerlings and La Ratte.  I was one of two vendors selling La Ratte last year and we both typically sold out within the first two hours.   Planting potatoes is easy and harvesting potatoes is the most fun harvest on the farm.  It’s like a scavenger hunt.  We’ve even grown them in containers on our back deck.  If the seed potatoes are larger than a golf ball, cut them to golf ball size with at least 2-3 eyes on each piece.  Leave them cut surface up in the sun for 24-48 hours then plant them 4 inches deep, eyes facing up.  If you’re interested in trying to grow potatoes, stop by your local Southern States or garden center.  They might not have fancy varieties, but they’ll surely have what grows well in your area.  Start small.  Have fun!

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Claire brought her friend Megan home for a visit last weekend.  A farm visit means you have to hold and pet all of the babies.   It’s kind of an unwritten rule.  We sent them home with lettuce, spinach, milk, cheese, meat and preserves.  The only thing they missed out on was eggs but we ate all we had on hand during their stay.  Come again soon girls!

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Beatrice had her lamb on Friday.  A little purebred texel ewe.  We’ll add her to our breeding stock.  Isn’t she a cutie?  Not sure what we’ll call her yet.  I’d consider Eugenie (as in British princesses Beatrice and Eugenie) if I only knew how to pronounce it!   Does anyone know?   Maybe we’ll stick with something British, like Victoria?

My daughter Tracy said he looked like he rolled around in a hot dog cart the day he was born.  He cleans up nicely, doesn’t he?!  So handsome.

Originally, I planned to work in our in-ground garden bed today but it was snowing when we woke up this morning.  I refuse to dig in the ground while it’s snowing…. I spent a few hours in the greenhouse potting up tomatoes instead.  We need more pots!

Composted manure from our barn also went onto our garden bed this week, along with the four tons of commercial compost.  We once had a cow named Professor Thistle Cobblebottom who contributed greatly to this project.  She hogged the hay from the sheep and goats and was very annoying… and delicious.

Bindi is drawn towards anything with water in it.  She waits for the shower to turn off so she can lick the drain.  At least she waits!

Tha’ts what we had delivered yesterday from a food waste composting service.  They collect compostable scraps from grocery stores, restaurants, schools & hotels and process it for 8-10 months at their facility.  It arrives as perfect 7 pH black gold.  We used to purchase soil amendments from garden centers in bags.  Never again.  Even with the $1/mile one way delivery charge it was a good deal and a gorgeous product.  We’ve already got our raised beds amended and huge containers of it stored in the greenhouse.  We’ve got other beds around the house and in the back yard that will get some.  Thank goodness we have a tractor.  The remainder will be worked into the bed we had it dumped onto.  It was our potato bed last year and I have just received some beautiful seed potatoes in the mail.  But we’ve already expanded it beyond the size we had it last year and I’m hankering to plant some other stuff.  Could this possibly be the year I get a pumpkin??

P.S. Those three beds full of green in the foreground contain the garlic we planted last October.  Yum.

 

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Mina’s twins are less than a week old and getting big fast.  They stick to her like glue.  It’s been warm these last few days.  She takes them on the far side of the pasture where there are big shade trees.  It means we have to go all the way over there when it’s feeding time in the late afternoon.  We just scoop them up.  They’re soft like puppies and don’t seem to mind being handled.  She happily follows.