Howdy everyone hope this letter finds you all well and not too tired of this crazy weather, As I write this its 70 degrees and expecting thunder storms. Tomorrow it may snow.....great that's just great!

Anyway as you have probably noticed we've added a CSA section to our blog spot and its pretty awesome, go check it out......Now!!!!!      I'll wait.

Ok, you're back, if your in need of a printed copy to pass around your office, at the gym, while your getting a colonoscopy etc. here it is. Feel free to print away and we can't wait for You to sign up.

Thanks.


John & Elizabeth

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Fall farm news, 2016

John & Elizabeth

I preface this by saying the more things change, the more they stay the same!  It is farm life, baby!  And there is nothing like struggling to keep the pigs in, working hard on the fences, and waking up to the front yard full of pigs!  We now have about 65/70 pigs, all sizes, two boars, lots of sows, many pregnant, and about 15/18 little ones.  It is pretty crazy!  We have a number is sows that have Yorkshire and Hampshire in their back ground, and we have a very diligent red wattle boar.  We also have a sweet Hereford boar, but usually the red wattle has been there first.  Recently, we have added a big bunch of large blacks to the herd.  They are very friendly and a little longer legged than many of our pigs.

So, in this proliferation of pigs, you have an opportunity: we have, and will continue to have, lots of pigs to sell.  We have spent the last several years discouraging the sale of pigs from the farm in the interest of maintaining our stock for breeding.  Now we are well placed to be able to supply our restaurants, our retail customers, our farmers market and sales from the farm.  Whether you are looking for sausage for breakfast, a ham for Christmas, piglets to raise or a pig for your luau we have the selection you are looking for!

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CSA Down Payment (2 Payments - Full Share)

 

John & Elizabeth

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New Season, 2016

John & Elizabeth

       It is wonderful that we have all made it to 2016!  And believe it or not, we are just about to start a new Farmers Market season with the beginning of Nourish Knoxville's indoor Winter Market this coming weekend.  We will be there, and hopefully it will not be too rainy!
       We move into the new year with pigs, chickens, goats, and even a couple of sheep!  We have also embarked on a new venture with rabbits, although we are still learning how to grow and breed them.  The chickens we have here now, are layers and we will be adding to our flocks (and singing them lullaby's to get that lay up!).  We have been working on the budgets for the broiler chickens, and it is discouraging to know that they have to be relatively expensive, but that the return to us in terms of buying more feed, and paying our electric bill, is very small.  We want to raise turkeys for our favorite customers for Thanksgiving and Christmas as well.

        We have decided to hire a plant person to help us with our growing season.  We have had such a hard time these last couple of years keeping up with the seed starting, planting and harvesting and rotating, we feel it makes sense to hire a person to live here, and keep up with all of our plant business.  The posting will be available in a separate blog post, and we would appreciate it if you would spread the word among the people who might be interested.  We feel this is the only effective way to keep plants going in our hoop house.
           You know we always have something going on here at the farm, so please talk to one of us and plan your trip to our sweet little town!  As the weather gets a bit better we would welcome your visit, and put you to work.  Thanks as always for all of your support, and hope your holiday season was filled with good food, friends and family, and some time to relax.  May 2016 bring more of the same, for all of us.  See you soon!


         

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Spring has sprung!

      We are sorry we have not posted in a bit, but we have been very busy.  This hard winter has left scars on our farm and we have a lot of work to do to get things back in order.   Our larger, older hoop house collapsed under the weight of snow and freezing rain, and although we are harvesting collards in there now, we are cleaning up the small hoop house, removing all of the good stuff that was on or in the big hoop house, and getting ready to use the saws-all...  RIP Clearspan whatever number you were assigned.

       We have had a happy and successful kidding season this year and we have been blessed with seven happy and healthy little kids.  Our does have had a single buck, a pair of bucks, a pair of does and a twin buck and doe.  We have one mature doe to kid, someday?!  Now, we have to start on the pig side, and we have five pregnant sows.  If we have any luck at all, we will have about forty little pigs on the ground any day now.  Probably this will happen in pretty quick succession.  One sow is ready to go any time now, the other four have a week or so longer.  We have safe shelter for the other four, but when we have those babies, we will be struggling both to keep up with the feed and to keep the fences up for all of these little ones!

    All of these babies assure us of income for the coming season, and assure you of a supply of safe and carefully raised meat.  We continue to send pigs in to our retail partner, Three Rivers Market in Knoxville, and to supply the Boone Street Market, and restaurant partners Wellington's, the Blackthorne Grille, OliBea's, Good Golly Tamale.

    In the absence of much of a farmers' market, we have embarked on two new projects:  for those of you in the Knoxville and surrounding area, we are doing informal cooking demonstrations with samples, at the Saw Works Brewery.  We are combining beer in recipes that include farm products in interesting and simple, home style ways.  Plan an interesting and relaxing afternoon at the Saw Works, and of course we will bring the big farm truck so that you will have an opportunity to buy things you might be missing in your freezer.

   We have also embarked on the quest to produce a good, genuine local hot dog, as well as bratwurst and sweet Italian sausage.  Next week, we will drive two large pigs to Kentucky to come back with a large quantity of sausages made from our own pigs.  Our first enterprise will be to bring them to folks at the spring races in Bristol.  We are taking the big farm truck to Shadrack's Watersports parking lot.  If you are a race fan, come see us there.  We will continue to have sausages and hot dogs made to supply summer farmers' markets and to keep our retailers supplied.  Make plans to pick up some of this great product for your summer grilling!

    Again, John and I apologize for having been out of touch a bit.  As you can see, we have not been too quiet, just busy!  We always have time to talk to the folks who support us, so if you need something from us, or you want to ask a question please call, e-mail or send us a message on facebook.  We would love to hear from you!  Elizabeth, John and Emma

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