Well its been a very busy spring but we promised to update this blog before things get completely out of hand so here goes.

The big news is that JEM Farm has a full time Grower (yippie). Her name is Kara and if its green its her responsibility. She's doing a great job whipping our fields and hoop houses into shape. No doubt you've seen her with Elizabeth at the market but if you haven't please make a point of stopping buy to say hello.

Let see.... JEM farm is swimming in pigs so far this year. We were able to buy a lots of Red Waddle pigs early in the spring and they're gaining weight nicely. We also have several Large Black pigs that we just acquired, they're small and we never have raised them before so time will tell. Its a little impossible to keep our large Red Waddle boar behind any sort of fence these days. He really likes to fight with our big ole Hereford boar and they've been tearing each other to shreds so time will tell if we go back down to 1 in tact boar.......

We recently acquired 2 ponies from a neighbor, apparently he thought we didn't have enough to do......we know little about horses but the girl horse was pregnant and the boy is just pretty. We had no idea how pregnant she was until she had a baby on Mothers Day. They're healthy and happy and somehow we're chiseling time out of each day to spend a few minutes with them.

This year we are raising and breeding rabbits for meat. We are starting slowly and only have a few for sale at a time but with good breeding schedule we should have a full freezer in no time.

Our meat chickens are growing nicely. We've been approved to process these birds on the farm which means we can do a few birds at a time mostly to order and sell them fresh (not frozen) at the market.

I could ramble on but I know your as busy as we are. I promise to be more diligent with our news and keep everyone informed as to whats happening out here.

John & Elizabeth

Follow us on Facebook:

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!


         

Follow us on Facebook:

This month has been the month of babies.  We have had four of the five litters of piglets, successfully, and are waiting for the last litter to arrive.  Two of the sows decided to farrow (the special pig term for birthing) out in the woods, one in our neighbor's front yard...  We had to escort that pig home with her six babies, but the mama in the woods is on property we manage, and she is happily raising her young ones out doors.  We have provided her with a tarp for the storms we have been having lately.
  The storms and the warmer weather have made for lots of grass growing, and we have been reluctant to mow because of the wet. We are planning to move some of the grazing animals around to take care of the grass growth.

   We have been welcoming visitors to our home and farm, and we are looking forward to having a long term visitor from Spain.  Raul will be here on about the first of May and is looking forward to learning about our part of the world.  We have enjoyed spending time with our friends from Nashville, and a local friend is coming over the mountain from Sneedville to help us with some household chores.  If you want to spend some time getting muddy and learning more about animals or plants, let us know and we will work with you to get you some experience.

     Two weeks ago, we worked hard with the folks from the Porter Road Butcher shop to create bratwurst, sweet Italian sausage and all natural hot dogs.  These wonderful products, made from our own pigs, are made without any fillers, additives and in natural casings.  There is wonderful flavor and great texture.  These are products you can be proud to serve at home, and that you can feel good about serving to your children. For more information about them, and for the chance to get some, please plan to attend the ETSU Farmer s' Market on Thursday, the 23rd, this week.  Come out to the Saw Works brewery on Saturday the 25th at 3:30PM and actually taste our wonderful bratwurst with some of the great Saw Works beer!
Follow us on Facebook:

  

John & Elizabeth

Follw us on Facebook:

Morning Everyone.

We had a great weekend and had a great day at the Winter Farmers Market in Knoxville on Saturday. The weather was fantastic and since everyone had cabin fever we saw a lot of our friends. I just love Saturdays!

Well, JEM Farm is Super excited to announce that we are selling through Overstock.com. They've developed an online farmers market and we jumped on-board. They are a fantastic company to work with and are committed to supplying farm fresh LOCAL food to its customers. They have actually sent their employees to training sessions to help them understand the pliet of the farmer and what it takes to get these products from the farm to the consumer.

This is VERY COOL and I want to give a shout to our Customer Care Representative "Faviola" from Overstock. She is fantastic to work with and a joy to talk to over the phone. (she's in Utah) so we've never met......YET!

This is perfect for those individuals who simply can't or don't want to visit their farmers markets but still want Farm Fresh Product.

Overstock.com

We offer deliveries from Bristol TN to Oak Ridge and all points in between.
John & Elizabeth

Follow us on Facebook:

Howdy!

We dug ourselves out of the snow last night and made it down to Knoxville this morning to drop off 2 pigs at Three Rivers Market and also picked up the first cuts from our pig at Willy's Butcher Shop.

Robert and the gang are going to be busy, they've got about 400 lbs of meat to cut tomorrow and not a moment too soon as they were OUT of sausage today!

Willy sure delivered on our piggie as the cuts we picked up today look FANTASTIC! We have pork sirloin chops, rib chops, uncured pork belly, boned rolled and tied boston butt, my mouth is watering so i'll quit. Be sure to stop by our online shop and get some while it lasts and remember all our Pork is NON GMO and Pasture Raised.

John & Elizabeth

Follow us on Facebook: