We’re also exceedingly grateful to Mme. Liz Miller of Feast Magazine for her November 2015 Feast Magazine One-on-One write-up about our farm, and have gobs of respect for what she and the Feast staff do for Missouri’s food culture.
Have a look at their Nov 2015 Feast Magazine free digital issue (flip to page 23 to read about us) and if you haven’t already pick up a fresh, hard-copy of Feast Magazine. It comes out every month and is filled with loads of yummy eats!
Happy Spring, Dear Readers!
We’re well beyond just a little excited about springtime and all that it brings. The daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths are coming up and all our fruit trees have promising little buds or blooms, which the bees are digging, and which we’re taking as a sign that our first ever orchard attempt has been, so far, at least, a success.
Of course, springtime also means we have poultry again! Well, to be honest, we’ve been back in the poultry business since sometime in February, but now they’re all big and strong and can be outside, and Outside’s starting to get warm and welcoming enough to be a good hostess. It’s a total win-win.
Even before the birds were ready for the great outdoors, though, the weather was pretty cooperative in our neck of the woods. It’s been cold, sure, but it’s been dry, which is a big deal for brooding. We’ve been pretty fortunate on that front.
Also in February, we sold all but one of our cattle. And the one we kept is staying ’cause she’s on the nest! It was a surprise, because we don’t have a bull, but this little tart jumped the fence and apparently got cozy with the neighbor bull. We’re pretty excited about it, though—this one will be our first conceived-here, born-here calf!
We DO have a few other calves right now, but they’re adoptees. The first one’s name is Mickey, and he weighs about 160lbs at 3 or so months old.
Mickey came to us in a sort of round-about way. Our neighbor, Kevin, got cattle early this year, and many were bred, so he’s had many successful births, effectively growing his herd. Sadly, though, one of those cows lost her calf, so Kevin got a young dairy calf to keep her company and help alleviate the pressure on her udder. But the cow was too clever and didn’t, even for one minute, believe that Mickey was HER calf, so he became a bottle calf, instead. Meanwhile, Matt had been thinking that maybe we should get a bottle calf for our little nephew (who’d been asking for a goat—this is close enough, right?), and since, for Kevin, keeping a bottle calf would be challenging (he has a full-time job and doesn’t live at the farm), the stars aligned and we got the calf! And though he’s not bottle-feeding anymore, he’s still super friendly and we get a kick out of watching him explore his world.
Matt brought home the other 4 bottle calves a few weeks ago from the local dairies. 
There’s Eager Steeger, or Steegs for short, and he’s for our newest niece. He showed up hungry and eager and we have yet to see him satisfied, which explains his name. Then there’s Clark,
who we got for our other niece. Clark’s doing great now, but during week 2 here was feeling sorta puny. Fortunately, Yours Truly saved the day with a couple probiotic capsules as big as a a thumb, electrolytes directly down the gullet, and a syringe of some sort of magic from our vet. The remaining two calves are a matched set of Holstein-Angus mutts, and their names are: Kurt (named for Matt’s cousin) and Sarah Cook (as requested by my best friend, who just likes having farm animals named after herself—this calf joins a series of other Sarah Cooks on farms around this fine nation), and they’re our very own.
Anyway, selling the bulk of our cattle herd has allowed us to take advantage of the empty pastures and do some much-needed soil amending. In March, a very nice man with a hat named Doug brought a very large truck with a dump-bed and dropped a couple tractor-trailer loads of lime on the driveway of the new 40. Then Matt and our neighbor, Kevin, spent that evening (night) spreading it on the cattle-free pastures.
Also on on the pasture front, we’re in the process of converting a couple previously row-crop fields into pasture, which for now means planting oats for forage/hay. The long-term plan is to plant an endophyte-friendly fescue there, but since seeds for that grass are best planted shortly after its harvest in the fall, we’re too far out by the following springtime (at which point you start to lose some of the benefit of the endophyte-friendliness). So in the meantime, we’ve gone with the oats. After we make hay from them, we’ll sow the fescue, and once it takes hold, we’ll add in some clover. And the cattle will be the happiest clams.
Anyway, it wasn’t long before we were back in the cattle business. Matt’s a cattle man at heart, so we couldn’t really have gone long without a significant cattle project, and we didn’t. A couple weeks ago, he came home with 11 cows of the pregnant persuasion. So we now have 12 cows and 6 new teeny calves (whose mothers are no longer pregnant). And they’re so cute and clumsy you can barely stand it. Their eyes are all shiny and sparkly and their ears are ginormous. And their mothers are doing all the right things. 🙂
Also new is our fancy new (under construction) garden! For Christmas this year, Matt gave me two little scraps of paper, both IOU’s, which sounds terrible for a gift, but it was brilliant. One IOU was for a bunch of bricks and the other was for a bunch of lumber which combined, are the fixin’s for a brick-paved, raised-bed garden! So we’re about … let’s say 34% through building it, and have started to populate the built bits with cool season stuff like greens, onions, radishes, carrots, etc., and have also planted some potatoes. This Easter will be dedicated to finishing the garden and getting a few more things in the dirt, including flowers, which I’ve been buying at the nurseries around here and keeping indoors at night for fear of too-cold weather. May 10 is our frost-free date, and I’m not sure I can wait that long
—
I may gamble with a few plants.
What else…? Well, for one, the Feast Magazine buzz of last year was great for business, which has been lovely, and has helped us grow again this year. And growth is great, but it means we’re producing more and that there’s more work to do, so we’re finally getting some regular help for the first time ever, and it’s been great!
Matt’s been loving the new trucks, too. There’s the new (to us, anyway) box truck for deliveries, which has been a trooper and is much more glamorous than the first box truck. And then, just this winter, Matt got a new (to us, only) farm truck and put a flat-bed on it. And it was about time, since his last pickup was in pretty tough shape. We just took the farm truck out to check on the cattle earlier in the week, and our nephew got to steer it. I think it was a pretty peak experience for him.
In addition, the new barn we (well not we, personally, but you know what we mean) built last fall has improved our lives immensely, making the big weekly job of getting ready for deliveries pleasant, when compared to how we used to do things! Not to mention, it’s also become the perfect venue for farm repairs, of which there are many, so if you’re ever looking for Matt, that’s probably a good place to check.
We’re looking forward to this season’s promised sunny days and warmer weather. Everything’s getting green and the cows are calving. The beagles are happy (catching rabbits always results in happy beagles, and they got one this morning), so things on this here farm are good.
Hello, Dear Readers.
I’m going to go out on a limb, and guess that you’re not shocked you haven’t heard from us in a while.
… I’m right? Thought so.
Anyway, as always, a lot has happened since our last update. Here’s what we’ve been up to:
Last time we posted, we had just gotten beyond the bountiful snows that replenished our area from the drought and things were starting to green up. Indeed, that happened. Things got REALLY green and lovely and we got plenty of rain this spring. In fact, it was downright soggy for weeks, and we began to think we’d taken the rain-dancing of last summer too far. Since, however, the rain has trailed off, and we’re back to little showers here and there, and back to a typical (nothing dire like last year, though) feeling that we could use some real rain.
Matt tilling our garden in early April, when the daffodils bloomed and everything began turning green.
The early profusion of rain made for a very involved spring, in terms of chicken rearing. That’s because our chickens on range tend to just park themselves once it gets dark, and the rain would typically come just after dark, meaning that while the chickens may have had the sense to move under their shelters in a rain storm during the day, they were bound to become soggy, hypothermic cadavers after dark without our intervention. All this translated into many a dark, muddy, waterlogged-pajamas, evening. Of course, we survived just fine, but each time we had to perform this task, I’d see Matt shake his head and say something along the lines of: “Why do I DO this??! THIS is why normal people don’t raise chickens on range!” He’s right—it’s certainly no walk in the park. And it made us look back on last year’s drought with a bizarre fondness. That’s not to say that we’d like to see it repeat itself, just that we didn’t appreciate NOT having to chase chickens around in the rain and mud at the time—that it was part of the drought’s silver lining we didn’t see from in the trenches.
And not to worry—we’re not overly discouraged by muddy, nocturnal chicken wrangling. Chickens are our gig, after all, so we’ll persevere, Dear Readers. It’s all just part of the experience. You’ll have your delicious local chicken (via our fabulous retailers), we promise.
Anyway, this sounds like a lot of whining, but mostly, it’s been fine. Besides, things going well doesn’t make for lively blogging. 😉
Nephew + Garden + Beagle – Pants + Mud
We got a lot of rain
Fortunately, all that rain has made the pastures look great, so the cattle, chickens, turkeys, and bees are benefiting from that now, and since the rain’s let up, we’re mud-chasing the chickens less often. We still load up chickens each Sunday night for processing on Monday mornings, though, and having been at this for a few years, we’ve been improving our methods, and loading chickens on Sundays has gotten to be significantly easier—more a boring reality (assuming it’s not muddy and slick that is) than something we dread. And it’s only once a week, which is manageable.
Also new this year are improved shade-structures for our chickens in the pasture. Matt’s retrofitted hinged sides onto antique hay wagons. The sides fold out like wings to add more shade than just the wagon, itself. And they can also flop down to the ground, protecting the chickens from storms. These new wagon-shade-thingies have also allowed us to upgrade watering systems too. The water barrel now sits on the wagons, making it easy to move as we move the wagons, and it drips into overhead (for the chicks) nipple waterers (I swear that’s what they call them—I’m not making this stuff up). Anyway, we like it better so far, and the chickens have had no trouble at all adjusting to the new waterers, either in the field or as chicks in the brooder.
In other news, Matt’s Tuesdays have been jam-packed! Tuesdays, of course, are delivery days, and we’ve been very fortunate to have had a lot of orders for chickens and turkey this spring—enough that we weren’t freezing any early on (for anticipated winter orders). Matt generally has between 13 and 17 stops to make, plus the trip to and back from St. Louis. Sometimes, he even has a delivery or two in Columbia, but as he tells it, he’s a beast, and can handle it. And fortunately, as I mentioned a post or two back, he’s invented coffee (he was previously a non-believer, but has since discovered, and taken full advantage of it) in the past year or so, which has helped him find inspiration many early mornings. A typical Tuesday begins with some coffee and a bagel, and then a trip to the processor to pick up weighed-out chickens and turkeys, the a return home to freeze boxes (we’re caught up, now, thankfully) of whatever’s not filling that day’s orders (so that it may fill orders over the winter months), dictating invoices to his lovely wife, and embarking on the 3-or-so hour trip to STL, during which he generally stops in Linn, MO for a SubWay sandwich. The sub is something he actually verbalizes excitement over each week before he leaves. Anyway, then he’ll run around STL dropping off meat and produce and chatting with clients, finally stopping in at his folks’ house briefly, and heading home, sometimes stopping for one last delivery in Rosebud, MO. Then he comes home and crashes on our porch. He’s a champ.
Matt leaving for deliveries, wearing one of his new Buttonwood Farm shirts!
Speaking of our porch, it remains our favorite place on the farm, and we’ve had many informal gatherings there so far this year. Also, it’s half painted! My sister and a friend came last week to visit and help with a few projects, and one of the projects was painting the trim and floor. So we started with half of the floor and then I haven’t gotten to the next half. That’s on the list for this week. Anyway, it looks fab.
Some of the new flower gardens off the porch
Also on the project list for when Sophie (my sister) was here was to ride Nelson (our ponybeast), and to mulch our flower gardens, which we did, and they look lovely! I’m especially impressed with how well the perennials we plugged in last year at the end of the season are doing, considering they didn’t’ have the benefit of being established before the winter. Early on this spring, I put in a bunch of annuals, too. Apparently Matt got a smokin’ hot deal on them at the produce auction (since it was a cool, soggy spring and no one was planting annuals), so he got me LOADS of them! I was so excited, at first, and am again now, but was less excited as I planted what amounted to 20+ flats of them (plus 6 mimosa trees). I love spending time in the garden as much as the next guy, but it really got out of hand. Anyway, it’s all paid off and I couldn’t be happier with the results.
As for riding Nelson, we did get in some riding time when Sophie was here during a tour of the farm, but more importantly, we got in plenty of quality mane-styling time. Sophie’s been really into braiding lately and gave Nelson the makeover of a lifetime. I’m not sure he appreciated it in quite the way we did, however. He was utterly engrossed in mowing our back yard at the time, and may just have been distracted by his appetite. Nelson’s also taken to doing a somewhat lecherous sounding neigh-laugh thing when he sees me in the garden near his water. I think he knows I’m a sucker and will take him an armful of weeds or spent plants (he was really digging the bok choy and radishes after they had gone to seed). It’s probably just an attention-getter (it works that way, for sure), but it’s pretty entertaining.
Nelson looking more fabulous than ever, thanks to my sister, Sophie.
Also this spring, we had a visit from the lovely Maddie, of Local Harvest grocery, cafe, catering, and CSA. She stayed with us a few days and tagged along with Matt during her stay, something which is not to be underestimated. They worked cattle, visited the processor, introduced new chicks to the brooder, moved feeders for the field chickens, and all sorts of other activities. She was a great sport about it all, and was extremely pleasant, even cooking several delicious meals for us.
Maddie Earnest during her visit to our farm and a field trip to a local scrap purveyor (though he calls it merchandise), where Matt gets wagons, barrels, and various other metal items, out of which he builds a farm.
Our vegetable garden has been doing beautifully this year too! We got a later start than we’d hoped, due to the aforementioned sogginess of the soil, but we did finally get stuff in and it’s been positively glorious! Matt planted an early lettuce patch, shielded from the early elements by a glass door panel, which made for lots of fresh salads. Then we had bok choy, strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower, and peas, the tail-end of which we’re still enjoying, and now we’re into Swiss chard, green beans, cucumbers, summer squash, onions and leeks, and even a single early tomato! Also on its way in is Matt’s much anticipated sweet corn. He tilled up a new spot this year, separate from our main garden to put in larger plots of select crops, including sweet corn, and has been salivating about it all spring. It’s come up and has begun bearing ears. This weekend, we even cooked a few, and Matt was beaming with pride. 🙂 Also in his new plot are a few melons, which now are about the size of tennis balls.
Our nephew enjoying broccoli right from the garden
Our garden in June
Near Matt’s new garden is our tremendous new orchard! Orchard, admittedly, may be an overstatement of the reality, but we just love being pretentious around here, so our little 10 fruit tree grove IS our orchard. The trees are around 8ish feet tall, and include two each of cherries, apples, plums, nectarines, peaches (how about that photo?), and we hope to add pears to the mix. It’s our little Noah’s ark of fruit production, and we couldn’t be more excited about it. We even got a few tiny cherries, plums and peaches this year. We’ve discussed that we probably can’t take full credit for them considering the fruits were already set, though tiny, when we planted the trees. But, to put it in sports terms, we had the assist. And we’re OK with that for now.
The are the peaches we grew in our new-this-year orchard!
There’s not really much exciting news to report about the cattle. They seem to be enjoying the green pastures and still, though we stopped feeding any silage when the grass arrived (also when we ran out of it, conveniently enough) follow the tractor when it goes through their space. In fact, last night, while I was preparing to load up chickens (also in the cattle pasture), our neighbor drove his tractor out to where I was (his 4-year-old granddaughter wanted to give me a Black-eyed Susan she’d picked), and they swarmed his tractor the whole way, and then looked confused when they left, leaving only a single gold posy, and not even for them.
Cattle Swarming the Tractor, remembering that it sometimes (used to) brings them delicious silage
As for the produce we’ve been getting for deliveries, the early tomatoes from our neighbors have been lovely and delicious! I’ve used them in cucumber-tomato-leek salads a bunch, as well as on pizzas, and have been really thrilled at the flavor. Matt’s chefs have loved them too. Field tomatoes have just begun to trickle in, as well, and we’re really looking forward to them. The farmers who grow them do a killer job! The summer squash have just begun, and we’ll soon have other favorites like cucumbers and bell peppers. Get excited, Dear Readers! Fresh, local summer produce is nigh!
Meanwhile, the bees have just now started to really kick into gear, according to Matt. He just last week, checked on all of them and was pleasantly surprised at how much more honey they’d collected since last time he’d checked. He’s hopeful that he’ll get at least as much honey as he did last year, but from half as many hives (we lost half our hives in the drought last summer), since they’re producing so much better with more flowers and nectar available. We’ve just begun to notice more bees around the house on our flowers too. I snapped this shot of them in the squash blossoms on Saturday, for instance, and this was just one flower. There were probably 10 bees on the squash alone that morning!
Bees busy in our squash blossoms, gathering nectar to make delicious honey.
The current push around here is to finish the lean-to Matt’s constructing off the far side of the brooder barn. The new space is intended to brood the new turkey poults he’ll be getting in 2 weeks. So, it’s crunch time, for sure. Just yesterday, we set all the rafters in place and Matt hopes to get the rest of the structure built this week, and maybe even get the roof on. Dude’s a maniac. Fingers crossed time and events allow for that!
The new lean-to in progress
We have some adult turkeys now too. Turkey orders this spring were such that we’d have run out, if we’d stuck to our initial plan, so we’re doing two batches, one of which we’ve begun to process, as needed, already this year. Anyway, the turkey’s a hit. We’ve even gotten a few mentions from our clients on Facebook, etc. about it. 🙂
A turkey poult from early this spring in the grass
The adult turkeys we have now
Speaking of which, If you’re followers of the farm on Facebook (which I’d recommend, since our updates there are more frequent, albeit less comprehensive than the blog posts), you may have noticed I’ve been trying to post things more often to keep things fresher there. And I’ve been reposting some of the posts we’ve been mentioned in (generally by the fine retailers of our fabulous products). Good times, friends. Have a look.
Buttonwood Farm’s Facebook page. Go like us!
Of course we’re always discussing improvements and ways to streamline, making our little operation more efficient, and have a few ideas tumbling around in our heads, now, as always. We promise to keep you abreast (ish, as you know we’re bad about posting) of anything we actually elect to do. In the meantime, we’re going to keep plugging away at things and hope things keep going the way they have.
… And we’ll keep on lovin’ on these beagles.
Berry being majestic
Minnie being bashful
Howdy!
We’re the worst bloggers ever. You’ve probably noticed, as you haven’t heard from us in months. Sorry ‘bout that.
Anyway, here’s the scoop. I’ll work backwards.
It’s finally getting springy around here. Well, we hope it is. That is we hope that it will stick. Exactly two weeks ago, it was in the 70s here, and I even wore flip-flops that afternoon to feel the lovely breeze on my pale winter-whiney toes. It made them happy. Then that night it got cool and didn’t get genuinely lovely again until today (now yesterday), which was glorious. Today was also the day that my daffodils finally bloomed! Also today, we took Nelson, our ponybeast, who’s gotten to be one seriously shaggy dude, out for his first real ride since the blizzards. Yesterday, he got a pedi. Nelson, that is.
Matt riding nelson between the box truck and the tractor, which has the silage wagon attached.
Our first major blizzard came and dropped twenty-something inches of DENSE, wet snow! Then we lost power, which was neat. And we’d begun brooding chickens already by then (early this year, since we sold out of our frozen stash faster than we’d anticipated), but thankfully, Matt had, just weeks before converted the brooder heat to propane, instead of electric lamps, so no harm done—no one froze! We did miss the running water, though, both in the house and barns
LOTS of snow this winter.
We were lucky, and got electricity back within a day or so, though. Lots of folks in our area were out of power for several days. Which reminds me, that I should impart this clever tip: a neighbor and farmer friend suggested that we fill the bathtub if we’re expecting a big storm or blizzard. Says he does, and though we’d never thought to do it before this storm, we’ve vowed to do it going forward, seeing how out of luck we were without water. Shortly thereafter, as the most recent storm approached, we got to enact our vow, plus we extrapolated and also filled jars and pitchers for drinking water. We never lost power this time, but if we had, we’d have been set!
Did I mention we got a LOT of snow?
Since we got so much snow, Matt had to get creative to get chores done. The first morning, when we’d gotten over a foot overnight, Matt literally skied down to the silage pile, and he didn’t do it to be goofy—it was out of near necessity. The snow was so deep and heavy, you could barely walk in it, and trying to do chores would’ve been murder, so the skis kept him on top of the snow and made the trek more manageable, and even a little fun. Though, he was pretty bummed when he got down to the pile, finally got the loader started, and it promptly ran out of fuel. He had to ski back up the hill, grab a can of fuel, ski back down, and was finally able to load the wagon.
Chore skiing
Later that same week, once there had been some nice sunny days and an icy crust had formed on the top of the snow, Matt, Berry, Minnie (Berry’s beagle mother), and I had an arctic outing on property. Matt skied, I hiked, and Berry shouted at him. (She’s not a fan of skis, we learned. She’s also not a fan of bicycles or horse and buggy combos, and neither is Minnie, so it’s always a treat for the Mennonites who go by our house. We have to literally call off the dogs and apologize. Fortunately, the mild-mannered Mennonites don’t seem too worried about it, and she’d never hurt them, of course, but she launches a verbal attack each time.
For anyone who’s worried, yes, our porch survived. In fact, our porch was a champ, and has been a fine venue from which to feed and watch the birds, which is my new favorite thing.
Our porch standing proudly despite the snows
Feeding the birds from our porch.
Anyway, the snows, while somewhat inconvenient have been an absolute gift! As you may remember, our area suffered from a crippling drought last year—the worst our county has seen in 30 years, so this was a VERY welcome bit of moisture. And what’s great about snow vs. the same amount of rain is that it sticks around longer and, as it melts, actually absorbs more effectively into the soil than rain does (rain tends to run off, meaning we don’t really get the same sort of benefit out of it). So we’ve learned that if, heaven forbid, we experience such wicked drought again, we should perform snow jigs in conjunction with our rain dances.
In related news, Matt found an updated map of the drought yesterday, and reported happily that it looks like we’re nearly recovered now!
All this recent precipitation means we’ve got stuff greening up like mad around here! The pasture where the turkeys were last year is positively glowing green, and the others aren’t far behind. Also, though we planted them very late in the season and weren’t sure they’d take, the shrubs and perennials in our porch garden and around the house seem to be coming back. Plus, as I mentioned, the daffodils are blooming, the hyacinths are nearly to that point, and the tulips are following suit. So, though it’s supposed to rain more and get a bit chilly again this weekend, I’m confident spring’s on it’s way. For real, this time.
Our porch garden coming back. Picture from a couple weeks ago. It’s even happier looking now.
Before that, the big deal in these parts was the beam. “The beam” may not sound significant to you, dear reader, but it is exceptionally significant in our household. And that’s because the beam replaced what used to be two walls that divided our living room, dining room, and kitchen into three tiny, stupid rooms. Well the living room used to be an OK size, but the other two were genuinely stupid. So NOW they’re all one lovely (ish… there’s plenty more glamorizing to do, but this was a GIANT leap for wonky-farmhouse-kind) space, wherein I can be boiling tea or slicing veggies, in what used to be our tiny, sequestered kitchen box, without losing out on the action in the living room!
The beam!
Matt and I had ordered lumber for the beam early last spring, but never got around to putting it in, so Matt’s older brother, who’s a timber frame pro and his charming and lovely wife, gave me a “we’re coming to do your beam” voucher for Christmas! And they did! And it’s amazing!
Also, we replaced our old two-story stove. What’s that? You’ve never heard of such a thing, you say? I’m not shocked; it was a pain to use, and went extinct shortly after it’s own brilliant invention, I’m sure. Ours came with the house. Anyway, now we have a single story unit (my folks’ old stove), which has added to the openness the beam provided. The whole effect is the bees knees, so I’m looking very forward to preparing some delicious fresh meals there this summer!
Before all the blizzards, before the beam, and before we began raising chicks for the year, we were on our big winter (cause when else can farm folks get away?) Down South & Out West vacation. It was pretty great. We started in OKC, celebrating the holidays with Matt’s grandparents, followed Matt’s fabulous uncle and aunt to Austin for an amazing New Year’s Eve concert and sight-seeing, and then followed them to their home in Brownsville, TX, where they showed us all the coolest stuff in the area, took us to Mexico for a day, and sent us off along the rest of the Rio Grande. We camped in Big Bend National Park and learned that Texas has mountains (who knew??); soaked in a hot springs in Truth or Consequences, NM, where my bougainvillea froze in the car; visited Great Sand Dunes National Park; and finally biked, hiked, soaked, and skied with friends in Salida, CO. Also we ate on this vacation. Loads. Everywhere we went, in order to sample the local fare. We put a lot of miles on the ol’ Subaru too, but it was a pretty great trip, so the miles were well worth it.
Guess which city…
Texas. Near Big bend. That’s the Rio Grande.
At Great Sand Dunes National Park
Near Salida, CO, on a hike with our pals, Benny and Tracey.
And since Matt’s very competent younger brother watched the place and looked after the cattle for us, we had nothing to worry about while we were gone. Though I did think a lot about Berry and Minnie, who stayed in MO, and whom I missed dearly.
Before our vacation was the holidays, and for us that means Christmas tree season. The Home Grown Trees (Matt’s family’s really, really good pal and partner in the business—actually the same fellow who married the two of us—grows the trees in Northern Michigan, where we used to live) tree lot is something Matt’s family has been doing, and enjoying immensely, for years. This year’s lot went great at the new location, and we’re already looking forward to next year.
At the Home Grown Trees Christmas tree lot. Matt and his brothers and dad, Benny, from Michigan, and the short one’s our nephew.
Aside from Christmas tree season, the holidays were also the holidays, and our holiday celebrations were exactly lovely and precisely delicious. We have really wonderful families
Before that was Buttonwood Farm’s very own turkey season. The turkeys this year were hilarious, and loved their grassy roaming zone. We had a good variety of sizes for our customers, and just the quality we’d hoped for. We had about half of them processed for Thanksgiving in St. Louis, and the other half processed a week later and frozen as whole, ground, legs, drumsticks, breasts, wings, necks, and backs. It was a heck of a project, but we were proud of the result. It made all our (mainly Matt’s) hard work seem worth the effort.
Matt with his flock, looking proud.
Perfect timing on this one! Caught her mid-shout.
Also rewarding is that this year we got a sliver of limelight when one of the local TV stations did a blurb about how best to do a Thanksgiving turkey. It was a demonstration by one of the chefs we work with, who used one of our turkeys, and was kind enough to say so, promoting our methods!
Anyway, it’s always a bummer to see the turkeys go, because they’re so curious and entertaining. Some of this year’s most memorable turkey moments were when our toddler nephew would visit and run among (and amok with) the turkeys. They’d just chase (though that sounds aggressive, and they weren’t) him around all over, until he ran back into a flock of them flailing, after which the whole process would repeat itself. I should really post a video, ‘cause my words just aren’t doing the scene justice… We’ll see if I can figure that out. Anyway, it was incredibly funny and adorable.
Matt caught a turkey for our nephew to pet. He doesn’t seem to be getting good reviews.
They’re so inquisitive.
Also during our turkey season, Berry, our mascot and the world’s finest beagle-mutt got sick. Spoiler alert, she’s great now, so no worries, but she was in really, really dire shape. She had Ehrlichiosis from a tick (though she’s always been on tick preventative), and it was awful. It’s not an illness you hear about, but it’s sorta like Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever—another Rickettsia bacteria. Apparently, it’s pretty common in our area and in St. Louis, and in case I wasn’t clear, it’s awful. It can hide out in your pup for a long time and then attack brutally (Berry even had seizures!), but thankfully, treatment is simple and works very quickly! Anyway, just something to be conscious of, dear readers. Ticks are a big deal. So is Berry.
That got a little glum… Sorry ‘bout that.
Berry has SO recovered!
On a WAY lighter note, as I mentioned our porch survived the blizzards as well as the fall and summer, and we loved every moment on it. Already this year, we’ve grilled a couple times, and have had coffee/tea and a few brisk lunches on our porch. Today’s lunch out there wasn’t even all that brisk. The porch is still not quite finished; we have yet to paint it an add trim and railings, for instance. Need to apply the gutters too, but it’s a mostly functional space, and we enjoy sitting out there, admiring the garden, and watching our cattle grazing across the road.
The box truck also survived the year! And best of all, it’s got new tread and tires (thanks to Matt’s very, very generous cousin), so Matt’s fallen in love with it all over again. He says it drives WAY better, and he’s convinced it sits higher. On a side note, we’ve learned that with its new tread and better traction, it can pull out the tractor when it’s stuck, his other truck, the neighbor’s snowed-in vehicles, etc. A very handy tool, indeed. We’re talking about painting our logo, etc. on the sides of the box, but Matt’s campaigning that we should really have a picture of him on there, instead—one with a cheesy, overly enthusiastic smile and thumbs-up, holding a chicken.
chickens on pasture
As for what else is new or in the works this year, we’re looking at expanding further, meaning we’ll do a few more birds, probably build a new brooder space, specifically for the turkeys, and that we have more cattle this year too.
In fact, right now we have double the cattle we thought we would, since we have yet to sell last season’s herd, because the drought set back the whole process. It threw off the prices of grain, and devastated grass and the amount of weight cattle were gaining from it, thereby negatively affecting cattle prices and how big our cattle were. Shockingly, that was NOT a recipe for success, so we didn’t sell them last fall like we’d planned to. We kept them, fed them hay and silage, and Matt plans to sell them in the next several weeks.
The new calves, meanwhile, are crazy cute. And, though neither set (old or new) is grown adults, these fellas are much smaller than the first batch, which reminds us that last year’s calves, who started about the same size, really have come a long way under our tutelage.
Curious and adorable new calves.
Both teams of calves get a bit of silage each day. Matt starts calling them a bit before he heads out to feed them, so they’re all ready and waiting at the gate, and then it’s pretty stinkin’ cute to see all of them chasing after Matt on the tractor with the big wagon. Many actually walk along and eat as he’s driving, their faces shoved into the moving silage stack.
Mouths watering, waiting for Matt and his silage wagon.
Moving silage in the snow.
The snows made the feeding process very challenging. Matt’s tractor wouldn’t do the trick, so we had to borrow our neighbor’s steel-wheeled tractor. And thank heaven we did, or the calves would’ve been hungry. However, Matt’s learned that the Mennonite lifestyle (when it comes to steel tractor wheels, anyway) is not for him. So he’s in the market for a new (to him) tractor that will do the job. One with regular tires, if you please.
I mentioned the propane brooder heat improvement earlier, but Matt’s also been preparing for the summer heat out in the pasture. Of course, last year was especially brutal for our birds with the heat and drought, and surely most years won’t be so rough, but we’re improving our shade methods anyway. Matt’s just gotten several old hay wagons, and is preparing them to serve as new shelters, in addition to the shelters we had last year. We’ve also been discussing new, more efficient methods of watering the birds in the field, so stay tuned (I’ll try to make it a point to post again before December, but don’t bet the farm on it) for what we decide there.
You can kind of see the netting (last season’s big chicken improvement) in the back of this shot. It keeps the birds contained, but more importantly, it keeps the bad guys out.
In other news, we’ve just yesterday been to visit our pals, the Zimmermans, the Mennonite family who grows the majority of the produce we sell, and they’re well on their way in terms of production this years. Their greenhouses are already up and at em, and the day we were there, they were planting candy onions in the field. So we’re very hopeful about this year’s produce.
As I’m writing this, it’s pouring outside. But it’s not an angry, oppressive rain. It’s a hopeful, friendly offering. And I’m choosing to think of it a bit like seed money—like an investment for the purpose of starting something great or doing something amazing. That’s how this year is going to be. I just know it.
I’m hoping hard about it, anyway.
So that’s that. We’ve covered a lot of ground, both literal and figurative, since my last post, and are looking so very forward to what this year will bring. We’ve got lots on our plates, but we seem to thrive that way.
Sorry about the depressing drought business in the last post. Unfortunately, we’re full-disclosure sorts of folks, so that’s what you get. But this way, you’ll appreciate this happy post SO much more!
On to the good stuff!
On a high note, the produce we’ve been getting is still beautiful! Our neighbors who grow it have been irrigating like mad, but their efforts have paid off! The tomatoes, in particular, are just as lovely as ever and we recently canned around 50 quarts, we love them so much. Our chefs, restaurants and CSAs love them too and have been very happy with the produce this year.
They’ve been very pleased with chickens, as well. We’re proud to say that despite the drought, we’ve maintained our high quality standards.
Some new chicks in the brooder barn
And on another high note, and as promised, the front of our house and new porch are roofed! In fact, we’ve spent many nights this summer on our porch. It’s Matt’s new favorite place to take pre-naps (what he calls it when he falls asleep on the porch before he actually goes to bed for the night). It’s a great place for breakfast and coffee too.
A porch process shot. Just before we got the roof on that side too. Please note Matt’s giant hat. He’s pretty proud of it.
(roofed porch photos to come in future posts)
Which reminds me, Matt, who until about 6 months ago was vehemently opposed to consuming coffee, has become a regular coffee drinker, and he likes it STOUT! He makes it using too much ground espresso in our French press. Then he just vibrates the rest of the day on the farm, achieving productivity miracles! It’s new his favorite thing. Almost…
I say “almost,” ‘cause Matt’s actual favorite part of the season has been his new BFF, Nelson. Nelson is a mostly-whiteish with grey speckles and splotches, supremely stout pony, and he and Matt take regular rides out to check on the chickens and “beeves” (cattle) as Matt calls them. Nelson had an eye issue when we got him, and we soon learned it showed all the signs of cancer, which was devastating news. So we took him to the vet, who agreed it looked like cancer, but upon further inspection, determined that the swelling was actually a result of an injury! We just had to apply antibiotics for a few days, and now Nelson’s good as new! The cancer-but-not incident sealed the bond between chicken farmer and steed. Now they’re inseparable, which is especially ironic, considering Matt’s lifelong indifference (bordering on antagonism) of the idea of horses and horse-peopledom (that is owning horses for largely cosmetic reasons). Though, in his defense and in his own proud words, “I’m a pony man, not a horse man!”
This is Nelson, Dear Readers.
A man and his pony…
Nelson helping Matt on his Phone
Easily my favorite photo of the season
We sought out Nelson because Matt got a hankerin’ for an equine (a mule, originally, but that’s a different story) and since we’re not horse-pros (shocker, right?). Nelson was the mellowest equine either of us has ever met, and thereby seemed unlikely to be a danger to us, which was exactly what we needed—“lobotomized pony” was our mantra. And he’s still quite mellow (seriously, this fella used to be a pony-ride pony—they type kids walk under and around and stick to with their cotton candy hands and faces at the carnival), but after we wormed him using a delicious-smelling apple paste, he got a bit more personality and spunk. So, naturally, we’ve made it a point to remind him what a “rotten pony” he is every time we see him, in an effort to keep his head from swelling.
But to put Nelson into perspective, I should tell the slightly abridged Equine Acquisition Operation story. Exactly three days before we met Nelson, Matt decided, very much out of the blue, that he needed a mule. The mule had to be “dead broke,” as Matt would say, so he wouldn’t have to worry about getting hurt or training the beast. He found a mule that sounded promising on craigslist that evening, and we went to scope him out. We got there, and on our walk toward the pen where they kept the mule (and his comrade, Goat Man, a rather powerfully-scented goat who took a liking to me), we learned that, while he was “broke-to-ride” six months ago, he was barely approachable now, even with treats. So naturally, I had internally decided (and was 100% certain Matt had done the same) that this was not the mule for us. Unfortunately, I was dead wrong about Matt’s thinking. He took one long look at the handsome mule and asked “how do we load him?!” I was shocked. We were about own an incredibly recalcitrant mule, and had no idea how to deal with said beast. And that was just the start.
As it turns out, the mule’s owners didn’t have a corral or any good way to load him into our trailer, so the operation became a full-blown rodeo, during which Matt free-style lassoed him at one point, shocking us all, but especially himself! Also, one of the mule’s previous owners was nearly trampled in the operation. All-in-all, it was nearly a three-hour affair. This mule made us earn him.
On the way home, we officially deemed him “Nelson” (wait, there’s an explanation!), having decided we would (if we came to own him) the previous evening. We had high hopes that, with a little TLC, Nelson, the mule, would return to is 6-months-ago ridable status over the coming months. But, despite our best intentions and efforts, our interactions with him didn’t improve. In fact, the next morning, we spent nearly two hours just trying to get a halter on him, which was utterly unsuccessful and far too dangerous (for a couppla horse dopes, like us) to pursue beyond that point. And that’s why we REnamed him “Richard.” (If you wish to understand our reasoning, simply drop your mind in the gutter—there you’ll find the rude, nickname-for-Richard pun, which will shed light on our new name choice. Though, out of respect, we’ve been calling him by his full name.)
I’d post a photo of Richard, but I have only one, and it’s awful, so I’ll spare you.
Richard was, indeed, a beautiful mule, but, as I’m sure you can tell, he was not the equine for us, which is why we got the Real Nelson (Matt’s favorite pony) three days later, and why he’s our only equine now. That’s right, we found a new home for Richard as well as one for our first three steeds, the donkeys! It was sad to see them go, but their new owners said we’re welcome to visit them.
The donkeys watching Nelson when we first got him. Dennis, Shirley, Laverne.
Also on the list of good news is that Matt and his dad, Mike, and brother, Pat, extracted honey last week. And while the yield was MUCH less than they’d anticipated before the drought, it’s delicious, just like last year, and is now available for purchase, from either our farm or Mike and Pat.
But enough about steeds! In other news, Matt’s preparing another freezer to hold our planned winter stash of chickens and turkeys, and has changed his storage method in order to make more efficient use of the space within the freezers.
The cattle are a mixed bag. Some look great and are putting on weight well, and others seem to be a little stunted by the drought. Thankfully, we should have enough pasture and hay to maintain them over the winter, which is our new plan, since they won’t be a big as we’d hoped they would in November (when we had originally planned to sell them).
The cattle getting a drink
And to top all this good stuff off, the biggest event of our summer was—drumroll, please—our trip to the zoo (and St. Louis Science Center!) with our favorite horse-and-buggy Mennonite family! It was so cool in so many ways, that it’s hard to know where to start with the story! First, Matt was super excited to be driving a 16-passenger black van the family had rented. Next, since this was to be this family-o-twelve’s main family vacation, we picked them up and got on the road REAL early for a Saturday—4:30am (which was imperative in order to get to the zoo when it opens!). Matt and Mark talked about farming and machinery the whole drive to St. Louis and Esther and I covered all sorts of topics, but we always enjoy their company. They’re some of our favorite people.
We had a good time at the zoo—we rode the carousel, made it to the children’s zoo early when it was free, and got “attacked” by a giant gorilla through the glass and saw nearly everything. Then we headed to the Science center, which was a ball, and was a HUGE hit with the kids (and Mark!). At one point the oldest boy in the family said something like. “we should’ve come here first!” As though there wouldn’t be enough time to explore it all, having spent so much time at the zoo. But we explored it quite thoroughly, the crowd favorites being the mind puzzles on the second floor, a few of the presentations we saw, and some of the architectural displays. Finally, we ended the day with a fun and delicious barbecue at Matt’s folks’ house, before driving and chatting the three hours back home, dropping the family off after midnight, and loading up on produce—Esther sent us home with all sorts of peaches and melons and stuff!
Otherwise, it’s lots of the same daily and weekly grind. Deliveries have been going quicker since Matt’s been more consistently printing off invoices ahead of time (filling them out at each drop-off was surprisingly time-sucky). We keep improving our methods for loading the chickens the evening before they’re processed, too. It used to be something we absolutely dreaded, but now Sunday nights, while not something we look forward to necessarily, aren’t so awful at all—just a reality.
Certainly the drought has posed a number of challenges, as mentioned in our last post, but we’re making do. I’ve been especially stoked about using our new soaker hoses around the foundation gardens. It’s made a huge difference in the flora—the forsythia is GOBS happier—but is also supposed to help stabilize foundations in super drought conditions! We’re also excited about the prospect of the rain that’s supposed to come along with the tropical storms we keep hearing about. In fact, as a pal suggested, I’ve been doing my hurricane dance here in California, MO, so look out world.
Anyway, it feels great to finally post something again. Knowing us (me) it could be months before we post again, but I’m gonna try to post smaller stuff (these posts have been epic!) more frequently to keep it feelin’ fresh around here. You, dear reader, have to hold us (me) to it!
Here’s to hoping our next post will be about nearly having to build an ark! Too bad we’re without our donkey collection, eh?
Hello all,
We’ve been meaning to update the blog for a while now, and we have some cool stuff to share, but lots of the news is drought-related and not particularly uplifting. Sorry ‘bout that. If it’s any solace, we don’t like it either, so we’ll get it out of the way first. We promise we’ll follow this depressing stuff with an update on our porch, which is nearly roofed! And we’ll also introduce you, dear readers, to our latest acquisition, Nelson, Missouri’s stoutest pony. There’s more good news, too. Lots, in fact –just read our next post.
Also, since it’s really no secret that I (Eleanor, the missus) am the one doing the writing for this here blog, I’m gonna just call a spade a spade and speak in the first person. I. I. I. Me. Me. Me. There you have it. It’s less awkward this way.
Anyway, at the risk sounding like every weatherman and farmer in the Midwest, that fact remains that it’s been oppressively hot and dry here. The worst drought our county has seen in 30 years, in fact. The earth here is powder. Hot, sullen powder.
Where our lovely creek used to be.
This is all that’s left of the pond.
This spot is usually covered in several feet of water
… at least the frogs are happy
On a loosely related tangent, we recently biked a portion of the Katy Trail and were shocked to see huge cracks along the trail—sometimes 30 feet long, several feet deep, and a couppla inches wide at the tops! We could see where Katy Keepers (no idea what they’re actually called) had gone along and filled in some of the cracks, seemingly a safety precaution, but more had cropped up since their last visit. Was sort of unnerving, and was an unwelcome reminder of just how dry it is around here.
As it turns out, farming, while rewarding and lovely on many levels, is a profession that puts folks, even when they carefully plan every aspect and penny of a year’s business, at the mercy of the weather. And that’s just exactly where we are.
We’re making it work, but we’re definitely whiney about it. It’s almost a laugh so you don’t cry sort of situation, some days. So we’ve been doing a lot of laughing.
Among other things, the drought and heat have meant we’ve had to be extremely vigilant with the poultry (we now have turkeys, too—a ton of ‘em!), especially those on pasture. We always have plenty of shade and water available to them, but still they crowd and pant. They eat only when it’s cool, so nights (not even evenings, as it’s been staying hot so late) and early mornings are their best times. They were a bit smaller during the hottest months, as a result, but not by too much. Fortunately, they’re still delicious and tender, just like they always have been.
Chickens at their waterer out in the field. Note the fancy new electric netting.
The turkeys are about five weeks old, and they’re growing like mad. They’re getting to the point where their cute factor is suffering, but we’ve still been finding their antics entertaining, now that they’re out on range, peeping and playing in the dust. In related news, it’s been hot enough, even in the shade of the brooder barn that we haven’t had to use heat lamps at all during the day. Did I mention it’s been hot?
The turkeys are super entertaining and curious. This one was scoping out the lambsquarter weed in front of her and taking a bite (peck?) every few seconds.
The pastures are suffering from the heat and drought too. Many farmers around us are selling their cattle because their pastures won’t support them. Heck, some farmers’ wells are drying up! Thankfully, we still have enough pasture due to the newly acquired acreage in front of the house. But our cattle are growing slower than we’d hoped, since the grass isn’t the thick, lush green it usually is. They seem happy enough, though, and Matt has them trained to come when he yells for them. Our toddler nephew yells for them too; it may just be the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.
Our pasture in August, looking as though it’s October, due to the drought
The drought is also responsible for decreased clover in the pastures, which has been noticeable in our beehives. Last summer was fairly dry too, and we managed a good honey crop, but this year’s drought is decidedly worse, and this year’s crop is looking dismal in comparison. However, we’ll still have honey, since we have more hives this year—just not as much as we’d expected.
Had to purchase bee food, since there’s very little pasture/clover for them to replenish their stores before winter.
Sounds like it’s too late, rain-wise, for corn crops around here, too. So much so, that farmers are talking about cutting crops for silage, instead of grain. Soy’s not looking great, either, though there’s still a chance it could turn around if we get some rain. All this has caused our grain/feed prices to skyrocket! We’re paying 35% more to feed the chickens and cattle than we were 3 ½ months ago! Ouch, right?!
The beans look pretty sad in spots…
Some of the beans around us look OK, though. We’re hoping to still get something out of ’em.
Anyway, since this has gotten lengthy, and I’m about to switch things up and get cheery with the good news around here, I’m gonna cut you loose on this post. Read on for the good stuff. This was depressing. Sorry.
It’s been plumb busy here!
We have more chicks and chickens than you can shake a stick at, and the projected number for this year keeps growing. We’ve mixed up our field method this year, and it’s helped a ton. Last year, we had many small pens we’d have to move each day. But this year, we’ve invested in lots of electric netting, which allows for bigger spaces and more grass for the birds to enjoy. It also means less nit-picky labor for us. We’ve also improved our watering methods, in an effort to streamline our process, while maintaining the quality of our product.
In the same vein, we’re especially excited about our new labels! Eleanor does graphic design and worked up the snazziest label chickenkind has ever encountered. We’re pretty proud of ’em. Also in an effort to streamline our ordering and delivering, we’re now packing birds in nice, new wax boxes, which are Matt’s new favorite thing–he’s obsessed.
And most exciting is our new chicken processor! He’s just a few miles from our house, and is state-inspected and full-service, meaning he takes care of everything–all we have to do is deliver chickens and then pick them up, beautifully packaged to our specifications. What we love most about this, is that processing doesn’t waste a day for Matt anymore! He gets up pretty early, but he can still come home and still get a full day’s work done. And there’s plenty to be done.
We just expanded our front yard too. The 40 acres across the street went on the market, and though at first, we weren’t interested, the longer it stared at us, the more interested Matt got, and the more sense it started to make. It came with an insulated barn with nice wooden stalls, and it will be a perfect brooder space, and a certain improvement on the current brooding space. Also, the acreage is nice–it has pasture, which we just had hayed, and a bit of woods, too.
It’s been dry here, particularly this May, which means pastures are growing slowly. It also means that there’s less clover blooming now, so our hives look good, but they’re not putting on as much honey as they would if we’d had more rain. That said, Matt harvested a tiny sample of honey a month or so ago, and it was delicious!
The local produce we’re getting this year looks great as ever! The tomatoes are the picture of perfection and have had really, genuinely good flavor. The asparagus has been tender and delicious, the cucumbers, zucchini and summer squash look and taste wonderful, and we’ve had some of the loveliest (and HUGEST) blackberries we’ve ever seen. And we’re looking forward to peppers and green beans coming available soon.
And for the cattle update, we did get calves–about 100 of ’em, and they’re getting meatier by the day, and look great. We’re feeling really great about them this year.
This is our first (real) post. Here’s what we’ve been up to:
Mostly we’re recovering from the holidays. But aside from that, we’re making plans.
After a pretty good season last year, the farm’s sort of on dim in these winter months. The birds are in the freezer, the cattle are sold, and the donkeys are on sabbatical in Hillsboro, MO. But that’s not to say we’re not plotting for spring.
For instance, we have plans for the remainder of 2011’s turkey crop. Much of it was enjoyed by St. Louisans this past Thanksgiving, but we’re planning to grind what’s left. We’ve had a few sample batches done now and are extremely pleased with the results. We’ll keep you posted, but hope to have it available later this winter and into the spring and summer.
Also on our plate for poultry next year are possible changes in how we raise and where process them.
So far, we’ve raised chickens on pasture in big moveable pens, which is the way most pastured poultry is done. We even did our turkeys that way in 2010, but last year we tried turkeys in one large fenced in area and (we were worried about predators, but didn’t have any trouble with them!) it was so much simpler, so we’re exploring how that can be applied to chickens this year. We’re thinking electric netting.
And while we really liked our processor from the last couple years, he and his wife are talking about retiring, and they’re over an hour away from us, so it’s time for a change, and we’ve found just the ticket! A local Mennonite fella will be a state inspected processor this year, and he’s just a few miles from our farm, which will make processing days easier on us and on the birds. We’re looking forward to it.
We’re also looking into more efficient packaging and labeling for our birds. Eleanor’s uncle is a professional printer and had some ideas for us, so we’re really excited about improvements on that front. We’ll keep you posted.
Furthermore, we’re expanding again this year. Last year we quadrupled our chickens but ran out again, so to meet the demand, we’re upping the ante. We’ll also raise more cattle and hope to do lots more produce.
Finally, since last year’s cattle project was a success, we’ll get calves again this year. Now that we can look back on our cattle endeavor of 2011, we’ve got some new ideas, and have been checking cattle prices and hope to get calves in the next month or two.
Buttonwood Farm 