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!
Hello friends!
We have these foxy new shots of our turkeys and we thought we’d share them to get you folks excited about Thanksgiving. Enjoy! 😀
Want one of these bad boys? Get your Thanksgiving turkeys through our fabulous retailers, many of whom are taking pre-orders.
And they’re doing great—all cozy and adorable and entertaining—in the brooder.
Hello Dear Readers! And welcome to all you new folks who found us through our Feast Magazine article or Feast TV episode! We’re pretty excited about all that. 🙂
And while we promise to write a real post with real farm updates soon, in the meantime, here’s the Feast stuff, in case you’ve missed it:
The Online Article:
Story by Liz Miller. Photos by Demond Meek.
The Video:
We’re the first few minutes of the episode.
The Entire November Issue:
We’re the cover and the centerfold!
Where to find our turkeys:
Massive thanks to Liz Miller at Feast for writing about us and for pulling together the photo and video teams who helped to tell the story!
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.
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.
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 