Growing the Farm

This summer has been quite different from the past summers on the farm. We produced only 1 tomato in the garden and so far that has been the extent of our garden this year. The spring and early summer were just too wet for our garden. Then when it did finally dry up the weeds had taken over.  But other things have happened that have been really good.

We have raised our second flock of 50 meat chickens and sold all of them. We are working on the third flock. This flock was supposed to be for our personal use so we only ordered 25. We received 28 but lost one of them. And some of them are already sold.

We had a Farmer's Feast here in the county and provided 25 chickens for it. It was a really nice dinner on one of the other farms in the county. People from all over the county were invited and several from outside the county. I hope this will help in advertising and bring in a few more clients. Our eggs are available for purchase at one of the local hardware stores and we have raised the price on them to $3.00 a dozen. So we have increased sales and price, making us a little more money.

We are in the process of purchasing our own chicken processing equipment which will save us a $4.00 processing fee. It was $3.00 last time we had them processed but the processor told us they were going up. It will also give us more control of the environment that they are processed in.

Next year we are going to try our hand at raising turkeys and possibly rabbits for meat purposes. We already have clients interested in both. There are also plans to put in a large strawberry patch where our garden was this year and move the garden to a different area.

Even though we didn't really produce any vegetables on the farm this year the chicken industry is growing for us.

It seems that there is just so much going on with the farm all of a sudden. God's timing is always perfect and his blessing should always be treasured.

Have a great day!
Mae

Summer

Summer is really different this year. We have had so much rain our chances of getting anything from the small garden we planted are pretty slim.

Last night we had a really bad storm. Lots of wind, blew branches all over the yard and toppled the patio set.

Sunday evening we did have a chance to ride the UTV around the farm and pick blackberries. Most of them still aren't ripe yet so we only had about 2 cups after we picked all that we could get to on the fence rows and the domestic ones we have planted. I went on a search for something to make from that little bit of blackberries, and this is what I found on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/278026976972915942/.   I made it last night and it turned out really good. Greg and I both liked it. Here is my picture. I took the picture this morning and the glaze has kind of seeped into the cake but it was still delicious.

 This was my breakfast this morning. I really like how the berries seem to just liquify and become wonderful little pockets of yumminess.

 It seems like it's really hard to find recipes that only call for a little bit of fruit or vegetables so I am creating a Pinterest board for recipes like that. You can follow it here: https://www.pinterest.com/maen/a-lot-with-a-little/.

 Have a great day!
Mae