After what has seemed like years, the weather has cracked. As the initial signs of milder weather shyly make themselves, known life begins its annual revival, restarting her yearly cycle. I, for one, am unabashedly happy. I suppose, too, if the birds and beasts on the farm were questioned, they would be adamant in affirming their parallel happiness. The goats, at least, celebrated the arrival of warmth with the first kidding of the year, following the lead of the ewes in their earlier-than-normal lambing. The chickens, however, are slow in recovering from their chronic fatigue of these last weeks. Malaise was pandemic in the henhouse throughout the last Arctic bout and we offer our sincere apologies for the abject shortage of eggs. With a bit of luck this trend shall soon retire. All in all, we two-leggeds are not the only ones anticipating the coming spring.

                We have been occupied lately with brainstorms over a new venture that will begin this spring/summer: a farm school, with courses in agriculture and homesteading. There has been interest in educational possibilities for some time now, and it is with some hope of assisting folks pursue their desire to return to the land and to the simpler elements of life, that we will be offering courses per demand covering a host of skills. Debbie has added a segment to the website under “Farm School” that will provide any who are interested with a fuller explanation of available courses, etc.  

          With the coming of the new season, we are working on some new projects for the farm.  Many of you know that we have been contemplating ideas of a new store on the farm and this year seems like the time has finally come.  We will keep you posted on the plans and timelines as details become finalized.  Due to the fact that we are, in essence, farmers and not store keepers, any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Please send along any hopes you may have for the new store along with suggestions for new products we could carry.  Our goal is always to provide our customers with products of the highest quality but as many of you know, with the limited space we have had to choose very carefully which products would garner the precious shelf space.  With the potential of more space, we still promise to keep our strict standards with the added bonus of more items being in stock on a more consistent basis.

                Goat shares are in full swing now and there are still some shares available. We have all been enjoying the unusually sweet flavor of the milk that is so often lacking in store-bought goat milk. Debbie has had great success with goat buttermilk and yogurt and manages to maintain a happy family through her almost vice-like goat yogurt smoothies.

                A few other things to take note of: owing to an interest in fowl by several local chefs, we are raising a small number of ducks this year and are now taking orders from interested individuals. In addition, Debbie and Aaron have commenced the year’s gardening and the store will, ere long, offer a variety of organically grown produce with which to accompany the other farm-fresh vittles of the store. As for natural sweeteners, expect a renewed supply of maple syrup starting today as the sap began to flow early this year. 

After the winter season with its scarcity of milk, we are excited to begin our amateur cheesemaking projects.  Sour Cream, yogurt, fromage blanc, mascarpone, kefir, cottage cheese and buttermilk are simple and easy dairy products to produce at home with our new dairy cultures.  Recipes are available on our website to aid you through the process.  For those more experienced in the art of cheesemaking, we now carry the Cheesemakers Manual with clear in-depth instructions and troubleshooting for everything from butter to parmesan.

Alan, Mary and Kate Yegerlehner are milking once again and that means the return of Pet products! Pet butter, yogurt, cottage cheese and curds will be available by the end of April but in limited supplies until the middle of May.  At that time, we should also see the return of string cheese and fresh mozzarella. Ice cream will make its appearance this week.

We are all looking to the new season with high hopes and are excited about having you as part of our new and revised ventures.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mark, Debbie, Brayden, Rhayna and Aaron