Spring is coming! Even though we are sitting here watching it snow we know its coming. Our animals are telling us so. Every morning for the past week Sir Lancelot, our beautiful peacock, has been tuning up his signature call. It was pretty rough at first, like a singer warming his voice, but now he is singing his love song loud and clear! We have also seen him fanning his spectacular tail! What a welcome sight after all these cold months.
T
he turkeys are also starting to hang out like a bunch of shy teen agers, the boys are hanging in a group and the girls are hanging in their own group. They are scoping each other out! We have been frantically trying to get the new turkey barn finished before the urge strikes and they start mating and laying eggs anywhere and everywhere besides where we want them to. It's that wild turkey streak in them that sends them to the woods, weeds etc. to make their nest.
Miss Rosie Piggins, our sow, seems to be "in a piggy way". She has been taking it easy and getting lots of rest in her delicate condition. Although a 600 pound sow seems anything BUT delicate. We are anticipating little bacon bits mid-May. There's nothing cuter than baby pigs!
Spring can hurry along any time and we'd be just fine with that! Stay warm!
We've made the big time! Your favorite bison ranch was featured in Rural Heritage magazine in the Feb/March issue. What an honor! The magazine is sold at TSC and Farm and Fleet. It's also available from the publisher. Thanks to Karen Kirsch, the author, for writing such a great article about our farm.
Here is a link to the magazine article available to read online.
https://www.ruralheritage.com/reading_room/sample.htm
Winter is the time we long for to rest, regroup and plan all the ways we are going to work ourselves silly for the next growing season! We are looking at a whole new management shift for 2014. After visiting our "farm hero" Joel Salatin we had a lot more insight into ways to better manage our pastures and hay grounds. So far this winter we have read tons of books on grazing, poultry and gardening. We are well armed with knowledge! Now we have to impatiently wait for spring! Here's a photo to get us in the mood.
We all like to just "veg out" every once in a while. It helps to restore our depleted energy on a cold winters day and allow our frazzled minds to wander to a better place. For us recently, that better place has been a sunny summer's day in our garden. It seems that each winter about this time we tend to crave the rich, fresh taste of one of the many varieties of heirloom vegetables that we grow. Heirloom vegetables or fruits, (Generally recognized as those 1951 and before) selected for their ability to thrive in various climates, their size and great taste are just some of the reason that these cultivars were selected and passed down generation after generation. So while we love a sled ride down a snow packed hillside just as much as the next person, these vegetables have been a driving factor in why we long for summer well before winter is even close to writing is final chapter.
The photo here shows an abundance of produce that came out of our garden two summers ago. We had many harvests just like this the past two summers from using only heirloom seeds, with ZERO pesticides, herbicides or any other 'cides whatsoever. It's truly a marvel to put a tiny seed into the ground and with a modest amount of care-taking watch it turn into something marvelous and healthful!
So where does your mind go when you "veg out"? If you've also spent many a winter weekends pining for vegetables like these here but don't have the space, time or desire to spend your summer weekends weeding those gardens, maybe it's time to consider investing in your health by purchasing a share in a Community Supported Agriculture. With that investment, you receive weekly "shares" of the gardens bounty all summer long. And not spending your sweltering summer weekends weeding, allows you to veg out and let your mind go to a better place like swishing down a snow packed winter ski slope :-) We here at Cherokee Valley Bison Ranch are offering a limited number of shares in our CSA. For more information, contact us via email and we'll send you out the details.
Happy vegging!
My wife is so cool that when I said I'd like to spice things up and introduce some more chicks to our farm she not only agreed, but promptly placed the order herself! Our newly arrived residents are Plymouth or Barred Rocks and will be laying us some beautiful and tasty eggs sometimes this summer. Not the chicks I had in mind, but I love eggs!
It's been two weeks since we turned our hogs out to pasture/woods and it's clear (to us at least) that we have some happy hogs on our hands. Our Tamworth hogs are a old breed range hog that's known for being able to thrive on pasture and woods. Since we have all of our established pastures reserved for our bison, our thoughts turned to the large tract of land between our pastures. This area is full of trees, briars, bushes and a nice stream down the length of it. Both sides near the fence were also lush with mixed grasses that we need to regularly mow and weed eat. Hmmmmm.....pigs can graze AND we don't have to mow. Win,win.
The photo on the right is where they went this week. The one below is where they've been for the past two.
Pigs have rightfully earned the nickname, nature's dozers as they've plowed their way through the briars and turned over the dirt, stumps and everything else in their search for nuts, bugs and the need to root. The penned in area where they spent the first couple of months was like a nice county fair. Fun rides, some good eats and the ability to run around a bit - cozy. Their new home is more like an amusement park and state fair combined. Exhilarating rides, great variety of food and endless fun! There is great natural shade, plenty of sun and fresh running water. Seeing our pigs being able to fully express the "pigness of the pig" as Joel Salatin might say brings a smile to our faces and a lot of happy snorting from our pigs. If you'd like to learn more about our Tamworths pigs or pork products, send us a message and we'll get right back to you.
The term going green gets tossed around a lot these days. We see it bandied about by corporations trying to convince "consumers" that it cares about the environment. Here, we just felt that was the best way to describe the greening of our garden with delicious heirloom seed vegetables.
Featured prominently in the foreground is our ripening Rapini Broccoli. A non "heading" variety, it produces shoots similar to asparagus. It's also a great producer with excellent flavor. Also pictured are regular "headed" broccoli, two different variety
of beets as well as celery and radishes.
While it's a pleasure to see all of our beds going green, it's taken a lot of time and twice daily watering to get it to this point. Last year we were coming off one of the wettest springs ever and this year we feel like we're living in the desert Southwest. We're considering growing cactus! At least they do well with little rainfall. We also are looking at harvesting the plethora of weeds that grow whether we water them or not. There's a bumper crop already! Salad weeds anyone?
Mother Nature is rumored to be heading our way with a shower or two in the
next few days, so please keep our fingers crossed. Rain dance on
hold.
