Thursday, June 16, 2011

Fresh from the Farm...

Again, I haven't managed to update this for over a month, so I will try to cover and condense everything. Daisy our Jersey really WAS pregnant and had a beautiful heifer May 18th. Polly had a guernsey bull calf May 28th, a day after her due date. Polly is a very large girl, about twice the size of Daisy, and only milking about 1/2 of what Daisy does. We plan to let her raise this calf to about months old, then Sept 28th he will be weaned and we will finish her on pasture and corn for 60 days. Around Nov 28th we will send her in and fill the freezer with 2 lb rolls of hamburger - I am guessing at about 750 lbs worth, so if you want to reserve some let us know!

We have planted 9 fruit trees this year, and plan to plant 10 each spring. This years additions were 2 North Star Pie Cherries, 3 Ranger Dwarf Peach, 1 Contender Peach, and 2 Red Delicious Apples, and a Pear of some sort.

The meat chickens are growing nicely, and our Heritage breed Toulouse Goose and Royal Palm Turkey's have arrived. We are still waiting on the ducklings that Delaney and Eddie ordered. I did chores for Lee and LaDone while they were out of town, including gathering their eggs, so I have 6 RIR eggs in the incubator waiting to see if they hatch.

We are branding the beef herd this Saturday morning starting at about 6:30 am, then Nathaniel and I will leave just before lunch (my favorite part ) and head over to the Open A Bar 2 Ranch for their open house. We are planning to bring a few hereford piglets and giving away ice cream cones, so be sure to stop by!

And finally - they whole point of my post =) We have been making all sorts of things will all of this fresh milk, and so have our customers. I recieved a wonderful slice of chocolate cake and the recipe to go with it - which motivated me to move forward with something I have been thinking about for the last year... a Flower Field Farm Cookbook! I plan to include recipes I use frequently, recipes that you all contribute, old info from the farmer's almanacs as well things like how to render lard step by step and Grandma's lard soap recipes to go with it! Would like to receive as many recipes as possible for appetizers, main courses, desserts, canning and preserving, and milk products, and household items. You can e-mail them to me at flowerfieldfarms@gmail.com or send them in the mail to:

Flower Field Farm
2310 Rd 18
Harrisburg, NE 69345

I plan to have these done by Dec 1st, so please have all recipes in by the end of October.