Farmstead Feed: Jill shares the latest from the Farmstead Desk
It’s all about who you know
"Do you like doing this job?" Someone asked me this once about chicken processing as I was loading her processed chickens into her car. That question often comes back as I'm heading into the shop on Friday morning. Friday is the day we process chickens for other...
Natural Pest Control
We love to grow our garden.We love to eat from our garden. (Mark calls it "drive by eating" when you just eat lunch off the plant.)We even love to share our garden with other people.We do NOT like to share our plants with garden pests who eat the plant or produce...
Anyone Can Farm with spring weeds!
Anyone Can Farm weeds! I’ll show you how today. Beyond a doubt you can procure something for yourself to eat. You are a natural farmer, you just don’t know it yet. And this farming probably won’t cost you anything. It’s the ultimate free lunch. Salad, at any...
Farmers and Freedom: a Memorial Day reminder
Freedom. Liberty. These are important words in our human being. They are as important to the human spirit as life. As I write this it is Memorial Day weekend. For us in the U.S. it’s a time to pause and honor those who have paid the ultimate price for other...
Making butter a superfood: how to make ghee
Ghee is an ancient practice of clarifying butter to give it a longer shelf life and to increase the digestibility of the fats. It basically amounts to heating the butter and "rendering" it to separate the water, fat, and proteins. It stores well on the counter in...
Farm Fence Talk
"Fences make great neighbors." Every heard that one? Ever chased your cow, pig, goat, or sheep out of your neighbor's yard? If you've kept animals (or lived next to them), you can appreciate that wisdom. We've built a lot of fences. We've chased a lot of animals. ...
Farm Wealth Story: for farmers only
Wealth can be measured by money in the bank. But a better measure may be abundance of life. By that accounting, homestead farmers are the richest folks on earth! We were at a lunch with a group of friends not too long ago, and the younger lady across from me with...
Pickled Eggs: a tasty way to preserve the harvest
It's eggs season!Who knew eggs had a season? Hens are one of nature's signalers of spring. When the days start to lengthen and warm just a little, they go into egg production mode. They can lay one, and sometimes even two, eggs per day. After the chill of winter...
Tools of the Trade:
You've raised your animals with care and love. Now, however, it's time for the freezer. You want to harvest your animals yourself: what basic "tools of the trade" do you need? Being able to harvest your own animals is an important skill for a...
A community based education opportunity: the Homesteader’s Guild class
Guild: "an association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal." There are many ways to learn: a book, YouTube videos, weekend seminars, conferences, mentorships, college classes. If you really want to know something there are two key components:...
Chicken Processing Demystified
Anyone can farm, and we can help! Check out our chicken processing process that we can do for you.
Fun in the shop: meet the chicken processing team
FUN IN THE SHOP: MEET THE CHICKEN PROCESSING TEAM We have a day off in the shop today. The chicken processing shop is usually humming on Fridays, which is when we do custom chicken processing. The weekly routine is that people who have scheduled their birds...
Business changes, Passion doesn’t
The more things change, the more things stay the same. So the saying goes. Did 2017 bring change for you? Maybe 2018 is the year those changes are really felt. This year is our year of change. Our business model is changing. But our passion is still...
Little’s Fate: even a used up boar is useful
What do you do with a mature boar pig? ("Boar" meaning an intact, fully functional male as opposed to the breed of pig.) We have met people who claim they taste good, but our experience has been that they have a smell and taste that...
You can farm! Order your custom raised chickens today!
Reserve Your Chickens Today!Michigan Farm Baker's Green Acres, Raises Pasture Raised Chickens for the Community, as their virtual farmer.Anyone can farm! You may not have enough space or the ability to raise your own chickens or Thanksgiving turkey, but you can be a...
Farming for Fun and Profit: a farmer’s winter thoughts
It's been a while since we've posted, but the farm continues to be busy. The winter is quieter, more of a maintenance time, a reflective time. So, is farming worth it? Is it for fun, or for profit? Hopefully the answer is "both." Mark talks in this...
Homestead Hog Harvest
Farming is a very seasonal operation. While that seems like an obvious statement, I wonder if that's so. Are fresh tomatoes or strawberries ever not available at the grocery store? Does the milk change flavors or creaminess as winter melts to summer? Is the meat...
Fall pigs: why now is the time to get your hog!
Way back when, long ago, in the mists of time, the folks who homesteaded the land had hogs. Fat hogs. Hardy hogs. Hogs that didn't need a lot of pampering and could live off the land. Even in the fall, going into winter, there were no...
