Summertime is in full swing in Sterling, Massachusetts. Here’s a look at some moments on the farm from the past month…
Golden Hour…
My absolute favorite time of the day on the farm. A whimsical glow shines over the earth for just a few fleeting moments not long before sunset. I’m convinced this is what magic looks like.
Our barn got a new coat of paint! This barn is well over 200 years old, and hasn’t been painted in at least 70 years. A fresh coat of paint an she is looking good as new! Slowly but surely we are catching up with of the long-overdue repairs and maintenance upkeep that our farm has lacked over the last half a century. It feels so good to work on restoring it to it’s original glory.
New Life…
I discovered a nest of baby Robins tucked onto the windowsill of an old chicken coop that we no longer used. It was incredible to watch their growth and development every day. Within two weeks they were big enough to leave the nest and fly free.
The Goats…
Eleanor loves to rough-house with her little brothers, Buddy and Bronco.
How many goats can you spot in this picture?
The goat herd is moved to different areas of the farm every few days to give them a variety of plants to forage on, and also to help us with weed management! Here they are within the exposed roots of a Spruce tree. It’s one of their favorite hangout spots- great for shade, climbing, and rolling around in the sand!
If you’ve been following along with our farm over the past few months, or if you’ve been on a goat hike recently, then you know Buddy (more about him here). He has quite a low goat IQ, and is always off in his own little world. One small child on a goat hike once coined him as “the goat with the brain injury.”
People always ask me how do we know he’s not very bright… The video above is a prime example. When I walked the goats back to their fenced in area one day after a goat hike, they all followed me without issue. I closed the fence up, started to walk away, and realized Buddy was not with the rest…
Rest assured, what Buddy lacks for in brains he makes up for in abundant cuteness. :-)
The Chickens…
Every 7 days our flock of ~450 laying hens are moved to a new spot of pasture to graze on fresh grass. Pictured above is Janice, a very awesome volunteer who shows up bright and early every week on the morning of moving day to help move coops and set up fencing.
The best tasting eggs come from chickens who free range on pasture!
Here’s a video of a chicken laying an egg. Just because that’s something you don’t see every day!
The Dairy Cows…
Polly and Indigo, our two Ayrshire dairy cows spend 23 hours a day outside on pasture grazing and snoozing to their heart’s content. Video’d above, they are munching on grass around the honey bee hives. We appreciate their lawn-mowing services!
Polly with her bug net.
This time of year the flies become soo bad. They swarm livestock, most especially the cows. Fly sprays with strong chemicals are the typical go-to, but I try to take a more holistic approach to the problem. That is one of the benefits of being a micro-dairy farmer; I can enact practices that wouldn’t be practical on a large-scale operation. Polly and Fiddle both wear bug nets on their faces to keep flies away from their eyes.
We now have cow milk soap for sale! Oh man, this stuff is LUXURIOUS. Is is made by Elzire’s Acre in Princeton MA, who make their own goat milk soaps. Their soaps are by far the best I have ever cleansed my body with ever, and I am so honored that Terri offered to make a custom batch with our very own cow’s milk.
Along with our milk, this soap has ghee from Full Moon Ghee in Greenfield, MA, and high quality oils and essential oils. It is scented in lavender and lemon grass and smells divine. I decided to call it “Dream Chaser” because it is the culmination of work between three women following their dreams; myself as a dairy farmer, Hannah (another Hannah!) of Full Moon Ghee, and Terri the soap creator.
It is available for purchase in the farm stand, and can also be ordered online and shipped to your door.
BUTTER!! One of my big dreams of having dairy cows was the opportunity to make my own butter. Since Polly and Indigo arrived, I have been diligently experimenting with it. There has been a huge learning curve, but yesterday I made my first successful batch! This is 1.5 pounds of butter, which came from a half a day’s worth of milk from two cows. It tastes incredible!
I have a bit more fine-tuning to do, but once I get the recipe justtt right, I’ll be sharing all the tips and tricks so that you can make your own butter too!
At one point last month, the goats, dairy cows, and donkeys were all right next to each other (along with the honey bees!) in their grazing rotations. Always a wonderful sight to see different species of animals cohabitation peacefully!
I wanted to end this blog with a farmer selfie on the rare occasion that I was off the farm. Last week I had the opportunity to take a quick 30-hour vacation to go to a friend’s baby shower in Maryland. It is incredibly difficult, and stressful, to pull myself away from the farm for more than a few hours at any given time, so a 30-hour hiatus is no short of a miracle.
The chance to get away for a bit was really valuable for my mental health… clear my head, rest my body, and the chance to get out of grubby farm shirts and dickies man-pants. Not to mention the chance to visit family and friends who I love incredibly much, but rarely get to see in person. I’m not one for selfies, but in this moment I felt a huge sense of happiness, gratitude, and freedom, and wanted to document the moment.
So here’s a reminder from your local farmer to take some time for yourself this week. Whatever it is that makes you feel good that you rarely indulge in… treat yourself to it. Be kind to your body, you mind, and your heart.