Promoting Food Biodiversity
Review of 2010, Upcoming in 2011
I have not been great about blogging since May. The weather this summer was terrible and kind of took the wind out of my sails about blogging when nothing would grow. It is now the start of a new year so I thought I would update everyone on what is planned for the upcoming year. Before doing that, however, a quick review of 2010:
- Miserable weather lead to almost no vegetables
- We erected 2 permanent hoophouses
- We now have 5 sows (2 large blacks and 3 mulefoots) and 11 ewes (5 Navajo-Churros, 2 Southdown, 2 Oxfords, 2 Cotswold/Lincoln). This pretty much puts us at full capacity.
- We did successfully raise 10 Narragansett turkeys and they made a wonderful Thanksgiving for many people.
- We built some housing for the chickens and built 2 chicken tractors.
For 2011 we have a number of plans and additions.
1. We are currently working on having fresh pork available through the Bellingham Co-op. We have about 45 pigs at various stages of development and in order to sell all of them we will have to use a retail channel. Our goal all along has been to bring back critical breeds that are on the verge of extinction and the best way to do that is to have a brand around heritage breeds and make the meat readily available in the grocery store. We are currently working on funding for the development of a logo, label, and brochure and the first of our pigs should be ready about March or April. This will probably be our biggest effort this year and we will start with fresh pork and then possibly move to lamb and turkeys. This will also provide an outlet for the many other farms in Whatcom and Skagit county that raise rare breed animals and provide them a place to sell their meat without having to do a lot of advertising.
2. We are expanding our poultry products. We had turkeys and geese available last year and this year we will be expanding to providing day old chicks, ducklings, and goslings. We have Delaware chickens and will soon be adding Black Copper Marans and Red Sussex chickens. We have Khaki Campbell ducks and will be adding Silver Appleyard ducks this spring. We will also have duck and chicken eggs available for sale and hope to establish a few customers getting a dozen eggs every week or two.
3. We have a number of capital projects that we will be working on this year, somewhat depending on money. We want to add a 3rd hoophouse and hopefully that will occur this year, but it may end up being next year. We also need additional housing for our expanded poultry business and need to build some additional pens next to our barn where we can keep sheep and pigs when we need them separated (like for breeding). We are also adding some raised beds in part of the garden.
2011 will be an important year as it will be the first year of really full production. We start out the year with pork and lamb available for sale and will have a pretty continual supply of pork all year and lamb periodically.
- Miserable weather lead to almost no vegetables
- We erected 2 permanent hoophouses
- We now have 5 sows (2 large blacks and 3 mulefoots) and 11 ewes (5 Navajo-Churros, 2 Southdown, 2 Oxfords, 2 Cotswold/Lincoln). This pretty much puts us at full capacity.
- We did successfully raise 10 Narragansett turkeys and they made a wonderful Thanksgiving for many people.
- We built some housing for the chickens and built 2 chicken tractors.
For 2011 we have a number of plans and additions.
1. We are currently working on having fresh pork available through the Bellingham Co-op. We have about 45 pigs at various stages of development and in order to sell all of them we will have to use a retail channel. Our goal all along has been to bring back critical breeds that are on the verge of extinction and the best way to do that is to have a brand around heritage breeds and make the meat readily available in the grocery store. We are currently working on funding for the development of a logo, label, and brochure and the first of our pigs should be ready about March or April. This will probably be our biggest effort this year and we will start with fresh pork and then possibly move to lamb and turkeys. This will also provide an outlet for the many other farms in Whatcom and Skagit county that raise rare breed animals and provide them a place to sell their meat without having to do a lot of advertising.
2. We are expanding our poultry products. We had turkeys and geese available last year and this year we will be expanding to providing day old chicks, ducklings, and goslings. We have Delaware chickens and will soon be adding Black Copper Marans and Red Sussex chickens. We have Khaki Campbell ducks and will be adding Silver Appleyard ducks this spring. We will also have duck and chicken eggs available for sale and hope to establish a few customers getting a dozen eggs every week or two.
3. We have a number of capital projects that we will be working on this year, somewhat depending on money. We want to add a 3rd hoophouse and hopefully that will occur this year, but it may end up being next year. We also need additional housing for our expanded poultry business and need to build some additional pens next to our barn where we can keep sheep and pigs when we need them separated (like for breeding). We are also adding some raised beds in part of the garden.
2011 will be an important year as it will be the first year of really full production. We start out the year with pork and lamb available for sale and will have a pretty continual supply of pork all year and lamb periodically.
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