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And the season flies by
I cannot believe it's August. When did that happen? Assuming that we get a frost around the same time we did last year, we are a little over the halfway mark. If we have an earlier frost though, we will still have certain crops that will survive it for a little while. It's been such a weird season though there is not telling what will happen. The rain last week was much needed but it is too late for most crops. The cow corn is about half the height it should be and nothing can help it now. What looked like the best corn season in a long time changed quickly into a bad corn season. If you remember back to last year and previous years, at this time the sweet corn is normally huge. Some of it is huge, but overall it is small for the variety it is. It is also harder to pick the corn off the stalk because the plant itself is so dry, so corn picking is a great arm workout now.
Bird damage.
Early in the season, we harvest corn planted in a couple different fields, but after a couple weeks that corn is harvested and gone by and we move on to the 12 acres on top of "the hill" for the rest of the season. The hill is at the end of Mill Road behind my uncles house. My dad and grandfather cleared this land together in the 80s into the mid-90s so it is obviously special. I always knew this was quite the feat and probably one of the most bonding experiences a father and a son can share together, but you never can really understand something you haven't experienced, especially something like this. Every day my dad battles the birds in the corn fields, using my grandfather's shot gun to scare the birds out of it and hopefully wipe out a bird or two each trip to the field. As I drove where he told me, after the birds of course, I asked him questions about when he cleared the land with my grandfather. It took them a few years to clear a portion of the field. My dad was in his early twenties and had just purchased a dump truck in time for the job. Before this he had to manually shovel or put things into the back of whatever truck they had at the time and take it out manually too, so it's easy to imagine that this made work seem much easier even when it wasn't easy at all. After they cleared a section, Bentley Warren came and removed humongous rocks along with the stumps for a few months. It took into the late 90s to finish the field. My grandfather told my dad he was crazy if he wanted to farm that piece of land. He said he would be picking rocks out of it for the rest of his life. Needless to say, every spring we pick rocks out of every inch of that field, and yes, my dad is crazy. But it's the best piece of farmland we have. Spending so much time clearing it, my dad was able to see that one end of the field was wetter and the other side was dryer. Since it is heavy soil anyway, if we have a dry year the wetter section has nice corn, if we have a wet year the dryer side has nice corn, and if it's an average year the entire field has nice corn. So I think we will always have our sweet corn in this field.
This is part of the pasture where we graze the dry cows in the summertime. This was taken about a week before we had to bring the cows back. See how dry and dead it looks. Dry cows are cows that are impregnated so they aren't giving milk yet. Obviously a cow would be dry if she weren't lactating because she hadn't been bred, but our cows are bred every year after they are old enough (about a year) so that they will produce milk. Since we don't milk these cows everyday, they can be kept in the pasture to graze and drink from the river. We also had about 30 beef cattle with them this year. If you remember the boy calves that were along the perimeter of the vegetable field last year, those are them. Unfortunately, the grass stopped growing here just like all areas affected by the drought and we had to bring them back so feeding them would be easier. It's impossible to tell if moving the cows down the street will be an easy or difficult task. This time it was very, very difficult. My dad brought the tractor down, full of feed, hoping they would just follow him back to the farm. Along the road, they were lured into the woods by the lush greens inside. I've never chased a cow through the woods before, but on this day my sister and I were running to get ahead of the 30 cows that could very easily follow the trails through our woods to the Millwood Apartments and 133. We did get ahead of them and got them back onto Mill Road. Apparently though, steers are not easily driven (men!). When they got to Dodge Road, they all banged a right and headed toward 133. Luckily they took a right down our neighbors driveway before they got to 133. They went all the way around their house and left their droppings everywhere. After all was said and done, Kelly and I headed over there with a bucket and a shovel. We were happy to do it though. Imagine 30 cows running out on to 133. Just imagine how awful that could be. But we did have great exercise running that day.
This lack of rain has messed up more than our pasture and corn. Our potatoes yielded so much less than they would have if we had rain. The tomatoes are drying up in areas, most of the beet greens don't look very appetizing anymore and the lettuce is fighting to live. At this point though, we are mostly concerned about the tomatoes. This if the first year that we have a bad tomato crop. However, we do have tomatoes so things aren't that bad. These tomatoes look really good. There are lots of green and a few reds here and there. Every year we find ourselves talking about what we are going to do different the next year. One huge thing we have to figure out is where we can have a new tomato field. We planted the tomatoes away from where they were last year and the year before but we still found disease on the plants and fruits, surprisingly early in the season. Nobody can figure out why. We need to relocate the tomato area far, far away from where we have had tomatoes before but we currently can only irrigate the main field and tomatoes absolutely need water. This is something we need to figure out over the winter. It would be ideal to irrigate from Mill Pond (which is at the end of Mill Road near the hill I've been speaking of. You can also see it from 133, across from Boxford Road) because we have corn fields next to it and could easily make a tomato patch. This would be very costly though for the irrigation equipment. I'm sure my dad will figure something out.
We have never grown so many onions before and I couldn't imagine trying to hang all of them up to dry. So we are drying them on our trampoline and it seems to be working well. This way they get the air circulation from the bottom too and we cover them at night with a tarp so they don't get moist. These will be all set for storage if people want to save some for winter.
Woop woop, chicken coop! This was day one of the construction of our portable chicken coop. Now that the barn is finished Carl has time to build it. The chickens are a little cramped in their coop right now but they will love this. We can move it around so they can forage in different areas.
This is day 2. I'm guessing Carl will have it finished today. Now that the new chickens are starting to lay, they deserve it!
The cantaloupes are in! Since it has been so hot, the sugars are fantastic in the melons. Hopefully we can get to all of them before the mice do. They have already taken chunks out of probably a half dozen melons.
There's so much more to share but I have to go harvest!
~Kristen
Where I come from, rain is a good thing!
Of course, too much of a good thing is never good (ummmm, last year?!) but when this song came on yesterday I thought of how suitable it is for this season so far. Rain is a very good thing and we need more! . A couple days after my last blog, my dad expressed his worry about the corn crop due to lack of rain. A couple weeks before he was saying this may be the best corn crop we've had in a long time. It's funny how mother nature can change everything so quickly. If we could irrigate the corn then this would be the perfect climate for it, but we don't have enough water to go around or the expensive setup needed.
The tomatoes are doing well too! These guys are irrigated so they are thriving with the combo of heat and water. The only problem is they have grown so much so quickly and we didn't help them grow up the tomato cages like we wanted to. It's fine, but it would be nice if all the limbs were tucked safely inside the cages. You'll see what I mean when it comes time to pick cherry tomatoes, that will be a few weeks though!
Squash. They are here and they are in full force right away, such as squash do. I love squash because they are delicious sauteed with garlic and olive oil, but I hate them because they demand at least an hour to harvest every single day. For the rest of the summer. Yay. They also have lovely spikes all over the plant, which is huge, and they grow from the center, which is why you can tell a squash picker from the cuts all over their arms! I will try my best to keep the squash picked every day so they will be nice and small for you all. I can't make any promises though!
The final step: the stalls wait to be set up so the cows can come in!
After a couple months of pounding out ledge and leveling the land, six weeks of assembling the frame and a month and a half of concrete work, welding and assembly inside the barn, we are finally ready to move the cows into their new home. This is such a big deal for us and I'd like to put a few things out there. First of all, no, we weren't able to do this because the dairy industry is great. Quite the opposite. We are simply doing what we have to do no matter what it takes. Also, this is not an ice cream stand. I was so surprised to hear a neighbor tell me that she heard this from someone in town. That reminded me of my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Collyer, who demonstrated the "telephone game" to us, whispering something in a student's ear that became a totally different message by the time it circulated around the room. Yes, we want to offer Herrick Farm milk and ice cream in the near future and I have mentioned this to a couple people but 1. we don't talk much about it yet because there is much more to getting something like that started than just milking the cows and 2. we have to make life easier before we can start taking on extra challenges. Building this barn is the first step in making life easier. Another thing I want to get out there: NO, we do not milk the cows by hand. I can't believe how often I'm asked this question. No offense to the people who ask me, I just can't believe anyone would think we could make a living milking cows by hand. Electric milking came out in the 1920s or 30s. We are behind the times but not that bad.
I'm sure I've mentioned in previous blogs, if not on the website, that my dad grew up milking cows by hand until he was in his twenties and he and my grandfather finally hooked up the simple electric line needed for machines. In the 80s my dad along with Carl McGlew (who helped to build this barn too, thirty years later) built our current milking barn and it was a huge upgrade in quality of life at the time. When he upgraded to a pipeline system though (the cows are brought into the barn all at the same time and there are hookups for a machine every two cows and we move down the line) there was already a more modernized system called a milking parlor that was far too expensive to be a possibility at the time. They are still incredibly expensive, but that is our next project after this barn, we hope.
I will post pictures next week of the new barn because the cows are moving in tomorrow! Pictures wouldn't give justice to how the barn will alleviate some of the daily grind of our outdated routine, but I can tell you that:
-There will be much less shoveling on a twice daily basis
-It will take half the time to feed the cows
-We won't have to deal with hoses to fill water tubs because they will be automatic now
-The cows will be clean
-Their feet won't get rocks in them
-Sand is much easier to bed down with than sawdust (and waaay cheaper too!)
-The cows won't be stuck in the sun or the rain or anything uncomfortable at any time
-They should give more milk because they will be as comfortable as cows can possibly be
-We will have extra space in the old milking barn
-Maybe, if we're lucky, we can start taking vacations in the near future.
There are so many more advantages to this barn than I can list right now, but I'm sure I'll include more after the cows are actually moved in. I'm interested to see how the cows respond to moving into the new barn and away from the routine they have always known. Given the broad spectrum of personalities we have in our herd, tomorrow should be an interesting day. Wish us luck!
Hay!
"This country was built on hard work, so we're celebrating the holiday the proper way." - Matt Hale and Jeff Head on haying on the Fourth of July.
When we have weather like this, you can rest assured that my dad is thinking about not much more than HAY! Hot, dry weather is prime haying weather, so you can see why this week especially, our lives are revolving around getting first crop into the barn. These fields are rented from the Savages, at the end of Hammond Street on the East side of Rowley, and is one of the most beautiful spots in Rowley. I need to get a better picture when we are here for second crop, this picture just doesn't do it justice.
After the hay is mowed, with pretty much a huge lawn mower that attaches to the tractor, a tetter is used to throw the hay around, letting air flow dry it out. Then a rake is used to make nice straight lines with the hay so that the baler, shown above, may be ran directly over the lines, turning it into bales and shooting them into the hay wagon. We only own five hay wagons so it's important during weather like this to unload the wagons while they are being loaded so my dad doesn't run out of wagons. Sometimes someone will need to stand in the wagon and stack the bales to fit more. This is a very dangerous job as 100+ lb. bales are pretty much flying at you at full speed and you need to stack each one before the next one hits you.
Between this weekend, today and tomorrow, my dad thinks he has 20 25 total. We finished about twelve over the weekend.
This is my sister unloading one wagon. I slowed down the whole operation to get this picture because I was helping her. My dad and brothers are in the hay loft, one throwing the bales off of the conveyor belt and two in there stacking. The more people you have on the crew, obviously the easier it is. Thank God, the Chickadee Hill Farm crew, from the East side of Rowley come and help whenever they can. (We owe them much more than the lobsters, clams and vegetables that we give them in return. We will definitely be helping them with firewood this winter!) My dad has experienced this whole procedure all by himself. You can only comprehend what this means if you have experienced haying. He was telling me yesterday about how he used to hay with my grandfather, making the way we do it now "paradise". They had an old H and 60 that they used to pull equipment that was used with horses.
Since my grandfather always used horses (this is him!), this was "paradise" to him. My dad said there was never a time when one or more of the equipment was broken down. When the tetter was out of business, a rake was used to throw the hay up in the air to dry it out. When the rake was out, they would hand rake the hay into lines. When the baler was down, there was no option but to fix it somehow. My dad told me about when he decided they needed a new baler no matter what. He and my Grampy went to the dealer and sat in a "palm-studded" room (one of my grandfather's sayings that means fancy) and were handed a payment book. My dad said it was the best thing they ever did. Today, my dad has mostly new equipment, not because he could afford it at the time, but because he feels investments pay for themselves when you maintain the equipment.
This weather may be perfect for haying, and really is great for the vegetables, but isn't good for keeping the successions that were spaced about a week apart. This means you may have early opportunities to freeze some corn!
This week we have summer squash and zucchini and for the rest of the season pretty much. Don't worry, if you were in the program last year, you won't experience that much squash again! We planted much less and used the same varieties that we experienced success with last year. Everything is looking so good! We will have PYO beans in a couple of weeks, cucumbers too and the cauliflower is starting.
Can you believe these birds were babies a month ago? They are all grown up and flying all over the place. The whole family returns to the next to sleep at night 
Notes from the farm
Things are looking good! Aside from the weeds (which will always bother us, but what can you do) the crops are looking great.
Here is a head of broccoli that is just about ready to harvest. It may look small compared to the size of the plant but the texture and color of the head shows that it is just about mature. We have two different varieties of broccoli and this is the smaller variety. Since there are only about 40 heads ready for this week, I will only be able to give them on one of the pickup days. It looks like that day may be Wednesday since many of the heads could use a couple more days to get a little bigger. After I harvest the heads, the plants will grow "shoots" of smaller heads that will keep giving all season.
We were checking out the corn today and found these guys. There were at least six of them that scattered into the woods when they saw us. Hopefully they aren't bothering the young corn that they are standing in...
I have officially made my first CSA hire! After coming to pick peas for her parents and fellow shareholders, Alexa mentioned to me that she would be happy to help out anytime, she loves this stuff. She may only be 14-years-old, but she is smart and personable and proved today that she is hard working. That is hard to find. Today we planted the rest of the pumpkins and cucumbers and did some weeding along the way. This kind of work is so much better when you are working with people that you enjoy spending time with. Alexa, Kelly and myself are a good team and I'm so glad school is out so they can help me! Today we planted the rest of the pumpkins and cucumbers and, of course, pulled weeds. While we were weeding, we noticed some of the plants were being eaten. My dad thinks it is woodchucks, but who knows. I just replanted them and hope for the best.
We have pumpkins seedlings! I think it is so cool how the plant emerges from the seed and eventually pushes away from the seed shell, becoming it's own entity. This year will be a much better pumpkin year than the last. In fact, my dad mentioned that it has been a while since we have had a good pumpkin crop. The weather has been so phenomenal that this could be the year. I'm sure last year's returning members are happy to hear this since our CSA pumpkin crop was a total failure last year. We are also hoping for early corn this year. The first planting has started to tassle, which means three to four weeks until the corn is ready. The weather has been great for the corn. The frost we had a while ago set the corn back a few days, but even just a few days earlier due to the weather lately means a big deal for us. As soon as we can open our corn stand, our season truly begins.
My brother and I have been caging the tomato plants little by little, as it is no small task. You see, where they are planted is exactly where plenty of firewood was cut and seasoned just up to three years ago. Therefore, there are pieces of wood all through the soil, not to mention it is rocky anyways. This means that driving cages into the ground is extremely difficult and a very good workout for the triceps! For the sake of crop rotation and keeping the cherry tomatoes close to the front of the field for PYO, we deal with it! We don't have enough cages for all the tomato plants, but we are caging a lot of them.
I'm amazed at how much these birds have grown in just a week! I have feeling they will be test flying this coming week. They have grown so much that mom can't fit in the nest with them anymore. She has to sleep clinging to the side of the ceiling with dad now.
This past week was filled with concrete work in the new barn. I was too busy with veggies to help, but apparently the most difficult part was making the grooves in the concrete by sliding a board back and forth, tilted diagonally. My dad said this job "can get to you". And for someone who never complains to say that, it must be a miserable job. This will give the cows better traction so they don't slip. Since cows can easily split themselves, leaving farmers no choice but to put them down, it is critical to keep them from slipping. This is just one of the million reasons for this new barn. I will outline more of the reasons in future blogs.
My dad thinks the cows will be moved into the barn within the next few weeks. You have to work with the cows everyday to understand what this really means. Life will be so much easier and the cows will be so much happier!
Happy cows = Higher milk production!
Isn't it cute!? It's a preemie egg that probably doesn't have a yolk formed yet. Speaking of eggs, I told too many people that we were out of eggs last week. I hate that we can't fill the demand yet. The company were are buying our "started pullets" from are arranging to bring our chickens on their way to Maine with another delivery. Since they are in CT, they have to plan their routes. In the meantime, we will keep our chickens as well fed and watered as we can to speed up their production!
Signs of Spring
This picture was taken about a month ago and I'm always bummed every year when the lilacs come and go so quickly. However, there are so many more signs of spring that are just as beautiful. What I love about lilac season though, and this picture, is everything is brand new and free of weeds!!! Notice how I haven't shown many pictures of the entire field? The weeds have been a constant battle to say the least.
Spring is my favorite season, mostly because it's full of life, new beginnings. Everything turns green, we get a fresh start with our vegetables and wildlife is once again all over the place. One thing I absolutely love witnessing each year is the beginning of a new barn swallow family above the back door of the barn. I don't know if it is the same pair of birds who use this nest every year, but I like to think it is. When we drive the tractor into the barn to "shovel up" we are high enough to the ceiling that we can peak inside the nest. Look at what we found!
Here I was thinking I would get a picture of the tiny little eggs and, whoa!, they apparently thought I was their mom with lunch! I was nervous that the flash bothered them, then I realized their eyes aren't open yet! Last year there were five babies in this nest, so I imagine there could be more little ones on the way. It will be no time before they start spreading their wings and test flying around the barn. Once they learn to fly, the nest will be vacant again until next spring.
Here is another sign of spring! However, it seems really early for peas. I have never grown peas before but my dad told me that people normally aim to have peas by July 4th. Well, we have ours mid-June! Peas were one of the first things that we planted, along with beets and onions, right after all those rains stopped a couple months ago. We are very lucky that most of our soil is sandy loam. This is a very good soil type because it drains so well. As soon as the monsoon withheld, the fields drained and we began plowing, harrowing, laying plastic and planting. Luckily, the weather has worked with us and we have awesome crops for June, not to mention the crops on their way that are doing fabulous. What a turnaround from last year. We will have pick-your-own peas this coming week and I'm nervous, like you get when you have people over your house and it's a mess! I wish I could go out there and clean up all the weeds, but the truth is, we still have more planting to do and that is priority over making the field look perfect. We hand weeded the pea rows last week so they really are fine, but there are some rows that are not fine! I hope you don't hold it against us!!
We will have beets again, probably 1 lb. for a half share and 2 lbs. for a full share because I don't want to clean them out before they have a chance to get bigger. So many people have said they've never tried fresh beets and I'm excited to hear the verdict when I see them this week.
I said in my last email that I would show what spinach looks like when it is starting to bolt. You can see that this spinach looks good, but the plant that is starting to grow up isn't. I don't know much about plant science but I am learning more and more with experience. If I were to leave this spinach and let it keep bolting, it would eventually produce flowers so that it could reseed itself. That's why it is also sometimes called "going to seed" or "going to flower". This also happens with lettuce, which is in the same family. This variety of spinach, Space, is the slowest bolting spinach, which gives us more time to harvest it before it all goes to seed. But, I'm not going to take a chance!
And to close my blog this week, I thought I'd share the story of this little miracle baby. Last night at about midnight, my dad and sister helped deliver this little baby girl. I had already showered and changed so I did the "clean work" while they pulled. This involves putting chains around the calves' ankles and helping the mom by pulling. It wasn't an easy labor but it wasn't hard either, compared to some difficult deliveries in the past. So when the baby came out swinging its neck in circles all over the place and banging her head on the ground, it seemed she had something neurologically wrong with her. This has happened to my dad twice before, however, it's usually because the labor was difficult and they were deprived of oxygen, which didn't seem to be the case here. After holding her neck still for a while my dad noticed that her whole body would twitch and tense up every few seconds. After she seemed to calm down, probably from exhaustion, we went to bed, hoping that she wouldn't hurt herself in the night. Thank goodness, in the morning she seemed like a normal little baby calf. I call it a miracle.
Let the pickups begin!
Pickups start tomorrow with a couple of things: Lettuce, beets, salad turnips and spinach. Next week may not be too different, but there are plenty of crops making good progress with the weather we have been having.
Weather like yesterday, hot and wet, is perfect for the corn. This is the first planting of sweet corn and it's looking good. You can expect corn in your
shares by the middle of July at the latest, if all goes well. The weather conditions are much more favorable than last year, which was the worst year for corn EVER! And my dad has been growing corn his whole life so that really says something. This year is great so far, let's hope it stays this way!
These are squash seedlings, planted from seed just two weeks ago. This is another crop that loves hot with wet weather, along with the eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and cantaloupe which were planted within this past week.
The cabbages are starting to form tiny heads. When they are mature, they are one of the most beautiful plants in my opinion.
That's a baby cauliflower forming inside there.
Isn't it cute?! This is a tiny broccoli.
Can you see the pod?
Peas come in just like the beans do, a little at a time and then all at once.
We should have enough peas to harvest at the end of this month or beginning of
July. We have never grown peas before and it's already been an experience. I've
learned that it's really important to keep them weeded, mainly because the
vines from the peas wrap around the weeds, so when you pull the weeds, the
vines break. I'm sure this isn't good for the plant, and every time I felt that
I was damaging the productivity of the plant. But they needed to be weeded!
Also, there's nothing more frustrating than pulling up a plant when you're
trying to weed. So frustrating!
Let 's hope for a sunny
first week of pickups. Last year we were in the rain for a month straight!
~Kristen
CSA Pickups are just around the corner!
Andit all begins with a seed! I have to admit, direct seeding seeds this tiny is not my favorite. Common procedure for seeds this small, carrots, kale, spinach, turnips and so forth, is to make "beds". Sprinkling the seeds into fluffy soil and covering them over with about 1/2" more of fluffy soil is easy enough. However, this means thinning the plants so they aren't crowded, weeding the entire bed and making sure they have enough water, which for us would mean hand watering and a lot of wasted water. The way we are doing it this year is into the plastic. This means making a hole and placing each seed (usually in a triangle to ensure we won't have to thin them) by hand, which is very labor intensive.However, once this is done we have much less weeding to do, but we do have tofill in the holes where the seeds didn't germinate. I'm not sure which method is best, but I am interested to figure it out. Next year I would like to try the raised beds to see if I can tell a difference in time and labor spent.
My dad and brother laid the rest of the plastic yesterday and we planted a whole row of green beans (thanks to our neighbor and CSA friend, Kevin, for his help!), cantaloupe, cucumbers and squash. I can't believe it is time to scurry and get everything in the ground; even the winter squash needs to be planted this coming week! This time of year flies by, it's so crazy. This week we will transplant tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, herbs and more broccoli and lettuce. We still have 1,000 leeks or so and at least 400 sweet potatoes seedlings to plant, yikes! You can see why I'm letting everyone know that volunteers are always welcome!
And the hoop house is up! It will be filled with tomatoes, eggplant and probably some peppers this week! Here is the link to see more information about the study we are participating in. http://www.va.nrcs.usda.gov/news/News_Releases/hoop_houses_011210.htm
You can see by the look of this lettuce that CSA pickups are right around the corner! Members may begin coming to pick up their shares on the week of June 6th!
Beets will be included. They will be small but their greens are delicious. They can be mixed in with salads or steamed like spinach.
Turnips will also be included. Same as the beets, they will be small but the turnips greens are great!
I will include spinach if there is enough. As you can see they are still young, but they are growing fast!
We will also have eggs for sale when you come to pick up your shares. However, we have a limited supply right now. I found a source for ready-to-lay Red Sex-Links in CT that will be delivered sometime this week. They will be 17 weeks, so they will need a few weeks before they start to lay. The eggs are $3/dozen and fresh as can be! Expect most of them to be small to start. As the chickens mature, so do the eggs!
I can't wait to see everyone!!!
~Kristen
Bring on the rain!
Well, I don't like the rain because it makes fieldwork difficult. However, I love the rain because the cold weather crops thrive and it gives me a chance to stay inside and finally write a blog! I decided to use a blog for this year because I found last year that not everyone wants to, or has time to, read the details I have to offer, but some people really want to follow along. Even if one person reads them, it will be worth the while for me!
Last year was such a roller coaster ride. At this time last year I was working a full time assistant teacher position in Beverly, coming home to plant until dark every evening and through the weekends. I was also trying to scurry and advertise for a CSA program that I was still trying to figure out. What I love about this year is the experience under my belt and the extra time I have to devote to the farm since I left my teaching job. Not that I am any less busy than this time last year though. Now that I'm spending more time on the farm, I'm absorbing all that goes into it, and all that needs to be put into it that my dad can't get to. One thing that he would never want to get to is the "public relations" aspect of the business. He became a farmer for many reasons, and none of those reasons involve talking to people! Few people encounter my father. He is a man of few words, but if you get close to him, he is one of the greatest people you will ever meet. I may be the one you see most often, along with my sister this year, but I know what I know because of him. He gives me knowledge and I promote and help run his business. To me, it's the perfect trade-off and I wouldn't change it for anything because my boss is my best friend. Does it get any better than that?
My family has more of a partnership in this business now than we ever have. Don't get me wrong, it's not all peaches and roses like the stereotypical farm life image. We are in a very difficult business right now (dairy) and have different opinions and get stressed out on a daily basis. The beautiful thing is that we are all here, my two brothers, myself and my sister, and we all have our different roles on the farm. This gives my parents a reason to invest in the future of the farm, which is something my dad has struggled with for a long time. "I should just sell the cows and move to farm country where life would be easier." I've heard this for years from my dad, and I really did believe that was the only option. He did too, I think up until he saw how many people support us here. Last year's CSA endeavor was life changing for us because it opened our eyes to the possibilities for us here in Rowley. I grew up wanting to get away from this farm and work a 40 hour week with good pay and vacations. Now, ironically, I'm finding who I am and what I want from life in the place that I've worked so hard to get away from.
Thank you to everyone who supports our farm. You are the reason we will have a bright future here in Rowley
~ When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option. It’s a necessity. ~ Steve Pavlina
