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Vegetables
We grow a wide variety of vegetables using organic methods. This means we do not use chemical sprays or commercial fertilizer. We rotate to new ground every year, and we strive to work within the bounds of the natural world. An example of this would be managing a healthy field hedge row so predatory animals have runways and hiding places and in turn they help manage the populations of deer, mice, woodchucks and any other animal or insect that may harm our crops.
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Pork
We raise a breed of pig called American Guinea Hog, which are an old breed of forage hog that do very well on grass and hay and do not need a lot of grain. They are a slow-growing lard hog and are smaller than traditional pasture pigs with a finished weight between 80 and 100 pounds. We raise these pigs in a rotational grazing system similar to our beef cows. They have access to the outdoors year round. We supplement their foraging with vegetable scraps, milk from our cows, hay from our hay fields. An adult will get about one pound of grain per day, which is far less than the six pound minimum for larger breeds of hogs. We use them to help rejuvenate our pastures making them better for cattle, and we have in the past used them to restore and maintain an apple orchard to great success and look forward to starting a fruit tree orchard in the near future and use our pigs to help maintain it. We are starting to transition our pig herd to a breed called KuneKune they are very similar to American Guinea Hogs. However, they are even more calm and better grazers and foragers.
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Chickens
Freedom Ranger is the breed of chicken we raise on pasture . We raise them in portable houses called chicken tractors, and we move them daily. They have a constant supply of fresh grass, bugs, seeds and anything else they can forage. We also feed them a locally sourced GMO-free grain and extra milk from our dairy cows. We try to limit the amount of grain we give them, this is why we keep the amount of chickens in each tractor small (about 20 chickens) and move them daily to take full advantage of any foraging they can do. This year we are going to do a small experiment and place a small light on a timer in each tractor to run for a couple of hours after sunset to attract night flying bugs to the chickens. We raise our chicken in two locations. One place is in next year's vegetable ground which allows them to eat any bug pests that might affect our vegetable crops, and it applies their manure to next year's crop ground which feeds the soil microbes making it healthy and saves us money on purchased fertilizers and the time it takes to apply it.
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Beef
We raise a mixed herd of cattle consisting of American Milking Devon. This is a triple-purpose breed good for meat, milk or draft and do very well on less-than-perfect pasture land and were traditionally found on every homestead in America. Jersey is another breed we use in our mix, though they are primarily a dairy cow. We use them in our breeding program to maintain the milking potential of our herd. The last few years we have used a Hereford bull which is a beef breed and this year we invested in a new bull named Rocky, a Red Angus with very strong genetics. Rocky is the outcome of multiple years of breeding with intent to accede an animal that is calm, compact and with the ability to grow and finish on a grass diet under 20 months. We feel adding his genetics to our herd will give us a calm, short, compact, well-muscled animal with the ability to finish under 20 months on a wide range of grass forages the cows should be calm good mothers with the ability to produce several gallons of milk that would benefit and speed up the growth of her calf. We will be able to also milk one for our own personal needs, and the steers could be trained or sold for draft power. This allows us the potential to gain a triple income stream, meat, milk and any byproduct and or draft.To learn more about American Milking Devons click here.
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CSA
We run our CSA a little different from the traditional style. We give the customer some choices in your weekly food box. Every week you will get an email from us on Saturday evening. In this email we will inform you what is available and how much of each item you can take. Then you can choose what items you would like for the week. We have a limit on what you can take to ensure everyone will get some. There is a monetary limit which is $40.00 per week.
Our CSA runs from the middle of May through the middle of October. A 24-week share costs $960.00 dollars, and you get $40.00 a week of our farm products. Our farm raised products would include a selection of Grass fed/finished BEEF, pasture raised PORK and pasture raised whole roaster CHICKENS. Your share would also include a wide selection of our fresh VEGETABLES which are grown using only organic methods. And lastly, fresh EGGS from our hens are included as well. We have a delivery route, and you can let us know if you want your share delivered to your house ($5.00 fee) or if you want to pick it up at our Farm in West Haven or at the Fairhaven farmers market. We have three payment options for the CSA as well, and you can visit the CSA area for more information. |
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Eggs
We also provide pasture-raised eggs from our farm for both the store and CSA, however this is a fairly new venture for us, so we have limited amount. We are currently raising a small flock of Speckled Sussex chickens. These are a dual-purpose breed, meaning the hens produce a consistent supply of eggs and the males grow to be between 5 and 7 pounds making them heavy enough to process for whole roasters. Our hope is to replace the Freedom Rangers with this breed, so we will no longer have to buy chicks from off the farm, making us more sustainable. We will be able to raise our own by hatching chicks every year, keeping hens for replacing our laying flock and using the males for our whole roaster market. This will save us money and give us another revenue stream: selling the extra chicks.
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Farm Store
We will be closing our farm store April 1, 2023, as we move our farm to West Haven. You can still buy our great products through our online store, find us at the Fairhaven farmers market on Thursdays from 3pm to 6pm or join our CSA.
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