Wow...I haven't written in 3 months! What have the Bessette's been up to since mid-September?
Well, as far as farm-stuff goes, we have butchered about 70 broilers. They were "roasters" weighing in at around 5 pounds each! We can get 2-3 meals out of one bird! Delicious meat and the carcass makes amazing stock...golden yellow and clear! Not something you can do with store-bought chickens.
Sadly, the turkeys finished out at only 10-11 pounds at Thanksgiving, so we only filled a few orders and let the rest of the turkeys grow until Christmas. It was a very bad turkey year for us. I have heard people say that it's like that with turkeys...either you have an awesome year or terrible? No middle of the road with them??? I wonder why?
We also butchered the hog, at home. He had a wonderful life...never experienced the stress of having to be loaded on the trailer...he just woke up one morning and began to eat his breakfast...died with a smile on his face. That's the way to go, huh! We now have pork-chops, bacon, ham and sausage, enough for the year! We've purchased 3 new piggies for sale/next-year's pork.
We had our grass-fed-steer butchered at a USDA butcher...a little pricey, but we couldn't be any more happy with the results. The beef is vacuumed packed, dark red with just the right amount of marbling and TENDER! I feel really good about the quality of this beef. Excited that we produced it in a sustainable way and that we did not sacrifice quality for sustainability. We sold 1/4 of the beef, so our initial cost and butchering expenses were mostly paid for by the customer....that means 300-350 pounds of FREE BEEF for us!!
We have 2 cows bred and are trying to sell our Jersey bull to avoid having that mouth to feed this winter...hay is gonna' be expensive and scarce due to a very wet Spring (making hay-making difficult)and a very dry Summer (nothing grew after July 4th). We are finally beginning to wean the 7 month old calf...with once/day milking...she still gets to be with her momma during the day...but not for long! We are getting an adequate supply of milk for now. Look forward to some cheese-making as our supply increases.
I did not have a Fall garden this year...ran out of time! I do need to harvest the horseradish, but it may be too late...the ground is frozen already. For the first time this year, we enjoyed a bountiful peanut crop...if you have never read anything about George Washington Carver and the peanut...please do...he was an amazing scientist and the peanut is an amazing plant! My neighbor gave me 2 Meyer Lemon trees. I don't have a greenhouse but hope to raise them indoors while it is cold, and move outside when warm! The Quakers used to raise lemon trees in the 1800's, in Maryland...hopefully they'll be productive here on our farm!
What other things kept us busy this season? The kids played soccer in Scottsville and at Fork Union. Austyn and I trained and ran in a 5K race. Teaching and learning at home/ACTS coop/FUMA. The girls took a sock-knitting class. We enjoyed a 9 day family vacation to the Bahamas over Thanksgiving break. 4-H meetings, church, getting together with friends. Whew! No wonder I have no time to blog!
