April 23, 2008 – Chugging Along

Whoa! Has it really been a month since I wrote the last entry? All I can say is that it has been a busy month. Sorry!

Kidding has continued to go well. We have two doelings I still need to put up on the For Sale page, but the rest of the kids have been sold. All but one of the big girls have kidded and three of the yearlings have, as well. That means we are milking nine now, though the yearlings are still not giving us as much milk as we hope they will get up to over time. (But oh, are their new udders adorable.)

We have been making cheese almost every day and…selling it all. On Tuesday, April 8 we became a vendor at the Houston Farmer’s Market held in the parking lot at Rice Stadium. We have completely sold out two of the three weeks we have been there and came pretty close the time we didn’t. We now officially have “regulars”, too, and it is seriously the coolest thing ever.

We also went to our first monthly market day at Home Sweet Farm. Sold out there, too. What can I tell you? The ladies make good milk which I manage not to ruin when I make cheese. J

The very best part of both markets has been meeting people who are into local food. Without sounding all sanctimonious, I just need to share how rewarding it feels to know we are putting good, natural food out there and it is being accepted and – even better – enjoyed.

Starting the first Saturday in May, we will also be at the Bayou City Farmer’s Market at Eastside and Richmond. We had to delay our start there until we had enough cheese to sell at two markets…what a wonderful problem to have.

It looks to us as though we will likely sell out every week. If you want our cheese, you should really plan to get to the markets nearer to their start than to their end. And if you go to the one in Brenham, you really should pre-order. It’s the only way we can guarantee we’ll have what you want.

In non-cheese news, we took the Notorious P.I.G. and Tu-pork Shakur to the processor last week. We call it freezer camp. We will be picking up the packages in another week or so. In the meantime we got two new piglets who we will not be naming. I don’t know what I was thinking giving names to food animals. I am grateful to the girls for their time at our farm and their incredible appetites. They were lovely to have in the time they were here and they did a great job of eating whey and any failed cheese experiments. The two new pigs are filling their shoes as best they can.

We also got a few new ducklings who are just starting to feather out and a couple turkey poults who will be raised for the holidays. …at least that is the plan. I will try to get photos up soon in the “Domestic Fauna” section. I am also working on a new photo album with highlights from the 2008 kidding season. We are selling all of the kids this year, but I can’t help but take a ton of photos. They are just too cute to not document.

I guess that’s it for now. I will try not to let another month lapse before the next update. Hope to see you at a market soon.