a chicken by any other name...

A chicken by any other name wouldn't grow so slow. Well it's time to come out with the story of the freedom rangers that are not freedom rangers.  This spring Noah and I ordered what we thought where 100 freedom rangers from Black Creek Farm and Feed and after a few months ordered another batch of 120 "freedom rangers". Turns out these are not Freedom Rangers but what Black Creek Farm and Feeds calls traditional chickens that take 24 weeks to grow! WHAT! That is a lot longer than our 14 week plan. After calling Black Creek Farm and Feed I thought it was the supplier who had made the mistake, they told me I had never ordered freedom rangers and that "their suppliers don't even know what a freedom rangers is". After trying to understand how this misunderstanding could have happened I heard from two other farmers on the island saying that the same thing had happened to them. They also had ordered a chicken that they had called a Freedom Ranger and had ended up with the same Traditional bird. Lesson learned always do everything in writing and get a chicken supplier you can trust. We have already slaughtered first hundred and they tasted great, but had more bone than we had hoped for. Right now we still have 120 in the field, I have to say it's a little creepy when you hear the pitter, patter of 120 chicken feet following you. We also have the broilers that we are raising to make up for the loss on raising the "traditional" birds. But as the old saying goes there is never a loss without some gain, our fields and garden's are getting a poop load of chicken mature. 

Training our newest farm hand
Here at Hillcrest Farms we take these early years very seriously with identifying farm species in black and white as a top priority:) 

the days feel about this dark lately, eating popcorn with the light on 

missing an hour

It's even darker now with that hour missing, where did it go? It's now dark when Noah get's home from work, so getting the garlic in by head lamp was the only way it was going to happen this year. Lyra helped prep the soil, got nice and dirty and came in covered in dirt and smelling like something the tide washed up, mmm the smell of a few days old seaweed. It's hailing right now as Noah is out finishing up the chores and both of my children are asleep. I have taken to blogging instead of tackling the steady pile of dishes and laundry, I'll call it journaling and feel much more noble about it.

Only a few days ago it was warm enough to be outside in a tee shirt. The colder weather has moved in over the last few days. Here Lyra is showing me the seeds in the buckwheat and that you can eat them, imagine discovering something like that. And for her it was just as it was for the first man(woman) who ever ate buckwheat. We dug the potatoes finally the other day and it looks like we'll have enough for winter. Noah went through all our seeds yesterday leaving a note for me this morning with that list for order for next years seeds and it's fairly short.
Noah is going down on saturday to pick up the rest of the beef from this year's slaughter. I'm excited to have a some in the freezer to eat and another freezer full for freezer sales. We are going to be at the QCC Winter Market this winter and if it's not happening we are going to be here most saturday's from 10-2 with freezer sales. I also set up a facebook page so you can now "like" us on facebook. I will post all new available product on that page as well.

"shopping at local farmstores and establishing relationships with local farmers can answer question about safe practices and helps support a prosperous farming community" Quillisacut Farm School 

fall beauty 

Add caption

days are getting shorter

milk sitting out to get to room temp to make butter and yogurt 

a nice walnut harvest with help from Nanna

After serval weeks of sickness, I'm back again. Of course the farm never sleeps. The rain is here to stay, farming is a rain or shine kind of job. The days are getting darker and we are already excitedly thinking about the garden next year, while still harvesting from this year. Fifi is back, without little Gordon, so we are back in milk.  Butter, yogurt and some simple soft cheese are back in the fridge. I'll never tire of seeing that milk from our cow sitting there with a nice seperation of cream. A lot will make it the garden and feilds this year, last year we had pigs who where heavily milk and whey fed. The chickens are really free range now with garden #2 full of meat birds. 

We went to the Winter Market a few weeks ago for the first and time and it went well, so I'll be there tomorrow with Grass Fed Beef by the piece. Thank you for supporting local food the more you support your local farms the more good local food you get. I better go I'm off to pick by head lamp for the market tomorrow. 

Baby's & Pumpkins go together like peaches and cream 

Happy to be free in the garden #2