Now On To 2015!

I haven't posted a blog in over 3 months but that should give you some indication of just how busy things have been for us. We moved into a solid fall/winter farming season with winter greens and other goodies for market. We made over 100 gallons of molasses and those have been selling like hotcakes!

We processed our first set of pasture raised chickens and the response has been wonderful from our buyers. We participated in our very first Cat Square Christmas Parade and had an absolute blast!

 

In November, we transported the goat girlies, Cocoa and Tillie, to FLG Farms in Taylorsville where they stayed with their boyfriend for two weeks. We are crossing our fingers for Spring babies. Over the holidays, we discovered a wonderful use for Christmas trees after folks were finished with them....goats LOVE them! It's a wonderful and nutritious treat. What a great way to recycle and give it back to nature.

Right now, things on the farm are moving pretty slow. It gives us time to rest and recoup. But we are gearing up for the next growing season. Rick has been working to ready the greenhouse for planting spring seeds. A wood stove has been installed to keep it nice and toasty to help them grow on these cold winter days. Our pigs are ready to be processed. Our butcher appointment is set for mid-February so we are excited to be able to add pasture raised pork for our customers.

We continue to be blessed beyond measure at the support that we have received from the community as we have pushed our family farm to the next level. It's not all been perfect. There have been successes and failures, highs and lows. We continue to learn new things on a daily basis. All in all, 2014 was good to us. Looking forward to 2015!

Til next time,
Audra
Head Chicken Mama at Ellis Farms

Busy and Blessed

It's almost August and things are still hopping on the homestead. We have had a wonderful first month at the Lincoln County Farmer's Market. Everyone has been extremely welcoming to us and we've been very successful each Saturday that we've been there. Even though we are in the midst of the summer season, we have already begun planting produce for the fall. I've had lots of fun looking at different varieties of things that we can try to grow.

We've brought 7 new chickens to the farm (3 Australorps, 2 Rhode Island Reds, a French Black Copper Maran, and a Black Jersey Giant). We are looking forward to the additional eggs that they will provide for us. Our four pigs are growing and getting fatter each day. They are enjoying our fresh produce also! They are so funny to watch and so very smart! If they hear us coming, there is a good chance we have something for them to eat and boy do they come running as fast as they can. We are hoping to be able to sell our pork at the farmers market this Fall. We are also doing some research into the possibility of adding free range meat chickens to our farm and then selling those at the market as well.

Our produce has done so well and we've taken care of sharing that with the community, but we've saved some for us too. We've put up bell peppers, corn, and tomatoes for this coming winter so we can have fresh, healthy veggies on those cold winter days.

Before I leave you for today, I want to assure you that it's not all work and no play at our place. We were able to take a few days and head for the mountains of North Carolina and cool off for a pit. We had beautiful weather and the kids enjoyed catching crawdads in the creek.....which were quickly used for fishing purposes. :)

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and being safe. Hopefully your own gardens have provided you with lots of goodies for your own families enjoyment.

Until next time,
Audra

Non-Stop Activity On The Homestead

What can I say? I've been slack about blogging but there is no slack happening on the farm. We have been busy busy busy. Cocoa and Mandy, our Nigerian Dwarf does, each had a set of twins in April. 3 boys and a girl. We have retained the female and named her Trixie. One of our boys went to a buyer in Charlotte, another went to a buyer just across the state line in South Carolina, and our third made a long trip to his new home in Florida. We are able to keep up with the two in South Carolina and Florida via Facebook and they are as happy as can be with their new families. Both will be herd sires when it is time to breed them. I'm so happy that we were able to find good homes for all three of these gorgeous boys! So since we moved 3 out, of course that means we had room to bring some in. :) We are happy to announce the additions of "Tillie" and "Opal".
Tillie is from FLG Farms in Taylorsville, NC. She was owned by my goat soap guru friend, Lee Ann Ferguson. She will be a year old in July and is the sweetest, most loving little girl.

Opal is from Past Ur Time Farm in Rutherford, NC. She is naturally polled and blue eyed so we are very excited to add those awesome genetics to our heard. Opal is still a baby, so we won't be breeding her until the Fall of 2015. She is a very vocal little girl and makes sure everyone around knows when she wants attention. We love her to death already!

It's pickin' time on Ellis Farms! So of course, evenings and weekends are spent in the field gathering what we are blessed to have sown this spring. We planted a total of 3500 veggies of various varieties and things are hoppin'.

I'm very proud of how beautiful our produce has turned out so far. We are set to make our first appearance at the Lincoln County Farmer's Market this coming weekend and we are also working with Devine Farms in Catawba County in a farm share opportunity to sell our produce at their farm stand. We also added four feeder piglets to the mix. We plan on raising them for meat for the family and possibly using one as a breed sow. Things are coming together and it is alot of work. We are still learning as we go, but we are enjoying it.

Til next time,
The Ellis'

Learning From The Pros......Piedmont Farm Tour 2014

This past weekend we decided to send the kids to the grandparents and head towards the eastern part of the state and take part in the largest farm tour in the United States. It's sponsored by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. I've learned quickly that these folks have a wealth of knowledge and really want to help up and coming beginner farmers. We spent two days visiting a total of 6 farms (there were a total of 36 farms to pick from).

On Saturday, we took part in a special bus tour that was only for beginner farmers. We were able to take notes, ask questions, and really get up and personal with the owners and workers at each location. Our first stop was to Perry-winkle Farm. They have sustainably grown vegetables, and cut flowers. They have a crop rotation system to insure a healthy environment. They had two chicken tractors with two different types of meat birds. We also got to see their Hebel Block passive-solar greenhouse. They also have an onsite brick bread oven. The smells coming from that thing were mouth watering!


Next stop was to Granite Springs Farm whose future plan is an interesting concept. They grow vegetables and have pastured laying hens. But the very cool thing was their 95 foot long hoop house where they grow vegetables and oyster mushrooms that are grown on straw in bags and suspended in the air. It looked very complicated to me! They also practice vermicompost using earthworms. This is a 140 acre farm and their eventual plan is to create an intentional agrarian community where all of the homes will be together on the property and everyone farms and works together.

Our last stop on Saturday was to Cozi farm where they raise Jersey dairy cows, sheep, and meat chickens. They also had some beautiful Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dogs.

On Sunday, we got to choose the three farms that we most wanted to see, so we really tried to pinpoint places that were of interest to us as far as similarities in produce and livestock.

First stop was to Chapel Hill Creamery. Here they turn soil, sunlight, and grass into delicious farmhouse cheeses. They had a beautiful herd of Jersey cows. We got to ride a wagon pulled by draft horses. We saw some pigs who eat the whey left over from making the cheese and we got to see their team of oxen that they use to plow the fields on the property. Of course, I bought some cheese. No way could I pass that up!

Our second stop was to Fickle Creek Farm. They had egg mobiles where you got to pick your own fresh eggs. They also raise sheep and lambs, steers, pastured pigs, ducks, and Freedom Ranger broiler chickens. They also have a market garden. I came away with some fresh country sausage!

Our last stop was to Minka Farm where I got to love on some meat and dairy goat babies. They also raise pigs and beef cattle. I met a new donkey friend as well.

 We came away with lots of new ideas and things we'd like to try and implement at Ellis Farms. Wish us luck!

Til next time,

Audra

Babies, Plants, and Everything In Between

It's been a crazy busy time at Ellis Farms in recent weeks (hence the reason I have not updated the blog in forever). Our new website has launched and we've had wonderful response. You can find it HERE. Plants in the greenhouse are popping everywhere and we are busy moving them to the ground. We can't wait to see what comes of the many varieties that we are adding to our lineup this year.

Last week, we also had some new additions come to the farm. Our goat babies are finally here! Mandy kidded with a gorgeous set of black and white twins (a doeling and a buckling) that we named Trixie and Domino. Trixie will be retained on the farm and Domino is available for sale after weaning the first week of June. Domino is naturally polled.

Cocoa, our registered dairy goat, also kidded with twin bucklings. We have named them Java and Butterscotch. They will also be available for sale the first week in June. Butterscotch is naturally polled and blue-eyed.

We have had the best time this past week watching these four navigate their new world. They are running, jumping, and playing all over the place!

Our next additions will be four piglets in May that we will be raising for meat for our own personal use. I'm doing lots of research and reading to plan. Pictures of the pig homestead will be posted soon.

Hopefully you all are planning and prepping your own gardens and enjoying what pleasures come from that. It's been a blessing to us for sure. We enjoy spending that time together as a family creating food that is healthy for our family.

Til next time,
The Ellis'

Try and Try Again

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston Churchill

 “You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying. To the best you can do everyday.”
― Jason Mraz

Well.....what started off as a great vision to expand the farm and have an increase in produce for the Fall....failed miserably. 1600 plants....GONE...thanks to the deer, rabbits, and other critters who thought we had laid out a buffet for them. Rick worked so hard and we are very disappointed.

Looks like we will back up, regroup, and try again. Ya live and learn.

We are still determined to make a go of this family farm and eventually turn it into a full time business for Rick. It's what makes him happy. And I'm all for that.

Next up on the plan is breeding the dairy goats, which will be a first for us. Cocoa came to us already pregnant, which was a learning experience for us and that was a good thing. We have found a wonderful family in Taylorsville, NC who also raises Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. We are sending Cocoa and Mandy away to "sleep away camp" for the weekend in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, fingers crossed, they will come back pregnant so that we can have some Spring babies on the farm.

The Ferguson family, specifically Lee Ann, has been very helpful to me in answering my thousands of questions, not only about breeding specifics and contract details but I found out through the world of Facebook, that Lee Ann makes soap and other beauty products from her goats milk. You can see her products here. She has inspired me! I want to try my hand at soap making. I have purchased a beginner soap making kit and frozen some of Cocoa's milk.

Can't wait to see if this may turn into a little side business for me! I've had lots of local folks asking if I will be making goats milk soap so, apparently there is a demand for it.

The chickens are doing well. We've been dealing with the change in seasons which means the birds are losing their feathers (molting) and preparing to grow back new ones. This also means a decrease in egg production but we are still getting 2-3 eggs a day. I'm always on the lookout for new birds. We recently added another "Easter egger" (colored egg layer) and got our first Polish who I fittingly call "Tina Turner". You can see why....HaHa

 Rick and I are also discussing fencing off another smaller area of our property on the backside and purchasing 2-3 piglets to raise for meat for our family. I'm quite excited about this. We love some bacon up in our house. LOL I just have to keep in mind they are pets and I can't name them. If you know me at all, this will be hard.

So that's about it as far as an update for what we are up to. Busy and always and never a dull moment with the Ellis'. But we're having fun and we're doing it together. And that's what's important.

Til next time......................

It's Still Blazing Hot....But We're Planning For Fall!

Folks are still taking summer vacations and enjoying the warm weather, but at our place.....we are planning and planting....for our first Fall crop. We hope to have red cabbage, green cabbage, broccoli, kale, lettuce, spinach, and turnips.We are expanding into our upper field and hope to have 200-300 plants going of each variety. We have begun working on seed trays this week and we are crossing our fingers that all goes well to start these plants.

Our newest hen, a Dark Brahma that our daughter named Bootsie, has been at the farm almost two weeks. She is making herself at home and getting to know her new flock family.

The next "big" family project coming up at the end of the month is harvesting the sorghum cane and continuing on with the Ellis family tradition of making molasses. The family has made molasses in Lincoln County for over 75 years. Last year, they made over 60 gallons. The family tradition and ways of harvesting and cooking have been passed down from generation to generation. It's an interesting process to see in person. We will be cutting around the end of the month. If you're in for a road trip and want to see the molasses being made, we'd love to have you.

Livestock Production 101

This summer I've been doing something I swore was done and over with in 2003 when I finished my Masters degree. I went back to school. But this time it's much more fun! Early in the Spring, I discovered that Western Piedmont Community College in Morganton, NC was offering a short course on Livestock Production. The cost of the class was relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. The course consists of 4 Saturdays, spread throughout the Summer where they teach you all you need to know about the three common "small farm" livestock options and how to use these animals to live off the land. The last Saturday is dedicated to teaching you basic veterinary care. We decided that it would be good to invest $120 to take this class so that I could soak up as much info as possible. A friend of mine is taking the class also. I've had one class so far...SHEEP 101...which was pretty interesting. We don't have sheep on our farm, but I learned that sheep and goats are pretty similar in terms of their care.

Western Piedmont has its own small self-sustaining farm on campus, which I found to be very cool. They sheer the sheep and process the wool and sell it. The money goes back to the campus. The goats are Nubian dairy goats, which have beautiful faces and awesome floppy ears. The goats on the campus farm are very friendly and love to be petted. They have a wonderful set up and I am learning a great deal already. This coming Saturday is GOAT 101 followed by CHICKEN 101 in a couple of weeks. The vet care day is in August. I'm glad that I decided to go back to school for some learnin' that is actually fun and will benefit us on our family farm. Speaking of dairy goats, By this week, I had accumulated enough goat milk- a little over 5 quarts to be exact and I made my first run of goat cheese. We decided to start with an easy recipe for making chevre' which is a mild and creamy cheese, almost like what most know as cream cheese. Once the cheese is made, you can add flavors or spices to make it whatever you wish. It can be kept in the fridge for up to two weeks or, if left plain, you can freeze it for up to 6 months. When you decide to use it, you just thaw it out and add your spices then. Each batch makes about two lbs. of goat cheese.

I'm still learning, so this is a trial and error thing for me. This first batch I thought was too rubbery, but we salvaged it by running it through the blender and adding a little more milk to it, turning it into basically a spread. I split our batch into two 1 lb portions. I added spices and made a batch of garlic dill and a batch of spinach & herb.