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......................

Keeping The Family Tradition Alive

Wow! That's all I can say! We have had a whirlwind of a week at the farm (in addition to school starting back and the stress of having a middle schooler and a kindergartener in the mix). This week marked the start of molasses season at Ellis Farms. Harvest time came two weeks early due to all the rain we've had so by the end of last week, it was time to begin harvesting our sorghum cane. On Friday, we had the pleasure of a visit by a reporter and a photographer from The Lincoln Times News, our local newspaper. They wanted to do a story on our molasses and the history of the farm. They took some great pictures and wrote an absolutely wonderful story about the Ellis family farm. You can read it here. We aren't finished cooking yet. Our first batch yielded just over 16 gallons. We are cooking the second batch this coming Saturday and will likely have two more batches after that. We love visitors, so if you want to come see this process, feel free to come on by. You can have some molasses of your very own for $8 a quart. Just stop by the farm.

Another very cool thing that's happened is that we were contact yesterday by a Chef who currently operates a restaurant in Charlotte, NC. They are in the process of starting a new restaurant in Lincolnton that will feature locally grown goods on their menu. They want to purchase molasses from us! Check out their Facebook page Farmer Baker Sausage Maker. We are so excited about the possibility of our molasses being used in a local restaurant. Who knows where this could lead! I'm game for just about anything! 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.