River Ice

Like ice on the river with the warming of spring, Racey and I have begun our journey downstream. River ice starts to flow haltingly, often stopped by ice jams and so we too have begun. The weather and the calendar have played their usual motivational role, the soft feel of March mud under foot reminds us that spring is fast approaching and our first batch of chicks will arrive next week!

The flow of ice on the river is an apt analogy for our progress this winter. I’ve struggled in the past few months to convey our work and in hindsight it was like trying to craft an action packed movie from footage of a frozen river. From months of introspection, analysis, reflection and coaching we have arrived at the following plans:

• Racey has reduced her off farm work commitment and joyfully joined the daily adventure of the farm business.
• Nathan will learn and explore marketing and how to tell our story about why we farm and what we offer.
• We will expand chicken production to keep our chicken in stock year round. As well as look at how to make our pigs and pork fully organic.

At the heart of this plan is the belief and conviction that we can support and nurture our family with a business and farm that also does the same for the land and creatures (humans included) that produce the food. I look forward to sharing our vision, why organic matters to us and to the land we inhabit and the ways we need your help.

For the time being there is work to do. Our freezers have been empty of many chicken cuts for a while, so we will do our best to put our chicken back in the freezer. This means chicks come next week, even though there is still snow on the ground! We also “found” a case of whole chickens! How did we “find” a box you might ask? We often reuse our cardboard boxes and occasionally the old label is not completely crossed out. What we thought was some pork roasts, was actually a box of whole chickens! Yah. There are now 9 whole chickens left. We have also bought in some Pasture Raised Organic Chicken from our friends at Wrong Direction Farm (WDF). Dave and Rachel are awesome people and farmers. We bought in some of their chicken last year and we heard from a few folks that the chicken breast was too large for their liking. I passed this on to Dave and he handpicked packages that were smaller for us. We now have Chicken Breast and Chicken Thighs from WDF.

This week we have been busy preparing for the chicks arrival. Lewis, Lovett and Susu are all ready to have those little cheeping bundles of joy back in our daily routine. The dull colors of late winter hardly convey the excitement as we organize our supplies like peat moss bedding, lime for cleaning and feed. This year we will have a batch of chicks arrive every week during the summer and so we are working on a new brooder plan. For the first few batches of the season we will use the brooder from last year.

I took this picture because it is a strong feeling for me, but to look at the picture now seems to pale in comparison to standing there. Pastured poultry is a seasonal endeavor in the north east so we put the operation to bed every fall. Standing here in the doorway to the brooder, which will be teeming with hundreds of baby chicks in a few days, I feel a tingle and warmth of anticipation, of calm, and of what is to come. Into March we go.