It's an awesome time of year on the farm. We have the most luscious grasses, 1 to2 feet high, thick, rich, deep rooted, nutrient dense food for cows. Our rye crop this year is outstanding to say the least. We stopped feeding hay, or I should say the cows stopped eating hay, a few weeks ago and for several months were really just eating enough to balance the intense richness of young fast growing rye grasses.
Since 2 weeks ago, when we put out the Melaleuca (M) Co. videos, lots of questions have come in like, “If you eat a WAP style diet do you need to supplement?” and I love questions so here goes. Our cows have a mineral box in front of them at all times http://www.freechoiceminerals.com/ which contains calcium, phosphorus, copper, sulfur, sodium, kelp, iodine, magnesium, potassium, plus trace mineral mixes that contain cobalt, boron, iron, manganese, Molybdenum, Selenium, Zinc. It contains several vitamin mixes too. So, our cows are supplemented and we eat 80 to 90% food from off our own farm so we feel like our supplements are fed to our cows and we get them second hand.
Hello Small Farm Enthusiasts, Duck Wonderful: Our budding duck whisperer (11 year old Stella) is learning the challenges of having her own enterprise: duck eggs. She bought 15 Khaki Campbell ducks that she raised from chicks. Her diligence paid off as she did not loose one duck until winter came along. Predators become more desperate for food and she ended up losing 7 ducks this winter after not having any loss for over 4 months. It was a hard lesson but one we all learned from. Finally, after 6 months,
Hello Small Farm Enthusiasts, We thought we would start this newsletter off with a testimonial from a customer that was just e-mailed to us last week:
Since last June, I’ve been serving as the Full Circle Farm Delivery Tech. You’ve experienced changes to how you receive your food. The farm staff has received much positive feedback to the changes—thank you! That tells me we are pursuing the correct course change. You affirm for me that my gift of management and governance is authentic.
Hi, this is Lily. I just turned 16 years old and am Dennis and Alicia’s oldest daughter. This is the first farm newsletter I’ve ever written and I’m not sure how it will turn out but here goes.
Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, A few years ago we read where a billionaire taught his daughter to come to him for high fives every time she made a mistake. His thinking was that people who try things make mistakes but people who do not try to do anything seldom fail. He wanted his daughter to learn to fail much. Failing much was his formula for success. I had a hard time with this concept but for a year or 2, here on the farm, we tried hard to celebrate mistakes. It has changed the very way we think about mistakes or failures and is slowly changing the way we approach stepping out and trying something new.
Have you ever asked, what needs to change in our world? The answer is...I do. This quote is from Matthew Kelly and I just finished reading his book called The Seven
Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, Eggs, not just any old egg, oh no, these are Full Circle Farm chickens on rye pasture eggs with the most brilliant yoke color you have EVER seen. Caroline bought 100 new hens a few months ago, from a farm where they fed high quality feed from day one. These gals were a couple months from laying eggs instead of 6 months for baby chicks. She paid a pretty penny for these awesome birds and now she is reaping the rewards, an abundance of eggs. So we have lots of em and want you to buy up. No restriction on eggs from FCF for a while we hope. Also, an awesome sale on Eden Farm Soy Free, Non-GMO eggs: Buy 3 dozen eggs, save $7, in other words, buy 2 dozen eggs get one free!
Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts and Happy New Year! Dr Caroline Leaf is an author I have enjoyed lately. I first read her book called Switch on Your Brain and I liked it but maybe it was a bit out o my league. Then I read her book, Think and Eat Yourself Smart, all about the brain/food/health connection. NOW she is speaking my language.
Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts and Merry Christmas! Lots happening here at Full Circle, sometimes its hard for me to keep up with it all. Several folks are interested in Jesse Green's mill. Hopefully someone pulls through to keep this local business going. We will see what happens. A local farm has a meat sheep starter herd for sale and, see below, the milking sheep herd for sale as well. We will be doing a seminar on raising sheep February 24th.
Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, For the last number of years we were able to buy some milk cows from our friends who run a grass fed dairy, around the month of October. This year we have not yet completed that transaction, although it might happen yet in the next month or two. This is one reason our milk supply is running low. Bear with us as we wait. All systems are go here to grow but the usual has not come thru yet, till that happens milk supply will be tight. I call it milk wars.