Open Barn - WEEK!

Well, I can't believe it, but Open Barn Week is almost here. It seems like just yesterday we were picking out what day/days would work for the farm and our family. Well, Monday, March 29 - Friday, April 2, from 10am to 3pm each day we will open our farm.

Why do we do this, you ask (we get that a lot). We want to be able to open our farm and share it with others who may not have the opportunity to go visit a farm. Horse farms are notorious for keeping their barn doors shut to the public. Unless you're willing to drop those big bucks every month, they really aren't interested in sharing anything with you. What a shame! We love to teach about our horses, how we manage them, their personalities...on and on we go. We also love to teach about chickens ... both their egg management as well as pastured poultry and how all that works and why it's different. Has Tyson Foods ever invited you to their farm? Probably not. I've never been to one of their "farms", but suspect I would leave in tears seeing all those birds in cages for their entire lives.

We really feel fortunate to have been blessed with what we have here on our little farm. Come on our and enjoy yourself. While we do not have a charge to come, we do, kindly ask for your generous donations. The donations are what help make our Open Barn and other events even possible.

Want more info? Visit our Open Barn page on the Willows Edge Farm website.

Farm Tours and More in ... Canada

This last week I was fortunate enough to join a great group of farmers and travel around Vancouver Island, farm hopping. We visited many farms and I got to see first hand some small, farms like ours and learn some cool techniques you'll soon be seeing here on our farm ... look for the Trellis Tower coming soon!

We also got to see first hand two of the largest greenhouses on the Island. One was as large as our entire property, another was a 4 acre greenhouse. One of them grew red, green and orange peppers - all vertically - for the island and the other grew lettuces, tomatoes and more. Just the sheer size was amazing. Can you say HUGE? Just dwell on that for a minute ... one greenhouse as large as our farm. Filled with just 3 colors of peppers. And it was not even large enough to feed even half of the islands demand for those peppers.

While we're not planning on covering our property with a big greenhouse, it was an important visit to see how these farms are raising our foods. Food security, handling and processing. Even I, a self proclaimed "farmer", was in total awe of the process thinking about how this all gets to the grocery stores or the markets. Wow.

OK, ok, yes we had some fun too! We got to see a few of the Vancouver Island Raptor's including ... a Turkey Vulture and yes, a Bald Eagle. So close I could almost reach out and touch him. Then again, looking at that powerful beak and amazing tallons, I thought twice.

All in all it was an amazing week...meeting new friends, learning and a little entertainment to boot.