Fair Time! Virginia State Fair

One of the things we told the boys we would do along our trip, was to go to some fairs. We love fairs. Well, for the most part ... as a child, dad took the trailers every year to the fairs, to sell them. The first couple days were awesome. After 2 months at fairs, even the most dedicated rider and animal lover is completely exhausted from it. That was us kids. Year after year, although, to dad's credit, we only did "all" the fairs once. After that, it was the one local fair. Still, spending the last 2 weeks of summer at the fair was not necessarily our idea of a great time.

I wanted to change my apathetic attitude towards fairs and started taking my kids when they were young. Thrilling rides, cotton candy, "smelly" cows and all the other joys of the fair were new again seeing them through the eyes of my kiddos. Today I can truly say, I enjoy the fair again. I don't do the rides, but live vicariously through the boys.

My true joy at the fair though, is seeing the livestock. I love the smells of the barn. Even more so now, not having our own farm for the moment. It really makes my heart ache for our land and the animals.

This calf was born just 15 minutes ago!!!

I miss my little porkers

Virginia. What a smart bunch you are. Putting the folks in prison to work, learning new skills ...

It's not a great picture above, but I zoomed in on the board here:

Yes, you read that right. Virginia Dept of Corrections State Agri Business. How smart of you to actually work on rehabilitating your prisoners and giving them some skills they really can use when they are released. Who was the smart one who thought of that? I would really like to shake your hand and say thank you.

One of the most exciting parts of this fair was it's location. In a little town called Doswell, Virginia, sits the home of the Virginia State Fair at The Meadow Event Park. What makes it more exciting is that the land. See, it was once owned by the Chenery family. Penny Chenery. Sound familar? If you saw the movie, Secretariat, it should. The Meadow is the home and birthplace of Secretariat, the world famous, Triple Crown winner. Still today, the barns sit much as they were. They even had an exhibit with one of Secretariat's great grandsons there at the fair. Did you know Virginia is number 4 for horse populations? Me either until now.

More fun times. Here's Evan kickin' some tires on his new tractor...

And seeing if it's really the right size...

for a nap. Ahhh, the joy. It was a fabulous time at the fair and we had a great time as a family. And the sleeping children on the way home didn't hurt either.

What's your favorite experience at the fair?

Not Fantasy Football. Fantasy Farming. Resolution 3.

Resolution 3 - keep dreaming. 

They guys have their fantasy football teams and I have my fantasy farm. No I don’t play the online game, trade my “animals” or even play with my toys, but I do have them. They sit on my one of my kitchen window sills looking at me every time I walk into the kitchen. Or look out at the real chickens in their pasture.

There are the Fjord horses of course, but you can see there are a few more critters. Chickens, pigs, cows, rabbits, ducks, goats, sheep and yes, there are a couple of those true “fantasy” animals: the elephant and the zebra. No, I don’t really want to raise those, but they are cool animals. The rest – you bet! Earlier this year, those cute little piggies sitting on my window sill were the only ones we had on the farm. You see, I think of my funny little window sill as a visual reminder of my goals. Yes, they are written down and yes, I go back and look them over, but the figurines give life to my vision. Funny as it sounds, it was all a dream.

As I was in the process of selling my prior business, people asked what I was going to do next. I was too young to retire. The dream I had was of a large farm where we would have a variety of livestock animals and groups of people would come out to learn about them. To get up close and personal with the animals, not looking from behind a big glass window. And unique breeds, heritage breeds. Not the genetically modified breeds of today, but true hearty breeds that can have babies on their own, withstand temperature changes and lack of shelter (if need be) as well as be thrifty. Ones our grandparents and great grandparents raised. For good reasons.

For now, until we have our larger farm, I have my fantasy farm...in my mind, on paper as well as my window sill.

Do you like to share your hobby with others? Or is it something just for you?

Half a Pig for Christmas

How about half a pig as a fabulous Christmas present? We have one half left of our absolutely amazing, better than organic pork. Better than organic? Yep. If you've read the news lately, there are plenty of shops, including a local store, claiming organic. Even the growers are saying, nope, we are not organic.

So in this day and age when anyone can say the word "organic" and have no proof or actual accountability, we call ourselves better than organic. Come on out. We will introduce you to the pigs. Your's specifically if you wish. We will show you the food they eat. Heck, we'll give you some if you wish to take it home and play with it :-)  We also feed them some great table scraps, fruits and veggies straight from the house. We've also fed them raw goats milk!

Whoohoo - these guys have a great diet! And while we don't claim organic, we are truly happy to show you exactly what they do eat. Honesty and integrity. Pork you will be impressed with. Truly!

Heritage Breeds

It seems like the chickens have been the topic of many of our conversations here at the farm recently. More particularly, the Freedom Rangers chickens that we have added for our meat production. In comparison to our other meat breed, the Cornish Cross, these Rangers are up and active - they have actually been seen on many occasion actually chasing the larger Cornish chickens around. They are lively and peppy and we are so much happier with this fantastic breed.
The Freedom Rangers are a more traditional breed in that they take longer to grow naturally and are France's only breed accepted for their Label Rouge free range program. They don't have the Cornish's famous "double breasts", but they are also have less leg problems as well as heart attacks (not one so far!). We all know the expression, "It tastes like chicken", but really what most people are saying is it's simple and will do well with various sauces, herbs, etc. The older, more traditional breeds really do taste like chicken though. And it's not just the meat, but the fat and the bones that make truly amazing chicken broth. One of those mouth watering, drool coming out of your mouth, broths.
Now don't get me wrong, the Cornish birds still have a place here on our farm. The produce a larger quantity of white breast meat and are fast growers making them more "affordable" for most. They also have the taste and texture that we are more familiar with - although ours still have more taste and texture, it looks the part.
If you have an interest in farm fresh raised chicken, locally produced, drop us a note. Or you can find our order form on our website at: http://www.willowsedgefarm.com/chickens-and-eggs.html
Up and coming: Pastured Pigs ... pigs raised naturally, here on our farm in Bothell.

The Future of Willows Edge Farm

We have spent a lot of time in the last few months discussing the farm's future. In the last weeks, we have spent some time putting it all down ... writing out what it is exactly that we are wanting to accomplish with the farm, where we want to go and how we'll get there.

From 2007-08 we saw our little farm grow by leaps and bounds - 1211% to be exact. 2008-09 saw triple digit growth of 266%. 2010 will be another growth year and we are expecting our numbers to hopefully double again. While the growth is good, we will be bursting at the seams come fall.  In this exciting year, we will be adding farm direct sales of pastured poultry as well as more fresh herbs. The first set of broilers have been ordered and will be ready for pick up in late April with the second set ready mid June.

Our parties and tours are already booking for spring and we are looking forward to large growth from these areas of our farm. Finding something new and different is always a great find for parents and we apparently have something they are looking for. It also falls in line with what we love to do: teach about the farm, animals and work with children.

We're also looking at adding one other of our dream livestock animals ... pigs. Don't laugh, they are gentle, kind and highly intelligent animals. They are also easier to raise on a small farm (easier than Corinne's other dream livestock: The Irish Dexter Cattle) and are good breeders. Pork is gaining popularity as a healthy meat protein; recent studies - in comparison to the "old" studies of the 1950's showing pork as highly fatty - show the new breeds as lean, mean working machines. Many studies compare them as BETTER than chicken in terms of fat AND protein! I will guess that they weren't comparing bacon to chicken breast though ;-)

Further into the future, Willows Edge Farm hopes to grow into a larger facility. We are actively searching for that perfect piece of property along with a few sponsors who want to see farming activities, like we offer, be expanded and grow in Western WA. Small family farms are rapidly disappearing - did you know there are more people in prison than farming in this country? We want to be one of those farms that is around for the long haul and continue on for generations to come!