Dear friends,
We hope you are having a special 4th of July weekend. With our new 2021 vaccination freedom, we hope you enjoyed friends, family, food, firework festivities and 4th fanfare in a fun and familiar fashion.
The farm tends to quiet down during the summer and this year is no exception. Preparing for fall, we put up 170 bales of first cutting hay. The 3 remaining lambs are growing well and enjoying the pastures with the ewes. The sheep were shorn 4 weeks ago, and after a few short hours of looking ready for the fair, quickly found a way to cover themselves in dust and "dirt." During this time of the year, we don't "grain" them and they only eat the pasture and the occasional bale of hay for ruffage to support their rumen. Rumen is essentially a large fermentation vat in sheep that contains billion of microorganisms including bacteria and protozoa which allow ruminants to digest fibrous feed that other animals cannot efficiently utilize.
The pullets are now 6 weeks old and transformed from fuzzy cute peeps to fully formed small chickens with essentially their full plumage. They will continue to grow another 10 weeks until ready for sale or to move into a coop to replace older birds. We may have a few extras, if you are interested in a buying a 16 week old pullet please let me know. In addition, that means we will also soon have either frozen stewing hens or 2 year old chickens for your coop. They will cost $5 each (warm or cold), LMK if interested and your preferred option asap.
One hen has gone broody. She sits all day on ~15 eggs. Other chickens are now in on the action and also broody, some in the same nesting box with her. We hope to have peeps born over the next week. We will also be selling these peeps, as I will have no place to keep them, so let us know if interested. Her brooding also complicates egg collection and sales. One incubating egg slipped through our quality control process and ended up in my frying pan. That inspector was reprimanded and new processes are in place. We apologize in advance for any surprises in your kitchen.
We started firewood deliveries and our 27 ricks are now all sold for the remainder of the year.
Please let me know if you are interested in compost this fall. Your garden and plants will love you for it and your neighbors will be jealous.
We are now selling local Rydal Cottage honey from Bobbi Pincus, a bee farmer in Hunting Valley with 15 hives in her backyard. She produces raw local honey. The honey bears sell for $10 each from our fridge, although when you get home, do not keep it in the fridge. The honey is delicious and many believe honey provides a wealth of healthy benefits, including: A good sources of antioxidants, has antibacterial and antifungal properties, is immune boosting and can soothe a sore throat.
Wildlife are providing the most excitement. We have at least two fawns near our house, both spending time in our yard and pastures. A painted turtle was spotted crossing our back road to the other property and we had a stunning siting of a gray treefrog against our red barn during a rain storm. Huge numbers of lightening bugs (nature's sparklers) were on display during our very hot, humid nights.
Today we discovered a Luna moth with some of the following fun facts: One of the largest moths in North America, the elongated tails are intended to confuse bats, and adult moths have vestigial mouth parts and do not feed (vestigial means genetically determined structures that have lost some or all of their ancestral function). The eyespots on the wings are also intended to confuse predators. These moths are not rare, but are rarely seen, as they are only alive as adults for 5-7 days and are generally nocturnal. A male moth can detect a female moth several miles away.
After a wonderful June with both Harry and Lauren home for several weeks, our best farm helpers have left and the house is again quiet. As always we will miss them, their stories and our fun family dinners on the back patio.
Hope you have a wonderful July!
Harry
