Awesome Eggs

I've shared the details around our source for eggs with several of you individually, but wanted to give some additional insight and background around the the cool chicken activities over at the Roehrer family farm.  I met the Roehrers back in 2014, we share many similar interests and ideas related to farming and food production, and several of their older children work with us on the farm during the season.  Knowing their commitment to sustainable, healthy production, made them a natural partner that allowed us to be able to offer delicious, organic eggs as an option to our shareholders each week.  Following is a brief history of their farm and flock:

Our small farm in Ortonville was established in 2000, with our chicken flock
beginning in 2010 when our eldest daughter expressed her new-found love for
chickens after “chicken sitting” for a friend. And so it was, our very first flock
was established.
After our family of ten experienced the sheer joy of raising baby chicks, we
then began to reap the benefits of farm-fresh pastured eggs, and the rest, as
they say, is history! There was no going back to store-bought eggs ever
again.
We currently grind and mix our own feed, as we found it difficult to find
organic, soy-free feed. Now we are able to be in complete control of the
ingredients in their diets without any surprises. We only procure organic, non-
GMO, soy-free ingredients from regional farmers. Food scraps are limited to
organically raised fruits and vegetables. In keeping with natural practices, we
gently wash our eggs with only cool, clean water.
Due to the large population of fox and hawks in our area, our chickens reside
in a “gated community” for their safety. They have an abundance of room to
run, sunbathe, dust bathe, eat bugs, scratch, forage, and play “worm football”.
Our birds enjoy the great outdoors year round yet have access to large,
roomy coops at their desire.
We take pride in raising healthy, happy chickens for our family, and we are
pleased to be able to share their eggs with you as well.

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April 2016 Update

I know, I'm way past due with the spring update, no excuses, just been putting off sitting in front of the computer vs. spending time outside as long as I can :).  It was a much milder winter for the fruit trees compared to the previous two, which was a nice break!  The apples all have emerging leaves and blossoms so hopefully the sub freezing nights are behind us.

I enclosed the wash station this spring with plexiglass and plastic so we now have a larger space to work with for transplant starts (instead of the south facing window of our dining room)

Chicks arrived two weeks ago, all are doing well!  We decided to go with the Freedom Ranger variety for this batch.  They take a little longer to mature, but supposedly they are better foragers, we'll see how they do once we move them onto pasture in another week or so.

The garlic that went in at the end of October last year is looking good.  We used card board sheets over a slightly raised bed and then planted the garlic into holes cut in the cardboard, I'm hoping that this will reduce the weed pressure that challenged the garlic crop last season.

Thank you to all of our shareholders that have signed up for the upcoming season! It's great to have so many of you returning from last year and we are excited to meet all of our new members as well.  We expanded the number of shares again this season but only have room for about 6 more before we will be completely sold out.  We are very thankful for the continued strong support!!

I'll attempt to keep the updates more frequent as we move closer to the start of the season.  Have a great week!

-Wade

2016 CSA SHARES NOW AVAILABLE

Do you enjoy delicious, fresh, organic fruit and vegetables?  Do you like to know where your food comes from and who grows it?  Does receiving a basket of freshly harvested produce each week during the growing season sound appealing?  Well then a CSA share from Decker Farm and Orchard may be for you!

We will be offering both full and half share sizes again this year and in addition to our standard shares which include our organic, pasture raised meat chickens, we will also be offering a meat free share for our vegetarian customers.

2016 Share Prices:

• Standard Half Share - $350
• Standard Full Share - $600
• Meat-Free Half Share - $310
• Meat-Free Full Share - $520

 Add fresh, organic, soy-free eggs to your weekly shares:

• Half dozen - $45
• Full dozen - $75

Joining is simple with our online signup form that makes registration quick and easy, and an online payment option is available as well.  A $100 deposit will hold your share, with the balance due by May 15th.

Check out our CSA page for pictures and week by week listing of share contents from prior seasons.

We are super excited to begin our 3rd season of share production and can’t wait to see everyone out at the farm!

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CSA Week 17

Our final week for the 2015 season has arrived!  A big Thank You to all of our wonderful shareholders that have supported us through another fantastic and very rewarding year.  As I've come to realize, almost nothing on the farm goes exactly as planned, but as I reflect back over the past 17 weeks there have been many more ups than downs, and I am already looking forward to next season.

Sometime in the near future (hopefully before the holidays) we'll be sending out a brief survey to all shareholders for feedback on the past season.  We would greatly appreciate if you could take a few minutes to complete it and help us to make next year even better!

Chickens went from pasture to freezer on Monday as planned.  Average weights were right on target around 5 pounds each. Along with the chickens, this weeks shares include:

• Leeks
• Green Onions
• Parsnips
• Tomatoes
• Radishes
• Turnips
• Sweet Peppers
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Cayenne Peppers

The parsnips look like over sized white carrots, they kind of smell a bit like carrots too.  They are delicious in soup and stews, roasted, baked, or boiled and mashed.