I just put a new recipe on the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/papaweaver). It's a new recipe that Mom made the other night for dinner that was absolutely delicious! It was a pork tenderloin that she cut up, fried, and then made a sauce with blueberries to go on it. I'm not the biggest blueberry fan, but I thought it was amazing!
Dad and I have been pretty busy this week, but the most exciting thing that we did yesterday was go look at a combine that is going to be for sale next week! Dad's afraid that it might be a little out of our price range, but it's going to be at an auction in Fauquier County next Saturday. It was much newer and bigger than the one that we had previously, and I really liked it. Dad was also looking at a manure spreader that he thinks might go in his price range, and I want a wagon that I can use to carry people in for my pumpkin patch.
Everything just keeps getting greener and growing on the farm. All of our wheat and barley is growing. We had one field of wheat that got planted late, and it just came up this week! Everything else has been out of the ground for over a month, and we thought that that field just wasn't going to come up. Even the wheat that got planted on the same day in a different strip in the same field was up! It was pretty strange, but at least it is up and growing now! I guess it just needed those warm temperatures last weekend to give it the final kick that it needed to pop up!
Since it's supposed to be around 80 degrees today, I went down to the barn and have all the doors wide open to get some fresh air in for the baby pigs. They certaintly seemed to appreciate it! This afternoon I have to go back down and move two sows to our farrowing room that are supposed to have babies this weekend! I don't think they will though, I imagine it's going to be the first of next week before they actually do!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Dry Out!
It's a beautiful day outside- so nice after all the rain we have gotten in the past week! Dad said that we ended up getting over 5 inches all together between the two systems that came through. The Rapidan River goes through the bottom edge of our property, and down on the river bottom the river had gotten out when we went down on Friday morning and looked. When I was down yesterday, the river had gone back down a little bit so there wasn't all that water in the field. There is still water standing in the low spots in the fields where we planted our barley and wheat, but that should be gone in the next few days. With these warm temperatures and those five inches of rain, the barley and wheat and all the rest of the grass is going to jump up! It's so nice to see the pastures be green again after being brown all winter.
We have been on a major "spring cleaning" event in some of our barns- just getting everything all cleaned up and walls washed and after our woodstove has been burning all winter. It's so nice to see it after it gets cleaned- looks like an entirely different place!
Last week Dad, Matt, and I started building a pen in the field next to our house to catch our herd of cows here. We were able to get most of the posts dug- Dad used old electric poles from the electric company that are cut up after they came through and replaced electric poles a few years ago. Then he uses old guardrail as the sides of the pens. We have two other lots that are already made like that- they work GREAT. We don't have to worry about boards rotting or getting broken like we do in our pens that are made out of wood! I had to empty out the holes after we dug them to get all the loose dirt out, and then I had to "tamp" the dirt down- pack it in really tightly around the post so that they don't move. My arms and shoulders hurt really badly the next day- great upper arm workout!
We sold the first of our beef at the Farmer's Market in Spotsylvania yesterday, and were really pleasantly surprised by the response of all of our customers that came by. We are really hoping that everyone enjoys it, and keeps coming back for more. We had barbeque made out of a chuck roast on Friday night, hamburgers yesterday for lunch, and then Mom, Dad, and Matt had steaks last night. I was really upset I missed the steaks- Dad said they were excellent. I did have some of the hamburger patties yesterday at lunch time with bacon, they were DELICIOUS. I love hamburgers, but I think these were some of the best I have ever eaten!
I already have been talking to Quail Cove Farms about getting them some beef to sell, but with the way that it is selling right now, it might be a while before we have any extra! We have already gone through so much of it that Dad is already getting ready to schedule a time to take another animal over so that we can get some more beef back!
We have been on a major "spring cleaning" event in some of our barns- just getting everything all cleaned up and walls washed and after our woodstove has been burning all winter. It's so nice to see it after it gets cleaned- looks like an entirely different place!
Last week Dad, Matt, and I started building a pen in the field next to our house to catch our herd of cows here. We were able to get most of the posts dug- Dad used old electric poles from the electric company that are cut up after they came through and replaced electric poles a few years ago. Then he uses old guardrail as the sides of the pens. We have two other lots that are already made like that- they work GREAT. We don't have to worry about boards rotting or getting broken like we do in our pens that are made out of wood! I had to empty out the holes after we dug them to get all the loose dirt out, and then I had to "tamp" the dirt down- pack it in really tightly around the post so that they don't move. My arms and shoulders hurt really badly the next day- great upper arm workout!
We sold the first of our beef at the Farmer's Market in Spotsylvania yesterday, and were really pleasantly surprised by the response of all of our customers that came by. We are really hoping that everyone enjoys it, and keeps coming back for more. We had barbeque made out of a chuck roast on Friday night, hamburgers yesterday for lunch, and then Mom, Dad, and Matt had steaks last night. I was really upset I missed the steaks- Dad said they were excellent. I did have some of the hamburger patties yesterday at lunch time with bacon, they were DELICIOUS. I love hamburgers, but I think these were some of the best I have ever eaten!
I already have been talking to Quail Cove Farms about getting them some beef to sell, but with the way that it is selling right now, it might be a while before we have any extra! We have already gone through so much of it that Dad is already getting ready to schedule a time to take another animal over so that we can get some more beef back!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Papa Weaver's- not just pork anymore!
Papa Weaver's Pork is no longer JUST pork! We have started with beef as well! We have always had beef cattle on the farm, and with the high demand for locally produced, naturally raised animals, we have made our way into the beef market. We took our first animal over two and a half weeks ago, and just brought it home yesterday. Beef animals don't have quite the same turnaround period as pork, beef needs to age some before you can bring it home to eat it. We are really looking forward to being able to sell our beef, and hope that it will sell well at the Farmer's Markets, which is where we will initially be selling. All of our beef animals have the same promises as our pork products- no antibiotics, no hormones, no MSG, no Nitrates, no growth promotents.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Why, Hello March!
I can't believe that it is already March 1! The weather certainly hasn't felt like typical end of February/beginning of March weather recently. I can't believe that yesterday we had thunderstorms and tornado warnings! Knowing the weather, in two weeks it will be snowing again!
Things are starting to pick up again on the farm. Dad is starting to get everything planned and ordered for everything he wants to plant this year. The wheat and barley that he planted last September/October is really starting to jump out of the ground, and that happened just with this last spurt of warm weather! The cows have been eating less hay- the grass is starting to grow some, and the fields are starting to have a little tinge of green to them. It certainly makes me much happier to see that than all the brown that we have in the winter!
This morning, I made some phone calls for Papa Weaver's Pork to get everything situated with Quail Cove Farms for their order this week, and then went down to the breeding barn, farrowing room, and nurseries to get everything fed. It was too muddy to get the feed truck down this morning to put more feed in the tank, so dad had to bring the tractor down that had the feed on it.
After we finished feeding, Dad and I worked on putting up a new electric fence for the cows around the corn field. The cornfield behind our house still has some corn cobs and corn stalks in the field, and the cows love to get in and eat them. We had to put an electric fence up on one side where there is no fence so that they won't roam everywhere- which they would if we let them, including in the road, and then down the road to our nearest neighbor's yards and gardens. They really love flowers and other people's gardens, which can make for a big inconvenience.
Dad and I are getting ready to head back out for the afternoon, to work on some more jobs. Dad is going to head to Harrisonburg in a couple of hours to pick up meat so that he can go to DC and Northern Virginia to make deliveries this morning, and I have some jobs in the barns that need to get done.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)