The Turkeys are Almost Ready!

 



Tending her flock.

The Monday before Thanksgiving these birds will be processed at nine the morning. At three in the afternoon on that same day a swarm of Thanksgiving celebrants will swoop onto the farm, and choose their holiday bird. You can't get much fresher than that. Birds have been pre-sold.

Please reserve a turkey for next Thanksgiving for a fabulous meal!

 

 

Sharing an apple with a friend.

Pig Garden!

Pigs being unloaded into the "pig" garden that we planted this spring.
 

These photos were taken in late October, on the day of the first hard frost. We chose to put the pigs in on the day of the first hard frost in order to give the forage crops as much time to grow as possible.

Trying out: mangles, pumpkins, tomatillos, vetch, clover

 

Yum, grass!
 (Check this pig out...it looks like a white pig, but it's skin is black. What a funny color combo- especially coming from a Large Black sow and Tamworth boar (which is a red pig).

Even weedy gardens taste good to pigs!

Considering a nibble of mullein.

 

 

Delicious mangles (feed beets).

 

The pigs LOVE their new garden. When Colby did his last chores of the night he noticed the pigs chomping away in the garden well past their bedtime.

 

We plan to add many more pig gardens in the years to come. In the future we plan to grow turnip, rape, and field peas in addition to the pumpkin, vetch, mangles, clover and sunflowers we tried this year.

 

Pigs in the Woods

 

These photos were taken in mid October. The pigs are content in the fall forest. They are turning away grain in favor of apples that we're picking from our orchard, dairy (and lots of it!) and nuts falling from the trees. Colby has been strategically moving the pigs for months getting them into perfect position for their nut harvest- acorns, beech nuts, hickory nuts and a few walnuts and butternuts. The Iberico ham (grown in Southern Spain and Portugal) is widely regarded as the best ham in the world. The best of the best Iberico hams come from animals that are kept free-range in oak forests, where they consume an acorn rich diet. We are attempting to mimic the growing conditions of the best pork in the world...so that you can come to New Lebanon, NY for fantastic pork, rather than making the long journey to Spain or Portugal!

Pigs are perfectly suited for the forest.

Mulefoot Hog and Berkshire Cross Hog

Group of Mulefoot hogs- noted for their exceptional foraging capabilities and its wild game flavor.

 

Another happy day on the farm. Pumpkins!

Last year we fed the pigs ten truck loads of pumpkins in the space we later used as our garden for the animals. Feeding pumpkins is FREE (after Halloween), pumpkins are vitamin rich, and the seed also helps to eliminate any worms that the pigs may be carrying. Autumn is a particularly good time of year to worm so that the animals go into the winter with an uncompromised immune system. The other wonderful side benefit of feeding pumpkins is that this year we have dozens and dozens of big, beautiful pumpkins that grew out of the manure left by the pigs!

Our kids love the Easter-egg-hunt-ish feel to finding pumpkins randomly around the animals' food plot, and it was a great lesson for Huck to see the long range effects of the work we did nearly a year ago when we gathered pumpkins from our friends' pumpkin farm.

Our plan is to have many more food plots like these spread around the farm. We will plant crops with like harvest dates together, and run the pigs through them as the plants mature. For example- this year we have pumpkins, mangles (which are basically big beets grown as livestock feed), and turnips planted together. We LOVE when our animals can do the work of harvesting for themselves!

If you're in the market for pumpkins come visit us at the Downtown Pittsfield Farmer's Market in the next few weeks.

A very rare treat in which Huck and Tillie get a  ride for about 15 feet behind the four-wheeler.

Thank You Piggies

As a family, when we eat meat we always thank the animal we are eating. When we began farming it was, in part, to provide our kids with healthy meat, and also to show them a real world connection between what they eat and where it comes from- with meat that means: (once) live animals and hard work.

Last night at dinner for the very first time our (almost) two year old thought to thank the piggies. It made me feel so happy and like we were doing what we set out to do when being around our table, eating food we grow made our little two year old feel thankful...even if we weren't eating pork.

Climbing Tree Farm = Clean Glands!

Last week we had the pleasure of participating in the butchering (and curing and cooking) of one of our pigs (wow- never thought I, a vegetarian for over two decades, would say butchering was a pleasure!). The butcher, Jake Levin (of the rovingbutcher.com, berskhirefoodguild.com, butcherandbaker.com) pointed out the pigs glands. Just like humans, animals have glands that are essentially used as filters. Jake showed us the glands from our pig. They were semi-translucent, light pink and had no discernible scent. (I wish I thought to take a picture of them! I'll look back and make sure there isn't a picture with a little gland showing.) He explained that in the past, when he butchered conventional pork, the glands he found were black and stinky. It makes sense that glands from a pig grown in filth and disease would need to work harder to filter out more, than glands on a pig like ours who lived a healthy life.

Clean glands: just one more reason to choose Climbing Tree Farm Pork!

Life's a Beach for Our Pigs

 

 

Our leased land includes a large field that was cleared for building a jumbo house, and then the project was canceled, leaving acres of exposed shale. We call this area of our farm the "Shale Field." One of our goals on the farm is to use our animals to improve the health of the land we work- especially the Shale Field. When we moved to our new farm we put in a septic field, which left a large shale patch in the middle of our pasture. Through grazing, winter feeding (think manure and wasted hay), and spreading old hay, we were able to rehabilitate the area quickly and without adding seed (the seed in the hay fell out and volunteered in the new dirt that was created as the hay decomposed). We're hoping to do something similar on the Shale Field...except on a much, MUCH larger scale.

 

At any rate, we have had a bunch of thunderstorms lately and the Shale Field has turned into Shale Lake (a field of rock is not nearly as porous or absorbant as a field with vegetation!). My guess is that the lake is a couple of acres square and about ten inches deep.

 

During our last storm a tree fell on the pig fence abutting the new Shale Lake. As you might expect, some of the pigs went exploring. They didn't go far, and our pigs are rediculously easy to put back in their fence (a few apples and some milk and they were happily back in the fence in less than a minute). My sense is that pigs who live well don't feel as compelled to travel as those who live in mud, eating who knows what. It also helps that they're smitten with Colby.

 

It's hard to leave our farm, even leaving for the afternoon is a challenge most of the time. There are a lot of creatures depending upon us, and things rarely go as planned. On Monday, when the pigs were out, we were supposed to be at a pig roast (Our pig! YUM!). The pigs who were out were so content splashing in Shale Lake, rolling in the sand pile (not sure why, but there's a dump load of white play sand in the center of the field), and chasing apples that Colby was throwing for them that we just had to stay and play...and be a little late to the pig roast.

 

Honestly, being a farmer is a lot of hard work for little pay, but an afternoon like this, makes it worth it. Our kids were shrieking with joy, our animals were splashing and playing with our children, and we felt good about the way we do our job...even if we're always late to BBQs.

First pig ride.

 

A lake with a view.

 

 

Headed to the beach for a swim.

 

 

ZOOM!

Running around having a blast!

Just a guy and his hogs.

Splashing.

Sand Castles anyone?

 

Scratching in the sand.

Rolling in sand.

Our son wants to take them to the beach next time...
reasoning that we wouldn't have to find anyone to farm sit.

First time digging sand.

Playing with friends.