Lauren Hartmann and Ted Bancroft wear their farm on their sleeves.
Thomas and Ruth Pepler moved to their farm in 2009 from their hobby farm in New Jersey. In tow was their daughter, Gracie, with her 4-H meat goats and chickens. The property they bought had a little house in the woods on a steep slope surrounded by ‘hollers’ (we had to ask, “What exactly is a holler?” A holler is a steep valley with slopes that go straight up. It may have water in the bottom like a creek but not necessarily. It makes farming difficult.) Thomas had been recruited and hired for a job in a neighboring community. Ruth, a registered nurse, would stay home to home school Gracie. As it turned out, the farm was the perfect classroom.
Do you ever find yourself with an abundance of produce from your CSA subscription and are not totally sure what to do with it all? Or, if you're a farmer -- maybe especially because you're a farmer -- you're more than set with a particular ingredient but short on ideas for how to prepare it in interesting ways again and again? We all have our favorites, but variety is always good and reducing waste is a big plus! The USDA estimates that 21% of the available food supply is wasted in homes, but we know that supporters of working farms and ranches want to make a difference in this regard.
By Faith Farm is sited on land that has been farmed since the early 1800s – primarily cattle, tobacco, and vegetables. When the 96-acre farm was bought in 2011 by the Birckheads, it had become fallow, the buildings abandoned, the fields and forests left unattended. For the suburban couple, with no experience in farming (she was an accountant and he was a doctor), this was truly a calling with a mission.
David and Caroline Owens bought their first farm in 1992 in Pelham, NH as a place to raise their kids and grow their own food. Caroline was a former vocational agriculture teacher with a degree from Cornell now working for a feed company; David was a biomedical engineer with a degree from Boston University. Soon enough, friends and neighbors were asking to buy meat from them. They were on the cusp of the local, pasture-raised food movement raising sheep, pigs, cattle, chickens, and turkeys. They jumped all in.
This post first appeared on the blog, Living with Gotlands, by Kim Goodling of Vermont Grand View Farm. It is republished here with permission.
We get March coming in like a lion, but April was supposed to be sweet like a lamb. Unpredictable weather across the country has our farmers and ranchers picking up lambs freezing out in the fields one day and letting the cows out on fresh grass the next. It's enough to make a farmer crazy! That, and the promise of spring.
(Header Photo: East Hill Farm)
** This farm was not able to continue to offer lodging due to country regulations. However, we think they still make goats and we loved their photos so decided to keep the blog about their farm alive **
Don't miss our previous list of farm stays to follow on Instagram!
Recently, Farm Stay U.S. members Ruth Pepler and her daughter Grace from Dogwood Hills were guests on a podcast called The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson. (Link to listen at the bottom of this post.)
(Please note: The owners of Rancho Dos Amantes are selling the ranch and will no longer be hosting farm stays.)
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
