This week on the farm has been a whirlwind. The season change has abruptly shifted our focus and we are trying to get as much done as possible before winter arrives. We experienced a hard frost in the hoop house this week and were forced to say a bittersweet goodbye to our summer crops of tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash. While it was sad to say goodbye to summer, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a tad bit happy to be able to embrace this next phase on the farm. I could not have been happier with the success we had in the hoop house this season, but I look forward to crops of sweet spinach and lettuce as the temperatures drop.

In addition to the changes in our hoop house this week, we welcomed seven more lambs to the farm. Out of the seven lambs, two are rams, who will breed our flock of ewes, while the other five are wethers (castrated male lambs) that we will sell for meat. Although the ram lambs are quite small right now, we expect them to grow quickly and to be mature enough to breed the ewes by the end of November or early December. Breeding the ewes at that time of year should bring lambing season at the end of April, or beginning of May, an ideal time to be lambing here in the mountains.

Additionally, we are making plans to butcher our remaining three pigs, two of which are going to friends and family, and the other will fill our freezer. Even though it is bittersweet to say goodbye to our pigs, we are thankful for the meat they are providing and find comfort that they experienced a life well-lived. We will work with a local butcher who emphasizes on-farm butchery and look forward to feeding ourselves, our family, and our friends. We will be picking up three more piglets from a farm over in Hotchkiss, CO by mid-October and are looking forward to continue to have pigs on the farm. They have quickly become one of our favorite animals to raise (in addition to the sheep) and after going back and forth on whether or not we wanted pigs on the farm over the winter, we decided that having a few small piglets to help eat our scraps and lessen food waste would definitely be worth the extra effort.

In other exciting farm news, we are making our final moves to get the walk-in cooler done and FINALLY finished the spray-foam insulation…YAY! I can’t wait to have it finished and am having visions of the bounty of gorgeous vegetables that will grace its shelves. We are continuing to make and finalize plans for our CSA program that we will offer next year. I am excited for our vision of a community-based, hyperlocal CSA to become a reality!

With everything winding down on the farm in the next month as we butcher animals and finish putting our outside garden beds to rest, I feel so blessed for everything we have been able to accomplish on the farm this year. In spite of the difficult things we have faced due to COVID and the terrible things that continue to happen in the world, the farm has been a safe haven for me and my family. I feel terribly lucky to live where I live, to have the things that I have, and I am more grateful every day for the long days, the hours worked, and the aching back, for the freedom and security this lifestyle offers. I hope that wherever you find yourself, you are safe, cared for, and can find joy in the little things. This has been a trying time for us all and I sincerely hope that the future will bring us all an abundance of peace and happiness.

All the best,

Farmer Kinzie

Bittersweet Farewells