Hello beautiful peeps,
We named our newest calf, Princess. She is so beautiful and she prances on her toes. She is most definitely a Princess. She and mom are both doing well.
Market Updates
We are offering meat products on Independence Online Farmer’s Market. You can sign up for that market by clicking HERE. The online market opens on Friday evening and closes on Wednesday evening for pickup two days later on Friday afternoon.
This Saturday 3/13/2021 is the first market for March at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market. The hours are 10:00 am to 12:00 noon.
Wytheville also has an online market. For your convenience, you can set up your Wytheville online market account HERE. This market opens on Sunday at 7:00 pm and closes on Thursday at 7:00 pm. Place your order with whatever vendors you choose during that time window and pick everything up at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market between 9:00 am and noon. Anything ordered from the online market is not picked up at our booth. Your purchases are picked up on the covered side of the building. Feel free to come on in an chat with me even if you placed your order on line and picked it up outside.
These items are available at either market. The prices are higher at the Independence Market as their fees are significantly higher. The online Wytheville market are also more expensive than visiting us live at the market. Again, there are fees involved in using online services.
We will have our lovely quail eggs. I have a couple of pickled quail egg recipes that are working well for me. I’ll have jars of pickled quail eggs as examples of how they look. Three different varieties to give you an idea what can be done. Again, I’ll have pickled peppers (not very hot), pepper jam (HOT, Medium and mild) and apple pie jam. We have the usual grass-fed meats available – ground beef (approx 1 lb), ground goat (approx 1 lb) and ground lamb (approx 1 lb). Quail meat packages are available (approx 1 lb), and pickled peppers.
If you are a Herd Share member, this week you can pickup at the Wytheville Market between 10:00 am and 12:00 noon. You will be able to request yogurt for the next market. Email me to let me know want anything extra this time. To get to the product section, you can jump down the page here.
Quail
Today I put 68 eggs in the incubator. These lovelies will start hatching in about 17 or 18 days. It’s so much fun to be starting the next cycle of life. Spring is such a wonderful time of year. And quail are so much FUN!!
Cows
As I said, Rosie and Princess are doing well. We are now keeping a close eye on Cloud and Claire. We will start walking them up to the milking shed soon. They need to be reminded of where they need to go and what they need to do. Also, we need to train them to go into the stanchions in pairs and the pairs will be different. They can’t really go from memory. Some of them will need to be retrained. Claire and Buttercup have been a pair from the beginning and that will stay the same. But Violet has always been with Cloud and that will need to change. I think we are going to put Butter with Violet and Rosie with Cloud. At least I think that is the grouping we agreed upon.
All of this is due to the size of udders and teats. There are two different sizes of milking inflations (those are the things that hook on to the teats). Those with smaller teats, Buttercup, Rosie and Butter need to be paired up with the other three that have larger teats and therefore use the larger inflations. It will all work out in the end. Once they have gone through the procedure five or six times, they will be able to sort themselves out on their own. Cows live for consistency and habit. They really don’t like change or anything that is new. Consequently, getting them started on the path is the hardest part. As I said, once they have done it a few times, they will settle into the proper pattern.
Creamery
Scott is working on one of the staircases to the storage area above the kitchen and cheese make room. In a few days that will be complete. I’m not sure what is next on the schedule. And we have so many other things coming up. The work on the creamery may pause for a few days to get these other tasks completed.
Garden
I have 500 bare root strawberry plants coming soon. This is one of the tasks that will take precedence over the creamery. I’m replanting the entire strawberry section of the garden. Interspersed between sections of strawberries will be perennial herbs. Rosemary, Oregano and Thyme is what I have in mind right now. I may need one other herb. What do you guys think I should grow?
I have started some tomatoes, herbs and peppers. I’ll be bringing these to market when the time is right for planting them outdoors. There are two varieties of tomato. One is called Jet Star. This is the best all around tomato I have ever grown. These plants produce lovely and perfect tomatoes every time. The other variety is called Black Krim. These are the best tasting slicing tomatoes I have every eaten. I try to grow some of these every year as well.
The herbs I have are basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and cilantro. I’ll have those ready for market in a few weeks. Well, the cilantro takes a bit more time but look for the others the first Saturday of May.
Lastly, I have seeds planted for seven varieties of peppers. Some hot and some not. None of those seeds have sprouted at this point, but I am looking for that in the next day or two.
That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update.
Farmer’s Market
I will be at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market on Saturday 10 am to 12 noon.
Our items for sale include apple pie jam and hot, medium, or mild pepper jam.
We have all of our meats back in stock for you.
We have ground lamb as well as rib chops and loin chops.
We have ground beef and ground goat.
I’ll have lots of quail eggs!!.
Herd Shares
Herd Share Peeps, I’ll see you in my usual location. Add on as you desire and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday and/or Tuesday.
I still have new raw milk cheese herd shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).
Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares and get on our waiting list.
News This Week
- Products Available
- Let’s Get Together
- This week’s FarmCast, “Fun Facts About Milk” is now available.
- FREE Cheese tasting downloads
Products Available to Herd Share Owners
| Choose 1 per week | 1/2 Share | Whole Share |
| Butter | 1/4 pound | 1/2 pound |
| Ararat Legend | 1/4 pound | 1/2 pound |
| Peaceful Heart Gold | 1/4 pound | 1/2 pound |
| Pinnacle | 1/4 pound | 1/2 pound |
| Clau d’ville Cheddar | 1/4 pound | 1/2 pound |
Products Available to the General Public
(These prices are for products purchased in person at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market. Online prices are higher.)
| Quail | Price / Pound | |
| Quail Eggs (1 dozen) | $3.00 | |
| Quail meat (approx 1 lb) | $18.00 | |
| Beef | Price / Pound | |
| Ground (approx 1 lb) | $7.00 | |
| Lamb | Price / Pound | |
| Lamb Loin Chops | $18 | |
| Lamb Rib Chops | $18 | |
| Lamb Kabobs | SOLD OUT | |
| Ground Lamb (approx 1 lb) | $10 | |
| Chev (Goat) | Price / Pound | |
| Ground Chev (approx 1 lb) | $12 | |
| Jams and Jellies | Price / 8 oz Jar | |
| Apple Pie Jam | $8 | |
| HOT, Medium, or Mild Pepper Jam | $5 |
As always, we love meeting you in person. You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 10:00 am to Noon. Special procedures are in place for your health and safety. Masks are still recommended but not required as far as I know.
As always, you may visit us at our dairy farm in Claudville, Virginia Tuesdays from 10 am to 12 noon and Saturday afternoons from 3 pm to 5 pm. Find out how we raise our animals and why you will love the taste of tradition that is inherent in all of our products. Herd share holders will be able to see up close how their cows are cared for and the cheese operation and where it is stored.
Peaceful Heart FarmCast
In this week’s podcast, “Fun Facts About Milk” is now available. It’s fun facts and I had lots of fun putting this podcast together. Give it a listen and let me know what else you would like to know about milk.
Free Downloads
I want to follow up on my previous FarmCast, The Taste of Cheese where I talked about developing your expertise with using descriptive words. The FREE downloads of Classifying Cheese by Type and Category and Expand Your Cheese Vocabulary are still available at our website. Please stop by and get your FREE resources.
You can LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE. Or, if you have an Alexa device, just say: “Alexa, play podcast Peaceful Heart FarmCast.”
And don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to the Peaceful Heart Farm podcast on Apple Podcasts, Android, TuneIn, Stitcher or Spotify
