Hello beautiful peeps,

I just picked a pint of strawberries from the plants Scott planted just a couple of months ago. They are delicious. I’ll be bringing a snack for myself to the markets this weekend. Strawberries and cream, I think. 

The Spring/Summer Wytheville Farmer’s Market hours are 8am to noon from now to the last Saturday of October.

The outdoor Independence Farmer’s Market is on and will continue through the 2nd Friday of October. That market runs from 9am to 1pm. See you there.

NO MASKS REQUIRED FOR THE VACCINATED at either market. It’s a beautiful thing to see everyone’s faces.

Sheep

All the sheep are doing well. Still looking for that dog to protect them. Still studying so that we can take the best care of our dog. There is a lot to learn. While livestock guardian dogs have great instincts for protecting, there is still a great deal of behavior training that needs to take place. And I’m still not clear on exactly what we need to do immediately when we bring home the new dog. Exactly how do we acclimate him or her to our home and make them part of our family? There are lots of things we are learning about what and how much to feed, what health measure are required and so on. We have lots of good advisers and feel like it will all work our fine. I am eagerly anticipating our newest family member.

Cows 

Rose and Butter are very well trained in coming up to the milking shed when it is time for milking. If they are not there when we arrive, I just call them and wait a little while and they appear. This is so much better than having to walk a quarter mile to go find them. In all honestly, they are currently in a pasture that is rather close. They can easily hear me call them. Once they return to a pasture in the back 40, it will be back to walking that quarter mile.

Still anticipating our final calf. And the next round of artificial insemination will start up shortly after that birth — the 17th is the date there. And we start the process all over again. The circle of life on the homestead. 

Virginia and the twin calves are doing well in the calf pasture. Hansel and Gretel fight over the bottles and compete for who can finish first and then try to steal the others’ bottle. They are so cute.   

Quail

We moved the new baby quail to the penthouse. Since there are only 18 (we lost one), they are all on one side up there. We kept all of the girls from the previous batch. They had already started laying eggs. Yay! So, I decided that we had the extra space since only once side of the penthouse is being used and we could use some extra eggs. After replacing some of the older laying hens in the lower, breeding cages, and a couple that were missing due to health issues, there were 10 left in the penthouse. We also kept one rooster just in case his services are needed. Not sure when the next date is to start collecting eggs. I know it will be soon. And that circle of life will also begin again.

Creamery

As of this evening, Scott has completed the primer coat of paint on the inside of the building. He says there are a few places that need to be touched up. I’ll leave that to him. It looks great to me!

The guys that will install our modified milking system didn’t make it this week. Will they make it next week? Only time will tell. We had major problems with the portable milking machines this week. Because of that, it is now likely that we will have these guys do a little bit more with setting us up. We are not going with the complete pipeline system. That was just too expensive for us at this time. No, we are instead going with a simple connection to the pump that we have, creating the vacuum line. 

The vacuum lines are connected to the inflations that connect to the cows. The milk is sucked into any number of buckets that we want. I’m not sure of the details on how that will work. But at this point it makes sense to have a better machines than the elcheapo machines we are currently using. Of course, we will still have those on hand, because who knows when the big one might run into some issue or another. We always have to have a backup.

We found out the hard way how important it is to have those automatic milking systems functioning. Butter is extremely easy to milk, though it takes a while because she produces so much milk. Rosie on the other hand, is impossible to milk by hand. Her teats are about as big as my little fingers. There simply isn’t enough to grab onto there. Next year she will have finished growing and they will be much larger. But right now, she has the smallest in the world.

And it’s not like milking a goat where they are small and you might get a quart or so of milk. No, Rosie produces over a gallon and a half, sometimes more, in the morning. Fortunately when the issue occurred, we had already captured some of her milk. We did end up sending her back to the pasture without milking her completely out. That is not something we really wanted to do. She will start to produce less and less milk if she doesn’t get milked all the way out. By evening we were back up and running, thank God. At first we thought we were going to have to drop a couple thousand and get a new machine. However, Scott did an amazing engineering job and the one we have is working again. 

Garden

The peas are in full bloom. I saw lots of little baby pea pods too. It won’t be long now before we have peas at the market. The green beans are still not planted. Maybe this coming week.

As I mentioned above, the strawberries are ripening. A few days ago, it was just three berries. Today it was a pint. There are lots and lots, hundreds, of berries that are small and white. I need to stock up on sugar so I can make Scott some yummy strawberry jam. We are going to be truly blessed with strawberries over the coming weeks. 

I still have tomato and pepper plants ready for you. It’s time to plant. Come see me at the market.

I have garden sage, parsley, basil, and thyme for the market this time as well. 

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Wytheville Farmer’s Market

As I noted above, I will have lots of plant starts at the market again. 

I have a very limited quantity of quail eggs. Independence market will get first dibs on those. I may have a dozen or two for Wytheville market. We shall see. We have quail meat in 1 lb packages.

We have all of our grass-fed meats available – ground beef (approx 1 lb), ground goat (approx 1 lb), and ground lamb (approx 1 lb).

Online Farmer’s Markets – Independence and Wytheville  

We are not offering products via the Independence online market at this time. Come see me in person at the market. You can still sign up for that market by clicking HERE. There are many vendors that are selling their local products there. The online market opens on Friday evening and closes on Wednesday evening for pickup two days later on Friday afternoon. Again, we will be selling all of our products at the outdoor market.

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. 

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, I’ll see you in my usual location. Add on as you desire. Yogurt, milk and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Wytheville Market between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon or at the farm Saturdays 3 pm to 5 pm or Tuesdays 10:00 am to noon. Email me to let me know want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

As always, we love meeting you in person.  You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 8:00 am to Noon. We are at Independence Farmers’ Market on Fridays from 9:00 am to 1 pm. Masks are no longer required at the Farmers Markets. 

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, “Livestock Guardian Dogs” is the topic. It has been a long time coming, but it is finally time that we take this step. A few years ago we were traveling all the time and only on the farm on weekends. There was no way we could have a dog. Now things have changed and it’s time for us to take the next step in protecting our livestock. 

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

 Hello beautiful peeps,

Did you miss me last week. Yes, I forgot to do a newsletter. It was late on Friday night when it struck me that I had completely forgotten. My apologies. Some of you wondered what had happened. Nothing much. Just old timers disease. I’m back this week with lots of news. 

The Spring/Summer Wytheville Farmer’s Market hours are 8am to noon from now to the last Saturday of October.

The outdoor Independence Farmer’s Market is on and will continue through the 2nd Friday of October. That market runs from 9am to 1pm. See you there.

NO MASKS REQUIRED FOR THE VACCINATED. It’s a beautiful thing to see everyone’s faces.

Sheep

All of the sheep are now returned to the back fields. After days of no predators showing up on the cameras, we were comfortable in sending them back out to where the best grass is currently growing. All is well so far.

We have decided that it is time for us to have a livestock guardian dog. We are currently searching for an adult dog with experience that needs a new home. After we get him or her trained, we will likely add a puppy. We can’t start with the puppy as they cannot be trusted alone with livestock until 2 years of age and sometimes older. However, adding one after we have an adult dog is a great way to mentor the pup. We are looking forward to this exciting new journey.

Cows 

Still waiting on Violet to have her calf. She is so far behind the rest. Will she be able to get back in the breeding program this year? We shall see. It is important for our cheesemaking that all of the cows have their calves in a relatively small time window. Ideally, mid-March to mid-April. If Violet has her calf on the 10th of June, it will be the 3rd week of July before she can be artificially inseminated. That makes her expected delivery date around the third week of April 2022. And if she doesn’t take and we have to try again, it will be the middle of May 2022 before she has a calf. It’s probably worth a try. We really need to get her back in line with everyone else. 

Virginia and the twin calves are back in the calf pasture. Again, we feel secure there will be no predation at this time. Our security is only temporary. Those coyotes will eventually return. We really need a dog. Am I repeating myself?   

Quail

Since I missed publishing the newsletter last week, you don’t yet know that of the 70 eggs in the incubator, only 19 hatched. That’s a pretty bad ratio. We are not sure what happened there, but I suspect that there wasn’t enough light for male fertility. The females had enough light to lay quite a few eggs, though not up to full production. But the males evidently needed a bit more to be successful in fertilizing those eggs.

The first batch of the year in the penthouse is at 35 birds now. We lost one lady. She had some kind of neurological dysfunction. At seven weeks, they are old enough to lay eggs already. I don’t really know how many boys and girls their are at this time. However, there are at least 9 girls. Today I got 9 eggs from that group. That number will likely go up over the next few days. The averages say we will have 17 or 18 hens in that group.

The relative failure of the newest batch gives us the opportunity to build up a little bit of an egg supply. Since there are only 19 in the up and coming group, they will all go in one side of the penthouse. On the other side, we will house quite a few of the girls that are currently residing up there, maybe all of them. Likely we will keep a rooster or two as well. Normally, we would need that space for the new babies, but with only 19, those guys will easily fit on one side, leaving the other side open for keeping the current crop of girls that have reached laying age. There is always a little wrinkle in the tapestry of our homestead planning. It’s so fun.

Creamery

Scott has completed the primer coat of paint on the outside of the building and is currently moving rapidly through the inside. It’s so beautiful.

The guys that will install our modified milking system will be here next week to get that going. Well, they really aren’t working on the milking system so much as the stanchions that hold the ladies quietly in place while we milk them. As soon as that part is done, we can start training the girls to walk through the new parlor area. More changes for us and for them. Will we start milking in the new parlor? We shall see.

Garden

The two long rows of green peas are still moving along nicely. No blooms yet but I expect them any day now. The onions look great. The green tops are now well above the ground cover.

I still haven’t planted the green beans. While I finally had the time, the weather was still rather cool. You all probably noticed. I keep saying this, but I’m sure this time the cool weather is done. It has to be. We are moving into late May. It has to be done this time for sure.

I can’t complain. I love the extended cool weather. The spring seems to go on and on. Spring is my favorite time of year. 

I still have tomato and pepper plants ready for you. It’s time to plant. Come see me at the market.

I have garden sage, parsley, basil, and thyme for the market this time as well. 

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Wytheville Farmer’s Market

As I noted above, I will have lots of plant starts at the market again. 

We are out of quail eggs but I may have some soon. See above with our plan to keep some of the ladies for eggs. We have quail meat in 1 lb packages.

We have all of our grass-fed meats available – ground beef (approx 1 lb), ground goat (approx 1 lb), and ground lamb (approx 1 lb).

Online Farmer’s Markets – Independence and Wytheville  

We are not offering products via the Independence online market at this time. Come see me in person at the market. You can still sign up for that market by clicking HERE. There are many vendors that are selling their local products there. The online market opens on Friday evening and closes on Wednesday evening for pickup two days later on Friday afternoon. Again, we will be selling all of our products at the outdoor market.

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. 

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, I’ll see you in my usual location. Add on as you desire. Yogurt, milk and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Wytheville Market between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon or at the farm Saturdays 3 pm to 5 pm or Tuesdays 10:00 am to noon. Email me to let me know want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

As always, we love meeting you in person.  You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 8:00 am to Noon. We are at Independence Farmers’ Market on Fridays from 9:00 am to 1 pm. Masks are no longer required at the Independence Market. 

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, “Livestock Guardian Dogs” is the topic. It has been a long time coming, but it is finally time that we take this step. A few years ago we were traveling all the time and only on the farm on weekends. There was no way we could have a dog. Now things have changed and it’s time for us to take the next step in protecting our livestock. 

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

Hello beautiful peeps,

AND . . . even more stress. Does it ever end? We’ve lost over 1/2 of our sheep at this point. 

The Spring/Summer Wytheville Farmer’s Market hours are 8am to noon from May 1st to the last weekend of October.

The outdoor Independence Farmer’s Market begins on Friday, May 14th. That market runs from 9am to 1pm. See you there.

Sheep and Lambs

All six lambs from this year and five adult ewes are not gone from our flock. It has been a real disaster. A few days ago Scott called a couple of guys in from Dobson and Winston-Salem to do a little coyote hunting. They were able to bag the pack leader. We are still working through more efforts to make sure the problem is eradicated. Right now, the remaining sheep appear to be safe from further harm.

Cows 

We moved the twin calves to a safer location as they were also vulnerable to predator attack. They now have another companion. Virginia decided that she would start nursing again and Cloud was obliging. The only problem is Cloud already has two calves that she is feeding. One more — especially a one-year-old would be more than she could easily handle. The two younger calves would have suffered a bit of starvation I think. 

Violet is still getting bigger and bigger. A little over a month still to go. Praying all goes well with her. 

Quail

The incubator crowd went into “lock down” today. That means the automatic egg turner is out and the lid needs to be kept closed until all are hatched. I found two eggs with holes in them. They were obviously empty. That leaves 70 eggs ready to hatch. By the time you see me at the market on Saturday, the peeping will have begun.

Creamery

Scott got the initial quote for the installation of the automatic pipeline milking system. He was ready to move forward, but I suffered from extreme sticker shock. We have dramatically altered the plan now. The parlor barn area will be completed so the cows can move in and out of the milking parlor. But the milking system will continue to be our current portable milking system. We will invest in some extra equipment there for about a tenth of the cost of the fancy system.

As far as the actual building, the exterior painting began today. A few days and that will be complete. 

Garden

The two long rows of green peas are still moving along nicely. Still no blooms yet. The onions are coming on strong. They look great. The green tops are now well above the ground cover

The green beans have yet to be planted. Who has time for that? Well, I’ll just have to make time. It’s tough this time of year. Twice a week farmer’s market and twice a week making cheese. Church on Sunday. Only two days left in the week to get anything else done. Things like this newsletter and a podcast too. WEll, the beans will get planted soon. 

It is time to plant tomatoes. Come see me at the market. Take your pick of Jet star, the best slicing tomato ever, and the heirloom Black Krim tomato (high acid and high flavor).

I’m hardening off the the California Wonder pepper starts. I won’t have them this time at the market – but definitely at the next one on the 15th. I have a few hot peppers including Italian Pepperoncini as well. Same time window for the herbs. I have garden sage, parsley, basil, thyme, and cilantro. Should be ready for the 15th market.

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Wytheville Farmer’s Market

As I noted above, I will have tomato starts at the market again. They are $3.00 each, 2 for $5.00 or 5 for $10.00.

We are out of quail eggs until fall. Look for them again at that time. We have quail meat in 1 lb packages $18.

We have all of our grass-fed meats available – ground beef (approx 1 lb) $7, ground goat (approx 1 lb) $12, and ground lamb (approx 1 lb) $10.

Online Farmer’s Markets – Independence and Wytheville  

This is the last week 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. We will be selling all of our products at the outdoor market beginning on the 14th of May.

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.

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, I’ll see you in my usual location. Add on as you desire. Yogurt, milk and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Wytheville Market between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon. Email me to let me know want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

As always, we love meeting you in person.  You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 8:00 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, “Coyotes on the Homestead” is the topic. I looked up all sorts of interesting information on these predators. It has been many years since we had a problem. I just needed to talk about the whole situation. 

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

Hello beautiful peeps,

Last week I said that I could take a breather from the stress of newborns in the spring. Little did I know that there was more to come. More on that later.

The Spring/Summer Wytheville Farmer’s Market hours start this weekend. From May 1st to the last weekend of October, the Wytheville Farmer’s Market hours are 8am to noon.

The outdoor Independence Farmer’s Market begins on Friday, May 14th. That market runs from 9am to 1pm. See you there.

Sheep and Lambs

I lost my Susie Q. It has been just about a week since she disappeared along with three other lambs all at once. Some of you are already aware of this as Scott posted on our Facebook page. I had no idea I was so attached to Susie Q. It is unusual for me to form any kind of attachment to our sheep and lambs. I love watching them. They are so cute. But there are out there in the field and not being touched by me day after day. No so with Susie Q. She was a bottle baby from day one. I still stare out in the field and think of her.

The good news is that the neighbors have all joined in the search for the culprit or culprits. We have multiple cameras set up out there but no luck yet with finding out the type of predator stalking our sheep. No one else has gone missing this past week, thank God. Of the six living lambs we had this year, only one has survived. And the good news is that he is growing like a weed and doing just fine. Scott again suggested that we breed again for the fall. I’m still passing on that. It will be next year before we have more lambs.

Cows 

No issues with the calves. All are doing very well as are all the moms. Violet is getting bigger and bigger. She has always been really round in her belly. But as she nears her term, she begins to look like a very large balloon. June 10th is her due date. So still a month of waiting for that blessed event. 

Quail

Of the 36 quail babies, all are nearly grown now. They are loving their penthouse. On the other hand, I lost one of my breeders. I had the cage door open and was reaching into the back to check on the automatic waterers when one of the hens ran past me and jumped to the ground. I chased her and chased her and chased her. Finally she flew into the orchard. I lost her momentarily as I had to go over to the gate and get that open to continue to chase. I located her again and as I reached for her she flew again. I saw exactly where she landed. However, when I got to that place she was nowhere to be found. I walked in a spiral outward, making a larger and larger circle. I never caught a glimpse of a feather. She just disappeared. I hope she does well. All of the quail are used to their meals being provided. In the wild she will have to forage for herself and she will need a LOT of protein. 

The next batch in the incubator is at day seven. Not this Saturday but the next is when the peeping will begin again. It happens so fast.

Creamery

Finally, Scott was able to meet with some folks that are going to setup and install the pipeline milking system for the parlor area of the creamery. He has been talking with a few different people trying to get someone to come out and take a look at what we already have on hand. We purchased the largest portion of the equipment needed and it has been sitting around waiting for someone to look at it, decide what else is needed, and to make a plan. All of that happened yesterday. Yay, that part is finally moving forward.

As far as the actual building, the exterior painting is awaiting Scott’s schedule in order to be completed. Everything Scott builds is beautiful and I can hardly wat to see the finished product. 

Garden

The strawberry plants are blooming. Well, a few of them anyway. I am eagerly anticipating the strawberry jam I’m about to make. 

The two long rows of green peas are rapidly growing. It will be a little while longer before those first blooms start. I love growing peas. When I was a kid, I hated peas. Mom made me sit at the dinner table for a very long time — until I finished my peas. Somehow as an adult I’ve forgotten exactly what I found so distasteful about peas. I love them now.

The onions are coming on strong. The green shoots are now above the ground cover. I planted yellow, white and red onions. I like the colorful variety. Perhaps I’ve mentioned that I freeze my onions. Did you know you could do that? I chop them up into 1/4 pieces and put them in freezer bags. Then, as I need them for one dish or another, I pull out the frozen package and scoop out the quantity I need. The package gets resealed and placed back in the freezer awaiting the next meal.  

The tomato plants are ready for market. I saw quite a few of you checking them out this past this weekend. Saturday’s market marks the beginning of May. It’s nearly time. Get yours this weekend.

I have two varieties. The Jet Star is the best all around tomato I have ever raised. And the Black Krim is my favorite heritage tomato. There is no slicing tomato that can compare.

The California Wonder pepper starts still need a little more time before they will be ready for the garden. I hope to have those ready next week. Same for the herbs. They all just need a little more time to grow in the safety of my home.

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Farmer’s Market

As I noted above, I will have tomato starts at the market again. They are $3.00 each, 2 for $5.00 or 5 for $10.00.

We will be out of quail eggs until the fall. Look for them again at that time. We do still have quail meat in 1 lb packages $18.

We have all of our grass-fed meats available – ground beef (approx 1 lb) $7, ground goat (approx 1 lb) $12, and ground lamb (approx 1 lb) $10.

Online Farmer’s Market  

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.

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.

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, I’ll see you in my usual location. Add on as you desire. Yogurt, milk and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Wytheville Market between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon. Email me to let me know want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

As always, we love meeting you in person.  You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 8:00 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, “What is a Freemartin Heifer?” is now available. I didn’t know either and had to look it up some years ago. Who knew it would land so close to home only ten years later. There are issues with calf twins who are different sexes. Male/male and female/female have no issues. But the male/female set of twins invariably produces a freemartin heifer. 

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

Hello beautiful peeps,

All babies are now born except one calf not due until June 10th. Finally, we can take a breather from the stress and worry over the vulnerable moms and babies. Well, until June anyway.

Quail

The 36 quail babies are nearly grown now. A few days ago they got moved to the penthouse where they will finish their growing up. All are doing well. Sometimes learning how to use the automatic watering system is a challenge, but they soon get the hang of it.

Just yesterday the next batch was started. Six dozen eggs (72) are now in the incubator. In 18 days the peeping will begin again.

Sheep and Lambs

The last ewe finally dropped her twins. They are two very healthy girls. We ended up with three girls and three boys. Susie Q is doing great. She gets two bottles of lamb replacer milk daily — as much as she will drink. A couple of days ago, we moved her out with the other sheep and lambs. She made fast friends, though she still comes running and follows us everywhere whenever possible.

Cows 

Cloud and Claire’s boys are doing well. Rosie’s little girl, Princess, is firmly grafted onto Cloud and growing like a weed. Cloud has accepted that she now has two calves. Is Princess catching up to the boys in size? I don’t know it’s hard to tell. They are all doing so well. I’m really pleased with all of these beautiful animals. 

Butter gave us a big surprise. I think some of you have already seen the videos Scott posted to Facebook. Twins!! All are healthy and will grow to be wonderful animals. The bad news is that in cows, a boy/girl twin almost always produce a sterile female. We still love them, but in essence, we have two more steers. There is a slight chance that Gretel (we named them Hansel and Gretel) will be able to produce calves; only 10% are ever able to reproduce. We shall see. This week’s podcast on called “What is a Freemartin Heifer?“. Listen and get details on this rare condition — and don’t forget to subscribe!  

Creamery

Scott is still taking some time off from the creamery to do all sorts of things around the homestead. He is starting to get antsy and ready to get back to it. We both want this project done!

Garden

The strawberry plants are growing rapidly. I’m looking forward to their blooms in the near future. The blueberries are blooming already and the blackberries will be right behind them.

The two long rows of green peas are starting to send up runners looking for that trellis. It’s there and awaiting their twisting green tendrils.

The onion set got planted. Still looking for that first bit of green there.  

The tomato plants are getting hardened off and will be ready for market this weekend. I have two varieties. The Jet Star is the best all around tomato I have ever raised. And the Black Krim is my favorite heritage tomato. There is no slicing tomato that can compare. The herb and pepper starts are still inside under the lights and doing very nicely. It will be a few more weeks before they are ready for market. I should have them just in time for planting in the garden.

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Farmer’s Market

As I noted above, I have tomato starts ready for you. They are $3.00 each, 2 for $5.00 or 5 for $10.00.

We will be out of quail eggs until the fall. Look for them again at that time. We do still have quail meat in 1 lb packages $18.

We have all of our grass-fed meats available – ground beef (approx 1 lb) $7, ground goat (approx 1 lb) $12, and ground lamb (approx 1 lb) $10.

Online Farmer’s Market  

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.

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.

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, I’ll see you in my usual location. YOGURT and FRESH MILK IS HERE. Add on as you desire and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Wytheville Market between 10:00 am and 12:00 noon. Email me to let me know want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

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, “What is a Freemartin Heifer?” is now available. I didn’t know either and had to look it up some years ago. Who knew it would land so close to home only ten years later. There are issues with calf twins who are different sexes. Male/male and female/female have no issues. But the male/female set of twins invariably produces a freemartin heifer. 

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

Hello beautiful peeps,

We have lots of new babies on the homestead. There are 36 quail babies in the brooder. We have 4 lambs now — one was abandoned by mom and is now on a bottle. She is doing great. Mom has a big boy that she loves. This is the first time we have had an abandoned lamb. We know it happens from time to time, but we have never had one out-right rejected. As always, we adjusted. I made a quick trip into Galax to pick up some lamb colostrum and milk replacer. Sure it was an hour drive there and another hour back, but you do what you gotta do to get the job done. 

Quail

As I said, we have 36 quail babies. There were 40 that hatched out. We lost 3 the first day and one more just today. It’s always sad but we also know it is part of God’s creation and we lose animals from time to time.

Sheep and Lambs

Last year we had a 100% success rate with our lambs. It was too really too much to ask that we could repeat that amazing feat. We currently have 4 lambs living. We did lose one lamb. She was so small and very weak. She never got strong enough to stand up and passed a little over an hour after her birth.

We have four ewes that are having lambs this year. The first one had a very healthy single boy. The second one had twins, a boy and a girl, but we lost that very tiny girl. She probably weighed less than four pounds. Normally our lambs are six to eight pounds each. The third one had twins also. She abandoned the second one and is raising only one, the big boy. We are bottle feeding the little girl. She is very strong and we expect her to do fine. Scott has had her with him out in the garden nearly all day.

That’s three out of four ewes with lambs. Let’s pray the last one has her babies with no issues and raises any and all of them.

Cows 

Cloud gave birth to a big boy on March 27th and Claire followed up with her big boy on April 1st. All are doing very well.

Princess was getting very greedy and drinking all of Rosie’s milk. We had a choice to make because we need the milk. That’s why we have milk cows. Princess was going to have to be limited in her milk consumption. We could simply separate her and control that by bottle feeding her, or we could turn Cloud into a nurse cow. Cloud is now impossible to milk so adding on another calf seemed the appropriate thing to do. She makes lots of milk and there is plenty for Princess and Winston. That makes her worth keeping. We were questioning whether we could afford to keep a milk cow that we couldn’t milk.

To bring you up to speed on her, last year she got spooked while in the milking shed and started kicking off the inflations. Later she started kicking Scott while he tried to take off the inflations. Then she started kicking Scott when he went to put on the inflations. We had to stop milking her. Scott was really getting beat up badly. We thought we might be able to milk her this year. Perhaps she would have calmed down over the winter with us not bothering her. Nope. Neither of us were even near her or her udder and she got spooked. Immediately she started kicking at Scott who was standing next to her and working with Rosie. That was the signal that we would not even try to milk her when she delivered. We just let Winston nurse her out. And Cloud date of giving birth was perfectly timed for us to move Princess off of Rosie and onto her. That also helps use of the abundance of milk that Cloud produces. One calf could not drink it all. Well, at least not in the beginning. 

It took little more than three days to get Cloud accustomed to another calf. At first she kicked Princess off every time she tried to nurse. It can be a challenge to get an animal to accept a baby that is not hers. It’s almost impossible with sheep. But we were persistent and it was really easier with Cloud that I expected.

Everyday we bring Cloud up to the milking stanchion. She puts her head in and eats her treat. We lock the head gate and she is secure. Now she can’t get her head out. She can’t walk or run away from Princess.

Princess learned very quickly how to avoid getting kicked off. Cloud was not kicking her very hard but she was easily bumping her off the teats. Princess learned how to latch on to a teat and then get up almost underneath Cloud’s belly. She was just out of reach of that hoof trying to push her away.

We still bring them all up every day and Cloud gets her treat. She is eating for three now and needs a bit more energy. Princess is not frantic and nursing voraciously anymore as she was the first two or three days. Most of the time now she is not really that interested. This tells us she is not hungry and must be getting some milk out in the field. That means it’s a done deal and Cloud has accepted her as her own.

I’ve heard stories of this process taking a couple of weeks. But we were pretty confident it wouldn’t take that long. All of our cows are quite docile and we have had several calves figure out that they could get a little extra milk from someone other than mom. This is a great success story all around. 

Creamery

Scott has been taking some time off from the creamery to work on the garden.

Garden

The root strawberry plants — all 500 of them — have been planted. We also have two long rows of green peas planted. One variety are snap peas and the other are shelling peas. Look for to have some ready for you at the farmer’s market in a couple of months. Next to be planted are the onions.  

The tomato, herb and pepper starts are still inside under the lights and doing very nicely. The California Wonder bell peppers I replanted are doing great! In month or so I will be bringing these plants to market as well.

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Farmer’s Market

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 3/27/2021 is the second 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 are out of quail eggs. Look for them again in a month or two. We do still have quail meat in 1 lb packages.

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). 

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, I’ll see you in my usual location. YOGURT IS HERE. Add on as you desire and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Wytheville Market between 10:00 am and 12:00 noon. You will be able to request yogurt and MILK (Yay) for the next market. Email me to let me know want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

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, “Spring Birth on the Homestead” is now available. I love this time of year. Lots of new babies. I gave you some of the info but there is a great deal more to talk about. Give it a listen and share in our joy. 

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