Date: April 17th 2012

A fourth generation farm dedicated to heritage, sustainability, and the premise that all life is simple and connected

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We have 4 Pastured Poultry CSA shares available
Foxfire Holler pork for sale at the farm
Nancy will be teaching at Florence and SAFF this summer
We’re Back!
April 17, 2012

Hey y’all, I know it’s been a while.. a long time as a matter of fact. July of last year. Wow ! Seemed like everything just fell apart last summer. I am now referring to it as my Twilight Zone year.. things that just couldn’t happen, happened. Everytime I would sit down to write, it would just come out as WHINE WHINE POOR PITIFUL ME. But now it’s over, 2011 is behind us and 2012 is looking pretty darned awesome all in all :)

We are getting a wonderful little shower here as I write this. We need it. The grass is turning green and the weeds sure have gotten a head start on us! Christy and I have spent the last 2 days finding the beds, so far we’ve made a good dent in the strawberry, asparagus and garlic beds. Ready to plant potatoes but haven’t got it done yet.. Last years taters got dug by Matt’s little sow pig, whose name just happens to be Tater, maybe just a touch of ESP in the naming of that piglet.. hmmm :) Thank God for Danny Harvey and his organic potatoes! I did really like the vertical way of growing them last year tho, and we are going to repeat that experiment this year, sans piggies we hope! I think the electric fence is good and hot now, so maybe no Tater in the taters this year ! I am such a bad “grower” that sometimes I think it’s cheaper just to let someone else do the growing, but year after year, I keep plugging away at it. I do so miss my Daddy and his green thumb!

We have 23 lambs on the ground, all healthy and growing fast. 6 of them are Rambouillet X Merino ewe lambs, so that goes a long ways towards replacing my finewool flock. Blossom had a wonderful litter of 10 piglets, and Tater is bred and should go in about 2 months with her first litter. But the best news of all is that our chickens are doing beautifully !

I’ve been afraid to plan or even be hopeful after last years poultry debacle. Don’t count your chickens before they’re in the freezer, you know :) but so far we have had low losses and they are growing like crazy. So, in about 2 weeks we should have pastured poultry for sale at the Ashe County Farmers Market, the Eclectic Pantry in West Jefferson, and of course here at the farm. I will be hiring about 3 people to help with butchering and packaging for about 3 days, so if you know anyone that would be interested, have them give me a holler please!

We should have fresh sausage about the same time also, I’ve been out of sausage for months now and my mouth is watering just thinking about it !

Christy, Matt and I will be teaching some kids classes during fiber week at the Florence Arts School in Glendale Springs on the 27th of July, so call Meghan and get those younguns signed up ! We are going to have a blast, that I can promise.

OK … I need to go get something done, even if it’s wrong. I just wanted y’all to know that we’re back. I wasn’t sure we would be. My state of mind is better, the universe seems to be smiling on Foxfire Holler this year, and it’s starting to look like Mama is in remission, which of course is the best news of all :)

Remember, Love is a verb, so get out there and do it ! ( not THAT…Geez, get yer minds outta the gutter people ! ) Thank you so much for supporting us.. thank you for all your love