The Bovine Bugle

A wonderful Thanksgiving on the farm

The Thanksgiving holiday was a very happy, and very busy one here on the farm. My siblings started arriving Tuesday afternoon and left Sunday morning. All the kids were busy having fun from morning till night. It's great seeing the kids together here on the farm. With the extra help around, we had a little young stock round-up and moved animals to where they will be housed for the winter. The big crew made it easy to move the nervous group of animals into their surroundings.

My dad, brother, brothers-in-law, and son, Ben, spent varying amounts of time in the woods looking for the elusive white-tail buck, but only saw a lot of doe. They are all very respectful hunters, and enjoy the outdoors and each other as much as actually taking a deer. The number of deer in the immediate area is very high, and it is good to harvest some of the herd to make it easier for the remaining animals to make it through the harsh northern Vermont winters.

Turkey sales were excellent this year. We sold 27 of the 28 turkeys we had processed this fall, plus we sold 8 of the larger toms we had left from last year. And of course the family celebrations of both sides of our family featured Howmars Farm turkeys. It is very gratifying to know so many family gatherings enjoyed one of our turkeys. Hopefully enjoying a grass-fed, organically-raised turkey will make some of the families think of using more locally-grown or organic food and products in their daily diets.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at November 29, 2004 05:35 PM