The Bovine Bugle

Every dog will have his day, even on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and we all had fun visiting and playing with the relatives and we all ate too much. Over 30 of our turkeys made it onto the tables of families celebrating here in Vermont, and one even made it out to Michigan. I had a call from one of my customers, and she wanted another turkey to use fairly soon. I told her I could drop it off the next night on my way to choir practice.

The next night I was greeted at the door by Sung Hee, Wylie, and their dog, Pushkin. They have purchased our turkeys, beef, and chickens for the past couple of years. We talked about Thanksgiving, the melting snow, the skiing at Jay Peak, and the secure feeling a full freezer and a big woodpile gives you heading into a northern Vermont winter. Sung Hee mentioned how even Pushkin had enjoyed some turkey at Thanksgiving. When she said that she had a picture of Pushkin trying to make off with the turkey carcass I told her she had to e-mail it to me to use in my blog. Pushkin did not look happy when he was caught red-handed.

It's nice to have customers like Sung Hee and Wylie that appreciate what we do, and who make it fun to have a chance to visit with them when we drop off some of our products or when they come to the farm to buy something.

--

Jonathan (left), Howmars Farm
(with Yukon, a very good dog)
Franklin, Vermont

A snowy Thanksgiving for farm creatures great and small (and proud)

The snowfall late yesterday afternoon and evening left us five or six inches of snow on the ground. With more forecast for tomorrow, Thanksgiving, all the skiers and deer hunters are ecstatic. It makes things a little sloppy around the barn with snow on top of the unfrozen ground, but it wasn't too bad this morning feeding round bales and handling the manure.

The animals take the change of weather in stride. The heifers being overwintered outside in the pole barn were munching hay at the round bale feeder while snowflakes from a passing flurry swirled around them.

The chickens surprised us by wanting to come out of their coops and into the snow once the doors were open. The younger hens followed Rooster Cogburn across the lawn and, of course, right to the bird feeder which Karen had filled this morning.

One reluctant older hen spent the night under one of our decks. She must have gotten caught there when the snow started yesterday afternoon, and then didn't want to cross the snow-covered ground to go back to her coop for the night. We'll be sure to get her out from under there today.

Turkey sales have been excellent. One more person is stopping by this afternoon to pick up her bird. That will bring the number of birds sold to about 30. That leaves 18 in the freezer, some of which we may sell at Chistmas time and the rest we will have to use throughout the year. It's nice to think how many families will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday by serving one of our turkeys. It's encouraging to see people making a choice for locally grown, organic food for their families because they think it is the right thing to do.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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"Turkey Day" comes a little early at Howmars Farm

Saturday, October 8, was the day we processed the 48 turkeys we had been raising since mid-June here at Howmars Farm. The birds were 18 1/2 weeks old and were in great shape from all the organic grain and pasture they had been feeding on. This year we had mobile processing unit come right to the farm to do the birds. This way the turkeys didn't have to be loaded into the back of our pickup and transported for over an hour to an unfamiliar farm to await their fate.

The outfit that came to our place was Cabin View Farm, a poultry farm in Littleton, NH, owned by Ray Garcia. Ray had kindly worked us into his schedule, and he arrived a little after 11 AM to get set up. His operation was very clean, very efficient, and the end product looked great. He was working by himself today, so he put in a long, hard day. The last of the chilled birds was bagged and labeled around 7:30 in the evening. Karen, my dad, my brother, and I tried to help him as much as we could, which wasn't much. It was interesting to hear about his chicken and turkey operation, and about some of his interactions with his customers. Like us, he often has to explain to customers why our products (meat chickens, turkeys, and eggs) are more expensive than coventionally raised products and why they are worth it.

Ray headed out on his 2 1/2 hour ride home, and I checked on the freezers holding the 17-25 pound turkeys, parked the tractor in the barn, checked on the cows, and then headed to the house for supper at around 8:30. Another turkey season had come to a close.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Love this blog? We have three more. Check them out at Stonyfield Farm blogs.