🐓The Farmgirl Monthly🐓
Shopping Guide ~ June Edition
FARM CRAFT
Home To Roost
Home to Roost was formed in 2018 by Kevin and Beth. We create a variety of farmhouse inspired dĂŠcor, all made from our 8 acre homestead in Western NY. One of our best selling products is definitely our personalized crocks. We locally source American made stoneware, and customize for you. They are truly a family keepsake.
Our product line has grown, as we’ve had requests for different sizes and custom graphics. We now offer these crocks in 2 sizes, 15 different designs, and a variety of colors. Custom orders are always entertained; we love bringing someone’s vision to life.

It’s been really fun to see how these keepsakes compliment a home. We’ve received pictures from customers of crocks holding kindling wood on a hearth, filled with flowing flowers on a porch, or attractively displaying a rolling pin collection in their kitchen.

Double O Farms
We are Levi and Jena Ochsner and we are proud to farm corn and soybeans and raise quality Angus cattle on our 5th generation family farm in south central Nebraska. Our cattle are homegrown right here on the land our family has tended for over 130 years. From birth to butcher, we take pride in providing our cattle with the most humane care possible. Our animals spend their lives grazing green grassy pastures and are finished on a blend hay and grains grown right here on our family farm. Our cattle are never treated with hormones or routine antibiotics. The fine tuned finishing process of 120+ days combined with a 21+ day dry age provides beef with exceptional flavor, marbling, and tenderness. We feel so blessed to be able to raise quality meat to feed our family and are thankful for the opportunity to feed yours.

BackCountry Botanicals
We are artisan distillers of unique wildcrafted essential oils, with an emphasis on sustainability, quality, and medicinal purposes.

Our speciality oil is Pinon Pine Resin, we are the only people we know distilling it! Relatively unknown in popular culture, this Resin distills into an essential oil with a depth that grounds and calms, bringing a deep sense of peace that only a wild tree is capable of. We spend hours hiking and performing what we like to call “gathering yoga” as we stretch and balance under each Pinon searching for the hidden “gold” waiting in the bed of dried needles. Perhaps its next stage of life will be essential oil!

We feel honored to have a part bringing the soul of wild plants & trees, into peoples homes.

Pastures & Pine
At Pastures & Pine, we are dedicated to providing the very best resources for your skin- from our beautiful, farm raised goat milk soaps to our natural, skin healing body butters and moisturizers. We started out several years ago as a small hobby farm with a goal of self sustainability, and slowly evolved into the natural skin care company we are today, but the goats are still our passion. We love every minute- from watching them graze out on our organic pastures, to raising the cutest babies ever to hand milking in the morning shade of our aspen trees. It’s so fun to be able to take the incredible milk they give us and add it into an already decadent bar to create a soap so rich and creamy that you just want to stay in the shower and lather up all day long.

FARM WISDOM
French Heritage ~
Appletree Farm
I am a first generation French woman relocated in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I grew up on a produce-horse farm in the Southwest of France in a very unique situation, well not so unique for France, but unique compared to the life I live here today. My grandparents lived nearby and were an instrumental part of my life growing up. I had multiple cousins, aunts and uncles close by as well, which made for a very intricate sometimes difficult, yet beautiful tapestry of life, one that is hard to leave behind and that I have never forgotten.

Although I have now lived in the US longer than I lived in France, I have always spoken French, and embraced the traditions I grew up with, and our small diversified farm is a perfect canvas to make sure I keep some of these traditions well and alive. We are a Franco-American family small farming in the US.

Here, just outside of Eugene in Oregon we raise a small flock of Gotland sheep, we run a small produce-egg-flower CSA, we run a few camps for children, we host workshops and we are in the process of launching a Farmstay experience, all of these diversified offerings really are great platforms to spread some of these traditions and for education, which is a cornerstone of this farming life.


What is No Dig Gardening? ~
ďťżNo Dig Home (Guest UK Farmgirl)
I have been gardening using no dig methods, or no till as it is also known, for around 12 years. I’ve worked in, created or advised many different kinds of edible growing spaces: market gardens, kitchen gardens on large private estates, pop up gardens for festivals, tiny gardens, urban gardens and in my home garden and allotment, where I have a small homestead.

Bruton where I live is a small ancient market town in England, with a population of around 3000. The local church was founded in the 7th Century and the town was listed in the Domesday Book in 1086 as “Briuuetone” – people have been living here and growing food for a long time. We are surrounded by verdant farmland and ancient sites including the Isle of Avalon, Stonehenge (45 minute drive away) and Cadbury Castle, said to be the site of King Arthur’s Camelot.

My house is a semi detached ex council house, built around 1930 as affordable housing for rural workers. The gardens are not very big, but I manage to grow a lot of food in my front and back garden, and at the allotment just up the road. This is rented from the local council for ÂŁ17 a year, where I have eleven 4 ft x 16ft beds plus an area for composting. I do all of my growing and gardening mostly by myself. My three children are all university students with not much interest in growing but they will help out and are certainly interested in eating the veggies!


The Tale of Two Goats ~ The Freckled Herd
Years ago, I bought a pair of goats. Just two little baby goats, newly weaned and cute as can be with their expressive little faces and dancing hooves. Little did I realize what I had just gotten myself into. After what felt like no time at all, something fascinating happened, and gradually I found myself with a pasture FULL of 22 goats! We goat owners like to refer to this phenomena as “goat math.”

If you haven’t gotten the hint already, goats are addicting, but unfortunately, a few really naughty goats out there have painted a bad picture of themselves... When most people think of goats, they think of this wild-eyed beast that eats anything it can get ahold of, and will escape again and again even if you pour your life savings into building a fence secure enough to hold an rouge elephant.

Well let me assure you that while there are a few especially naughty ones out there, that is NOT your typical goat! A happy goat will stay in its pasture, and there are a few key “ingredients” to making a happy, content goat. The basic wants and needs of a goat are simple.

  1. Good food: Fresh forage and hay. Grain as the occasionally treat. 
  2. Fresh water: water from a spring or stream is perfect, and saves you having to haul water to the pasture! TIP: Keeping a couple goldfish in your water trough will help control algae during the hot summer!
  3. Shelter. Goats dint need anything fancy, just a sturdy structure where they can escape the wind, rain, and cold. Clean routinely, and fill with fresh bedding.
  4. Minerals: I cannot stress how important minerals are to a goat’s diet! LOOSE minerals(not a block) offered 24/7, and salt separately. Ask your local feed store about their mineral options for GOATS. A cattle or sheep mineral will not completely meet the needs of goats. 
  5. Companionship: a lonely goat will escape faster than you can blink an eye. Goats are herd animals, and should never be kept alone. It is essential that at least two goats are owned.

With a bit of research and hard work, a moderate size goat herd can easily pay for itself, and in fact make you some money as well! There are three basic types of goats: Dairy, meat, and fiber. I’ve falling in love with dairy goats, and particularly the Nubian breed. These are the gentle giants of the goat world, weighing in at up to 300 lbs! Their iconic Roman nose and pendulous ears make them stand out among the crowd. While their size could be intimidating for some, they have the biggest heart to match. If raised with gentleness and love, these happy beasts will be very much like the family dog.

This brings me to probably the most valuable lesson I’ve learned from keeping goats. When it’s kidding season, and I have half a dozen little babies running around, I make sure to spend as much time with them as possible. I build trust with them, and in turn, they learn that humans are friends. I continue this throughout their life, but the first 1-5 months are absolutely critical. This may seem like a simple thing, but it really can make all the difference in your goat keeping experience. If a goat gets stuck, injured, needs medication, or has complications during birth, they are going to need your assistance. If you have built trust with them, when emergency situation arise your presence will bring peace to them instead of stress. This will save you many miles of chasing down goats that dislike humans, simply to administer some medication.

So whether you have a back pasture that needs eaten down, want fresh milk right from your backyard, or simply enjoy having animals to watch and care for, goats are such a fun addition to any farm or homestead. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Instagram @the.freckled.herd with questions or for more goat information! And as always, don’t forget to shut the gate. 😉

Farm Fit ~ Farm Fit Mama
Hi! I’m so glad you’re here. My name is Honey Smith.

I’m an RN for our local school district and am married to my best friend who also happens to be a fireman. We have two little ones and we own and operate a small family farm called Dalkena Highlands, just about an hour north of Spokane in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

My husband and I didn’t grow up in this farm community - but we decided when our daughter was 9 months old to buy a 5 acre plot and make it a small hobby. So we packed up our Greenlake home in the heart of Seattle and followed our dream to own some property and started small with 2 baby doll sheep, a flock of chickens and 2 ducks. Our dreams and family grew when we decided to pick up and move east to pursue bigger things. We now operate on 115 acres with 18 Scottish highland cows, 2 percheron draft horses, 2 nigerian dwarf goats, a large flock of chicks, 4 cayuga ducks and we seasonally raise Idaho pasture pigs for our loyal customers and personal use.

My real passion for health and fitness actually started back on that small 5 acre plot though. I had just undergone my 4th knee surgery and decided - enough was enough, I needed to stay healthy and strong to keep up with the demands of two little ones, working full time as an RN, and all that goes in to the farm.

In the midst of all this, I started an online health and fitness business. Ever since then, being “farm fit” and practicing self love have been two of my biggest passions. I help people feel strong, know their worth and eat like they give a darn. Since our move east, our drive to share those concepts have become a daily part of our life and message. We focus on pasture raised beef, pork and eggs. And I primarily workout now to keep up with the chores of daily farm life. Whether it’s being able to tow my 40+ pound kids, or feed bags, or be able to go the long haul during hay season, staying “fit” far outweighs anything else. Being a mom of two, I understand how incredibly real the pressures are for mom’s to have it “all” together in todays day in age. Not only do our kids need to be doing the best, learning the best, and so on and so forth, but us too as moms put demanding pressures on ourselves.

I hope after reading this you may think when you’re out doing chores or getting ready for a long day of projects on that farm that everything you’re doing is enough. Being you, being present and getting the job done is more than enough is all realms of life. “Fit” is not a cookie cutter, one size fits all term - by any means. I hope that you can feel good when you accomplish a really hard chore, or tick off something big on your project to do list. Spend all day in the garden? Heck yes girl! That is work. That is fit. That is being a mama. It is all the things and so much more. I love helping see people find their outer strength but more importantly, their inner beauty. Keep up what you’re doing and when you’re out lifting heavy bags or helping the “guys” out - you know I’m right there in your corner rooting for you! With love, and dumbbells, - FarmFitMama :)

FARMHOUSE KITCHEN RECIPES ™
Garden Compound Butter
Our family garden was established in 2002 and has expanded every year since, turning our backyard into a small urban farm. What started out as just a love of gardening. Soon became an important part of feeding our large family of 8 healthy food, year-round. Finding fun ways to use what we grow & preserve the taste of summer brings me so much joy. Sharing these ideas and inspiring others is the icing on the cake. 

Happy growing!
Holly Capelle

Directions:
  • First, wash & dry your fresh herbs & organic edible flowers from your garden.
  • Chop most into small pieces, setting some whole flowers & herbs aside.
  • Mix chopped flowers/herbs & two sticks of softened butter in medium size mixing bowl using a spoon.
  • At this point, you can serve in a bowl or put into molds (candy molds work great) for individual pats of butter. 
  • Or continue to next steps. 
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