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Livin’ in Paradise

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 22, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

. . . but they’re already home, and so are we.  After 24 days of rotational grazing, the livestock made an entire trip around the pasture (minus a couple of paddocks due to some strategic netting issues).  The picture shows their last paddock in the rotation, one they hadn’t grazed in 5 weeks.  Thankfully, we have had plenty of rain and as you can see, the pasture is taller than the sheep.  This total rotation is just barely enough to break the parasite cycle of 21 days.  I’ll fix that though, by buying another length of netting (to make 8) so that my paddocks don’t have to share a side.  This will allow me to add 2 or 3 more paddocks to the total rotation for an additional 4 to 6 days of grazing.

We appreciate your business.  We will be at only one market this week, the new Farm to Fork Market at Normandy Farms.  The market is Friday, May 24, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  Normandy Farms is located at the corner of 79th Street and Marsh Road on the northwest side of Indianapolis.  We look forward to seeing you.Image

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Market Daze

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 16, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

We will be selling at two farmers’ markets this weekend.  While two markets is not much for market veterans, it will be a lot for us in our first season.  We will be selling our full range of products at both markets.  This includes grass-fed lamb and goat, pastured whole chickens, and free-range eggs.  Our animals are raised using organic, antibiotic free methods.  Our poultry are also supplemented with organic grain.

Friday, May 17, we will be at the Normandy Farms Organic Market (79th Street and Marsh Road) from 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.  Last week’s inaugural market went quite well considering the little publicity at the time and the rain during the market.

Saturday, May 18, we will be at the Zionsville Farmers’ Market (www.zionsvillefarmersmarket.org) from 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.  This is opening day for the farmers’ market.  The annual Brick Street Market (a craft market) will also be held in Zionsville Saturday beginning at 10:00 a.m.

Please stop by one of the markets for your local, organic food needs.

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Meet Us at the Market

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

May is always a busy month for the farm and the farmers.  There are gardens to be planted, livestock pasture to manage, chicks for which to care, birthdays to celebrate, and mothers to honor.

We will be participating in our first farmers’ market this Friday.  A new organic market will be held at Normandy Farms (79th and Marsh Road) from 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., May 10.  We will be selling eggs and whole chickens at this market.  They already have a vendor for lamb.  We will also be selling at the Zionsville Farmers’ Market beginning Saturday, May 18.  We will be selling all of our available products.  Please review our price list for information on pricing before visiting the markets.

For our current customers, you may notice that our prices have increased.  We recently completed an analysis of our poultry feed costs and, thanks to increases in grain prices, our feed prices have also increased.  We also have to cover the cost of market participation.  We have paid more than $500 in permit fees, licenses, vendor fees, and liability insurance to participate in these markets and bring our products to more convenient locations for you, the customer.  We appreciate your continued support.

Don’t forget Mothers’ Day.  It is this Sunday, May 12.  The Loft Restaurant at Traders Point Creamery always has special meals for Mothers’ Day and will be serving a Full Circle Farm lamb frittata for brunch.  We will all be there bright and early at 9:30 a.m.  Make your reservations now.  They confirmed ours today.

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The Grass IS Greener (and Taller) on the Other Side

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 3, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

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We finally got started on our rotational grazing for the season.  The animals were more than ready.  We had them closed off to one section of the pasture for two weeks, allowing the rest of the pasture to get some growth.  The first picture shows the fairly distinct line between the two sections of pasture.  The rested pasture is six inches tall while the other section has been eaten to the ground.  The second picture shows the difference of no grazing.  Areas where the animals had not been permitted to graze at all are nearly a foot tall.

This will be our second season of rotational grazing.  We learned several lessons during our first season.

  1.  Portable shelters must be fairly stout, which makes them less portable.  The winds during severe storms and during the winter picked up and destroyed the portable shelters we built last summer.  This year we are toying with no shelters since the animals’ coats protect them from the rain.  However, we may also go with a few sturdy, less mobile shelters.
  2. Our sheep will not respect standard multi-strand electric fencing.  They have discovered that if they stick their heads between the wires, any shock to their wooly coats as they go through the fence is nominal.  The cows, however, rarely cross the fence.
  3. It doesn’t matter if you are feeding them the best quality, third-cutting hay available, sheep will still eat your pine trees.  See #2 on the fence issue.  That is why we will now use electric netting to keep the animals in place and is also why we have had to plant more pine trees.
  4. This past winter, we allowed the animals to have the run of the entire pasture, eating up any new grass in the early spring.  You can see the difference in the grass that has not been touched.  It may be better to have a “sacrifice” area closer to the barn, keeping the animals there the entire winter and allowing the rest of the pasture to get a better start.  This should allow us to start our rotational grazing sooner in the season and save on hay.  That will be something we try during this season.

Don’t forget.  We will be at the Zionsville Farmers’ Market beginning Saturday morning, May 18, from 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.  We hope to see you there.

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Spring Chickens

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 25, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

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The chickens that were hatching during last week’s post finally all hatched, at least all of them that were going to hatch.  We hatched 10 eggs of 24 last week.  That sounds like a bad ratio but we actually hatched 100% of the fertile eggs.  You see we have only 2 roosters with 43 hens so, not all of the eggs were fertile.  We will also be ordering 100 more broilers this spring to be delivered next week.

That’s quite a few spring chickens, but, we will need them all because we will be selling in three different farmers’ markets this year.  We will be selling at the:

-          Zionsville Farmers’ Market beginning May 18.  We will be sharing space with another vendor and therefore will only be at this market every other Saturday throughout the season.  The Zionsville Farmers’ Market is located at the corner of Main Street and Hawthorne in Zionsville from 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. each Saturday from May 18 through September 28.

-          Decatur Township Farmers’ Market beginning June 4.  This is the farmers’ market that Farmer Betsy started at Decatur Discovery Academy.  The market is located at 5106 S. High School Road, Indianapolis and will be held each Tuesday from 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. from June 4 through September 24.

-          A new organic market being formed in the area.  The dates and locations have not yet been determined.  We’ll share that information when it becomes available.

We will hold open hours on the farm from 12 p.m. – 6 p.m. this Sunday.  Given all of the new opportunities, these will be our last farm open hours.  That doesn’t mean we won’t be around, you may just want to call or e-mail beforehand.  We will also be raising our prices to compensate for market expenses.  We do plan to offer a discount for on farm purchases.  We will post our new price list soon.

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April Showers . . .

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

. . . have brought lots of water.  As of this writing we have had 4.75” this month (3.25” just this week).  With that and 11 inches of snow melt from late March, we have definitely recovered from last year’s drought.

 . . . bring lots of green grass.  We’ve closed off the animals to the east side of the field to allow the rest of the pasture to grow faster.  We hope to start rotational grazing by the first of May.  We have resolved ourselves to using electric netting this year as the sheep have been completely ignoring our standard electric fencing.

. . . have brought lots of eggs.  Since we knew we would have a lot of eggs, we bought an incubator this winter so we could hatch some of our own eggs.  Farmer Betsy already used the incubator to hatch one batch of chickens at her school.  We started our own chickens at the house and they are hatching as I write.  I have also started finding turkey eggs in the middle of the barn, where the other animals could step on them.  I have started collecting them and we hope to hatch those too.  Hopefully the rest of the birds are finding other safe spots to lay their eggs.

. . . are bringing blooming fruit trees.  All of our fruit trees and plants are budding and blooming nicely.  Since we got a normal start on spring this year, hopefully we won’t have any late freezes to jeopardize the fruit.

I know, I know.  April showers bring May flowers.  But, it’s not May yet.  May looks to bring its own set of opportunities to the farm.

We will be open this Sunday from 12 -6 p.m.  Please stop in to fulfill your local, organic food needs.

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Caught Red-Handed

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 12, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Well, not quite red-handed but one of us did spend a little too much time in the sun (that would be the blond, fair-skinned farmer).  They finally caught us and made us return to the farm.  It didn’t really take that much persuading though.

Farmhand Emily did an awesome job while we were away.  The animals were content and she did some greatly appreciated housekeeping.  She even got the snow to melt and the grass to green while we were gone.

We will be open this Sunday from 12 -6 p.m.  We will also be around on Saturday planting trees.  We received 400 trees from the state nursery this week.  If you come by and help us on Saturday, we’ll give you a free dozen eggs.  We currently have available:

Eggs from free-range hens fed organic grain @$3.50 per dozen (and lots of them)

Whole Chickens raised on pasture and fed organic grain @ $4.00 per pound (lots of chicken too)

Hormone-free and antibiotic-free grass-fed lamb and goat (please see the price list for pricing by cut)

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Farmers on the Lam

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on March 29, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

We will not hold open hours on Easter Sunday.  Farmer Paul and Farmer Betsy are on the lam.  But don’t worry, we left the farm in the hands of a capable farmhand and her partners.  Speaking of lamb, don’t  forget to visit The Loft Restaurant at Traders Point Creamery for Easter brunch and enjoy the frittata with Full Circle Farm lamb.

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Hippity Hoppity

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 21, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Easter is on its way.  I wish spring really was too.  We will again be open this Sunday from 12 -6 p.m.  For your Easter dinner, we still have turkeys and whole chickens available for $4.00/lb. and leg of lamb available for $15.00/lb.  We also have ground lamb for $9.00/lb. and lamb chops for $10.00/lb.  If you like goat meat, we have some ground goat sausage for $7.00/lb.  There are still plenty of eggs available too at $3.50/dozen.

If you can make it through the snow they are forecasting, please come by.  If you can’t make it Sunday, you are always welcome to visit evenings during the week.

Finally, it is with sadness I share that Charles Stultz passed this week at the age of 98.  Charlie was the previous owner of our farm.  This was his farm for 59 years.  Charlie had other parties interested in the farm but we have always believed Charlie allowed us to purchase the farm because he saw himself, and how he would have cared for the farm, in us.  We are very appreciative of the opportunity you have allowed us Charlie.  May you rest in peace.

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Luck o’ the Irish

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 14, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

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We will be open this Sunday from 12 -6 p.m.  Come by and visit Bambi the lamb and our newest addition, Darcy, the Dexter calf.

Darcy was born earlier this week so, it wasn’t on St. Patrick’s Day but she still gets an Irish name.  Darcy means dark or dark-haired and the name will fit her perfectly.  She will likely keep her color as her mother is dark brown as well.  Darcy’s luck is that she is a heifer calf and therefore gets a pretty name, instead of a “food” name the males generally get.

Speaking of St. Patrick’s Day, you should join Farmer Betsy and Farmer Paul for Sunday brunch at The Loft Restaurant at Traders Point Creamery.  Farmer Paul will be having the lamb stew served with our own Full Circle Farm lamb.  Farmer Betsy is leaning toward Eggs O’ Kunz.  You had better come early though.  We eat right at 9:30 a.m.

While we are on the topic of what to eat, it is time to start planning your Easter dinner.  We have leg of lamb available for $15.00/lb.  These legs weigh around two pounds and have been de-boned and rolled.  We have two turkeys available for $4.00/lb.  These turkeys are 8.65 lbs and 8.90 lbs.  We also still have plenty of whole chickens available for $4.00/lb.  Stop in and let us help you plan your Easter dinner.

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