Alright, this go around I answered questions on butchering tools, remediating soil, small farms vs. homesteads, hanging meat, milking a cow, cow illnesses, registering animals, feeding sheep, predation, silvopasturing, plucking ducks, goats, financially shifting from a farm to a homestead and more.
Thanks for answering my question. I agree that people need to become more resilient, and that may be why I am seeing the bubble of homesteading and self sufficiency. My worry, to get more into the weeds ... is as you mentioned in another question, the point of building community and you just can't control that. In my community I am opening up my doors and am going to be growing a lot more food that I have in the past, offering it for sale and dropping hints on barter. I'm expecting to be able to beat grocery store prices on produce ... but I predict I will have a lot of unsold food because folks are just in the habit of going to the No Frills. Anyhow, that's my thinking, I'm going to put it to the test to see, I hope I'm wrong.
Yes, that's the lament of every farmer - people are addicted to the convenience of the grocery store. All you can do is do your good work and I know your people will find you.
I can’t remember your question exactly, but when I heard it on the podcast, I thought I needed to ask you if you had talked to the people at your local farmers' markets. I think they might have good info on your local small farm community.
I was a Farmers Market Manager for a few years and am currently on the board at a farmers market, and I can say that I see massive support for small farms. New farms pop up quite frequently, and it seems like there is always enough support for all of them. Most of them sell all their products (meat, produce, added value products, etc.) for over-market value, and people are willing to pay. We see some farms struggling, but it isn’t because of a lack of customers or community support. It also seems like they are all very supportive of each other.
I am sure it depends on where you live, but I am in a small rural county about an hour from a large town.
I don't know if that's helpful info for you, but good luck!
Thanks for your feedback. It's so tough to gauge this for me, and I see your point about Farmers Markets. I'm on a bit of a mission I suppose on my farm where I do my best to encourage people to visit my farm. We have a farm stand, we are close to town, and we already do tours and people love to visit. My point is that if people come directly to the farmer, they farmer can cut costs of paying Farmers Market vendor fees, and they have the bonus of that on-farm experience, if that is available. I'm planning on starting a U-Pick to push this a bit further in the future. I think Farmers Markets have a place, but as you said, they can charge the over market value, and that may limit who can afford that good quality food. Anyhow, I could go on this for days, and I am on my YT channel, but uptake has been a bit slow even though I am just starting out. So ya, hoping to find that support you are seeing with people and encourage them to go directly to the farm, and I think there are a bunch of benefits to having that relationship.
Ha! I'm glad you liked that part. It's served me very well over the years to disregard the "rules" and figure things out for myself. Not always, but often. :)
Thanks for this, Tara! The question about registration was mine and I was indeed referring to registering the farm in Ontario as opposed to specific animals for their breeds. My thinking has been along the same lines as you on this but I was curious about any potential benefits as I’m quite new to raising my own food. I would like to raise true Chantecler chickens but we will be farming mostly for our own food security and bartering--not as a farm business--so that is settled. Im such a rule follower by nature and am having to unlearn that these days due to all the craziness in Canada (and everywhere really!)
Our land has a wetland running through it meaning that we are technically supposed to do nothing with the vast majority of the property without onerous conservation area permits. I chatted with CA staff and was completely unimpressed with their lack of knowledge about silvopasture and forest stewardship so will probably go rogue with respect to that too and just really do my research on wetlands, beavers, silvopasture etc. to ensure we’re leaving things better than we found them!
Ah yes, that makes total sense. I think civil disobedience is something we all have to get comfortable with. It's necessary in this time, more than ever.
Coe Hill and I would be willing to drive for pick-ups. I asked Harvest Hastings about buying clubs when we moved out here but they hadn’t heard of any.
Such amazing and comprehensive information. I’m nowhere near raising and butchering my own cattle but it is so beautiful to receive this knowledge as it sinks into my own cells and touches my deep ancestral knowing.
Thank you for answering my milk cow questions. What is the black castille soap you use? I love the more natural route even though so many people swear you have to use all the iodine, bac wash, teat wash and milk with gloves to keep your cow healthy. My friend had a cow and did all the things and I swear they were always dealing with ketosis, milk fever or mastitis. The mastitis ended up being staph a. I am so worried my new girl will get it since the only way the other cow got it was from the soil or human hands! Ugh milking with gloves sounds terrible. Do your calves chew up your cows teats? One of our calves has his mommas teats cut, bleeding and dry.
It doesn't surprise me that your friend dealt with those issues. Her practices demonstrate how she doesn't understand what health is. We should all be building the health of the land and animals not putting our effort into eradicating the things that aren't an issue in a vibrant, healthy ecosystem. We need to understand health in order to do right by our animals and the land we get to be caregivers of.
We had one calf that did this. Poor mama. We just used some salves on her teats and we didn't milk those ones by hand if they were too tender at any given time.
Thanks for answering my question. I agree that people need to become more resilient, and that may be why I am seeing the bubble of homesteading and self sufficiency. My worry, to get more into the weeds ... is as you mentioned in another question, the point of building community and you just can't control that. In my community I am opening up my doors and am going to be growing a lot more food that I have in the past, offering it for sale and dropping hints on barter. I'm expecting to be able to beat grocery store prices on produce ... but I predict I will have a lot of unsold food because folks are just in the habit of going to the No Frills. Anyhow, that's my thinking, I'm going to put it to the test to see, I hope I'm wrong.
Yes, that's the lament of every farmer - people are addicted to the convenience of the grocery store. All you can do is do your good work and I know your people will find you.
Hi Mike,
I can’t remember your question exactly, but when I heard it on the podcast, I thought I needed to ask you if you had talked to the people at your local farmers' markets. I think they might have good info on your local small farm community.
I was a Farmers Market Manager for a few years and am currently on the board at a farmers market, and I can say that I see massive support for small farms. New farms pop up quite frequently, and it seems like there is always enough support for all of them. Most of them sell all their products (meat, produce, added value products, etc.) for over-market value, and people are willing to pay. We see some farms struggling, but it isn’t because of a lack of customers or community support. It also seems like they are all very supportive of each other.
I am sure it depends on where you live, but I am in a small rural county about an hour from a large town.
I don't know if that's helpful info for you, but good luck!
Thanks for your feedback. It's so tough to gauge this for me, and I see your point about Farmers Markets. I'm on a bit of a mission I suppose on my farm where I do my best to encourage people to visit my farm. We have a farm stand, we are close to town, and we already do tours and people love to visit. My point is that if people come directly to the farmer, they farmer can cut costs of paying Farmers Market vendor fees, and they have the bonus of that on-farm experience, if that is available. I'm planning on starting a U-Pick to push this a bit further in the future. I think Farmers Markets have a place, but as you said, they can charge the over market value, and that may limit who can afford that good quality food. Anyhow, I could go on this for days, and I am on my YT channel, but uptake has been a bit slow even though I am just starting out. So ya, hoping to find that support you are seeing with people and encourage them to go directly to the farm, and I think there are a bunch of benefits to having that relationship.
My favorite take away from this one is simply "don't listen to the people" 😂
So true. We all have to individually figure out what works for us. Thanks, Tara. 💚
Ha! I'm glad you liked that part. It's served me very well over the years to disregard the "rules" and figure things out for myself. Not always, but often. :)
THE BOOK LINKS!
THE BLACKFLY SONG!
I havent the chance to get through all the QnA audio yet but THE PEARLS, there are many!
THANK YOU! XO!
:) Thank you, Josée!
Thanks for this, Tara! The question about registration was mine and I was indeed referring to registering the farm in Ontario as opposed to specific animals for their breeds. My thinking has been along the same lines as you on this but I was curious about any potential benefits as I’m quite new to raising my own food. I would like to raise true Chantecler chickens but we will be farming mostly for our own food security and bartering--not as a farm business--so that is settled. Im such a rule follower by nature and am having to unlearn that these days due to all the craziness in Canada (and everywhere really!)
Our land has a wetland running through it meaning that we are technically supposed to do nothing with the vast majority of the property without onerous conservation area permits. I chatted with CA staff and was completely unimpressed with their lack of knowledge about silvopasture and forest stewardship so will probably go rogue with respect to that too and just really do my research on wetlands, beavers, silvopasture etc. to ensure we’re leaving things better than we found them!
Ah yes, that makes total sense. I think civil disobedience is something we all have to get comfortable with. It's necessary in this time, more than ever.
Also--is there any room left in your fruit and jar-buying co-ops if they are still ongoing?
Where do you live, Rebecca?
Coe Hill and I would be willing to drive for pick-ups. I asked Harvest Hastings about buying clubs when we moved out here but they hadn’t heard of any.
These answers / discussions are very helpful. Thank you
Thank you so much for your great answer to my question. ❤️
You're very welcome :)
Such amazing and comprehensive information. I’m nowhere near raising and butchering my own cattle but it is so beautiful to receive this knowledge as it sinks into my own cells and touches my deep ancestral knowing.
Thank you for answering my milk cow questions. What is the black castille soap you use? I love the more natural route even though so many people swear you have to use all the iodine, bac wash, teat wash and milk with gloves to keep your cow healthy. My friend had a cow and did all the things and I swear they were always dealing with ketosis, milk fever or mastitis. The mastitis ended up being staph a. I am so worried my new girl will get it since the only way the other cow got it was from the soil or human hands! Ugh milking with gloves sounds terrible. Do your calves chew up your cows teats? One of our calves has his mommas teats cut, bleeding and dry.
It doesn't surprise me that your friend dealt with those issues. Her practices demonstrate how she doesn't understand what health is. We should all be building the health of the land and animals not putting our effort into eradicating the things that aren't an issue in a vibrant, healthy ecosystem. We need to understand health in order to do right by our animals and the land we get to be caregivers of.
We had one calf that did this. Poor mama. We just used some salves on her teats and we didn't milk those ones by hand if they were too tender at any given time.