Groth Haus Homesteading

06/06/2026

First time mom Mavis gave birth in our pasture all by herself yesterday afternoon.

We brought them both up to the barn to make it easier to establish a milking routine (this will also be new for her).

One of the things I love about farm life are the new babies. What a delight!

06/03/2026

This is our fifth summer here and this is the first year they have bloomed.

Lilacs. One of my favourite flowers. Double blessed to have white and purple!

Someone a long time ago planted these on their homestead. And today I am blessed to receive this gift.

05/24/2026

Happy Shauvot! Today as I celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, I also celebrate my wild Saskatoon’s in full bloom.

05/14/2026

Inflation-proof your pantry.

The price of wheat soared yesterday as the USDA predicts major shortages. This will affect our prices here in Canada, too.

1. Buy some wheat now. 5 kg or 25 kg. It stores well and can be used to make bread, baked goods, pasta, etc. Buy some extra to use as a commodity for trading.

2. Learn to bake your own bread. It is more nutritious and will save you a lot on your grocery bill. Bonus: no glyphosate in your bread.

3. Plant a garden. No matter how little space you have, even some lettuce in a pot on a balcony is better than no garden. You’ll be learning about soil health, germination, growing and then you can scale up next year. If possible, find a community garden where you can grow with others.

Watch this short video and message me if you want to stock up on glyphosate-free Hard Red Spring wheat.

Wheat futures explode after the USDA dropped a bombshell: 10.5+ million acres of U.S. wheat abandoned, marking the smallest American wheat crop since 1972. H...

05/11/2026

Mother’s Day with the fam jam and these two adorable bubbies. It is more than I could ask for or imagine.

Big hope, big love.

05/09/2026

New chicks for our layer flock. These 6 day old Brahma chicks will be laying eggs for us in 20-25 weeks.

I’ve never had this breed before and I’m so excited about the colours.

05/01/2026

So many of us are itching to get outside and start planting our gardens. It is tempting…but how do you know what can be planted now and what has to wait until June 1?

Follow the dandelion planting schedule! I’ve been doing this for three or four years now…and it is the best “schedule” I have found so far.

If you enjoyed this content, please like, share and/or subscribe to my YouTube channel. You can also check out my free audio podcast (https://maritimegardeni...

04/30/2026

Hood trims are an essential part of keeping family milk cows healthy. We try to do ours every six months.

Merry had an abscess and needed a wrap on her left hind leg.

04/24/2026

Sharing this post from another Alberta farmer. They used to sell beef direct to consumers and they stopped a couple years ago. Here’s why.

At Grothhaus, we are still selling beef (although we are not offering our pasture-raised chickens this year.)

We are a first generation, family-owned farm and our mission is to make nutrient-dense food available to friends and family.

Please read Shelby’s post below…

Why are we not selling beef?

I've done posts like this before, but I figure it's about time for one again. Here's some very basic math to explain why we're not currently offering beef.

Opportunity Cost/Purchase Price of a 1000lb steer: $4500.00
120 days feeding to finish: Approx $600
Hauling to butcher and picking beef back up: $100
STANDARD Butcher Fees for approx 750lb carcass: $1300
(This does not include any additional items such as sausage, jerky, patties etc.)

Total cost to BREAK EVEN, to do all the work for free, donate our equipment, land, vehicles etc, make not a cent of profit, is $6500. That's $8.67 hot hanging weight on the rail.

Not only can I not in good conscience charge enough to make it worth it (this is a business after all), I also am not interested in sitting on that much financial risk. We used to haul 10 beef in a month. That's $65000 worth of beef. One blown breaker and a freezer thaws out, a simple vehicle accident causing injury to the animals while hauling, and we're bankrupt. We are just not interested in playing with that much financial risk.

Several times a week we have folks reaching out looking for beef, even though we've halted our direct marketing for quite a while now. It's tough, cause they always come from word of mouth recommendations, and it sucks to have to turn folks away, especially when we don't have a good 'back up option' to forward them to!

For those of you reading this that are ranchers yourselves, don't come at me for the things I've left out, or group in with other things. This is meant as an explanation for our customers who do not have the in depth knowledge that those of us in the industry have. Easy math that folks can understand

04/23/2026

Tomato seedlings planted March 8 went into the red solo cup “pots” on April 20. They will be planted outside after a June 1.