Broken Oak Acres

08/06/2026

2027 spring flowers loading!
Tulips, ranunculus, anemones and more will be arriving over the next three months and it's time to get all their beds prepped and ready for them! (AND YES, I ORDERED EXTRAS 😉) Every fall I'm hit with this small sense of dread. What if.... What if I order too many and can't sell them? What if the local economy won't support flower sales next spring? What if I spend all this money on bulbs and it's a wildly wet year and they all rot? What if I get tulip fire again? But then I'm reminded that it really isn't in my hands. I'll do my best but God's got the rest. I am very thankful for every purchase made here from my farm stand. Thank you all for making this possible and continuing to love on my little farm! I hope to see you all in September for pumpkins!

07/31/2026

Part 2 of my 2026 random meat challenge. Fully self inflicted!

Is it difficult to stick to only buying meat from friends, raising it ourselves or hunting/fishing for it?

Not really, but it does take some planning! 7 full months in and here's my thoughts. At times I have definitely wished we had more of one thing or another. For example, in March we basically ate all beef and pork because we were waiting to butcher more chickens in April. Here we are in July, and I'm rationing our beef, but we have plenty of chicken because instead of ordering a half a cow for July, I asked for it in August when I got on the list months ago. We are also down to our last few pieces of pork, but are still a few months out from butchering another pig. It definitely affects what's on the menu! Which, being the one deciding what to cook every day really only affects me. One area I have definitely fudged the line for is cured meats. I'm still buying pepperoni and occasionally some salami and very seldomly a bit of lunch meat....and honestly I don't care. We are extremely fortunate to have a lot of delicious options available to us that most people don't because of David's parents. Because of them we have been able to enjoy salmon, tuna, cod, crab and shrimp still, which really diversifies the menu. I also didn't jump into this with an empty freezer. I already had chicken from last falls butcher day,canned smoked tuna from last fall, a bunch of chucker and quail David hunted over the winter, and a whole bag of various meat sticks and sausages that was gifted to us from David's hunting buddy. I have learned how to cook a lot of pieces of meat I would have never bought from the grocery store, and honestly that's been pretty fun! Duck&goose German sausage breakfast burritos...pretty dang good. Lumpia, because I had extra plain ground pork, delicious! I find myself hoarding my favorite things however and am far less likely to make something for company if it's in short supply in the freezer. Probably won't be sharing my shrimp or bacon unless I really love you😂. Anyhow, if you have questions let me know! Probably doesn't interest many people, but these are the things I enjoy.

07/31/2026

Raising, hunting, fishing, or purchasing directly from a local friend all our meat for a year..... Let's discuss!

Random little side quest for 2026 is to not purchase proteins from the grocery store, which might be easy if we were vegetarians, but that's far from the case. Our family eats a lot of meat, like roughly 750lbs of meat a year. Between hosting people and our own daily intake that's a lot, so it's been interesting to commit to only eating meats we have raised ourselves, hunted or fished for, or purchased locally direct from the farmer/rancher.

January-failed straight outta the gate and bought chicken for a birthday party we were hosting from Costco 🙈
Also bought a half a cow from stegallcattleco (207 lb) to stock the freezer back up.
February -no bought or added meats
March-butchered a pig and split it with family (73 lb for us) added to the freezer
April-David shot a turkey and we processed meat chickens we raised. Added 40 chickens, roughly 250 lbs to the freezer (bones included in that)
May-no bought or added meats
June-David went sh*****ng with his dad for Father's Day and we ate some immediately (40ish???) and added 100 spot prawns to the freezer. Also sent another pig to the butcher but this one wasn't for us even though we did get to eat some of him!
July-David and the girls went salmon fishing with my father in law and each caught a salmon. No idea weights but roughly two fish worth of meat. And failed for the second time when I had a long day and David grabbed 1 lb ground beef from town because we had nothing thawed 🫣
Miscellaneous between Jan-July we have been gifted or traded with friends for - 2 whole frozen ducks, 2 pks of halibut, some rock cod and I have no idea how much crab.
Also have bought some salami, pepperoni, and about 5lb of various lunch meats over the last 7 months 🤷

Definitely need more space so I'll make another post with things I have found trying, interesting, whatever you want to call it.

07/03/2026

Onion braids loading! I'll have a limited amount of fun onion braids available in the farm stand soon.... First they need to cure! But I have a few questions. Would you guys prefer to purchase them in braids (7-10) or individually?

06/16/2026

I know that rising meat is not for everyone. These little pigs have been living the best life though before they feed our family. My goal is not to save money and this way of life isn't "easy" but it's good. My goal is to provide my family with quality food, good skills, and an appreciation for the things that are easy to take for granted. I chose the kunekune pigs because they are smaller, gentle, easier on the land, and thrive on pasture. They fit our property and our needs well. I'd rather have a few small sweet pigs wandering around eating grass than 1 big one that needs lots of feed. Figuring out what works best for our property and our family is a game of trial and error. For the past few years the back field has been a small alfalfa field that was bailed off for hay. The time for that has passed as the equipment can't get back there easily anymore. So do we run more pigs? Grow something else? Fence it off for a cow or two? Time will tell. But for now it's feeding the pigs who seem quite happy about it.

06/09/2026

06/04/2026

We have been living on this farm for a little over 10 years and in that time I have tried lots of things... I'm a dabbler, I can't help it 🤷. One of my least favorite things to date was rising meat chickens and it wasn't butcher day that got to me. It was the actual day to day of it. So rather than continue to do something that is truly not my cup of tea, I am focusing on more pork production currently and will be getting my chickens from a trusted friend. Will it stay that way? Never know! But maybe that's why this farm works for me, I can just keep adapting and pivoting. We have had kunekune pigs for slightly less than a year and in that time I have acquired a whole herd of them for various reasons. My ultimate goal (for the time being) is to have 2 litters a year, possibly 3. One in the spring and one in the fall. From each, I will keep 2-3 piglets to rise out for our family. The rest will be available for those interested in piglets. If they don't find the proper homes I'll be raising them up for meat production and HOPEFULLY (if I can figure out all the logistics) offer it to the public. Kunekune pigs are truly such a sweet docile breed and while they aren't the fastest grow outs, or even all that big for quantity.... They are quality and thrive on pasture. Something I have a fair amount of! After looking into commercial pork production I decided it works best if we eat pigs grown and raised here. Cared for well, loved on lots, and fed good things.... Because what your food eats matters. What I feed my family matters to me. What I offer friends who sit at my table matters to me. And what I offer to the public matters to me.

05/26/2026

Summer hours in effect 🎉
*Farm stand open daily dawn till dusk along with the front field for u-picks.
*Pre-made grab and go bouquets stocked Fridays and Saturdays at 8am.
*Special order bouquets welcome except for Sundays

05/02/2026

Welcome to May! Wow was April full! It felt like a full blown sprint for basically the entire month. Lots of fun and exciting things mixed in with some pure chaos. So many beautiful blooms went out the door, thank you guys! We welcomed our first 3 baby piglets, butchered 125 meat birds, David's busy in the rice fields, re did our laundry room, and caught some bug that lasted though most of that. I'm behind on pretty much everything! Maybe May will be a bit less crazy, although the calendar is already filling up quickly. Thankful for full lives and the opportunity to work hard with my family using the gifts I have been blessed with.

04/05/2026

Ending the day grateful. Grateful that these three little pigs are healthy along with their momma. Grateful that they came on a day we didn't have to leave for school or anything else. Grateful for good friends that were down to come help at the drop of a hat if needed. Grateful momma pig didn't mind us being there or touching her babies and loving on them. Grateful for good weather. Slightly bummed there are only three and slightly shocked at how slow the whole process was. We spent from about 10:30am till dusk mostly by her side and I'm glad we did. Always learning! Figuring out ways to improve what I'm set up for next time. Between fighting a cold, waking up multiple times a night to check her and being out there all day I'm pretty wiped. But so excited and grateful to go along with the tired. I hope you all have a lovely Easter and remember the real reason behind it. He is risen and I am forgiven! And for that I am ESPECIALLY GRATEFUL!