Firstfruits Farm Of South Carolina

10/18/2013

This makes getting up with the chickens every morning more fun.
http://youtu.be/nLwML2PagbY

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09/25/2013

T***kle is seven months old and getting chubby. It is time for Twilight to wean her, but Twilight is ignoring that fact. So I have to be the bad guy and put T***k in the corral away from her milk supply. She squawked almost all night and is still going strong today. Being a goatherd has its down side.

09/16/2013

For those of you who like to buy organic food for yourselves or your farm livestock, Azure Standard is coming to town. This is a mobile organic co-op which supplies a wide variety of products--from Amy's frozen entrees, fresh organic produce, all sorts of organic grocery items, whole grains to grind or sprout, organic animal feed, and more. Go to the Greenville Area Azure Standard page for more information, or straight to www.azurestandard.com.

02/11/2013

The milk is flowing! Amy gave birth to Bucky, and Twilight had little T***kle. The babies are dancing everywhere. Meanwhile, we are selling milk. I set up a new bottling system which DHEC approved and which makes it easier on customers to get what they need. It is still best to call ahead, but it will be available on a daily basis. Prices are the same: $7 per half gallon, $3.75 a quart, and $2 for 8 ounce tasters. Best of all, it tastes great this year!

01/31/2013

The family farm/rural lifestyle wing of the South Carolina Farm Bureau has been ordered to the back of the bus regarding raw milk sales. The SCFB Board has officially taken a neutral position on the issue, BUT will not dissent from the American Farm Bureau Federation's position, "On another dairy issue, delegates approved a new policy that states only pasteurized milk and milk products should be sold for human consumption. Delegates approved the measure in light of the potential risks to public health and food safety posed by consumption of raw milk." Where is the evidence of this risk? From what commodities have the actual outbreaks occurred?

08/15/2012

Anyone out there like me? I love fresh tomatoes on my salads, but in the winter the store-bought ones taste terrible. So I've tried pickling them, canning them, cooking and freezing them. The pickled ones taste best, but they are rubbery. They have to be cooked for a long time to kill potentially harmful bacteria.

This week I tried something that really seemed to work: I sliced the cherry tomatoes I had picked in half, placed them face-down on a paper towel draped over a small cookie sheet, and I froze them-- raw. Yesterday I popped them into a ziplok bag, keeping out a few which I dropped frozen into the evening's salad. By the time we ate salad they were thawed, and they tasted absolutely fresh.

We ate the salad at a picnic so I guess they had an hour or so in the cooler with the salad before we ate them. Next time I will thaw them before I put them into the salad, but that should not take long. Who knows how long they can stay in the freezer and hold their flavor, but I do this with diced green peppers and they keep for a long time. Some of them stuck to the paper towel, but not many. I think I'll freeze a couple of gallons of them for the winter and see how it goes.

08/10/2012

Well, we are back in the milk business again. Martin the DHEC inspector came by on Monday, just like old times. I was glad to see him. It took three months for me to catch my breath after the tractor accident, but all is well now. We learned a lot during this summer.

07/21/2012

We were walking with the grandchildren near the barn when Lena barked and pounced on a rat snake in the grass. It was over six feet long. You should have seen the children's eyes when I picked it up by the tail to show it to them. We popped it into the snake box, and Don carted it a half mile away to the river pasture. I wonder how many of my hen's eggs went toward helping that snake grow like that.

07/21/2012

Wow! The tractor and the lawn mower are both in good repair--at the same time. I'm putting up vegetables so Don has mowing duty. Everything is two feet tall-he has his work cut out for him. Of course now the fields and yard are too wet to mow.

06/15/2012

Super Bucky attended MRPC Bible School this last week. He was nervous the first day, tried to stay home the second day, and was eager to go the third day. It was not too different from sending a two-legged kid to evening church activities except that I sent a bottle with this one.

06/15/2012

It has been a raw month. On Monday we sent six of our does to live at an organic farm in Lauren's. Twilight and Amy have stayed here to supply our needs. Goldenrod and Super Bucky are here too. We still have the chickens and the bees. The fact is that I cannot move as fast as I did before the accident. But I can walk and ride my bike, and enjoy what each day brings. It is still a joy to get up at dawn and milk the does I have, and I thank God for that.

05/18/2012

This week was one of miracles. Alluran gave birth to little Adrienne on Sunday, just as we were getting home from church. What a sweet Mothers'Day present! Today I assisted Flory as she birthed Firefly, another little doe. The two babies played together this afternoon.

It has been a week since my tractor accident. Last Thursday I was working in the chicken yard with the tractor when it rolled up a hay bale and flipped over, pinning me underneath the seat. The Lord protected me--that is all anyone can say. I was trapped for a little over half a hour before neighbor heard my cries. It took another hour to get the tractor off of me. After being medivaced to the hospital, x rays proved that I had no broken bones and no torn ligaments. I walked out to the truck two hours later and gratefully went home. The official diagnosis is a sprained hip, and believe me, it hurts. But through the whole ordeal I felt the warmth of the Lord's protection all around me. He is indeed the great and holy Lord.