Pitchfork Farms

11/29/2020

🍓 We have been working on getting the strawberries all tucked in for winter. This is the best the new strawberries have looked going into winter and it is the biggest patch we have planted. Excited to see next year's harvest. 🍓

11/28/2020

🚜 Game changer. When your kids are old enough to operate a tractor and it cuts your work time down significantly. Bo helped Mama all afternoon yesterday get straw down on the strawberries.

When we had a full bale on, he was not tall enough to see the row. So we got creative. I would hold my fork it the air so he could line the fork up with the center of the tractor and drive forward. We shared a few laughs and got a lot done. Back at it today. Love this kid.

11/26/2020

🦃 Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. Hoping that in all of the uncertainty of the world, that we all remember how much we have to be thankful for.

When a farm kid makes his first pie, he chooses to put a cow eating a bale of hay on top. 🐂😂♥️

Happy Thanksgiving!

11/25/2020

🍁What are some of the holiday traditions your family has?

This is one of my favorites that we have been doing since Bo was old enough to do it. The first of November, we start our family thankful tree. It is the centerpiece of our table all month and every night at dinner, we rotate writing down something we are thankful for.

The older the kids have gotten the more I love it and the better they are at understanding what we should be thankful for. This year they have put teachers, school, health care workers, family, heat, food, friends, neighbors, and our house on the tree. I continue to be in awe of them more and more each year.

In full disclosure, Annie the 4 year old did put herself on the tree 😂 We were trying to explain to her to pick something that she is really happy she has and she picked herself. I have no doubt in a few years she will pick different things but we are all grateful for her and all of our kids ♥️

What are some of your family traditions?

11/24/2020

🥚 We are filling the shelves at both Oleson's in Petoskey and Charlevoix today so you can grab some eggs for all your holiday cooking. 🥚

11/23/2020

Want a special treat for breakfast on Thanksgiving?

Now taking Thanksgiving pre-orders for contactless pick-up at the farm of Tillie's Tafel cinnamon rolls. Orders must be in by 11:30am tomorrow morning. Pick -up Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning. Comment below to place your order. Thank you.

11/23/2020

🦃 I LOVE Thanksgiving. The kids are excited to spend a couple days cooking with me and having a little down time. Even though this year will be different, we still have so much to be thankful for. 🦃

11/22/2020

🐂 We aren't going to have too many more days of the cows out enjoying the sunshine while the ground is not white.🐂

11/21/2020

Every day it gets more real. Our freezers, refrigerators, and oven came this week. 😍

11/20/2020

🥚 Happy to announce that starting today, you will be able to find our eggs at the Grain Train again. 🥚

11/19/2020

We have completed taking orders for pick up this weekend. We will take orders next Thursday. Thank you.

Now taking PRE-ORERS! For the next couple of weeks, we will offer contactless pick up of Tillie's Tafel 's cinnamon rolls at the farm. You must PRE-ORDER by Friday morning for Saturday or Sunday pick-up. $5 for 1 and $20 for a four pack. Comment below to place your order.

11/18/2020

🥚 If you purchase our eggs in a store, you will notice the label has changed this week. It went from pastured, non-GMO to local, non-GMO. We have moved our chickens indoors for the winter. They still have access to the outside and if you are at the farm, you will still see some of them wandering around. But, the majority of them stay in. We change our label even though they are still getting the same non-GMO feed because even though they still scratch around for bugs, the green grass is all gone.

11/17/2020

🥚PULLET EGG SALE! $3/dozen. As our winter hens continue to pick up in production, the number of pullet eggs we have, is way up. These are the same eggs but a little bit smaller. No appointment needed. We will have eggs out in the cooler on our front porch all week. First come first serve. Please leave your cash or check in the cooler. Thank you 🥚

11/16/2020

We don't use any chemicals of any kind on this farm, we don't use and pesticides or "fertilizers" either. But we do compost all of our animal manure. Our pile is huge. Matt turns the pile every little while and we wait until it is dirt consistency to use it. This is what is looked like when I dug into it this weekend. FULL of worms. Amazing. Now to spread some on the berries before snow falls.

11/15/2020

💕 The outside of our farm market is done. 💕

11/14/2020

UPDATE: SOLD OUT!!!

We still have a some delicious Tillie's Tafel cinnamon rolls available for contactless pick-up at the farm.

They are a nice afternoon snack or with your coffee tomorrow morning. $5 each or $20 for a 4 pack. Comment below to schedule your pick up time for either today or tomorrow. Cash only. Thank you.

11/14/2020

Have you been wanting to try these amazing cinnamon rolls but haven't been able to get to the farm market? Now is your chance.

Pre-order your cinnamon rolls for contactless pick up at our farm this afternoon or tomorrow.

$5 for 1 and $20 for a four pack. Cash only at pick up. Order by commenting on this post. Thank you. Tillie's Tafel

11/12/2020

Your smile for the day 😊

11/11/2020

🎉🇺🇸 We have so much to be grateful for every day, but today we get to celebrate a little bit more.

🧁 Happy 4th Birthday to the littlest lady of the house. You are so loving, so sassy, and so funny. Never lose our stubbornness or your smile. Today we celebrate you Annie Grace. We love you

🇺🇸 We also say THANK YOU to all veterans today and every day. Thank you doesn't seem like nearly enough for every sacrifice you have made so that we can live our lives. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We are forever indebted to you. ♥️

11/10/2020

☀️ The kids helped pull old irrigation lines yesterday.

11/09/2020

☀️Taking advantage of all this sunshine and getting the ground worked up.

11/07/2020

🐮 You know you are a mom when you are trying to take a picture of one of your calves and you are clicking your fingers saying, "look at Mama." Matt caught me and just laughed. 😂

11/06/2020

Bo

🚜 One of my greatest memories as a kid when we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Shively's house was riding all the little tractors my Grandpa had. When he passed away, we inherited a couple and Bo has made it his mission to help Matt get this one running. I am so proud of his persistence and dedication to this project. The video isn't the best but I wish you could feel and see the pride and excitement on his face when it started. You couldn't wipe the smile off his face. 💕

11/04/2020

Making more progress on the building. My favorite part so far 💕

11/03/2020

🇺🇸 It is Election Day! 🇺🇸

11/02/2020

We all could use a bad chicken joke this Monday morning 😂

10/31/2020

🎃🍭Happy Halloween for our crew. Annie as Skye from Paw Patrol, Cowboy Tucker, Soccer player Remy, and Harry Potter of course.

10/30/2020

Friday's introduction today. Remy Lou. She is easily our hardest working child. She loves having a job to do and rarely argues about doing chores. She does everything from feeding animals, to planting, to chicken processing. Her favorite job is picking berries.
I have always said if something ever happened to me, she would step right in and run things without a hitch. She is a mother hen for sure, always helpful and looking out for everyone. She can tell you which calf was born to which cow during which month, something I definitely cannot do. She is starting to get some teenage sass but she is such an amazing little girl. 💕

10/28/2020

Market building update. After a delay on the trusses, then them being "misplaced," they are finally up.

10/27/2020

More exciting news! We have ordered blueberry bushes for the farm. This spring we will plant about an acre and a half of 3 year old bushes. Can't wait!

10/26/2020

🍓🥧🍞🍗 We want to hear from YOU!!! What are some things you would like to see at our farm market next spring? All suggestions welcome, no promises made 😂. 🐷🍖🧁

10/25/2020

💗 A year...365 days. That is how long it has been since I have seen that smile, heard your voice, or gotten one of your hugs. We have missed 365 morning phone calls. Some days it feels like it was yesterday and some.days it feels like a lifetime ago.

I remember pulling in my driveway and seeing an ambulance at your house. Matt had gone down there to borrow the skid steer when I went to the bank so I stared to get uneasy because I was not sure if something happened to you or Matt. My mind quickly went to farm equipment accident. I am headed down to your house and see a few state troopers parked in the other driveway. My heart sank and my stomach dropped because I knew someone had not made it. There was NO activity. The EMS were standing talking casually by the ambulance and the police officers were standing filling out paperwork. As I pulled in, Matt comes sprinting out of the barn faster than I have ever seen him run. I wanted to throw up, I just knew. I get out and Matt says, I don't know what happened. I ask if you were alive and Matt couldn't answer because he knew it would destroy me. I remember him catching me as I fell to the ground screaming. I remember running into the barn, my knees hitting the barn floor next to you, begging you to take a breath. I begged and pleaded for you to take one breath. I remember punching the milk parlor door when you didn't. I remember calling Becky and Adam, your siblings, and friends. They were all just as shocked as we were. I remember wondering how in the world I was going to live one single day without you.

It hasn't been easy, some days harder than others. I feel like the farm is a blessing and a curse. In the beginning, it forced me to work instead of deal with my emotions because the farm must go on and is a daily reminder of you not being here. But it is such a blessing because we get to continue the dream that you started. I work so hard because I never want to take for granted for even one day, every sacrifice you made to give me this life and this farm. Thank you for trusting us to keep it going and growing.

They say the first year is the hardest and that might be true but it hasn't necessarily gotten easier for me, it has just changed. I miss you more now than ever. I hate that you have missed so may moments the last year. The good ones, the bad ones, the silly ones, and the stupid ones. Every day there are multiple times, I wish you could have been there to experience them with us. I let myself feel you walk with me every day on the farm and your voice is so strong in my head I sometimes laugh out loud at you. I see you so much in myself and in my kids. Good grief I even see you in Matt. He will do or say something and I will laugh. Thank you for leaving such an impact on all of us. My heart is still heavy and I still shed too many years but I am forever grateful for the relationship we had and the time I spent with you. Until we meet again. I love you Dad 💗💕

10/22/2020

🐓🎃 When you bring the "treat" wheelbarrow out full of pumpkins and a few hundred chickens run and wait patiently by the fence.

10/21/2020

🌽💕 As we approach the one year anniversary of losing my Dad, I feel him on this farm just as much as when he was here.

Though we farmed together, our practices were not always the same. One of our life long disagreements was corn. Him growing corn for his cows that he had sprayed, us using no chemicals of any kind. We were different generations that had different mind sets and that is okay. We had lots of serious conversations about it and Matt and him were talking about alternative ways to grow it. Once we started farming he moved his corn farther away every year, which we greatly appreciated.

This year, we moved our meat birds down to a pasture past his house and this one corn stalk grew in that field. This field has NEVER been corn ever. It has always been pasture. I know this corn stalk is probably from a seed the chickens did not eat, but it is a constant reminder that he is here. Missing him as much today as every day.

10/20/2020

🐷 We welcomed these little piggies to the farm yesterday. There are 8 of them and they are SO cute. The kids love them. 🐷