SunStone Orchard & Rabbitry

08/09/2026

More Meishans PLEASE
🥹🥹🥹

Our feeder gilts look completely different, but I’m totally smitten!

08/09/2026

This. Means. War.

The hornworms are here!

I am not a squeamish person, I don’t get the ick over many thing.
But these caterpillars make me want to vomit.
I got one stuck on me once with their super suction cup legs and from then on, I just know they could devour me….

The other night we cut at least a dozen in half, not a single one had any eggs on it.

08/09/2026

Let’s try this again, with sound hopefully 🤞🏻
Is there sound?

His skull for head cheese
Neck roast
Shanks
Organs
Skirt steak
Hanger steaks
Loins
Tenderloins
And 16lbs of ground

Not bad for a 5 month old grassfed 3/4 Finnsheep ram
I didn’t get a live weight or a hanging weight
Locally, ground lamb sells for $18/pound
He was worth every bit of work!

08/09/2026

Hey, that’s new!

As my junior numbers soar, I really didn’t need a new brood doe, but do you see her color?

That’s right, shaded has entered the rabbit in the form of Smoke Pearl! And because Monger is such a rainbow buck, I’m going to give it a whirl this fall for breeding.

Trout Brook Farm’s First Cast; barn name Minnow.

08/08/2026

We might not always know what we are doing, but it always involves preserving food.
Spriggs was a 5 month old 3/4 finnsherp ramling that we harvested at home.
We broke his carcass down into primals to cool in the fridge. We kept his skull for head cheese, a neck roast, deboned his loins and tenderloins, kept his organs, his hanger steaks and his skirt steak.
The rest, we ground into 16 pounds of lamb burger, neatly packaged into 1lb vacuum sealed bags. Maybe we will make sausage or maybe it will become meatballs.
Either way, we are well on our way to confidently process more homegrown meats ourselves.

08/08/2026

08/08/2026

They have arrived🙌🏻

Meishan feeder piglets💛

08/08/2026

I have 3 gallons of raw sheep’s milk, what should I make with it today?
I’ve been drinking it daily in my protein shakes and morning breves. I’ve made gallons of yogurt and labneh balls. I have skimmed it all and have pounds of sheep butter. And I’ve used gallons of combo milk to freezer preserve jerbris cheese.

What else am I missing?
Likely, feta. Bulgarian FETA!

08/07/2026

The piglets got a new plot of woods today.
They crack me up watching them eat everything in front of them!

They also will be joined by the Meishan piglets this week💛

08/07/2026

10 of the 22 growouts in this round off the feed bill.

And once I organize the freezers, I’ll see if I’ve hit my 52 whole rabbit freezer stash goal.

Furs have been claimed by another homesteader for their project and Carboni’s raw fed bits are packaged up.

This year of raising rabbits has been truly amazing for me. I didn’t suffer loss and illness in my herd. The heat did not kill kits in the nest or cause table ready growouts to bloat, like previous years.
And I’ve been able to sell and retain very nice junior stock.
Oodles of rabbit meats recipes ahead!