Setting our Intentions

As the 2021 gardening season gets underway - we ordered our seeds! - we have decided to go a somewhat different direction this year.  We decided last year that it would be the "year of the farm" for us.  We went big in 2020 with an expanded CSA program, meat chickens and ducks, pigs, milk goats, new lambs, new layer hens, and even a turkey (good old Pecky Becky).  It was epic!

As a change of pace, this year we are planning to spend much more of our spring and summer swimming, hiking, and cottaging.  We are not "scaling back" the farm but we are not "ramping up" either.  We will still be selling egg plans and planting a garden (think kitchen garden instead of market garden) but we will not be breeding any animals or raising any new farmyard babies.  We will also be taking a break from offering a CSA program in 2021.  We will focus on growing less time intensive crops like potatoes, garlic and squash instead of the variety needed for weekly vegetable baskets.

We will also be drying up Martha and Mellie to give our lovely goats a rest from milk production and me a rest from milking duty.  This part is the saddest for me.  I love the daily milking ritual with my beautiful girls but, while they are amazingly easy for me to milk, they cause a ruckus for anyone else who tries to milk them.  This is stressful for me when I am away and for our farm sitters who are tasked with caring for them.  After a year and a half of producing our own goat milk right here on the farm, the end is near.  Tomorrow we will move from milking twice daily to once, then to every second day, and then we will stop milking completely.

And so, as we look eagerly towards the warmth of spring, I am excited for our next chapter.  While I would not describe it as "new" (it is not like we are moving to the city!), I am hoping that it will be a fun and refreshing spring and summer with some new sights and lots of fresh air and exercise.

That said, I will never entirely rule out the possibility of a milk cow in my future.  It just will not be in the "near" future.  <Don't tell Ian.>