Chicama Run Family Farm

To answer your question, no we really don't have one.  We are open the entire year and the animals can't fend for themselves.

Believe it or not, we sit here in February waiting for chicks to be delivered starting in March!!  Those will then be butchered in May.  The cycle begins.

These are months where we try to take a small break/breather - but it doesn't happen.  It's alright and it's fun actually - if we didn't have something to do all the time, then we would honestly get bored.

In January we booked all the butchering date for the entire year!  Yes, we have to plan on anticipating what you, as our customers, want and when you want it.  Then we have to order all 900+ chickens and turkeys for the year (scary number isn't it?) - and try and guesstimate how many we will lose so we make sure we cover for those.  We can only butcher by law 999 at our farm and that's what we do.

Are we doing markets?  We will be at least at Hillsboro this year as we have already been accepted for that market.  We are waiting to hear from Leesburg.  Then we have Chicama Chow this year (which is a lot of fun and Joe is having a blast trying to "create" his own sandwich creations) -- so how often are we doing that?  Who will be where to help out?

Spring Farm Tour?  Yep - that comes up the 3rd weekend in May!  We are NOW discussing food options for that day (can you believe it?  I'm having a hard enough time coming up with dinner for tonight!!)  Also, who will be operating what section that weekend?

Vacations?  Yes, we get a couple.  Believe it or not, we schedule them so we don't miss markets.  As much as we would like to be disconnected, we are still available by cell/email during that time as well...

Babies?  YES - when are they happening?  Are we in town?  Who is bottle-feeding?  Do we need supplements in case of emergency?  Who are we keeping?  Who are we selling?  How much?  How soon?  Where are we putting them?  We already have 80 pigs on the property - are we downsizing?  Who to get rid of?  Who do we keep and why?  

We can't check all the fencing until the spring - or at least a little warmer weather when the ground isn't so frozen.

So you can see - it gets a little chaotic around here, even in the winter.  We get called all the time asking us when we are open or when our season starts.... I laugh and really wonder when are we NOT in-season??