Chicama Run Family Farm

To post our newsletter on our blog. Apparently a few people are fans on facebook (very cool BTW).... and they look there and not on the email. I heard you - and so now I will do this :)

I just sent this out this morning:

"Hi everyone!

Chimney sweeps are here - which means colder weather is right around the corner! So it's time to get some of your favorite meats at Chicama Run this Saturday from 1-5. We have been having HUGE success and thank everyone for coming out to the farm to visit. This week, we will be redoing some of our more popular sales and adding a HUGE one on!! Please remember - these sales are available ONLY AT THE FARM! You will NOT get these prices at the farmer's market. All beef, pork and lamb NOT listed is still being offered at 10% retail prices!
Delmonico/Rib-Eye Steaks for $15.50/pound (usually $19.50/pound!) - This is our best selling steak and as a thank you we are discounting it this week!!
Beef Stew Meat for $5.00/pound (usually $6.50/pound)
Beef Kielbasa (has MSG) - $4.00/package (each pack has 4 grillers)
All Loose Sausage - $4.00/pound (usually $5.50/pound) - Breakfast, Sweet Italian or Hot Italian - STOCK UP!!
Pork Sausage Grillers - $5.00/pound (usually $6.50/pound) - Sweet or Hot Italian
ALL BEEF & PORK ROASTS - 20% OFF!!! Fire up the crock pot this week!!!
Now - on to other hot news!! Our chickens have been selling out FAST - be sure to get here early to get the best selection.

Then - we are still taking reservations for steers - HOWEVER - we are SOLD OUT for OCTOBER!! We have about 1-2 steers left in November so you will NOT want to miss out as those will be the last batch we will have for 2009.

This week we will be at Paeonian Springs Grocery and Gourmet on Thursday from 4-7!! I will be bringing meats there even if we don't have orders.

Eggs are golden right now as we are not getting as many as we have in the past. We are only getting about 10 dozen per day. We are HOPING that this increases soon, but as the weather changes we never know what is going to happen. "


So there you go. These are the hot specials for the week....

As far as regular farm stuff that's going on - it's constantly busy right now! It's amazing that it's already fall and we are starting to prepare for the Fall Farm Tour which is in just a couple of weeks!! (October 17-18th).

Gotta run and do the chores for the morning!

I just think these are cool! Joe picked the sunflowers today - and I just think they look great. We've had people use these as bird feeders and had people take the seeds and roast them. Just a neat thing to grow - especially since I had never seen it before.

This is round 1 of salsa making this year! Alexis is the one who did all the hard work of chopping the tomatoes! We cheat a little by using Ball Seasoning mixes - but for the amount we need to go through - it works well for us. Super yummy!!! Now we just need more mix to make more!

In case you are wondering - this was about 20 lbs of our salsa tomatoes. 15 pints + 6 jelly jars total!

Ok we just got back from my in-laws house for Joe's dad's 75th birthday. Gotta go for something like that - even if there isn't a big party. It's been 4 years or so since we've been down there so it was exciting - but a long 7+ hour car trip.

On the way home on I-95 we stopped by this HUGE store "JR's" which we have seen the signs/billboards for years and we just needed to know WHAT it was. It's pretty much a huge "everything" type touristy store.... but neither kid ENJOYED being there for the whole 30 minutes they lasted. They WANTED to leave (even if we were going to BUY them something - neither was interested). Then a few hours later - outside of Richmond, VA we stopped by a "Bass Pro Shop" because I asked for a rest stop and of course every guy knows that "Bass Pro Shop" = "Bathroom Stop"! Well both kids wanted to stay there forever!!! Go figure.... and I wasn't buying them anything!! THOUGH Alexis was looking hard at a pink BB gun ;)

You just know you are more comfortable in the country when your kids are happier at a Bass Pro Shop than a touristy gift shop :)

Ok we are ALMOST done with the 4-H Fair week. We just have to go and get animals and clean up. Both the kids did really well with showing and their animals did better than I thought they would - which is always good.

After 4 years we are still learning how to do the animals that are for showing and this year Jacob got 1st place in his class for bred and owned market lamb and reserve champion for bred and owned market goat.

Gotta run and get animals!!

This week is super busy...

Alexis is in Vacation Bible School and is having a blast...... Jacob is outside helping Joe build the new turkey house......I'm doing paperwork and doing tax stuff...

This is what's exciting though....

A few years ago I applied for the exemption to process poultry.... it was 5,000 birds per year and you couldn't sell to restaurants, cut up the birds etc. THEY CHANGED IT!!! Now I can cut up birds, sell to stores and do all this stuff - I just need a label on my product. No biggie there!! PLUS - not that I see myself doing this - but it's up to 20,000 birds (yep you read that right)

So I am excited about this little tidbit that was shared with me and then verified by VDACS this morning.

Now I get to practice cutting up some birds as well....and since we are going to focus more on poultry - this is a huge bonus for us.

Ok - and we also decided to keep 6 of the breeding ewes (that's sheep talk for girl sheep) and we kept the 1 ram I can go in the pen with and not get hit because he wants to play. They will be for the kids and their market lambs for 4-H more than for the farm sales - but we will probably bring a few back to sell after the fair.

This post is not for the faint of heart... to some of you - you will laugh..... me..... i did the girly jump up and down and said "GROSSSSSSSS" even with no one around - so I had to call Joe and tell him.....



On to my 2 second story.


Sometimes you have to put an animal down for whatever reason. This happens on farms as well believe it or not - and we usually do it ourselves. Today it was a broiler chicken - but I wasn't butchering it - it's head was so pecked at by other birds, you could almost see the skull. So I had to put this little one down - it was only 1-2 pounds live weight while the other ones born the same day are approximately 4-5 pounds already, so you can see right away that something is not right with this bird. I have learned how to humanely kill a bird fast by breaking it's neck right behind the skull at the spinal cord. Good thing I went to that class!! So I tell it I'm sorry and start pulling like I was told (I've done it a couple times before without a hitch so I'm not hesitant or anything).... but the head popped off!!!!! I mean completely OFF!! This is NOT what I was expecting and frankly just EWWWWWW....

Ok - now on with the rest of the day.....