Chicama Run Family Farm

Some people MIGHT say I horde animals..... this isn't true.... but I definitely COULD be one of those people! I love animals. They calm me down, listen to me, and quite a few of them taste REALLY good!

Here's the thing, Joe has "banned" me from the animal shelter because I am GOING to come home with something and a lot of the time it's the smallest and weakest animal in the bunch. Not the one who is jumping up and down saying "PICK ME PICK ME" (you all read that in a high pitch voice didn't you?) but the one sitting in the back of the kennel waiting to see what happens. I'm a softy - what can I say.

So, I also haven't gotten ANY new animals for the farm in a few years. No new trial things, nothing new.

Well, that has changed!!! That's right - I get new animals!! I have gotten rabbits. Not cute cuddly pet rabbits - but MEAT rabbits!

Nope, I have never TRIED rabbit.... Nope I have never butchered a rabbit.....see how this becomes an adventure?

Remember though, 10 years ago we walked onto this property without ANY knowledge of how to farm at all. I had no idea how to do any of these things. I could mow the lawn! I could muck a stall (notice I still don't have any horses)! But dreams were hatched - literally - from 25 baby chicks and 4 llamas.

What do I do now? I learn. I research. I figure it out. If I can't do it, I find someone to teach me. The world is so open though today and ripe for learning. It's such an amazing age where if you don't know how to do something you can go online and watch a video of someone doing it and you are good to go! 10 years ago, youtube was SO slow out here - ok it still is, but we ARE getting better..... and figuring out how to butcher chickens and turkeys was NOT easy. Now, I have an animal with a problem, I'm out in the middle of the field with my iPhone and I'm "googling" how to do something! Amazing right?

My new adventure begins and since I don't ever seem to do anything half way - expect to see rabbit in our store really soon!!

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Ok, so people ask us a lot what our animals are fed. This is coming from the current awareness of various issues with food production and with the big commerical farms and just the public reading more.

Yes, we use a commercial feed for our chickens. Why? Simple.... price.

Let me first explain that we do NOT pump any of our animals with feed. Our free range chickens prefer to run around and find food - but it's there in case it's icky hot or cold or wet outside and they want to eat. They are fed outside so they need to move to get it.

Our broiler chickens are fed a limited amount, but they are moved to fresh grass each day. Instead of it taking 8 weeks for a chicken to grow, ours take 10-12 weeks. This is because they don't have food set up in front of them all day. Even many non-GMO farmers will fill up the feeders so the chickens eat constantly throughout the day! This means they don't really move at all - there is no reason for them to.

Lately I looked at some pricing of other farmers eggs and was shocked and knowing that egg prices will be going up scares me even more. I was finding eggs at $7+ a dozen!! I know everyone wants the "best" for their family - but I will be flat out honest with you..... I could not afford to pay $7 for a dozen eggs. It takes 2 dozen to make 1 breakfast for my kids. That doesn't include the eggs I need for the rest of the week!!

When we raised our egg pricing to $5.25/dozen we hadn't raised the price in over 2 years and it was a 24¢ increase. It was hard for me to increase the price over $5 but it had to be done.

So this goes back to what I said the other day - it's what you feel you can do for your family. I know that our birds are happy running around eating a bunch of other things OTHER than the feed so I feel happy with the eggs. It's a compromise, because from day 1 - I always wanted our farm to be AFFORDABLE to families. Putting it out of reach for more of the public may work for smaller egg farmers, but when for our farm, it just doesn't make sense.

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Something I always find as funny is what people think about what we eat. Seriously - we honestly feel like everyone at the grocery store is watching us and what's in our basket and if they are a customer of ours, I think they fear we are going to judge what's in theirs!

First and foremost - we are NOT the food police!!

Second and I think more important.... we aren't perfect. Heck you should see the bachelor meals Joe has while I'm off camping!! Ok, you should also see some of the meals I decide to eat when I'm camping because cooking is just too difficult! Ice cream is a food group right? Yes, I drive through McDonald's sometimes.

Keyword - SOMETIMES!! This is where you are on the hook! That's right... I'm not worried about IF you go to fast food.... IF you eat ice cream and cookies.... it has to do with HOW often do you do this?

We all have budgets. Even I am supposed to have one. So we do what's best for our families. I eat grass fed beef, pasture pork, and of course free range eggs. This is what I have all year round because of our farm. You don't see chicken on that list do you? This doesn't mean that we don't EAT chicken - we eat a lot of chicken. Unfortunately on this one thing we compromise sometimes. Chicken is a seasonal item and even when it's IN SEASON we don't always get it as our customers come first for these - which is ok with us - when we DO get a chicken we enjoy it a lot!

My point of this post is that if you are doing your best for your family and for you - then that's all that matters! If your sanity requires you to order pizza - ORDER THE PIZZA!!!! If some place we liked delivered, believe me there are plenty of nights I'd be eating pizza!!

We will never judge you if we run into you at the grocery store - you might notice chips and sodas in our basket - so don't judge us either!!

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So this past Wednesday afternoon, we were called by the Great Falls Farmer's Market asking us if we would like to participate at the market starting this Saturday.  Understand, we have NOT done farmer's markets for the last couple of years because honestly, it's exhausting, and with the Lyme Disease, I never know how well I will do and it took it's toll.  BUT, this looked good and we worked around to see what we could do.

Thursday, we call and actually talk to the Market Manager who says that yes they would like to have us there.  I respond back saying that I need to verify that everyone is on board with this because I won't be able to do it myself every weekend.  I also spoke to the farm that is leaving the market and completely understand their need for a larger volume - but it seemed it would be a good fit for us.

Within 30 minutes of hanging up the phone with the Market Manager, I call back (no answer), then email stating we will gladly be there and ask if 8am would be good so we can find our spot etc.  I fill out the applications, scan those in, and send everything over - even the required insurance certificate (1 of the 3 they need).

We start prepping - which is NOT an easy task for a small farm.  This requires a complete revamp of the day and plans for the weekend.  Who is doing what, who is going with me, times we need to wake up, what our specials will be on the farm, holding back the newsletter until everything is set up and in place, and making sure everything still WORKS that we take with us.

Remember, Thursday at 5pm we spoke with them - so all this is going on from 5pm until I'm ready to crash in bed.

8am Friday morning - Joe has gotten all the correct freezer packs ready etc - we receive an email that the space is no longer available and we will not be needed so they are not accepting our application.

WHAT?!?!?!  Ok - first off - they called US asking US to be a part of this market.  Second, we ACCEPTED VERBALLY the spot!!  THEY RESEARCHED OUR FARM!!!

We did not go searching for this avenue - they came to us.  We did all this work - and yes it is a lot on a short notice... and then they "fill" the spot with someone else?  Where is the professionalism in that?

I did respond to their email stating that it is disheartening and that a lot of work goes into getting something set up like this.  I doubt I will receive a response because people honestly, I doubt they understand farming at all - people THINK they do - but they have no idea the difference between a craft vendor and someone who has to package things up!  Heck - if we were bakers - I probably would have been out ordering things and purchasing and even starting to BAKE - then to be told "sorry"??

So needless to say, we will NOT be doing the farmer's market - and honestly - I'm sure there is a reason for this in the grand-scheme of things....and all I can think is "what goes around....."

This weekend was the Loudoun County Spring Farm Tour. Over the years as more and more farms have joined, and we are in our 10th year, the traffic has gotten less and less. We attribute this to a lot of things - the county cut the funding (shocker) and we don't have a lot of new attractions.

Ok, as a farm, it's really hard if you aren't a big agri-tourism farm to come up with something new each season, it just can't happen. Joe's said no new animals ;) but yeah, even animal lover that I am, I can't justify having animals here that don't serve a purpose.

However, we have our moments and each of these is truly precious to us.

This weekend, I had a tween tell me this is her favorite place to visit - and they have been coming here almost 10 years. She didn't have a cell phone that she was staring at, she even brought some friends with her - and everyone was laughing and looking around!

People were coming up to me shocked that Alexis was now DOING the egg gathering tours - and they remembered the first year when she was just sharing the baby chicks with people! Hey, she made the cover of the next farm tour with that!

We had customers give us hugs, thanking us for being here and for the work we do.

Overall, we don't just have customers, we have friends. We have watched kids grow but still come back, we watch the new ones as they look around and see their first real live chicken!

Though we have our ups and downs, and sometimes we get seriously frustrated.... a LOT of work goes into this and we thank everyone who says we are so organized because it never feels like it.....we love each minute of it and have created some amazing memories that will last a lifetime - not just for us - but for many! This in itself is truly humbling and we are thankful to be blessed with making it this far on a journey neither one of us expected to take during our lifetime.

So you may hear us vent and fuss....but at the end of the day..... we can say we love it and we are thrilled to have made so many friends and we can't wait to meet more!

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It's hard to believe we are celebrating our 10th year on the farm. Since I haven't aged, I'm not absolutely sure HOW that has happened.

Over the years we have learned, gained, lost, cried, and of course wanted to quit and at the same time can't wait to start the new year. We walked onto this property without EVER imagining being considered farmers. We just loved the property and the house needed a TON of work - heck after 10 years I think we are just starting to pay attention to the house.

Joe has retired from his full time government job as an Air Traffic Controller. Didn't see that did you all? So many people thought his only job was this one on the farm but nope, he had another full time job on top of this one! So now, all those things that were left alone until "next year" are getting done.

I still have damage from Lyme - but it's just taken day by and I live with that.

Can you believe 3 of our children are in college? That's right - Jake started this past January! Yeah - the little 8 year old you all saw at the first farmer's market we did 9 years ago is driving and in college. Again - how this stuff happens without me aging is amazing!! Alexis is now 15.... yep.... she was on the cover of the Loudoun County Spring Farm Tour when she was 6 - I mean how do you top THAT in life!? She was also in the newspaper with a bike helmet in the chicken coop!! Oh the ways I can embarrass my children for the rest of their lives is amazing.

So we start off this spring ready to kick it into gear. We have baby chicks already in the pens so we can start butchering in May, we added in making pork rinds (date night for Joe & I), we have a new dog (Nala) who is my first small dog and that requires spoiling her and getting all this goofy stuff (no one warned me!) and we move forward!!

As a total side note - with Joe's retirement - he noticed I hadn't updated the blog in a while, so I will be working on that now that I have a cool app that will help me do that outside in the sunshine! I don't want to be talked to about not doing my job ;)

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It's been awhile.  As a quick update - our goat is fine and back trying to "woo" the ladies...

So this past weekend was our family farm's 16th county farm tour.   In the last 8 years we have learned and expanded and passed out at the end of the weekend.

What goes into having a "farm tour"?  First off, we are open every weekend - so being open isn't as big a deal.  But, it changes from about 100 people coming out to up to 1000 visiting our farm.  We are completely at the mercy of the weather - yet we have to start planning our weekend MONTHS in advance!

Our first years, we didn't serve food and cook.  We added this on as a value added thing because we believe that you might want to TRY our meats.  This leads to inspections etc.

We did start out with the egg gathering tours and have continued with them as well.  In years past we had a stand alone plain upright freezer, and now we have 2 walk-in freezers and a display freezer, PLUS our upright.... you get the idea that we have expanded to make it easier.

This all requires a special "Sam's Club" run to make sure we have drinks and water bottles as well as rolls and more.

We don't have a hay wagon, so we need to borrow one from a friend as well.

Who is going to help us and what role can they help with?  Sometimes this isn't even known until the day of or the day before!  So we don't know what CAN be done.  All we know is that if Joe is cooking, I need to run the store.

Our favorite part of farm tour is getting to know all the new people and sharing our experience with you.  We are sharing our home - as you would show a friend around your new house - we are doing the same thing.

Constantly we are looking for ways to improve your experience that won't kill our meager budget as it is.

When I was talking to my children after this past weekend was over, they started rattling stuff off they would want to see, of course not realizing the cost involved in all these wonderful things!

When we decided to open our farm, including weekend, our biggest thing was making it affordable and to show people a real FAMILY run farm - without all the workers.  As a mom of 5 kids... I know the expense to take kids out and didn't want to burden people with that type of expense - so it has always been free and the items we sell or charge for we TRY and keep at a reasonable rate.

Over the last couple of years, we have had an influx of a new type of person showing up at our farm for these tours.  They are the new 1% - and actually they seem to just be showing up - not even tour related.  99% of the customers we have come by and understand and can see the amount of work being put into this - it is by no means easy.  Then we have this new 1%.  Within the last 2 years, my kids have been yelled at because they asked people to follow the rules (don't enter the buildings - there are signs up), they have argued with us about parking, they have called animal control because our chickens didn't have enough room (they have access to all 32 acres), people have yelled into my home when we are closed, and they have to wait more than 10 minutes for us to change people around so someone can eat (gosh forbid).

This 1% is actually what gives us constant amusement as we look at them and can't believe they act like they do but at the same time they tire us out.  Is it worth it to continue?  Of course!  We won't allow 1% to ruin the fun of 99% - especially since we tend to have a lot of fun with that 99% and quite a few have ended up like family!

However, when you go and visit one of these farms who has graciously opened up their home for you - remember - they most likely have another full time job (very few are full time farmers in this area), and you don't know what's going on in their home at that moment or on the farm - we've had animals in the middle of birthing DURING tours!  So respect their home - take a breather and learn to relax - you are in the country.  Lastly - yes, we know your time is precious - but guess what - so is ours and we will do what we can to make you happy - but we won't be rushed because you are on a time schedule.

Welcome to our HOME - treat ours as you would want us to treat yours if you invited any of us in.