An Introduction to Farver Creek!

     Hello Everyone,

             Welcome to the very first blog entry of Farver Creek Food and Fiber Farm!  We are a small but ever growing hobby farm located in S.E. Michigan. At this point, you may be wondering to yourself, "what on earth is a hobby farm?" While the term itself can apply to a number of situations, it essentially means that we have typical daytime careers and that our farm, at present, is a side project (hence the term hobby). Both of us have degrees in education- Nate in History/Social Studies and Physical Education, and Kaitlin in Spanish, Communications and Theater.  After a long and coffee-saturated journey, in April 2019 Kaitlin will also have earned a MA in both school and community mental health counseling, and wants to make the eventual transition into the world of private therapy practice. So by day, we are educators and helping professionals, but by night (and weekend), we are farmers!  
            The term farm typically invokes images of rolling hill and soaring red barns. Not for us...at least not yet. We presently sit on about 1.5 acres of land which backs up to a body of water that is graciously referred to as a lake. However, this is a perfect place to begin our adventure! We have a small raised garden for the fresh herbs. We have a log pile and flower beds for cultivating mushrooms. We have space enough for a green house and compost pile. And we have room for our chickens, ducks and rabbits, along with our 2 rescued cats and 2 rescued dogs.  We know we are not a very large operation, but we have large aspirations in where we would like to go. Ultimately we envision a working farm that strives to incorporate evidence-based natural, sustaining practices that operate in harmony with the existing ecosystem (more to com in future posts.)  Further more, we want to create this space to foster educational opportunities as well as serve as a holistic nature-based therapy practice for the surrounding communities.

          While we are still a ways away from full scale farming, we are anything but idle. This past year we were at  a couple of different markets; the Shelby Twp. Farmer's Market and the New Baltimore Farmer's Market. Both in our eyes were pretty successful. In particular, we sold eggs, fiber products such as homespun yarn, and all-natural jam featuring fruit sourced from local orchards, as well as fruits and vegetables purchased from rural growers and hauled into town. Upon reflection, we learned quite a bit about selling and marketing, and have gained a steady customer base.  So, our plan is to continue those markets this coming year.  Now that we have established our presence at both of these weekly markets, our primary goal this summer will be to maintain product levels while reducing our waste (last year we were rather overwhelmed with the demand for certain items yet underwhelmed with others). We are also looking to forge and solidify business relationships from additional local vegetable and flower growers to provide a wide variety for our customers. These relationships will also help us as we offer several onsite educational workshops this season, too. 
          Now that it is the New Year, and market season fast approaching, it is time to nail down our "plan of attack". While January may not seem like a busy month for a farming operation, we are selecting and ordering chickens and herbs we would like to grow, reviewing last year's figures, shopping for a new trailer, beginning stock production on fiber and jams, and reviewing/modifying our record keeping practices. There isn't much free time for editing during the growing season!

    Thank you for taking the time to read this- it's taken several days to get it just right! We look forward to cultivating this biweekly blog for those both who wish to keep up with our particular enterprise, as well as those simply interested in learning more about sustainable gardening, animal care, the business of small-scale markets, and the educational/therapeutic elements of the natural world.  Follow us on Blogger, Facebook and Twitter for future posts about our farm and other educational information! 

Cheers to a great 2019!

Farver Creek Food and Fiber Farm