I know it has been a little while since our last post, but we wanted to give everyone an update on how the year is going so far. Collectively, this year has been quite an interesting one....let's start by saying that this winter was quite rough. Between the cold weather causing us to get creative with how we kept our animals warm, and all the predatory critters coming out of the woods, (who knew there were bloodthirsty weasels in Michigan?!). On top of that, we have had 170 days of rain since the beginning of the year with May being particularly soggy. It rained 28 days out of the month! This in turn has made it difficult for the farmers of Michigan because a lot of them could not get out into the fields or their equipment would get stuck in mud. This means that nearly all crops have been delayed- which stinks for those of us going to market- but we are finally starting to see veggies come up. As of right now, vegetables are catching up with the season and when they normally come out but we are still waiting on the big items (tomatoes, corn and bell peppers) theses things are what our customers buy from us on a regular basis. We ourselves may not have a large space for planting veggies or fruit but the rain has hindered us as well. For example, chickens do not like being wet and because of all the rain in May and June they would only produce half the amount of eggs that they would normally. Chickens are also very finicky and really do not like the heat either, but our lovely ladies are starting to lay every day which means more eggs for us and our customers.
In the meantime our focus has been on perfecting our GramJam recipes (and adding more flavors to our stock) as well as our handmade soap, and Kaitlin is experimenting with new ways to spin yarn. Last weekend we were actually able to make our first fiber sale of the year and it ended up that we were able to sell 2 skeins which makes Kaitlin really happy. Also, we were able to bring our grand total jam sales to over 140 jars on track with what Nate predicted for the year. Kaitlin is in the middle of a spinning project that she was commissioned for where she is spinning a processed cria (kree-ya) fleece. For those of you who don't know, a cria is a baby alpaca. Contrary to some articles we found online, baby alpacas are sheared just like large alpacas and any other fiber animal...not killed. We have also acquired a giant angora rabbit (you can see photos on our facebook page) and his name is Woolfred, Nate has already sheared him for the first time and Kaitlin cannot wait to play with it while spinning. Kaitlin is hopping to be able to use Woolfed in therapy soon when he is more acclimated to us, Kaitlin has also received her counseling license and is now seeing clients (she just has to wait until there is a client who needs an animal to assist with their therapy).
Cheers!!
Farver Creek Food & Fiber Farm
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