No more Farmer’s Markets, For Now

As many of you know, we took a break from the spring market to renovate our new new to us house (it was my grandmothers) during this time we realized that our three boys are growing up so fast and we are entering a new stage of life. Our boys are now all school age and involved in many different activities, 4-H, archery, and robotics, just to name a few. We love being with you and our market families on Saturday mornings, but this break has led us to realize how much we were saying no to our boys and ourselves. Between Lukas’ day job, the day to day work on the farm, homeschooling, and markets we haven’t had time for ourselves as individuals, as a couple, or just us as a family. Over the last 5 months we have really enjoyed our ability to spend more time together and we have decided that we will no longer be doing Farmer’s Markets for the foreseeable future to improve our family’s quality of life.

Now that does not mean that Flower Cow Farm is going away, we are simply pivoting and discovering what this looks like for us in this new season of life. For now, we will be scaling back on the sourdough, and focusing on our animal and garden production. Many of you have probably heard about Danielle’s affinity for dairy cattle, so we will be increasing our raw milk herd share over the next year, expanding our broiler market, and diving head first into a beef and lamb flerd. (Flock +Herd=Flerd)

Currently, our Raw Milk Herd Share is at capacity, but we are adding two new cows this winter, so we will have spots coming open for that soon. If you don’t know what a herd share is here is some information from the Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund: “A herd share, also known as a farm share, cow share, goat share, etc., is where people buy shares of a milking animal or herd, and pay the farmer to care for the animals and milk them. As owners, the shareholders are entitled to the milk from their animals.” After buying into the herd, herd share member pay a monthly boarding fee and receives their portion of milk each month with the opportunity to buy more or value added products as they are available. As we on board the new cows, I will post more about how the herd share works.

We are currently expanding our broiler production capabilities and are using a USDA Inspected Facility for processing now so that we can continue to grow. Check out our post on Our Pasture Raised Chicken to learn more about how we raise healthy, happy birds on fresh pasture, improving soil and delivering nutrient-dense chicken to your table.

Lastly, we are starting a beef and lamb herd to sell Beef and Lamb Quarters in the coming years. We are very excited about this and look forward to this enterprise really getting off the ground in the next year or so. Over the next year we will start breeding some of our Jersey girls to South Poll and Waygu bulls. Our son Joshua is super excited and passionate about this project and we can’t wait to see where he will take it.

So, for this stage of life, we won’t be doing weekly farmer’s markets but we are still committed to bringing you local grown, nutrient dense food and sharing our learning experiences as we steward the land. Stay tuned for where to get your Pasture Raised Soy Free Chicken in November!