A Week of Firsts
6/2/21
This is a week of firsts here at Haxton Homestead. This is our inaugural newsletter and blog post. I am excited for the opportunity to share our daily lives, happenings on the farm and upcoming events. When we purchased the property in 2019, I never imagined we would grow so fast. Being raised in New York City, I never said I wanted to be a farmer when I grew up. It was not until college when I started volunteering on a farm in Upstate New York did I realize this was something I might want to pursue. And even then, it was more of something I thought of as “another lifetime” kind of dream. Those four years working at Sprout Creek Farm are now treasured memories that lay close to my heart. Now that I made it happen for myself, I want to help other future farmers and homesteaders to realize their dreams. And that leads us to our second “first” for the week.
On Sunday was our first ever chicken processing class. We had a group of 11 people new to growing chickens for meat come to the farm. Alongside Jeremiah from Chasing Joy Farm, we taught them all about the dirty work of butchering and processing chickens, gave them the hands-on experience and (hopefully) confidence to do it on their own. The cold and rain could not stop the fun. Each of the participants got to go home with one of the pasture-raised chickens that we processed that day. It has been great seeing Facebook posts from the class and pictures of the meals people have made from those chickens. I must admit that I was very anxious leading up to the class. Although I have been processing and selling my own chickens for years, that was my first time teaching it. As soon as everyone arrived, and the class started my anxiety melted away. It was a great group of people and we all had fun.
The summer is just getting started and it will be a busy one. We have sold out 3 chicken processing classes and had to open a fourth. We are planning a “Farm Fun Day” for kids on the farm in July and we also got our first pair of breeding hogs and looking forward to our first set of piglets born on the farm. And lastly, just to give you your daily dose of cuteness, here is a picture of our first goose hatched on the farm. Still trying to come up for a name for this cutie!