FARM LIFE

Cheep, Cheep, Quack

2011-05-19T19:49:07Z

All the poultry have gone broody! We're having fun seeing what hatches and stuffing eggs under anyone who will set on them.

A day ago, two hens and a turkey hatched a whole bunch of baby chicks. The turkey hen had been laying her eggs in the egg boxes in the coop. We kept on picking her eggs with the other chicken eggs. I didn't think the turkey would go broody so I didn't keep her eggs. When she did go broody I put a whole bunch of hen eggs under her. She seems to be happy with her odd brood.

I have four more hens setting on eggs. They should be hatching around the first weekend in June. I also have another turkey hen that I stuffed a bunch of hen eggs under. I even found a peacock egg and put that under her as well! This second turkey had hatched some turkey poults but since she was fighting over a nest with a little banty hen they goofed up the eggs and got a bad hatch. Out of a big clutch of turkey eggs, five hatched. Three out of the five died from different reasons. I grabbed the last two and put them in the brooder with the meat chicks. The turkey hen still wanted to set on a nest so that is why I put the hen and peacock eggs under her.

A few weeks ago we went to our first swap meet. We couldn't pass up these pretty little girls. These are Indian Runner ducks. They are an upright standing duck. They have the special privilege of being lawn ornaments because they make us smile.

The dark spot in the middle of the plants. Mamma duck is brooding a clutch of eggs! Hopefully we'll get a good batch of baby Cayuga ducks.

We Have Hogs Ready For Processing

2011-03-04T13:14:00Z

We have 2 groups of hogs ready to go to the processor. Check out this link for details.

What Comes Naturally

2010-12-21T20:43:54Z

Since it is the slow season here on the farm I was having fun perusing the internet. I came across this article on the use of gestation crates. I would like know. Who looked at a tiny metal cage and thought it would be a good idea to lock a pregnant pig in it? Who thought that this pig would produce better and be healthier never seeing the light of day? I would like to know, how did this person become so removed from what comes naturally?

Sometimes I get caught up in my own little world and forget what's going on about me. This was just one of those things that jolted me back to reality. Luckily it's not my reality!

Fall Newsletter

2010-10-26T21:08:42Z

Another hello from Faye Farms. Fall is in full swing here at the farm and I can't believe another summer has flown by. The end of September marked our one year anniversary of going direct with all of our farm products. We feel very blessed to be able to provide wholesome, healthy food to so many people. We have grown a lot in the past year but feel our journey has just started. Our list of projects and improvements is still quite long!

Farm Happenings
October 16th was the last day of Farmers Market for the season. A day of mixed emotions. I'm glad I'll have my Saturday mornings back but I will miss market and have already been making plans for next year. Thanks to everybody for such a great season!

We finally finished planting our north field to permanent pasture. This was a huge accomplishment for the future of the farm. We planted fescue and a mix of clovers with a cover crop of winter wheat and turnips. The winter wheat and turnips will enable us to graze the cows on lush green pasture through part of the winter.

Milk News
Effective November 1st we will be raising the price of our milk to $4.00 per gallon. If you were not aware, we do pay sales tax on everything that we sell. To keep things simple in the sales room and at farmers market we just include the sales tax in our pricing. On July 1st the state sales tax was raised by 1%. Due to this and increased production costs we feel it's necessary to raise our milk price at this time.

We milk our cows year round but I recently had to dry off a large portion of the milk herd. All the girls get a 2-3 month vacation in preparation for their next calf. When a bull is in charge of the breeding sometimes all these pregnant mommas end up due around the same time. Most days I have been able to meet every ones milk demands but if milk gets in short supply for the next 6-8 weeks you will know why. We will soon have lots of calves to look forward to and the abundance of milk that comes along with it. We thank you for your patience in the meantime.

Meat News
We hauled a lovely group of hogs to the processor this morning. By the end of the week our sales room will be fully stocked with pork products again.

We are currently sold out of ground beef. I anticipate setting a butcher date for additional cows around the new year. I will send out another news letter when we have a butcher date set. I plan on running a pre-sale at that time.

We anticipate having a small number of turkeys available for Thanksgiving this year. We will post pricing and a sign up sheet in our sales room in a couple of weeks. The turkeys will be fully dressed ranging in size from 8-20 lbs. All the turkeys that we are raising this year are heritage breed turkeys. They do not have the typical broad breast that grocery store birds have.

Thanks!
Mark and Heather Faye

Beef

2010-08-08T21:13:18Z

I have been getting a lot of inquires about where to acquire different cuts of beef besides ground beef. Our ground beef comes from dairy animals that no longer meet the needs of our dairy. While our ground beef has excellent flavor and is extremely lean, which many of our customers love. Cuts of beef from these same dairy animals just wouldn't be up to our standards. We would love to eventually add a small beef herd to our business to further meet the needs of our customers but for now we need to stay focused on the dairy. In the meantime, here are the links to a few local beef producers that I know of. Many of these producers sell at local farmers markets so you can sample some of their beef before committing to larger quantities. I hope this helps folks get their freezers full!

Janzen Family farms is located north of Wichita and is ran by Norm Oeding.

http://www.janzenfamilyfarms.com/

Barry Barber runs Turkey Foot Ranch located in Winfield. He just sent out an email saying that he is taking whole and half beef orders right now.

http://www.localharvest.org/turkey-foot-ranch-M3804

Julie Bachman has a beautiful ranch out by Augusta.

http://www.jbranchkansasllc.com/

Kevin and Cherie run Schenker Family Farms out by McCune. While this isn't as close by as the other producers I know they make regular deliveries to Wichita and they can also be found at the Old Town Farmers market on Saturdays.

http://www.schenkerfarms.com/

June 18th Update

2010-06-18T12:43:13Z

We've got some chicken stocked in the sales area freezers. The roosters are butchering out to 5-6 pounds and the hens are around 4-5 lbs. Chicken is $2.85/lb. Today I'm also going to pick up some more pork. We'll have chops and steaks back in stock. We are also adding some new items. We will have pork cutlets and unseasoned ground pork. I'm excited about the cutlets. They are a lean cut of meat that is perfect for grilling.

Steam, Don't Boil

2010-05-24T11:35:43Z

I learned a great cooking trick from one of my Udall neighbors recently. Being born and raised on a farm I can't believe I had never heard of this trick. For years I had been plagued with the problem of peeling FRESH hard boiled eggs. It's impossible! Here's the trick my neighbor told me- Steam fresh eggs, don't boil them. Here's the reasoning behind it. Store bought eggs always peel well because they are old. Those eggs sit around for weeks before they ever hit a store shelf. Those eggs have had a chance for moisture to evaporate out of them. This pulls the membrane away from the shell of the egg making them easy to peel. Fresh eggs have not had a chance for any moisture to evaporate out. This is where steaming a fresh egg comes in. When you steam a fresh egg moisture can leave the egg during the cooking process. Boiling doesn't accomplish this because the egg is surrounded by water.

This Summer's Farmer's Market Schedule

2010-04-19T00:24:33Z

This year we are splitting our Saturdays between Old Town and Walnut Valley Markets. We will be at each market every other Saturday. Below shows where we will be throughout the season.

Old Town Farmer’s Market-Wichita

Saturdays 7am-Noon

May 8, 15, 22, 29

June 12, 26

July 10, 24

August 7, 21

Septmeber 4, 18

October 2. 9, 16

Walnut Valley Farmer’s Market-Winfield

Saturdays 7:30am-Noon

June 5, 19

July 3, 17, 31

August 14, 28

September 11, 25

Central Park Farmer’s Market-Andover

May 12th-September 29th

Wednesdays 3:30- 6:30pm

We will be attending every Wednesday of the market season.

*please note, due to state law, we cannot sell or deliver raw milk at the farmer’s markets. Don't worry though, our sales area at the farm will still be open 7 days a week.

Ssshhhh, Don't Tell Mark!

2010-03-11T22:19:59Z

Mark's birthday is next week. I wanted to get him something special that was made locally. I contacted Mark Horst in Yoder, KS and he made me a custom handcrafted mug. I just received it today and I absolutely LOVE it! Mark H. did such a fantastic job I just had to share it with everybody. Just don't tell my husband! You can check out more of Mark H.'s work on his website or Etsy.

Our March Newsletter

2010-03-02T01:20:24Z

Even though winter doesn't seem to want to loosen it's grip we are thinking spring here at the farm. I've been really excited about planning for the upcoming farmer's market season. Mark is itching to get some sweet corn and watermelon planted.

Poultry

Our group of Rhode Island Red pullets are coming along nicely. I'm hoping they will start laying eggs this month. I've had a lot of people asking about chicken. I plan on getting some meat bird chicks to raise up towards the end of this month. I'm waiting for overnight temps to warm up so that I can raise the birds in our portable poultry pens.

Pork/Pigs
We are working hard on expanding our hog operation to meet the growing demand for our pork. Our next batch of whole hogs will be ready sometime in June or July. Then we will have another big batch for sale this fall. For those folks that prefer to buy pork by the cut we just stocked our sales area freezer with plenty of it. This is what we are offering:

BREAKFAST SAUSAGE $4.00/LB
Normally $4.50/lb. We will have breakfast sausage on sale until April 1st. Comes in one pound packages.

PORK CHOPS $6.00/LB
There are 2 chops per package and they are cut 1 inch thick. Packages weigh approximately one pound each.

PORK STEAKS $5.00/LB
2 per package. Packages weigh approximately two pounds each.

PORK ROAST $4.75/LB
This includes shoulder, loin and fresh hams. Roasts are around 3-4 lbs each.

FRESH SIDE PORK $6.00/LB
Fresh side pork is uncured bacon.

HOCKS/ORGANS $3.00/LB

Beef
We recently ran out of ground beef. We have plans to have more made but we are waiting for the animal we have scheduled for this to put on a little more weight. I"m hoping we can have more made within the next couple of months.

Dairy
Raw milk sales continue to grow. So far we have been doing a fairly good job making sure the milk fridge is well stocked. We have only run out of milk a few times in the last 5 months. This mostly happens after a stretch of bad weather. When the weather turns from crumby to nice everybody decides it's a good day to come out to the farm. I do ask that if you are planning on getting 6 or more gallons at once that you let me know a day ahead of time. This helps me make sure everybody gets what they need.

My family and I are big kefir drinkers. Kefir is a cultured milk drink loaded with probiotics. Would this be something that folks would be interested in buying here at the farm? Let me know.

Soap
I'm working on getting some new soaps listed on our site. I have added some requests such as Lemongrass & Clary Sage and Clove soap. I have also been having fun trying out some new scents. Carnation, Jasmine, Amber Essence Nepal, Monkey Farts, Twilight Woods and Wranglers. I made up a couple batches of shaving soap filled with all sorts of lovely oils. There is a batch made with a scent called Parsley Water and a batch scented with Black Vetyver Coffee. For those folks that love my Sand Plum scented soap I have found anther supplier for this fragrance oil. As time allows I will be making up more of this soap.

Odds and Ends
If anybody is in need of boxes or packing peanuts I have plenty to share. I keep some extra boxes in the sales area so feel free to grab one if you want. Let me know if you need some packing peanuts.

Thank You for supporting local!
The Faye Family