October 20 - Last CSA Pick-Up of the Season (B Week)

Pick-Up Date: Thursday, October 20, 2011

Sites: Baldwin, Vermont Valley Farm, HospiceCare, Jenifer, Just Coffee, Middleton Hills, Mt. Horeb, Nakoma, Parmenter-EOW, Seminole, Shorewood, Vilas, West Lawn
Cheese of the Week: Garlic Fresh Cheese 

Important Notes: This is the last CSA pick-up of the season. Please return all empty glass jars and lids from Fresh Cheese and Rose Memories deliveries this year. We'll clean them and have them ready for your cheese in 2012. Thanks!

The Season's End

It's hard to believe it's the end of the season, but the evidence is all around! Milk production is slowing dramatically as the goats enter the breeding season. Although there is less milk, it is higher in protein and butterfat and yields more cheese than in the summer. Love is in the air as the bucks and does mingle in the two pastures. The chickens are laying fewer eggs, and getting quirkier by the day. The trees are approaching bare, the days are noticeably shorter and the pigs are almost fat enough to eat. The end of cheese making season approaches at Dreamfarm, and we'd like to extend our enormous gratitute to you for another year of your support. Thank you!

Thank you again for joining us as CSA members for the year. A few closing notes before we say goodbye for the colder months. Please return all empty glass jars and lids on your last pick-up day, we will re-use them next year. At your pick-up site this week you will also find a survey and 2012 order form. Please fill out the survey and return it, as we greatly appreciate your feedback.You can sign up for the 2012 season through the survey form, at the MACSAC Open House next March or through Diana's reminder e-mail next spring. And we do hope we'll get to see you again next year! Even though the CSA season is ending, you can find us for a few more weeks (until November 5th) at the Westside Community Market (in the DOT parking lot at Segoe and University Ave) on Saturday mornings from 7am to 1pm. Stock up on cheese and fresh eggs. And we'll try to post to the blog through the winter to keep you updated on the farm. Thank you! Read below for the season's wrap up on the farm. 

The farm has been a buzz of activity from spring through fall. There's the kidding that kick's off a new season, daily milking, making cheese, taking care of all the animals and putting up enough hay (just to name a few things) that keep the farm feeling busy. This doesn't all stop in the winter, but it slows enough to give Diana and her family a chance to relax, catch up and enjoy some good winter hiking and skiing. This year, much like other years, things have been busy. There are now 24 goats in the milking herd which means more milk and more time spent with daily milkings. 

The farm also moved the steer into a newly fenced 9-acre portion of wooded pasture. The three steer happily graze day in and day out, hanging out in their favorite corners and drinking from the small pond. Next year a new batch of goats, likely raised for meat, and the steer will be rotationally grazed through the pasture. That means that the goats will only be allowed to browse small sections of pasture at a time.

Diana also added three new goats to the farm, Rebecca, Story and Gandalf. All three are Nigerian Dwarf goats, known for their creamier milk that is high in butterfat which will make for some tasty cheese experiments next year. The new goats turned out to be much smaller and much cuter than possibly imagineable, and the buck has an enormous while beard that makes him look like Santa Clause.

This year the farm experimented with Guinea Hogs and Black Mule Foots, both heritage breeds of pigs which are smaller than an average hog. The Black Mule Foots look just like a small version of a pig, but the Guinea Hogs are small and fat. Fat. I can't help but imaging the amazing pie crusts that will be made with the lard that comes from these pigs after they go to market in December. They have enjoyed a season on pasture, drinking the whey from the cheeserie, eating fresh apples collected from the trees on the farm and even munching on the spent grain from attempts at brewing beer at home. Lucky pigs.

The chickens are getting fiesty as their season wears on too. A very few have taken to pecking at, and eating, eggs from their own henhouse. On Monday a hen pecked open an egg as soon as I collected it in the egg basket. There are also two gangs of rebel chickens, the posse who live around the barn and lay eggs in the haymow. They are contrasted by the other gang that escape regularly from the henhouses and wander all day, sometimes nesting in the trees. Only a handful of chickens will stay on the farm for the winter. All other will be sold as hens for small flocks and backyard birds. If you are interested in starting or adding to your flock, chickens are available for $3.75 a piece in late October. Please e-mail Diana (diana@dreamfarm.biz) if you are interested.

Thank you for enjoying Dreamfarm cheese this season. Savor a wonderful fall and winter and we hope to see you next spring!