Wednesday, May 15, 2013


April showers bring muddy pastures and restless animals.  With the weather unpredictable it has been difficult for us and the animals to fall into a steady routine.  However, I think Mother Nature has finally graced us with warm weather and sunshine!  We all need it! 

The first Saturday of the month we had the joy of meeting fifteen students from a university group called Farm Mob.  This student-run group is a work share program that brings student volunteers from the UW campus to Madison area farms. Students work with farmers on various tasks while simultaneously getting the experience of what life on that particular farm is about.  We had the students help us move the laying hens into their summer homes and escort our three pigs down into their summer pastures.  We had a gate tied in a circle with the three pigs in the center and all of us following along around the outside.  Jim, Diana, and Alicia had been debating how to go about this task for some time, but never fear Farm Mob is here.  With all of us around, they behaved and walked right to their pasture.  It was quite slick, and went much better than we had envisioned.  Many thanks to the farm mob and their hard work!

The kidding is complete!  Our last doe had triplets on April 17th.  We have all the little ones running in outside pastures now.  They are enjoying the freedom to run, skip, and jump.  We are slowly weaning them off the milk and encouraging them to graze and eat hay and grain.  With most of the kids on milk replacer now, we are able to save more of the milk for cheese making.  Last week we made our 17th batch of cheese!  The farmer’s market has opened!   The first weekend was bitter cold but the sun did appear and warmed up our toes and hands.  We are happy to be back and look forward to seeing many of your faces this summer.  And the first CSA delivery went out Thursday May 2nd

In other barn news we lost our 18 year old sheep on April 17th.  Saralee graced our farm for many years and provided us with her beautiful wool and many sets of cute lambs. She was the matriarch of our herd and is missed by us all.  However, on a happier note, Jen, our Jersey cow, had her calf on May 5th.  Jim has named him Ben and he is quite a handsome fellow.  Jen is Jims’ sweetheart and it is quite amazing to see how Jen trusts him.  He will be milking Jen twice a day once the calf is weaned.  Diana and Alicia have plans to make will cheese with the milk.  Yum!  We got three more little pigs over the weekend as well.  To go along with the theme of our three older pigs, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, we chose the name Mumford & Sons (for lack of better names for the last two…).  The ducks have started to lay again.  It went from absolutely no eggs for 5 months, to consistently getting three every morning.  A duck egg is bigger in size compared to a chicken egg, but in our opinion tastes the same and looks the same, except for the whites; they are a bit clearer looking.  And I have heard that they are great for baking!!  Stop by the market and pick up half a dozen.



We welcome the warm weather as much as the critters on the farm. 
Happy Sunshine!  

Thursday, April 4, 2013



With our attention focused mainly on  little goat kids, kidding does, and yucky barn stalls,  March snuck right on by.   April 1st was suddenly upon us and Diana decided to start saving the mother does’ milk for our first cheese make.   On Wednesday April 3rd we brought 190 pounds of goat’s milk from the bulk tank cooler in the milk house to the pasteurizer in the cheeserie.  As the season progresses the pounds of milk will increase, as well as the different flavor profiles.  The goats have been on a diet of grain and hay which compliments the cheese flavor differently.  As soon as the spring weather allows their diet will consist more of fresh greens.  Unlike a cow or a sheep, goats are browsers.  This means they prefer leaves, bark, and stems from plants over vegetation near to the ground.  So, in other words, goats like to “work hard” for their food.  Stretching their necks to reach that one tasty leaf.

Yesterday Diana and Alicia moved a group of goat kids, 10 bucks (boys) and 10 does (girls), to outside pens.  They are loving the wide open space to run, skip and jump.  We are still feeding them milk from the nipple bucket but they are starting to enjoy a bit of grain and hay.  Soon Diana will decide which kids she will keep for next year’s production and which she will sell to other producers.  We have 43 kids altogether and 7 does yet to kid!

In addition to April being the start of Dreamfarm cheese making, our various markets will also begin.  Willy Street East and West will start carrying our cheese again starting next week, the West Side Community market opens on April 20th, and the first CSA delivery for the spring share is April 25th

We will move the chickens into their summer housing soon.  The melting snow will allow the pastures to grow and make for great chicken scratching.  Until then they have reveled in their freedom of the farm.  We open the coop doors every morning and one by one they emerge, eager for the day’s finds. Sometimes we’ll even get visitors on the porch.  The pullet eggs are slowly growing and the outside pastures will make for nutrient-rich, deep yellow yolks and delicious eggs!  We’ll be selling them at the market again and Trillium Natural Foods in Mt. Horeb has already started to stock them. 

The season has officially begun!  Let us revel in it!

Cheers!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

March 2013 Dreamfarm

Spring is coming?
Spring has hit Dreamfarm. Not weather wise, but the barn is filled with new life. All of our sheep have lambed, and 9 goats have had 19 kids. Belle, one of our matron goats, had 4 kids on Friday afternoon. They are all doing well. We have 20 more goats to kid (have their babies). Goats usually have twins, triplets are common.

Because it is so wet and cool outside, the animals tend to stay inside the barn. It is important to have clean, dry pens for birthing. So we have been spending a lot of time cleaning pens. That job is done by hand with a pitchfork.


Kids drinking from a bucket (last year)
 Notice there is no snow!
We bottle feed the newborn kids for about 2 days, then we teach them to drink from a bucket filled with moms milk. The bucket has  nipples attached to straws that sit in the milk and once the kids learn to suck they can drink of good amount of milk. Each bucket can feed 10 kids.

The month of March will be filled with taking care of the kids. By early April we plan to start making cheese again. Diana has refinished the outside of the vat pasteurizer and the bulk milk cooler. She also painted the inside of the milkhouse. It all looks so nice white and clean! We will wash down the walls in the Cheeserie and clean all the equipment and utensils, then we are ready to make cheese.

Our daughter, Alicia, who has been living in Brooklyn, New York for a little over a year, has moved home and will be working on the farm and in the Cheeserie this season. Alicia has a soft spot for the animals, and she has worked with the cheese in her earlier days on the farm, so she is a great asset to Dreamfarm.

The path shoveled for the pigs.
Happy pigs outside!
We purchased 3 black mulefoot pigs (a heritage breed) in February. This is earlier than we usually get pigs, but it was the breed we wanted, and the pigs were weened and ready to be sold. We named them Crosby, Stills and Nash. With all the snow, we had to keep them in the barn rather than their pasture. But last week we needed to get them out of the barn to make room for the goat kids. So we pondered how to move them. We tried to pick them up, but they were too strong and we could not get a good hold on them. We had an idea....let's shovel a snow path from the barn to the pasture, could that work? So shovel we did. We let Crosby out, he started down the path and then took off toward the road. Our plan wasn't looking good. But then he suddenly went back to the path and followed it all the way to his pasture, wow! So we let Stills and Nash out and they walked right to their new home on pasture. Life is good, and they are thoroughly enjoying the outdoor life.

The 200 chickens we brooded as chicks in November are just starting to lay their little pullet eggs. As soon as the snow melts, all of our chickens will move to their outdoor hoophouses on pasture.

So many changes are happening on the farm this time of year, it is exciting but we look forward to the days when everyone (animals and people) are settled in a schedule. As life goes, we will be at that place in time soon.



Friday, February 1, 2013


Welcome to Dreamfarm’s 2013 CSA season
This year our farm is celebrating its 10th season as a CSA farm.  We thank all of you who have supported us and we are honored to be producing our farmstead goat cheese for you!
With February upon us, Dreamfarm is gearing up for the season.  These winter months have been spent planning and preparing for the CSA season.  Our website, www.dreamfarm.biz is updated and the 2013 order form is ready. Please consider joining our Farmstead Goat Cheese CSA this year, we would love to have you join us.

Dreamfarm is a member of the FairShare  CSA Coalition. FairShare has teamed up with Heartland Credit Union for the “Give Local” campaign, a campaign to raise funds to help low income households. Here is what Kiera, the Director for FairShare  CSA Coalition, passes on to you:
     "Thanks to all our supporters who've already contributed their dollars to help families of modest means afford to eat healthy, fresh food from local farms. If you haven't given yet, we're down to the wire! The campaign closes at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1.
Dozens of local families will be connected to area CSA farms thanks to your help in this year's Give Local campaign. We're two thirds of the way to our goal. If the community raises $5,000 for FairShare, then Heartland Credit Union will match that gift with another $5,000.
This is our last big push! Please give now and Heartland CU will DOUBLE your donation! You may also drop off a check made out to FairShare at any Heartland CU branch.
Watch the story on the links below to see that families are getting much more than fresh food when they get a CSA share through Partner Shares. It's a deeper connection to the land and each other.”                                                            
www.heartlandcu.org/Go-Local/Give-Local.aspx


Sincerely with the love of great food,
Diana, Jim and Alicia Murphy
Dreamfarm