August Farm Update, Thanksgiving Turkeys & More

Hey everyone,

It’s already August and we’re more than halfway through our peak production season of April - November. It’s been awesome to meet many more people at markets in the last month who’ve supported and started following this journey of ours. Welcome!

We’re finally starting to feel caught up on production after a chaotic couple months shuffling chickens and turkeys in and out of our brooder space and shelters. A couple times we moved chicks out to pasture on the same day that new chicks arrived, which is not ideal. Kinda like turning in the group project just before the midnight deadline!

We’re done with meat chicken production for the rest of the year and will focus on raising the best possible Woodland Turkey this fall for your Thanksgiving. Our turkeys have moved into the same shelters we use for the chickens and in a couple weeks we’ll start letting the birds out to free range through the wooded areas of our leased property. Here’s a short video about how we’re raising the turkeys this year. Check it out!

You can reserve your very own Woodland Raised Thanksgiving Turkey with a non refundable $35 deposit. Final price will be based on the weight of your turkey at $6.49 per lb, delivered to your door at no additional charge.

We expect to have some new artisan sausage varieties in early September made by Hometown Sausage Kitchen. This is the same shop that made our poultry sausages everyone loves, and we’ve been waiting for the chance to have some custom pork sausages made for a while! Not sure yet exactly what kinds we’ll have made, but our goal is at least four new types that we have not had yet. (Psst: We’re thinking about getting some charcuterie done soon — would anyone be interested?) Speaking of pork, we made some awesome spare rib from our heritage hogs last week.

On a personal note, we celebrated five years as a couple last weekend with seafood at Third Coast Provisions in Milwaukee, just a month after our actual anniversary. We both can’t believe where our lives have taken us just five years after meeting. In moments like those, we really try to take a step back and appreciate everything in our lives, but mainly our kids. We always end up looking at pictures of our kids or talking about them on our dates, anyone else?

At dinner, I kept it as local as possible with the Lake Superior Whitefish over an heirloom tomato panzanella (salad) topped with avocado salsa verde. I really believe the Midwest has a lot to offer when it comes to food options, so I love to try to the most local dishes whenever I can. Think about it — that fish was harvested a lot closer to the plate than any saltwater option. As a result, the environmental impact (and cost) is less. And it’s just as good, in my opinion.

Lastly, we want to let everyone know that we’re looking for a place to live and farm, possibly for several years on a lease agreement. We’re really interested in properties with a lot of woods so we can raise hogs in the forest, their most natural habitat. Ideally the property would also have some fencing and water infrastructure for cattle and/or sheep. We’re looking in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. This is a long shot, but if you know someone who has property they’d be willing to lease for regenerative livestock farming, let us know!

With two young kids, it’s become really clear that actually living at the property we farm on would be a big upgrade, and a lot more convenient! Not to mention, we have big goals.

Thanks for your support!

Mike