Yes Jerry, there is a Santa Claus, or miracles, or incredible good luck. Christmas on the farm means turkey season and 95 turkeys had been getting ready for the event. Part of our Goodfare tradition is the Christmas turkey catch, this year with eighteen neighbours ranging in age from two years to me … [Read more...]
From the Farm / De la ferme
By Jerry Kitt “First Nature Farms is a family farm”… That line hasn’t changed for years. We certainly started out as a “family” farm thirty years ago but time goes on, relationships evolve, and children become adults and they leave home. The only part of the family that was left on the farm was … [Read more...]
From The Farm / De la ferme
By Jerry Kitt Cows come home! I was starting to get a little worried. The cows were gone and the last time I saw them they were 16 km away. That may not seem like a long distance if you’re travelling by road but moving cows through the forest is nearly impossible for a non-cowboy like me. That’s … [Read more...]
From the Farm / De la ferme
By / Par Jerry Kitt Hunting season has arrived and our normally quiet road is seeing lots of new traffic. Usually two guys in a pickup truck. It’s easy to tell the hunters from the locals, they don’t tend to wave. All of our land is posted “No Hunting,” not that I mind hunters but I like to offer … [Read more...]
From the Farm / De la ferme
By / Par Jerry Kitt The time has come for the laying hens to give up laying eggs in the chicken coop. “Every time I lay an egg, someone steals it!” (That someone would be me). The goal of the hens is not to provide nutrition for the humans but to start a new family. To do so they must lay an egg … [Read more...]
From the Farm / De la ferme
By / Par Jerry Kitt Rain, rain, go away! After years of drought finally we’ve been getting some good precipitation. The pastures are loving it and any cows or bison out grazing will certainly have all they can eat of the fresh succulent grass. They had better enjoy it now because when fall comes … [Read more...]
From the Farm: Large Black Pigs / De la ferme : des cochons noirs
By / Par Barbara Schaefer When I first began farming the Large Black Pig in 2008, I was invited to provide some pork shoulder for a Slow Food dinner in Ottawa. Chef Dave Neil made a delicious sausage with my pork that garnered rave reviews and launched my germinating farming business in the … [Read more...]
From the Farm / De la ferme
By / Par Jerry Kitt YouTube Farming. Slow Food Canada, an organization I’ve supported for the past ten years, held its annual meeting in Osoyoos, B.C. this month. I really wanted to attend but leaving the farm is always a hard thing to do. My son said he’d be around and I had three very capable … [Read more...]
From the Farm / De la ferme
By / Par Jerry Kitt Spring fever: A number of sows on First Nature Farms have come down with a fever – spring fever! Why? There’s a new boar on the farm! “Willy” the Berkshire boar is a couple of months past puberty and is ready to socialize. Unfortunately for Willy, he is a “city” boar among a … [Read more...]
From the Farm / De la ferme
By / Par Jerry Kitt “Food for the brain.” Gifts come in many forms and one that I have grown to really appreciate is one my daughter made. Not knitting or art but something much more practical – lard! More specifically, lard made from our own pigs. Organic lard made from our pastured Berkshire … [Read more...]