As I sit here this morning looking out my window at the drizzling rain, I'm remembering the faces of our two pigs running around the chicken yard wreaking havoc. It's a warming thought to remember them and to know that their lives were lived as a pig should live- being curious and inquisitive and rooting and wallowing in mud. It comforts us to think about that as we enjoy bacon and eggs from our farm.
Our laying hens have been going through their annual molt over the last few weeks here so we haven't gotten many eggs for the last month. Hopefully our Plymouth Rock hens will begin laying soon to pick up the slack of the tired Rhode Island Reds.
Over the last year I have focused on trying to build a business out of this farm. I've been consumed with finding potential customers, and figuring out how to get them product, and what we plan to sell five years from now and envisioning the sales building I hope to someday have here on the farm. A few days ago it occurred to me that a farm's primary responsibility is to feed itself. What does it matter if we sell hundreds of chickens and dozens of eggs if our freezer is empty and if we have to go buy eggs at the store to bake our holiday pies. In the coming year I will still be making steps to building a profitable farm business, but I'm going to readjust my focus to make sure that this piece of ground feeds our family first and the community around us second.
