Farm Labor Arrives, Farm Hacks, Winter CSA, and More! Farm labor arrives Farmers have been farming since the end of the nomadic era, since someone discovered it may be slightly easier than hunting and gathering. Although raising livestock involves less risk of personal physical injury than chasing a wooly mammoth with an atlatl, farming still requires a lot of […]
Farm Labor Arrives, Farm Hacks, Winter CSA, and More! Read More »
Another month on the farm: grazing, grass, and growing pigs Grazing season is here! As the world spins and wobbles on its axis, it produces fun things like tidal forces and changing seasons. As the northeast US hurtles its way towards the summer solstice, the warming temperatures, sunshine, and rain collaborate to grow grass. We’ve
Another month on the farm: grazing, grass, and growing pigs Read More »
Sheep skins, chicken bone broth, and hawk attack Driving to Vermont to pick up sheep and goat hides #farmervacation Here at BOTL Farm, we’re committed to nose-to-tail use of the animals we slaughter. That means finding a use for all those parts, including the sheep and goat skins. We get the skins back from the
Sheep skins, chicken bone broth, and hawk attack Read More »
Chicks, stew hens, bacon. Huzzah! Coming soon: baby chicks As discussed back in our October update, we were contemplating what to do with our laying hen flock. Our official decision is to keep the size of the flock the same for next season. This means that we’ll retire the oldest half of the birds and
Chicks, stew hens, bacon. Huzzah! Read More »
Here at BOTL Farm, we’re not short on ideas. It’s like my mentor used to tell me: it’s important to have ideas, whether they’re good ideas or not, because eventually even a blind squirrel finds a nut.
Let’s talk about one of our latest ideas.
Reducing Waste Streams: A Tale of a Heavy-Duty Paper Shredder Read More »
Congratulations, you have just been e-introduced to the finest farm dog east of the Mississippi. Her name, quite creatively, is pup. Pup is a rescue dog, who began her life somewhere in Texas. She doesn’t talk a lot about her past, but from what we can infer it involved something that makes buckets extremely scary. Pup
Pup The Future Award Winner of Best Farm Dog Ever Of All Time Of This Year Read More »
Mangalitsa/Berkshire/Large Black piglet, aka a tiny elephant. Dearest BOTLiebers, The cool mornings, the pup under a blanket, and the dinner time sunsets all tell us the same thing: another summer is drawing to a close here at BOTL Farm. As we put the following touches on our third year here in The House, it occurs
Ninety Nine BOTLs of Farm on the Wall Read More »
Lady Breeder on bottom and one of our purebred Berkshire on top. Both gilts sleeping in a pile. To all who stand at the back of the line, hear us now as we relay a story from BOTL. For no reason at all, we will start this blog post with a poem: There once was
A Primer on Pasture-Raised Pork (Re)production Read More »
Editor’s note… this was published a few weeks after it was written… Sorry about the timing, oops. Greetings! It’s been a long winter since our last update, but spring is beginning to sprung and with spring comes BABIES. Tess, one of our seasoned ewes, gave birth yesterday evening to twins. As Experienced Farmers who have
Our First Sheeplets! Read More »
BOTL Farm now has expanded meat options! If you find yourself braising a rabbit for dinner on Monday, broasting a chicken for lunch on Tuesday, frying a dozen eggs for breakfast on Wednesday, sous viding [Editor notes that ‘viding’, being a conflagration of the French word for ‘vacuum’ and the English ‘-ing’ for a present-tense
