Hello! Here at Emma's Family Farm, we will be harvesting our first chickens for 2010 this week! These chickens have been raised on our pastures supplying them with good forage to accompany their rations of good quality grain. They will be processed under inspection, and be ready for pickup or delivery on Friday, June 11. This particular group will weigh between 3 and 5 pounds; perfect size for frying, barbecuing or even a warm weather chicken bake or roasting. Larger birds will be available in another 2 weeks. We have received some orders all ready and hope you'll order soon. You can do so by telephone or Email: Email: emmas.family.farm@hotmail.com or Phone; 207.445.2141 Prices for 2010 chickens have not changed, they remain at $2.65 per pound for all whole birds. Order what you will need for late Spring and early summer. We will have chicken available throughout the summer; our next group will be ready later in June. You can visit our FaceBook page and view many pictures from the Farm: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Windsor-ME/Emmas-Family-Farm/118705158157752 or you can follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thehoads At Emma's Family Farm, we appreciate your business and hope to serve you well. We encourage you to visit us at the Farm and view our practices whenever you can. A simple phone call will assure that someone is here to receive your visit. Make plans now to visit us on Open Farm Days, July 25, 2010. It's a Sunday and we're planning the fun! Emma's Family Farm 135 Windsor Neck Road Windsor, Maine 04363 If you do not wish to receive these mailings, please let us know by replying to this message.

posting from Emma's Family Farm,
 Windsor Maine;
 Steve Hoad
See what we're doing on the Farm at
http://twitter.com/TheHoads
 

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Spring, Seasons and Weather Nerves

 

Yes, everybody talks about the weather all year round so this is my turn, at least my late spring discussion…

 

Having lived here on this hill for almost 27 years I've been exposed to a wide range of spring weather and some of it quite severe. I sort of hesitate to write about it because it isn't particularly reassuring to think of the damaging consequences that weather brings or that it might bring. We've had our share of damage over the years in spring, summer, fall and winter; these fields are wind swept and numerous portable shelters have been smashed, bent and/or broken, trees have fallen damaging fences and buildings, we even had a dust devil that flipped a small turkey house! Consequences? We stay alert!

 

Yesterday's weather, (Saturday June 5 2010) brought the subject into focus; we stayed on alert all day! We woke up to thunder and rain. It was not really close but the patterns change and staying alert is always best. Here, modern technology steps in: we can turn on the NOAA weather radio with a setting that is silent until an alert tone is sent; then the radio alarm screams and we rush to hear the bulletin.

 

At about 2 PM yesterday a tornado watch was posted for our area. A watch means that conditions are right (or ripe) for whatever – in this case, tornadoes. We really aren't used to such things here in Maine but we do know they happen and they are usually spawned within severe thunderstorms.

 

We did what we could to prepare but, how does one prepare for an event that causes 100 foot trees to fly out of the ground and twists everything everywhere?

 

And so, we wait and watch. At around 5 PM severe thunderstorm warnings began, and very quickly, a tornado warning was sounded for what seemed like the South Paris and Lewiston-Auburn area. That's about 50 miles from here; not really far when storms are moving. The line predicted for these storms didn't seem as though it would cause us a problem but still…

 

The tornado watch was posted until 10 PM. We continued to stay on the alert. Cattle in the pasture, our donkey, 21 pigs, over 200 chickens and almost 100 turkeys; all of their lives depended on our vigilance. Sometimes spring and summer storms can cause power outages for days, can we keep the brooder warm? The incubator warm? The water supply functioning?

 

Will we have tree damage? Fence damage? Loose animals scared because of an event? This isn't a movie; this is real.

 

The system passed last night. It did not visit our Farm and we are thankful. What does today bring from mother Nature?

 

 

posting from Emma's Family Farm,
 Windsor Maine;
 Steve Hoad
See what we're doing on the Farm at
http://twitter.com/TheHoads
 

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Knowing The Source: Where did You Get That Meat?

 

If you have been reading about findings concerning meats and drugs, you may know about a recent report telling of a lack of recalls for medications found in testing. If not, this article gives a short description of that report. We try to keep up on these findings through industry and advocacy releases; but reading this particular article brought things very close to home; at first, this article looks like something we all ready were aware of; "A new Office of Inspector General (OIG) report released last month finds the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) fails to test for many drugs in cattle, inadequately tests for others and fails to recall meat which is clearly contaminated.

"Between July 12, 2007, and March 11, 2008, FSIS found that four carcasses were adulterated with violative levels of veterinary drugs and that the plants involved had released the meat into the food supply. Although the drugs involved could result in stomach, nerve, or skin problems for consumers, FSIS requested no recall," says the report."

 But, if you read down further, there are examples from more recent FDA April inspection letters.

 

I have to say that I don't always agree with the writings of Martha Rosenberg, the author of this article, but she is citing a credible source and so I offer the link here realizing that knowledge promotes change.

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/03/government-report-finds-dangerous-residues-in-meat/

 

Clinton Maine? Where was that meat processed? This is why we advocate knowing your food sources.

posting from Emma's Family Farm,
 Windsor Maine;
 Steve Hoad
See what we're doing on the Farm at
http://twitter.com/TheHoads
 

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