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Schacht Farm
January 2011 Newsletter
Happy New Year! We hope this finds you well, enjoying a slower pace after the holidays, as we are finally able to do here. We have enjoyed seeing many of you at the winter markets we have been attending. If you are not familiar with the winter markets, information can be found here.
Businesses selling and/or using our products
The folks who own these businesses are committed to supporting the local food economy and small farms that produce sustainably raised products. We encourage you to frequent their shops and restaurants.
Lennie’s Brew Pub (Bloomington) You’ll find our chicken on their fabulous menu.
Story Inn (Story) Our eggs are used in many breakfast and brunch favorites.
Good Earth (Broad Ripple) We try to keep them well stocked in eggs as best as our hens allow.
Goose the Market (Indy) Our pork bellies are used in Chris’s Bacon of the Month Club, and our eggs can be found there as well.
Mayan Café (Louisville) With a new seasonal menu, dining room face-lift, and fun upcoming events including a wine dinner on January 30th and 31st , dining at this gem of fabulous Mayan cuisine is a must! Our pork, turkey, and chicken are used in many of Bruce’s regular menu items, as well as in some of his featured specials.
Pork Sampler Bundles
We offer 20-lb. pork bundles that include a variety of bacons, sausages, chops, ribs, and roasts. The freezer space required for a bundle is about a brown paper bag’s worth. The exact price for the product included is totaled and 10% is deducted. We will have the exact total at time of pick up, but $95-$105 can be expected. Orders for bundles can be placed by email, phone, or at market, and can be delivered to market or picked up at the farm.
Winter Work
We are often asked what the workload looks like for us on the farm during the winter months. Below is a description of what is involved in caring for our animals this time of year.
The cattle generally graze on stockpiled forage through much of the winter, but with the lack of rain this summer, we were unable to leave forage standing for winter feeding. Rotating the cattle to graze stockpiled forage is a more sustainable practice than feeding mechanically harvested hay, but like many things in agriculture, the ideal rarely happens. So…we are feeding hay…lots and lots of hay.
This winter we have around 40 hogs out on pasture. To have pork for our customers come springtime, wintering hogs is necessary. We provide them with hoop shelters that are open to the south and lots of deep bedding that allows them to burrow in and stay warm. We use water heaters to keep their water thawed. Our hogs forage on grass in the summer, and they eat hay in the winter.
We continue to rotate our 1,000 laying hens around on pasture during the winter months. While nothing is growing now, we planted chicory during the growing season to provide a high nutritional value to the hens through much of the winter. We seal off the windward end of the portable henhouse and put heaters in their water tanks so they always have access to water. We also turn on heat lamps in the early morning to signal the beginning of the day and to keep the eggs from cracking in the cold until we gather mid-morning.
Turkeys and broilers are only raised during the growing season and are butchered by Thanksgiving.
“Why do you do this?”
Over the last few years we have had the opportunity to share information about our farm with many folks including customers, researchers, food editors, sustainable farming writers, etc. A question that always comes up is, “Why?” “Why did we choose to farm? Why do we continue to choose to farm? Why are we motivated to do this?” These questions come after all of the “how” questions; “How are the poultry rotated to new pasture? How are the eggs washed? How are the hogs loaded for processing?” The order in which these questions come has always been amusing to me…as if after understanding “how” we run the farm, the next logical question is “why”…as in, “Why on earth would a rational, sane person capable of doing anything else choose this?”
In the busy season we don’t often have time to reflect on this question, but now, when the farm is quiet, answering this question is a good exercise to go through before sitting down to plan out the upcoming growing season. So…here goes…
-Farming allows for a fulfilling lifestyle, rich in simple pleasures.
-With farming, if we did the same thing the same way every year, with all the variables out of our control, the results would never be the same. Never a dull moment!
-We love being accountable for what we get done in a day, and sometimes, what we don’t. There is no punching a time clock or pushing work off on the next shift, as we are the next shift!
-We love waking up in the morning with a plan for what needs to be done that day, and we love when things don’t go as planned, as it forces us to adapt, think outside the box, and grow in our knowledge base.
-We love the simple gift of nurturing the animals on our farm, seeing that their needs are met, that they are thriving, and as silly as it may sound, that they are happy.
-Strangely, I love taking animals to be processed. Let me explain, when we decide to take on the responsibility of raising an animal, we do so with a commitment to provide for its needs until processing time. When we take an animal to be slaughtered, we do so knowing that we have made good on our end of the deal, that we have done right by them. There is a very raw sense of fulfillment in that.
-We love orchestrating an improvement to the land. Enhancing soil fertility, forage quality, microbial activity, and so on, all by the management practices we implement is a true measure of our success.
-We are blessed beyond measure by our friends and family, who through their commitment to us make what we do here possible. How sweet it is to share work you enjoy with people you treasure.
-The community of customers, farmers, chefs, and business owners we have become a part of through the farm has enriched our lives abundantly. The extent to which we are equally invested is both rewarding and humbling.
Thanks for being a part of the “why”. We look forward to seeing you soon!
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