The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Author: Crystal

  • What’s Up Wednesday – April 15th

    The garden has exploded this week and we are doing everything we can to keep up! The cabbages are getting huge and the broccoli is moving along. The turnip, beet, and radish sprouts are poking through the ground and starting to get their second set of leaves. The potato plants are starting to surface here and there. I am trying to get the strawberries, which have been overgrown with clover because of neglect from a busy end of year last year, prepped and thinned out. I am hoping to have enough transplants to fill a bed in the big garden. I would love to have a whole 100 sqft bed of strawberries… you can never have enough strawberries! My plants that are still in our friend Toni’s greenhouse are getting huge and I am dreaming of fresh tomatoes and peppers! The farm is so beautiful this time of year. The trees are blooming everywhere, the grass is finally filling in, and the mud is finally going away! I love spring so much!

    Last week we started a new afternoon routine where we now eat dinner at 2pm before going out for farm chores. Before this change we were going outside to do afternoon farm chores at 2pm and we weren’t getting inside until almost 7pm to start dinner. We were all starving by then and it was making the last 2 hours of farm chores miserable. Also, the kids were eating these large dinners then immediately going to bed… which is not exactly a healthy habit. Eating an early dinner allowed us to just focus on our chores and we didn’t feel rushed to get in at any certain time. So now we are eating dinner at 2pm, going out for farm chores by 2:30/3pm, we work in the garden until 5pm, then do all the actual farm chores with the animals, milk the does, and feed the babies, and then weed and work in the garden until it gets dark. When we finally come in we have a very light meal, like a salad and/or leftovers, and the kids go to bed. Our morning farm routine has stayed the same in all of this. It has been a huge and interesting adjustment, but so far so good! I might write a full post about the effects it is having on our schedule, and health after we have been in the schedule for a while.

  • RVA Earth Day Festival

    We will be vendors at the RVA Earth Day Festival put on my Style Weekly again this year! This is such a fun event with amazing vendors, great food, awesome kid activities, and lots of other Earth Day activities. It’s fun for the whole family!

    RVA Earth Day Festival

    April 18th

    12pm – 7pm

    320 Hull St, Richmond, VA 23224 (This is a centralized address. The festival takes place South of the 14th Street bridge on Hull St between 1st-4th Street)

  • Getting to Know… Easter Eggers

    Last week I introduced our Black Copper Maran chickens. When we purchased them last year we got the Easter Eggers at the same time. Easter Eggers are like the mutts of the chicken world. They are not seen as a pure bred chicken and are not recognized by the American Poultry Association. People often get them confused with Americanas. Easter eggers come in many different colors. So even chicks that are hatched from the same mom can look vastly different from their siblings. Although as a whole they generally have a fluffy collar and in most cases ornate markings. Easter Eggers also lay colorful eggs! They can be blue, green, brown, and sometimes pink. All three of our Easter Eggers lay green eggs.

    Easter Egger 1 Blog Easter Egger 2 blog

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… April 10th

    It’s time for a fun farm fact from one of our other farm animals… Our llamas!

    Llamas are in the same family with camels, so they share many similarities. One of these similarities is their tendency to spit when irritated. However it is rarely at their caretakers, more often than not it is at the other llamas around them. We have had them spit at us on occasion if we are messing with them, for vaccinations or hoof trimming, and they wanted to be left alone, but it doesn’t happen often. They generally give you plenty of warning before spitting, throwing their head back and making a gurgling sound as they pull up there cud, as if to say “back off!”

  • March “Other” Pictures

    Everyday we post a picture on Instagram (@TheFreckledFarm) for our 365 project, but many times (especially this month with the babies being born) we post pictures in addition to our “picture of the day.” These images don’t make it to the month’s round-up, so to avoid them getting lost in the shuffle for those who do not have Instagram, we collect the “other” pictures together once a month. Here are the other pictures from the month of March:

    March other pictures - The Freckled Farm

  • What’s Up Wednesday – April 8th

    We are in hyper drive around here. Making soap, making laundry detergent, caring for the farm, working in garden… It’s crazy!!

    We are preparing for Spring Bada-Bing and South of the James this week. If you’ve never been to one of the Craft Mafia Craft shows I am here to tell you that they are fantastic. The quality of vendors is outstanding and they always end up being really big days for us. Then of course there is South of the James, where we are every Saturday. The market is really picking up (not that it was ever really slow) because of the warmer weather. More vendors are coming and a lot more people are showing up! That market is full of life and the vendors are amazing. We plan to sell a lot of goat milk soap this weekend!

    The garden is quickly coming together. We are having to prep beds in the big garden as we are transplanting. We have things that need to go in the ground already and 24 4’x25′ beds that needed to be prepped. Each bed takes around 2-3 hours to do as we break up dirt clumps, pull weeds and even out the dirt. Since this is a new area that has never been gardened before clearing out the weeds and grass is a big chunk of that time. There was just no way we were going to get all the beds prepped and done before the plants needed to go in. So we are going bed by bed, prepping then planting. So far we have a ton of cabbages, potatoes, and broccoli in the ground in the new big garden and potatoes, cabbages, swish chard, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, strawberries, peas, and spinach in the smaller raised bed garden that we have been planting in for years. We still have hundreds upon hundreds of plants that need to go into the big garden, many that are still in our friend’s green house that we are using. It’s hard not to feel incredibly fortunate as you are putting nourishing, healthy foods into the ground. It’s a wonderful feeling.

  • Spring Bada-Bing!

    We are so excited to be a part of The Richmond Craft Mafia’s Spring Bada-Bing Craft Show again this year! They put on the best shows! The quality of the vendors is always amazing. This show will take place on April 11th at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. We hope you come out to see us!

     Richmond Craft Mafia’s Spring Bada-Bing

    April 11th

    11am – 5pm

    Hardywood Park Craft Brewery

    2408 Ownby Ln, Richmond, VA 23220

  • Getting to Know… The Marans

    When we first got chickens we purchased one of each breed that we found appealing. Each breed has different characteristics; how many eggs they tend to lay, temperament, how well they deal with heat and cold, etc. The idea was to figure out what breed we liked best and when we decided to order more we would get all of that breed. I was convinced that it was going to be the look and temperament of the bird that would attract me to a particular breed, but I was wrong! All the birds were funny and interesting to watch, regardless of what they looked like… It was the eggs that I was interested in. I love having a bunch of beautiful colorful eggs! I love the different shades of brown and green. So when it came time to add to our flock we ended up ordering a bunch of chickens of a breed that we hadn’t tried before… Black Copper Marans. Maran’s lay chocolate brown eggs!  At the same time we ordered more Easter Eggers, who lay green eggs. Now we have a beautiful mixture of green and light, medium, and dark brown eggs!

    The marans are funny birds. They all look so similar that I cannot tell them apart and because of this none of them have names… although once you have enough chickens naming them kinda goes out the window anyways. There are a few stand out though. We have “punk rock maran” who’s markings make her look like she has a mow hawk. We also have the “troublemaker,” who is always the one who is off somewhere and you have to search for her to get her in the coop at night. It’s been a fun breed to have and I absolutely love their eggs!

    Marans from The Freckled Farm Marans 2 Blog Marans 3 blog

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… April 3rd

    It’s time to break up all the goat facts with a chicken fact! Today’s chicken fact was one that I found quite interesting…

    If you have several different roosters around your hens can/will breed with all of them, but they also have the ability to reject the sperm of roosters with whom they do not wish to reproduce. She can physically eject the sperm after they breed. This generally happens when the rooster is lower in the pecking order.

  • 365 Project – March

    The months are just flying by! March was amazing. Between babies being born and the garden we had our hands full. Here is the look back at the March images from our 365 project. Get ready for lots and lots of pictures of baby goats!

    To see the daily pictures from our 365 Project “A picture a day from The Freckled Farm” follow us on Instagram @TheFreckledFarm

    365 Project - March - A Picture a Day from The Freckled Farm

     

    Check back next week for all of the “other” pictures from March.

    January 365 Pictures

    February 365 Pictures