Archive for May, 2009

The Harvest Market is coming

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Saws are buzzing. Hammers are nailing. Rockhill farm is gearing up for the Harvest Market at Rockhill.

We are quite excited that Richmond City has decided to move its farmers market here to Rockhill Creamery. In preparation for the big event we (well, OK, mostly Pete) are busily remodeling the hay barn for vendor spaces, growing seedlings in our calf-barn-converted-to-a greenhouse and plowing up a large community garden to grow tons of tomatoes, chiles, melons, herbs, sunflowers, and more.

The Harvest Market will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Saturday beginning May 23, Memorial Day weekend, through Oct. 17. Application forms and the vendor handbook are available at the Richmond City website, richmond-utah.com.

Anyone driving through Richmond will see the bright gold banners announcing the market. So, if you’ve got an itch to sell your garden extras or a handmade craft or artwork, come join us on the farm this summer. It should be a blast. — jh

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Yay! It’s market season

Monday, May 11th, 2009

What is it about gardeners in Cache Valley? We have the shortest growing season of nearly anywhere in the state and yet we’re the first to set up shop at the gardeners market. Some might say Cache Valley gardeners are crazy to harvest spinach, lettuce, asparagus, leeks, carrots, kale on May 9 in the freezing (literally) cold. I say we have our priorities straight. — jh

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Hank

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Hank

Pete has been known to complain about “too many females” at his workplace. And, come to think of it, it is true. There’s me, Zoe (our beautiful and ancient border collie), the six girls – Chloe, Greta, Ingrid, Iggy, Heide and Elsie, and the three heifers – Ione, Gabby and Eve.

These days, Pete has one other male companion here on the farm — Hank. And, boy oh boy, is he ever male. Hank, you will recall, is the spectacular bull calf born to Heide last August. Most bull calves born on our farm are (how can I put this delicately?) separated from some of their maleness at an early age and then sold to a good family. (Females do RULE on a dairy, after all!!)

But Hank was so gorgeous and of such good genetics that we decided to keep him intact. Fast forward to March of this year and we moved Hank up into the dry lot with Ione and he is definitely proving his maleness.

Hank is going on 500 pounds now. Since our little operation is not really built to handle a full-grown bull, we are planning to move him to a nearby dairy where he can live out his days in Brown Swiss paradise. So, for a little while longer Pete can’t complain about the excess of estrogen on the farm. — jh

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