Goats, Garden, and Sunflowers!

Click here to read our original "Welcome to Cedarfield Farm" post that tells about our farm

We have been very busy recently with working in the garden and taking care of our two new dairy goats, Daisy and Violet. The "girls" arrived about a month ago, and it has been quite a time of adjustment, for them and for us. There have been some difficult times of learning how to milk them, how to process their milk, getting them to eat, keeping up their milk supply, and some minor health issues that have made us feel a bit like goat veterinarians! We've also discovered that, although goats love to eat poison ivy (great for us!), they can pass it along to others that they come in contact with (bad for us!). Fortunately, the poison ivy is gone and they are no longer "contagious"!


The finished goat barn - living quarters for the goats and a milking area

Daisy is a very sweet white Sanaan goat, and her milk is equally as sweet and delicious.


Daisy!

Violet is a beautiful black Nubian goat with some patches of brown. She is a little more sensitive and needs more attention, but is always wanting to give and receive love by rubbing up against people.


Violet!

She can even walk on her two back legs to reach branches held up in the air for her. It wasn't long before she taught Daisy how to put her front hooves on the fence to reach leaves from nearby trees! The children love the goats, leading them around, feeding them, and petting them. We are all enjoying the milk very much, drinking it fresh and by making it into yogurt, cheese, and ice cream. Unfortunately, we are not allowed by law to sell milk from the farm, but we plan to make goat's milk soap to sell in the near future.

Our garden is now in full swing, giving us lots of produce such as several varieties of green beans, lettuces, peppers, summer squash and zucchini, okra, and tomatoes. We are hopeful that we'll have tomatoes, okra, peppers, and melons available for sale in the next week or two.


View of the garden with tomato plants in the foreground


Melons - we have cantaloupes, honeydews, and watermelons!


Another view of the garden with peppers, watermelons, lettuce, and okra in the foreground

Right now, we do have lots of beautiful sunflowers and colorful zinnias for sale. The sunflowers will last only a couple of weeks, so if you would like some fresh cut flowers for your home, please visit our farm! They are 50 cents a flower and it's completely self serve.


Our sunflower area - come cut some for your home!

We would love for you to visit our farm, come to pet the goats, taste some fresh goat's milk, pick some flowers, and purchase some produce!

Things are in full swing on the farm....

Click here to read our original "Welcome to Cedarfield Farm" post that tells about our farm

Things are starting to get busy at the farm as the warmer weather has arrived! We spent the week before last planting the +3,200 square foot main garden, after adding a dump truck load of compost and some mineral soil amendments to the soil. We had been delayed for planting by the cool and rainy weather recently, but this year's garden is now underway. While part of the garden is for growing food for our own family's needs, much of it is dedicated to things that we hope to be able to sell this summer. Last week, we also planted a large area of asparagus and a space for corn. Pumpkins will be interplanted with the corn in June for a fall harvest. This past week we planted a large area of flowers, including daisies, purple coneflower, dahlias, zinnias, and sunflowers.


The garden area -- trellises for over 100 tomato plants in the foreground


Close up of the tomato plants in the garden area

Here is a list of what we have planted in the garden (* is for items we hope to have available for sale this summer).

*Green beans (three different varieties)
*Small ornamental gourds (including luffa for making sponges)
*Cucumbers
*Corn (three varieties--yellow, white shoepeg, and a multicolored corn for fresh eating, popcorn, and decoration)
Lima beans
Potatoes (Rose gold, Yukon gold, and Russett)
*Yellow squash and zucchini
*Winter squash (buttercup, butternut, spaghetti, and sweetmeat)
Parsnips
Carrots
Radishes
*Melons (cantaloupe and watermelon)
*Okra
Sweet potatoes
*Tomatoes (several varieties of slicing/canning tomatoes including a special striped heirloom tomato, cherry tomatoes, and yellow tomatoes)
Tomatillos
Salad greens (mizuna, arugula, claytonia, mache, and sorrel)
Lettuce
Onions and scallions
Spinach
Swiss chard
*Peppers (sweet banana, hot banana, green and red bell pepper, mucho nacho, and jalapeno)
Eggplant
Herbs (dill, cilantro, basil, chives, garlic chives, and parsley)

In addition to the garden areas, we've been tending to our two orchard areas and our berry patch. While a lot of the trees and berry bushes are still quite small, it's wonderful to be able to watch them starting to grow.


The north orchard - peach, cherry, & apricot trees


The south orchard - apple, pear, plum, paw paw & fig trees


The berry patch - blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, elderberries, and grapes

We've also spent the last couple of weeks getting started on a goat barn/shed to house the two milking does that we are getting from a local farm in the next few weeks. We will be getting two sweet Nubian goats - Flip Flop and Sweet Pea. Flip Flop just had her first set of kids -- three bucks -- and once they have homes we'll be able to bring her to the farm and start milking her. The milk will be primarily for our own family, but we hope to have some goat's milk products (like soap) that we can sell in the future.


The goat barn/shed under construction

Vegetable plant seedling sales for this year have ended, and we appreciate the support of everyone who stopped by our little stand. The plant sales were a great success, and it was a joy to help others get started on their gardens. It was encouraging to see how many folks are interested in growing their own food!

Welcome to Cedarfield Farm!

Just started in 2009 -- Cedarfield Farm is a small, family-run farm committed to the practices of sustainable agriculture and stewardship of the land. We are located on approximately 4 acres of land in Chesterfield County, a short distance west of the beautiful Swift Creek Reservoir.

Cedarfield Farm is our way of creating a sustainable lifestyle for our family and allowing us to share the extra fruits of our efforts with others. As stewards of our land, we are committed to not using any chemical or petroleum-based fertilizers on our plants or pastures. We will fertilize the old fashioned way--with compost, manure, and other natural soil amendments. Our animals will be treated with care, and we will provide a habitat that closely resembles their natural environment. Our goal is to use natural and organic methods for everything we produce.

If you were to drive by our farm today, you might not see much that looks like a farm. We are still early in the planning and planting stages! Our vision for Cedarfield Farm includes the following:

• Fruits - Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Cherries, Apricots, Strawberries, Blackberries, Blueberries, & Raspberries
  
• Vegetables - Tomatoes, Squash, Corn, Okra, Potatoes, Beans, Peas, Salad Greens, Asparagus & More...
• Fresh Herbs - Basil, Rosemary, Parsley, Chives, Mint & Others
• Honey
• Eggs
• Pastured Poultry -- Chickens & Turkeys
• Grass Fed Beef
• Goat's Milk Products
• Fresh Cut Flowers
  

So far, we've set up two beehives with about 15,000-20,000 honey bees that are already actively foraging for nectar and pollen. We've also planted more than 50 fruit trees, nearly 100 fruit and berry bushes, and just finished adding 150 strawberry plants to the 50 plants we already have from last year. Inside the house we have a miniature "greenhouse" for starting seeds to be later transplanted to the garden, with some plants also available for sale.

Soon we will be adding 2 milk goats to the farm for our own personal use, but hope to use excess milk in products such as soap that we can offer for sale.

Later in the spring or early summer, we hope to have our laying hens set up and producing delicious eggs and then we will move on to our broiler chickens!