Merry Christmas!

Thank you to everyone who has supported us in one way or another this year. The support of our family and friends was greatly appreciated.

Our family wishes you a Merry Christmas and many blessings for the year to come.

Goats, Garden, and Sunflowers!

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.

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.

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.


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.


Our sunflowers

Things are in full swing on the 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. 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:

*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.


The goat barn/shed under construction

Welcome to Cedarfield Farm!

Just started in 2009 -- Cedarfield Farm is a small, family 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. 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
• 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.

Soon we will be adding 2 milk goats to the farm for our own personal use.

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!