Tag: local flowers

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Summertime, and the pork is ready!

This has been, for everyone I suppose, the strangest summer I can remember.  It sort of seems like this summer began in March and shows no signs of ending.  Instead of having many hours child-free this summer to work while children were at camp, I have had them underfoot, and bored, all spring and summer.  I am thankful, of course, that we are all well and active.

Bacon, bacon, bacon!

I managed to get a butcher date with my processing plant on June 8, and consider myself fortunate that I got my meat back on July 13.  There is nothing like empty grocery store shelves to spur thoughts about where our food comes from, and so there has been an increased interest in local meat.  This is wonderful for everyone, but it does put a backlog in place at the one or two small processing plants accessible to small farmers in South Carolina.  So, I now have plenty of meat in stock, and you may email me with an order, visit me at the Blythewood Farmers Market on Wednesdays from 4-7, or order it from my online farm store. Meat is also available at Buddy’s Country Store on Hwy 321/Winnsboro Road in north Columbia.

Because my children will be going back to school in mid-to late-August in some form (I am praying that it will be what I want, which is private preschool, private high school, and homeschooled middle school–but I guess I don’t know that for sure because they could all have to be homeschooled), I will probably not be attending the Blythewood market much past mid-August.

This year has also been a learning experience with flowers.  I have been selling flowers at the Blythewood Farmers Market but they are also available for on-farm pickup through my online farm store.  I guess one of the few blessings from COVID was extra time at home not spent driving children from place to place that I could devote to soil preparation and planting.  As such, I have a large supply of flowers and I have enjoyed meeting and working with several local florists to help them provide locally grown fresh flowers to their customers.  My flower bouquets last 7-10 days with proper care.

I also have eggs from my chickens available at the farmers market and online.

If you pick up from the farm, I can arrange no-contact delivery for you on my shady porch.

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February Update

This winter has been busy with homeschooling, tax preparation, meeting with chefs to promote my pastured pork, homeschooling (yes again), The Four Year Old (he needs an entire category to himself), fixing pig fence, driving kids places, obtaining fall leaves for mulch, and getting piglets.

I would like to be spending lots of time preparing garden beds for the spring, but instead I am trying to keep the farm from washing away in all of the rain. I have started many seedlings under the new grow lights I got for Christmas: I just need a nice block of time without any rain to get plants into the ground.

Last month, I purchased 6 piglets from a local farmer. They are happy to play in the woods and (mostly) stay inside the electric fence. One of the pigs is unusually friendly and is also extremely intelligent. All pigs are supposed to have the intelligence of a 3 year old child but they just lack the verbal skills to tell us their thoughts.

This pig quickly figured out who is in charge of feeding him, and he leans against me and demands that I scratch his head in the same way a dog might. The rest of them will sniff my hand, but if I move to pet them they scatter in fear. He closes his eyes and grunts in satisfaction as I scratch him. His name is Bacon, and he will make a visit to the butcher with the rest of the pigs. He’s an otherwise entirely useless castrated male. I do not want to feed a potentially 500 pound animal for the rest of his natural life. Do you know how many 50 pound bags of feed per week he would require at full size? Many more pounds of feed than your average dog, that’s for sure!

He is also the first pig to figure out when the electric fence is not putting out as much charge as it should, and he takes full advantage of any lack in fence security to traverse more of the woods besides the ones I provided him in search of acorns or other treats. The rest of the pigs sit inside the fence, wistfully watching the Bacon pig as he searches for treats. They don’t understand why he can eat goodies and they cannot.

As I figure out how to contain the pigs, I continue to work on my flower beds. I expect to sell many flowers both wholesale to florist and also as bouquets to the general public. Check back and on Facebook and Instagram for photos!