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Happy May!!! Just like the other farmers in our area - we have been CRAZY BUSY getting ready for hay season.
The fencing project is almost complete -- just waiting on the electrician to make the final connections to our new Ritchie waterers. We have kept the scrap guy busy with all the old fencing and rusty t-posts. I am so excited to have the big pasture plowed and planted with sorghum this month. Last year's drought meant we ended the season with a much smaller hay surplus than usual. I plan on getting 3 cuttings of hay from the sorghum before re-planting permanent pasture in the fall. Finger's crossed we get nice steady rain this year. In addition to the outside work - took a big step to making online ordering easier for you! You can choose from a variety of easy & affordable bundles, choose you preferred delivery option and place your order! Anytime!! You will receive an order receipt & order reminder email (or text if you prefer) the day before pickup or delivery. We have created an on-farm pickup stand from our old cattle trailer and would LOVE to have you come visit us on the farm. We are thrilled to have a new system that will help us stay organized, track inventory, manage payments and never miss an order! Please give it a try and let us know what you think.
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 Am I the only one who feels bombarded by all these avenues of advertising??
Seriously, everywhere I look someone is trying to sell me something - which really sucks because as a business owner I spend a good portion of MY time learning how to market the farm and our amazing products. This quandary of not being obnoxious - while somehow still providing a livelihood and offering our highest quality - healthy family food leaves me stumped. How do you like to receive information from your favorite merchants?
Can we be doing something better to make it easier for you to access our products? Please, please shoot me an email (hffdelivery@gmail.com) click on the chat button or send me a text (860-379-8961) with your thoughts. I love being your farmer --- not so much being an advertising executive !! This month I had the good fortune to join in celebrating the 95th Birthday of an AMAZING man.
As the son of immigrants, Ed was raised in a time when people farmed not because it was cool or trendy - but rather it was a life or death necessity. I can listen to the stories of his childhood for hours. While he never sugarcoats how hard his parents worked or what it was like not having indoor plumbing or cars or electricity - you can't help but get such a real sense of how important family and neighbors and community were everyday. As a child Ed's parents (and most of their neighbors) kept a cow who provided their supply of milk (which made their cheese) and a yearly calf to be harvested at Thanksgiving along with a hog or two. Literally the entire neighborhood would band together to make salami, prosciutto and sausage - taking turns at each others house to make sure every family would have enough in their larder to get through the winter. This scene would be repeated when it was time to make the wine as well. The factory homes his family lived in were built on postage stamp lots, having pasture was unheard of. In the spring a wealthy neighbor would let them walk their cows down the 1/2 mile path twice a day to be staked in their yard as free lawnmowers. All summer long the families would gather the grass left along the side of the road after the town crew came by with the sickle bar cutter and make hay mounds to get their cows through winter. Periodically they would cut branches from the willow trees as supplemental forage for the cows. The woodstove that burned year-round simmered the garden scraps and kernels cut from ear corn that his mom would dole out to the hogs. Ed swears his mother had a sixth sense and could pick out the chicken hadn't laid an egg that week - which put the hen on the block for Sunday dinner. Hearing his stories of community makes me long even more the human connections we took for granted Pre-COVID. I am hopeful that our "New Normal" - whatever that may be - will continue to be a resurrection of supporting our local community and reconnecting to our food as nourishment and sustenance for our family dinners. 
When we shut down our online ordering in May we could never have guessed it would be fall before we felt we had our heads above water again. Our little farm has been blessed to survive power outages, downed trees, processing delays and heading out every day to the other “Essential” job, but we know we also failed to meet a lot of folk’s expectations. And if you know me, you know that fact pains me…... BUT......... We all have enough negativity to deal with so instead we want to SHOUT OUT our gratitude for our customers and AMAZING Farm Stand Partners. Barden Farm ~ New Hartford Bristol’s Farm ~ Canton Davis IGA ~ Kent Essential Health ~ West Hartford Freund’s Farm & Bakery ~ Canaan Fort Hill Farm ~ New Milford Holcomb Farm ~ Granby The Hotchkiss School ~ Lakeville Marblevalley Farm ~ Kent The last couple of months have reinforced how important it is to shop local and support local or be doomed to depend upon a broken supply chain. We are working hard everyday to provide healthy, family food and look forward to getting up and running again very soon. Thank you for your patience, your support and your friendship!!!! |
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