The first batch of our baby-broiler chicks for the 2008-growing season has been here for over 2 weeks. They are steadily growing in a custom brooder that Forrest designed and built from a reclaimed 20 ft trailer. With the help of two new interns, Jacob and David, and our resident farm hand Robert, many building projects have come to fruition. We have several new gravity watering systems that make our pasture based agriculture work more efficiently than ever. We can now move the cattle, pigs and sheep from one fenced-in pasture to the next without worrying about the animals tromping on top of the same ground several times a day to get to water. The laying hens have a new central laying house with a rotating electrical fence that puts them on a fresh piece of grass every day, while the hen house gives them greater protection from predation. They are laying better than ever!
Our biggest news is our new farm nerve center. The remodeled historic slave quarters will allow for centralized meat storage, intern housing, office space, a small store and a new commercial pasta kitchen. We hope to move into our new building within the next two weeks. Please come out and visit our new place in June.
With two farm interns, Betsy and Nancy have more time to focus on customer service and product development. Betsy has been visiting the Dupont Farmers Market to bring samples of our delicious sauces, pestos, specialty sausages and value added products like Beef & Pork Sausage Meatloaf. We have a new variety of sausage that we are very proud of—Farmhouse Bratwurst is a flavorful but mild combination of our free-range veal and pork blended with organic spices from our friends at Red Rake Farm. Nancy has let her creative flair loose and branched out into several different pesto flavors for the spring. These include green garlic, mushroom, parsley cilantro, spinach and arugula pestos. Please call for the flavors of the week.
Betsy and Ruth have also come back from a series of B&B conferences with new ideas to make Smithfield Farm Bed & Breakfast even greener. Ruth continues to serve the best four-course gourmet breakfast in the county with fresh ingredients from our farm and our fellow vendors from farmers’ markets. Visit www.smithfieldfarm.com to see what the B&B has to offer.
Our website is refurbished and we would love to have some feedback. We include some of your family recipes that use our wholesome products on our website. We also like to let cyberspace know how you feel about our products on our testimonial page.
As a parting note, we’d like to mention and thank all of our on and off farm employees for making our family business possible. Our pasta ladies include Patty Childs and Fern Cone. Ruth and Betsy’s right hand in the B&B is Linda McCarty. Robert Albright continues to give us the same loyal service that he has for the past 15 years with the help of our two interns Jacob Galle and David Caroll. Our weekend farmers’ market staff includes Graham Berry, Alexis Akre, Amy Greenlee, Lexy Matsui, Jessica Shulze and Abdur Rashid.
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