Wednesday 17 September 2008

Cedar Cove Farm (MI; 5 acres; Pastured poultry, beef, worms, rabbits, vegetables, dairy; Christian)

I'd like to thank Scott at Cedar Cove Farm for responding to my appeal to bloggers who have been recommended by other bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World, but who haven't yet contacted me with their own story and their favourite blogs.

Recommended bloggers go straight into the blog roll, but the idea is that I do one post on each of them, in the words of the recommended blogger, and then do another post on their own recommendations. Just as Scott has provided for me.

On the blog roll you can see which recommended bloggers have become recommenders themselves in return. If you're listed but haven't sent me your story and your recommendations, I'd really appreciate you dropping me a line.

And so it grows....





"Our story began about 10 years ago when we first moved to the rural lifestyle we now enjoy.

We started out trying to find ways to raise our own food, to provide for ourselves and become more self reliant.

We are a family of four, myself (the husband), my wife, and our two beautiful daughters ages 8 and 6. We are a Christian family that believes in the bible as the wholly, complete, inerrant, inspired, word of God. Jesus Christ is our Saviour from a life of sin and death. We believe in His death, burial, and resurrection-God's sacrifice once, forever.



We love the country life, and our girls refer to themselves as "country girls". We home school, teach them God's word from the bible and enjoy all that farm life has to teach.

We built our modest home on five acres in a "cove" of Cedar trees. We put solar panels on the roof to run some lights, started with a composting toilet but switched back to conventional methods. We even had a windmill to pump our water. That, too, we went conventional eventually. It's not that these thing wouldn't work, they did. We couldn't gather enough wind to keep the water tank full, and the toilet was set too high to work properly. In other words, we learned a lot during those beginning years.

During this time, we began reading a bunch and learning of old ways to farm. The ways prior to industrialised, corporate, agribusiness. The days when labor was provided by the farmer, not the machine. Staying small and providing food fit to eat, for us and, maybe, our community.

Our little farm began to grow, slowly, over the years, and continues to grow. We adhere to the principle of "Organic Growth", or growing from within, not with large debt or other outside influences. Slow it is, then, but that is OK. We have found several small ways to provide different "salaries" for ourselves. Of course, I still work a full time job, which is the major source of income.


We raise and sell "Pastured Poultry". This is a method of raising meat chickens on pasture, in their natural environment, without antibiotics or hormones of any kind. We were surprised at how much grass a chicken will eat! It is because of this that we began reading and studying grass fed meats and dairy products. To sum it up, grass is the key.


We are learning as we go, trying to raise healthy food for us and others. By no means do we have this thing figured out, but we're gaining on it.


We are looking forward to our first grass fed beef from our miniature Hereford bull calf.



We started raising worms for the garden and the compost they produce, with the possibility of sales to local fishermen.

We raise meat rabbits and sell them for pets.

We garden with raised beds made of concrete blocks (the only way to garden, in our opinion) because the ground, here, in southern Missouri is all rock and clay.

We have grown to the point, now, that we have several customers for our Pastured Poultry, free range eggs and fresh yogurt made from the family milk cow's milk.

Our ideas are many, but, we intend to stay small, serving our neighbors, and not add enterprises unless they complement one that already exists.

To learn even more about us and get an idea of where we are coming from read our blog at:
www.cedarcovefarm.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by and let us know what you think. Or you may click the links and send us an e-mail. Enjoy."







N.B You may note that I label some posts Christian. This is not used in a prerogative sense, but simply to aid like minded people find each other more easily.





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