Hey farm friends! Happy Spring! We hope you’re doing well and taking on this new year with a vengeance! I guess things are not really back to normal, but here’s to hoping they will be soon! 2020 certainly was a weird year, and that’s putting it mildly. The social distancing didn’t bother us most of the time since we live a quarter mile away from our nearest neighbors and keep very busy here on the farm. But it did affect our summer plans with family and friends. We certainly missed all of those good times, especially since it was our 1.5 year old’s first active summer, it would have been nice to have family and our friends with kids all together, but there’s always this summer! Fingers crossed.
Our CSA in 2020 went very well. Not surprisingly since many people opted to have produce delivered directly to them, and we are always happy to oblige. We brought in a lot of new customers this year and really made the most of our forced weekends at home. Our gardens really loved all the time we spent with them. Haha. Oh and so did the chickens and goats etc…
As former city people we really wanted to provide fresh produce and eggs to the Chicagoland area, and we did. We have so many customers in Chicago and the surrounding burbs, but now we have our 2nd farmhand due in July and have made the decision that one of us trucking it out to Chicago and the burbs is just not feasible with a 2 year old and a newborn, so we have decided to put a hold on all deliveries east of Rockford for 2021. It was a tough decision since we have soooo many amazing customers in the Chicagoland area who we look forward to seeing every delivery, but it’s just what is best for our family. Especially with a July delivery date. Seriously, we miss you all already though.
With that said, we have decided to expand service to the Rockford, Winnebago, Stockton, Freeport and Galena areas. We have recieved a lot of interest already after just 1 Facebook ad. So we’re happy that we can continue to run a successful CSA. Our CSA interest form has been updated and we’ll be posting this year’s parameters of our 2021 CSA to the website shortly.
Ok, that’s it for now. Thank you for reading! And Happy 1st Day of Spring!!! We hope you get some sun on your face today! It’s beautiful outside!!!
If you have questions about our 2021 season, please contact us!
We have finally crunched the numbers, finalized our seed orders and planned our gardens and fields, so now it’s time to announce that we are doing our very first CSA sign-up this year!
What is a CSA?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it’s the best way for farmers and consumers to partner to help farms match production to their markets. CSA subscribers purchase, up front, a share in the farm’s growing season in exchange for produce over a set number of weeks of the season. Large farms are capable of doing a drop-off every single week of a spring/summer season, however, small farms like us don’t have the means to produce that much. So most small farms, especially 1st timers, keep the delivery to a couple times a month. Typically, there is a drop-off site or sites where CSA members pick up their weekly shares each week/month, or they come directly to the farm.
2018 CSA number crunching.
Since this is our first year running a CSA we are only doing a signup for once or twice a month produce deliveries. Each delivery will contain $30 worth of fresh, seasonal, organic produce delivered to a location near you. Our season will start Saturday, May 26th and go until Saturday, October 27, a full-season will be $300 for 11 weeks, delivered twice a month or a half season will be $165 for 6 weeks, delivered once a month. Every box will include farm fresh eggs, but otherwise the produce and herbs will change depending on that week’s crop.
Caribbean Red Habanero and Peach Hot Sauce
We will also include some jellies, jams, hot sauces, salsa etc from time to time as well. A small sample of this season’s crops include 5 varieties of lettuce, 3 varieties of spinach, 3 varieties of eggplant, 15 varieties of peppers (hot and bell), 15 varieties of tomatoes, 3 varieties of apples, Bartlett pears, Jubilee peaches, Bing cherries, Detroit dark red beets, kohlrabi, 7 varieties of radishes, 7 varieties of carrots, Concord grapes, broccoli, delicata squash, acorn squash, pumpkins, 3 varieties of onions, 4 varieties of garlic, shallots, zucchini, cauliflower, purple and green brussel sprouts, 2 varieties of tomatillos, 3 varieties of green beans, black raspberries, blueberries, red raspberries, watermelon, snow peas etc…the list is long. We are really looking forward to the upcoming season and are soooo ready for Spring!
Farm Fresh Produce can now be delivered to you!
This is going to be a lot of fun. We’re so excited to get the ball rolling on this. It will be nice to know that every single thing we grow will find a home. The 2018 season is going to be great!
If you are interested in joining our CSA, drop us a line!
Life has been great lately at Archie’s Acres and we have some fun updates from the farm.
Weather is slightly more cooperative
We’re happy to report that the rains have finally given us some time to dry out. That said, we still get a little rain almost daily, but the 1-4 inch torrential rainstorms have slowed and the plants are finally looking and feeling healthy. Aaaaaand because of that it’s been a real tomato and pepper party over here!
Which leads me to happily announce that we have begun selling produce to The Log Cabin Restaurant in Galena, IL! How exciting is that?! It’s such an honor! We’re over the moon about it!
Farmer’s markets are fun!
Farmers market life has been great. We’re enjoying our time at the Rockford City Market every 2nd and 4th Friday and we’re loving our guest vendor spots at the Glenwood Sunday Market in Chicago! The next time we’ll be at the Glenwood Sunday Market is September 24th. We meet so many amazing people at these events and we love being able to learn from the vendors and local farmers around us.
It’s great when friends stop by to see us at the market! Bernie and Nancy it was so good to see you!
Exciting development for next year
We’ve also decided to begin a CSA program starting next Spring! For anyone unfamiliar, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Members sign up to receive a box containing fresh, organic, seasonal goodies from our farm. Once or twice a month (depending on your preference), we will deliver it to a convenient pick-up location.
We’ve created a form in the “Shop” section of our website where you can add your information and we’ll email you when we finalize plans. In the meantime, we’d still like to share our chicken and quail eggs with people after the Farmers Market season is over. But that’s all a work-in-progress.
Critters everywhere
Tilly thinks the bed is meant for her
Our farm pets are doing well. Moose is growing by the literal second! He’s as big as Archie right now and he’s not even 4 months old! He’s fitting in with the goats and Tilly very well.
On that note, Tilly is a diva. She demands treats and pets and she regularly steals Moose’s dog bed. She shouts at us from the pasture every time she sees us. It’s hard to believe that she’s only 4 months old (born April 21st) because she’s such a presence on the farm already that we can’t imagine life without her!
Another hen has hatched a couple of babies in the last week. She has 2 beautiful little chicks and she’s momming like a champ! Just today I watched her teach her babies about the automatic waterer that we have setup in front of their coop. It was really sweet to watch.
How is it August already?!! This summer has flown by and farm life has been hectic for us lately! Not surprisingly, so much has happened since the last time we blogged that I need to do a top 10 list to catch up.
1. Chickens
Two of our hens successfully hatched 8 chicks of their own. They were both 1st time moms so for the first week they actually hung out together and co-parented the babies together. We weren’t sure how the new moms were going to keep the other chickens from pecking the babies to death, but after seeing what they did to Archie when he accidentally walked to close to the babies, it became very clear that these are hardcore, protective mammas. It. Was. Awesome!! The babies are over a month old now, they are traveling in their little pack of 8 and are free ranging and roosting together. It’s very cute and we’re proud of their moms.
5 of the babies venturing to the garden for treats (aka split/damaged tomatoes)
2. Quail
Our quail have finally started laying! These little birds are laying machines! We have 14 girls and although it took longer than the usual 2 months for them to get going, they are now finally getting around to providing us some sell-able farmers market eggs.
Quail egg size vs our chicken eggs
3. Swimming pool
The giant black walnut tree fell on our pool. We spent hours and hours digging up a spot for the pool, had our neighbor bring his skid loader over to help move earth and sand around, and set up the pool (it was NOT an hour long process as advertised). We used it every hot day for about 3 weeks, and then the first of many nasty storms came through and blew the tree onto our pool and our upper garden. Fun times.
Well it was fun while it lasted – at least the tiki torches survived
4. Stormy weather
Storm rolling toward the farm
On that note… the storms throughout the month of July really hurt our town, our garden and our driveway. Our town declared a state of emergency after half of it was under 3+ feet of water; many homes were damaged and destroyed. Many farmers around us had to claim total losses of their corn and soybean crops because of it. It wouldn’t stop raining. We got 11 inches of rain in one weekend! Our gravel driveway was badly damaged; we would cart rocks and gravel to fill in the deep ditches channeled out by the constant running water from the top of the hill, but then it would rain again and the rocks and gravel would wash away and we would have to start over. Our tomato and pepper plants are strained from the all the rain as well.
Pearl City, IL – yes, that’s the main street
5. New goats
We have 3 new goats to the herd! Their names are Lefty, Willie and Bobby. They are siblings of Pancho. We invited Pancho’s parents to our pig roast back in June and they saw Pancho’s new home and asked if we’d take the other 3. How great is that?! The 4 goats and Tilly are now one solid, happy herd.
Our cute, happy herd
6. Another new addition
And since we now have a little herd, we had to get a little herd protector! Meet Moose, our new livestock guard pup!
Moose is so cute
He’s a Karakachan; we got him at 11 weeks and he’s the biggest sweetheart. Neither of us had ever heard of this breed before, but after doing a little research, it turns out this breed is amazing. They are massive, Bulgarian shepherds. Bred to stay up all night, they are loyal and protective. Moose will be well over 100lbs.
Moose and his new pals
7. Kittens are the cutest
The kittens are now 5 months old. They are the sweetest, nicest, cuddliest little fur balls and they run this place. They hang out and mouse in the chicken coop, a couple of them sleep on the front porch at night, sometimes they sleep in the garage. I’ve never felt better about the mouse population around here than I do right now. We’re so happy to have such a productive little crew!
8. Scourge of the garden and orchard
Ugh, the Japanese beetles are here! We lucked out last summer, clearly. This summer they are here in swarms. They’ve eaten all of our sweet corn and have devastated our cherry and plum trees in the orchard. I hate them!! We were not anticipating they would be this bad, so next year we’ll be better prepared and ready to pounce. Just another farm life lesson for us.
9. Rooster separation
We had to build a bachelor pad for the surplus of roosters we had running around the farm. At one point we had 10 roosters and 40 hens, and it was horrible. As soon as the young ones hit chicken puberty it was a stressful free for all. The hens were looking beat up and they weren’t laying as much; we were down to getting 6 eggs a day! It was a mess. So we built the boys their own little coop and run, because without females around, boys will actually happily coexist with each other. Otherwise a few of them would fight to the death and we love them too much to have that happen. Eventually we’ll set up a separate breeding coop so we can pair one rooster with a few hens to get all sorts of fun egg colors.
10. Farmer’s markets
And finally, to wrap up this last month+, our farmer’s market game is pretty solid. We are figuring things out slowly but surely and are able to fill a booth with veggies, herbs, eggs and other things from our garden! How cool is that?! Hanna and I have been able to keep our giant garden alive and thriving, even though we seem to make every mistake possible and kinda have the worst luck. But we’re doing it and it’s awesome! And I’m already looking forward to being even better next year!
Farmer’s Market bound!
11. Bonus update
And yeah, and Archie is still an awesome little bear.
It has been a very busy couple of months on Archie’s Acres. We’ve begun working farmer’s markets and we’ve adopted/rescued a few new residents. We’re so happy to be able to give them happy homes. Also, sadly, we had to say goodbye to our head rooster, Nacho, who died last week.
Nacho was the head rooster on this farm. RIP
Nacho was a huge loss. Our hens have been staying close to the coop ever since; however, we’re hopeful that one of Nacho’s two sons will step up to protect the flock.
Farm life is an emotional roller coaster most weeks.
Meet Poncho!
He is our new 2-3 year old Nigerian Dwarf goat rescue. He’s a nice, friendly and well behaved guy. We adopted him from a couple in Monroe, WI who had too many wethered males in their herd. (By the way, wethered means fixed.) He was their favorite and didn’t want to see him become someone’s food. So we were happy to take him! He will join Tilly as a landscape specialist.
Poncho.
He and Tilly became fast friends, Tilly was sooo happy not to be an only child. She hated being in the pasture alone so she hung out with the chickens, and for a time, thought she was a chicken. She even went under the house to cool off on hot days, like a chicken….
Tilly thinks she’s a chicken.
Meet Betty White
Betty White came from our neighbor ( a few miles away) who is a goat farmer. She didn’t become a mom this past season so he informed us that the herd would see her as a drain on the herd and would most likely beat her to death this winter, so we gladly took her. We named her Betty White because she’s a feisty old broad who doesn’t take any lip from anyone. She’ll be an excellent addition to our tiny herd.
Betty White
These 2 goats have joined Tilly in the our 3.5 acre fenced pasture and will work as landscape specialists. I think we’re all very excited about this!
We are excited to announce that we could be at a farmer’s market near you!!
Our farmer’s market booth!
Currently we are participating in the Rockford City Market every 2nd and 4th Friday of each month. And this Sunday, July 2nd, we will be doing the Glenwood Sunday Market on the North side of Chicago in Rogers Park. We’ve enjoyed the process of having a booth at a farmer’s market. It has been fun and we’re very excited to be a part of these wonderful events. Being able to provide people with organic produce and tasty eggs is extremely rewarding. Stay tuned for more farmers market announcements! We’ll try to keep our calendar in the “Shop” tab of the website up to date so keep checking.
We’ll also announce our market schedules on Instagram @archiesacres and Facebook @archiesacres
Yes yes, I realize that it’s been forever since we’ve posted an update. So I’ll do a top 10 list of things that we’ve done since I last checked in.
TOP 10 THINGS WE’VE DONE ON THE FARM…
1. Those blue egg layer Cream Crested Legbar and Whiting True Blue eggs finally hatched! We have 7 beautiful new chicken babies! I’ve been actively humanizing them by relentlessly picking them up, so they’re a friendly little crew.2. Our windbreak has been massively added to on the West and North sides of the farm by planting 25 arborvitae trees, 10 plum bushes, 10 serviceberry bushes and 10 nannyberry bushes. They’re all only about 2 feet tall, but seem to be doing well. Now we just have to wait 5 years…3. We tilled our entire 150′ by 35′ garden. Since we don’t own a tiller yet, so we borrowed our neighbors. Geez, tilling is hard work!4. We planted over 150 potatoes. Many many radishes, onions, peas, carrots and Brussels sprouts seeds went in the ground too….5. We re-potted over 150 tomato, pepper, cauliflower, flower and broccoli seedlings. Some of the rarer tomato and peppers seedlings will be sold at the Rockford Green City Farmer’s Market this summer for the first few markets anyway. We’ll be there every 2nd and 4th Friday until the end of September.Here’s the link to find out more about the market:
6. We built a deer and rabbit fence around the entire garden. The rabbit and deer population is impressive out here. When we come home in the evening, there are always at least 8 baby rabbits running across the driveway. And we learned last year that they are ferocious eaters!7. We weeded, re-roped and trimmed back our Centennial and Chinook hops plants to get them ready for Spring. This is the 2nd year for these hops so we should get an even better crop this summer! Last year we only got enough to do 2 batches of beer. So this year we’re hoping for at least 4 brewing sessions with our own hops.8. We just started hatching quail eggs! Last night, in fact. We have 20+ cortunix quail eggs in our incubator. So far 3 have hatched. They are so cute! And surprisingly loud. We plan to sell quail eggs this summer. Quail develop surprisingly fast, they’ll be fully grown and laying in only 2 months!
Baby quail are so cute and tiny!
9. We have moved all of our Iowa hatchery chicks out to a pen across from the chicken coop to get them acclimated to life outside. They’re all over 7 weeks now so they have all of their feathers and can survive the elements. Happy to report that all are doing well!
The teenagers are loving life outside.
10. We have finalized our farmer’s market paperwork with the Rockford Farmer’s Market. We’ve bought all of the licenses that Illinois requires for every single thing they can think of. And it’s a lot. We have an egg license, I have my ServSafe food handling certification, a food handling permit and our individual licenses to sell in each county where we plan to sell. Plus our LLC insurance, FEIN and sales tax ID requirements are all squared away. We have all the required packaging and labeling materials to sell in Illinois, it was tedious and over-the-top, but that’s finally done. Phew.Life is good here at Archie’s Acres. Spring has the trees and flowers blooming, the grass is green and the woods are coming back to life! It’s so fun to watch nature do its thing every spring.
For daily picture updates about Archie’s Acres, follow us on Instagram! @archiesacres
