Creekside Natural Farm, Minooka, IL – Blog

This morning we picked sugar-snap peas, strawberries, broccoli and green beans. We also have eggs in the stand.

Just picked broccoli. Washed and in the stand for $4.00 per bag.

We started picking strawberries this morning and have a few pints in the stand for $3.00 per pint.

We will be at the 3 French hens Market in Morris tomorrow from 9-2. We’ll be selling spinach, green beans, herbs and Suri alpaca products. Looks like a beautiful day to enjoy the outdoor market!

Oh I love this hay!

We had a busy day today at CNF. Our friends from Heritage Farm Suri Alpacas came up and sheared Parabella for us. She missed shearing because she was busy giving birth on shearing day. They also inserted Apollo’s microchip and took Eclipse and Isabelle back to their farm to be bred.
We also received our approval from Animal Welfare Approved for our egg laying hens!

Apollo

Uncle Smokey, Apollo and Parabella are buddies

Mama got her hair cut

We have Spinach and lettuce in the stand this morning – $3.00 per bag

And eggs from our pastured hens – $4.00 dz

This fall I will be making and selling fruit pies. Bill is enjoying my practice pies!

We’re getting ready for our four new piglets!  Bill built this piglet transporter
(glamorous motor less home) and trough in the shop.

Mr. Big (the rooster) has been living with our little boy alpacas because the hens were picking at his feathered feet. A few days ago Lexi (the hen) decided to join him. She spends her day with him then flies back in with the hens at night. I guess she’s not ready for a commited relationship yet -LOL

Cucumbers, tomatoes and basil sprouting in the greenhouse, a volunteer petunia, daisies and my view of Jet through the greenhouse window..

Working in the greenhouse today.

I’ve been busy ordering this morning – 300 strawberry plants, 150 asparagus plants & 17 lbs of seed potatoes!

We will have eggs throughout the winter.  If you are interested in chickens or lamb,  we are almost sold out of both.

We’ve finished most of our fall chores just in time. The garlic is planted, the dead plants have been pulled, the tomato cages have been put away for the winter, compost has been added to next years asparagus and 100 daffodil bulbs have been planted on the berm to replace the tulips that were eaten by the tunneling rodents. 

We had a very productive day yesterday.  We left @ 4 am to head down to Arthur, IL for chicken processing and came home @ 5 pm with 103 packaged chickens in the freezer, 3 gallons of real (raw) milk and a re-finished antique pie safe that was made by my great-grandfather in AR.

About half of the chickens were pre-sold, so we will have them for sale from the farm until they’re gone. You can either call (815)467-5259 or e-mail pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com with any questions or to arrange a pick-up time.

They are available 3 ways – whole heritage breed, whole double breasted & cut-up dbl breasted and are all $4.00 per lb. The heritage breed chickens are better used for soup and make a very rich stock.  The double breasted are a more meaty chicken with lots of breast meat.  These chickens were all raised outdoors and fed organic feed (no GMO grains).  Because we only raise 100 at a time, we are able to do some extra things with our chickens.  We move their portable structure at least once per day so they are on fresh grass, we fermented their feed for better digestion and also gave them organic apple cider vinegar and chamomile tea in their water.

I’m not selling the milk, but thought the picture was interesting for those who have never seen real milk. I skimmed the cream from the jar on the left and will make creme fresh with it.  The jar on the right has not had the cream skimmed, but if you look closely you can see the line dividing the cream from the milk at about the same level as the milk in the jar on the left. I will make mozzarella cheese and yogurt with the milk.

The pie safe still needs the handles and glass for the doors, so I’ll post a picture of that when it’s finished.