It’s been a journey.
But for our trouble, we have three plump bronze Turkeys weighing around 20lbs each.
We had our butcher in Boyle clean and prepare them. He’s deft, careful and skilled. And he gives the kids lollipops.
Two are gifts for good friends. People who will come and tend a pulled lamb or clear a downed tree or drop a trailer at your door. We will have fed them at Christmas with stock we raised ourselves. It feels good. Right. An act of nurturing care.
One is for our table. Grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, parents and children, gathered round our farm table fed by what we grew. Warmed by the wood we cut.
A grower is a good thing to be.
Food we have grown this year has fed family and friends. It has fed customers. It has fed people I will never meet. And people I have been priveleged to meet and share a table with because of my food.
It’s been a challenging year. I’ve worked harder than I have in a decade. We’ve had losses that felt crushing, and lessons that will profoundly alter our direction.
But we’ve grown food with which people have fed themselves, their family, their friends.
We set out to raise pastured lamb and goat. To do that sustainably. To do it with good welfare. To do it spray free. To do it while fostering and developing our lands biodiversity. And to raise high quality lamb and goat that’s affordable. We’ve raised sustainable, high welfare rare breed lamb. We’ve donated some to good causes. And the rest we’ve sold at a price that doesn’t cost the earth. At a price about supermarket level. And we’ve done that while care taking our land. Maintaining and growing its biodiversity. Hand in hand with nature.
It’s been a good year. A growing year. A year of learning. A year of harvest.
