Snowy River Farms

#francisbean mostly spends his days snoozing away in a greenhouse. We like to think it's because he's up all night patrolling for predators and pests but he could also just be an incredibly lazy feline

#thankfulpost #2 Morgan gets her own post for being the absolute #rockstar that she is. She started off as a super supportive customer, offering her time to us as a driver when things got crazy with #covidcrap last Spring, turned into our Friday Deliveries Gal and has now moved into her Full-time Employee position. And she is #ahfreakingmazing She is kind, careful, fast, efficient, confident, professional, organized, focused, intelligent, honest and just, the best. We are so lucky to have her on our team! She's been such a huge help around here not only with our livestock and produce, but also being that extra hand with kids wandering around the farm (Ayla and Zeke are both mega fans of hers). Seriously blessed. Thank You Morgan!!

Lots of #hotpeppers up for grabs on both the @alderneylanding and @trurofarmersmarket online stores. You can also find them listed on our own squarestore at www.snowyriverfarms.com Grab a few, make yourself some #cowboycandy or #fermentedhotsauce or dry those babies for some amazingly spicy #pepperflakes

#dontfearthereaper #reapermadness #whatcantheharvesthopefor #feelinhothothot

#happythanksgiving This year has felt like one blow after another and, while we've been less optimistic than usual, I am feeling incredibly thankful for: children who want to help... love and support from family and friends on the daily the amazing help we received this week from the youth at the Old School Community Gathering Place YESS Project. They showed up with positive attitudes and were ready to work no matter what tasks were presented to them, what our weather decided to do, and how many kittens tried to slow them down Dear friends hung out with my kids while we worked to clear out our greenhouses in preparation for winter transplants, flipped a couple of #cattunnels into #greenhouses , and broke up the remaining garlic for planting. Thank You, all of you. My cup was feeling rather empty and you've patched some holes that really needed attention

Last batch of #chirpers for the year are in the barn. They'll hang out here for a couple of weeks until they're big enough to move onto our pasture area.

Your quarts of tomatoes this week are brought to you by Ayla

Definitely getting frost tonight that would wipe out our #hotpepper collection so we've pulled the plants! Lots of heat to goo around - who's making hot sauce?!

#meetyourfarmer #introductionpost #3&4 #themenfromsnowyriver Ezekiel (18 months) and David (in the #dirtythirties ) can often be found on the tractor or doing chores together. Zeke's day is not complete without collecting eggs from the hens, flipping the bedding with his shovel, feeding the pigs or letting the chickens out to pasture. He's mostly miserable when left in the house with me as he enjoys the eating of the foods but not the preparation so much When his dad head...s outside for a job he can't take part in he whines Maaaaaaaaaaamaaaa while carrying his boots over to the door and then calling heeeeeere pigpigpig... Since joining the farm full time in 2017 David has almost exclusively taken over all things livestock. I desperately needed time to focus in on the gardens and, since animals are what he has the most experience with, it made sense for him to take that over while I focused on plants. He not only handles the feeding, watering, fencing moving, and trailering, he also is in charge of all the building projects that come into my head While working crazy hours to help support our growing farm, David also studied to get his #redseal in carpentry during our early years on this property. He's taken every idea that walks through this head of mine and turned it into exactly what was needed. He custom built our main barn to adapt with our changing needs throughout the seasons and I've got to say, he's yet to disappoint on a project! While Ayla spent most of her toddlerhood with me and so now spends a lot of time in the greenhouses; Zeke is full blown livestock. And, I mean, we prefer it that way at this point as there is far less for him to accidentally destroy in the pastures than there would be if he was "helping" me in with tomatoes Just this morning David told me that a chicken came out the wrong door so Zeke went over, caught her, carried her back into the barn and shut the door! That's so much better than earlier today when he joined me briefly in the greenhouse and pulled all of the green tomatoes off the vine while somehow simultaneously dumping shovel fulls of sawdust into the lettuce beds #farmkidsofinstagram #farmhusband See more

We move the herd every two weeks and sometimes that just means opening the gate to a new paddock and sometimes it means popping them into the trailer for a short ride to a fresh area. They're often so excited to see their new digs that they jump on top of each other in the race to hit grass first. And #itiscrazynoisey We likely won't see them the rest of the day and will have to find them at feeding time for the next week in order to get head counts as they take themselves deep into the woods and couldn't care less about us and our livestock checks

Who needs turkey for #thanksgiving when you can just cook up a couple a 7lb chickens?! Whole birds available for you and yours this weekend. Shoot me a message if you want in!

#ourfallfeatheredfriends

#meetyourfarmer Intro #2 Ayla (pronounced A-La) - this kid loves to love. She is gentle and kind and fiercely protective of her little brother. She's turning into an excellent chicken catcher and has no fear jumping in with the pigs to help move them or show them cool hiding places that she's found. Since she was two she has been the one to grab our pig bucket from the house (veg scraps), March outside, call them down from the field and make sure that everyone gets a treat.... She loves helping to put the chickens away at the end of the day and has started teaching Zekey so they can become a tag team on night chores. Last year she planted her first serious plants and cared for them until she found homes for each one. I trust her to weed a garden bed appropriately, without pulling any important plants, more than most people who have worked for us. She is tough as nails and soft as a Lily all rolled into one. She cares greatly about the health of our animals and helping to create beautiful food for our family and yours. #sheisyourfarmer See more

I'm not sure if I've done a proper #introductionpost , if I have it's been a mega hot minute so here we go... Hi! I'm Amy My husband David and I run our 9.97acre farm in Cooks Brook NS with our kiddos, Ayla (7) and Ezekiel (1.5). I started this farm back in 2011 after working in wildlife rehabilitation for 6 years (including a 4 month adventure in Africa ). Originally it was just me running it all as David worked in carpentry in the city to help float the astronomical cos...ts of building a farm from scratch, until 2017 when I had grown the farm large enough to bring him home We do lots around here for being on such a small property. We've got 120 laying hens (soon to be 150) and raise 1800 meat birds on rotational pasture. We also raise hogs year round, processing 2-3 pigs every two weeks. They are rotated every two weeks, just like the chickens, between 4 woods and 2 pasture blocks. Everyone around here is raised on lots of fruits, vegetables, and certified nonGMO grains. We collect produce from local markets when they've gone past their selling date and feed them out to our pigs and chickens to help decrease food waste. It not only helps to lower waste on the grocery store side, but it also decreases the amount of grain we then feed to our livestock and I think it's really important to limit the amount of farmed land dedicated to animal feed production. We also have an #organicminded market garden that includes two greenhouses and 4 hoop houses which we hope to have turned into permanent greenhouses for next year. We use a TON of companion planting in our gardens and primarily grow heirloom varieties. We really care about the health of our land and livestock. Not just the physical but the mental as well. I want our animals and gardens and land to work in harmony together and, while it means we don't always make the best "business" decisions around here (like decreasing our pig herd to put less pressure on the woods), we wish to leave this place better than we found it. Stronger for our children and their children. Better equipped to feed our community. Thriving. Vibrating. I want you to feel it when you come here. So that's us #thisismyag See more

Best sign of a happy pig? - tail wagging!

This kid right here, The one who finds #fourleafclovers on the daily The one who takes the role of big sister very seriously The one who loves her friends fiercely The one who harvests produce with her mom and moves pigs with her dad without (much) complaint ... The one who reminds us every day to move our bodies so we can always grow stronger The one who cares about where her food comes from and educating her friends about it The one who is so incredibly kind I often wonder how I got so lucky as to be her mother This kid right here - she's 7 today and we wish her all of the everythings See more

Sweet Peppers Zucchini Squash Field Tomatoes Cucumbers ... Melons Greenhouse Tomatoes Lots of coffee, prep for the storm, mourn the losses at another date. September frost always gets me right in the feels. #thisiswhyigreenhouse See more

Checking out the frost damage and prepping for tomorrow's storm with this guy.

Tucked in the hot peppers and praying that the weather cooperates

You can find a short tour of our farm on our Instagram Page for Open Farm Day! If you don't have Instagram we are planning to do weekly (ish?) Live videos from all over the farm so you'll still get to see how we do what we do! :)

25 minutes til we start our live video for #openfarmday ! We've been outside since before the sun showed up today handling our frost situation and are now making sure everyone is fed, watered, and ready for their on screen appearance!