Farm Tour

This morning we left the house at about 9:30 and headed down to Falmouth, VA for a tour of Walnut Hill Farm at Elm Springs.  They are a meat and eggs vendor at our local farmer's market, and their meats are delicious (lamb, pork, beef, and chicken).  A couple of weeks ago they had posters up advertising a pair of weekends for farm tours.  $5 a person to tour the farm, check out their operation, and enjoy a hayride.

I was interested, but Nick less so until he went to their website and actually read up on who they are and what they do.  Then he was very excited to go visit.  It's a family-run operation that raises many of their animals on pasture with as little grain input as possible.  The pigs are on dirt for now but they hope to pasture them eventually.  They do not use hormones or antibiotics, but for me the most exciting part is that in additional to some traditional breeds (ie. Angus cattle), they are also raising Heritage breeds!  They have a small population of American Milking Devon cattle, Tamworth pigs, and the world's largest population of Hog Island sheep .  They have done a lot of work with the SVF Foundation, a group that I'm familiar with because the veterinary school at Tufts works with them as well.  In fact, I was wearing my Tufts fleece and Jeff, who runs the farm with his wife Ginny, immediately recognized it and wanted to know if I had visited SVF (sadly, no).  He then had me pegged as a vet student before getting the chance to ask if I'd actually finished school.  That turned into a bit of a conversation about vet med on the farm and all the excellent educational seminars and services the vet school at Virginia Tech provides to him and other farmers.  They are nice folks, and it was a pleasure to tour their facility!

The barn that this bell used to hang in burned down,
but the bell was found in the rubble.  Ginny's father gave it to her.

Beautiful mums for sale; we bought one, as well as a pumpkin.
We'd planned to get a pumpkin anyway, and with these purchases they
waived the farm tour/hayride fee.  Good deal!

Yummy local apples - we bought a few.

Friendly geese - who knew?

Thanksgiving turkeys; they only have fifty for the season and they are
taking orders now.  We've already got plans for this year, but perhaps
next year we'll save up for one of their birds!

Jeff giving us some history.

The pig barn - the sheep like to hang out in the aisles here too.

Tamworth piglets, 10-12 weeks old.

Their beautiful pond, fed by Elm Springs. 
It is fenced off so the pastured animals cannot foul it.
This means they can't drink from it either, so there is a system set up
to connect multiple drinking stations to the well water system
(the same system that provides water to the proprietors).

Chip and Dale, their oxen team.
They are very friendly and very curious -
came right up to the hayride to say hello!

Say hello, Chip!

Jeff demonstrating how well-trained Chip is.

Jeff had me hold Chip's lead, "C'mere and hold this, Miss Vet Student"
while he put a kiddo and his mom atop Chip.
Now that is a well-trained animal.
Dale is in the foreground soliciting head skritches.

The farmhouse.  The four barren-looking trees near it are
the walnut trees that earned the farm its name.

Hog Island sheep.  Both males and females can have horns
or be polled (no horns).  The males' horns are more impressive, though.
 

These sheep are gorgeous, and badly endangered.  The farm has done well
with breeding them, though; they've even loaned the SVF Foundation
multiple rams and ewes to further the embryo collection and breeding program.

You can learn more about Hog Island sheep here and here.

Next it was off to see the burros - a friendly bunch!

 

We know Jeff gave you burro snacks - please feed us!

Cookies?  Please?  Nose rubs are great and all, but I want cookies.

That was a morning very well spent.  After that, we came home and spent two and a half hours doing yardwork until we were so tired we could barely move.  More on that tomorrow!