Welcome to our site!
Hello everybody, and welcome to our new website! Thanks Every Coast for making all of this happen (and putting up with our ever changing minds), you guys rock!
As this is our first blog post, I will be briefly catching you all up on what has happened since signing the lease with the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) in November. As soon as we signed the lease, we sowed cover crop on 20 acres, then waited for the rains to come while we took some much needed time off in the winter. Then, in the first week of March, our first batch of 200 chicks arrived, and our farming adventures began! 50 Delaware and 50 New Hampshire chicks came from a hatchery, and more excitingly, 100 Buckeyes came from a Sustainable Poultry Network (SPN) breeder out of Atwater, CA. We are continuing to work with breeders in the SPN to source all of our chicks, and are very happy with the outcome so far. We now have three flocks of about 200 chickens each, with our first flock ready to harvest this Tuesday, June 17th. In early April, our first batch of 12 week old Berkshire pigs arrived from a breeder up in Marin county. They are now moving happily around our pasture, chomping on grass, grubs, and whatever else we will give them (seriously, they love to eat. We were hanging out outside one night, and through the fog came the sound of them chewing grass).
About a month later, we got another batch of pigs, this time they were Large Blacks from a local breeder right here in Pescadero. They are a bit older, and should be ready to slaughter in about a month or so. Get ready for some delicious pork! We received our third and (maybe) last batch at the end of May, and these little cuties are a cross between Red Wattles and Gloucester Old Spot. They are super cute, with red bodies and black spots, and little wattles hanging down from their chinny chin chins. Near the end of May, we also got our first shipment of Turkeys! We got 35 Heritage Bronze Turkeys also from a SPN breeder, and are going to get 115 more sometime next week. They will all be ready around Thanksgiving and Christmas. That brings us up to date on the animals. Other exciting news in Root Down Farm world is that we just got our chicken and turkeys CCOF certified Organic! It was quite a lengthy process, with lots of paperwork and a very thorough inspection, but it is something we believe in so it is all worth it. Thank you all for your continuing support while we go on this wild adventure together!
-David