2004
 on
Mitchell Family Farm

2004 was the first year that Josh and Jena took leading roles in the management of the farm. Thank you to each one who supported them in their endeavors.

Josh and Jena raised over 600 frying chickens, 25 laying hens, 10 grass-fed hogs as well as having the management responsibilities of a small herd of Spanish/Boer goats, 20 head of cattle, a mule, a pony and a horse. Josh raised a garden without using chemical fertilizers or pesticides for the first time. He has been quite successful raising cool season vegetables during the winter months in his small greenhouse.

Of course all these new endeavors provided many opportunities for learning. The garden proved especially challenging during the late spring and summer when the harlequin bugs, grasshoppers and other pests were quite persistent. Several natural remedies were tried and some of them worked well. Josh has hopes of using what he has learned to improve results this year.

We used Bronson Locker for the first time this past year to process our frying chickens. They have been very good to work with. We have discovered that allowing them to quick freeze our chickens in their commercial freezer works much better than freezing the chickens in a home freezer. This year we will have the locker quick freeze all chickens unless you request “fresh chicken.”

The hogs were another interesting learning experience. We tried our hand at pasture finishing pork for the first time. The pigs were at times challenging to keep in the area we wanted them to stay in. We were not real accurate in predicting when the hogs would be ready to butcher so ended up with smaller hogs than we anticipated. We will attempt to do better to produce a larger hog this year. The pork is very lean. This is a plus in many ways, but does require an adjustment in cooking methods.

The Barred Rock laying hens were enjoyable to watch grow from day-old chicks to full grown hens this year. We have found farm-fresh eggs to be in demand so have added 25 Rhode Island Red hens to our flock.