Welcome to our family farmstead. Hope you have a nice stay!
All in Education
In recent years, many farmers and consumers have turned their attention to sustainable and eco-friendly farming methods. Among these methods, no spray farming practices have gained significant traction. These techniques emphasize the use of natural processes to maintain soil health, control pests, and enhance biodiversity without relying on chemical sprays. Let's dive into the benefits of no spray farming practices and how they are reshaping our farms and our health for the better.
Are you looking for a way to support your health, the environment, and your local community?
Consider an investment in a share of pastured pork from a local farmer!
Pastured pork is pork that is raised on pasture, with plenty of room to roam and forage for food.
This is in contrast to factory-raised pork, which is often raised in confinement and fed a diet that may not be optimal for the animal's health.
One of the things you ask me most often is how we are able to keep our pastured chickens safe from predators.
When folks think of getting a flock of their own, they have visions of happy hens frolicking and free-ranging around their garden.
But so frequently, people come to us to purchase our started pullets because their entire flock has just been wiped out.
Around here, we are blessed with flourishing wildlife, but that doesn't always translate to safe pastured chickens.
We have foxes, racoons, possums, skunks, weasels, hawks, owls, and coyotes, among other predators - everything likes chicken!
Yet we all know how exceptionally important it is to have our chickens on grass and receiving the benefit of the varied diet provided by the greenery and bugs, as well as the exercise and fresh air.
At Foxfire Farm, our horses’ health and happiness come first. From many years of experience with these incredible animals, we do believe that horses – much like humans - prefer to have a purpose in life and a job that they enjoy and are good at. We carefully select the horses for our trail program based on their personalities and experience, and we work with them in training regularly.
Kids + horses = self-confidence
Your kids will love re-creating the fun, joy, and learning of a working farm.
I love sharing my farm with kids each year, and they love it, too.
Their confidence grows throughout the week - it’s truly thrilling to see.
The kids learn how to feed horses, ducks, Oreo and Pinkie the pigs, and chickens.
They get to ride one of our horses each day.
The kids wait in anticipation to see if they get Cooper, Gandalf, or Belle who are the favorites.
Over our Spring Break Camp, I watched one of our 7-year old boys gently brush Gandalf rather than run on the playground with his buddies or hang out on his phone.
The horse was his new buddy.
What a joy to see a little boy loving a horse so much.
Horses do that to you. They steal your heart.
I watched one of our 10-year old little girls work with our horse, Belle. This shy girl's face lit up as she told the horse to "Walk on."
What a joy to see new-found confidence in her words and her actions.
She was a different girl.
She was no longer shy - the horses did exactly what she told them to.
Talk about leadership qualities!
I stood by amazed - she’d learned these life skills that she can take out to the non-horse world for the rest of her life.
Horses do that to you. They make you a better person.
Do you want your daughter or son to have a life transformation this summer too?
Come to my summer camp.
At this stage in my life, I sit at the intersection of self-transformation and environmental activism, and it occurs to me that the bridge is FOOD.
So many folks I know are on some spectrum of illness: on-going auto-immune issues, skin issues, mental health issues, cancer, IBS, reproductive issues, struggles with weight, resistance to antibiotics, super bugs, etc. When we look at these issues, the first response seems to always be pharmaceuticals. Take this drug to address this issue, and then take this one to combat the side effects of the first.
As we are getting sicker, this country is also losing small, family farms right and left. Between 2017 and 2022, the United States lost 140,000 farms. 140,000 farms lost in five years. Meanwhile, as your neighborhood farmer goes out of business and is forced to sell to yet another developer, just 4 companies in the U.S. produce over 60% of its chicken each year.
If you’re anything like me, you have felt the impact of inflation in recent years.
The cost of EVERYTHING has risen, but perhaps none more dramatically than the price of groceries.
While I knew this to be true, I was incredibly shocked to learn just how much grocery prices have risen upon seeing the following post on Facebook (note: this is not a political post, nor an endorsement of this creator or her platform, but simply a reference to the grocery experiment she discusses):
Have you thought about investing in a backyard flock of your own but ended up overwhelmed with all the conflicting advice on the internet?
It can get super confusing, huh?!
Some folks can make it seem intimidating or unattainable.
So, you just put off the flock you have been dreaming of until you feel more prepared.
And then you never end up feeling prepared.
But what if there is something you can do?
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
