{"id":657,"date":"2012-02-20T22:23:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T05:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/?p=657"},"modified":"2012-02-20T22:24:25","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T05:24:25","slug":"winter-happenings-on-the-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/winter-happenings-on-the-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter happenings on the farm"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Hello Everyone,<\/p>\n<p>We thought it was about time  to let you know how your animals are doing&#8230;..here are some updates from the  Egg.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Farrowing<br \/>\nOur  sows Sugar (Shoog for short) and Piper are doing their job to bring beautiful  little piggies into the world. Piper gave us a small litter of four gilts  (girls) three weeks ago. All are healthy and solidly built and exploring their  surroundings and pasture when the sun shines. Sugar is due this week and looks  really ready to pop. She waddles the length of the pasture though her teats  almost drag over the grass. She gets some extra brushing which results in some  contented grunts and sighs to take her mind off the wiggling masses that are  preparing to make their appearance!<\/p>\n<div>Buffies<br \/>\nOur Buff  Orpingtons are starting to come into lay now as we find tiny little &#8216;wind eggs&#8217;  (nothing but shell and whites) and slightly bigger &#8216;rooster eggs&#8217; (the whole  package only very small) each day. We&#8217;ll have rooster eggs for sale later in the  spring \u00a0(all smalls) for $2.50\/doz. but don&#8217;t be fooled by the name. The old  wive&#8217;s tale on &#8216;rooster eggs&#8217; is that the girls are rather embarrassed to be  producing such small eggs so they blame them on the roosters.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Egg drop until April<\/div>\n<div>We&#8217;ll continue the egg drop at Drake Park on Sundays  between 3 and 4pm through April, and if egg production is looking massive (see  the note above about the Buffies) we will start deliveries then as well. In the  mean time, we have lots of sausage (Breakfast, Maple, and Sweet Italian), bacon  (Maple, Jowl, Cottage\/Shoulder, Peppered and British\/Loin in a few weeks), as  well as boneless and bone-in chops that we bring each Sunday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Spring is around the corner<\/div>\n<div>Chicken again in May! \u00a0The abattoir has been cleaned and closed for the winter  but as the weather changes, chicks will arrive and we&#8217;ll start processing  chickens again in just a couple of months. Like last year, we&#8217;ll have fresh and  frozen chicken at the farmers markets this summer! Yum! \u00a0Don&#8217;t forget to plan  for farm days this summer&#8230;.these are definitely our favorite days of the  season.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Turkeys in July and November<\/div>\n<div>Thanks to all who emailed or called with Thanksgiving  turkey reports. We really appreciate the feedback and are so pleased by the  responses. This year we finally got the size right as most were a good fit for  the dinner table. We&#8217;ll have turkeys again this year with some available this  summer (think about BBQ-ing some drumsticks or plan a truly awesome summer wing  party) and for Thanksgiving 2012. Last years birds were great on the farm and  the table so we are sticking with the formula for 2012. They are social birds  that forage well- so the summer birds are really going to enjoy the pastures!  \u00a0The fact that these turkeys herd so well really make them fun&#8230;.nothing worse  than chasing a rouge birds off the neighbors field!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Bend News<br \/>\nWhere will the market be this year?  \u00a0Not sure, but the rumor mill has us back in the alley between Oregon and  Minnesota&#8230;.hope we hear soon!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Salem news<\/div>\n<div>You will find the Great American Egg products at the  Salem Public Market (www.salempublicmarket.com), Oregon&#8217;s oldest farmers market,  on Saturdays from 8:30 to 2pm along with Ling Farm Beef (www.lingfarm.com) and  Henny Farm Lamb (www.hennyfarm.homestead.com). This is a great market with great  traditions and has been a good fit for us. Your patronage has really helped the  farm this winter. \u00a0We&#8217;ll be back at the  Saturday Salem Market when it opens in April as well. We hope to have a fixed  booth along Marion Street this year which means no more playing Marco Polo as  you try to find us by the port-a-potties. . . \u00a0or behind the band. . . or next  to the zero-waste stations!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Chicks and turkey poults and ducklings have been ordered  so spring must be near! See you soon!!!!<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello Everyone, We thought it was about time to let you know how your animals are doing&#8230;..here are some updates from the Egg. Farrowing Our sows Sugar (Shoog for short) and Piper are doing their job to bring beautiful little piggies into the world. Piper gave us a small litter of four gilts (girls) three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":661,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions\/661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}