Tour Our Farm

Have you ever wondered what happens on the farm throughout the year?

Follow along, and we’ll take you on a reading tour of all our adventures from last year and the great things we have planned for this year.

Come on, let’s head to the barn. Watch your step around the bikes, farm toys and shoes tossed everywhere as we walk the winding path from the house through the yard.

Hello cows! Jasmine and Brandy, our milk cows hang out in a pasture just before the barn.  These girls make it possible for our farm families to enjoy fresh, raw milk as part of our Herdshare. They gladly trot into the milking area to share their milk with us for a little grain. Brandy was added to the farm last spring to meet the demand for more raw milk.  Early summer, she’ll be freshened, which means she’ll have a calf.

Oh, listen!  You can already hear the pigs.  Opening the barn door is like ringing a dinner bell.   How many pigs do we have on our farm you might ask?  Well….that depends on the time of the year, but anywhere from 25-75.  Aww…look at those cute little piglets!  Don’t you just want to touch their little pink noses?  The older ones come to the edge of the pen, they like a good scratch behind the ear through all their bristly hair.

The piglets are born on the farm and spend their days grazing our pastures until they’re just the right age and size to nourish our bodies. Then, they visit freezer camp. Where’s it all go?  A few pigs go to families every spring to raise out, but most of the pigs were raised to feed Harney County this last year.  Thanks to support letters from you, our farm family and friends, we were awarded a grant to provide 400+ pounds of pork a month to the local food banks. That’s 4 pigs a month! And what a surprise to find out we get to do it again for 2025!

Last year, we also provided pork for a small school in Eastern Oregon. We are working to expand the schools we work with this year through the Farm to School Program. One day, we hope to have an area where we can host classrooms at the farm to teach the kids all about how their food is grown.

Oooo! There’s a chicken, walking by.  Let’s follow her to the hen house.  Welcome to the Hilton of Henhouses, or so we’ve been told.  When these ladies are not outside wandering the farm, they scratch and cluck around their covered run, laying eggs the shades of green, brown and white in a soft bed of shavings. Why do we have less eggs in the winter? They tend to slow down laying in the winter due to the lack of light, but when they are in full production mode we collect 3-4 dozen a day. 

Gobble, gobble, gobble.  Yep, there’s turkeys in there too.  Mr. Turkey walks around rumbling in his chest and showing his tail off to the ladies.  Did you know it takes 36 weeks to raise a heritage turkey? We’ve already got a batch of eggs in the incubator.  Last year, the turkeys set on their own, and even though they made a nest and sat on three different groups of eggs, none hatched.  We ended up having to order babies that came in the mail. Let’s hope these little babies hatch!

Oh, WOW!  There’s a peacock!  Look at his tail all fanned out.  We have three peahens and one peacock.  Peacocks can live up to 50 years.  They hang around the chicken house and make their rounds on the farm, keeping the bug population down.

What’s that?  You don’t see very many cows? Look waaaayyy out on the edge of the fields.  They tend to hang out in groups.  We calve in the fall, so in October, our fields are full of fuzzy, wet nosed little calves.  All winter, the kids enjoy driving the hay wagon while their Dad pushes the feed off to the cows.  In Spring, we move them out to Izee to graze the mountain sides. We love spending the days riding the hillsides checking on cows and moving them from pasture to pasture. All but the steers, these guys are fattened up on pasture to be processed in the fall. We are working to slowly grow our herd.

Let’s meander back over near the house to the garden.  That big plastic covered tunnel is our hoop house. In the winter, the garden looks like a disaster because I never seem to find enough time to pull weeds as mid summer hits.  I get too busy helping hay the fields.  That and I usually feel defeated because of the deer. We purchased all the materials to fence the garden in last spring, but the year escaped us and we never got the fence up. It is the number one priority for the garden this spring.  Whatever was not in our high tunnel was devoured by the deer.  And even then, if I’d leave the sides up on warm nights they’d slide right in and take bites from the tomatoes and cabbages.

Did you know you have to start planting seeds indoors in January if you hope to get a harvest before it freezes in the fall. Harney County has an extremely short growing season which can make it very difficult to grow here. We’ve already got several varieties under the grow lights and will be adding herbs soon.

This week, I’ve been ordering chicks and scheduling processing dates for our whole chickens. Did you get to try one of our whole chickens last year? They sold out! In January, we purchase the chicks for the year and schedule processing dates. This last year, we raised 100 in an old trampoline frame, dragging it around the field everyday to get them fresh grass.  This year, we plan on raising 250 and I hope to upgrade to a chicken tractor which I am working on designing to make the job of moving the chickens easier.

Do you know how to cut up a whole chicken?  Well, good news!  This year, we will be offering our chickens cut into 8 pieces.

You might be thinking, She’s superwoman.  How does she do it all?  I don’t!  While I appreciate the compliment, there is no way I could do this without the help of my family and our newly hired hand, Kimber. She moved over from the Oregon coast and loves working with the animals. We are so thankful to have her helping us out.  Now, most mornings, I can homeschool the kids without chores taking up all the time, be available to run my kids to activities in town, and deliver pigs to the processors in Central Oregon knowing things are handled at the farm.  She has been a blessing. 

Did you enjoy the tour?

Have you wanted to visit the farm? 

Now’s your chance. While we always offer the opportunity to drop by and visit, our first official farm tour offerings will be happening Saturday, May 10th from 1-3pm and Saturday, October 18th from 1-3pm. Be sure to mark your calendar. We will be limiting the number of people per tour to make sure you get the full experience and my undivided attention.

You’ll get to wander the farm, visit with the animals, maybe collect a few eggs and pick some beets, carrots, lettuce, maybe even some cabbage and cauliflower.

I’m sure you’d love to know what’s going on at the farm year round.  Sign up and you’ll get weekly emails with recipes, pictures of the farm and animals, what products we have available, and you won’t miss the sign up when it comes time for the farm tour.

From all of us here at Rural Roots Ranch, we wish you a wonderful year to come!