A little bit about Moonsong Farm
This Narragansett turkey hatched out 13 poults in the summer of 2010. I learned that it is much easier for a turkey to raise her own babies than it is to buy day old poults and raise them myself!
I am a farmgirl at heart. Raised on a small family farm, it's in my blood. I work the same piece of property that my father and grandfather did. My great grandparents who came to Bridgewater from Poland as teens in the early 1900's, farmed property just across the street from where we are now. You could say that I've got roots here.
Our house sits on the old potato field. Our poultry yard is also where the poultry were when I was a child. The goats live where the pigs used to live. And the beehives are scattered around, just as they were in the old days. The vegetable garden sits where it did when my grandfather first plowed it up. It is the footprint of the old barn (1727) that burned down one Halloween night long ago. The soil is so fertile there. I think all the years the animals lived in it and then the ashes from the fire both added to the soil's fertility. Of course we're adding manure, oyster shells, ashes from the woodstoves and compost continually as well.
Six years ago I realized that something was missing from my life. One day while putting up jam, I realized what it was. That old feeling of producing and preserving food was therapeutic for me. I vowed that I would get back to this old activity that I learned in my teens. That same year I realized that I was missing more than just the preserving. I was missing the animals of my childhood farm. Getting chickens seemed like a logical first step to starting a farm. We started out with 5 hens. We now produce and sell about 7 dozen free range organic eggs a week at the height of the egg production season in the springtime.
Fast forward one year. Beekeeping school and keeping bees was my next endeavor. My grandfather kept bees here years ago and I swear that yearning that I had comes from that fact. I love beekeeping and I can't imagine my farm without Apis mellifera...that's the fancy Latin name for the honeybee. I have had a honey crop two years in a row now. Though my yeilds have been low, I am trying to increase the vitality of my hives using natural methods and hope to have higher yeilds in the future. The honey that I sell is raw and no chemicals were used in the management of my hives. I use an IPM (integrated pest management) system of screened bottom boards, powdered sugar dusting, and treatments with thymol (a treatment approved by organic standards) to control the mite population in my hives. I'm sure you've all heard about the plight of the honeybee and the theory of Varroa mites as the cause. I also believe that pesticides in our environment also have an impact on the honeybee population. After all, most pesticides are broad spectrum and kill both pests and beneficial insects including our pollinators. This is one more reason why I am committed to organic production. I have learned to make products with hive ingredients such as soaps, balms and elderberry syrup. These are for sale year round.
Last year I had my first year of a tiny vegetable/egg/preserves CSA (community supported agriculture). Two members picked up their shares weekly from April through September. Someday when I can dedicate more time to this, I hope to have a larger CSA.
Most years I raise turkeys for Thanksgiving using only organic feed and pasture. A limited number of these are available most years.
The newest addition to the farm is four dairy goats, two Alpines and two Nubians. We have bred for late spring kids and milk. Several years ago I took a day long workshop in cheesemaking through NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) at Uppingill Farm in Gill, MA. I occasionally make cheese from raw cow's milk that I get from local farms. There is nothing like homemade cheese. I plan to use my experience to make goat cheese this summer. I am hoping to offer more products with this newest addition to Moonsong including goat's milk soap.
Our house sits on the old potato field. Our poultry yard is also where the poultry were when I was a child. The goats live where the pigs used to live. And the beehives are scattered around, just as they were in the old days. The vegetable garden sits where it did when my grandfather first plowed it up. It is the footprint of the old barn (1727) that burned down one Halloween night long ago. The soil is so fertile there. I think all the years the animals lived in it and then the ashes from the fire both added to the soil's fertility. Of course we're adding manure, oyster shells, ashes from the woodstoves and compost continually as well.
Six years ago I realized that something was missing from my life. One day while putting up jam, I realized what it was. That old feeling of producing and preserving food was therapeutic for me. I vowed that I would get back to this old activity that I learned in my teens. That same year I realized that I was missing more than just the preserving. I was missing the animals of my childhood farm. Getting chickens seemed like a logical first step to starting a farm. We started out with 5 hens. We now produce and sell about 7 dozen free range organic eggs a week at the height of the egg production season in the springtime.
Fast forward one year. Beekeeping school and keeping bees was my next endeavor. My grandfather kept bees here years ago and I swear that yearning that I had comes from that fact. I love beekeeping and I can't imagine my farm without Apis mellifera...that's the fancy Latin name for the honeybee. I have had a honey crop two years in a row now. Though my yeilds have been low, I am trying to increase the vitality of my hives using natural methods and hope to have higher yeilds in the future. The honey that I sell is raw and no chemicals were used in the management of my hives. I use an IPM (integrated pest management) system of screened bottom boards, powdered sugar dusting, and treatments with thymol (a treatment approved by organic standards) to control the mite population in my hives. I'm sure you've all heard about the plight of the honeybee and the theory of Varroa mites as the cause. I also believe that pesticides in our environment also have an impact on the honeybee population. After all, most pesticides are broad spectrum and kill both pests and beneficial insects including our pollinators. This is one more reason why I am committed to organic production. I have learned to make products with hive ingredients such as soaps, balms and elderberry syrup. These are for sale year round.
Last year I had my first year of a tiny vegetable/egg/preserves CSA (community supported agriculture). Two members picked up their shares weekly from April through September. Someday when I can dedicate more time to this, I hope to have a larger CSA.
Most years I raise turkeys for Thanksgiving using only organic feed and pasture. A limited number of these are available most years.
The newest addition to the farm is four dairy goats, two Alpines and two Nubians. We have bred for late spring kids and milk. Several years ago I took a day long workshop in cheesemaking through NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) at Uppingill Farm in Gill, MA. I occasionally make cheese from raw cow's milk that I get from local farms. There is nothing like homemade cheese. I plan to use my experience to make goat cheese this summer. I am hoping to offer more products with this newest addition to Moonsong including goat's milk soap.
Honeybees! Notice the elongated cell near the bottom of the comb. This is a swarm cell. This cell is now in the cup stage...it is ready for the queen to lay an egg in it should the hive need to split if it becomes overpopulated. The bee that emerges from this cell will be a new queen which will stay with the mother colony. The original queen leaves with the swarm. Bees naturally swarm as a means of hive management. Too many bees and too little space mean that there will not be enough honey storage space for the large population to overwinter. Swarming means that the colony is strong and healthy.