CSA: Late Spring Session (Week 3); mama pig outside!

Arabia is enjoying her new pig pen...

Now that the piglets are older, we have moved their mama, Arabia, out into the field.  She has been absolutely loving the tall grass and has been rooting around in her pen (pigs are great at aerating soil).  Her piglets will be heading out to their pen soon, too!

Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 15) is Week 3 of our Late Spring Session - I'm always excited to see cilantro appear!  Most people are fairly polarized in their opinions about cilantro, and according to some studies, there may actually be a genetic factor involved in that preference.  

This is what you can expect to see in Week 3's box:

Late Spring Session, Week 3: Box Contents

Spinach

Carrots

Cilantro

Apples

Eggs

Braising Mix

Red Chard

Crimini Mushrooms

Romaine Lettuce

Dandelion (Regular Shares only)

The calves are outside!

The calves left their winter abode and headed out to pasture today.

Throughout the rainy winter months, the cows stay sheltered in the barn and the loafing shed, where they eat haylage; the ground is simply too wet for them to be outside during the winter, and the cool weather keeps the grass from growing fast enough to provide sufficient nutrition for them (flooding is also a winter problem, of course).  During this past winter season, the calves (born last summer) were moved into the loafing shed behind the big white barn in order to separate them from the rest of the herd.

Spring has brought a series of warmer, drier days (despite that out-of-the-blue snowstorm), so we were able to move the calves out into the grass today - as you can imagine, they were super excited to taste some fresh grass!

Munching on green grass...

The grass is still quite short, so they'll need to be moved to new pasture once or twice a day for awhile.  The rest of the herd will be heading outside soon.

Piglets with their mama

Arabia's piglets are growing quickly and are becoming more adventurous - they've been leaving their elevated "nursery" area and have been scampering around the rest of the pen, rooting, oinking, and chasing each other.

I know that a lot of folks are excited to see the piglets and lambs in person...we'll be having our annual May Day gathering on Saturday, May 4th this year - hopefully you can come join in the May Pole celebration, greet the animals, and help us to usher in the spring season!  More details will be posted soon, so keep an eye on the blog and be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

Piglets in action!

Here's a short video of the piglets exploring their new home yesterday:

How cute are they?!

Piglets are here!

Nine wiggly, healthy piglets were born at Jubilee Farm today.

We were so excited to find that Arabia, our sow, gave birth to nine adorable piglets this morning!  Arabia has been very attentive to her little ones, who are busily scampering about and exploring their new home.  

Arabia laying down to nurse her piglets.

Although the piglets mostly resemble their Hereford momma with their red backs and white bellies, they have some adorable little black spots that they inherited from their father, George, who is a 700 lb. Berkshire boar.  The folks down the road at Nature's Last Stand let us borrow George for a bit; both Arabia and George are so sweet and fun to be around.  George is back at his home now, so Arabia and her piglets have their pen all to themselves.

George, the boar with a heart of gold.

Another lamb (a ram this time) was born on Monday, so photos of him will be up soon; we're also expecting ducklings to hatch in mid-April.  This spring is definitely an eventful one so far!