Apr. 27, 2008 at 8:00pm

Touring Cheryl's Farm

Saturday, Stop Two

As a direct result of reading Exit133.com, we bought a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share. Our good friend, J (yes, ladies, he is single), bought half of a share. On Saturday, we drove out to the farm for a tour and instructions. 

Cheryl, the Pig Lady, grows pigs, cows, lambs, chickens and some veggies at her farm in the vicinity of Canyon Rd and 104th. She showed us around the barnyard, where one mama pig is getting ready to give birth any day, and the chickens, pigs, and goat all hang out together. The chickens are free to go wherever they please, and they have a nice spot to roost and lay eggs in the loft of the barn, where the cats hang out. I'm not kidding. The cats take care of any rodents and leave the chickens alone. Pretty cool. Also cool is the way that Cheryl uses the animal manure for compost which eventually goes on the vegetable gardens. These vegetable gardens are tilled by piglets, who literally root around until all of the weeds are uprooted. Cheryl has a piglet fence that she moves around until all of the garden areas are uprooted. After the piglets do their work, she lets the chickens in to eat the bugs and weed seeds. The goat gets to mow the yard areas for a little bit each day. 

The vegetables get their start on life in the greenhouse, where Cheryl currently has a wide variety of tomatoes, peppers, squash, okra and more growing from seed. Some of the plants belong to Cheryl's teen son, who decided to start his own garden this year. He will be opening it to u-pick customers this summer.

We also got a glimpse of the neighborhood bald eagle, who keeps himself and his family well fed with Cheryl's chicks. When he came out to chase off a hawk, the chickens saw him before we did and about 2/3 of them hightailed it to the barn. Cheryl said that last year she lost a couple of turkeys right when they were getting nice and fat - the eagles swooped down and killed them, but then couldn't carry them away. She also lost a few lambs last year to some coyotes. I knew that farming is hard work, but I hadn't thought about that aspect.

We finished our tour by picking out some meat from Cheryl's freezer and a dozen eggs from the basket in the fridge. From now on, we can drive out to the farm to pick up what we need or we can call Cheryl and place an order for us to pick up at the downtown farmers market.

Tonight, we grilled our first CSA T-bone and it was delicious. And it was so good to know that it was hormone free, that the cows got to roam around, and that we were supporting a local farm with our purchase. 

Felt good. Tasted Good. Life is Good.