Thanks to Sarah & Nate of Luck Photography for sharing the photos.

As frequent visitors to markets have realized, our beef supply has been trickling along for the past few months. But we’re now into loads of fresh beef and this should carry on through the rest of the year. So get the grills going, the beef is just wonderful right now. The pigs too are plentiful, so any barbecue cravings can be easily remedied.

As for the bird zoo- our guys weathered last night’s storm in great fashion. Our poults (baby turkeys) are growing up, the keets (baby guinea fowl) are getting bigger/louder, and even the gosslings (baby geese) are rocking out. In addition to the ducks and chickens around here, the bird sanctuary is a great visit for the kids. Lastly, eight lambs have dropped, and we’re expecting 2-4 more.

Thanks for visiting us in Carrboro, Saxapahaw, and in Greensboro for our markets. We’re now going to Greensboro most weeks (having said that, we’re not going tomorrow) and even have our own table (by the atm machine). We’d love to see more of you out here at the farm, so don’t forget our store hours- Thursdays 2-6 and Saturdays 10-4. It’s a pretty drive out here no matter where you’re coming from, and we’ll be happy to show you and the family around the farm.

And finally, our gardens have been great. Less tomatoes this year, but great varieties and healthy looking plants. Crazy varieties of eggplant, green beans (that start out purple), herbs, dwindling cukes and squash, okra, chard, peppers, onions, and garlic. And most excitingly, melons are just around the corner!

We hope all of our friends are well,

Cane Creekers

Photos courtesy of Luck Photography

Photos courtesy of Luck Photography

(c) Photos by LuckPhotography.com

We’re nearing the end of our bird hatching and acquisition. We have ducks of all ages, chickens of all ages, 8 young goslings (why? because Eliza found out she didn’t have every animal in the kingdom) (that’s baby goose for those who don’t know), and 30 baby guineas (why? because they make that wonderful sound). We’ll be getting baby turkeys next week and then we should be set. Come visit and see the bird menagerie.

Our pigs are getting to a good size, and we’ve been bringing more pork each week to markets. As for the the cows- the dry spell put us a bit behind schedule, but we’ll regularly be bringing steers to market in three weeks. We had a bit of goat the past few weeks and hopefully will have more throughout the summer and fall. Tomorrow we’re making a run to the coast with some bellies, so bacon is only a few weeks off.

In other news, some of the guys on the farm put together a pig butchery class for some folks. All participants took home cuts and brought them back for a Memorial Day party. In addition they smoked a whole hog. It was quite a feast and managed to raise $1000 for Heifer International. As it was a success, we’ll be looking to do similar events in the future, but of course make them more official and invite all of you!

The gardens are not as big as usual, but we traded size for greater variety and a easier/better record keeping.  We have squash, onions, garlic and greens now and are looking at some big tomatoes on the vine, albeit green thus far.

We are also at four markets a week right now and waiting for a huge number of egg layers to begin production.  Should be quite a summer and fall with tons of product.  Come see us at Carrboro, Saxapahaw and Greensboro, and of course the farm.  We are enjoying the heat and staying wet and cool with the animals.  Bring the kids!!

Besides the bucket’s worth we received today, it’s been a dry spring. You come to expect dry July’s and August’s, but April is too early for us to pull out our rain dancing (we can always use help). So the pastures are a bit dryer than we’d like at this point, but besides that the farm is in good shape.

2010 Piedmont Farm Tour

Thanks to everyone that made it out to the 2010 Piedmont Farm Tour this year. It was another great turnout and goes to show how much support local farms have around here. What you missed if you weren’t there:

- Our spring litters of pigs have been dropping since farm tour weekend. Farm visitors had the chance to meet our tiny newborn pigglets. After a bit of warring with the vultures, all the sows have hunkered down and are doing very well with their litters.

- Our three ages of hens- layers, soon to be layers (in July), and little tikes are growing well. This means that within a few months, we’ll hopefully be able to meet the demand for our eggs. Some of our youngest birds will turn out to be males though, so we will have some heritage breed chicken available this summer. This will be the only meat chickens we do this year.

- Speaking of breeding and incubating birds, we have loads of ducks now on the farm. Some are Cayuga, some are Buff Runners and Saxony crosses. So, as they’re mostly mutts, we won’t be tempted to breed them again and should have duck later this year.

- The strawberries have been glorious this spring, tomatoes are shooting up, fresh garlic and onions aren’t far off, and cucumbers and melons and peppers are in the ground. So far so good in the gardens.

Coming To Market:

What to expect at markets- we’re hitting our stride with pork, and should have a larger selection of pork cuts throughout the summer/fall. Fresh beef is only a few weeks away too, and that too should go for the rest of the year. So look forward to veggies, more eggs, more pork and beef, ducks, some goat and a few chickens this summer.

Events

Saxapahaw Saturdays have started, 5-8. We’ll be there selling, but if nothing else, come visit us and listen to some music. The Saxapahaw General Store (and the Eddy, the new pub opening next door) will be teaming with us at Farm to Fork this year, coming up May 23. Hope to see some of you out there, unfortunately it’s sold out if you don’t have tickets. We’re also planning the next “Final Banquet” out on the farm and it looks like it will happen late Sept or early October. We’ll keep everyone updated about that.

Besides that, we’ve been playing a mean game of softball in Saxapahaw every week. The farm and extended family have been duking it out on Sunday evenings- let us know if you want to join.

Farmers Markets: Where You’ll find us

Besides that, we hope everyone is looking forward to a great summer and we hope to see you either at the Farm (TR 2-6, Sat 10-4), in Greensboro (Curb mkt every other week, next is may 22), in Saxapahaw on (Sat 5-8), or in Carrboro (Wed 3:30-6:30, Sat 7-12)

Lata
Cane Creekers

(c) Photos courtesy of Luck Photography / Sarah Cook