Our sweet ladies in the henhouse are working overtime apparently. They’ve finally hit an amazing stride of delivering half a dozen eggs every single day. You guys, it’s so many eggs. So, we’re on a mission to be a little more entrepreneurial in what happens with these golden butt nuggets. We’ve explored some options on price, distribution methods, packaging, etc. …
Hay Bales in the Morning Sun
Hay week has come to a close with our pastures being fully baled. The sun rose this morning over a field of haybales in our front yard and the view was a genuine stunner. The amount of work and care that goes into this process each year is amazing. It brings with it an energy that is contagious through the …
Haying Week Has Arrived
Hay harvest week is here! After all the work that went into weeding and fertilizing our pastures this Spring, we’re all excited to see how much hay we will be able to harvest this year. With a year of experience under his belt, Farmer Crossley jumped into the fields today to get through the first steps. Aaron, my dad Dave …
Crossley Farms Blackberry Jam
This summer, we’ve had some excellent salads, unreal potatoes, delicious sweet corn and epic tomatoes. While our oversized garden didn’t quite have the same oversized production – we had more than enough to feed our family and friends and are still celebrating the abundance. Over the long Labor Day weekend, I unfroze some blackberries that we pulled from the brambles and …
Another Kitchen Bouquet
One of my bigger ambitions for the farm when we purchased it was to really dive deep into creating a massive cut flower garden. Despite the chaos that is now the garden, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the handful of blooms that continue to pop up. This week, I took a bit of a mental break from another day of …
The Freeloading Chickens
They finally quit being complete and utter freeloaders. After the recent loss of another chicken and our last guinea – we are officially down to 7 chickens. We think we have 4 hens and 3 roosters – but our opinions there tend to change day by day. Finally. Fiiiiiiiinally. Our chickens are no longer total freeloaders. I’ve been telling Aaron …
We’re Gardening
This massive garden was proclaimed to be an experiment from the very beginning. A few months in, it continues to be an experiment. While we were out of town, the garden explode with weeds and grass. Try as we might, we just can’t get it gone and caught up. The juggle of life with weeding is a rough one. That …
Cherry Pits
Before we took off for Utah, I took an early morning to clear our tiny cherry tree of its ripe, tart little fruits. Mac joined me as a rustled about the branches. He intercepted the occasional head rub and then continued about his climbing. I had originally intended to sell the harvest as part of our pop-up produce stand at …
Our First Hay Harvest
The hay was cut on Wednesday. By this morning, it was ready for raking and baling. To be entirely honest, I was not entirely prepared for exactly what kind of undertaking this would be. After years and years of growing up on a farm – I’ve seen harvests happen in a number of ways. Never, though, have I been quite this …
Bringing in the Equipment
The time has come to cut and bale hay. Suddenly, we’re looking like a shockingly legit operation. My dad Dave and his friend Duane have all the right equipment after decades of family farming. Not to say that we would have never tried this flying solo with the Allis-Chalmers. We certainly would have given it our best shot – but all …