Hello Farm Family. Brandon and I would like to thank everyone for your prayers, patience, understanding, and support during our downtime as we grieved the loss of our son. We’ve been trying to figure out how to navigate this new normal for quite some time now and to say it’s hard is a gross understatement! We know that this process of grieving will take a long time, but we are PRAYING and pushing forward in the best way we know how. So many of you have reached out to our family and to me personally. You have provided meals, sent cards, text messages, emails, and made phone calls.

THANK YOU!

For me, I have to say that to see the outpouring of love has been overwhelmingly beautiful and even though I couldn’t express it at the time, I appreciate it more than I could ever say! One of my good friends reminded me that our son was known for spreading love, peace, and happiness. “Out of all people,” she said….”you are the last person he would want to be sad.”

So that leads me to this Newsletter. I have been supplicating my God for the strength and courage to get back to doing things that make me happy. Things that will help me to be ok, and things that make me, me. If you know me personally, you know that a huge part of that is having my hands in the soil, raising animals the way they should be raised, and watching God grow food as He allows me to tend to it……also known as farming.

I am excited to tell you all that we are officially back open for business!

Our first step in re-opening our farm has to be us taking care of our CSA members. So we have begun the process of praying, planning, preparing, and planting for the upcoming Kith & Kin Spring CSA season. It begins in one month on April 3, 2023.

To our members from last season, we can’t thank you enough for everything! Brandon and I appreciate your continued trust and support despite our hardships. We are looking forward to connecting with and feeding your families again.

Over these past few months, our farm has received so many inquires for eggs and organic pastured birds. I wish I could say that we can accommodate everyone, but we are still rebuilding our flocks.

Just the other day my Dad and I made a day out of it and went to pick up some beautiful chicks from Bazan Paradise Farms. They raise goats, poultry, and more. Plus they’re family owned and operated and you know how I love to support small farm families! So please click on the link and follow their page on Facebook.

Being on their farm filled me with joy as I carried around a baby goat and reminded me of how much I really do love farm life. You can check out the some of the pics below.

So back on our farm, we do have a few hens that are laying, but priority is given to our family first, our regular egg customers, and CSA members. With that being sad…. eggs are back, but they are LIMITED! So if you see them on the site, grab them quick. I will try to keep them updated each week as the girls lay more. You can find them here.

In regards to our organic pastured birds, their infrastructure is being built this weekend and I know of at least 2 people (myself and my Dad) who are eagerly anticipating their arrival into our stomachs. For all of you that are looking for a better poultry option, we are now accepting deposits for a late Spring harvest. You can find them here!

Speaking of animals…..we have added just a couple more to our farm. Meet Ham and Wally (Yes I know they have their faces in a bowl). They are Kune Kune piglets that were bred from registered stock. You may remember our first attempt when we raised Piggy from farm to table a few years ago.

Now before we all get too attached, only one of them is staying and the other is being raised for food. I struggled with the butchering part of Piggy last time, but having him as a food source during the height of Covid, proved to be a wonderful blessing. Since then I have purchased pork from the store and been more than disappointed so I am thankful that Brandon and I are able to raise meat for our family again. If all goes well, we hope to be able to offer Hawkins Homestead Farm pork soon!

In the gardens, the name of the game is build up the soil! My Dad went out to our former location earlier in the week to grab some supplies and all he could talk about was how beautiful the grass was and how fertile the soil is. It made me both happy and sad because it took years to build up that soil to what it is and to see it as a backyard now instead of a place where we grew our food is bittersweet.

The list we have over this next month is very long to say the least, but just a few of our priorities are to finish installing the fence on the animal side of the property, purchase and truck in compost to install into our permanent no till beds, lay weed barrier to protect the soil, and plant our berry bushes to their homes before Spring officially arrives.

Later into Spring, we hope to establish a perennial garden. That makes me ecstatic just thinking about it and although it’s been a long while since I’ve planted flowers, I’m examining the area for a flower patch as well.

All in all, with the space that we have here, starting from scratch is proving to be a labor that I am trying to love. Brandon continues to remind me that it will be worth it and I know he’s right, but I guess I just need those reminders for now. We are currently growing specifically for our Kith & Kin CSA members, but we have planted in abundance and will continue to do so as the Spring comes in so there should be plenty for all.

We learned in the Fall just how much pest pressure there is here and we are sure there will be even more as everything awakens in the Spring, but this time we are ready! We have loaded up on insect barrier and have already began covering plants that need no pollination to grow. Additionally we are armed with our pots of boiling water, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon to ward off the millions of ants that we find ourselves fighting with almost daily.

So that’s it guys. I typed that with tears because things that were once easy for me are now difficult, but these are happy tears because I got this Newsletter done!

The last time I wrote a Newsletter was on November 3rd and it was also that evening we found out that we lost our son. So to complete this one four months later makes me truly thankful!

I am healing. Slowly, but getting there and I am so grateful to share and connect with all of you again. So thank you!

Let’s chat soon. Until then…….