Whoa. I did not realize it’s been so long since my last update! Brace yourself for information overload!
First, a friend designed a sweet logo for us, which is nice to have done and we are pleased with how it came out.
Otherwise, the past few months have been full of both planning and action around here. As the planet is dealing with the pandemic COVID-19, we have pretty much been keeping to our regular routine (spending most of our time on our own property and for the most part interacting with family only).
Before social distancing became the new normal for everyone, I did have a chance to attend a few informative workshops. I learned requirements for commercial kitchens (never going to happen in our existing kitchen for a number of reasons) and a whole lot about business planning and insurance. Riveting, I know, but important.
I’m currently working on securing a new insurance policy that’ll cover farm activities. And I’ve got our LLC paperwork ready to send to the state. I’m not sure which state agencies continue to operate right now, so I’m not really in a huge rush to get that out the door. Insurance, though, is necessary and now is a good time to deal with it.
We got our potato order in at the end of February, though how we will pick up the nearly 500 pounds of seed remains in limbo because of restrictions on the number of people in one place at any given time. I use Fedco and typically potato orders are picked up during the annual tree sale in early May — which has been canceled.
My other veggie, flower and herb seeds arrived last week in the mail and will be started inside my two tiny greenhouses within the next few days.
Maine Maple Sunday (usually the third Sunday in March) was canceled because of the gathering restrictions as well. But that hasn’t stopped us from collecting sap and making syrup. This is the first year we will offer our syrup for sale, which is exciting. We had our inspection and received our license about a month ago, just as the sap was starting to run. Our 12-foot kitchen table is holding our stock of syrup for now. (If you’d like syrup, I have glass half-pints available right now for $7. Email and I’ll figure out a safe — and socially distant — way to get it to you. Larger amounts may be available by emailed request; price determined by container size.)
Let’s see, what else, what else.
More paperwork I’ve been looking it is licensing and insurance to sell pork and chicken, but I’m not there quite yet.
Part of the reason is that we got some bad news from our expected pig supplier (no piglets) so we’ve been scrambling the past few weeks to find a new source before spring. We’ve been in contact with someone else who is reputable, so fingers crossed!
Oh, and my local chick supplier closed its doors in the fall so I’ve had to find a new source of laying hens as well as meat birds this year. Much easier than finding piglets, at least, as both those small producer sources have been secured (no big-box birds for me, thanks).
Whew! I think you’re all caught up, for now. Stay healthy, everyone, even if that means hiding in a laundry basket under a drying rack like Penelope or chilling on the back of the couch like Leila. 🙂
Two Rock Ridge Farm 