Farmer Kate & Birch Rise Farm were chosen as a local VT/NH farm to be featured in the Women’s Agriculture Network. This included a blog post (see link below for article) and a film crew coming to document the farm on Friday, Sept 20th. Once we have the video we will share it here on our website page!

Blog Post Written About Farmer Kate: The Women’s Agriculture Network 

First-Ever Farm Store Pop Up Shop….THIS FRIDAY!!

Come visit the amazing Farmer Kate 👩🏻‍🌾

Friday Sept 13th 5pm – 7pm
Sunflower Natural Foods
390 S Main St #1, Laconia, NH 03246

The Navajo Churro Sheep

The History:

– descended from the Churra an ancient breed brought over from the Spanish Explorers to the ” New Spain”
– 17th Century Native Indians acquired flocks of Churro for food and fiber
– 1850’s thousands of Churro were trailed west to supply the California Gold Rush
– 1863 the U.S Army decimated the Navajo flocks in retribution for continued Indian depredations until only true blood survivors were found only in isolated villages in Northern New Mexico and remote canyons of the Navajo Indian Reservation.
– 1970’s breeders set to revitalize the Navajo flocks through the Navajo Sheep Project introducing a cooperative breeding program.

Characteristics:

– known for their long-staple of protective topcoat and soft undercoat. They range in a multitude of shades white, tan, black, brown, gray and mixes of those.
– highly resistant to disease and needs no pampering to survive and prosper.
– the flavor of the meat is incomparably superior with surprisingly low-fat content.

Sunday morning farmer Ken, Kate, Dave, and Hunter made the two-hour drive to South Royalton Vermont to pick up our breeding flock of Navajo Churro Sheep.

Upon arriving at Orion Rising Farm the crew started to load up the 4 ewes. The loading of the girls was pretty uneventful until after having them in the trailer Farmer Kate noticed a beautiful darker female in a small group off to the side. Mentioning her to the Bob, the breeder, she learned that the little gal was headed to butcher that afternoon. Farmer Kate didn’t like the sound of that and bought her as well! So with now, 5 ewes loaded up on the trailer it was time to get the rams!

The Girls

Loading of the big rams was a harder process as there was no ramp and they had to be lifted into the trailer. Farmer Dave and Breeder Bob were able to lift each ram into the trailer with Farmer Ken manning the door so the already loaded one didn’t escape.

The Boys

The process to grow the Birch Rise Farm breeding program to include Sheep started over 6 months ago when Farmer Hunter and Farmer Kate took a road trip to this breeder and toured the farm. She discussed wanting to purchase rams and ewes to start a breeding program and wanted them to all be from unrelated bloodlines. Breeder, Bob, was very knowledgable and selected two rams and 4 ewes that would be great to start with. All of his sheep for sale are 14 months old and ready to start mating. The others that did not get selected headed to a butcher in NY to be featured in restaurants in NYC!

After arriving home the team separated the sheep into two groups to start the breeding process. Two ewes with the Black Ram and three with the white.

Stayed tuned for more information on the Navajo Churro sheep!

Reserve Your Holiday Turkey TODAY!

Gobble, gobble! It’s time to reserve your holiday turkey for Thanksgiving & Christmas!

$4.50 a pound $20 deposit required

2019 season pounds ranged from 12 to 42 lbs!

Labor Day Grill Deals!!

Farm Store is open 9-5pm Tues, Wed, Thursday and Friday this week… pick up pasture-raised chicken roaster, breasts, legs or wings for your weekend BBQ!!

Roasters $4 a pound avg. 3-4lbs

Breasts & Legs $6 a pound avg. 1-2lbs

Hunter showed 5 of his chickens at the Belknap County Fair today….he received 4 out of 5 blue ribbons for his birds, the best in showmanship trophy, a blue ribbon for his poster and runner up on herdsmanship!

Overall a very good first 4H Fair and I think it’s safe to say the Osgood’s have been bitten with the 4H bug! Next year sheep!

We started a variety of seedlings under the lights in the basement but didn’t anticipate how many plants we would need.  Originally, we only planned to use a portion of the greenhouse but as construction was nearing completion we decided to go big or go home.  This was a golden opportunity for us to try everything in our first year and learn from the experience.

Each barrel is labeled numerically and we have a spreadsheet detailing the exact plant species, date planted, watering needs, etc.  As the summer progresses we will notate what works, issues encountered and what plants would be better suited for our raised beds outside of the greenhouse.   Currently, we’re using the traditional old school watering arrangement of a hand held nozzle and hose but we hope to have a more efficient process in before Summer.   Our greenhouse is doing better than we could’ve expected in our first year especially with how wet and cold this Spring has been.

I always say ” I’m good at keeping children and animals alive….plants not so much” well maybe this year will be the change my black thumb and I need! ~ Farmer Kate👩🏻‍🌾

Yesterday, Ken & I took Hunter to see the documentary “The Biggest Little Farm” …..it was a great movie and felt very much like our daily lives.

Farming is ever changing ….observing how things are working or not working and modifying them until they do. There are very hard days but also amazingly rewarding days….always with the same goal in mind to raise a healthier happier food source for us and you, our customers.

We definitely recommend going to see this movie!!

What happens on a farm pick up morning  . . . .

The first thing to do is clean the farm store Farmer Hunter took that job over . . . .

Once the coolers are unloaded from the truck Farmer Ken & Farmer Kate weigh and tag each roaster. We sell all our meat by the pound and need to mark each for their weight.

After they are put into the freezer we eat lunch and wait for customers to come to pick them up!