Ski Family Farm

We have pork available!

This year has been crazy, so I apologize for the lack of updates. We just got the call that our last pigs have a spot at the processor tomorrow. We are selling by the half or whole pig.

At this point, I just have one half left! This year pork is $3.25/lb hanging weight, plus the cost of processing. Expecting a half pig to come in at about $450, but that will depend on actual weights.

Cut sheets will have to be called in tomorrow, and pork pickup would be at the farm in about a week, depending on when everything gets packaged up at the butcher.

Reach out if you’re interested!

UPDATE: Hilda is home!!

I got up this morning, and Ivan was standing at the gate, whining. I went out to investigate and she was wandering by the pasture. She ran to me as soon as she saw me. Both dogs are happy to be back together, and we are soooo relieved she’s home, after 2 days gone. Thank you to everyone that helped look, and helped get the word out to others. We appreciate it very very much! ❤️

————————————————————

The dogs got out this morning.

Luckily we were able to connect with someone that found Ivan, but Hilda is still missing.

She may be down Clyde, west of Latson.

If you see her, let us know!

https://www.facebook.com/share/zsZsNBPrXcoXFdur/?mibextid=WC7FNe

UPDATE: REUNITED!! Hilda & Ivan is home safe & sound after 1 days, 20 hours :)

"Thank you to everyone that helped look for the dogs! "
-Hilda & Ivan's Owner
Please spread the word for this lost dog. Hilda & Ivan was LOST on July 11, 2024 in Livingston County, MI 48855 near Latson, 1/4 mile north of Clyde

Description: Hilda - female - all white, pink/black spotted nose, 70 lbs
Ivan - male - all white, black nose, 100 lbs

For more info or to contact Hilda & Ivan's owner, click here: https://www.pawboost.com/p/70528802

Lost or found a pet? Report it to PawBoost here: https://www.pawboost.com/l/rpl

Lily gave birth to a beautiful heifer calf yesterday.

She’s tall and hides her pregnancies well. It was only a few days ago I started noticing changes that had me think she’d go into labor soon.

Keeping with the Lost theme, we named her Kate!

The late spring flower blooms are killing it this year!

I am absolutely in love with these peonies and irises! Even the chives that are taking over in front of the peonies are looking extra good.

The summer is shaping up to be a challenging one, so I’m planning to shrink all the gardens this year so they’re easier to manage. That being said… my plan the last few years to slowly to fill the flower garden with perennials is helping out big time!

We’re about to have a real life ugly duckling saga on our hands!

A few turkeys have been laying eggs in an old planter. It has coverage on 3 sides, so since it’s pretty camouflaged from predators, I’m going to let them sit on the nest. There are 2 wannabe mamas sitting on eggs in this planter. When they were away from the nest for a little bit this morning, I looked in there to see how many eggs they had collected, and I spotted a duck egg in the middle of the turkey eggs!

Both duck and turkey eggs take 28 days to hatch, although there are slight variations to their preferred temperature/humidity.

I CANNOT WAIT to see if these turkeys end up accidentally hatching a duckling!

We have eggs!

Our old ladies have finally picked up spring egg laying!

I’m in love with the colors, and the full egg basket daily makes it really feel like spring.

The egg cooler should be out daily if you are local 😁

I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing flowers popping up across the farm!

I’m behind on starting the garden, but these blooms really brighten things up!

Wrapping up maple season this weekend. Sap started flowing really early this year, but we’ve only put the taps in recently. Temps are going to stay warm, so we figured we’d just have a short but sweet maple season 😉. Shaun built an awesome new barrel evaporator that we’ve had going the last 2 days. Yesterday’s boil yielded about a quart of syrup, today will likely be about the same or a little more. Not too bad for only collecting from 2 trees for only a little bit of time!

Check out this giant wasp nest that was in the garage! They actually built it into an old guitar. It’s massive and beautiful and totally amazing. I LOVE all the colors! That said- I’m happy it’s no longer in the garage, especially after developing an allergy to wasps/hornets/bees in the last year or so.

Last year, I totally abandoned the garden and hoop house part way through summer. I didn’t even harvest many of the plants I spent so much time nurturing in the spring. This year, that’s not happening. We spent the afternoon cleaning this baby up, and I’m so excited for all the possibilities!

I plan on starting some cool weather seeds soon. We still have plenty of cold days ahead, but I figured it doesn’t hurt to try and get a few things started.

More Christmas tree fun! I’m excited to see this patch grow. ❤️

The farm hit a milestone! This weekend we cut down the first tree from the Christmas tree patch we planted when we moved to the farm! We definitely need to work on shaping the trees this spring to get them to fill out a little more, but in the meantime, I think this wonky tree is perfect! Although I’ll miss our yearly trip to the tree farm, the new tradition of walking out to the backyard with the kids to pick out a tree is amazing, and something I’m super proud of!!

I finally got my turkey in the brine for tomorrow and wanted to share my favorite method for roasting a Thanksgiving bird. Yes, this article is 20 years old, and yes, I’ve been using this method the better part of those 20 years 😅. The best lesson from it is to pay attention to temperature and not time. Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!

Alton Brown's Perfect Roast Turkey for Thanksgiving Alton Brown's Perfect Roast Turkey for Thanksgiving

Now is the true pumpkin season on the farm! Shoutout to for the extra pumpkins after Halloween. EVERYONE is loving the treats, although I think the cows are the biggest fans.

We have a few pork shares available (half or whole). Pigs go into the processor tomorrow, and we should have pork back on Sat 11/11.

$4/lb hanging weight, plus the cost of processing.

Reach out if you have any questions!

The weather was beautiful today! After work, I snuck out to the garden before it got dark and grabbed the last of the pumpkins, and these gorgeous ears of corn: glass gem, mini blue popcorn, and strawberry popcorn.

We also cut down the last sunflower head so I could save some of the seeds. Luckily the birds left a few seeds for me. This is by far the biggest sunflower I’ve grown!!

Now to chill for the evening before the chaos of the weekend sets in.

Cheers! 🍻

Potatoes, onions, and squash are (mostly) out of the garden!!

I left a few pumpkins and Zucchino out there because I needed to start dinner.

Pontiac red, russet, and Yukon potatoes, all of which came from last years potatoes!

The unexpected garden winner this year was the Zucchino Rampicante. It was my first year growing them, and they went CRAZY! I only had a few plants, and they produced soooo many giant squash.

I finally got out to the garden for a little bit this afternoon! Amongst the weeds, I found some pumpkins. No idea what the ribbed/striped one is, but I was super excited find 3 beautiful Winter Luxury Pumpkins!

I bought one the Davis Dirt Farms pumpkin stand a few years ago, and saved the seeds. For whatever reason, I’ve failed to actually grow one of these pumpkins every year… until now! Apparently they thrive on neglect. 😆 The original was the best baking pumpkin I’ve ever tasted, and I can’t wait to use these for some pumpkin treats this fall!

It’s been a while, so I figured it’s time for a reintroduction!

My husband Shaun and I (Sara) moved to our 150+ year old farmhouse in Howell, MI back in 2015. We came from Metro Detroit looking for more space to garden… and ended up with a 10 acre farm with cows! Since then, we’ve embraced the farm life, and will never go back to living in a normal neighborhood.

I still work in Detroit in the tax world, and balance that with the farm, and 3 rambunctious kids. It’s a lot to juggle and a constant struggle to shift time and attention, but it’s worth it, even if it’s never really “balanced”. After an unusually stressful summer, I’m looking forward to a shift and reset with the changing season.

We have a small herd of Highland, Hereford, and Highland/Hereford cross cattle. I want to add a Highland heifer this year so we can have some cute full Highland babies starting next year.

We also raise pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, pheasants, and have a lone guinea that showed up one day and walked right into the coop! The farm also has lots of pets including two Great Pyrenees, cats, a rabbit, turtles, fish… a far cry from not even having a goldfish at our old house 😂.

This farm has taught us soooo much over the last 8 years. We have been able to raise all of our own meat/eggs, and develop a profound respect for our animals. I’ve also been focused on learning as many homesteading skills as possible. Each year is filled with canning, dehydrating, and freezing the harvests. Baking, foraging, and learning the cycles of the natural world around us. Building, improving, and growing what we can. I’ve learned how so much of what we’re taught we need to buy, is either totally unnecessary, or can easily be made at home.

One thing I love about the farm is to be able to share farm goodies and knowledge with those around us. As we grow, I want to be able to offer more to those that appreciate slow good food. Keep an eye out for info on pork shares and thanksgiving turkeys that will be available this fall. Now that my work schedule is calming down, look for eggs regularly at the road again. And keep an eye out for some recipes as I dip back into baking!

Cheers 🍻

Finally went out to the garden for a bit! The squash have taken all become massive! My favorite, by far, are the Zucchino Rampicante. A newbie in the garden this year, it has done amazing! They were delicious when picked small and green, and prepared like zucchini. Now I’m letting them get giant. I’m hoping they’ll cure and store like a winter squash. We only picked a few tonight, leaving the rest on the vines to finish growing and let the skins toughen up.

We missed a few zucchini that got huge! I see some zucchini bread and brownies in our future.

Also missed the scallop squash that I usually pick while white and tender. Now that they’re orange and tough, I’ll see if they’ll stick around for Halloween and then be animal treats. 🤷‍♀️

Sawyer, and beer can in garden wagon for scale to really see how massive the zucchino got! 😆

Did everyone in MI make it through the storms alright the last few days?

We’re so lucky to just have a flooded poultry yard and internet outage right now. Power was out yesterday, but it’s back.

I’m really sick of these severe storms all the time now. I’ve never experienced so many tornado warnings in one summer!

The garden has gotten away from me this year. But, I think we did a hell of a job at keeping the soil healthy. The weeds are as tall as I am, despite the landscape fabric, and these sunflowers are massive!

I can’t wait to see them blooming!

Finally home during the daylight, and I took a quick lunchtime walk around the garden. Everything is doing great from all the rain we’ve been getting!

Lots of firsts for the year:
First sunflower bloom!
First (tiny) tomato harvest!
First squash!
First cucumbers!

This weekend I’m hoping to get the tomatoes trellised, do tons of weeding, and maybe even start some of the fall garden seeds.

It’s amazing how much strolling through the garden boosted my mood.

Lavender! 💜

My first real harvest of lavender. I also added landscape fabric next to the older plants to make mowing a little easier. Now the lavender/raspberry/blueberry/strawberry/asparagus patch is all squared off and weeded. 😁

Next year, my little fruit patch is going to be awesome! In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy this lavender. I know I’ll be making some lavender simple syrup for tea and cocktails. What do you like using lavender for?