Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Kornertone Eggs at Stomping Grounds Coffee House in Greer & a new buck named Charlie!

This is exciting…
Our eggs from our free ranging hens are in a storefront!!  This is Stomping Grounds Coffee House; a quaint coffee shop located in Greer, SC.  We were approached by JP and Chad, co-owners of Suburban ShareCrop in Greenville, back in March about offering our eggs in this coffee shop.  JP is a barista there, and Lisa, the owner of Stomping Grounds, gave him the green light when he presented her the concept of a mini market in the coffee shop to help make local produce more available to the public.  The idea has been a hit!  Our goat milk soaps are there as well!!  Next time you're in the Greer area, stop in Stomping Grounds for a fresh cup o' joe and some local produce and eggs!!
Ben is our nightly egg collector…
He gathers, counts, washes, dries, weighs, grades, packages, dates and labels all our eggs!  Whew!!  That's quite a job for a 10 year old, but Ben does it with excellence.  He takes his work around here very seriously!  I took him along for our first delivery to Stomping Grounds so he could present the eggs to the owner.  I also wanted him to be the one to experience selling them so he could see the fruit of all his labor.  It was awesome, and he did great.  I am once again so thankful for all the learning experiences farming is providing our family.  Also, we are investing in 25 more laying hens so we can provide other storefronts with our farm fresh eggs!  And for anyone interested, we will always have them available at the Woodruff Farmer's Market every Thursday 3-7pm right here in Woodruff!
This is Jerry, our neighbor and friend.  He is a goat lover!  And I must say, he is very kindhearted…he is also the one who gave us our first buck, Pongo.  His beautiful doe gave birth to twins back in March.  He generously offered us the buckling!  
One thing we have learned when purchasing goats…always look at the momma's milk sack and teats!  Well looky here!….all I can say is, I would be thrilled to milk an animal like this!!  She is loaded and this is her first freshening!  I'm sure that all sounds silly to most of you reading this, but for someone who milks goats every day, and relies on their milk for several things, this is super exciting!!  Seeing this doe and knowing this is the milkline of the buck we've just been given is fantastic!
Isn't he handsome?!?  Jerry had named him Charlie so we are keeping that name.  He is an Alpine crossed with a Nubian, which are both great breeds for milk volume, and Nubians are my personal favorite!  He will make some pretty babies!!
Here he is being greeted by our girls before he's even in the pen.  We are keeping Charlie in with the does for now because our 2 bucks are much older and bigger, and they have horns.  Males like to dominate each other and we don't want to risk him getting hurt so we will wait a while.
Now we have 2 bucks from excellent milklines, our other being a Saanen/Nubian mix whose mamma gives a gallon a day!  Wow!  Now to find some does from superb milklines….

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Farm Happenings...

Our goat herd's kidding season turned out pretty well!  First of all, we didn't even know if we had any goats pregnant.  We had let the bucks in only once, but it turned out to be enough! We had 3 goats that gave birth…2 of our Alpines, and our baby from last year, Jesse!  Here she is, her first time kidding, to a buck who we named Joseph.  This was the first time we had to step in and help with the birth itself…I'm very grateful we were there and noticed what was going on.   The kids watched it all!
 So sweet!
 Joseph is a favorite!
There were 4 kids born, but we sold one Alpine buckling.  Joseph, as cute as he is, will be sold as well.  We will keep the 2 girls to breed and eventually milk.  Tamar is on the right, and Miriam in the middle.
 One of our bee colonies had 3 swarms within a week! The first swarm landed low in our grapevine, and we were able to capture it.  We simply put a box under it, sprayed the swarm with sugar water, then gave the vine a really good shake that made the bees fall into the box.
 The following day after we had assembled a new brood box for the swarm we opened the box, put it upside down on top of the brooder and let them move themselves.  It was a success!  

 We have a barred rock laying hen who has gone broody…she is sitting on 18 eggs!!  Hopefully they will hatch and our flock will grow!
 Back in March we started some seeds inside.  Everything has been transplanted into the ground now.  This year we added rabbit droppings to the soil to boost plant growth.
 Peas already grasping the trellis handmade by Megan and her friends, Taylor and Olivia!  They put it together and planted the entire garden for us on a service day for school!…thanks girls!  Now please come help me weed it all!
 Cait's onions!
 Ben's corn!
 Gracyn's tomatoes!
 We have also planted…
potatoes
okra
spaghetti squash
zucchini
peppers
green beans
cucumbers

Meet Cotton, one of 2 great pyranese livestock herding dogs we have now!  Our other one is her daughter, Candy.  We've lost several laying hens to foxes and coyotes…these dogs will put an end to that!!
 We currently have 2 batches of pastured broilers growing…first batch will be processed this month, and the next in June.  We will continue to process once a month, each month, thru October.    To place an order contact us through email or Facebook or give us a call!
kornerstonefarms@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/kornerstonefarms
754-581-3711