At sunset the other night my soon to be daughter in law Megan stood next to me and gazed across the fields towards Yamhill. The sun stretched its fingers out and lingered on the city proper, leaving the surrounding areas in the shadows. At the time we didn't notice the way the sun shone, just that it was so breathtakingly beautiful we nearly couldn't tear our eyes away from the view. Megan snapped a few photos and we talked for awhile, but the bugs came out and drove us inside.

It was only the next day when Megan looked at these photos that we realized what an incredible picture she had captured.

I wanted to share it with you to make you understand why we love this place so much. Why it means so much to us and why we do what we do. Every day that view is there, just the same as always; and every day that view changes and reveals something we've never seen before.

I wonder every time I am there if my forefathers were as captivated by the view as we are. Did they stop in the middle of a mundane daily chore and just gaze over the fields in amazement like we do? I wonder if they built the house on this knoll with a 360* view on purpose? They must have. I would if it were up to me.

A picture will never do this view justice. It is something only to be seen in person to be believed.

Garden Update:
Summer is marching on at the farm and we've yet to get a ripe tomato. A few ripened in the city garden already but they had a little help because they were planted near a south facing rock wall.
Blackberries are ripening by the bowl full and we can't pick them fast enough at this point.
The zucchini has gone a little mad, but the pigs don't complain much!
Our plum trees didn't do anything this year, but the apples are loaded.

Animal Update:
We have 16 pigs on the hoof right now, most of which are spoken for.
They have lived a life of piggy luxury for the last 9 months...mud wallows, hay nests, walnuts, apples, fresh local wheat, chevre, goat milk - the list goes on...but they eat better than most people I know ;)

We have 2 Nubian does who are looking for a Nubian husband (preferably spotted) so if you know any dairy quality bucks who need a small harem please inquire within!

We will have very limited pork available for 2011 as we are transitioning to breeding Tamworths. We will also be growing all animal feed on farm! This is a huge milestone for us.

I added a donation button at the top of the page - we have 22 acres to fence for pig pasture rotations & honey that's a HUGE deal ;)

Stay tuned for more updates. Thanks for stopping in.

Best regards,
Heather

On layoffs, new adventures and being a full-time mama & farmer

Today marked the end of my 9 year employment with Hollywood Video corporate offices. Hollywood is closing all their stores in the coming months and my position as a Specialty Sell Thru buyer was no longer needed.

That said, I loved my job at Hollywood and will cherish the memories and friends I made while I worked there.

But in the words of Walt Disney, I need to "Keep Moving Forward!"

I've been spread pretty thin with a 2 year old, farm, full-time job and a house in the city; so I'm really looking forward to being able to devote myself full-time to the two real loves of my life (family & farm).

What we're up to:

We'll be sending a fresh batch of pork to "Farm to Fork" restaurant in Dundee, Oregon sometime in the near future.

Patience is a virtue when watching pastured pigs grow as they do not make the same astounding rates of growth in six months like a confined feed operation pig does.

Chef Paul Bachand did all sorts of fun things with our pork last time, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.












We're also one of the suppliers for chef Jeffrey Kingman at "Cognito" that opens this summer in PDX. We'll be providing pork & vegetables for their top secret menu!

The Willamette Week also mentioned us in their article about Cognito today which was pretty thrilling I must say!

We can be found on Twitter @Rosemont_Farm.

We're hoping to partner with a few more local restaurants in a CSA type model to allow us to expand what we can offer from our sustainably run, ethically grown 22 acre slice of heaven.

Here's to a fun and healthy summer full of family and farm memories...plus some really darn good food.

Thor the Wondrous Buckling & a Saturday Farm Update

We've gone back and forth about whether or not to keep Thor.

He is an amazing buckling. He's frisky and feisty. He is larger than his sister and his older 1/2 siblings who were born a week before him.

He's also related to 1/2 the herd so it wouldn't be very wise to keep him, yet somehow I haven't talked myself in to selling him.

Here are a couple of pictures of him from today. I had to use my cellphone because my camera battery died.

Please read on after the picture interlude for more farm updates.

Here is Thor standing on one of our last 2 pregnant mamas. She looks resigned to it doesn't she??




Here is Thor showing his nifty horn buds. Little does he know that come fall they will be a distant memory.

We had twin bucklings this week. A cute little red one and a cute little brown one. Their mama is one of our older does so these may be her last babies. She has a huge udder and looks like she will be a gallon+ milker wooohooo.

I'll publish pictures of the new babies soon. I know I am terrible mentioning these cute little kids that were just born and then not adding pics!!

Today was a work day on the farm. Oh wait, aren't all days work days on farms?

We cleaned out an unused area of the old print shop and are busy converting it to a kitchen area for the dairy. I'm excited to be doing this because it feels like we're finally *in* business. If that makes sense?

We're putting up drywall and then painting the room with an aqua glaze. I swiped the color from the movie Mamma Mia! I know it's shameless, but what can I say ;)

We're staining the cement floors so they look like stone, adding a new door and window, some fun lighting, a stainless table and sink, a sterilizing dishwasher, hot water heater, fridge....and voila after all that we are ready to take on the world.

Meanwhile in the pastured pig world, we have 4 pigs spoken for so run don't walk to your nearest phone and call to reserve yours before they are gone!

See you soon.

Spring is Springing!

Yesterday as I walked around our farm I noticed that the goat's favorite food was starting to bud. That's right, the blackberry vines had 1/2 inch leaf shoots on them. It was such a silly thing to have made me so divinely happy. But with all the snow and ice this year, winter has felt endless.

No new births to report, but the last 3 mamas who are pregnant are definitely getting round!

We've hired a new milk hand named Luis, who was the back-up milker at the farm we bought our dairy herd from. He's a very quiet guy, but I am sure after a few weeks of our gang he'll come around!


Juan who has been our "Juan of all trades" including milking, is now solely focused on the set up of the new milking parlor, snow damaged building tear down, fencing, garden preparation etc. He has his hands full with all the projects I threw his way yesterday.

We're currently planning the garden layout for our farmstand. So far we have heirloom tomatoes, swiss chard, cucumbers, zuchinni, winter squash, green peppers, misc. hot peppers, basil, cilantro and misc. other herbs and vegetables as space and time permit.

We are revitalizing a very old orchard so fruit will be in limited supply this year, but it should be of the very tasty antique variety! We have apples, plums, pears, 2 kinds of grapes plus black walnuts, hazelnuts, and 2 types of cherries if we can get to them before the birds. Our farm was blessed with an abundance of blackberries so we will offer those too.

No chemicals of any kind are used on the gardens and orchards of our farm. So the goodness of our produce really is from seed to skin and everything in between.

We are bringing in 8 piglets to live their brief happy lives in a grassy, blackberry filled pasture. They will never receive chemical wormers or antibiotics and will have free access to grass, sunshine and clean water. You've heard the saying as happy as a pig in mud? Well, ours will be as happy as a pig in grass. Their meat will be lean, tasty and good for you. Three pigs are spoken for so make sure to get on the list early. We expect to butcher in early November (after the dear oinkers clean up the fallen fruit from the orchard). Which means that you could have a fresh ham on Thanksgiving if you wanted to.

We will also begin to offer free range eggs at some point this summer. The care of the chickens will fall in line with everything else on the farm...no stress, lots of sunshine, fresh green grass and no chemicals of any sort.

Our farm email is rosemont century farm at g mail dot com.

Happy Spring.