Our town has a ridiculous number of farms. I know that 17 of them were participating in Farm Day, but there are even more than that. Which is so funny, considering that you can see very few of them from the roads. There are so many trees here that you wouldn't even realize it's a farm town unless you already knew. I continue to be surprised as I learn more. And it doesn't SMELL like a farm town, either, which I feel is important to note! There are apparently a TON of cows here, and we cannot smell them. But more on that in a sec!
Yesterday was basically an "open house" event for the farms that chose to participate. Some of these places are usually open to the public, but many of them aren't... so it was an opportunity to see what goes on there. We started out our day at the meat farm, since we knew they were opening slightly earlier than the other places. As we pulled into the driveway, we saw that my new friend was there with her family! Small world (small town!). They live very close to that farm. Anyway, the kids visited the ponies and chickens, and Gus got into a conversation with the farmer (who is our age) about the cattle. Black Angus steers. He told us all sorts of funny stories about "the boys". I enjoyed watching them, especially the way they all stick together, wherever they go!
We also learned that the landscaping place next store was owned by his parents. We opted to go there next, since it was on the list AND I knew they had free cupcakes for the kids. Sounds like a plan, right? Not only were the people at the landscaping place super friendly and knowledgeable, the place itself was awesome! They grow every single plant on-site, from seeds and cuttings. They have over 20 acres of plants and trees! AND their prices were reasonable! We've been talking about getting some trees for the front yard for a while now. The owner (the farmer's dad, who looks just like him!) told us he'd be willing to stop by our house and actually walk the yard, mark where things could go, tell us what would look good, etc. And of course he knew exactly which house was ours, once we described where it was. haha! Anyway, we might be getting some trees soon. So exciting!
After our long chat with the owner, though, the kids were getting a little irritated. I supposed a landscaping place isn't the most fun for them, but they DID get the cupcakes (Maya got an apple, too). We finally loaded them into the car, and went to go check out a few farms in the neighborhood back behind our house. Our first stop was at a private, self-sustaining farm where they also train horses. The horses were fun to watch, and we even got to pet a few. I have actually been kind of scared of horses in the past, but these were so sweet and seemed to really love the attention. Fun!
As we were pulling away from that farm, we noticed just how pretty it was back there. Beyond this lake, through the forest, you would eventually come to the back side of our house. I love living here!!
Our next, and final, stop was at a dairy farm. It was literally next door to the horse farm. And I had no idea what a huge production it was! It looks fairly unassuming from the road, but they have over 750 heads of cattle, and sell their milk to a major company around here (Garelick Farms). I was shocked! And you couldn't smell a thing, which was most shocking of all! We soon learned why. This farm has some sort of methane-collecting machinery that siphons it off the cow poop and then uses the methane to actually power the farm! They have their own not-so-little methane-powered generator. It's really high-tech, and totally environmentally conscious. I was impressed! The farmer giving us the tour was impressed, too, and spent like 30 minutes talking about it... all while the small children in the group were starting to fall apart, wanting to see COWS. Finally, we saw the cows. And that massive barn, where the mature milking cows spend their days, was the one place on the farm where it stunk to high heaven! Nikos instantly pinched his nose and declared that it was time to leave, haha! It was pretty bad. Clearly, they were making a lot of methane...
At that point, we decided to go, since it was almost lunchtime and I had a very important shopping date with Caryn after that. Gus and the kids actually went out to our usual farm stand to get some milk, so they visited one more farm than I did. Next year, we'll have to check out the rest. It was so interesting!
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