Fall at the Farm

Okay, farming is a hell of a lot of work! No time to talk...but here is an update!
Halloween, Pumpkins on Pikes...OMG it was fabulous...see the website for the video at the bottom of the front page...it was amazing....plan for it next year the night before Halloween!

Turkeys came next...it was crazy...turkey's weight so much more than chickens..I tore a ligament in my hand from lifting the big Toms....the feed back was overwhelmingly fabulous on the flavor...

5 new baby pigs born the day after Thanksgiving. They look just like little puppies except for the flat nose and the 500lb mom that feeds them....

The weather is 25 degrees and cold....nobody told me that cement walls for an office would hold the cold...let's face it, I am a city girl and freezing to death but I am still here and about to put up some insulation for the chick brooder. New chicks on Friday and it is way too cold to keep them without some upgrading.

All else is coming along...love having Auntie liz cooking breakfast and dinner. The lack of any heat in the old house is only a nusance really...sort of...well it is really a complete drag in the morning....2 cats, a dog, blankets and slippers and I am still cold....have to work in a handy man to fix the furnace! No time...

Pictures to follow.....

Farm Thoughts from Kara

A Farm Weekend By: Kara Holmes (Tara and Craig’s niece, and Auntie Liz's daughter)

If you were to ask me a year ago what I thought about all of this farm business, I would have said I didn’t want anything to do with it. I would have said that I am sick of hearing about chickens and pigs and sustainable crops every time I went to visit my aunt and uncle in San Francisco. I would have said that since we are a military family, my husband and I had different plans for our life that would never include taking care of animals and crops on a farm up in Petaluma (which seemed to me to be the middle of nowhere). I would have said I liked the whole sail boat venture WAY better than this new farm idea. That was last year…before I was able to see the dream of owning this farm put into action. I just got home from a weekend trip up to the farm to visit my mom, Auntie Liz, and drop off her dog, who we have been watching for the summertime until she got settled on the farm. I was anticipating a lot of work, which I didn’t really want to do on my little mini-vacation, but what I experienced was more than I would have ever expected. There has never before been a time in my life where my favorite family members have lived all together in one place, and I have never even dreamed of all of them actually eating meals together every day, or working together toward a common goal. That was completely out of the question…until my aunt and uncle decided they wanted more for their lives. Their willingness to risk everything in order to start and build an organic farm hasn’t only benefited them, but has benefited our whole family, and the community around them. The farm is open to all kinds of people from all over the world who share a common goal of wanting to work hard to produce fresh, healthy meat and produce for the community, and people who are willing to open themselves up in order to teach other people how to do it too! Everyone on the farm comes together to take care of something…whether it be people, chickens, pigs, turkeys, cats, dogs, vegetables, or fruit, and each of them gives their all to make sure that everyone and everything has everything they need to grow and thrive. It was wonderful to spend quality time with my mom, Auntie Liz, who is in charge of taking care of the people on the farm by making sure they have a hot meal for breakfast and dinner every day, and gathering the eggs from the laying hens. When you know deep down inside that you are providing healthy food to busy, hungry, hard working people, it just warms your heart. Though everyone on the farm has certain tasks that they are responsible for, it is also amazing to see everyone come together to do whatever needs to be done, and help out wherever they can. If you were to ask me years ago whether my family would be living and working all together in order to improve the lives of others, I would have said no way because they were all in different states, working various jobs, and devoting their lives to their own little families within the family. Today, it is amazing to see that what started out as a little idea has now become the foundation for bringing my family together, and strengthening not only my own family, but the families in the community as well.

A year ago I would have told you that my husband and I were completely devoted to the military, and to his career above all else, but after experiencing our first deployment, we realized that what matters most in life is just spending time with each other. Although we don’t know for sure what our future will hold, we do know that we want to have a close family, and that some time on the farm is somewhere in our future. When Matt leaves for deployment next year, I will be heading up to the farm to stay for 5 months while he is gone. I can’t wait to experience that time on the farm with my family, and to contribute whatever I can in order to provide the food and experiences that will strengthen our family, and the community. I used to think happiness was mostly about having money, and having enough money to go on expensive vacations, or on the sail boat out in the Caribbean, but the more I experience time with my family on the farm, the more I realize it wasn’t the vacations or the boat that made me happy, it was being able to spend quality time with my family. Now that the farm has gone from a dream to a realization, there will always be a place where my family can come together, and spend quality time with one another. What more could I ever ask for? I want to thank Tara and Craig for not being afraid to take a risk in order to bring true abundance into their lives, and my mom and step-dad and everyone else on the farm for supporting them in creating that abundance…abundance of learning, love, family, food, and helping others. It is an abundance that has touched my life and my heart forever, and something that my husband and I want to do all we can to support it in order to bring that same abundance into the lives of our future family.

Harvest Celebration!!!

Pumpkins on Pikes! Saturday, October 24th!

A visual site for Halloween that you have never seen before!
Pumpkins on Pikes! When the light disappears and the night mist appears, pumpkins seem to float and fly in the wind!
Come and spend an evening carving pumpkins, eating community shared food and enjoying a visula site that compares to no other.
Pumpkins are carved by all attendees, some fancy some simple all up to the carver!
As each pumpkin is completed they are perched on a platform on a stake in the ground.
When the darkness sets in the pumpkins are all lit for a stunning visual sight!
Pumpkins will be lit each night through Halloween!
Bring dish to share, carving tools, a beverage and be ready to carve'em up!

Halloween!

Tara Firma Farms Halloween!

Come One Come All
1st Annual Harvest Celebration!
A Halloween Event for the Whole Family!

Scarecrow building, Sack Races, Pumpkin carving, Biting for Apples
Ice Cream Making, Hay Maze, Corn Maze, Bon Fire at dusk, Petting Zoo!

10-22 Pumpkin Patch Corn Maze opened through Halloween!
10-31 Halloween !!!An Old Fashioned extravaganza, games, treats & fun for everyone! Noon through the evening!

Labor Day Weekend for Our Fresh Food Enthusiasts!

Orders over $50 receive a 20% discount!

Free Delivery on Saturday for the Holiday Weekend!

Call in Your Order before Friday Evening....707 765-1202

Or e-mail Tara@tarafirmafarms.com.

Am I cute or what?

Another new face on the farm!

Roland! That's my name. If you can guess where it came from you get a free chicken from the farm!

I can sit, stay, sleep in my own bed, not chase the chickens, and heel really well. I stopped growling at everyone cause most of them pet me and the rest say I am cute. I am really smart and I am the King, or will be, of the farm.

Another week on the farm

Another wonderful week on the farm! We are enjoying these wonderful summer days along with lots of good people and good food!

Our Logo! We hope you like it!

A culmination of input from Elijah, Linsay and Jonas! We like it a lot and hope you do also!

Thing we learned over the last 2 weeks!

Laying hens won't lay eggs right after moving into a new home!
Turkeys are like velociraptors. They study in groups and execute together...really interesting (we are locking our doors at night).
The calves are still taller than the 2 year old children that still find them a bit scary.
Yellow chicks and brown chicks have a pecking order except for at night when they all huddle together for warmth and saftey....sounds familiar.
Pigs like to wander around and small fences don't mean a lot to them! But they always come back to the food. I know some teenage boys like that...
Grass fed beef is really tasty if it is aged 3 or more weeks (consolidates the little bit of fat).
Organic doesn't really mean organic......(it has been dissapointing to find out how much the term does not mean what we thought it meant).
Good food is not cheap to produce.
Ya have to know your farmer!
Eating a meal with new and old friends, knowing where the food came from and the wine (Dane Cellars has a stunning Cabernet just out) is the Bomb!

Pig Pardise!

It's pig moving day! We are getting ready to move our pigs to forage and we couldn't be more excited to get them into their new digs. We have lots of turnips, fava beans, corn, and the like for our happy little porkers to eat their hearts out! We also have some nice cream...Man! We wish this was our diet! ;)




PIG UPDATE:

The pigs have been moved to forage, and they couldn't be happier! They are all wagging their tails and grunting with pleasure :)

In the forage area we have turnips, corn, fava beans, alfalfa tops, soy beans, and lots of different grasses that our squealing friends love! We also have three types of thistle, one type that they usually eat, and two types that we figured they wouldn't be interested in. We sprayed organic molasses on the two other types of thistle and not only did they eat the thistle in the area where we sprayed, but ate everything all on their own! Guess they were hungry! ;)

Come and see our very happy pigs in paradise, and the rest of the farm at our farm tour this Sunday at 10am!

Here's a little preview of our curly-tailed friends enjoying their newfound glory!

Here's our curly-haired friend Joe with some thistle!

Joe-Joe is one of our hardest workers here on the farm!

Pigs are natural foragers...they really are in paradise!

A close up...saying HELLO!

Products

We want to let you all know which products we have available to for you.

Products:

Chickens are now available both fresh and frozen. We process chickens each week and will discuss with you individually your order.

All chickens are over 4lbs, and are $20 each. If you would like the chicken cut into parts instead of whole please just let us know.

Delivery is free and we are currently delivering in the San Francisco, Marin, and Sonoma areas. We will begin to expand when the need arises, and if you let your neighbors know about our products that will cut down on delivery costs!

If you are not able to be home for chicken delivery you can leave a cooler outside your house, or let us know how we can best serve you.

In order for on time delivery, please let us know your order for each week.

Our first round of beef will be available for pick up July 31st, and we will be adding beef to everyone's order for the week of Aug. 3rd at no charge. We would love to get your feedback on what you think about the beef. If you do not want beef added to your order please let us know.

Our egg layer hens will be here next weekend, and we will add a dozen eggs to your order free of charge! Please let us know what you think, and feel free to come and bring the kids to collect their own eggs! (All you big kids are welcome to come and collect too!)

After the first round the eggs will be $5 per dozen.

During the month of August we will have our first round of Pork, veggies from the salad bar, and honey ready for purchase!

We also have turkeys that will be ready in time for the holidays, so please reserve your bird now! Turkeys will be 12 to 20lbs each!

We accept cash or checks and you can make them out to Tara Smith.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend, and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Sunday, for our farm tour!

On behalf of all of us here at Tara Firma Farms, we wish you a bee-uitful day and thank you for your business!

Pictures from last weekend

We would like to thank Forrest Huisman, an amazing architect here in Petaluma, for taking these amazing pictures of the farm during our tour last weekend!

Fresh Chickens, 4 to 5 lbs available now $20 each.

Can't wait to see you all next Sunday at 10am for our next farm tour :)