I took a trip south on beautiful Highway 64 to the RS Central High School Farm on Saturday morning to buy young pigs at the spring FFA auction.

RS Central High has a very active agriculture program with greenhouse production, goats, chickens, pigs and much more. The RS Central High Farm has over fenced 30 acres and is a hands on classroom and laboratory for the high school students. Sadly, many high school ag programs have ended over the years- including the ag program at my old high school, Freedom High. I am very encouraged that RS Central has enthusiastic, effective agriculture teachers, a supportive school administration, a functioning community network, and dedicated high school students who spend after school hours working on the high school farm. Read more about RS Central High's accomplishments>>>

The auction was held in the RS Central High School Farm's barn, and each pig got a chance to shine in the spotlight as it passed through a middle corral and the crowd placed bids on it. The RS Central High FFA members worked hard behind the scenes to organize the auction, keep the pigs passing through the corral, and load the vigorous, wiggly 35 lb pigs into buyer's trucks.

The proceeds of the sale of each of the 40+ pigs supports the FFA program and farm at RS Central High School. Several local businesses also sponsored pigs with donations of over $100 per pig.

Later that day at Bluebird Farm... William and my 16 year old sister, Vivian, capture an heavy little wiggly pig, while Petunia, the Great Pyrenees guard dog, worries about her new pigs.

I'm very impressed with the all the hard work of high school students at RS Central!

We're the proud new owners of 5 very healthy, vigorous Red Wattle/ Hampshire and Berkshire cross pigs!

Spring pork order

Has the warm weather got you thinking about pulling out the grill? Maybe you want to cook a nice roast before the warm weather sets in. Now you can do both!

Spring Family Pork Packs!

We still have two months before farmers markets, but you don't have to wait for Bluebird Farm pastured pork!

Get a full selection of our pork in stock for the end of winter by ordering a Family Pork Pack. We sell out of Family Pork Packs quickly so reserve your pork today!

Small Family Pack (20 lbs, $110) Ordering information

Large Family PacK (40 lbs, $210) Ordering information

Half Hog (about 90 lbs) Contact us for pricing and cutting information

Pick-up at Bluebird Farm on Friday, March 25th from 3:30-5:30 pm

Spring?

We all enjoyed a week of warm weather and spring like conditions (although we wouldn't mind a little rain with our sun). Everyday at Bluebird Farm we are doing spring activities from preparing for our first meat chicks of the season, to preparing soil for potatoes, to starting onion transplants in the greenhouse.

Seeds arrive!

Preparing for chicks.

They're here!

Preparing the potato beds.

The pigs would like to help drive.

Potato beds.

Spring means more eggs. And new eggs! The chicks we got in October laid their first egg today!

A watchful rooster.

We're looking forward to a great year with everyone. Check the blog and our website BluebirdFarmNC.com to stay up to date on farmers market openings and other spring happenings at Bluebird Farm.

Winters can be long and dark, but if we ever need entertainment there's always the animals-better than cable!

Curious hen

Watchful Rooster

Hungry Ewe

Clyde and his "Mama"

Winter farm dreams and plans

Well, I've been sitting around with the laptop, the "Brainstorm" notebook, and the seed catalogs, jotting down ideas and plans. We've been telling ourselves were almost ready to order our supply of seed for the year all week! And here it is Friday night and we're burning the midnight oil. It's all because brainstorming is just so much fun and we are adjusting little parts of the 2011 veggie plans for CSA and farmer's markets.

Here's a photo from Johnny's Seeds. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/ This is why we drool over "sexy veggie and flower pics in seed catalogs.

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/ High Mowing Seeds and Johnny's Seeds are two companies we get most of our seeds from. Here's a carrot variety from High Mowing

These are the most delicious carrots- Yaya is their name. Nothing beats a fresh carrot grown in sweet garden soil.

Happy Holidays!

Hello all,

Happy holidays to all.

Here at Bluebird Farm all the animals have been well behaved and healthy. In the winter we raise all the animals together to make caring for them easier. We don't rotate the animals like we do in the summer because the soil is frozen and biological activity has stopped. This means that if we add manure it will wash away, becoming a pollutant instead of a benefit. Instead of rotating the animals we add piles and piles of bedding. Straw and wood shavings serve as a kind of a sponge holding the manure in place. In the spring we can pile the bedding up for a great compost pile.

Another great benefit of raising the animals together is that they interact in mutually beneficial ways. For example, the pigs are very messy eaters, spilling food right and left as they smack their chops. The chickens come along and clean all that spilled grain up. The chickens also help the sheep, horse, and pigs with parasite problems. Sheep are especially susceptible to internal parasites. However, if a chicken unwittingly consumes a sheep parasite larva that is in the grass the parasite will die because it can only survive in a sheep stomach.

We are taking a little vacation to visit family. But believe it or not next year is already on our minds. January will be a busy month of planning for the garden and the animals. While we are busy planning and staying warm one of our favorite winter dishes is a Pumpkin Tomato Soup. Below is the recipe for this delicious easy to make recipe. I have also attached it.

Have a great winter!

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This is a delicious, easy to make, soup I discovered this winter. It can be made with pumpkin, hard sweet winter squash such as butternut, sweet potato, or any combination thereof. It is easy to make your own pumpkin puree. Just skin pumpkin, winter squash, or sweet potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes. Boil until they are soft. Puree in a food processor or blender. Once the puree is made the soup is extremely fast to make.

Making the soup

Ingredients

2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil or butter

1 large onion, chopped

4 cups of your favorite stock

4 cups fresh or canned pumpkin or butternut squash puree (up to half sweet potato is delicious)

1 can whole tomatoes with their juices, pulse/chopped medium fine but not pureed In a processor (a can of pre-diced tomatoes works well too)

1 tablespoon maple syrup, molasses, or honey

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Minced Italian parsley

Directions

Heat the oil or butter in a nonstick soup pot (more butter if it is not a non-stick pot). Add the onion, and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes

Add the stock and heat through. Add the pumpkin, whisking in. Heat again. Add the tomatoes and sweetener (maple syrup, molasses, or honey) and heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve hot garnish with parsley

Adapted from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon

Conover this Saturday

Hello all,
The cold weather is blowing our hats off. There isn't too much to do outside, but we are carrying an awful lot of hot water from the house out to the animals. In weather like this even hot water will freeze by the end of the day.
This Saturday Bluebird Farm will be at Ruby Jo's Consignment store in Conover with our pork and eggs. Ruby Jo's is located at
331 4th St. Place SE, Conover, NC, 28613
We will be there from 10-11 am.
To place an order please respond to this email with the number and types of cuts you would like. We will also have our free range eggs available. To see the cuts available see our pork website here. We are sold our of shoulder roasts, but other than that we have all these cuts available. New this time is Ground Sweet Italian Sausage. It comes in one pound packs, vacuumed sealed.
I will bring extra meat if you don't want to preorder. But these cuts will be sold on a first come first served basis. To make sure you get what you want we recommend you preorder by replying to this email

Big Oak farm will also be there selling their beef. To make a beef order please contact them. Their website is http://www.bigoakfarmnc.com/

Thank you for your support,