Welcoming Grace

This spring the farm has a new member! (of the equine persuasion) Grace joined us on the snowy first of April. In need of a new teammate for Zephyr, I headed to a nearby driving/draft horse auction and spotted this cutie. After I won the bid for her, the Amish man who had owned her found me and said that his family wanted to know where she would be going. So we exchanged addresses and he told me her story: she was orphaned the day after she was born and his family hand-raised her. She was a bit of a pet. They used her for riding and drove her a little on the buggy.

She's a 7 year old Belgian/Appaloosa cross, so she's got herself some spots, though they can't be seen unless you get up close. She's a bit smaller than Zephyr, about 3 inches shorter, but has plenty of spunk to make up for lack of size. She's settling in and working like a champ. Our plowing session last week was like a dream.

Discing down the garden

Barn Rehab Begins

Meet our intern, Tim Morrison

You may have noticed this guy around the farm on harvest days. Tim is our 2008 intern. He's from Eau Claire and enjoys computers, animals of every kind, and Harry Potter among many other things. Tim has an amazing ability to work with cats (we call him the "cat whisperer") and a talent for picking up all things culinary. He hopes to be an entrepreneur/inventor someday, but in the meantime his hard work is much appreciated at Ironwood.

Introducing...WEEBLE!

The lives of our rooster, hens and chicks are endlessly amusing. The newest member of this clan is Weeble, the single surviving chick of our "wild" hen. Weeble's first few hours in this world were rather harsh being filled with an escapade in the jaws of Scout (the farm dog), abandonment by his mother, nearly freezing to death and then finding himself in a strange home with an eerie red light for warmth. After she warmed up, Weeble spent the next few hours tottering around her box - thus the name..."Weebles wobble but they don't fall down." You'll be happy to hear that Weeble's mother, after finding her alive and well in the hen house, decided to call her family after all.

Share the Recipe Wealth!

If you have a favorite recipe that incorporates some of the produce from Ironwood Farm, please share it! You can add a comment to this blog entry and type in the recipe. Happy cooking!