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Raising Turkeys On The Homestead

Raising Turkeys on the homestead can seem daunting when compared to chickens and ducks, but I promise you it is worth it! I have raised Broad Breasted White and Bronze Broad Breasted Orlopp turkeys in the brooder from day old poults to harvest, and also now my dad and I have had a pretty successful year with a breeding trio of barnyard heritage breed turkeys on his homestead.

Starting With A Meal

This dinner reaffirmed our “why” by allowing us to connect with our local community – it reminded us that in a time like this, community matters. And, because community matters, looking for ways to bring positive change within our community through producing food with integrity is deeply motivating to us.

Getting Kids Involved

When they are young and excited about everything you are doing…. include them. This is the actual challenge. Because it’s way easier and more efficient to milk animals alone, to make dinner alone, to plant 400 onion plants alone. But really the only way to get through this time is to learn how to include them.

Home Harvest

Here’s a quick run through of how we set up for and run our on farm processing of chickens and turkeys! I will honestly probably be referring back to this every time we process on farm! Hope y’all can get some tips from it as well!

Homestead Meat

Raising your own meat can seem very intimidating. There are major learning curves, and you are dealing with living, breathing things that have to be taken care of every single day. But let me tell you… It is beyond worth the fears, and you won’t regret it one bit! I would always tell anyone who wants to raise their own meat to start with smaller animals – pastured poultry is a great place to start!

Goals, Grace, & Growth

There will be times when you cannot have a family milk cow, or plant that last succession of lettuce. There will be times when the plants go to seed, and you don’t reap the harvest you planned. I think the goal with anything you love should be, as cliche as it sounds: never stop dreaming, never stop learning, and never stop growing.

Crash Course In Farming

My introduction into farming has been more of a crash course. After 13 years in the military, our family decided to go into farming full time. My husband served in USASOC – special operations. If you’ve ever seen a military themed movie, these are the guys who go on super secret missions, jump out of planes, bust down doors, taking down names and the bad guys. You know, the cool job. Well for him… But not so cool for our family.

Children & Community

Homesteading can be lonely. You can feel like the only people in the world who want to know where your food comes from. You want friends and it would be even better if those friends have kids because then your kids can not feel lonely either. It was easier when the kids were younger because they didn’t know what they were missing out on.

20 Acre Dream

The actual desire to Homestead didn’t come until we bought a farm. A piece of land that hadn’t been farmed in or 45 years. We bought it thinking we could do anything we want here and maybe we will want to farm.