Hello,

Yes, I’m finally getting around to putting words on the screen.

There are so many things that have come to my mind that I had meant to put up here on the site, but mostly due to being lazy I haven’t sat down to add to the website.

I would like to first say how grateful I am for all the support I have received from the folks who buy our chickens and lambs. Without fail each batch of chickens we raised was sold out in two weeks. We simply could not keep up with demand and that is a very satisfying way for things to be.Our grass fed lambs were sold the day we picked them up in the spring.

We have continued through out the year to maintain high quality conditions for our birds and our processing facility has continued to become more efficient and sanitary.

Some of you may have read the previous post about my woes with the USDA inspector who didn’t know the law here in New York and refused to respect the exemption we operate under. Happily, that episode is in the past and we will continue to do the best we can keep things up to the high standard we have set for ourselves.

I want to say how grateful I am to the folks at The Homer Farmers Market for their support . It has been a pleasure to be a member and I plan on continuing to participate there for this coming season.

The two hatcheries we buy our chicks from will continue to be our suppliers for the new year and I expect to continue my association with Round House Feeds in Cortland.

This past season a greater number of customers have come directly to the farm to pick up their chickens and many of those have been buying several at a time. In order to keep these folks supplied and to have chickens available for market as well I will be arranging to grow separate groups of chicks for several people. If this interests in this please contact me.

Tonight is Friday before Christmas Eve and I wish all of you the very best the holiday season has to offer regardless of what you may believe. And I hope your new year is filled with peace and abundance.

God Bless.

Tom

Friends,

I have been contacted by an inspector from USDA and have been told that I am in violation of the law by selling my chickens without having them processed in a USDA inspected facility.

This is not true.

I am permitted to operate in New York State under an exemption granted under Article 5 of the food laws.

Under this exemption I may produce and process for sale up to 1000 chickens or 250 turkeys for sale direct to the customer without being inspected.

I assure all of you that we take the utmost care in making sure our chickens are clean and healthy at the time of slaughter and that our processing is kept clean and sanitary at all times. We use stainless steel sinks and counters and have  new stainless tables on the way.

We use copious amounts of HOT WATER. Our chickens are sent immediately to the freezer to prevent growth of bacteria. Any of you who have seen our product can attest that the packaging and presentation are are well done and carefully stored.

I have always refrained from trying to sell my birds to restaurants or stores even when pressed to do so. I admit I have placed chickens at The Peoples Market of Lansing mistakenly believing that consignment was allowed. It is not. And our birds will be removed from there today.

On the matter of lamb

My price list shows cuts of lamb for sale. That was last season and we sold out. We raised three lambs this year. One for us and two as feeders for other people. These will be taken to a custom butcher for cutting as per the request of the buyer. We do not have cuts for sale this year. All lamb offered for sale must be processed at a USDA inspected facility. We have used Owasco Meats in Moravia in the past for this.

Next spring wee will again try to get enough lambs to offer cuts of lamb, and those will be processed at a USDA facility.

Don’t think for a moment that I have not tried to be aware of the rules and have kept my business within the law.

I think it is shameful that the USDA would waste time and energy in trying to put pressure on a small quality sustainable producer as myself.

I thank my customers and friends for tolerating this rant.

Cheers,

Tom

Hello Friends,

Yes I have been very lax in adding to these posts, but then again I am not sure whether they get read by more than a few friends so I don’t often feel the urgency to write. Today is Saturday. September 5th and it is the Labor Day weekend. Many businesses are closed. It is a rainy day. Which is quite a relief from the stagnant humidity of the past two days.

It has been a pretty good chicken season. I have sold out a couple of times and the number of customers buying their chickens in bulk at the farm is increasing. The market season at the new Homer Farmers Market on the green is a really nice setting, but hasn’t been hugely successful for me. But then it hasn’t been a bomb either and a number of new customers have come from Homer.

We have begun offering our chickens at The People’s Market in Lansing. It is a consignment shop run by Jay and Carolyn Engles on East Shore Drive in Lansing.

They carry a lot of local craft items and art objects and are expanding into offering locally produced food products. So far it looks like it is working out OK.

Ultimately the numbers of chickens sold will be about the same as last year, with the up side of that being that expenses have been considerably lower this year. The three lambs we bought have been thriving on our pastures which have stayed green despite a month of drought in July. Honey sales have continued to be steady and my bees seem to be doing well  storing honey for the winter

I recently had some misadventure when I neglected to secure my freezer to the trailer after the market and on the way home the freezer slid off the trailer on Rt. 13 and ended up in a ditch. Thankfully there was no one right behind me or there might have been a tragedy.

I was able to get the freezer back on the trailer and other than the lid being knocked out of alignment it seems to have survived the fall. I did loose one nice five pound chicken, but that is minor considering what might have been.

The last fifty chickens of the year are in the brooder and really need to go out on the grass, but I don’t like to start them outdoors on a rainy day. But it sure smells ripe in the brooder today. The lambs will be going on that one way ride in a couple of weeks. They have gained well, but they started out small and will not reach the hoped for ninety pounds we would like to see.They have already been sold as whole animals, so we will not be offering any lamb for sale for the rest of the year. I have made contact with a breeder to purchase some lambs for next year.

SO, if you are a follower of this writing, or a customer looking for chickens, in about three weeks we will offer the last chickens of the season and then there will be none, so don’t drag your feet  get on board the chicken train.

Be well, be happy, do good deeds.

The very rainy spring has finally relented. The first two batches of chickens made it out to the grass without much difficulty and adapted to the great outdoors well.

Yesterday Pat and I processed the first group of 37 chickens. They were in prime condition and weighed between 3.5 and over five pounds.

We are certainly getting very fast at completing this task. I will spend the early part of the week getting the trailer and other stuff ready for my first market on Wednesday at the new location in Homer. I am hearing good things from the other vendors about the setting and the warm welcome form the community.

In getting started this season the price of feed has risen considerably, and because of that I have had to raise the price of the chickens.

Last year I held the line but I can’t really afford not to make an adjustment in the price. So the cost of the Cornish Cross chickens will rise to $3.75 per pound and the Freedom Rangers will be $ 4.25 per pound. Honey will also be changing to $5.00 per pound. Such is the state of the small farm economy.

If you are a regular visitor to this site you will note the new logo drawn by my friend Lou Meyers. The logo has been well received by my friends and a number of people have asked for tee shirts. That is in the works and will be available soon.

It is raining again today (what a surprise) and there is so much I need to to outdoors. Oh Well like they say… I can’t dance and it is too wet to plow!

Cheers,
Tom

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of wind driven rain spattering against the sliding glass door in the bedroom. When I mention wind up here that means real wind and sustained gusts. We live on a hill at the northern end of a valley. The hills that give us such a great view also funnel the wind causing a venturi effect which means the wind is concentrated and moving faster by the time it reaches us.
This sometimes blows things around and I have to spend a few days picking random things up around the place. It once blew part of the roof vent off the house and three times has moved the processing shelter off it’s pad.
Last night the effect was to chill the brooder house enough to kill nine three day old chicks. Despite the fact that I had placed two heat lamps in the pen and put a top over half of it they succumbed anyway.
At this age there is little one can do once they get chilled that deeply. If there was a mother hen in there she would have protected them, but alas, no hen. I have added a propane heater today. Although the temperature is not that cold, the wind is causing the temps to go down.
This first batch of chicks is always at risk. April weather here in the Finger Lakes is often unsettled and unreliable. While other parts of the country are celebrating spring, we are often hoping that there is no more snow.
There is good news though; I now have chicks in the brooder and I have made a deal to pick up three Finn lambs. Our Grass Fed Lamb business has been doing well, if not spectacular. The chicks should be out on the grass in three weeks.
Out in the garden the garlic is up and looking good. A rodent tunneled under the asparagus over the winter and ate all the shoots. Darn those rats!
I finally finished bottling the goldenrod honey. It is a fantastic pale yellow color and has a subtle flavor. At this point I am going to be able to keep the price at $4.50 per pound.
I am looking forward to the opening of the Homer Farmers Market in May. I hope we’ll see you there on either Wednesdays or Saturdays.
I hope that you enjoy the Easter Holiday and observe it in a way that brings you happiness.
Cheers!
Tom

Hi, I’m back.

After being pretty much dormant for the past few months I am now seeing the stirrings of spring outside my windows and the longer days are becoming more pronounced.

There are a lot more birds showing up. I feel sad for them, the snow is still covering up much of the ground and I’m sure it makes foraging for food much harder.

I have been looking at the calendar and deciding when to have the first batch of chicks arrive. That is always a little chancy as the weather in April and early May can be chilly for young chickens and the grass early in the season isn’t as lush. Still, I think the third week in April will put me in good shape for the growing season.

Big news on the marketing front:

The Cortland East End Farmers Market at Dexter Park is no more. The site has been changed to the Village Green in Homer. The market will still meet on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It is a really pretty setting and should offer more vendors and more variety  of locally produced goods.

Remember our focus is to provide products that are locally made or grown. This supports the local economy by providing you with fresh high quality  meats, vegetables and goods, and the money stays in our area instead of being sent to some corporate giant.

We will continue to offer all of our Quinn’s Products at the farm in our new “store” right here so when you come to the farm  you can have a look at how we operate.

It is always a good idea to phone first if you are headed this way, but we will serve you any time we are at home. And please, don’t bring your dog.

For those of you who enjoy traditional meals at this time of year, we still have some lamb cuts available for that Irish Lamb Stew you like, or maybe an Easter dinner.

Call for availability: 607-844-8645.

I will be looking forward to seeing my regular customers soon, and hope I will be meeting some new ones as well.

Keep up with us on our Quinn’s Irish Hill Farm, Facebook page.

Until next time, Have courage, be of good cheer and keep your powder dry.

Tom

Hello again.

It is getting to be near Thanksgiving. We are having some remarkably good weather. I’m sure that won’t last, but it has been a benefit to me as I get things cleaned up and put away for the winter.

This season the chicken marketing was very good. We suffered  some losses to a weasel early in the season, but since then things have gone very well. We experienced a few birds failing  to survive  a two week period of steady rain, but again the losses were few and recovery was quick.I have to say that the chickens we raised this year look to be the best overall quality  we’ve raised so far. I’m very pleased!

I was able to keep selling through the season at the East End Farmer’s Market in Cortland and at the Back to Basics Store in Dryden. In addition sales at the farm continued to be slow but steady. The four lambs we raised were in first rate condition when we took them to the butcher and the product is quite good. Sales of lamb have not met expectations though. I guess I’ll have to do some advertising. We retired all of our laying hens. We gave a few to a friend and the rest ended up as stewing chickens. Alas! We will not have eggs until next season.

Speaking of selling; we have set up a regular “Chicken Store” at the farm with the addition of a 10×12 foot shed. I am just now finishing the installation of electricity and lighting. All of our products are now located in a clean secure  building that allows us to show our wares and conduct business more easily in a more congenial setting. We will be “open” as long as there is something to sell. Please feel free to call and come up to the farm to get whatever you need. Remember. we offer two types of chicken, lamb cuts, local honey, eggs and hand made soaps and my growing selection of carved walking sticks. A friend in Virginia has been getting me some serpentine sticks that are native to that area. They make interesting walking sticks and broom handles. Of course I also have some of my colonial style brooms for sale too. We have  added for this year Home Made De Luxe Garlic Granules ! Organic Garlic dried to perfection and hand ground to  granule size instead of dust like you  get in the store bought stuff. Very robust.  It is  100% pure Garlic, no drying or anti caking agents. A three ounce bottle is $6.50 plus three dollars shipping.You can order some by contacting me via email.

Our honey season was looking very promising with an outstanding flow of goldenrod nectar, but just before we went to collect the honey a local bear beat us to it and in the process destroyed two hives of bees as well as eating all the honey. We were still able to collect some 80 pounds of goldenrod honey to bottle and sell.

I have planted next year’s garlic, and the garden beds have been layered with mulch to be blended in come spring time. We always make big plans for next years garden, but then in the spring the reality of the hard work makes us cut back on what we planned.  I’m happy to say that we have been eating home grown potatoes, onions and garlic for some time now.

We are grateful for the  people who have become regular customers and continue to purchase several chickens each time they come up to the farm. We would like it if we could entice a few more people to continue buying chickens from us through the winter. Why don’t you become one of them?

In other news; I was able to get a small part in a movie being shot in Virginia. I was on the set for two days . The film will be released next year. It is called “Alone, Yet Not Alone.” It is a true story of a young girl captured by the Indians at the outset of the French and Indian War, who escapes and makes a dramatic trek through hundreds of miles of wilderness pursued by her captors. I appear as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and as the head of a family awaiting the arrival of the escaped girl.

So dear readers,that’s all for today.

I hope you had a fine summer and I hope to see many of you before too long.

Be well my friends,

Cheers,

Tom

Hello faithful followers(?)

Today the last shipment of Cornish Cross chicks arrived. Yesterday the previous group went out on the grass. They liked it until the day cooled off and they were huddled next to the hay bales I gave them for protection.

The group before that will be going to the processor on Friday.

We had already processed about half of them but I felt that they were a little light so we gave them the rest of the week to fatten up.

After processing all the viscera and blood is dumped on an enclosed compost pile I built to keep the varmints out. It only worked sort of. Two nights ago I went out on the porch and checked things out with my spotlight. There was a coyote on top of the pile. How he got on top of a five foot pile I don’t know. The light spooked him and he ran a ways off, but wouldn’t go away.

Now keep in mind that the whole time he was no more than twenty yards from the lambs and the other chicken pens.

This is the kind of visitor we don’t want around.

After playing hide and seek with the light he ran off. About an hour later I  went out and there he was again. This time I  got out the new .222 rifle my friend gave me and found him in the scope.  I had Pat keep the light on him. Sighting through a rifle scope at night isn’t so easy,but finally I found him and at about that time he decided the light was too much and decided to leave. I took the shot, but he disappeared. I went out in the morning and looked around,  clearly I had missed.

Last night I went out  and swept the light around and there he was again. This time he didn’t hesitate, he took off at a sprint at the first sign of the light. I’ll leave him go for now. I ordered a new varmint light to attach to the rifle. It has a red halogen beam that varmints can’t see. This should give me all the advantage I need.

The weather has a definite feel of fall already. The days are warm and sunny and the nights are getting chilly. There is copious dew on the grass in the morning.

The garden has been doing much better than in previous years. I harvested over 250 garlic bulbs. Today I will get the onions. The potato plants are wilting, indicating it is time to dig  ‘taters too.

The farmer’s market has been slow, but still I have been selling chickens at a decent pace. I have been setting up a stand at Back to Basics Bulk food store on Rt. 13 and after several disappointing weeks I ran an ad in the Shopper and business has begun to pick up. Neighborhood customers! Exactly who I wanted.

By the time this last batch of chicks is ready for the freezer it will be October. I will be glad to put the chicken farm to bed for the winter.

I will get another crop of garlic in the ground and I am going to try to raise seed onions for myself.

I’m not really looking forward to winter, but a bright spot is that we purchased a vacation place in Florida and we will get to spend some time there this winter.

Well friends,

I hope you are really out there. I would like to hear from anyone who reads these things.

Take care, Be well!

Tom

I apologize if you are a follower of this and haven’t seen anything new for a while.

Here it is  the middle of July.

The first batch of chickens are a memory and as seems to always happen I ran out of stock even though I had planned better and had more chickens on hand.

The Cortland East End Market has been a little slow for me, but happily my regular customers keep showing up and often send new customers  as well.

The first group of Freedom Ranger chicks were doing quite well until week four when the field pen was invaded for several nights by a weasel that ended up killing seventeen chickens over two weeks.Despite my best efforts to protect the pen and setting a number of traps it just stopped coming and we ended up butchering the remaining eleven chickens last week.We kept one for ourselves to serve to my brother and his wife while they were visiting. It was wonderful, cooked in Pat’s new “Big Green Egg” grill with a can of beer on one of those stands. Moist and flavorful.

The four lambs we have this year are much more friendly than last year and look to be thriving. We have been moving them more frequebntlt and over all they look great. They will go to the butcher on Sept. 13th.

Sadly once again my popcorn crop failed. I have no guess about what happened. I will re seed the plot with buckwheat for the bees and to plow under for fretilzer for next year.

Speaking of bees. The new hive I opened this year is very busy and the bees are very calm when I visit them.I’m hopeful of a good haul of honey this year.

I have been selling chickens at the parking lot of the Bulk Foods store on Rt. 13 in Dryden on Thursdays. Stop by and say hello if you are in the area.

Well, I have chores to catch up on.

I’ll try to post more often.

In the mean time be well!

So far it have been slow, but I am hopeful it will pick up.

Yes, it is April 27th and I look out the window to see snow falling.

This isn’t all that unusual for Central New York. But it is disapointing after the spring weather we have had lately.

There are so many things to get done. Preparing the garden beds, building a new cold frame for started plants. I have to check and repair the field pens to get ready for the chickens.The lamb pasture needs to be fenced.We received fifty four Cornish Cross chicks two weeks ago and happily all but one have survived so far.If the weather warms up they will go outside in about two weeks.

Later this week I am expecting delivery of the first batch of Freedom Ranger chicks. These taller more rangy birds are a little less huge in the breast and legs and are great foragers and have a unique taste that has earned them the “Label Rouge” classification in France, Their highest quality award.The sample group we raised last year were well received and the folks that bought them asked for more.Following that more Cornish chicks will arrive.

We have two sources for lambs lined up, but it is still a little early to get them away from their mother. Soon though.

I’ll be trying to grow popcorn again this year and hope for better results. Also more broom corn is in the plan. I have improved my broom making skills over the winter. I will have brooms at the farmer’s market this year. Pat is going to add a goat’s milk soap to her line. Also more of the cherry pit pillows.

the new trailer I got  from my brother Dave  may make a real difference in how I set up at the farmer’s market. My knees are very arthritic and climbing in and out of the truck is becoming  difficult. This new trailer will allow me to haul the freezers and everything else to the market and then only have a ramp to walk to the freezers.

Speaking of the market; I have been asked to sit on the board of directors of the East End Farmer’s Market in Cortland . Working with the other members we have made some planned improvements in how the market operates, attracted some new vendors and established a new venue.

The East End Market will now be open on Wednesday’s form 4:30 to 7:00pm on  the green at Homer.

I will soon be offering chickens and other goods in the parking lot at “The Bulk Food Store” on Rt. 13 in Dryden. I will be there from 2pm until 6pm on Thursdays starting in June.

We are planing an Open House here at the farm. Thentaively scheduled for

June 27th, noon until 4pm. We will have all the livestock out to see and we’ll try to have some local crafters or other demonstrations going on.Maybe even some live music.

Watch this space for details.

I have also established a Facebook Page for Quinn’s Irish Hill Farm. Look in and see what might be the day to day news.

For now this is all I have to write about.

I hope you’ll check in from time to time. You can stay in touch through my Facebook page as well.

Cheers!

Tom