Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

Some of you know that Carol grew up as a ‘Townie‘.  With that said, more folks know her as a farm gal.  But being on the farm for only 2 years, there are many experiences left to explore.

The last 2 days, Carol has found herself outside the ring of a couple local-ish livestock auctions, looking for goats & chickens.  It seems we are selling more livestock and poultry directly to our customers than we think we can replace sustainably.  It’s a good position to be in [business-wise] but we want all of our customers (present and future) to be able to buy the meat they want and still have a good selection in which to do so.  So, Carol has been looking primarily for more meat goats as well as a dairy goat or two… the last few weekends, we have been selling-out of raw goat milk too.

Well, today, Carol found a few things at one of the auctions she attended.  She did find some goats, but only dairy goats.  These goats will help improve her herd as she intends to cull some of her lesser quality milkers.  She also purchased a few more layer hens – yep… we have been selling out of eggs as well.  We have standing orders for 6-8 dozen and we haven’t been able to meet the demand.  My question to Carol, after she got home, was how does she know if she got hens that were actually going to lay for us.  It seems that when the hens lay eggs on the way home from the auction, chances are the hens are in good working order.  We’re both happy.  BTW:  You can buy our fresh eggs in Kerkhoven from Kristine at Inspiring Path Alternatives.

Another thing she bought was this little tool.   Or maybe I should say “little tools”.  She bought 2 cases of them.

Tote-N-Cut bale handling/feeding device

She may have paid too much for them… who knows.  But, we have one down in the barn, awaiting to be used.  It looks like it would be a handy thing to have around, but I guess the proof is in the pudding.  If you want one, contact Carol.  She’s selling them for only $2/each.  I tried to find some information about them on the Internet, but came-up empty.  As you can see, they are/were locally made… the question is “When?”

Carol also bought a Home Health brand home milk/juice pasteurizer, if for no other reason than to give folks a chance to experience or taste our farm-fresh dairy products without the worry of things made from raw milk as seeming weird.  Believe it or not, but some folks still think milk comes from a carton and not a cow or goat.  The pasteurizer Carol bought is a low temp unit.  Instead of heating the milk to 165°F for 15 seconds, it heats it to 145°F for 30 minutes.  The lower heat process does not kill all the helpful/healthful micro-organisms, like the beneficial pro-biotics… just the bad (if the milk were not handled properly).  The price of this handy-dandy appliance was 50¢, minus the 25¢ worth of puzzles she sold [that came with the pasteurizer].  Once home, we tested the Home Health pasteurizer and it seems to work perfectly.  If you would like to taste some pasteurized goat milk or goat milk cheese, let Carol know before heading out to the farm.  Of course, our goat milk soap does not need pasteurized milk – soap is soap (even if it is weird).

The day was cool and rainy, but that didn’t stop our visitors from coming out from St Cloud, MN.  Visitors?  I should say new farm customers.  Three younger fellows searched the Internet for goat meat and our farm came up in the search engines.  We were the closest.

These gentleman were transplants from Kenya, they said… two of them going to school at St Cloud State Univ. and the other at Mankato, MN – all cousins.  They wanted a nice goat or two for a BBQ.  It seems their grandparents would be visiting the United States for the very first time and the boys wanted to make it extra special for them.  These guys were as polite as could be and seemed very appreciative for letting them buy some of our animals for butchering.  Along with 2 goats, they also purchased 3 chickens and 8 dozen eggs.  All three guys mentioned how much better true, farm-raised food tasted, compared to the stuff one normally finds in the super-markets.  The one cousin mentioned he loved our farm, with the variety of animals.  He said it reminded him of the farm he grew-up, 10 years earlier.  He smiled as he said, “I feel at home here.”  He, too, had chickens that were allowed to free-range about the farm.  He expressed to me that he was looking forward to eating one of the chickens as soon as possible.  “The birds in the grocery store are soggy,” he said.  He also commented that farm birds have so much more flavor than the chicken found in the stores and even the eggs taste better.

When they guys were done butchering the goats and chickens, they cleaned-up their mess.  In fact, it was hard to tell they had even been here – not even a feather from the chicken could be found.  They were super neat.  It was a joy to speak with them while they were here.

I sure hope nobody comes out looking for eggs today – we’re sold out.

Folks from WI are a fun, crazy bunch.  When they want something, there is no stopping them.

Carol just had a car with Wisconsin plates stop out today.  They came from 45 minutes east of Hudson, WI.  The drive was 4 hours (one way).  Why did they come all that way?  For a rabbit… and two dozen eggs.  Officially, these nice folks have traveled farther than anyone we have had in the past.  Last summer, we a couple from California buy some eggs, but they were in the area on vacation.

The folks that came out today visited us specifically to buy a rabbit from Carol.  The eggs purchased only because we happened to have them.

For our Palm Sunday brunch, Carol made this good tasting sausage and tator frittata.  I believe Carol mentioned that except for the cheddar cheese, this is an all homegrown dish.  Ingredients include: homemade lamb & pork sausage, frozen peppers, free-range eggs, potatoes, and onions.

Carol made this sausage and potato frittata

 If you want the recipe, feel free to email Carol.