Our Hidden Fortress Micro Farm
I own and operate a small scale farm with my husband Patrick. We just started the farm about a year ago, and are still learning our way with the project. It's a lot of hard work, but it has its own unique rewards. First of all, we get to keep chickens, and this is really great. They are entertaining critters!
The other great thing about having a farm is all the down home cooking adventures we have. Our food budget is pretty tight so we try and make do with what we can produce whenever possible. This leads to a lot of creativity in the kitchen. I am also a craft coffee roaster which I have done for the past 10 years. The farm owns and operates a small commercial coffee roaster. The revenue from coffee helps keep the farm going financially.
Recipes: My brewing and food recipes can be found here.
Artisan Roasted Coffee Check out our coffee!
Hidden Fortress Micro Farm Learn more about our little farm!
Farm Residents
We love chickens around here. They are such characters! This cute little guy is Oreo, our bantam rooster. We named him Oreo because of the cookies and cream feather pattern of his breast and wings. We got him as a gift from a neighbor a year ago. He is the only bantam chicken we have. Even though he is a small fry he has the attitude of a full grown rooster. He has adopted our oldest hens as his flock, and takes his job as protector seriously... even though he really can't stand up to the other full grown roosters on our farm!
Spreckles
Spreckles is our black and white Sussex hen. She was a week older than the other chicks when we got her, and took on the role of top hen right away. Fortunately, she is not an abuser of this power. She perfectly fits the role of mother hen, and is always trying to protect the other hens and bosses them around. She is still one of our fussiest birds, especially when the choicest treats come out in the morning!
Angel and Princess
On the right are Angel and Princess, our Japanese Silkie Chickens. We acquired two Silkie chicks in the summer of 2011, which were supposed to be a male and a female. We thought Angel was a girl, but he started crowing around 4 months of age. Because he was a small guy, he got picked on a lot, especially once we put him in with the other roosters. So, he had a rough time and always seemed a bit lonely. We recently traded one of the two silkie roosters back to the farm he came from for a little white fluffy hen. Once Princess arrived and settled in, we put Angel in with her, and now he is as happy as a little rooster can be. Just a few weeks a small tragedy struck our farm. One sunny afternoon we found poor little Angel drowned in the Goose pool. We are looking for a new mate for Princess and hope to find one soon!