Boiling down the sap

Feels like Spring, right?!
We go between mid 50’s and well, snow. Winter may be officially over but I think he is shrugging off the bits of snow from his shoulders before he finally walks away. Enjoying the last few days of fire lit evenings, candles still glowing before the endless summer days of sunshine begin in earnest. We wish you a Happy Easter!

Most of the month has been working on getting our long awaited shipping shed functional. We are almost there! The ceiling of the walk-in was spray foamed with closed cell foam. Abe N’ Sons finished putting the siding inside the freezer box, the compressor unit with evaporators showed up last week and we are just waiting on the final quotes and work to be done installing the compressor! Our goal is to have this finished by April 1st, we shall see how close it will be.

Desktop for our office made from reclaimed tropical pallet wood

My husband is a genius…. he has been collecting pallets for various uses on the ranch. I have, in the past, asked why we needed *quite* so many of them. Now, I’m having to bite my tongue as he has taken some of the pallets apart, taking some beautiful and rare pieces of tropical wood and created this beautiful desktop. Abe has also been putting the finishing touches on our office in the shipping shed.   I used some elbow grease and sanded away. Only a few more steps of varnish and I will share pictures of the finished office with you all. Or, better yet, come and visit us once we are IN the building!

Sheared mother and lamb

The Shepherd has been working on shearing out the ewes before they lamb. This ewe lambed back in February and for the first few hours, her lamb didn’t even recognize her. She would run around, bleating for the mother. The mother would call back and the lamb would just stand looking in amazement at her much slimmer looking mother. They finally reunited, thankfully. Hopefully we will have a bunch of new lambs by next month!

One more new thing, we are showing you our plans for the CSA shares for the next three months and would love your imput, or even choices ( the more time we have to plan the better!) These are for our most popular share, the Half Mixed. If you have a Full Mixed, we usually double the quantities. If you have another share ( half beef, half pork, etc. they will be different than what is below). Your second month of choices are below,

April Option 1 for Half Mixed

• Beef Roast ( bone-in or boneless Chuck )
• Ground Beef
• Ground Pork
• Bacon or Hot dogs
• Bone-in Pork Chops
• Sandwich Steak
• Spareribs, Country Style or Baby Back Ribs
• BL Pork Loin roast, Lamb Leg Steak OR Pork Tenderloin

April Option 2 for Half Mixed

• Boneless Pork Roast ( Shoulder or Ham )
• Ground Beef
• Beef Mild, Sweet or Hot Sausage/Links
• Beef Stew OR Lamb Shanks
• Boneless Pork Chops
• Short ribs
• Sirloin or Sirloin Tip Steak
• NY Strip, Ribeye, Filet Mignon Steak

May Option 1 for Half Mixed

• Bone-in Pork Roast ( Shoulder or Ham)
• Ground Beef
• Kielbasa, Bacon OR Pork Stew/Kabob
• Beef Stew OR Lamb Shoulder Steak
• Boneless Pork Chops
• Top Round or Sandwich Steak
• Sirloin or Sirloin Tip Steak
• NY Strip, Ribeye, Filet Mignon OR Lamb Chops

May Option 2 for Half Mixed

• Beef Roast ( bone-in or boneless Chuck)
• Ground Beef
• Ground Pork
• Mild, Sweet or Hot Pork Sausage/Links
• Bone-in Pork Chops
• Pork Shoulder OR Fresh Ham Steak
• Spareribs, Country Style OR Baby Back Ribs
• T-bone, Rib, Porterhouse Steak OR Lamb Stew/Kabob

Thank you for sharing our harvest!

– – Kassandra and everyone from 8 O’clock Ranch

Comments