Produce

Fresh Farm Eggs

Currently, our regular Landscape and Irrigation customers are purchasing all of our production but we anticipate having more eggs available in the near future, some time in the Fall of 2021 when the new additions to the flocks mature and begin laying.  We currently have Rhode Island Reds, Plymough Barred Rocks, and New Hampshire Reds (all dual purpose birds that lay brown eggs -- large/ex. large).  With our RIR roo, we will be letting a hen go broody and hatch out/raise a clutch of RIR chicks.  We will see how that goes.

Our animals are raised and cared for with primarily holistic protocols, both for nutrition, overall health, and the construction of their coops and runs.  They have as much supervised free range as our schedules allow.  We gather our eggs twice daily and store them, unwashed, at room temperature.  They are in our customer's posession, usually within 2-4  days after gathering.  This keeps the bloom on the eggs for improved quality.  When you are ready to use them, just wash gently with water, cook and enjoy.  There is no difference between white or color)ed eggs nutrition wise.  It is just that different varieties of chickens lay different colored eggs.  We chose these varieties because they are dual birds (raised for both meat and eggs), have good overall health characteristics, not seriously affected by hot or cold weather (we are one state/county that has both extremes), lay lg/ex.lg  eggs in good numbers and are good foragers.

IIf you wish to have hard boiled eggs, we suggest the steaming method.  Gently wash the eggs, place in a steamer (we use a vegetable steamer top in a double boiler), begin timing for 15 minutes, raise water temperature to a gentle boil and steam until the time is reached, then immediately move the eggs to an ice bath for 10 minutes.  Peel and use.  Because the eggs are fresh the inner membrane is more pronounced than store bought eggs which can be 2-4 weeks or longer since gathering.   The membrane is greatly diminished in old eggs.  

if you are interested in purchasing and hatching some RIR fertilized eggs, we will work out a plan for getting you some eggs, maybe 12-18 or more depending on whether you will use a broody hen or incubator and will do so on shares for some polts.

Some of you have inquired about the livestock predators we have in our area.  Those we have actually seen, have on trail camera, or have seen evidence of (scat/track) are:  Coon, Possum, Weasel, Mink, Bobcat, Feral Dog (and dogs off leash), Feral Cat, Coyote, Coy-Dogs (serious broblem in eastern Va.), Black Bear (in Wake Forest and Leesville Rd areas as well as in the Neuse River corridor), Feral Hogs, Red Tailed and Red Shouldered Hawks, Barred Owls (we have yet to see a Great Horned Owl in Wake County).  There is also the possibility that a Red Wolf from the population on the Coast goes into a dispersing travel and can reach the Neuse River Corridor.  In addition, although pooh poohed by many, the Cougar probably exists in the remote parts of NC in extremely limited numbers.  With all these potential predators, there is good reason that you often see the Great Pyrenees (or donkees), one of the better known LGD, on many farms and homesteads.  There have been no confirmed sightings of the grey wolf in this area for well over a century.

Local Honey from our own Hives

Currently, our regular Landscape and Irrigation customers are purchasing all of our honey production but we anticipate having more honey and associated products available as the additional hives come into production.  We expect to have some product available late summer 2021 for new customers.

Our honey is gathered from strong colonies beginning in their second year/summer.  We do not feed our bees sugar water which is done in commercial high production operations.  (If your honey has sugar crystals forming in it, is sugar water honey)  It is strained.  Not filtered, heated nor pasturized.  Generally we do not include comb with the honey but some customers have requested it so we can do so as per your request.