Blossom to Seed to Soap: Borderview Farm Sunflowers in Full Bloom

Our Sunflower Oil Soaps are made with sunflower oil that is grown and pressed in the Lake Champlain Islands, just a short car ride (or boat ride!) from our farm.  This week I was able to take a drive over to visit Borderview Farm in Alburgh, owned by "my" sunflower oil farmer, Roger Rainville.  I've been  wanting to see the sunflowers in their full glory, and have been anxiously awaiting full bloom.

It was worth the wait!

Aren't they beautiful? The black spot in the sky is a bee.  

Borderview Farm is a gorgeous place, and sits right on the US/Canadian border.  The gravel road in front of his house literally divides the two countries.  I don't know how old the property is, or what all has been farmed there over the years besides dairy cows, but today the farm is a University of Vermont research farm and there are test plots everywhere growing a variety of plants, including all kinds of different grains and hops...and then there are all those gorgeous sunflowers!  Lots and lots of sunflowers!

It's a little hard to see, but there are a couple of bees here busily working.

Roger tells me the sunflower project is really about producing alternative fuels, but as a soap maker,  I see all those seed heads and all I can think about is the creamy, skin loving bars of soap that golden oil can produce.  Sunflower oil is one of the best oils for skincare.  It has a fatty acid profile similar to olive oil and is very high in vitamin e, which is known to help the skin heal and protect itself from sun damage.  Biofuels are great, but I love the fact that I can make a line of gentle soaps using a really beneficial oil that is grown locally, cold pressed, and naturally filtered.  How can you beat that?!

The different varieties of sunflowers were progressing at different stages.  This variety was just starting to flower.

This group was finished flowering, and the heads were starting to droop and dry.

The UVM/Borderview Farm sunflower project has been successful, and now there are farms all over the Champlain Islands growing and testing sunflowers and producing oil.  Besides the oil, Roger says that the pellet left over after the seeds are pressed is high in protein and is being added to animal feed.  Plus, it burns really well in pellet stoves.  I love that every part of the plant is being used.

I need to patiently wait until the seed heads are fully dried, and the oil is pressed and has had a chance to naturally filter itself, probably sometime in November or December.  I'm getting my buckets lined up and ready to go.  But, for now, I'm looking forward to another drive to the Islands so that I can enjoy the sight of all those friendly, welcoming flowers before they are gone!

Enjoy the last days of summer!

Join Us in Shelburne for Shelburne Days Festival

If you don't have any plans for Saturday, August 17th, come on over to Shelburne and join us at Shelburne Days! Held on the third Saturday in August each year, the festival offers activities for children, demonstrations by the rescue squad and firemen, fingerprinting of children by the police department, crafters, food and a variety of live music.  The regular weekly Farmer's Market will be a part of the event, and will have extended hours this week.

If I'm not mistaken, Shelburne is celebrating its 250th Anniversary this summer, so I'm expecting a little extra celebration!

Hours run 9 AM - 3 PM in the park across from the Shelburne Police Department.

Rotational Grazing, Goat Torture, and Bovine Compassion

Our goats and sheep are grass fed.  In the winter we use hay that is grown and cut just two miles down the road, and in the growing season we use rotational pasture grazing.  We choose to graze this way because we think it's one of the best ways to manage the internal parasites small ruminants face, plus we have found that it keeps our pastures in the best shape and allows a nice variety of plants to flourish.

Every farm manages rotational grazing a little bit differently, but for us it means using a series of electric netting fences to create pasture spaces that can be grazed down fully within a week or so.  Some larger farms move the spaces every day, but that just isn't practical for us.  From a parasite management point of view, it's just important to break the three week life cycle of the parasites by not keeping the animals in the same spot for that long.  Once the goats and sheep have grazed there, it's also important to allow that pasture to rest for quite a while.  Since our farm is small, and because goats don't eat the plants all the way down to the ground like cows and sheep do,  I will often mow behind them with our tractor to allow the sun to penetrate the soil and hopefully kill off any eggs and larvae.  All this moving of fences is time consuming, but we've had very few parasite issues over the years, and have been able to skip routine use of chemical dewormers.

So today it was fence moving day.

Generally I really enjoy this chore.  I usually wake up early so that I can be outside while everything is still quiet and calm, and before the sun is high.  I didn't sleep well last night, so this morning I was up and out even earlier than normal, just after the sun came up.  It was just gorgeous!  We had a cool night last night so the air was clean and fresh, the sky was clear, and the animals were all still resting and chewing their cuds. So calm and peaceful, and such a treat to be awake to enjoy this first light!

I got the tractor out, started to take down and gather the first net fence so that I could load it into the tractor bucket and move it to the new area.  Millie, a sweetie and one of our momma goats, was paying attention and started getting excited. See, the goats LOVE it when I move them to a new pasture, and she knew exactly what I was doing.  Woohoo!!

Millie

The thing is, though, Millie is very vocal.  And persistent.  And very impatient.

And this week, moving the fences was a big job.  I needed to move six sections of fence, and because the pasture where we were going hadn't been used yet this summer, I needed to also mow a border before I could stand the fences up.  (Tall grasses touching the electric net kill the charge and make the fence ineffective.) This was a several hour job.

All of this was taking entirely too long for Millie.  So, her excitement turned to agitation, which then turned to sheer frustration. "WHY is it taking so long??"  She got the rest of the goats fired up, and they  all started calling to me.  Have you heard goats holler?  It sounds like babies screaming. You would have thought they were all being tortured!

All this noise was bad enough first thing in the morning...but our new bovine neighbors heard all of the goats' fussing, so they came to the fence to see what was going on.  "Those poor goats!  What are you doing to them?!"   So they started bellowing these great big, deep calls.  That got the dogs wound up, so they started barking.  And then the roosters and hens joined in.  Uugh.  What a cacophony!

So much for my peaceful morning chore.  My head was reeling.

Finally I was done, and to the delight of the goats (and probably my neighbors) they were moved into the new pasture.  Once the goats quieted, everyone else settled down.  Now all I can hear are happy chomping noises.

Finally. Happy goats.  Look at the size of Sophie's mouthful!

Next time I'm wearing earplugs.  Right now I'm in search of Motrin.

The Year of the Rabbit

I know Chinese Astrology says this is the year of the snake, but around here it is the year of the rabbit.    We've had years where it was clearly the year of the snake when every venture outdoors yielded a sighting, a couple years where we were overrun with mice, and one very miserable year where we endured a wave of field rats.  Eeeww.  This year, it's definitely the rabbits, and I'm delighted!

I have a thing for rabbits.  I'm not sure why really, but I just do.  

Our very wet spring and summer has made keeping a tidy and mowed lawn a real challenge.  Well, that, and the fact that our mower has broken and been in the shop three times.  And don't even peek at our flowerbeds!  It's really embarrassing. Anyway, all this water and our lack of keeping up with the weeds has made our place a haven for wildlife.  We've seen all sorts of critters, but the rabbit family that has moved in is by far my favorite. 

Papa Rabbit is huge, and I don't see him very often.  He must hang out somewhere in the back pasture.  Another adult, I think a female and I'm guessing the Momma, is always near the goat barn at dusk when I am out doing farm chores.  Two baby rabbits were born this year.  The first one was just a wild thing, dashing around, running from bush to bush, and back and forth across the street.  Unfortunately, she was run over by the UPS truck.  It wasn't unexpected the way she was always flying around, but I still got pretty upset by the whole ordeal, and removed her from the road.  Have you ever looked closely at a rabbit's skin?  I was amazed at how delicate and transparent it was.  I guess that's why so many cosmetic firms have done testing on rabbits' eyes and skin over the years.  (We don't test our products on animals!)

The other baby is alive and well, is very calm, and moves at a much more reasonable pace.  Every morning, and every evening, I have the great pleasure of watching him nibble his way through the clover next to our front door.  It has been great fun watching him grow from a little tiny thing into a healthy sized juvenile.  When he was smaller, Momma was always close by.  She'd often sit in the shadow of the car, or in the taller grasses and plants, keeping a watchful eye. Nowadays he's usually on his own. Sometimes I leave scraps out there for him to discover, but mostly I just watch from the window and enjoy.   

My view from the window.  Look close to the driveway, near the lily of the valley plants.

Here he is zoomed in a little bit.  The photo is shot through the screen so it's a little distorted.

And here he is up close.