Dogs with jobs
Here at BOTL Farm, we got a dog shortly before we started farming. Her name is Pup (we were real literal about naming animals back then) and we got her as a puppy from a rescue. She was small, scared, filled with tapeworms (which we were horrified to learn that we could contract from her), and absolutely wonderful. She was there when we moved our meat rabbits and honeybees up from our previous location. Then she met our first goats, pigs, and chickens, watching and learning as we established our farm piece by piece.
Typically, a serious farm dog is either a livestock guardian who lives with a flock or herd 24/7 to deter predators or a herding dog who helps move large groups of livestock around. Pup is neither of those. When we're out on the farm, she's out with us, but otherwise she lives and sleeps with us in our house. Pup is more of a generalist on the farm: she tirelessly hunts small rodents around our feed stores, she bravely barks at hawks and eagles, and she sniffs around to alert us of anomalies. One time, we thought a goat had given birth to a single kid, but Pup let us know that we're dummies with no respectable sense of smell and the mom had stashed her second kid in dense grass. According to her doggy DNA test, Pup is one quarter Australian shepherd, so she succeeds at about one quarter of the shepherding tasks we assign her. She can herd goats who jumped a fence back to where they belong, but if they're far away she's more likely to have a great time frolicking with them.
As we're writing, we realize this may sound like an obituary for Pup and we've been getting questions from her fans at markets about where she's at: she's totally not dead. She's alive, well, and working with our newer (aka replacement) rescue dog Ruff (maybe we're still a bit literal when naming dogs). Since Ruff is a new addition to the farm, she has large boots to fill but is learning from Pup. Turns out, dogs are way better at communicating rules and subtleties to other dogs than we are, so Ruff is learning fast.
We think a big reason that our dogs are good is because they are, from a young age, Dogs with Jobs. We don't worry about them chewing our shoes or shredding the couch: like us, they're too tired after long days of farming.
The demise of the business we depend on
Sausage adventure reboot
Last year we debuted a rotating collection of small batches of one-time sausage types that are hand-made by us. We had a nice time developing new recipes, getting feedback from our faithful customers, and tweaking the next batch. This month at a market, we had a customer mention that we should make Nuremberg bratwurst. Little did they know, but it was about time to reboot the Sausage Adventure for the summer!
Now, we'd never heard of Nuremberg bratwurst, nor have we been to Nuremberg. Luckily, we don't let details like this deter us. We have delicious pork and have made lots of sausages, so we put together a recipe, noted that this particular bratwurst is traditionally made with slim lamb casings, and got to work. About a week after the customer suggested it, we had Nuremberg bratwurst mixed, stuffed, frozen, and ready to go. Custom sausage so fast you'll freak.
While we were at it, we also made a one-time fresh Kielbasa. It's not fresh in the sense that it's not frozen, it's fresh in the sense that it's not smoked. Yum. Continue to give us feedback on our new sausage types: we take customer feedback and suggestions seriously. Who knows, your idea today could be next month's sausage.
We recently got lots of sage and hot peppers from our farmer friends, so get ready for a sage-forward, spicy sausage soon.
Yikes to the pooping
Over the past few weeks at our farmer's markets, we've seen lots of new faces. This phenomenon is powered by people who are new to shopping at farmer's markets because of the widespread Cyclospora (parasitic pooping infection) outbreak in leafy greens. It's great (the increase in traffic at farmer's markets, not the outbreak).
We hope that out of the smokey remains of this tragic breakdown of our global food system emerges a beautiful rainbow. More people will be thinking about where their food comes from and how they can source more of it from local, small, responsible growers. That can't possibly be a bad thing, unlike Cyclospora (or the current Salmonella Javiana, Salmonella Oranienburg, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella Enteritidis, and Listeria monocytogenes outbreaks). Yikes.
Find us
On farm store: Every Wednesday noon - 2pm, every Saturday 1 - 3pm. Pre-order
On farm self pickup: Every day 8am - 8pm. Pre-order only
Wooster Square Market, New Haven CT: This market runs every Saturday from 9am - 1pm until the end of November. We will be there every other week. Dates we’ll be there in August: August 01, August 15, and August 29. Pre-order
Assawaga Farm Store, Putnam CT: This market runs every Saturday from 9am - noon from now until Thanksgiving. We will be there every other week. Dates we'll be there in August: August 08 and August 22. Pre-order
Sturbridge Farmers Market, Sturbridge MA: This market runs every Sunday from 9am - 1pm from June until October. We will be there every week. Dates we'll be there in August: August 02, August 09, August 16, August 23, and August 30. Pre-order
Ask a Farmer Anything, virtual question sessions: second Monday of every month from 7:30 - 8:30pm and fourth Thursday of every month from 8 - 9am. Dates in August: August 17 and August 27 (non-standard dates). Registration free but required
It's too many dates! Save me!
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