Goats achieve a new level of naughtiness
Here at BOTL Farm, we like a good challenge. That's one of the reasons we decided to raise goats, despite the well-founded consensus among farmers that goats, to put it politely, are a pain in the butt to work with. As we related a few months ago, we confirmed the goats know they're not supposed to jump fences into new paddocks and they act guilty when they hear us open the farm gate to herd them back.
When the goats jump fences and scatter, we often call in our faithful farm dogs (with their 1/4 shepherd breed) to help herd the herd back together. Since the main part of our farm is 20 acres, the dogs are often not within shouting distance, so we use a small shepherd's whistle to summon them. The whistle means the farmers need dog-help and the dogs dash toward the sound as fast as their legs can carry them. When they see the goats out, the two dogs work together to gather the stragglers and move them back toward where they belong, while the humans open and close fences as needed. We've performed these actions many, many times and we all play our roles appropriately.
This month, something new happened. The goats must have associated the sound of the whistle with the end of their fun: dogs, herding, returning to where they belong. As soon as we blew the whistle, the goats assembled into an orderly group, moved in the right direction, and put themselves back into the proper paddock. A minute later when the dogs showed up, they looked at us indignantly, wanting to know why we called them over if we didn't need dog-help. Darn goats learning new tricks.
The numbers don't lie: we're done with New Haven Wooster Square market
It's not for everyone, but we like numbers. We record and trend all sorts of data (we promise this story might not be boring if you stick with it). We have years of data on costs, sales, markets, how many minutes our well runs per day, and the current temperature of the boar semen in our basement (yay, our boar semen supplier is partially back up and running!). With all this info, we make business decisions based on data, not feelings.
Unfortunately (fortunately?) we have lots of feelings about New Haven. Danielle lived there for years and we were faithful customers at the Wooster Square farmers market. It was a vibrant market in a beautiful park and we were there every weekend. We bought food for the week, got to know farmers, started to volunteer on farms, and plummeted down the slippery slope that ended with us becoming farmers ourselves. We love New Haven and for more on this, see our website. We always said we'd vend there once we were grown-up, serious farmers. Fast forward to early 2025, the market let us in and we were pumped.
From our experience at other markets over the years, we know that we sell unique (high-welfare) premium (pricey) products and it can take a year at a market before we establish ourselves. Unfortunately, we're two seasons into the New Haven market, and our feelings and the numbers don't align. We've regretfully made the decision to no longer participate after one last market on September 12.
Starting September 19, we'll be attending the Assawaga farm market in Putnam, CT every Saturday.
We still love New Haven and want to continue to service our customers there. We don't know exactly what that looks like and want your feedback: drop points, shipping, home delivery during the winter, other options? For now, we want to get something on the calendar and get your freezers stocked so we're doing a drop off in New Haven on Sunday October 18 at noon. The drop location will be Wooster Square Park (not Conte West school where the market is now). We're taking orders on our website starting now and continuing through the Tuesday before. Note that prices will be 6% less because we won't be paying market fees. See you there or be [Wooster] square.
Sausage daydreams
When we're not crunching numbers, we're dreaming about sausage. Not that we're control freaks, but we like to birth our animals on farm, raise them carefully, slaughter them at a particular facility, and then take our pork to make sausages using our own recipes. We make fatty, salty sausages with simple ingredients that let the flavor of the meat shine through a beautiful prism of fresh, certified organic spices and herbs.
Anyways, we were back in testing and recipe development mode this month, followed by a productive trip to the commercial kitchen. We made a number of small-batch, farmer-made sausages and as always, we're looking for feedback so we can continue to tune the recipes:
- Sweet Italian (cracked fennel, caraway, coriander, a touch of sugar)
- Everyday Spicy (sage, other green herbs, hot chilis)
- Kielbasa (garlic, marjoram, white pepper) [we've made a few versions of Kielbasa over the years, but this one is new]
We also batched out some items that will help you get dinner on the table faster:
- marinated kabob meat (tamari [gluten-free soy sauce], garlic, hot chili)
- pulled chicken [oops, we sold out already]
- bacon bits (a perfect salad topper, cooked and ready to sprinkle and eat)
.
That feed pellet you've never heard of is back in stock
For our animal feed customers that use lespedeza pellets, they're finally back in stock. Remember how the harvest in 2024 was middling and the harvest in 2025 didn't exist? Well, it's 2026 and there's a harvest this year.
For everyone else who's wondering what lespedeza is and why they might care: It's a high-protein legume that can be used as a treat for ruminants (sheep, goats, cows). When fed at higher rates, it's a natural dewormer. It's high in tannins (which humans experience as bitter flavor), so the pellets may be an acquired taste for your flock or herd. We recommend it as a fantastic vegetal addition to your integrated pest management program. Get it while it's available, who knows if there will be a successful harvest next year.
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: Our last market is September 12. Pre-order. Order now for the October drop off. Pre-order only
Assawaga Farm Store, Putnam CT: This market runs every Saturday from 9am - noon from now until Thanksgiving. We will be there every week starting September 19. Dates we'll be there in September: September 05, September 19, September 26. 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 September: September 06, September 13, September 20, September 27. 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 September: September 07 and September 24 (non-standard dates). Registration free but required
It's too many dates! Save me!
Want to get these blogs in your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter.