I stayed at Georgiatown Farm in White Stone Virginia for one week over spring break and worked and learned form Karen, the owner, manager, farmer, host, everything. It was very inspirational to see a one woman farm. She has pigs, sheep, chickens, turkey, and geese. She raises heritage breed, which she is really proud of. Her sheep are Clun Forest, which is an English variety, they are hardier, but in her experience have had a hard time producing twins. She has both Red Wattle and Tamworth pigs, as well as mixes of the two.
She prefers the Red Wattle meat and disposition better so she’s planning on taking her last Tamworth to slaughter and no longer using that breed. She loves France and studies how to raise her chickens how they do in France, she raises Freedom Rangers, but is looking to expand. Her Turkeys are Bourbon Red, and her geese are African Geese.
She processes all of her own birds but takes her Pigs and sheep to the slaughterhouse. She sells her products at the Williamsburg Farmers Market once a week, mainly meet and eggs. She says she’s great at selling her product because of her history in the food business; her knowledge of the best cuts and advise on how to cook the meat. She is personable and that showed in her ability to use the barter system, which I got to see working first hand; for example, she trades pork chops for land to graze her sheep on, and she trades bacon with the guy who brings her firewood.
I participated in the day-to-day chores of feeding and watering and making sure everyone was doing okay twice a day, once at 8 am and again at 5pm. On top of that I got to have some more eye opening experience such as castrating pigs, giving shots, docking sheep tails, and taking pigs to slaughter. The lesson I took away with this first real experience I had working with animals is that there is always something to do, you can never take a day off, and everything is an emergency. There were times in the middle of the night where everything would start squawking and we had to go out and check of there was something going on we needed to deal with. Animals, unlike vegetables, can’t be ignored and though I knew that, it was really beneficial that I got to really live it first hand.
THE FARM SCHOOL FIELD TRIP
Small Farm Husbandry 
You must be logged in to post a comment.