We Have Two Winners!

August 24, 2009 by Breeze Hill Farm

Since participation was so low in this giveaway, we decided to award wins to both who commented. Here they are:

This sounds great! I’ve never tried Goat’s Milk products before.

and

I’m really enjoying the products this summer as a member of Fall Line Farms. It’s been a lot of fun and I love everything I’ve tried so far! Stocking up for Christmas gifts too.

If you both could email me I can get your Goats Milk Lotion and Goats Milk Soap shipped out the same day. Jayne, your winnings will be at your pickup point for the Co-op on Thursday.

Thank you both for participating in our first Giveaway. Though the response was poor, we will be doing this frequently and not just Goats milk products but Fiber related items as well. So, be sure to check back to the Blog often.

Congrats!!

Time On The Move

August 18, 2009 by Breeze Hill Farm

I can’t believe that it’s the middle of August. Time has just gotten away from me and I suppose that’s the case with everyone. It seems as though it was just yesterday that I announced our Spring Fiber CSA and as of today, word from the Mill is all of the fiber should be spun into yarn and ready to ship by the end of the week. It seems as though they wanted to get the really large orders out as soon as possible..my good and our shareholders good. All of the Roving is ready for shipping now and should go out Friday.

So many people have emailed me asking if we have any plans for a Fall CSA. As of right now, no. I am trying very hard to get all of the soap and lotion orders caught up before the Holiday season gets here and I’m not sure that I’ve got it in me to set up another CSA for the Fall. The only thing that makes me want to say yes, is all of the fiber I still have here at the farm. It would be nice to move it out of the loft before next Spring. We are working on another idea though for Fall that I will discuss more in upcoming blogs. It’s a little different but I think that the concept might be well received. Keep checking back to find out more.

As of last count, I have moved over 300 bars of soap out of here since the 1st and that’s what I am doing today..making soap. It’s amazing how well this side of the farm business is doing. We just shipped a very large order to Italy yesterday and I am working on a pretty good size order to deliver tomorrow locally. Breeze Hill Farm is becoming a household name in the states and abroad. Can’t beat that, eh?

I wish I could say that our Co-op sales were this good but they aren’t. I don’t know what is going on but each week sales are consistently going down to the point that this week we’ve sold less than $100. of product. We love this Co-op and the other producers and members but it gets a bit costly to travel close to 100 miles to deliver so little. Maybe everyone is concentrating on final vacations and school starting. Don’t know but I miss my customers! Our products in a “food” Co-op have been fairly hard to sell anyway. Try as we may, we just can’t seem to get the point across that we are trying to “take care of outside while the food producers are taking care of the inside”. The fact that our soaps are molded in pretty molds doesn’t take away from the benefits of goats milk soap for the skin and our lotions and creams are just wonderful, for the whole family. Of course, being a producer, I just want everybody to buy bunches all of the time. Maybe in the Fall.

Got to get back to the soap. Everybody have a great day!

CSA Update and More

August 3, 2009 by Breeze Hill Farm

I cannot believe how quickly a week..or two goes by! Each time I blog, I promise to do so more often and the next thing I know it’s been a week or more since my last post. Apparently, having employees is how so many of you farmers/business owners are able to blog constantly. I find that there are simply not enough hours in a minute.

First thing I want to cover is the progress on the fiber processing for the CSA. I talked with the Mill Thursday. All of the blending and carding is complete and they anticipate that spinning will start by month end. The good news, for those who purchased the roving shares, the roving is being shipped this week. That shipment should be in by the end of the week and we will start sorting out the natural shares next week. I will start dying the dyed shares the following week and those should be ready for shipping to our shareholders the last week of August. Our plan is to have a small gathering the last Saturday of this month for roving pickup and for any other shareholders who want to come out for the day. We will have a lot going on for everyone to enjoy and there will be lots of food and drink. For those who wish to come in from out of town, we have reserved our favorite, local B & B for the entire weekend. Email me at breezehillfarm@verizon.net to let me know if you need lodging.

It was pretty exciting to see Breeze Hill Farm listed as the “Featured Producer” this week with Fall Line Farms Co-op. We are so happy with how successful the Co-op has been its first two seasons and look forward to season #3. Check them out, if you aren’t already a member. Several of our drop/pick up points are now carrying our products, so if you forget to order from the Co-op, you can pick up extra items from these these points. Gather carries a complete line of our wonderful goat’s milk soaps and Cavanna Pasta has a nice sampling of our entire line of goat’s milk products. Weekly we are increasing our outlets for our products and are so happy when we hear from our customers through referrals.

Well, that about covers everything for now. I am off to make another large batch of lavender soap, so I’ll be very relaxed by the end of this day!

The Whole Garden is Finally In

July 21, 2009 by Breeze Hill Farm

Well we may be picking our last tomatoes and peppers as the first snow falls but our garden is finally in..now it’s time to think about fall planting. It will be interesting to see how well this garden does. If the rains continue to come every 4 or so days and it continues not to be so horribly hot, everything should grow well. Just can’t believe we took this long. Oh well, it’s been really busy here and there just wasn’t enough time to get everything done.

I am trying to get a rather large goat’s milk product order filled and it’s really slow going. Probably because I’m trying to fill other orders at the same time, while dying roving and yarns in between. Also, I am making myself sit down at the spinning wheel everyday for 1 hour and spin. It’s good for the mental health and I have a custom spun order that I’ve been working on for several months now that is finally getting finished. Usually by this time of year I have completed the 12 items that I spin and knit each year to sell..I don’t even know where my knitting needles are!

All fussing aside, things are really going great. The animals seem to be doing very well, even though Boggie, my 18 year old sheep, gives me a good scare everyday with her “dead sheep lay”..guess she’s practicing or just exercising her Mommie.

"Boggie"

She’s looking good for an 18 year old, we think.

The goat’s are fat, happy, and giving lots of milk, with little to no incident. All is well for today.

Crazy Busy….A Sad Day For Me

July 13, 2009 by Breeze Hill Farm

Haven’t been around much lately. I really do have to get better about my bloging. It’s just been so crazy busy here that by the time I think about the blog, it’s after midnight and I’m off to bed.

The soap and lotion business is doing it’s impersonation of the “Christmas Rush” here in July. Which is a good thing! I’ve been very happy with the sales for June and this month is looking like it might just be better. We’ve introduced two new items to our line, Jewelweed Balm and Soap, and we can’t keep it in stock. For those of you who don’t know this Jewelweed is a wonderful, natural treatment for posion ivy and oak. To add even more benefit, we use just a bit of goat’s milk in the soap which helps with the drying effect of posion ivy. We haven’t gotten these two items on our website yet, so if you happen to be interested in either of them, just email us at breezehillfarm@verizon.net.

The fiber side of the farm has slowed down for now. All of this years clip is off at the processor and I haven’t had time to work on the alpaca and cashmere that I held back. I miss having the time to spin my own yarn. It serves two very important purposes for me. It’s relaxing and I get to “show off” my stuff!

For everyone who has been coming to the St. Stephen’s Farmer’s Market to visit us, we have taken the month of July off and possibly August too. Our reasons are very simple..I am just too busy to leave the farm during the week. My thought is, if I can’t keep up with sales, why make it harder on me? This way my husband and I both get a little break. Last Saturday, as part of our 31st anniversary celebration, we did a day trip to Gryffon’s Aerie www.gryffonsaerie.com in Whitehall, Virginia. What a beautiful trip this is! It was so clear, not horribly hot, and most of all relaxed. We hadn’t seen Ramona for several years and it was just great visiting with her and taking the “ride” around the farm to see all of the cattle and pigs..oh yes, and sheep. She and Collins’ farm is featured in Virginia Living Magazine this month, so hopefully many more folks will make the trek out to their place.

This past Saturday we took the day and visited Grayhaven Winery www.grayhavenwinery.com, for their South African Food and Wine Festival. Grayhaven is one of our wholesale accounts and Max and Dion are also very good friends of ours. We had a wonderful time and I have to say, the food was excellent. Oh yes, so were the South African wines! We picked up the coolest print of an African child carrying a lamb over his shoulder. Every opportunity we get, we try to pick up anything that is tasteful portraying sheep. So basically, what we did is take a full week of doing and going and called it our anniversary week. Not very traditional but definitely relaxing and fun.

On a happy but equally sad note. We had a barn kitten born in May that did not have eyes. We’ve taken him into the house and raised him with his litter mates and Mom (that’s been a real experience) and today, “Baby” is going to live with his new family. The family who is taking him, just lost their blind cat that had been with them for years, so he’s going to a home that knows how to take care of his special needs. As I sit here and type this, I can’t stop crying. I’m going to miss that little face held high, inquiring as to what I’m doing when I come into a room. I know he is only a kitten but he has become very important to me and I knew his life would be better if he lived in a home with a little less confusion than ours. Everyone, say prayers for “Baby” and wish him well in this new journey. Some times it takes something like this little kitten to make us realize how valuable our lives can be when we are blessed with the opportunity to love and take care of something so small in helpless. My emotions are so mixed with happy and sad.