News and blog
I just wanted to send a note to people who have expressed interest in volunteering with us- first and foremost we are delighted that you want to get more involved.
I just wanted to clarify the Sunday scheduling. Sundays are the day that you must come to if you want to be trained as a volunteer. These are ongoing and we are usually at the farm all day. We require that you attend three, three hour sessions before you can set your own hours for the season. If you cannot make the 12-3 training sessions- we may be able to accommodate you after three on Sundays depending on what our schedule is that day.
We have committed to making Sundays our family affair/big day at the farm so if the 12-3 chunk doesn't work for you email us through this website and we can make alternative arrangements for your training.
Thanks for your interest in our little farm we all (see below) look forward to working with you.
Jen Holloman
Ocean Song Farm
Beatrice this morning after delivering a buckling!!!!
Hey Mailing List:
Summer is starting and things are busting loose at the farm- every day brings new developments, new kid goats, new growth in the community garden, new friends and new volunteers. The garden with the help of Jake and his Dad Bill, Emily, Stephen, Fauz and her children and Jay is well underway. Because we had our wonderful baby Florence Catherine on 4/19---
we had to buy started plants which was a bummer because we wanted to use the cool old greenhouse at the Visitor Center to start our own plants. The plants we did by are from some of our dear friend farmers Tim Friary and RosaLee down at CCOF and Veronica from West Dennis. I call it our field of dreams as with any garden we have planted it and we will hope for the very best this summer.
Next item of news is that we are taking on volunteers. We have reserved Sundays from 12-3 as an ad hoc orientation. Come prepared to garden and work with animals or if you are not interested in gardening we can train you to work with us on animal husbandry when we have projects. (12- 3 is the baseline time sometimes we start earlier and we definitely stay later there is nothing like a sunset over Sandy Neck). This Sunday Father's Day we have a lonnnnnng list of to dos and invite you to join us at noon.
The new garden has been set aside for a market farm for Jay and I to support our efforts and our Farm volunteers to cultivate and then enjoy the literal fruits of their labor. In exchange for your help throughout the season you can take home a share of the veggies and cut flowers. we are delighted that this garden has taken shape and gotten off the ground. What has grown so far is- the mesculun mix and mezzuna.
Onto the shameless self promotion portion:
Meat will be available in a couple of weeks as we will be picking up pork and ham from the butcher in Athol, MA from the pigs who helped roto-till the garden from April to June. We also will have some sausage varieties available. Stay tuned.
The six piglets that arrived on Monday and are up at the barn are for November- and can be purchased either as whole or half. We also have a couple of lambs left that will go to Market in September. If you are interested in any of these itemd please send an email.
We also will be raising some Christmas turkeys and the poults will be here in July. These will not get to be as big as the mighty Drumstick who is still in residence with us and well loved by all. These turkeys are called midget whites. I know they will be delicious- in any event and live an abundant life living as a turkey would like to eating, sunning themselves hanging out with other turkeys and eating grass.
We finished our yarn from the fall recently using Esther and Miriam's fleece blending it with some Merino wool. It is for sale by skein/weight. If you are interested let us know.
We would love to have you join us in farming and gardening this summer. We are open to everyone being a part of the wonderful culture being created at the sanctuary and would love to share all the food we are growing with you and your families.
As always call email or come by- we keep farmer's hours 5:30-7:00 am and 5:30-8:00 pm in Summer and much earlier in winter and spring.
Did you notice the tractor we have to extend a big, warm, and earnest thank you to the Crowley family for allowing Jay to borrow it. They just "upped" our game to an entirely new and exciting level.
Well, more later....will we see you Sunday?????
we hope so, keep in touch.
Jen and Jay
Ocean Song Farm
Aquatic Explorations!
Long Pasture – Ashumet Holly – Skunknett River – Sampsons Island
Engage in marine science with Mass Audubon Naturalists on a 2-hour boat cruise aboard Hy-Line’s Sea Swan and discover creatures that live in Cape Cod waters! We’ll use an otter trawl net, fish pots and plankton tow to bring everything from microscopic marine life to glowing Comb jellies to small sharks on board for close up observation.
This family oriented cruise will launch from Hyannis, and travel through Lewis Bay, Hyannis Harbor and near shore Nantucket Sound.
Cruises depart: Thursdays, July 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th August 5th and 12th. Cruises leave from Ocean Street Dock : $35 for Mass Audubon members, $40 non-members, $25 for Children Mass Audubon members -$30 children non-members
Pre-registration required. For more information and to register call 508-790-0696, and ask for Mass Audubon’s Aquatic Exploration Cruises
Happy Spring and Happy Summer to Come!!!!
The First community gardening session begins SUNDAY 5/23 @ 10:30 am. Meet Jason up at the red barn, and begin the gardening adventure. The deal is this is a community endeavor, and the benefits will be that all participants take home fresh food and flowers from now until the first snow. Additionally we are recruiting volunteers for the summer season- here are some of the benefits:
free veggies, learn about natural gardening methods and improve your growing skills-
Get fresh free eggs and the occasional cut of meat,
FLOWERS, cut flowers in the height of teh season
walk and work in the beautiful Long Pasture Wildlife sanctuary
Be trained as a goat milker,
work with goats and sheep
get fiber in trade for your efforts- you can make your own yarn!!!!
make friends with like minded people and enjoy the company of animals!!!
No sign up needed- just show up anytime after 10:30 on Sunday and we will put your hands in the dirt.
**** BRING GARDEN GLOVES, and maybe a small hand spade/shovel type thing...******
See you soon!!!!
Jen, Jay, baby Florence and all the animals at Ocean Song Farm
Hello Everyone:
Monday, January 18th, we are going to Adams Farm in Athol, MA to have some lambs processed. When we went in November our friend Mary called in and paid for an order- of fresh and frozen meats from their retail shop. She called in her order, the kind folks at the retail store put it together for her and we picked it up, put it in a cooler and then brought it back to the Cape for her.
We would like to offer to do the same for you. We will not do any Boston orders unless you are willing to pay for us to deliver the next day.
If you are interested- please do the following:
Contact Adams Farm, a USDA processing facility- and ask them what's available, but please do not be a pest. Be accommodating as they are nice people but, busy, busy people. They will be doing us all a huge favor.
http://www.adamsfarm.biz/
Place an order with them, You may send us with cash, a check payable to Adams or call in your credit card to the people at the retail store.
Bring us a cooler by Sunday evening- with your name clearly written on it
Provide Ice, at least a bag or two- to keep your food fresh
Include $5.00 to help with this meaty mission for gas, and delivery
We will meet at the exit 6 rest area on Monday evening- we will call you when we are an hour away from the Cape so you can be ready to meet us.
I found that they have the following right there, locally made, ready to buy, frozen and yummy:
bacon, sausage, kielbasa, Italian and breakfast pork sausage
beef: ground, steaks or various varieties and cuts, steak tips,
a few chickens cut into parts
Lamb cuts
They have goat I have been told- however we went during Ramadan so the cooler was not stocked-worth a call though if you like goat.
Any questions-? Call me- 508-843-5772
Yummy, Yummy,
Jen and Jay
www.oceansongfarmcapecod.com
Hello Ocean Song Farm Friends:
Happy New Year 2010! Welcome to the new decade, we hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season.
Farm News:
We are getting 5 more pigs on Monday from Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. These pigs will be for three individual families. We have one more available. We suggest that if you are interested you contact me immediately- this opportunity will vanish quickly. The total cost is about 650.00 and yields an enormous amount of delicious pork, ham, bacon and sausage.
We also are in the process of getting our next round of Label Rouge Chickens that will be ready for Early Spring.
We are turning our sights toward breeding our dairy goats. I just contacted a farmer on the Vineyard who will hopefully be lending us his Saanen buck Ivan. We hope to take some goats out of production and put the younger ones into production. These goats hopefully will be sent to another sanctuary to be used for some grazing and the others will be sold as future dairy goats and also for chevon (goat meat) for local families.
We are also hoping to get into gardening and growing over at Long Pasture. Jason will sit down with Ian Ives and work out the details. We are hoping for areas to grow veggies and flowers for sale at the local farmer's markets. We also want to have areas designated for volunteer participation- in trade for veggies.
We have 1/2 a lamb for sale. If you are interested please contact us immediately as the lambs will be going to the butcher this week. I can help with the cutting orders. These lambs will all be USDA inspected, cryovecced, and arrive home frozen. These will be a delicious product!
We will let you all know when the turkey orders need to be placed for Thanksgiving and Christmas 2010. The turkeys were so delicious and giant. I think there is nothing yummier than a 22 lb. turkey!!!!!!
We did a story for the Cape Cod Times magazine "Primetime" on our Slow Food Cheese making classes. We thank you for all your inquiries, we don't have any winter or early spring dates as of yet. Stay Tuned---- I hope you will join Slow Food Cape Cod in the meantime. They have the greatest Winter events that feature local chefs, local foods and wonderful local restaurants. We love them and all the members truly a great bunch.
http://slowfoodcapecod.org/
If you want to help with any of our ongoing projects for winter and early spring we would love for you to join us. We thank you for all your support.
For the time being- buy as fresh and as local as you can for veggies as we are in the cold months, connect with the fish mongers and shellfisher people, and the land farmers with their fresh eggs, chickens turkeys pork and the like.
Stay warm and cook at home!
Here's a big warm hug.
Jen and Jason, Erin and all the creatures we care for.
The work day never ends for Jason!!!!!! He is the back bone of this farm.
Thank you for ever my dear husband.
Moving Day
Thanks to all of the volunteers who helped us move the goats and sheep to our newly renovated shed. Located near the visitor’s center at the Long Pasture Sanctuary, the newly renovated shed has a separate room for milking our goats. The shed had a collapsed roof and a rotting sill. We re-built the roof and replaced the sill as well and put in two windows. The shed has plenty of room for our goats to stay out of inclement weather. We are very fortunate for everyone’s support this past fall, without your support this shed never would have been realized.
Moving day went off with minor problems, except for the run-away sheep, and a muddy field. By far the most trying challenge was moving the sheep from the field to our new shed. We had to cross a road and go down a narrow path through the woods to the opening of long pasture where we had our new fenced in loafing area. The first try ended in a small stampede of sheep running down Harbor Point Road. All I could think was how troubling it would be if they ruined somebody’s yard. Luckily for us they stopped to munch on some grass by the roadside and we were able to turn them around and get them back into the fenced-in field.
The second try turned out to be much better. Once we got the sheep across the road and onto the wooded trail they quickly ran right past me. Luckily they made the right turn onto the trail and ended up in the fenced area with only a little extra effort. If not for the generous effort of some casual visitors we might not have made it. Felice, our baby lamb who was less than a week old ran right along with the herd. She’ll make a good mother.
With all the rain we had difficulty moving many of our items by truck to the barn. My first attempt ended in me getting stuck in the mud and needless to say made the rest of the day we spent moving things on foot. All in all moving day was a great success.
Why Grass-fed?
At the Long Pasture Sanctuary we employ grazing to manage the grassland habitat for different bird species. Simple enough, the goats and sheep graze the pastures to manage the pasture so it doesn’t revert back to woodland. We plan our grazing to avoid interruption of the various bird species breeding times. This is something we are going to learn more about and report on through this blog.
The goats and sheep work at chomping down the weeds: (Queen Anne’s Lace, Asters, Milkweed, Briars, Knapweed, Brambles) as well as the grass underlying the tall weeds. It’s such beautiful site too see: our herd of goats and sheep calmly chewing the grass, doing what they do naturally, goats being goats and sheep being sheep. The sound of them pulling up the grass mixed in with the sounds of the habitat with the life natural unfolding is quite amazing.
For many reasons this is not the case with most of the meat products purchased in the supermarket or even the brand name markets. There is nothing natural with the way animals are raised for meat in the larger food distribution setting. The setting is more industrial than natural, with animal welfare being a very low priority. Care and quality of life matter, they inform the taste and quality of the meat and its impact on the consumer. Grass-fed meats are leaner, tastier and overall a lot healthier for you and the animal involved. Often there is little need for any medications for these animals and hardly any need for antibiotics.
Instead of confinement, grazing livestock is beneficial for a variety of reasons. Ecologically, when grazing is managed appropriately the pasture benefits with richer soils. Grassland species improve from the reduction in weeds and taller plants that can’t develop from early grazing. Most importantly when grasses are grazed in a short duration the end result is a more vigorous grass that re-grows more readily and quicker than if it were to be grazed for a longer duration. This short duration results in faster re-growth and allows the pasture be grazed twice, and sometimes three times during a season, resulting in more productivity from the land and more income for the farmer.
Grass farming by its very nature is a local endeavor, there is no major harvesting equipment, no fertilizer, pesticide or other chemical inputs. There is no major investment in grain, which is petroleum resource dependent and in our case requires shipping to reach us. The farthest this meat will travel is to a USDA inspected processing facility, about 1/5 the distance your average meal travels to reach you. One renowned farm, Polyface farm of Swoope, Va is the pioneer of this type of farming enterprise, and is arguably The Resource for all your grass farming questions.
While our farm is in its infancy we see a way forward at time when a lot of this country isn’t able to see any forward direction at all. A goal of ours is to be transparent to our customers, we allow our customers to come visit whenever they want and help in any way they can. You can get to know your food and help the animal(s) to have a good healthy, full life that’s as close to nature as possible.
Buy fresh, Buy local, Buy grass-fed
Moving day 2009.
After months of planning, effort, and hard work our goat shed is finally ready for the girls. Today (Saturday) we will be moving the goats and sheep off their respective fields to live in the new shed area of the Audubon. Feel free to visit us at our new home! The new shed is located at the back of the long pasture parking lot near the visitor’s center. The proceeds from Farm Day in 2008 were used to buy lumber and other materials to create this mini-barn for all the girls. Moving the goats was easy- we just all took a wonderful hike down the trail with all 12 just going along, stopping here and there for a nibble.The trocuble started when we went to move the sheep! What a small catastrophe. Not very hard to imagine but.... of course they ran down Harbor Point Road. The bumper sticker holds true: "My Border Collie is smarter than your honor student..." and your completely college educated group of adults trying to move 9 sheep from point A to point B. We coulda used one at that moment. We made it- and all of the animals dd what they do after a long hike, rest drink water, Felice was a tough and spunky little nugget. She is a great addition to the herd.
Meet Chop, Stew, and Felice:
The Gambles have named our wonderful lambs. Today another lamb was born and this one is a beautiful girl to add to our foundation ewes. Her name is Felice. 