First Farm Visit - How Not to Do It

Yesterday, we spontaneously went out to Chip-In Farm in Bedford, MA, and it was quite a learning experience. On the one hand, we could just walk into the store and visit their petting zoo. On the other hand, there was no farmer on hand, and the store was being run by a girl who looked to be somewhere between 12 and 15 years old. So we had no access to the chicken barn to check the conditions, nor could we get very close to the cattle, nor could we ask any questions.

Clearly, from now on, we need to either go on Open House days or call ahead to arrange a visit, although neither of these options really satisfies me. In both cases, the farmers have a chance to clean up and present their best face. I want to see ordinary daily activity: dirt, manure, and all.

Here's what we did learn. Chip-In Farm is tiny. I'd guess it's about three acres of land being actively farmed, although the property probably extends back into the woods somewhat. It's tucked behind Hanscom AFB in an area of swampland, scrubby new-growth forest, and military housing. I suspect that this was all farmland in the not-too-distant past, judging by how young the trees were.

The farm store was rather disappointing. While they did have their own eggs, milk from Shaw Farm in Dracut, MA, honey produced locally in Bedford, and locally-produced maple syrup for sale, most of the rest of their offerings were non-local: strawberries from Florida, blueberries from California, Idaho potatoes, lots of conventional penny candy for the kids. And I saw no organic offerings at all.

On the positive side, their eggs were incredibly cheap. We bought two dozen for a mere $2.30!!! We will perform a taste test on the eggs later this morning. And they had a lovely petting zoo that seems to be a local attraction for kids. Inside the store, they had a bin of shredded produce, clearly store products that were no longer saleable, to feed to their livestock. Each child is allowed to bring in one basket of produce. We went with our two daughters, 5 and almost 2, and our elder daughter's best friend, almost 5, who were delighted with the animals and their ability to feed them. The zoo consisted of three sheep of two breeds, one exuberant goat, two very mellow bunnies, a large pig of a longhaired breed I've never seen before named Lilac, and four chickens. Above us, we could hear (and smell) the laying chickens. All of the windows on the second floor of the barn look like they're fenced in with chicken wire, so my guess is that they laying hens have the run of the second floor.

Outside, just as we were leaving, we spotted three head of cattle in a field with electric fencing. Again, they were a breed I've never seen before, solid color in the body with a white stripe down the spine. Either they're a very small breed, or these were immature cattle, two heifers and a young bull. My guess is that they were calved in late spring of last year and are intended to be meat cattle. I'll try to call the farm and ask.

Overall, I was a little disappointed. Among other things, I'm annoyed with the photos on their web site. Although they show chickens running around on the lawn, they also explicitly state that their chickens are indoor chickens because they're concerned about disease, particularly the Asian bird flu. So the chickens in the photos are almost certainly from the petting zoo and did not produce any of the eggs we bought. To me, this seems a bit shady, not quite false advertizing, but not entirely truthful either.

The trip did make me realize that, while I know something about raising livestock, I only know about a few breeds, and in fact, I don't even know which breeds those were. I know that my grandfather's cattle had some Black Angus in them because I vividly remember the Black Angus bull he brought in to breed the cows one year. His body proportions were very different from the cows', so the cows were a different breed altogether, but I have no idea which breed. They might well have been several other breeds. I'll ask my mother, but I doubt she knows, either. And since my grandfather really didn't write things down, I doubt that I'll ever know what those cows were.

So now, I'm determined to educate myself on different breeds of cattle and why one breed might be selected over another. A neighbor brought me a flyer from High Lawn Farm making grand pronouncements about the superior quality of milk from Jersey cows (over Holsteins). If that's so, why don't all dairies raise Jerseys? What's the trade off? I want to know.

My husband and I did a taste comparison of the eggs this morning, but I'd like to expand it to include other local eggs, so I'll likely post my results later this week.