Experiencing the Farm
As society as a whole grows farther and farther away from its farming roots, coming to a place like Farmstead Creamery becomes a real experience. Many are looking for a chance to introduce their little ones to friendly farm critters, which is why we started our “celebrity animal” program. Right beside the Creamery, you can meet our two young Kunekune pigs Van Gogh and Hemmingway, with their quirky personalities and interesting backstories.
Van Gogh was bullied by his littermates during the cold this winter and got frostbite on one ear (which is now a bit shorter than the others), so he had to come inside to recover and be a companion to Hemmingway, who was a runt that was laid on by its mother and squished flat. When Kara found him, he was pale white and not breathing, so she scooped him up and rubbed him vigorously until he gave a big gasp. For a while, we called the little fellow “The Great Gaspy” but settled on Hemmingway as a more suitable name.
Now much bigger but very friendly from being hand raised, they live in a cozy pen we move onto fresh grass every day. Pizza Farm Days are their favorite, as folks love to offer them bits of crust until they’re so full, even their piggishness is completely saturated.
New this year is a gaggle of poultry, from the all-puff-and-strut Royal Palm turkey tom “The General” to two Pekin ducks and the colorful rooster “Bert” and his three lady friends. They bring out the sounds of the barnyard as the ducks splash in their kiddie pool, Bert prances and crows, hens cluck, and The General gobbles at just about anything.
For the lightly engaged, this offers a fun way to meet some of our colorful critters while enjoying a gelato or having lunch on the nearby picnic sets. They’re at Farmstead every day now through the end of the summer season, so you can visit them when it works for you!
For those who want to delve more deeply into our farm’s story and learn about our practices and philosophies, we have a new offering this year: once a month in-depth educational farm tour, June through September. In previous years of offering farm tours, we found that some of the folks really just wanted to see farm animals (hence the celebrity animals at Farmstead), while others really wanted to dig into learning about sustainable agriculture. For the lightly engaged, the farm tour was too long. For the deeply engaged, it was not enough! Hence this new offering.
Educational Farm Tour: Saturday June 10 at 1:00 pm
Learn more about what we do on the farm, how lived sustainability works, and how we integrate progressive, regenerative philosophies into our everyday practices. Join us for a guided, educational farm tour, followed by a round table discussion with wood-fired pizza, salads, and gelato. Tickets $40 each. Please arrive on-time for the start of the tour at 1:00 pm. Reservations requested. Check out the events schedule (www.northstarhomestead.com/calendar) for additional available dates for this new educational event.
Maybe you want to delve into really knowing where your food comes from, or maybe you’re embarking on your own adventures with small-scale farming—whatever your background, if you’ve been hoping for a farm tour with us with considerable background and a chance to discuss process with the owners, this is that opportunity!
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We also invite you to explore our newly updated website, which has a wide array of information about what we do and our philosophies of practice, fresh photos, bios, and more. We hope to see you down on the farm sometime to share the experience.