Busy Bees...
When we moved onto the farm in 2016, the previous owners were generous enough to leave us two strong and healthy hives full of honey bees and a good start of beekeeping equipment. Several years later, with the help of a beekeeping mentor, Cherokee Beekeepers Association, and a lot of trial and error, we have several healthy and happy hives providing plenty of honey for us and our community.
Unexpectedly, our bees have become our pride and joy. Annie spends many many hours with them each season making sure they have the resources they need to be amazing pollinators and honey producers. More through pure dumb luck than skill as beekeepers, they have survived and thrived for the past few years. They are gentle, they smell amazing, and they provide us with plenty of honey to share with our community.
Here on The Little Farm, we harvest, process, and bottle all of our honey a single hive at a time. The original idea came from Annie's love of single barrel scotch. She had the idea that through the natural process of terroir, each hive could produce distinctly different flavor profiles of honey, even though the hives themselves were just a few feet apart in the apiary. She was right.
Featured collection
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Experimental Barrel Aged Summer Blend Honey
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The Rest of the Farm
Chickens, Ducks, and Eggs
We keep the sweetest flock of about 25 chickens and ducks for the dual purpose of insect control and fresh eggs. They have an embarrassingly large coop, but they spend almost all day every day out in the pastures and fields. Most of the girls are pets and welcome a pat on the back or a scratch on the neck.
We feed our chickens purina layena. After keeping chickens for over 20 years now, we feel that this is the best feed we can buy to keep them healthy and laying well into their golden years. At this time we do not harvest any birds. Those that slow down or are no longer laying remain part of the flock and are allowed to rest and relax as much as they need.
You are welcome to purchase farm fresh duck and/or chicken eggs from us! Please contact us to make arrangements to come by and pick up a dozen or two. They are $2.50/dozen and available most of the year except Novemberish through Januaryish.
Fruit and Berries
After years of building up soil and a healthy microbiome, we are eagerly anticipating bountiful crops of market strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.
Additionally, we have many young fruit trees including peach, pear, apple, cherry, plum and apricots of many different cultivars.
We hope that these plantings will start producing enough fruit to share in 2020 or 2021. Healthy fruit and berry plants require time and patience. Please follow our Facebook page for updates on their availability.
Goats, Sheep, & Wool
Our farm is the happy home of a small flock of scratch and dent, down on their luck, and ready for retirement angora and pygmy angora cross goats and shetland sheep. They are adorable and silly and sweet. They serve the dual purpose of keeping our non arable land mowed and producing high quality, super fine, luxury mohair and wool for spinners, dyers, weaver, and other fiber artists.
Angora goats produce mohair. Crossing them with pygmy goats brings out the super fine cashmere quality of their fiber and makes a slightly smaller breed of goat. We shave their fiber twice a year when it gets to be about 4-6 inches long. Our goats are gentle and mellow pets. They like tortilla chips and for you to scratch them behind their ears.
Shetland Sheep are a small breed of primitive sheep that originated in the Shetland Islands over a thousand years ago. Their fiber is very fine and luxurious and comes in a variety of beautiful natural colors. As a breed they are calm, docile, and affectionate. We think of them as herbivorous puppies. We shear the girls just once a year, in the spring. The rest of the time you can see them bouncing around the pasture or stealing snacks from the much less agile goats.