Five Arrows Farm

03/12/2024

Whiting True Blue breeding quad from DragonFly Farm. I am in Kernersville.

Roo hatched early Spring 2023. All 3 hens hatched late Spring 2023 and are laying. 2 hens are black. One is white and has pulled from her Araucana genetics and lacks a tail. (Her eggs have been a nice, bright blue.)

Must go together.

This breed is known for their large blue eggs which are layed often and a varied look from hatched chicks.

I was going to use this group this year, but am focusing on learning SOP (Standard of Perfection) for another breed.

Serious inquiries only. This is a nice starter flock for someone.

Please PM me.

02/23/2024

Give your hens free range, and they will lay wherever it suits them.

At least they're happy. 😆

02/15/2024

We have fresh eggs! Located near Walmart and Target in Kernersville.

Chickens free range and are given non-GMO feed.

6 for a dozen.

Send me a PM if you'd like some this week. 😊

01/01/2024

Some beauties from our girls! Farm fresh. Fed non GMO. Pastured all day every day. 🥰

11/30/2023

It's hard work running, tripping, chewing and smiling all with ears a-flapping and tail wagging.

This is little Lily. She and Roly Poly will be looking for a homestead to join around Christmas. They are incredibly sweet babies!

11/09/2023

Look at her face! This beautiful girl needs a good home.

11/03/2023

It's been a minute. So much has happened at the farm in the last month or so.

We sold 2 of our milk cows and our pretty little heifer several weeks ago. That's a conversation, perhaps for another day.

But of late, the big news is about our livestock guardian dog (or "LGD" as farms and homesteaders call them).

Lily joined our family 2.5 years ago. She was sold to us because she was not able to get pregnant. She was 3. Lily was a cross between Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd.

Such a sweet, sweet girl.

Fast forward to cows, clearing some of our woods and the need for another guardian dog. Enter General Waverly, our full Great Pyreness. What a tough guard dog, but muffin to us!

At a year old, we moved him in with Lily and the goats for some livestock guardian training. We figured if she got pregnant, it would be a lucky, happy surprise. But the breeder before was confident she could not have puppies.

But she did. Tuesday, 10/24, our son came in from his morning chores to say Lily had had puppies.

We lost one to the cold. Three were thriving. Lily was happy. I watched for more signs of additional arrivals. She gave none.

Andrew built two welping boxes (the first was too small for our big girl). She was doing great.

On Wednesday at noon, I came up on quite a sight. Bottom line, a stillborn.

And Lily was not acting right. I watched her closely. She was still in labor.

I helped her deliver another stillborn.

And it took quite a lot of strength to lift her into my car to take her to the vet for an x-ray.

She still had more puppies. And her insides were a mess. Irreparable. 🥺

We lost Lily.

I never thought I'd need to do what I did that day. It was so hard.

The goats are my daughter's therapy animals. Lily was more her dog than anyone's. Little did I know how much she had attached herself to her. I grieved she was not able to see Lily one more time.

She came home from school. And she sobbed. Sobbed and cried out, "WHY?! Why did it have to be HER?! Why did it have to be Lily?!"

You all. My heart. It shattered with her. Here I had been hoping her goats had been helping her therapeutically, and she had been forming a strong bond with our livestock guardian dog.

So hard.

As we press forward, we are caring for 3 little pups who continue to grow up nicely. I've been posting a lot on my personal page, but decided the farm page needed attention about how the puppies are doing too.

09/13/2023

Baby girl is doing great!

Kids have voted on the name Cecilia for her, and I think it suits her.

She is shy, but not as skiddish or strong as Felix (our first calf born here). So we will work to make her "in your pocket". Though I can't imagine wanting to sell her. I'm just so happy to have a heifer. 🥰

Eager to try milk from a Jersey / Normande cross in a couple of years.

09/10/2023

Oh my goodness, you all. Mama Felicity did amazing. Labored all night. And was in active labor for only 45 minutes before delivering her calf!

For being such a tiny girl, we are super impressed.

And...

It's a girl! 🥳 Prettiest little heifer (we think). Name to come. (You're welcome to suggest below.)

So thankful to welcome this little one to the farm.

More fresh, living, real, raw milk coming. 😍

09/09/2023

We are waiting anxiously for baby's arrival. This is Felicity's first, and we are pacing and nervous.

We anticipate labor to begin within 24 hours. If baby has not arrived by tomorrow, the vet would like to come and induce.

Sweet Jersey girl. 🙏🏽

09/05/2023

So which is more expensive...organic food or conventional?

Our health might have something to say about that.

08/23/2023

Just some cows in the sun, munching on some hay.

08/20/2023

Bacall enjoying her dinner, as she usually does.

These pigs are so sweet, they could be pets.

08/15/2023

This is Karis. She's 6. She's a full Normande. She and her daughter, Lucy (one of our milk cows) are full, registered Normandes.

Apparently there are fewer than 80 registered full Normandes in the United States. 😱

Praying both will grt pregnant because they are super sweet natured and pretty to boot.

08/12/2023

They were delicious! Light on the inside and crispy on the outside. 🤤🍩

Organic Sourdough Donuts with Maple Sugar and dipped in Maple Cinnamon Sugar or Organic Powdered Sugar Glaze. Sprinkles were dye free too. These were fried in avocado oil and organic palm oil.

You CAN make delish desserts with nutrient dense ingredients. Yes, it costs more. That just means we don't inhale them without thinking about it.

And do you think that in regards to cheap food, one interprets it to mean we can eat more, and more often because of the "value" comparatively? 😬😵‍💫 I've struggled with this.

Dessert should be special. 😋

08/12/2023

Double Organic Honey Wheat Sourdough Sandwich loaf rising, Organic Sourdough with Maple Sugar and our donut dough in the fridge overnight, kefir doing its thing on the counter and Organic Cashews, previously soaked, now crisping overnight in the oven.

I am not in the kitchen because I have to be. I am in the kitchen, grateful I get to learn traditional ways of eating with incredible modern conveniences like running water, Kitchen Aids, food processors, stoves and refrigerators.

Truly, some days I am barely in my kitchen. But rarely is it not working for me.

It's been a journey to rethink packaged organic snacks and foods to foods that nourish and heal. It's been work. But it's been worth it.

Stay tuned. If donut frying in avocado oil goes decent, I'll post. Couldn't wait for my from to make the donuts. 😄

08/01/2023

We found a new sandwich loaf recipe we are all loving. I can barely keep it in stock. It is honey wheat and incredibly soft.

A year ago I started my sourdough journey up again. I had missed delicious bread. And the gluten free cardboard I had been eating was empty nutritionally and bound to bring issues down the road the longer I ate it.

If the loaf is for us, I let a little helper come knead the dough for a bit. Sensory awesomeness paired with another conversation about properly prepared foods and nutrient density. 🙌🏽

07/30/2023

Dropped a new blog!

https://thatkernersvillefarm.com/the-blog/f/a-limited-time-offering

Have you ever heard of Raw Milk Kefir?

07/27/2023

Second sandwich loaf of the day. This one is a Honey Wheat and smells and feels like a soft loaf should. 🤤 Can't wait to taste with some .

07/26/2023

Dropped a new blog post. 🐮🐮
A surprising new addition (two, actually). And they are BIG and beautiful.
https://thatkernersvillefarm.com/the-blog/f/introducing-the-normande

We have some exciting news here at Five Arrows Farm!

07/08/2023

Hilarious.

I tried soy milk until it made my lip swell and my throat itch like crazy.

Rice milk was a no. I mean...those empty starches.

I tried coconut milk and almond milk and my stomach went crazy. (I was going to say "nuts"...but I just can't.

I've never tried h**p milk. Now they were just trying too hard.

Also have never tried oat milk because oats bother several family members, so I believe it a bad idea.

aka has been nourishing humans for thousands of years.

One thing that makes me leery in "diets" today is if something is new. It almost always disappoints.

If it's been nourishing people for a long time, I listen up.

🐄🥛

Has someone properly explained how to milk almonds yet?COMEDY MONSTER is NOW streaming on Netflix. Or come see me LIVE on tour - https://JimGaffigan.comBEST...

06/29/2023

A couple days ago someone called the police on our farm.

The officer was wonderful and immediately apologetic when he saw our cows, who have never *not* had something to eat. (They eat all the time.)

We informed him the vet was just out last week, and eagerly volunteered him a tour, even though we were under no obligation. While it is our personal property, we had nothing to hide from the officer.

He obliged and volunteered how wonderful all the animals looked, spent a minute loving on them, before he apologized again and headed back to work for our community.

He even asked us about purchasing our eggs.

A lot of small dairies get these phone calls because people really don't understand what a Jersey or a dairy cow is supposed to look like. We are so disconnected to where our food comes from thanks to our pre-packaged food. It's so sad.

One side of me is grateful for individuals who care about animal well-being and will make those calls. I get this. I hate animal cruelty. We work to source grass fed meat, pastured chickens and wild caught fish.

I hate supporting the mass produced meat products. It's one reason we started our farm. It really does upset me to think about where most of our beef, chicken and eggs come from.

The other side of me feels frustrated for the officer. A quick hop on Google about dairy cows would have saved him his valuable time.

A dairy farmer, who toured our farm in the last week, was shocked.

Neighbors were shocked.

Customers were shocked.

I was not.

I have read about so many Jersey dairy farmers with a similar visit from law enforcement. I was ready for my turn at some point. Haha.

Thankfully all our neighbors are wonderful!

Whoever it was was hopefully just being too hasty at drawing conclusions and did not wish us ill.

One thing to note: one of our cows has super high pin bones. (Something another dairy farmer mentioned when she met her several months ago. Apparently the higher pin bones - the upper hip bones - makes breeding more of a challenge.) She is shaped as she is and that is that. We can't change her angular bone structure.

But as mentioned above, they just saw the vet and both are doing great. (Felicity is in fact pregnant! So excited!)

Communities need small farms. We need small farms and healthy animals to nourish the many individuals struggling with so many ailments today.

Our Jerseys are treated like queens. Especially compared to where most of our meat and milk comes from today.

Hey all - do me a favor - check out these dairy cow breeds. Dairy cows are not beef cows. This is helpful to know before becoming upset at seeing certain dairy breeds up close, maybe for the first time. 😉

Did you know there are over 800 breeds of cows- only a few are dairy breeds. Dairy breeds produce a larger volume of milk than other cows.

06/24/2023

I (Andrew) spent several days building a new fence in the rain for our pigs' new home. It has been a muddy mess. They are finally in their new enclosure. After giving them their water, the pigs were frustrated, because this branch was in their way. If I had known their enclosure could be so simple, I could've saved a lot of time ;-).
The stick has been moved and the crisis has been averted.

06/17/2023

This evening a hawk flew by me (Andrew). It was being very vocal and I watched it intently, only to realize that it was actually one of our chicks in its talons being so vocal. I dropped what I was doing and tore after the hawk into the woods. After a few attempts at breaking them up, I successfully rescued our chick. She was relatively unharmed (physically), though I'm sure she wishes to have avoided the experience. The predator was long gone by the time I got anywhere close.

06/13/2023

I love the green egg in this dozen for a customer.

Dark brown, light brown, pink, blue and green...happy with more color lately. 🤩

06/02/2023

05/28/2023

The goats aren't sure what to think of their new neighbors, Rosie and Felicity. Up until several days ago, they had never seen the cows. 😅😅

The cows were indifferent, per the usual. 🥱

05/27/2023

Rosie was allowed in a back pasture about 2 weeks ago. Grass was nice and thick and high.

Her milk production increased a bit, but the cream line went up deliciously. So much so I was able to make (successfully) deep yellow .

I would have taken a picture of that, but after 2 days, it is almost gone. So you'll have to settle for this gorgeous picture of our gorgeous girl. 🤩

05/24/2023

Just a little gift for a new customer.

We are so grateful to provide others with amazing, nutrient-dense foods like the milk she picked up and these pastured eggs. 🤩