Rock Bottom Farm is a family farmstead located in Richmond, ME. Raising registered Nigerian dairy goats and kunekune pigs on pasture for pork production.
(20)
Please see our website for more information!
08/19/2024
Breeding plans for 2025 kids are coming together. I’ve sold more kids than I planned (or expected) to this season. A *huge* thank you to everyone who has purchased a Rock Bottom Farm goat!!
We generally send all of our extra kids or culls to freezer camp. This year I only have two goats to send!!
I’m still milking, still making cheese and planning fall & winter soaps. If I can stay motivated, I may try venturing into lotions / body butter this winter.
Pictured above are Edie, Lana + Gretchen .. all ladies who I am SO eagerly awaiting kids from! 🩶❤️🖤
08/15/2024
One more new sticker!!
Featuring Julia, baby Griff and some frisky goat kids! 🤎🤍🖤
08/09/2024
New stickers!
Artwork by Julia Loring!! 💚🩷🤎
08/06/2024
⭐️price reduced!⭐️
Offering Louise (5/11/2020) for sale to another homestead .. she’s a wonderful kunekune sow, has raised litters of 5-10 piglets and readily adopted extras. She has a lovely, laid back personality. Piglets with great growth rate. A great pig to get you started — she already knows the ropes!
She is an easy keeper, maintains her weight through lactation, good pasterns (rarely requires a hoof trim). Comes easily when called, so very easy to move around.
Tapeka x Whakanui, no wattles with IKHR registration (was born prior to the change to wattles as a requirement). *Could* be bred to a Tonganui boar before leaving - for an extra fee.
Needing to downsize my herd.
400 obo. 500 with boar exposure.
07/22/2024
07/21/2024
Hay day!! .. We’ll be sweating our faces off over here this afternoon!
07/18/2024
Rock Bottom Farm Lady Madonna
D: Rock Bottom Farm Edie
S: Haymaker Farm Hey Jude
. has been super-shy, but I’m liking what I see! 🤎
07/15/2024
Goats are the real reason we are here.
Chickens were the gateway animal, but goats was where this was always going. June (pictured here) is the daughter of Sunflower Farm Adele and Sugar Moon Salted Caramel .. if ever there were a person who regretted selling a buck, it's me. :-D If I knew what I had when I had a Sugar Moon buck, I would have never let him go.
June had quintuplets one season. We lost her doe. She has has delivered a single buck every season since. I'm hoping someday I'll have a girl to keep from her!!
07/14/2024
What plants are you growing / harvesting / using for their medicinal benefit? So many plants that just grow in our environment can be used to alleviate / cure minor ailments. This BIG patch of motherwort benefits your heart, anxiety and can alleviate menstrual symptoms. I did not plant this -- it just grows here. It did not grow in this place last year, so it must have been carried here by another animal or the wind!
We also enjoy comfrey, yarrow, mullein, broadleaf plantain, jewel w**d, purslane, etc.
What grows in your landscape that can be added to your holistic care stash?
07/13/2024
Happy Caturday! From Walt, who was just a little bored watching me plant hollyhock seeds 😆 How are you spending the weekend?!
07/13/2024
🧼 Soap restock (!!) at Pleasant Pond Orchard! Stop by this weekend (7-3) for new soap, baked goods, fresh veggies and other Maine made treats!
💙🩵ONE moondance bar left! 💙🩵
If you can’t get to the shop, I do still have lilac, wild(!) blueberry and let’s be friends at home.
🍂 It’s time to start planning the fall soaps! 😳 More options coming soon!
07/12/2024
Raspberry season is HERE! And the bushes are looking *so* full!!
We are fighting Japanese beetles *aggressively*
This is the worst I've seen.
We may need to consider nematodes & milky spore powder in the future.
For now, we will pick beetles and berries a quickly as possible!!
How are YOU combating these shiny little bugs??
07/11/2024
It never fails .. someone arrives at our small farm to purchase a goat or a pig and wants to know *WHY* we have so many ducks. We probably have too many. Yes, we do cull each season to bring numbers down again, but in the summer, the numbers don't matter. We raise primarily Runner ducks with a distant rouen influence and a few Cayugas mixed in. Our ducks are purely for entertainment & pest control. We let our hens brood. We rarely eat duck eggs and have no market for their eggs.
WHY Ducks?!
🦆 Ducks are natural predators of insects, frogs, voles, and mice, and can help eradicate fly populations. In our case, we want them to eat slugs / snails that can carry the parasite that causes meningeal worm in ruminants.
🦆 Ducks fertilize the grass where they roam with their manure, which is high in phosphorous. We also have a pond -- which makes duck-mess tolerable!! Water from ponds where ducks spend time can be used to fertilize plants.
🦆They're GREAT for pasture-management. Ducks eat and trample grass, but they don't dig it up by the roots like chickens do.
🦆 This time of year, our flock is > 50 ducks strong. They come in to the barn-area to eat twice a day .. we throw 2 scoops of layer pellet out for ALL those ducks. Free-range ducks can forage for most of their own food, making them low maintenance. They do require more feeding in the winter, which is when we will cull the flock.
🦆 Our ducks don't require housing and NEVER want to be closed in. Ducks are more resistant to disease and parasites than chickens, and they can tolerate cold and wet weather well.
We do have chickens, too, but ducks are WAY more fun than chickens. 💛
07/10/2024
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, pollinators are responsible for every *3* bites of food you eat. We don't sufficiently value native pollinators, whose health is imperative to the health of every natural ecosystem on every continent.
Did you know that many wild plants have evolved specifically to be pollinated *only* by beetles, or only by hummingbirds? There are more than 20,000 species of bees globally with more than 4,000 being native to North America. This doesn't even account for solitary bees, which are more common than honeybees and bumblebees! (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org)
Honeybees are an introduced species, native to Eurasia .. while we all love honey and honeybees, they do compete with native bee / pollinator populations, can spread disease to native bees and sometimes prefer invasive plant species, which can hurt native plant populations. While they are great pollinators for some crops, they also create significant competition for native species.
No judgement here -- because we do love honey & we did try honeybees for one season (but I learned that I HATE being stung)! -- It is worth considering the impact of your bee yard on native populations. When we know better, we can do better.
🖤 There are two monarch populations in the U.S. - Western and Eastern, though they look the same. Western monarchs overwinter in Southern California, eastern monarchs overwinter in central Mexico.
🖤 Since the ‘90s, the eastern monarch population has dropped by >80%, the western population has been hit even harder. This is related to both habitat loss and climate change.
🖤 You can create a Monarch Waystation by planting milkw**d and flowers in your yard / garden that will feed butterflies and create habitat for larva.
🖤 Captive rearing of monarch “cats” may actually have a negative impact on the wild population — while well-intentioned, there are a lot of reasons not to do it. Follow this link for some tips: https://xerces.org/blog/keep-monarchs-wild (It’s ok, I did it for years, by the 100’s .. when you know better, you do better.)
🖤 Basically, observe these beauties where they are, build / plant habitat that encourages and supports their continued population growth, and support policies that reduce the destruction of the open spaces these butterflies depend on!
I’m contemplating fall litters based on inquiries for piglets, but definitely don’t want to overwinter a bunch of piglets!
If you are interested, I’ll be accepting deposits for fall piglets starting now. All boys will be castrated and gilts will be sold without registration UNLESS a non-refundable deposit of $100 is received ahead of time.
Otherwise, piglets will sell for $250 ea. I do recommend two if you don’t already have pigs.
Expected colors: ginger / black, ginger, cream, brown / white, black, black / white.
Send a message if you’re interested!
06/17/2024
How do you like your broccoli?!
🥦Steamed
🥦Roasted
🥦Grilled
🥦Raw
06/17/2024
One thing no one with livestock appreciates: fireworks.💥 Welcome, summer celebrations.
06/16/2024
A perennial favorite of mine is the “Constant Gardener”, inspired by another extremely-talented soap maker. This bar is full of exfoliating and skin-soothing goodness: pumice, oatmeal, coffee grounds, kelp and nettle powders, kaolin clay all stuck together with a skin-loving mixture of olive, almond and castor oils, coconut, she’s and mango butters, pastured kunekune lard, goat milk, water & lye. The scent is an earthy tomato-vine with a hint of lavender.
Available now. 💚
06/16/2024
“Let’s be Friends” 💜
This light, floral, wisteria-scented soap didn’t come out quite how I planned, but the ingredients are too good to throw away!
Wisteria is native to Japan, China and Korea. In the language of flowers, it says youth, poetry and “Let’s Be Friends.” Folklore will tell you that it has the reputed ability to overcome obstacles, brings prosperity, spiritual growth and promotes psychic receptiveness. In Japanese art & literature it symbolizes love and devotion.
(If you need a wisteria cutting, I would be thrilled to share this vine .. it bears huge blooms with the sweetest-smelling flowing flowers just about Memorial Day weekend every spring!)
Made with olive, almond, castor oils, coconut, mango and shea butters, pastured kunekune lard, goat milk, water, lye and wisteria fragrance. A small amount of titanium dioxide + charcoal with purple and yellow mica for color.
(Can add to any existing orders to be shipped this week!) 💜
06/16/2024
Mini-Nubian doeling looking for new herd.
Ready to go mid-July.
Dam: Rock Bottom Farmstead Clover
DD: Rock Bottom Farm Smore thn a Flg
DS: Tiny Hill Wyatt Earp *B
Sire: Storybook’s White Pine *B
SD: Hurlburt Farms Buttercup 2*P
SS: Storybook’s Prince Valiant
Eligible for registration with the MDGA.
Clean herd, disbudded kid, will have first CDT.
06/10/2024
Ready or not, Monday is coming!!
If you need cheese or eggs, I’ve got you! 💛 You don’t need a special occasion: cheese on crackers, toast, bagels, eggs, salmon, wraps .. endless possibilities! … or just on a spoon, that works too!!
A few days ago Eliza at SunStone Orchard & Rabbitry asked the question “to brood or not to brood?”
My quick answer is YES! Brood!! Those hens *want* to be moms, let them do it! I love watching a hen on a nest, and even more than that, I love her proudly strutting her stuff as she marches a nest full of ducklings out of the barn and into the pond. I love that they are fiercely protective of their nests and their ducklings. I love that they work together with other hens to raise ducklings. I love watching them scurry along, foraging, clumsy and tripping over their own feet.
What I don’t like is that they don’t have the protection of a brooder. They aren’t closed in and raised under a heat lamp with just the right food — safe from *all* the dangers that exist in the big, wide world (rats, foxes, hawks, great blue herons, muskrats, turtles, cats, other ducks) .. I don’t like that their little lives are at such high risk that it’s inevitable that they won’t all survive … but doesn’t that make for a healthier flock? The fittest live? Or maybe it’s that the luckiest live .. or the ones with more attentive, helicopter moms? Or the ones with 2,3 or 4 moms?
Usually the ducklings just disappear .. but today I found one who was not so fortunate. His leg was marked with a band so I would know he was a Cayuga drake — a duck I specifically chose for my flock, that I wanted to be here. 💔 .. it’s disappointing, but it’s nature, and nature isn’t always sunshine and roses. His life was short, but so free!
So when asked “to brood or not to brood?” I’ll always choose brood. 🖤
06/06/2024
Fresh chèvre! $6 ea
🌱Garden herb (with fresh chive blossoms!)
🌶️Red pepper jelly
🥞 Maple walnut
We also have eggs! $5 / doz
🔹Pick up at 565 Brunswick Rd🔹
🔹Cooler on the porch .. cash, check or Venmo ()🔹
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Rock Bottom Farm posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Contact The Business
Send a message to Rock Bottom Farm:
Videos
Another successful nest! These ducklings look like a mix of Cayuga and runners. 🖤
We were fortunate last year to have all the hay we needed, and didn’t have to sacrifice quality, but I can’t say it isn’t still a relief to have the barn filled up again with gorgeous fresh hay! I start to stress when the barn is about half full, anyone else with me?!! In August we will stuff the barn to the rafters with second cut to get us through another winter. Keeping fingers crossed for lots of sun & just enough rain!! ☀️Thanks for the help @jake.mac11 @emhackett @tripp_mac_1124 & Amber Dodge
Bottle baby!
💜 UPDATE: Joey has a home! Phew!! 💜
Looking for a bottle baby?!
Joey might be the girl for you! *loves* snuggles, petting, talking, long walks in the yard and is literally “in your pocket” .. she’s a runt, small for her age, and I’d prefer that she go to a pet home — though she may grow very well and could potentially be a homestead milker. Mom easily milks a half gallon a day at peak.
We have other does / wethers who could go with her as companions if you don’t already have goats. She’s very, very sweet, but making me crazy with her demands for milk, love and attention! 🤍
PM for details. Must be prepared to commit bottle feeding.
Looking for the Good! 💚
My #applewatch recorded nearly 16,000 steps yesterday as I moved fences, moved animals and went about my usual “day off” tasks. While setting up hog net to move the sows and piglets onto grass I stopped to watch the goats playing on the rock pile.
THIS is the part I love .. but it doesn’t happen without busting my buns! 💚
Headed to the races! 😆
Pigs are back in the field! 💚
Less thank one week to go! ♥️
#goat #goatsofinstagram #nigeriandwarfgoats #nigeriandwarfgoatsofinstagram #preggo #preggobelly
🎄As you pack up Christmas and welcome a new year✨, think about dropping your tree at the turnaround in the driveway at 565 Brunswick Road!
New winter game for Farm Kids!
🐀
$10 per captured & dispatched rat
$1 per captured & dispatched mouse
🐭
Each kid assigned to one “zone” … May the odds be ever in your favor!
🐽 She laid down at about 10:30 last night and started pushing. That was my last camera check before I was going to sleep for two hours and check again. So much for sleep! I pulled on pants, grabbed my vest and a flashlight. Tess grunted, groaned, took deep breaths and repositioned several times.
I get nervous about pig labor; it feels like such a mystery. So much variation in how long it can take, how often piglets are born .. that bicornuate uterus that extends for days! I waited quietly watching, growing more nervous that she would need help. I re-read my “guide to pig labor” .. how long until the first baby presents? What if it is malpositioned? Maybe it’s dead and blocking the way for the others?! I finally closed the door and returned to the house: maybe she wants privacy. I laid down on the couch, pulled up the camera feed and there she was!! Number 1, already making her way to mom’s udder. 🤦🏼♀️ I went to check on her, dried her off and snapped a picture. I waited through a few more contractions and walked away again. A few minutes later on the camera: TWO new piglets. I went back, dried them off and left mom again. Labor stopped after the 4th piglet. She was content, grunting softly as her new piglets searched for their first taste of colostrum.
Goats are so much easier. If labor isn’t over in 30 minutes, you just reach in and pull them out!
Tess has always had small litters. 5 litters (two before she came to use), always 4 piglets. I was hoping a change in diet and boar would yield more piglets, but alas — I’m happy with healthy pigs. 🐽
These are piglets out of our Black Valley Farm boar, Romeo.
Awaiting two more litters!
#pig #pigsofinstagram #kunekunepigs #kunekunepig #kunekunesofinstagram #piglet #piglets #pigletsofinstagram #baconseeds #growtourownfood #pasturedpork #pasturedpig #pasturepigsarehappypigs
One more load and we are SET until next August! 🙌🏻 One of the best feelings in the world, knowing our animals will have full bellies all winter! 💛
Mama, bringing the kids in for breakfast!
.
#duck #ducksofinstagram #ducklings #ducklingsofinstagram #indianrunnerducks #indianrunners #indianrunnerduck #indianrunnerducksofinstagram #breakfast #breakfasttime
Trying out the new set of wings!
.
#monarchbutterfly #monarch #savethemonarchs #butterfly #butterflygarden #pollinatorgarden #justhatched #monarchbutterflies #transformationtuesday
Good morning!! ☔️ It’s a little grey out there .. so here is a little morning play session to get you feeling motivated for that final push to the weekend!
All the mamas are sooo tolerant of these early-morning kid games! 🥳
*just because* .... if you have kids, you’ve been here!! 🤩🥳
.
#nigeriandwarfgoats #nigeriandwarfgoatsofinstagram #goat #goatsofinstagram #goats #babygoats #babygoatsofinstagram #goatkids #goatkid #mommommom #goatkidsarethebestkids
Every time I question if we really need a livestock guardian ... 🤣 .... Actually, I don’t question it. Ever. And especially not after the last month with a camera in this one location in the woods behind our fields! Coyotes, fox, owls, raccoon, fisher .. these are just a few of the common predators in our area, and I’ve seen them all on this camera in the last 30 days.
.
In that time, we have lost not one single animal. Chickens are a primary target — they’re easy (especially at night). Fortunately, we have one coop that closes securely at night with most birds inside. There is a small group of chickens that insist on living in the pig house, and also the barn. I don’t worry about the pigs — have you ever tried to catch a scared pig?! Or to hold a pig down? It isn’t happening. I rarely worry about the goats — but that’s because Julia stays with them. In the winter they are near the house. When we move them out onto pasture in the summer, they always have a dog with them!
.
What are your most common predators?
.
#farmingwithpredators #predators #fisher #mustelid #livestockguardiandog #livestockguardian
Both aspiring farmer's with many ideas for hobbies and projects, Scott and Melissa joined forces in 2015. With four boys between the two of them, they set out to embrace this crazy life; following Scott's motto: "Today is today!"
Scott works full time for the City of Hallowell as Police Chief. Melissa is a Nurse Practitioner at the Richmond Area Health Center.
Scott's interests include composting (everything!), vegetable gardening, metal work, tumbling stones, re-purposing discarded furniture, photography, searching for lost treasure on abandoned properties and collecting rocks and fossils along the river banks of the Kennebec, kayaking, bikes and camping.
Melissa enjoys flower gardens, small craft projects, canning, animal care taking, collecting rocks for gardening / landscape designs, baking, camping and accompanying Scott on river trips or any other adventure he can stir up!
|| Chickens ||
The gateway animal. At first it was just for the joy of collecting fresh eggs at the end of each day. Then came the endeavor to humanely raise chickens for our dinner table.
Currently, we raise Red Rangers for meat, and choose not to medicate the birds we will eat. We feed our meat birds a good-quality, high protein chicken feed, offer plenty of kitchen and garden scraps and the whey leftover from the cheese making process. Since moving to Richmond, we have started working on plans for pastured chicken and will offer a chicken co-op for 2019 (message us for more details!).
Our laying hen flock is quite diverse. Some of our favorites are Araucanas / Ameraucanas, French Black Copper Marans, and Orpingtons. This will be the third year we have hatched out own chicks. Keep an eye on our Instagram and / or pages for pictures of our egg rainbow!
|| Maple Syrup ||
Scott's venture into "sapping" eventually led to the purchase of an evaporator and a passion for small-scale maple syrup making. From mid-February through early-April you can catch a glimpse of wood smoke and white steam pouring from the roof of the sap house, with Scott inside, stoking the fire and watching the sap boil. Bottles feature the "SMACK'S" label, representing "Scott Mac & Kids", the sugary-sweet start-up for Rock Bottom Farm. The kids play an integral role in the collection of hundreds of gallons of sap throughout a season. You can usually find them hanging around the sap house, chopping wood for kindling or throwing snowballs at each other. Each season we produce enough syrup to supply our family for the year, and a little extra to share with friends and family. We hope to continue to grow this part of our homesteading adventure.
|| Goats ||
Goats joined our farm in June of 2016. Melissa had an interest in raising dairy goats, inspired by an undergraduate college term spent in Namibia at the Cheetah Conservation Fund where she worked on a project to promote the use of livestock guarding dogs on rural farms to protect sheep and goats from predators, with the primary focus on preventing the killing of cheetahs. Fast-forward nearly a decade: the opportunity to have goats was within reach, and Scott said "go for it!". We started our herd with two Nigerian Dwarf does from Sunflower Farm in Cumberland. We now have a herd of 14 registered Nigerian Dwarf goats! Kids will be for sale in the spring.
|| On the Horizon ||
We moved our operation to a larger property in fall 2018 after stumbling on a 200-year-old farmhouse with 27 acres of land. We have plans to continue our expansion and would like to introduce a farm stand in the summer of 2019 to offer fresh fruits, vegetables, goat milk products, and eggs to our community. We've got grand ideas, and hope you'll follow along and join us when you see something exciting!
After all, small farms cannot make it without the support of the community!
