Frabby Farm

15/06/2024

We’re so excited!!! 😊👏🏽

11/03/2024

We have been a little silent around here. We figured we would explain why a little bit more in this video. We hope you enjoy it and maybe find comfort in the fact that we all go through low moments and times of slowing down 🫶🏽

We have one last chance to rest and process our sadness before this year gets busy with Farm things. All in Gods timing and I couldn't have planned a better ...

13/02/2024

✨Our First Garden✨
After a lot of trips to gardens and farms, this was our first attempt at gardening. This was from seven years ago! We didn’t grow much, but we had a herb garden in the window and an 11’ cherry tomato plant! 😳🌱Don’t let your location keep you from moving towards your dreams. We mounted curtain rods and hung dollar tree galvanized steel containers with S hooks then got to work planting our garden. We also added a cute desk to have a creative space to feel immersed in our garden 😂🥰🪴

13/02/2024

✨Our First Garden✨
We want to continue sharing parts of our story with you in hopes that it will inspire you to reconnect with your food. This was our first attempt to garden when we lived on the third floor of our apartment complex. We had a successful herb garden and an 11ft cherry tomato plant. You can chase your dreams no matter where you live.

08/02/2024

You learned a lot about Abby last week,so now it’s my turn! Here are a few facts about Frank.

1. The only thing I love more than my wife is God and money 😅
2. The only sports I’ll watch are fighting sports 🥊
3. Farming is my dream 🧑🏼‍🌾
4. My favorite movie is Rocky
5. I love adventuring in nature 🗻
6. I married a Mexican for the food 🌮🫔
7. Gold panning is great
8. Born in 1991 in upstate New York
9. Favorite food is peanut butter and honey. 🍞🥜🍯
10. My favorite animal is an Otter 🦦

Swipe until the end to see a comparison of Frank and his grandpa!

01/02/2024

Hi my name is Abby. If we’re not already friends we should fix that. 😊🫶🏽 Here are a few of my favorite things to break the ice:
1. I love dressing up for life 🎩🫴🏽
2. I love doing my hair and helping others learn 🎀
3.I love making new friends and learning about their life👩🏽‍🤝‍👩🏼☕️
4.My favorite movie..s are Cinderella (both live remake and classic) and anything Audrey Hepburn/Grace Kelly. 🎬🦢
5. I love adventuring and finding new places ✈️
6. I’ve never cut my hair 😲
7. I love appreciating nature while I picnic then documenting it 🧀🍇🥖🍷🧺
8. I was born 1992 in Washington and promptly moved to Colorado at the ripe old age of two weeks 😂🫶🏽🏔️
9. Favorite food is everything especially French food 🥐🧀🍇🍾🐌🍟
10. Elephants and swans are the best animals 🐘🦢

22/01/2024

This is a favorite photo of mine. It was taken by my neighbor. This is was her view every time she exited her house last year. She gave me this photo because she was very happy and grateful for the beauty that the flowers brought to her little corner of the world.

I felt I did a very poor job of growing these flowers. I look at this photo and think “I should have thinned them more. I should have planted them earlier. I should have spaced my rows better. I should have planted a ground cover. I should have fertilized more.” But my neighbor did not see any of my criticisms, she just say pretty flowers that made her happy. These flowers went on to produce seeds that I ate and made me happy. The stems and leaves were composted into a garden bed which grew lettuce, which made some rabbits and chickens happy.

Overall, this picture reminds me that even when I’m being critical of myself the things I grow have a far reaching and positive effect, and that makes me happy.

21/01/2024

We started baking sourdough! I’m very excited for this (video coming soon). Sorry for the dirty cast iron, it didn’t like being heated to 500F.

I gotta admit, the 900 year wait time for that starter was worth it. The taste and texture is great, but I’m also learning a lot about the health benefits that come with sourdough. I’ve also fully fallen into the sourdough cycle, my life now revolved around feeding my sourdough, folding my bread, and prepping my next loaf. This is too much fun!

- Frank

19/01/2024

“The more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in war.”
When I was in the Army and the sheriff’s office I heard this quote more times than I could count. Being a fan of military history I’ve also heard this quote attributed to every well known military leader or group, from Sun Tzu to Alexander the Great, from the Spartan Hoplites to the Roman Legion. From what I can tell this exact phrasing came from General Norman Schwartzkopf, but most militaries seem to have adopted some phrasing of this maxim.

Even though I’ve transitioned into a more peaceful life, I still like this attitude, and I’ve found a new way to phrase it: “The more time spent in preparation, the less time is wasted in action.” This might not be totally new, but I googled it and nothing came up on the first page, so I’m claiming it!

I found out last year how important preparation can be. A lack of preparation came back to bite me many times. Gradually we formed lists and systems that allowed us to maximize the precious little time we had during our season. I am hoping this year will be different, I have calendars made, orders placed, and plans in place. Life has a way of messing up our plans, but we have plans for that too. Hopefully our preparation while we have time will mean we maximize our time when time is short!

- Frank

17/01/2024

Public Service Announcement: A sharp knife is a safe knife!
Here at the farm we use knifes all the time, and I’ve come to realize I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to edges on my knives. I’ve used a bunch of sharpening systems over the years, but this one by Work Sharp is my current favorite. It’s quick, it’s easy, and while you might be able to get a slightly better edge on other systems, this is pretty foolproof.

I came to realize how important a sharp knife is while processing chickens last year. A sharp knife leads to a clean dispatch, and clean bodies. It makes the whole process cleaner and faster. Now that we are in the off season and I’m spending a lot more time in the kitchen, I’ve come to realize how essential a sharp knife is in the home as well. Kitchen tasks become faster and easier with a sharp blade. And as a side note, onions will make you cry less!

But what about safety? Well, a sharp knife cuts more predictably, meaning that it won’t skate off the edges of hard items in an unpredictable way. This greater control means more safety. But let’s say you do cut yourself… won’t a sharp knife cut deeper and do more damage? Potentially, maybe. But with a dull knife you need to use way more force to do the same cutting. So if a dull blade cuts you, you were likely putting more force behind it, leading to a more traumatic cut. Dull knives also rip and tear tissue, causing the healing process to take longer. Sharp knives require less force, meaning less of a cut, and because they actually slice the wound will heal faster.

Sharp knifes are safe knives, especially on the farm! Also, if anyone needs knives sharpened let me know!

- Frank

13/01/2024

https://youtube.com/shorts/65T7GChf22g?si=_XlVAzDWL_gIeuxG

Apparently we can post shorts on YouTube now? When did that happen!?

13/01/2024

We’re still working on downsizing out home to chase our farm dream! Would you be willing to get out of your comfort zone to achieve your dreams?

11/01/2024

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

This quote by Lord Acton has been rolling around in my head a lot lately, with all the recent news about flight logs and islands. This quote was beaten into my head in high school, but many people forget that there is a second part: "Great men are almost always bad men."

We really do forget this. It seems like were surprised every time some politician is outed as corrupt, or some executive lies to increase profits, or some Hollywood producer turns out to have behaved scandalously. It's totally normal to be angry, upset, and indignant when these things happen.

But it shouldn't affect us, and it really shouldn't surprise us. I'm not saying this behavior is OK, but there is very little the average person can do. If you can do something you should, but internet rage is not "doing something".

Grow your garden, raise your animals, pet your dog, love your family, and live your life.

10/01/2024

I'm a very boring person. I was reading an article from "Successful Farming" about the moisture levels in the soil in Colorado being lower this year than last year. Colorado is a bit notorious for lacking water, so news like this is never great. But then I remembered something I had read somewhere else . . .

That's right, pasture raising chickens allows the soil to hold on to more water! As usual, my way of doing things is the best way! And then I started thinking.

Pasture raising chickens increases water retention because it provides a nutrient boost to the live crops in the ground, which increases root growth, which allows for greater soil and water retention. This is great, but in our current agricultural system there is either a live crop that the chickens would eat, or there is not a live root system that would benefit from chicken manure. This means that the farmers affected by the lack of soil moisture would also not be able to pasture chickens.

Getting rid of this style of farming is just silly, people still need to eat. Suggesting that everyone do what we do and pasture chickens is also silly. Pasture raising chickens is a tool, and it isn't always the right one.

I don't have the answers here. Just a general feeling that there should be a better way, and the humility to admit I don't know that way. I have the most humility as a matter of fact. I'm the most humble person I know.

- Frank

09/01/2024

Have you ever heard of naming your sourdough? I've known that people do it, but I've never been really big on naming things. I've always let Abby do all the naming!

We're going to be posting a video soon about trying to start some dehydrated sourdough we ordered, and we need a name! Suggest some good ones in the comments below.

I've taken a liking to bread baking this year, and decided to take things up to the next level with sourdough. We actually managed to start our own from scratch, but I missed feeding it for a day and it grew mold. After that, that mold started growing faster than the sourdough, so we threw it out.

I ordered a sourdough starter from a culture that is supposed to be 900 years old. I have no idea how you would verify that, it's not like the starter came with a pedigree, but it's still cool. Hopefully this one goes better!

08/01/2024

Have you ever read a book that stuck with you? I mean really stuck with you. I have a good feeling that this will be one of those books (please ignore the tea stain). This book was given to me by a good friend, and I've nearly finished reading it.

It deals with why we become obese and why so many people have a hard time fighting obesity. According to this author, obesity in America has far more to do with how our food is enriched with vitamins and how this affects what we crave and how we digest it rather than what we're actually eating.

Essentially, the vitamins we take in are telling us how much to eat, and what to eat, and because of this ever-present enrichment our cravings are WAY out of wack. I definitely recommend this book!

- Frank