Hi Everyone!

I apologize if it feels like you haven’t had an update from us in a while. I didn’t want to send anything until we had some firmer plans in place. So, this is just a quick update on our farm move!

We had the house listed for about 6 weeks this winter and decided to take it off the market for March and part of April. It will be re-listed in mid-April. After 52 showings we were getting a little tired of keeping the house and farm spotless, in addition to the normal winter farm work. The winter wasn’t kind to us in terms of farm beauty, either – instead of blankets of the beautiful snow I imagined, we had mud, rain and fog. And little to no sun. It was pretty darn ugly, honestly.     

We are officially moving mid-April to a new, larger farm! We will be located in Howard City, right where 131 North and M-46 meet. It’s a quick 35 minute drive into Grand Rapids and about 45 minutes from our current farm in Lowell.

It’s a bit of a long story, but the farm was never listed. Customers of ours had purchased the 35 acre parcel 2 years ago, kept some sheep, goats, chickens and horses there but decided it was better for them to step back from farming and rent the place out. Their current tenants are moving out at the end of March and we will be able to move in shortly afterwards.

We will be leasing that farm, then re-listing our house once we’ve moved out and cleaned everything up. Our hope is that clean barns, green pastures and an empty house will help someone envision their life here a little easier than with our livestock, manure piles and equipment everywhere. Not to mention, keeping the house in showable shape with two little ones, loads of farm animals, in my third trimester of pregnancy is an uphill battle.

The farm we are leasing to is pretty move-in ready. We’ll take about a week to build out a new milking facility but other than that, the fencing and pastures are already in, and the house is in great shape, as are the barns. It’s even on a paved road with a paved driveway! What an upgrade!

We’re incredible excited to be able to keep all our calves to build a grassfed beef herd, continue to expand our Berkshire pork, and be able to expand our pastured poultry enterprises in the future – chickens, eggs, and turkeys. The biggest change for us will be starting to make our own hay – the farm comes with 35 acres of pasture but also hay equipment and a lease on a 15 acre hay field immediately across the street. This alone will cut our feed bill and increase our profitability by over $10,000/year.

When we move (likely the week of the 17th) we will have to basically shut down the farm for that week.

We will obviously still be milking cows but will not have milk available for customers. This is primarily because we have to move the bulk tank, which involves letting all the ice in the tank melt and drain out, moving the tank, refilling it with water and letting the ice rebuild to cool and store the milk. This is a several day process between all the melting and re-freezing.

So, while we will continue to milk the cows, it will pretty much exclusively go to fattening out our pigs. (YUM) We will have no way of cooling and storing the milk for you. 

Once we are back up to operating the following week, a few things will change: 

• The Wednesday evening Grand Rapids delivery will remain at the Fulton Street Farmers Market but the time will be extended from 4:30 – 6:30 pm to 4:00 – 7:00 pm. We hope this will help accommodate some of the customers switching from Saturday.

• All of our current on-farm pickup will be delivered to our Lowell farm store on Fridays. We will have the milk delivered around Noon every Friday and you will have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to pick up your milk from the fridge and return jars. We will plan to continue delivering milk to our Lowell store until the house actually sells and we close on it. At that point, we will switch to a different pickup location, but still in Lowell.

So, after the move, our delivery options for milk are as follows:

• Sunday – Howard City Farm Pickup
• Monday – Cannonsburg Delivery
• Wednesday – Grand Rapids Delivery 4-7pm
• Friday – Lowell Delivery
• Saturday – Howard City Pickup

After much discussion and planning, this is the schedule that best ensures everyone is receiving the freshest milk possible, while still maintaining convenience for you. Both are our highest priority.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We will keep you updated as we have more details and developments and are working to ensure the smoothest transition for our business.

Thank you for your continued support & business!

-the Two Sparrows Farm crew

P.S. While we are SOLD OUT of our spring harvest of grassfed beef we have a few piggies left that will be ready in April. Check out our Pastured Berkshire Pork page for more details.

So…it’s been an interesting start to 2017 to say the least!

The winter weather was not so wintry for most of February and now we’re looking at winter weather rolling in during March, before finishing the month warmer than average. If it feels like we mention the weather a lot it’s because we do. Ha! It’s really important to us when we’re working a minimum of 4-5 hours a day outside and we raise our animals in a grass-based system. Weather can make or break your season. It can mean that piglets are crushed by mom because they’re snuggling too close ($100+ loss per piglet) or it can mean cows are grazing earlier in the season and it saves us $40 a day in hay feeding. Weather and climate are instrumental to every farmers’ bottom line (and daily comfort!)

In February, we added 3 new litters of piglets! 21 in total – about 10 or 11 will be sold at the end of this month as weaned feeders to some neighbors and fellow small farms to finish. The remaining piglets will be moved out to pasture and finished in July or August on our farm. 🙂 We lost a few to crushing, which is never great but it’s to be expected when we choose not to use farrowing crates that confine mom to her side during labor and post-partum. The piglets are 3 weeks old already and are thriving! We have a blast watching them play and tumble together and then collapse into a piggie pile!

We started the year by listing our farm for sale and hoping to move to a farm north of us, with more acreage and the opportunity to expand. We had it on the market for 5 weeks and after 50 showings, decided to let our purchase agreement expire on the other property and pull our house off the market for the month of March.

Instead, Providence provided us with the opportunity to lease a larger farm that is close to move-in ready for us starting in mid-April. It has a beautiful, updated house with 35 acres of fenced in pasture, a new steel barn roof and hay making equipment (and a hay field across the street!) included. We are planning to move next month and get settled while re-listing our house before the baby arrives. We are hoping the spring weather, clean barns, green pastures and freshly planted flowers will show off what a beauty our little hobby farm can be. 🙂

When we listed the house this winter we were envisioned blankets of snow and twinkling lights. Instead, we got brown, dead leaves, mud everywhere, and rain and fog. I think a little sunshine will go a long way!

We will keep you updated with details as we finalize them but we will continue to service all the areas we currently do for milk – Lowell, Cannonsburg & Grand Rapids. And will be able to expand our production while cutting a lot of feed costs. While we will be farther from family and dear friends, we feel it’s the best move for our business and family.

SO! On to spring ordering! We will have grassfed beef and pastured pork available in April and meat chickens starting in June. Here’s to another delicious season on the farm!!

Grassfed Beef

We have just confirmed the on-farm butcher date of two Jersey crosses that will be ready for your freezer next month! April 5 is the day and the beef will be sold in quarters, averaging 125 lbs hanging weight at $4.99/lb. Custom processing will be done at Byron Center Meats and that cost averages $0.50/lb.

The meat is 100% grassfed and will hang to dry age for 10-12 days at the butcher before being cut and packaged. Quarters are split-halves meaning you’ll receive cuts from both the front and hind quarter of the animal. Typically a quarter will require 3-4 cubic feet of freezer space. {We plan for 1 cubic foot per 25-35 lbs of meat}

Click Here for Details & Online Ordering

Pastured Poultry

Ordering is now open for our pastured, non-GMO meat chickens and Thanksgiving turkeys! We generally sell out of turkeys early in the season to be sure to reserve yours soon. Chickens will be done in small batches of 100 in the months of June, July, August and September. This will be your only opportunity to get FRESH chicken for the season! Chickens are $3.75/lb and include the offal (average weights are 4-6 lbs). Turkeys are $4.50/lb. and we are making a concerted effort to reduce the size of our birds this season. They free-range for so much of their diet it’s always difficult for us to gauge how much to supplement with feed. We hope they are in the 15 – 25 lb range!

Click Here for Details & Online Ordering

Farrow to Fork Berkshire Pork

And, last but not least, we will have a spring batch of pigs ready for your freezer in April! We’ve updated our pastured pork page to include LOTS of processing notes and information to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck in terms of how your family consumes pork. Halves are $3.89/lb and whole pigs are $3.75/lb We expect average hanging weights in the 160 – 180 lb range for whole hogs.

Click Here for Details & Online Ordering