Cold Creek Nursery

Just wanted to let you all know that Cold Creek in Aiken, SC is now carrying our Trail Ridge Farm products. Check it out if you are interested in getting our goat cheeses locally!

Cold Creek Nursery

398 Hitchcock Parkway

Aiken, SC 29801

(803)648-3592

Or check out their website here!

A Customer's View of the Aiken Farmer's Market!

One of our customers wrote a blog article including Noah and Kelsey at the Aiken Farmer's Market.  It was a beautifully written post and we thoroughly enjoyed reading it!  I've included the link if anyone is interested in reading it!

The Traveling Bird Blog on the Aiken Farmer's Market

Thanks Rebecca!

On a Cooking Show...

The other week we were invited to be on the News Channel 6 cooking show to talk about our farm and goat cheese.  They also used our cheese in one of the dishes that the chef cooked.  They interviewed Mom and Dad while us kids were allowed to sit in the audience and watch everything that was going on and enjoy the delicious dishes that were being made!  Here are some pictures from behind the scenes on "The Dish On 6"!

 

The set

The chef

The release form we all had to sign to agree that we wouldn't seek compensation for our wonderful "acting skills"! ;)

Enjoying the food!

Mom and Dad behind the camera!

Some of the staff setting up for the "Goat Pop Quiz" that two ladies from the audience were involved in.  Since the show hasn't aired yet, I can't tell you who won!

 (This picture as well as the one below were taken using panoramic view, so if you click on it, you can see it more clearly.)

 

We are sitting in the couches on the left-hand side.

We were a little nervous going in, but everyone was so friendly and nice and made us feel right at home.  They were all goofing around with each other when the camera was turned off and just generally had a lot of fun!  After the show was over, one of the crew men who had heard that we were homeschooled, kindly gave us a tour of the whole news station, which included the computer room, the news room, the weather station, the commercial room and several other rooms!  We thoroughly enjoyed it and we were all glad that we had the opportunity to be a part of it!

 

If you are local and have Channel 6 on your TV, our show airs on Friday, September 20th, at 12:30pm on News Channel 6.  If you aren't local, you can view the pictures on facebook.com/TheDishOn6 in September.  The recipes will also be available on Pinterest in September at pinterest.com/TheDishOn6.

Random Pictures Taken on the Cell Phone

The pictures from this post were all taken from Dad's cell phone.  Several of these pictures we taken using Instagram.  It's kind of a fun program to play around with!

 

This is a picture of Billionaire Bars.  They are delicious!  In fact, as I make my grocery list this week, these ingredients might just end up on it! He, he, he!  

 

 

This picture was taken at the start of our cooler weather.  The four of us kids slept out in our tent in the front yard.  Gram, Pop, Mom and Dad joined us for roasting hot dogs and smores over the fire and it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening!

These pictures were taken at a friend's house during milking time.  They let everyone try milking their cow...at least those of us who wanted to give it a try!

 

Dad

Savannah

Me

 

This picture was taken at one of the markets that we sell at.  Ethan and I sold at this one, while Dad sold at another.  My, how grown up Ethan's getting!  Time flies!

I hope you all enjoyed that collection of photos! 

 I enjoyed looking back through them!

The Farm Animals

 

 

Our meat chicken pen

 

We buy Cornish Rock crosses.  This pictures was taken last week and they have doubled in size since then.  We will be butchering them within the next week or so.

 

Meet Malachi, our third generation Great Pyrenees guard dog.  He is so sweet and he does such a good job.  He followed me around the whole time I was taking pictures. 

 

So photogenic!

 

And last but not least...Clancy! 

 

 

Cheese Day

We thought you all would like to see what an average cheese day would look like!  So here goes...

~~~~~~~~

Noah

Jordan

A hard working crew!

Yours truly

We usually take our MP3 player out with us and listen to a few sermons.  One of our favorite speakers to listen to is S.M. Davis.  I believe he has a sermon on almost any subject you could think of!  Some of our other favorites are Paul Washer, Voddie Baucham, Doug Phillips, Scott Brown, Phillipe Pinero, and several others.  It definitely makes for a shorter day if you have something to listen to!

The "cheesemakers"


Posted by Kelsey

Two New Markets

We are now selling our products on Tuesdays in Augusta, GA at Augusta Locally Grown which is an online market.  You can find out more about it here

And we also started a Wednesday night market in Columbia, SC at the All Local Market on Whaley Street. 

God is good!  All the time!

Meat Chickens-yum, yum, yum!

CAUTION: The following pictures show the process of butchering chickens.  For those who have weak stomachs, beware!

Friday, April 29th we butchered our meat chickens.  We did about 50 in four hours.  Here are some pictures from the day.

the setup

Ethan and Noah had Station #1
which consisted of catching and delivery the chickens to Mom and Dad...



From there Mom and Dad held down Station #2 where they killed the chickens, beheaded them, plucked them and passed them off to...

Station #3 where Savannah, Gram and I

cut off the legs and necks, gutted them, washed them, and put them on ice.

 

Jordan was busy babysitting, taking pictures, refilling out waters, and making lunch!

At the end we packaged them up and ate chicken for dinner! 

Actually, we went out to eat for Dad's birthday, but we really did have chicken!

Aiken Market

Jordan is back selling at the Aiken Farmer's Market!  So for all of you who have been patiently waiting to get your eggs, milk, cheese and soaps at the farmer's market again, we're back!

What more can I say....

Ethan at the Whaley Street (All Local) Market.
Photo courtesy of the All Local Market

To Market, To Market...

This picture was taken at the Aiken Farmer's Market this summer by one of our very loyal customers.  Jordan and Ethan went every Saturday, rain or shine, and we appreciate all their hard work! 

(Thank you Kandis, for the picture!)

A Few Random Photos

This first picture is of Ethan, Dad and Noah at the All-Local Market (Whaley Street Market) in Columbia.  This market goes all year round and is usually very busy!

Our farm fresh eggs on display

 This is our walk-in hay rack that I had mentioned in a previous post.  Before we would have to throw the hay over the fence into the hay rack, or take a wheelbarrell of hay into the pen, but this walk-in rack is just wonderful! 
            
                                      

A Better Whey...

A-Whey with your problems!

When we make cheese, the by-product is whey. Whey is filled with tons of vitamins! We recently had someone start getting some whey from us who had a toe fungus for years. She started drinking the whey and putting a few drops of it on her toes and within one week, her toe is starting to heal and she says it is the best her toes have ever looked!

Another lady had a severe problem with her eyes for two years and after seeing several doctors about it, no one could figure out what was up. At that time she started drinking our whey, and within one week her eye/vision problem was completely gone!

It amazes us at some of the simple remedies that work so good!

We Are Finally At Whaley Street!

We have finally made it to the Whaley Street Market!!! Now that we have all of our licenses, we will be selling at the Whaley Street Market in Columbia every Saturday, along with the Aiken Farmer's Market on Saturday. The Lord is so good!

Meet Wilson!

We recently bought a new calf, whom we named Wilson....He is about one month old and he drinks 1 gallon of goat milk everyday! He will replace our meat cow, Vinny, who will be butchered late summer or early fall. Lots of people ask how we could eat something this cute. Well folks, he doesn't stay a baby, and the bigger he gets, the more pushy he gets. And the more pushy he gets, the less we like going in the same pen with him. They don't become mean, just...well, like an oversized puppy! So by butcher time, we are ready to send them on their way and get another cute calf and start the process all over again!

First Canning of the Year...

We canned some strawberry jam today! We picked it yesterday and froze some for cakes and things and then we did all our canning today! Hmmm-hmm, delicious!

Planting the Garden

We have started planting our summer garden. So far we put in potatoes, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, and sugar snap peas, along with the onions and garlic from the fall. About two or three years ago we learned about "lasagna gardening". It's where you layer your garden with leaves, hay, manure, cardboard, newspaper or anything else that you want to put in. You never till up the ground; you just dig a hole big enough for the plant, put newspaper around the plant to keep the weeds out and the moisture in, and mulch with straw or hay. Before we started using this method we were to the point of giving up on gardening because by summer the weeds were so high in our garden that you couldn't see the plants. And we also had really sandy soil. But after only a year of lasagna gardening we now have rich, black dirt and TONS of earthworms tilling up our soil for us! It works great!

Old food....

My grandparents were cleaning out an old shed from a house that their church has owned but is now selling. In the shed they found tons of glass canning jars! The only draw back was that the jars were full of canned food. So the plan was that we were going to empty the jars, wash them, and put them in the attic till summer. Well,...it wasn't as easy as it sounds. Some of the food was so old that we had to use knives to scrape it out of the jars. And some of the lids were so rusty that Poppy was the only one who could get them open. But the worst part of the whole deal was the SMELL!!! It was horrible! Some of the pears and jellies didn't look so bad, but the canned chicken...well, I'll leave that one up to your imagination! (Let's just say that it no longer LOOKED like chicken!) We did find a date on a couple of the jars. Can you believe that they dated back to 1991 and 1985! Too bad that I didn't get any pictures of that job!
Posted by Kelsey