Healthy Family Farm Visit

EUREKA! I have found it! My Aunt Dorothy (the one who taught me to Jam) & her daughter Kristina turned me on to this place out in Santa Paula where you can go spend the day....so I started researching to find out more about it.... no website (yet!) no blog (yet) no nothing, except an email addy: healthyfamilyfarms (@) gmail (dot) com. So email I did! And guess what? All that stuff is coming, along with cheese making classes, pick your own produce & all kinds of other fun stuff! She's just gettin' started! Watch out, Ventura County! We got FARM.

Sharon raises milk goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, quail, ducks, pigs, Scottish Highland Beef that look a bit prehistoric & an 'accidental' litter of puppies that will be groomed into guard dogs roaming the acreage protecting the cattle from predators like mountain lions.

You can email the farm for a price list & a membership form. She has a pretty extensive list of products, including Goat Yogurt & Ice Cream. Because it's tricky to sell raw milk & some of the other items, they way it works is you basically pay an annual fee to be a member (a sort-of partial share holder) and this enables you to get a share of her products. But enough about the legal stuff! You can get farm fresh, pastured chicken & duck eggs! Fresh chicken's for roasting, necks & feet for Stock! Fresh Milk-only-Fed Pork! We bought a Ham, and did a giant family feast last night - the Ham was WONDERFUL! We did a Leg of Lamb too! We all bought fresh whole chickens & have loved a chicken dinner, leftovers & making stock - and with this crazy June-Gloom we've been having, it's perfect timing for all that!

Joe & I in front of Barn My folks

Sharon (Adult on right)

Sharon has the farm open on Sundays from 10-4 so members can come pick up what they need, fresh on a weekly basis - she doesn't sell any of the meat frozen! On Sundays, her kids & a few other Staffers are there to give you tours & talk about the farm & how they do things...

Sea J comes up from Malibu to spend weekends on the farm. She came on our tour with us photographing & video documenting all our antics (with 4 little kids, we had plenty!) She's working on the website & also documenting the progress of a passle of 'rescue chickens' Sharon got from a local 'organic' farm. When they arrived at HHF, they couldn't even walk because they'd been raised in such confined spaces! (If this doesn't convince you that just 'organic' isn't good enough, I dunno what will!) Now most can walk around the 3000 Sq. Foot Chicken Run & are looking much better, although their feathers are still pretty mangey! Poor creatures! She has all the feed made especially to her specifications, meaning not only organic, but NO SOY! Wonderful!

You are looking at one Happy Camper, er farmer, er wanna-be Farmer, er Farm enjoyer!