Hi Folks!

Happy March!  There are lots of things to look forward to this time of year.  Spring planting of some awesome veggies, starting summer veggie seeds indoors, not to mention grass growing in the pasture.  We'll be ready for hay season to end.  However, this past month has been extremely memorable; happenings we will likely never forget:

On the morning of February 7th, Jim was on the 'hog run' and cattle check when he discovered three of our oldest heifers missing from the pasture next to the driveway!  One of these three is ready for breeding and the other two will be ready in September, so this was a real blow for us.  We couldn't believe that someone had stolen our cows; there were no tell-tale signs.  Plus, if our cows are found outside the fence, they usually don't travel very far.  They (usually) like to stay with their buddies.  But, on the advice of our Game Warden, we put in a call to a contact at the Sheriff's office.  Day turns in to night and still no word from our contact.  After many prayers, we went to bed thinking our babies were gone forever.  The next morning, Jim goes on the 'hog run' and cattle check and sees our missing cows across the street on our neighbor's property,  just hanging out with his horse!!  The ONLY place we didn't look!!!  Just HOW would they have gotten across the street with no signs of fencing down?  So we go across the street, on top of the hill, clean out all the weeds to open the gate to our neighbor's property on a mission to retrieve our cows.  The plan was to bring them back through that gate, across the pasture where we have all of our other cows, calves and bulls and bring the escapees down, across the street and back to the herd.  A tall order, but we felt we could do it.  We found them near the horse's hay at a barn, kind of next to the road.  Mary tries to start herding them back up the hill to the gate and they all start running towards the road!  We thought for sure that we would now have to retrieve them from the road.  Nope.  It turns out there is a huge concrete drainage culvert under Waterfork Rd at the corner of their pasture that they can walk through.  We knew cows were inquisitive, but to find this?  Amazing.  So, one cow goes through, climbs up the hill to the fence at the road and starts mooing at the other cows!  It was hysterical.  With a little nudge, the other two make it back to their pasture, via the culvert under the road.  We were just dumbfounded. To top it off, the previous week we were picking up garbage along the road and our dog, Snoopy, was going back and forth through the same culvert!  It didn't even dawn on us...  Needless to say we put up fencing to prevent them from crossing again.  

Next happening and we cannot contain our excitement with this news.  Cochon555, a group that uses heritage breed hogs from local farmers for chef competitions in various cities across the country, contacted us in December for supplying a hog for the (first year) Nashville competition held on February 26th.  We decided to enter a Large Black/American Guinea hog cross.  We were paired with a west Nashville restaurant/Chef, Bajo Sexto Taco Lounge, Chef Kaelin Ulrich Trilling.  After dropping off the hog to the restaurant, we decided to have lunch there.  What the heck, right?  Need to know what kind of food we are dealing with for our hog, right?  Well, it was just amazing, so we had a really good feeling when we left.  Best Mexican food we've ever had in the US.  So we go to the competition on February 26th at the Union Station Hotel in Nashville.  Quite the experience!  We did reserve a room for the night; luckily Jim's (and Mary's!) Sister, Karen, was able to hold down the farm while we were gone.  Thank You!!  For us farmers, it proved to be a long day.  After it was all said and done, our Chef ended up winning the competition with our hog!  Congratulations, Chef!  His food was absolutely delicious!  We hope to provide the hog when it comes time for Grand Cochon, October 1st in Chicago.


Pre-order drop offs have been scheduled:

Please note the time change.

Spring Hill:  Saturday,March 11th from 11-11:30am at Harvey Park.
The Farm:  Saturday, March 18th from 11-11:30am at The Farm Store
Florence:  Saturday, March 25th from 11-11:30am at the Farmers Market.

We are in full stock of pork!  Please check out the Product page on our website, www.bowersfarmtn.com, for the cuts of beef available and sales on select pork cuts.  Our eggs are still for sale at The Farm Store in Summertown.

It's time for Amish chickens!  Our neighbors, Henry and Elizabeth Yoder, pasture raise broilers twice a year.  They will be getting chicks within the next month for processing in July.  They use a non-GMO feed and are completely chemical free.  If you would like to order or want more info, please e-mail us a bowersfarm09@hotmail.com.

Farmers Market season is right around the corner!  Looks like all the Markets we will be attending this year will begin in May.  We'll keep you posted!