I got to visit the farm of Bill and Brittany Sullivan recently and I loved it. They hosted a farm tour for a Young Farmers group that is one of the nicest groups of people you will meet. Bill and Brittany along with their daughter Kaleigh live outside of Fayette on 20 acres. Every aspect of their farm is environmentally friendly and organic from their straw bale home to the way their produce is planted and cared for daily. And the animals at Sullivan Farms live a great life especially one of the newest additions; the pigs!I have to give a little side story here about my experience with pigs because my dad raised pigs the entire time I lived at home and they drove him crazy. Granted we had a lot of pigs with their own sheds and large open areas to roam, but they go out, made my Dad mad regularly and were a source of a lot of work for all of us. So when Bill started talking about how excited he was to get pigs I thought he had lost his mind. Excited for pigs...that was crazy talk. Then once he got the pigs Bill talked about how good they are and how much he loved having them. This I had to see to believe...surely the pigs would start to get out and drive him crazy, too! As of the farm tour he still loves his pigs and they adore him. Well except for the bad pig that gets out occasionally....
The Sullivan's farm is home to 8 pigs now, chickens, and a goat. There are seven female pigs and one male who is the newest addition to the farm. He arrived about a week I believe after the tour. It has been a rough go for Herbert, but I think he has finally won over the girls! I see baby pigs in the future! The chickens are kept on grass or what is left of the grass in all this heat and they seemed very happy and content! Ivory, the goat loves the Sullivan's and we heard lots of stories of how she thinks she is part human and just wants to be with them whenever they are outside so she gets out and follows them. She was entertained all night long by all the kids playing near her pen during the tour so I don't think she felt the need to come visit with the adults!
Sullivan Farm is irrigated with pond water so they have been able to maintain their vegetables throughout the summer. They are delicious. As you can see in the beautiful picture below of their rows of vegetables and their house in the background it is a large operation that is all done by hand. The Sullivan's work very hard and try new things along the way to help make their harvest as bountiful as possible. One of the new things they tried this year was to plant sunflowers in the beds with the squash to give more shade to the plants to help them produce. They said it helped and it sure made for a pretty picture! I love sunflowers and these were beautiful standing tall in the afternoon sun.
Come out to the market and pick up some of the delicious vegetables and homemade goodies from Sullivan Farms! They have homemade jellies, tortilla chips, salsa and sometimes banana bread. During this time of year they have potatoes, tomatoes, swiss chard, scallions, beets, squash, and a limited supply of green beans! YUM!!!
Also if you want to learn how to build a straw bale structure check you can attend a workshop on their farm and learn first hand how to build it! See the details in the flyer below.
