Turkey Time

Somehow, Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and so what better time to talk about the turkey enterprise.

Admittedly, this is one of the enterprises that we often forget when we make lists or attempt to answer the question of what we will be doing on the farm, but turkeys have been on our radar for months. We figured that we have a lot of experience raising chickens and at least some of that knowledge should translate to the larger poultry, and it would be appealing to people to get to pick out their own turkey, know what its environment is like, and pick it up freshly butchered (We are allowed to butcher and sell up to 1000 poultry- turkeys count as 4 poultry though- each year without government regulation) a few days before Thanksgiving.

Photo courtesy of Don DeBold

While we definitely weren't closed to any ideas in the early planning stages, we were skeptical about turkeys. You see, we didn't know of any farms that sold them, except for a couple in books that we read that were not even in our region of the country, and we would have to contend with the supermarket, where frozen butterball turkeys sell for about a dollar a pound.

Once you do the math, it is a bit frightening to consider how big businesses charge that low. We figure that we could raise a turkey for roughly $20-$25 dollars, but that is without anything going wrong or any birds dying, so a more accurate estimate would be about $30. Now, we don't want to charge the snot out of people for anything, but we also want a fair price for our labor. Selling the birds for $30 to roughly break even didn't sound worth it to us.

Then, as we were going through farms and websites and getting prices for products, we realized that a lot of them sold turkeys, and we were looking at farms in our region. It turns out the going cost for a local farm raised turkey was in between $3-$5/pound! An organically raised turkey goes for $6-$7/pound! At roughly 15 to 20 pounds per bird, that price would put us in the profit zone. But would people pay that for their Thanksgiving feast? Almost every farm that sells turkeys (and I visited a lot of websites and have talked to several vendors at farmer's markets) sells out over a month before the holiday. So... we are on board to try it and see how it goes, as with most of the enterprises we are preparing for on the farm.

Photo courtesy of Tim Sackton

The first Thanksgiving we are ready to sell turkeys for will probably be two years from now. We are ambitious when it comes to trying a lot of different things, but we recognize that we can't start everything this upcoming year. However, we will aim to prepare a place for them this upcoming year and be all set to try the turkey business in 2016.

This is another project that I am pumped about. I hear that turkeys, especially as poults (baby turkeys), are harder to care for then chicks, but I believe that we are up for the challenge, and in two years, my Thanksgiving turkey could be a bird that I have brought up myself, watched it grow, butchered it a few days before the big day (if you eat them a day or two after the butchering, apparently they are a bit tough), and, at least to me, will taste like victory.

Hog Wild!

Right next to the goats, on the paper with all of our goals on it, on our map of the future farm, and in our hearts (ok, maybe not in our hearts) are pigs! While the idea of raising them seems appealing (at least to me), the idea of freshly smoked bacon makes me go hog wild. I will have to curb my enthusiasm a little bit though, since we aren't planning on starting them until the spring of 2016, but I have a feeling that that will be here before I know it, especially considering how many other enterprises and projects are already demanding our attention.

In the meantime, we hope to prepare a home for them next summer. This will involve some type of lean to and fence. Then we will buy a few piglets and be on our way come the following spring. Shortly afterwords, I hope to construct a small building to be used as an old-fashioned smokehouse. Unfortunately, such a smokehouse does not come remotely close to meeting government standards, so the old-fashioned smoked hams and bacon will be just for us and some family.

As with everything we are planning on doing, we intend to start out small and slow with a potential for growth if we like it and if there seems to be a market for it. The first year we will buy a few piglets and raise them, likely keeping one for ourselves and selling the others as freezer pigs. When I say freezer pigs, I mean that a person would buy the "live" animal, so then, since it belongs to them, there does not have to be as much government inspection on it. We would take it to the butcher, and they could pick it up from him.

Breaking even on this venture, or even making a small profit, will depend a lot on how we go about feeding the pigs, and, of course, our ability to sell them. The easiest and most expensive option for feed is to buy pig feed as needed. Finding a place to buy it in bulk would make it a little cheaper, and supplementing it with other foods makes it even cheaper than that. Other foods could include just allowing them to forage if we give them enough space to do so, but it could also include basically any expired food (such as milk, bread products, eggs, or yogurt) and any extra fruits and vegetables from the garden (one guy told me about all the pumpkins they got for them after halloween). Though it is illegal to give pigs for sale table scraps (to avoid giving human diseases to pigs and then back to humans when dinner time comes), it is perfectly acceptable to go to a supermarket and ask for their expired products.

If we want to continue and expand the pig project, we may well decide to keep a sow or two and try birthing our own piglets. This would add a bit more work, but it would also make us more self-sufficient, give us a cheaper source of piglets, and add to the old-time farm feel that we are shooting for. We may continue to add more sows to the business if we desire to expand this enterprise, however, we are many years removed and much experience away from even considering keeping a boar.

Pigs get big... fast. It takes them about 6 months to go from a cute little piglet only weighing a few pounds to a 230 pound behemoth that needs to be butchered before it keeps growing (I remember reading an article about a wild hog at 850 lbs, and thinking then that boar hunting in the middle ages was no joke). While those who have gone before us tell me that pig raising is not very hard, it will certainly be an adventure where we learn a lot of new things.

The Hust Roosters

It has occurred to me that I have been describing some of the things we plan to try in the future, but I have not really hit upon who we are. Most everyone that has read this blog knows one of the founders of the Hust Roost, and most know a couple of the founders, but not that many people know all six of us. How rude of me not to introduce everyone!

As mentioned just a second ago, there are six of us (three couples): Joe and Cathy Hust, Casey and Rachel Hust, and Tom and Hannah Taft. Here is a glimpse into who each of us are and our roles within the farm:

Cathy Hust (Ladies first): The wife of Joe, she currently works at a lab in Sayre, PA where she tests many things, including water and soil. You can see how her job has already aided the farm. Besides being the one who tests the soil, she also provides much of the punch needed to work and maintain the garden, and as we develop the Hust Roost, baked goods, canned vegetables, and jams will be another area of her expertise. Right now she is dabbling in the kitchen, trying a little bit of this and a little of that. Rachel and I currently have a container of her apple butter and pickles in our fridge, along with homemade vanilla in our cupboard.

Cathy on left. Joe on right.

Joe Hust: The husband of Cathy, he currently works at IBM. This June, after 30 years there, he scaled back to part-time so that he could put more work into starting up the farm. He is the biggest schemer of us all, constantly coming up with new ideas and plans. He has had his hands full this summer expanding the chicken coop, expanding the garden, installing the new wood furnace, purchasing the land next to ours, and generally maintaining the homestead before the reinforcements (the rest of us) come down in the spring. He, along with Tom and Casey, plan on doing the manual labor of the farm.

Rachel Hust: The (lovely) wife of Casey, she is currently in her senior year at Roberts Wesleyan College up in Rochester. She is studying Biology and communication, as well as running on the cross country/track team (she is really fast!). She is very excited to move down after graduation to start life on the farm, and she has also been dabbling in the kitchen. Over the last couple of months, we have had several types of breads, a couple different types of jam, muffins, homemade donuts, and homemade bagels. On the farm, she is going to be the one in charge of the flower and herb gardens, she will be co-heading up the bakery side of things with Cathy, she will be making crafts, she will be milking goats, and she will be helping me keep the blog going. She is applying to Binghamton for grad school, and depending on what package they offer her, she hopes to either attend school there for Biology or get a part-time job in a lab or a doctor's office.

Rachel on right. Casey on left.

Casey Hust (that's me!): The husband of Rachel, he is currently about to start up a new job as an assistant maintenance man at an apartment complex in Rochester (Thursday is my last day with Friendly's, and Friday is my last day with Ace Hardware). He graduated from Roberts, where he met his (lovely) wife, in 2013. He has been researching the various aspects of the farm and blogging (very intermittently), as well as going down on some weekends to help Joe (Dad/Pops) with his (massive) list of projects. He and Rachel plan on moving down once she graduates, at which point he will join his father in the manual labor department as he looks for a part-time job to supplement the farm.

Hannah Taft: The wife of Tom, she is currently finishing her senior year at Roberts Wesleyan College. She ran (she used up her eligibility) on the same team as Rachel for three years(she is also really fast!), she is studying to be a nurse, and her and Tom are excited to be moving down to the Hust Roost once she graduates. They are very excited to fix up the yellow house next to Grandpa's, which they are purchasing from Joe. Once down in the Binghamton area, she plans on pursuing a career in nursing while helping out on the farm.

Hannah on left. Tom on right.

Tom Taft: The husband of Hannah, he is currently working at a daycare in Rochester. Though last on this list, he is certainly not last in our hearts, as he has been a great friend to me since first grade and for all intents and purposes is a brother to me and a son to Dad and Cathy. He also graduated from Roberts in 2013. He has been making weekend trips down to help Joe on projects as well as begin to prepare the yellow house for him and Hannah to move into. Come next spring, he will be joining Pops and I as the manual labor of the farm as he substitute teaches (his degree was in education).

Perhaps we are motley, but none of us would ever deny how God has brought us all together as we start the Hust Roost. A big part of the reason I love our developing farm so much is because I love each and every member of it. Undoubtedly, we will have our friction since we will be interacting so much, but these are good people to have friction with. They all desire to put God first, and they all look forward to some good honest work.