Chris and Sherry Hardie

B&B homesteaders

Opening up a bed and breakfast was the realization of a dream for us. Our long-term goal is to be self-sufficient (we're well on our way) and to be able to share the earth's bounties with our guests.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

The first snowfall of the season

The view from Brambleberry's front porch. 
We're finally receiving the first measurable snow of the season on Dec. 9.
Not only will it add to the beauty of the holiday season, but more importantly we need lots of snow this winter to help us break the drought.
We're supposed to receive up to 8 inches today and the photo (with the weird color spot in the middle -- not sure what that is) was taken in the morning while the snow was falling.
We spent yesterday doing some final preparations for the snow, but there is still not enough wood for the winter, so that task will continue. The sheep have been put into their winter quarters, which means breeding season is over.
There's always lots of winter recreation to enjoy around here, as guests can use our snowshoes and sledding equipment. There are nearby cross country ski trails and snowmobile trails. Last year was pretty much a snow-less winter and no one liked it.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

A challenging year of farming

It would be an understatement if we said that the weather has created a challenge for our farming this year.
The drought has created challenges and concerns that a normal year would not bring -- if there is such a thing as a normal year when you engage in farming.
As we write this blog on Oct. 14, it is raining for the second day and so far we've received 1.35 inches. While the growing season is over (we had a killing frost the third week of September), we need the moisture to start replenishing the ground and to help our perennials and young fruit trees.
There's a saying "no matter how bad you have it, there's always someone who has it worse." That certainly is our case as we had some timely rain in early June that allowed us to harvest a nice first cutting and second cutting of hay. The third cutting was much lighter, however, and the fourth cutting was non-existent because we haven't had much rain since early August.
Because it's been so dry this summer and because we were unable to get some fencing done, the pastures we had dried up and we've been feeding hay to our sheep and cows nearly the whole summer. We have concerns about having enough hay to get through the winter. Buying it would be very expensive as small square bales like the ones we put up are going for $5 to $8 each. That's crazy.
We did send this year's slaughter lambs to market last week and our pigs will go to the butcher next week. That cuts down on our chores and replenishes our freezer. We've got our young rams in with the flocks and we hope they are up to the task.
Now we've got to get our winter's wood supply laid up before the snow flies.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Harvest dinners well underway

Our harvest dinners at Brambleberry Bed and Breakfast are well underway.
Every Saturday through the end of October we feature farm-to-fork dinners that literally gets guests in touch with their food source. Between 90 to 100 percent of the organic fruits, vegetables and herbs served are grown onsite.
The hot and dry summer has forced us to be a little creative with the vegetables we offer from our garden. Some of our vegetables failed this year and others came in less than expected, but that's why we grow a big garden. 
All natural homegrown pork is produced onsite with zero miles. Beef and chicken come from Arcadia, 25 miles away. We try to predict what will be ready in the garden for these meals but reserve the right to make vegetable substitutions if necessary.
All dinners include homemade bread and a glass of wine. Wisconsin wines served at our dinner come from Tenba Ridge Winery, Elmaro Vineyards, Wollersheim Winery and Brambleberry's own wine vat!
Overnight guests can join us on Saturdays for our farm to fork five-course harvest dinners for $30 to $35 per person. 

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Calving season is over

Our third Scottish Highland cow that has been looking very pregnant for the past two months finally delivered a heifer calf, but it was not without some challenges.
We were thankful the cow managed to get through a recent 100-plus degree streak without calving. But when she had the calf, it dropped in an awkward position on top of its head and was not moving.
Sherry climbed into the pen and kept a close eye on the mother -- Highlands do not take kindly to perceptions that you are messing with their calves. Sherry was able to get close enough to the calf to roll it over and she started moving. Yes, she. Two of our three calves born this year were heifers.
Heather has now joined the herd.
Soon we will be removing the bull calf who was born in March because he will become a steer and be raised for meat. He will join two other beef calves we bought this spring and will be the start of our mainly grass-fed beef operation.


Sunday, July 1, 2012

A surprise but welcome arrival

We have a new member of the Brambleberry farm family and she came as a surprise.
Flora, a snow-white Scottish Highland heifer calf, was born last week. And we didn't know that her mother was pregnant!
Deidre gave birth a year ago to our young bull Gavin and all the cows were with a bull last summer and fall on another farm before we bought them. But she certainly didn't look as fat and large as Mulberry, our third Highland cow who has looked ready to calve for about a month now.
We spotted the newborn calf during our nightly feeding but wondered why Mulberry was not paying any attention to her. That concerned us because calves must have their mother's milk within a few hours of birth to ensure their survival. We thought it odd that Deidre seemed to be more interested in the calf.
Finally, logic prevailed and we realized that Deidre had also been with the bull last year. It also made more sense because Flora's brother Gavin also was very white when he was young. His coat has started to darken but it's still the color of cream with shades of red.
Flora is doing well and we're happy to have a heifer for future herd expansion. She joins Sir Loin, a bull calf born on St. Patrick's Day.
Meanwhile, we're still waiting on Mulberry. Perhaps we'll have something else to celebrate this July 4!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Birds busy nesting

These baby robins want food all of the time. 
We often have guests comment on how many birds we have here at Brambleberry. From song birds to swallows, hummingbirds to hawks, turkeys to sparrows and even some eagles, this is a birder's paradise.
Many of our avian friends are visible just by sitting on our porches. The barn swallows nest in the former dairy barn and are our natural mosquito predators. You can watch them dip and dive from morning to night catching bugs for their young.
We also have lots of robins. This spring a robin built a nest on a decorative basket we hung on the wall of our garage with hopes that's exactly what would happen. It's a non-stop battle to try to keep the robins and other birds from nesting right near our porch doors.
There were actually three birds in the nest -- you can see the tips of the yellow beak of the third bird near the adult robin. Without feathers the baby birds look more like prehistoric creatures. But they wait with open mouths as the parent comes in with bits of regurgitated worms and other food to feed them. It's an endless job that doesn't stop until the birds are big enough to fly away.
And then the circle of life continues.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Baling hay brings challenges

Some of the 1,500 bales of first cop hay stacked in the barn. 
 Nothing every comes easy, particularly when it comes to farming. Between the challenges of the weather and equipment, there seems to always be something to overcome.
That was certainly the case this year with our first crop of hay. Most farmers get between three and four cuttings of hay, which grows back in between harvests -- just like your lawn.
Chris had taken the week of Memorial Day as vacation with the intent to bale hay, but cool weather and equipment issues preventing the hay from being cut until the first weekend of June. The hay baler needed repairs, which was accomplished.
A new chain was needed to fix the elevator.
Chris's father started baling, which went fine, but the elevator that is used to unload the hay and carry it up into the barn was a disaster. The clutch slipped and had to be fixed and then the chain, which is old and worn out, started breaking. The elevator broke six times before we had to break down ourselves and purchase 48 feet of new chain!
Chris helped unload hay when he got home from work and two remaining hay wagons are safely tucked inside a shed. When those wagons are unloaded, there will be more than 1,500 bales of hay in the barn -- feed for the sheep and cows in the fall and winter.
But if we don't get rain soon, we will be feeding it year-round. The pastures are drying up and that means our second cutting of hay might be a lot less. But that's just another challenge in farming!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Shaven and shorn sheep

Another sure sign of spring at Brambleberry is sheep shearing.
Twenty-five of our ewes, two rams and our wether are now sporting new haircuts as their thick layers of wool have been cut off.
Some sheep farmers have their flocks sheared before lambing, but we've always waited until after every ewe has lambed and the weather has warmed up to have our flock sheared. We hire a local Amish farmer who is still learning the skill but does an excellent job in just a few hours.
It's always an unsettling day for the flock, as the ewes are separated from their lambs for a few hours before everyone is sheared and they can reunite. The lambs are not sheared because their fleece is not yet thick enough. The older girls who have been through the process before handle it better than the new ewes who are being clipped for the first time.
It's always amazing how thick their coats are after a year of growth and there's always a lot more room in our barn after the sheep are downsized. They look more like goats until their wool starts to grow back.
We don't make any money selling the wool since our sheep do not have the high-quality fiber sought by spinners. By the time we pay for the shearing and for the freight to ship our wool, we lose money. We wish there was more of a market for wool, but we raise our sheep for meat and for breeding stock.
But our flock is now ready for summer!



Saturday, May 5, 2012

The hunt for morels

I'm not a mycologist but I really enjoy morel mushrooms. These annual fungi, which need a combination of moisture and warm weather to sprout, are hunted by many enthusiasts this time of year in Wisconsin.
The bounty of the hunt.
Morels taste earthy, nutty and a little goes a long way, but they are so, so good. I usually just saute them with butter and a little garlic powder. They are also fantastic on the grill.
With more than 500 acres of family farm to explore at Brambleberry Farms, there are plenty of places to hunt. The challenge is to find the time when the weather conditions are right. With a very early spring this year followed by cool weather, it was anyone's guess as to when the mushrooms would be out.
Recently we've had plenty of rain and temperatures in the upper 70s, so I figured the time would be right. Accompanied by our dog Nessie and the farm dog Lucky, I headed into the woods.
I am by no means an expert morel hunter, but I've had the best luck finding them in the vicinity of dead elm trees and sometimes apple trees. Our woods are mainly a mixture of oak, birch, hickory, ash and elm, so it's a matter of spotting the trees and diligently searching the area.
What makes morel hunting so maddening is that the tree where you found the mother lode the year before may not have anything this year. It's a fickle fungus. Many times I've come home empty-handed but always enjoying the time spent in the woods regardless.
I should caution anyone eating wild mushrooms to make sure they are safe. As you can see by the photo below, there are many mushrooms in the woods and some of them are deadly poisonous.
This year I got lucky. I found about eight morels in the vicinity of two small dead elms. Then I found a veritable feast -- a couple dozen near a tree that hardly looked dead, but was apparently the perfect place.
There's nothing quite like tasting the first fresh morel of the year. Makes me want to go out and find some more.
-- Chris Hardie 

The first morel of the season.

Look carefully -- it's a morel bonanza!
Just because you find mushrooms under a dead elm, it doesn't mean they are morels! Some mushrooms are deadly poisonous.  

Saturday, April 28, 2012

The strange spring of 2012

Asparagus on April 1. 

This spring will certainly go down as one of the weirdest weather seasons we've ever experienced. The maple syrup season ended early when temperatures the second week of March climbed into the upper 70s and never cooled down at night.
This caused some of our annual crops to start early. The picture of the rhubarb emerging was from March 18 and the picture of the asparagus was from April 1. Yes -- we're not fooling -- we had fresh asparagus from our garden the first week of April.
Of course the old saying about Wisconsin weather -- if you don't like the weather we're having, wait a minute -- proved to be true as a cold snap in mid-April brought us temperatures in the low 20s overnight for almost a week. We tried to cover our blossoming apple trees, but it was futile.
The past few nights we've been covering our strawberry plants, which are already blossoming.
Only time will tell if we will have any apple crop this year, but last weekend the garden was tilled and some of the early vegetables -- like potatoes, leeks, carrots, parsnips, peas and beets -- are in the ground.
Our first crop of hay will surely be earlier this year as well, but we need some warm temperatures and no freezing overnight so that it can take off.

Rhubarb on March 18. 

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Rhythm of life not always easy

A few minutes into the most miraculous day of the year, my wife, Sherry, delivered a set of breech birth lamb twins.
It was Easter morning shortly after midnight. The ewe had gone into labor a few hours earlier but there was no progress. We suspected trouble. I held the ewe down and Sherry pulled out a ram lamb. A tiny ewe lamb followed.
New life.
There’s a seasonal rhythm to life that is keenly felt on the farm. No season reflects that more than spring, with green shoots bursting forth, crops and gardens being planted. It’s also the season for lambing.
But rhythm of life is far from perfect or pretty. Three days after the Easter morning birth it was clear that the ram lamb was not going to survive. We had fed him with a tube, but his serious injuries from a difficult birth prevented him from even getting up to nurse, which his sister was doing.
The lamb’s eyes were glazed and his skin was cold. He was suffering.
I gathered him up and carried him in a cardboard box away from the barn. I dug a hole in the cold, sandy earth and gently laid him down. I completed my least-favorite job as a shepherd when I pulled the trigger. No more suffering.
My commute to work that morning was somber. I reflected in the silence.
Life and death. Lots of questions and not many answers.
I thought about the emotional funeral a few days earlier in Winona, Minn., where more than 150 people showed up to say goodbye to Baby Angel, the unidentified newborn girl found in a canvas bag floating in the Mississippi River last September. We may never know how Angel got there.
I thought about Sara Hougom of La Crosse, whose life was taken by a bullet March 26. Police are still looking for the killer and why this young woman was slain.
Life and death. Lots of questions and not many answers.
I once discovered that the word sheep or shepherd is mentioned 247 times in the Bible. Sheep have been a part of our lives for some 10,000 years and were a means of living for our ancestors. It’s understandable that such an important book as the Bible would use sheep to illustrate the work of our Lord — it was language people could relate to.
Sherry and I are shepherds. The sheep respond to our voice, allow us to give them care and rely on us for their food and water. The sheep follow us.
Every day, we tend to our flock. I will never tire of watching the lambs jump around. Holding a lamb in your arms is a wonderful stress reliever.
But there’s a lot more to shepherding than romantic notions of green pastures and white, fluffy sheep. Our sheep have thick wool fleeces that are not really pretty this time of year. Bits of manure cling to their rear legs. They don’t smell very nice.
Sometimes, too, it’s hard to not focus on the manure in our imperfect world. We feel surrounded and overwhelmed at times with the stench of injustice, suffering and all that is wrong. Some days it just seems easier to put our head down and follow the flock rather than trying to be a shepherd.
Later that morning, Sherry called to say another ewe was in labor. News then arrived that we had a perfectly healthy set of twin lambs.
My heart lifted as I rejoiced with the new life. I found the energy to be a shepherd again.
There will always be more questions than answers.
But the rhythm of life continues.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Murder mystery fun


Who killed Barney Benson, the deceased owner of Benson's Big Beautiful Bunny Boutique?
We're not going to tell you because it would spoil the fun for our next set of guests who stay at Brambleberry Bed and Breakfast for the "Lurking Down the Bunny Trail" murder mystery weekend.
Choose a character and have fun!
Our murder mystery weekends revolve around dinner and allow our guests to have as much fun as they would like with their characters. As you can see by these photos, some guests go to great extents to get into their character -- like Ray Betz in his giant bunny costume.
Brambleberry holds several of these events throughout the year. They are also available for guests who want to bring some friends for a whole-house booking. Everyone can play along and you don't have to be Hercule Poirot to solve the case.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

A new Highland arrival

Gwyneth and her newborn Scottish Highland bull calf. 
There's a new addition to the small Scottish Highland herd at Brambleberry Bed and Breakfast!
In the midst of one of the warmest mid-March weather ever, a bull calf decided to enter the world. Chris found the calf on a Sunday morning after noticing that the cow had not come outside of the barn. The calf was already nursing. It's quite possible that we had a St. Patrick's Day calf.
The calf's mother -- Gwyneth -- picked a much better day to calve. Last year while she was at another farm, Gwyneth had a calf during an ice storm and the calf froze to death only a few feet outside the barn. The farmer we bought her from figured that she would be the first of our three cows to give birth.
We noticed the day before that the cow's teats were swollen. Sherry also noticed some mucous coming from the cow. But the cow's udder didn't look full enough, Chris thought. But obviously these beef cattle are not like dairy cows and the udder was big enough.
The calf is quite sturdy and looks like he's been washed and blow-dried! That's because the mother was quite thorough licking the calf -- a natural and essential function -- which makes him look fuzzy.
We expect one other cow to give birth this spring and suspect that the other cow -- who had a bull calf last June -- did not get bred. It will be fun watching the little guy grow up.




Sunday, March 4, 2012

Maple syrup season begins at Brambleberry

Special bags are used to collect the sap. 
Spiles are put into the trees. 
The sap is collected. 
As winter starts to wane the season of maple sap is upon us. Our philosophy at Brambleberry Farms is to live sustainably off the land, enjoying the bounties that nature provides.
One of the ways we do that is to make our own maple syrup from the trees on our farm. Late February through March are the months when the sap starts to flow. Guests are welcome to help us collect sap and observe the process of cooking it down. We are a small producer of maple syrup. We practice low-impact, labor intensive methods of collecting maple sap using bags on tree taps. The sap is manually collected, boiled down on a wood stove, and finished on a commercial gas range.
Commercial operators usually use a much more efficient system of tubing and a vacuum system to collect sap. 


It takes many hours to cook down the sap, which is the process of removing the water and concentrating the sugar content. You can make maple syrup out of any member of the maple family, although sugar maples have the highest sugar content. Other sap needs to be cooked down even further. Sugar maples yield a 30:1 ratio; other maples are 40:1. In other words, you need to boil down 30 to 40 gallons of sap to get one gallon of maple syrup. 
The sap is boiled down


The finished product -- 100 percent maple syrup!
Believe it or not, box elders are a member of the maple family, but you need 80:1 to make syrup. We are not that patient even though we have numerous box elders!
 The sap season is very dependent on the weather. Ideal conditions are for temperatures above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. As we move through March and the nights remain warm, the sap will stop flowing as the trees bud out. 
The syrup is filtered and stored in glass jars. The syrup is used in our breakfasts and also available for sale. We sell the syrup for $7 (8 ounces) and $13 (16 ounces).





Sunday, February 12, 2012

The first lambs have arrived

Emma and her charcoal-gray ewe lamb "Miss Bates" (left) and her ram lamb, both born about 16 hours earlier. The orange glow is from a heat lamp that we use for the first couple of days in cold weather to help keep the lambs warm. 
Probably within minutes of our most recent post discussing the lambing season vigil, the first lambs of 2012 arrived Saturday, Feb. 11.
After serving dinner to our B&B guests, Chris went to check on the ewes about 8:30 p.m. He heard the telltale sound of a lamb bleat and knew we had new arrivals. Once he turned the light on in the sheep barn he saw two dark-colored lambs being mothered by our ewe Emma.
Chris went inside to let Sherry know and she came out with our guests, who took some video and photos of the newborn lambs. We used our new vacuum milker and after a few minutes we had collected enough colostrum -- the mother's first milk. Because the temperature was about 10 degrees with a wind chill well below zero, we used a feeding tube and gave each of the lambs -- one boy and one girl -- a feeding.
We then put the lambs and their mother into a pen and hooked up a heat lamp. We checked the lambs at midnight, 2 a.m., 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. We milked the ewe again at 2 a.m. and gave the lambs another feeding, just to be sure they had enough nutrition because their body fat only maintains them for the first five hours of life. They will now nurse on their own, hopefully.
Today the weather is starting to warm and the lambs both seem to be fine -- their mouths are warm and their mother is doing well.
Sherry has named the ewe "Miss Bates" from the Jane Austen novel "Emma." The ram will be called Scalawag -- the generic name we use for all of the lambs which will later be sold for slaughter.
We noticed this morning at least two other ewes that will probably deliver within the next 24 hours. Perhaps we'll sneak in a nap in between deliveries.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Lambing season means little sleep

This is the time of the year when we expect our first lambs of the season. While we've certainly had a mild winter this year, Murphy's law will surely prevail and we'll probably get a cold snap as our first lambs are born.
We've prepared the sheep barn, with lots of straw and the individual sheep pens are ready. Sherry kept track of when the ewes were bred by the ram last fall, so we know roughly when the first ones are due. We check them at least every three hours to make sure there are no birthing difficulties.
The ewes have their lambs in the open area of the barn and then we move them into the individual pens so that the mother can take care of her lambs and we can take care of both. This year we've purchased a special vacuum pump milker that should help us a lot in the event that lambs have difficulty sucking.
It's essential that a lamb get some of her mother's milk within the first few hours, so we may milk the ewe and tube feed the lamb right away just to make sure.
It's not fun getting up every few hours in the middle of the night to check the sheep when it's cold and the winds are howling, but we don't want to lose any lambs.
Besides, sleep is overrated, right?

Saturday, January 21, 2012

A romantic Valentine's weekend at Brambleberry

We love Valentine's Day here at Brambleberry. It's one of the most fun weekends of the year for us. Each of the first three years our B&B was open, there was a marriage proposal among the guests. It's fun to be a part of such a special occasion.
 But you don't have to be planning on proposing this Valentine's Day to have a reason for a romantic getaway at Brambleberry.
Saturday, Feb. 11 we have a special romantic Valentine's dinner for guests who would like to participate. We'll even make some special preparations for your romantic holiday if you'd like. With a few days notice, we can arrange to have flowers, candy or any our special romance packages waiting in your room upon your arrival. You don't even have to lift a finger -- except to dial the phone or book online!
There will be a chocolate treat each night for guests to indulge in. Enjoy a log fire in the library while you sip on a complimentary glass of wine. If you'd like to cross country ski or sled, we suggest that you stay for two days to have enough time to enjoy the winter recreation.
If you have other requests to make your weekend special, please ask us and we'll do what we can.