Welcome to 2022 everyone! We hope your holidays were peaceful during this increasingly weird time and that everyone is staying healthy and safe. It’s very much winter here in New York. Today, it is 19 degrees and everything is covered with a lovely dusting of snow. We’re finding our coziest sweaters and boots, and staying indoors as much as possible — because tomorrow it’s going to be 15 degrees COLDER. (Reminder: If you are stuck inside like us, due to weather or covid, we’re still doing our famous Goat-2-Meetings, and one of those might bring some farm animal joy to your day!)
But that doesn’t mean that the work has stopped on preparing our new location! This week the forestry management service began their work to thin out the brush from our future pastures and open up the over 30 acres that we will be dedicating to the Sweet Farm Animal Ambassadors. These pastures will be lightly wooded with plenty of trees to root and nap under, or to chase your goat best friend around.
We also cut trails through the more densely wooded spaces that will become our food forest and camping grounds. And in doing so we found a sign from the original vineyards that existed on the land — vineyards that were some of the very first in the Finger Lakes! While staying warm inside, I’ll be reading this book on food forests, and this one too, so that I’m ready to get started when things thaw.
Next steps are putting in fencing, which we will begin work on as soon as the ground isn’t frozen solid, followed by breaking ground on the barns in February. Each one of these pieces brings us one step closer to making the potential we see in this property a reality! We couldn’t be more excited.
Speaking of the New Year, now is a great time to think about becoming a Sweet Farm Member, if you aren’t already! It’s with monthly recurring donors that we are able to plan for the year and make sure we are making the biggest impact possible. We’d love for you to consider being a member in 2022 and helping support our mission of creating a compassionate and sustainable world.