Animal Husbandry
If you've been following Quabbin Hill Farms from the beginning, you probably know our origin story is rooted in microgreens. These flavorful, nutrient dense, and, for our purposes, tiny plants enabled us to start our farming journey when all we had was a basement, a shop light, and a dream. Nine years, two properties, and a whole lot of changes later, we're still focused on our microgreen program—did you know we grow over a dozen varieties and mixes?—but we've expanded in ways we could have never imagined. One of our most recent farming journeys in the last few years? Animal husbandry, the practice of raising livestock for food.
As farmers, and as foodies, we've always been interested in sustainable, ethical animal husbandry. Just like it is with fresh, local produce, nothing tastes quite as good as poultry and meat from a local farm you know and trust. That's why we love eating Chase Hill Farm's grass-fed beef—I seriously cannot rave about their flank steaks enough. It's why Leyden Glen Farm's ground lamb, which makes the perfect meatball and stew, is a staple in the Granby household. These farms, both with beautiful origin stories of their own, really know what they're doing. And they know how to inspire newer, younger farmers like us to try our hand at animal husbandry, too!
Three years ago, we decided to try our hand at raising animals for meat, and it's been a beautiful, chaotic, and humbling experience. We started with two Berkshire pigs who we raised from piglets on our 17-acre Pelham property alongside our bustling flock of egg laying hens and pack of rescue sheep (who are a fun story for another day.) That first year, we learned just how deep pigs can dig if they want to get out of their enclosure--spoiler alert, it is DEEP! We learned how loud they can squeal, which is louder than Kevin, our most boisterous rooster. We learned just how dirty animals, and farmers, can truly get. (If we thought harvesting potatoes was a messy job, it has nothing on mucking a pig pen.) And, in a surprise to absolutely no one, we learned just how hard it is to say goodbye to these beautiful, wonderful, magical beasts.
Raising animals has taught us a lot about gratitude and patience, about humility and empathy, about responsibility and hard work. And that is one of the reasons we love what we do: Not just for the delicious meals we can provide for ourselves and our community, but for the endless lessons it teaches us about being a human in the world, about the beauty and diversity of life, and about our role and responsibility we have in the greater picture of Mother Earth.
You can shop for our pork, chicken, and more at our Inside The Farm Stand section.
