As harvest season is in full swing, we, as owners of a small family farm, are thrilled to pass on our blessings to our customers. Alongside our dedication to hard work, we carry the legacy and wisdom inherited from our forefathers. This is the root of the rich difference you will find in our food.
It all starts with two realities we cannot change: our climate and land. We are fortunate to have mountain streams flowing with pure spring water, allowing us to irrigate our fields, hydrate our animals and nurture our crops. This ensures that our customers receive nutrient-rich products that reflect the blessings of our land.
Provided sun shine and fresh spring water, the fertile soil of these old mountain valleys produces an abundance. From the wholesome vegetables and grains to the hay and rich pasture grasses, nourishment is everywhere. Our animals have the freedom to bask in the sunshine or find comfort under the shade of a tree, always enjoying the fresh air. They too, experience the rich difference of a simple life.
All of the meat and cheese we offer for sale comes from healthy animals that we care for and even give names. Many of them also respond to their own names. Our daily interactions with each and every individual animal create a close bond between us. This relationship helps us keep our animals enjoying life and to recognize when they may not be feeling their best.
Comfortable, well cared for animals will produce a higher quality beef and cheese. In many ways, it is similar to us humans: less stressed, well-fed, happier people are generally more productive, healthier and live longer.
It is our life long mission to grow our relationship with the land and animals, and now we seek to build stronger relationships with our customers. Give us a call, visit our store, or write us an email. We’d love to hear from you.
Our retail shop is open M-F 8am-3pm 4657 Brush Valley Rd Madisonburg, PA 16852
It is another fall morning and I hear the temperatures may reach 80 degrees today.
Our two boys, 14 and 12 years old, start their day with milking our family’s jersey cow. What a treat! Fresh, creamy milk from a grass-fed jersey cow. We have plenty of butter, yogurt and ice cream made and consumed at our house.
Breakfast this morning consisted of scrambled eggs, beef gravy, beef sausage, and shoo-fly pie. The beef sausage is new to our family, and I prefer it over pork sausage. Our 4-year-old daughter loves beef sausage, too.
Our family’s beef operation consists of 20 cow/calf pairs along with a few head for finishing each year. They are 100% grass/hay fed throughout the year. Each day during the growing season, I move the cattle to a new, small paddock for fresh grass. They also have access to a wooded area, which is their preferred hang-out spot during the hottest part of the day. Once it cools off in the evening, the herd wanders back into the pasture to graze.
In a few weeks, the cows will be moved to a paddock where they are fed dry and fermented hay for the winter months. We bale our winter supply of hay ourselves from our chemical-free alfalfa feeds and pastures. Our goal is to build our soils to raise happy, healthy cattle to provide families with great tasting, healthy beef.
Our retail shop is open M-F 8am-3pm 4657 Brush Valley Rd Madisonburg, PA 16852
Greetings to all supporters. My family grows an array of vegetables for the co-operative – onions, cauliflower, cabbage, watermelons, and butternut squash. We are finished with the onion harvest and are pleased with the crop. Hopefully the other crops will continue to thrive.
As some of you may know, this monthly newsletter is written by a different member of the co-operative’s governance each month. There are 20 of us total, all volunteer positions. I serve as a member of the Produce Committee. While I was sharing with my family it is my duty to write this month’s newsletter, my 12-year-old son excitedly volunteered to write a newsletter himself. Enjoy!
Our Goat’s Kids We have some goats. Sometimes they have baby kids. The number of kids per goat varies from one to four. But they are always very cute. The children love to play with them. We give them milk with a bottle until they are big enough to suck out of milk-bars.
And the kids love milk. While we are milking the nanny goats, the goat kids try to jump up on our laps and start sucking on the nannies. Or sometimes they try to jump into the milk pail and start drinking milk. If they can get the milk, they will almost bury their head in it because they can’t seem to drink it fast enough.
Sometimes we give them rides in the wagon and then they jump over the two-foot racks to get out. The little children like to carry them around and play with them. They run after us and look around curiously. When we catch them to put them in their pen, they lick their lips as if they are a little disgusted. When we stick our finger out at the them, they try bite as hard as they can. Or sometimes they try to suck on our finger.
When they are sucking milk out of the milk bars, they wag their tails very, very fast. Sometimes they reach over each other to suck at the milk bars because they don’t feel like going around. They want their milk now!
Our retail shop is open M-F 8am-3pm 4657 Brush Valley Rd Madisonburg, PA 16852
From the Farm Journal This month, we continue to highlight what a day in the life looks like for one of our cooperative member-owners. A core value of ours is connection with the families we feed. If you have any questions about Amish culture or living, please call, mail us a letter (address at the bottom) or send us an email (sales@kinfork.com).
I stand up out of bed in the morning at 4am and walk outside. In our mountainous area of Centre County, Pennsylvania, we have minimal light pollution. The stars are extra bright this morning so I take a few moments to look at the North Star and the Big Dipper. I gaze as far as I can and notice there appears to be no end of the stars — one of the many reasons I appreciate the early start to my day.
The barn cooled down with the overnight breeze and is pleasant – which helps as I ease into the work of the morning. A truck picked up our farm’s milk overnight, so today my first task is to start the cleaning cycle on the bulk tank before moving the cows from the pasture into the parlor for milking.
On this particular morning, I notice that Lucy (one of our dairy cows) gave birth to a heifer calf during the night. New life is always a blessing. My son Melvin joins me to help move Lucy and the calf to the post-partum pen and get them comfortable. Thankfully, Lucy is producing a very rich colostrum for her newborn calf and both appear to be stable.
Melvin and I work together to milk the cows, scrub the milking equipment, and feed the cows. We head together to our house for breakfast where I get to see another joyous scene – my family sitting down to over-easy eggs with scrapple alongside cereal with fresh milk.
After breakfast, Melvin and I harness our team of Suffolk Punch draft horses – Bob, Bert, Buster and Bill – to cut grass in the pasture. Next I head to the cornfield to check on the crop – both for growth as well as for weeds and ground insects. The rains in the past several weeks broke the dry spell in the late spring and has helped prepare the corn for harvest. The work in the fields always takes longer than I expect, though it is a reminder of the care my community is able to provide the land.
After the evening milking, we head to the house to call it a day, and the sun is setting on the mountain. We pause to watch the sun slip behind the mountain and remember who created it all.
Our retail shop is now open 4657 Brush Valley Rd Madisonburg, PA 16852
Greetings to all from Kinfork, here in the mountains and valleys of central Pennsylvania.
In our brand messaging, we often say ‘Experience the rich difference of a simple life’. You may wonder, how does this reflect our values?
Living on the small family farm we strive to keep it simple. The farms in our cooperative vary in size from about 50 to 120 acres. Dairy herd sizes average about 50 cows, 30 heifers, 15 calves, 8 draft horses for field work, and 4 driving horses for local transportation. Our average beef herd size is about 15 cows, 8 heifers, and 8 bulls.
Most families wake up around 4:00AM. There is work for everyone. The animals need fed, the milking equipment needs washed, and the barns need cleaned. The day always tends to go better if everything is in clean, working order. Even the older preschoolers jump out of bed and run to the barn to check the newborn calf or the baby kittens. They love preparing a bottle of warm milk and feeding each young calf.
After chores, everyone heads for the kitchen, where before even opening the door you can smell the good-old home-style country breakfast which is ready to be served.
During the nice days in Spring, Summer, and Fall months, us farmers can be seen working in our fields. Rainy days are filled with record keeping and equipment maintenance.
By 4:00PM it is time for the second milking and cleaning up from the day, before we all gather for a little family time and a nice meal. Everyone is thankful for a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed to rest up and be ready for another exciting, busy, yet simple day on the farm.
A glass of fresh milk from our dairy cows with breakfast….yes please!
Our retail shop is now open 4657 Brush Valley Rd Madisonburg, PA 16852
Life on the farm is always full of surprises, and springtime is no exception. It’s a season bursting with energy, when you never know what’s around the corner. Sometimes you have to look closely, and other times, well, the action just slaps you right in the face.
Take last weekend, for example. I was sitting in my office, drowning in a sea of paperwork, while my two daughters, Rachel (10 years old) and Mary (17 years old), were out in the garden spreading mulch. Now, mind you, they’re no strangers to farm life, but even the most experienced farmers can get a bit too relaxed. And that’s exactly what happened.
In their mulch-hauling frenzy, hauling wheel barrow after wheel barrow from the mulch pile in the adjacent pasture, they left the gate wide open after one trip. And just when I was about to comment on how it was a nice quiet Saturday, I witnessed a sight that would make any farmer’s heart skip a beat. There goes my 10-year-old daughter, sprinting past my office window like she’s in a race, with our mischievous billy goat hot on her heels. I really think that goat saw that open gate as a personal invitation to escape.
Without missing a beat, I jumped up from my seat, and there, right behind the billy goat, was my 17-year-old, wielding a rake like a medieval knight charging into battle. It was a sight to behold. Rachel tried to make a beeline for the walk-out basement that leads to our front porch, but that billy goat was determined. He cut her off and had her cornered, like a skilled basketball player guarding the hoop.
But fear not, for Mary was not about to let her little sister be trampled by a billy goat. With her trusty rake, she came barreling around the corner, ready to give that Billy goat a taste of justice. And you know what? That billy goat, in all his wisdom, realized the game was up the moment he laid eyes on Mary. With a quick juke move, he bolted back to his pasture, having had enough excitement for one day.
Ah, life on the farm. As if goat escapades weren’t enough, there’s the matter of the grass. It’s growing faster than a toddler eating Kinfork beef and cheddar cheese. I’ve been rotating the cattle daily just to keep up. They’ve already made their way around the entire farm once. But let me tell you, folks, the grass isn’t the only thing sprouting around here.
Last week, as I was getting ready to move the cattle to a fresh pasture when I noticed two Meadowlarks nesting right in the field. It was like they were saying, “Hey, we’re here to keep an eye on you, buddy!” And if that wasn’t enough, as I strolled back to the barn to put away some fencing supplies, two pairs of Barn swallows nesting inside began chirping at me. That evening, when I walked out onto the front porch, I heard my first Whip-poor-will of the year, calling from the edge of our pastures.
Working with nature is a gift every single day. Sometimes the living creatures announce themselves with song, and sometimes they announce themselves with thundering hooves. We are here for it all and appreciate the reminders to keep our eyes and ears open to the world around us.
I write Spring time greetings to all who read. Spring is a wonderful time to be alive and celebrate the change of seasons. Here on the farm, we are enjoying spring to the fullest. The flowering trees are blooming. The grass fields and hillside pastures are a lush green.
The birds are returning from their southern homes, including Barn Swallows and Purple Martins. We depend on Purple Martins and Barn Swallows for fly and mosquito control on the farm. Their singing is an added bonus.
Another highlight of spring is the school picnics. These are held at the school during the last week of the school year with all of the parents and students attending. The afternoon is full of volleyball and kickball played with friendly competition between the fathers and students.
For all of the growers in our co-operative, onion planting is almost complete and the plants are off to a great start. We are aiming to be planting corn and beans around the first week of May. It is always so amazing to watch the tender young plants emerge from the ground 5-12 days after planting. This year we planted 100,000 onion plants with the help of our neighbors. We expect to harvest around the end of July and hope for at least 80,000 lbs.
While standing in my onion fields each day, I am struck by the beauty and simplicity of life. Despite the many challenges that farmers face, there is something truly special about working the land and being able to provide nourishing food for our families and communities.
So as you enjoy the onions that we have grown, I hope you will also take a moment to reflect on the beauty of life and the importance of living in harmony with nature. Whether you are a farmer or not, we all have a role to play in creating a more sustainable and just world. And together, we can build a brighter future for generations to come.
A simple, yet handy implement we use to cultivate. Easily pulled by a draft horse.
But farming is not just about providing food. It is about cultivating a way of life that honors the earth and the gifts it has given us. It is about living in harmony with nature and embracing the rhythms of the seasons. It is about hard work and perseverance, and about the joy of seeing the fruits of our labor. With the coming of spring, the cows and horses are being turned out to pasture. One of my personal favorite scenes is a horse on pasture with a baby colt frisking by her side. Here on our farm, we are anticipating the arrival of one colt in June.
As a farmer, I am inspired by the teachings of my ancestors and the values they passed down to me. We believe in living a life that is grounded in faith, community, and stewardship of the land.
Greetings to all who read these lines. I write today to educate and share about life on the family farm with a focus on how we use horses in agriculture. We are member-owners and producers for the co-operative. Our family consists of my wife and me, and five boys ranging in age from 8 to 18 years. We have 46 cows – some are black and white, and some are red and white. They all have a name, and some of our favorites are Sassy, Saucy, Janis, and Circle. We have 25 heifers and 10 baby calves. A heifer is a calf who is no longer drinking milk. A heifer is not called a cow until she has a baby calf herself, which is at about two years of age.
We also have 8 horses and 5 dogs. They also all have a name. The horses names are Jerry, Bud, Bill, Blossom, Pearl, Jill, Rockey and Skip. We do all of our farming with horses instead of tractors. The horses help us plant, harvest, and haul the crops – corn and hay – from the fields and into storage for the cows in the winter when the snow is flying. A small amount of the feed the horses help us produce is also used to feed the horses.
In the spring time, around April 1 when the ground is dry enough, we begin to plant hay and alfalfa seed for the dairy cows. We hitch 6 horses into a forecart and hook the forecart up to a no-till drill with seed hoppers. I then stand on the forecart and drive the team of horses back and forth in the field to put the seeds in the ground. With some rain, sunshine, and warm weather the seeds will germinate and sprout. By June 1, the grass and alfalfa will usually be about 18 inches tall.
When the weather looks to be nice for a few days, we hitch 3 horses into a forecart and hook it up to a hay mower and cut the hay. We let the hay dry for a day or so and then rake it into windrows. Next, we hitch 6 horses into a hay baler with a wagon hitched behind the baler. A hay baler is a machine that cuts and compresses the hay into small bales 18 inches wide and 3 feed long. Each bale weighs about 70lbs, and the wagon can hold about 100 bales. When fully loaded, a wagon can weigh 3 to 4 tons.
The horses can pull an amazingly big load. Each horse weighs around 1500lbs, and on a working day they will eat about 17lbs of a corn, oat, and mineral mix plus about 30 lbs of hay. In the Spring, Summer and Fall, the cows, heifers, and horses graze on grass, Timothy clover, and some alfalfa mixtures. The horses enjoy it when we give them a small grain and mineral snack in the barn when we are milking the cows. On a hot summer day, I love nothing more than a tall glass of cold, nutritious milk to keep me fueled and working in the fields.
At about 17 lbs of grain per day, the horse is eating 6,205 lbs of grain across the year. For the following calculation, lets say that grain is all corn. A typical corn yield in our area is 150 bushels per acre. At 56 lbs per bushel, a horse eats about 111 bushels of corn per year, which is about ¾ acre. A principal we follow is that we need 1 horse per 5 acres of corn we grow, given then volume of work and the speed at which it must take place. Thus, one horse allows us to grow and harvest 5 acres of corn and it eats 0.75 acres of that corn.
Horses also eat hay in the winter, but don’t require as high quality hay as the dairy cows. I estimate one horse eats about 30 lbs of forage or hay per day. In one growing season, if I am making hay for horses, I can get 3 cuttings of hay yielding a total of 250 small bales weighing 35 lbs each. This is a yield of 8,750 lbs of hay per acre. 30 lbs of hay per day across a year is about 10,950 lbs of hay per year. Thus, we also need 1.25 acres of hay to feed our horse helping us grow the 5 acres of corn.
After bailing hay, I will steer the horses to pull the loaded wagon to one of our silos. A silo is an upright concrete structure about 14 feet in diameter and 65 feet tall. At the bottom of the silo is a machine with knives that cuts the hay, followed by a blower which blows the hay into the silo. We cut hay for our cows about every 30-45 days from May 15 to October 15. By fall we aim to have 4000 or more bales stored in the silo. Once full, we cover it until winter.
Working with horses in agriculture is fantastic. The sunlight and rain grow the corn and hay, which powers the horses. We feed the harvested crops to the cows and they transform it into milk, which we then process into cheese for your family. Elegant, yet simple.
November is wedding season in our community. Weddings are hosted every Tuesday and Thursday, and many of us will attend 9 or more throughout the month. Sometimes, we attend two weddings in one day! It is common to celebrate one couple with an 8am ceremony and then enjoy the afternoon reception of another. It is a happy season filled with joy and gratitude, and a season that leads us to reflect on the role food plays in enabling community gathering.
The day before a wedding, relatives and neighbors will gather at the host’s house to prepare the traditional dish: Wedding Roast Chicken. Everyone will take home with them that evening prepped chicken complete with stuffing. With each wedding attended by 300-500 guests, this could look like 90 prepped chickens.
Families will roast the chickens, clean the meat off the bones, collect the stuffing and will each bring the food back to the wedding location the next morning. Everyone’s chicken and stuffing will be combined and turned into the main course of the meal. We serve Wedding Roast Chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh cabbage slaw, and cooked celery.
Join us in this celebratory season – we included the recipe below.
Wedding Roast Chicken
Pre-heat the oven to 375 F
In a large bowl, mix: – 1 loaf of bread, cubed – 1/2 head of celery, chopped – 1 onion, chopped – 1 stick of butter, softened – 1 teaspoon salt – 1 teaspoon black pepper
Stuff into the whole chicken Place chicken inside large roasting pan with a lid
Cook time is about 3 hours
Remove from the oven and let cool. Remove the meat from the bones and combine with the stuffing.
Visit us at our new facility, located in the heart of Brush Valley 4657 Brush Valley Rd Madisonburg, PA 16852
One of the many things we farmers in the co-operative agree upon is Fall is the best time of year to milk cows. The weather is cool, the pasture is lush, and the cows are enjoying a comfortable life. Much joy is found at the end of the growing season while we are pressure washing, performing equipment maintenance before winter storage, and organizing all areas of the farm.
It is a feeling of a fresh start, bringing us courage to spend more time in the milking barn. When we pause to look across the fields at the new cover crops starting to grow, our minds naturally reflect on the year’s successes. The effort of every farmer helps embolden the co-operative to persist in its mission to deliver the best quality products to our community.
Fall is much like a Second Spring in September and early October. We are feeling well supplied with the forage stockpiled in the pastures and the hay we were able to bale. It has been a perfect Fall, the best in memory.
At this time of year, it is true recreation to rotate the cattle to fresh pasture in the evening as they graze up against the colorful mountain. We are provided views that keep us motivated and humbled, and moments to enjoy being with our families. It is satisfying to see the young calves thriving alongside healthy mama cows stuffed on fresh grass.
While we worked to process the bounty of cabbage at the packing house this past week, we also pulled the final squash out the fields – a major mile marker in our fall harvest. We take a big exhale as those final trailers of squash are hauled down Brush Valley Road and into the packing house.
As we begin to turn our minds towards planning next year, a wave of excitement washes over us. All of us farmers in the co-operative are thankful we live in central Pennsylvania and are able to offer quality products.
