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Farmer Julia's Blog

Pasture-Raised Meat: Carbon Credits for Carnivores

Posted by Julia Smith on

Meat gets a bad rap and is often vilified and called out for being a leading cause of climate change. Industrial agriculture is indeed responsible for a myriad of climate disasters from greenhouse gas emissions to water pollution to desertification and erosion, but going vegan is not the answer. Well managed pastures can sequester more carbon than a forest. Lately, there has been a lot of research on the regenerative properties of sustainable agriculture and the results are clear - Regenerative farming practices can not only feed the world, they can actually repair the damage we have done to our ecosystem.  According to...

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How the Boar Stole Christmas

Posted by Julia Smith on

Following is an account of Julia's accident and the events leading up to it and immediately afterwards. Julia wrote it while still on pain killers when she was supposed to be resting so please bear with her if it isn't up to her usual standards.... You can also see a shorter, prettier version of the story on CBC. Things started going sideways here at the ranch pretty quickly after this blog post. I checked Rosemary (the sow who was due to farrow) every hour through Friday night but she showed no signs of labour. I stayed up all night Saturday night watching...

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The Big Freeze at Blue Sky Ranchsicle

Posted by Julia Smith on

It's colder than a tin toilet seat on the shady side of an ice berg up here at Blue Sky Ranch! We did a lot of research before choosing where to buy land and Merritt seemed to fit the bill nicely. It was still pretty close to Vancouver but had summers that weren't as hot as it gets further into the interior and winters that had daytime temperatures around freezing and dipped down to around -10 at night. That didn't seem so bad! And -10 in a dry cold feels a lot warmer than a cold, rainy day on the coast. 



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When is "Antibiotic Free" not "Antibiotic Free?"

Posted by Julia Smith on

There's a scary story in the news this week. The headline reads:

"A Terrifying Superbug Just Showed Up on a US Farm for the First Time: The bacteria found in a hog operation is resistant even to some of our most powerful antibiotics." (Read the full story).

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Pasture Raised for the Holidays

Posted by Julia Smith on

Make pasture-raised, local meat a part of your holiday traditions. You'll be blown away by the difference in taste and you'll enjoy your meal more knowing that these animals were raised with care & compassion in a way that regenerates the earth.  Our hams are made from our pasture-raised heritage breed pork which is fed a diet of local oats & barley, fruits and vegetables and whey from Farm House Cheeses. Our pigs are raised at our ranch in Merritt. We do all our own butchery and cure the hams in a delicious brown sugar cure before they go into the...

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