Year Two
Here’s to Year Two in the books - 2024!
First, we decided to change our farm name from Sunlight Hollows to Oak Hill Preserve, which meant a new logo, a website URL change, and new business cards. Our new logo includes a hand-drawn white oak tree by Black Locust Printing Co that stands massively and proudly on one of our rolling hills and under which a house once stood. We can see this mighty oak from many viewpoints and included ‘preserve’ in our new name as our goals are to preserve this land, preserve what is produced on it, and preserve some of the old ways.
In March, we brought our first three Meishan piglets to the farm - Carnita and Hamantha, our breeding gilts, and Kevin Bacon, a castrated barrow - from Jensen Reserve in Georgia and embarked on becoming certified Meshian breeders. Michael built an enclosure for them off of our main barn, a domed shelter, and a great three-sided covered area for them, and we quickly learned by doing and observing. They were skittish at first but we soon found out that they love scratches, falling onto their sides for belly rubs and how they ‘talk’ to us. Our first three were a way to ease in to the experience before bringing more on, and we fell in love with them. Read more about the Meishan and our journey here
Allyson made mimosa jelly and redbud jelly from neighbors’ trees, which is a labor of love if nothing else due to the time it takes to pluck the delicate flowers and collect enough to make even one batch of jelly - not too different from the process to collect dandelion flowers! Mimosa jelly had a disappointing flavor despite the flower’s aroma, redbud jelly has a mild grape flavor, and dandelion will always be a favorite because of its honey and sunshine flavor!
Drought periods and heat made it a rough garden year overall but we successfully grew a bunch of watermelons, cantaloupes, pumpkins, carrots, kale, arugula, mint, lemon balm, rosemary, strawberries, loofah, tomatoes, squash, asparagus (closing its second year now), artichoke, purple tomatillo, basil, many different types of garlic, red potatoes, wildflowers, sunflowers and more. We added pecan trees, a peach tree, two cherry trees, honey berry bushes, blueberry bushes, and replaced other trees. Michael found a wild redbud tree growing behind the barn and we moved it near the house - it has grown four feet in less than one year! However, for all of our work and successes, we had many failures with not planting carrots with deep enough soil, pests eating our broccoli and potatoes, peppers not growing, pruning mistakes, and not watering enough here and there. Even with all that did come out, we did not produce enough to take much to market but we appreciated on-farm purchases, the support of Simpl Cafe a few times, and the ability to preserve the harvests in a variety of ways via seed saving, freezing, canning and dehydrating.
Michael built 18 beautiful and functional paddocks in one of our front pastures for our breeding program equipped with an electricity hookup, frost-free water pumps, hoses, and a gate system to make it easier for us to move the pigs from one paddock to the next and from one side to the other. We have been rotating them in paddocks since July and they get moved every 12 days, which they seem to be excited about each time! They do not give us any problems when moving them, and they do not even need treat incentives - they just happily follow us. We also invested in calf huts for them for the winter months as we are supposed to have heavier snow and more rain this year, and pigs do not thrive in cold AND wet conditions for extended periods.
We brought three more Meishan piglets home in July - Bao (‘treasure’ in Chinese) and Shuai (‘handsome’ in Chinese) our breeding boars, and Boaris, a second castrated barrow (yes, he is a barrow not a boar!). Bao has warmed up and Shuai is sweet, and Boaris is super vocal when anticipating his breakfast and afternoon treats of things like apples, pecans, hazelnuts, bananas, and other fruit and veggie scraps.
Late September sadly brought devastation all around us with Hurricane Helene’s flooding and it was heartbreaking. We were not affected physically here and we are so thankful for that, but it is a strange thing when there is so much loss, damage and heartache so close to home. Seeing people come together to assist those in need is healing for all, and it continues into 2025.
Loyal customers purchased unsprayed hay from us again, but even hay production was down in 2024 as well due to the drought and heat. Even if we sell one roll, it is a blessing to us to be able to serve another farm.
Stick around or come alongside us as we build our Meishan business, grow more, preserve more, and offer more. We have big dreams and many plans for 2025 - we so appreciate your ongoing support and for sharing Oak Hill Preserve with others near and far. Cheers to the next chapter!