Today I'm talking with Casey at Forsythia Farms.

A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company.

If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment.

Or just buy me a coffee

00:00
listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together. Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality, and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose.

00:29
At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful. If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care, you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. That tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Casey at Forsythia Farms in New Jersey. Good morning, Casey. How are you? Good morning. I am well. How are you? I'm good. You said it's a beautiful day there in New Jersey?

00:55
It is. It's nice and sunny and it's going to be almost 70, I think, today. It rained all weekend, so we're due for some sunshine. Well, congratulations on having a great spring day because I am in Minnesota and I can hear the rain falling on our tin roof outside my bedroom window. Oh, my goodness. And it's supposed to rain all day and I think we're supposed to get thunderstorms too. So we are getting what my grandpa would have called

01:23
poor man's fertilizer for our garden. Oh my goodness. You guys get some heavy storms out that way, don't you? Um, we get... I have never experienced nor seen a tornado in the over 30 years I've lived in Minnesota. Well, that's good. But we definitely get some high winds. We have had our power go out because of lightning strikes, stuff like that.

01:52
Minor things like I'm scared to death of tornadoes like I don't ever want to Ever want to see one and I sure as heck don't want to have one come through my door yard. I would pass on that Yeah, I understand But no the weather has been unseasonably warm this spring our Lilac bushes are leafed out our maple tree is leafed out Everything is leafed out. I could do a list. It would take ten minutes, but it's very exciting

02:22
because we're ready, we're ready for this long, long winter to be over. It is, has been such a long winter. I know we started getting some good like sprouts and whatnot, but I know some farms around here are actually dealing with issues because it froze again. We were under a freeze warning last week. So I know there's some like fruit farmers that are concerned because it, you know,

02:50
usually doesn't typically freeze as bad at this point in April. So they're seeing, some are seeing some detrimental like loss with some of their plants, which is really upsetting. We're supposed to have freezing temps tomorrow night, think, there's tomorrow night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, maybe. And I am so thankful that our apple trees are leafed out, but they're not budded out yet. They're not blooming. Okay.

03:19
because I really want apples and if it freezes there will be no apples this fall for us on our property. yeah, yeah, we have an apple tree and a peach tree, they're, I'm not expecting fruit from them for like another couple of years because we just planted them. So anywhere from three to five years, depending on what the, uh, the variety is. Yeah. Honey crisp. I don't remember what peach variety it is, but we have honey crisps crisps.

03:47
crisps, there we go, that we put in, I think, two or three falls ago. And we're hoping with everything we have that they actually bloom this year and that we might get one or two, because they take a while and they were baby trees. So we'll see what happens. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Forsythia Farms. So we are first generation homesteaders or farmers, whichever

04:15
term you prefer to use. We are more on the animal side. I will say I don't have much of a green thumb. um I can do like we have our fruit trees, we have some berry bushes. um But as far as like plants, I'm really bad with the gardening aspect. My husband is actually better with that. I am the animal person. So we have a lot of chickens, we have some turkeys.

04:43
We have goats and a pony and horses, and obviously they have cats and dogs as well. I am a certified veterinary technician by trade, so to say. So I've always been around animals and always wanted to have animals. I think I've wanted chickens my entire life. So we moved to New Jersey in 2023, because we were actually originally from Pennsylvania.

05:12
And we moved to Southern New Jersey to have some more land so we could start on our little farm that we have always dreamed of. And it has grown. It definitely has grown. Chicken meth is real. It sure is. We started with four in 2022 and now we have over 100 turkeys. they're definitely the gateway to the rest of the animals.

05:41
Chicken math got you real good. It did. It did. It went from chickens to goats and then to turkeys and then to horses. And if we had enough land, we would probably have a cow, but we don't. I wish we had a cow. I wish we had enough land for a cow. And we do not. We have three acres and there's no grazing area for an animal that big. So we are just not going to do a cow.

06:10
It's not happening. Yeah, we have about three acres as well. my we have grazing areas on some parts of our land, but a lot of it is wooded and trails. um But our neighbors have. Big like yards and stuff in the my horse, Chai, she'll go over and mow their lawn is what they say, but. The many that I have can't have fresh grass, so they're mostly on a dry lot, which is one of the reasons why.

06:39
brought them here as opposed to boarding them because he can't really have grass to begin with. So us not having a ton of grazing isn't a huge uh deal for the two of them, but definitely not enough for a cow. Yeah. Yeah. They eat a lot. And the other thing that I hadn't really considered until I was listening to you talk is even if we had a cow, we would have to have her bread to have to give her a milk because we don't have

07:06
If you don't have a cap to get things started, it's not gonna, it's not gonna work. Right. And, um, the other thing is, is that a full-size cow gives a lot of milk and we don't have anywhere to keep that right now. Right. That's exactly it. We've run into that problem a couple of times. Um, with the chickens, we just had like in the spring and summer, so many eggs. So many.

07:36
Eggs, yes, yes. I think at the highest number we had 36 or 40 chickens and we have a farm stand on our property and we would sell the eggs and we were still overrun with eggs with that many chickens. So we're down to a very reasonable 14 chickens. There you go. just, we free range um and unfortunately, you know, the circle of life, there are predators here so we do lose a few. um

08:06
Especially during this time, we're mostly ground predators are our issue. Foxes to be exact. We do have some hawks, but foxes tend to be our big issue. So around this time, I don't love to let them free range. I always, it's part of the reason why I like to have a lot because if we do lose some, now we have established a clientele that like order eggs from us. And some people get upwards of like 10 dozen at a time.

08:36
So I like to keep a certain number just so we can keep up with demand now. But in the winter, I at least have enough to fill that demand. Whereas my older ladies might stop laying, I always have younger ladies that are still going. Yes. Thank God for the younger ladies and the older ladies. Yeah. And when I let them live out their days, however long, I still have a couple of my originals from 2022.

09:06
And I have, I do breed for like olive aggers. So I have some of thos...