Introducing Fair Oaks Farm
November 2022 Newsletter
A New Beginning
Hello dear friends and family, and welcome to the first newsletter from Fair Oaks Farm. Since Julie and I moved out here in mid-August, we’ve been surfing a constant wave of activity, but I’m glad to take the time to sit down and introduce the farm and this newsletter.
First, some of the basics:
Our farm is located just north of Stillwater, Minnesota, on the Minnesota/Wisconsin border.
The farm encompasses 25 acres and was formerly a working dairy farm (the names of many of the cows are still up in the barn). It’s been called Fair Oaks Farm since they began putting farm names on maps in Minnesota, and we’ve decided to keep the name around.
We eventually hope to grow cut flowers as the main farm business.
Right now, it’s just me and Julie, six chickens and a Labrador retriever named Willmar, but our plans include adding some small ruminants (sheep and goats) and maybe a cow or two.
Renovation is the Name of the Game
If there’s one thing that will be a constant theme of these newsletters, it’s renovation. Both the house and the farm have seen better days, and we’re so excited to bring them back to life, but it means that the list of projects can seem endless.
The farmhouse was built in 1912, and as they say, it’s got good bones. We’re not worried about the foundation or the structure, but it needs some tightening up for our Minnesota winters, especially when it comes to the windows and the doors. In the first two months here, we’ve completed two major projects. The first, the hardwood floors, we hired out and it was worth the price tag.
The second got me involved in something that I had never had to think about before: well water. Unfortunately, the water was not safe to drink when we moved in. Nitrates from the application of fertilizer for growing corn had contaminated our ground water, so we needed to install an anion exchange system. After several trips to the hardware store and learning a lot about plumbing, I got our system up and running.
The farm fields themselves need a lot of renovation as well. Some of the fields are old cattle pastures which, without cattle on the farm, have become overgrown with many different kinds of weeds. That’s where we hope that a small herd of sheep and goats can make a difference. The parts of the field that are being farmed right now are being rented by corn and soybean farmers. Unfortunately, that rotation of crops can be hard on soil fertility, so we’ll have a lot of work to do to rebuild the soil health before planting any flowers.
Fall on the Farm
Though the to-do lists can seem overwhelming many days, we’re also happy to be enjoying a beautiful fall. The leaves are almost off the trees and we enjoyed a great harvest of apples from the trees in front of our house. One of our neighbors even stopped by to loan us an apple peeler and a dehydrator, so we’ve got dried apple slices to last us for a while. Deer season begins this weekend and Thanksgiving will come soon after that. Things get less busy as it gets colder, so we’re looking forward to making the house cozy and settling in for the winter. I’m headed into Minneapolis soon to look for a wood-burning stove for the house, so if we’re lucky, we’ll have that installed before the snow comes.
Looking Ahead
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this glimpse of the farm so far, and I’m looking forward to sharing more. I’m hoping to send out a newsletter on the first of every month, but may also send out smaller updates in between. Be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any of the goings on, and please pass it along to anyone who you think might be interested.
Your contrary farmers,
Kristofer & Julie (and Willmar, too)
