Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Farm Day! April 17, 2010 12:00 - 4:00pm

It's official! On April 17, 2010 we will be having a Farm Day.  We have received many requests from customers and potential customers to visit our farm.  Initially, we invited people to come over whenever they wanted.  We quickly found that while we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with our customers, that we easily lost lots of precious time to work on projects around the farm.  For this reason, some farms even charge money for a visit/tour as they feel that they are losing money by having customers over.  We don't view it this way, in fact, we feel that we are investing in our farm by spending time with our customers, getting to know them better, and helping to answer questions about the way their food is raised.  We have tried to find the right balance between getting crucial chores done and keeping an open door.  Having a Farm Day a few times a year seems like a good balance of allowing customers to visit while still giving us time to get our work done.

Since we are rather casual we will just offer more of an open house type format.  Visitors can come anytime between noon and 4pm.  You can stay for as long as you would like.  We will show you around on the farm.  We plan to have newly arrived turkey chicks in the brooder, young chickens on pasture, and pigs on pasture.  Keep in mind that this is a farm which means that there is lots of "organic fertilizer" spread about from the animals.  Don't wear shoes that you don't mind scrubbing when you get home.  If when arriving, you have recently been around other livestock, (circus, zoo, stock show, other farm, etc...) we may ask you to step in a shallow pan of bleach to help prevent the spreading of any disease or parasites.

We won't have anything official planned, so this will be your opportunity to just enjoy watching the animals, ask questions, etc...  If there is interest, we can take you 1 mile down the road where we are hoping to set up our new farm.  Children (and adults) will have the opportunity to hold the chicks, pet the pigs, and check our chicken coop for eggs.  Parents are expected to keep a close eye on their children that they do not harass or hurt the animals, or get themselves hurt.  There is rusty barbed wire, electric fencing, and other hazards that can cause injury if caution is not exercised.  If we continue to get all of this good moisture, you may want to get some disposable "booties" to slip over your shoes as it may be muddy.

We will offer some samples of grilled pork chops, bacon, ham, and grilled steak for visitors to try.  Our visitors will also be welcome to use the bathroom in our house.  Feel free to invite your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc... All are welcome.  Should anybody be interested in ordering meat from our farm, we will be taking orders, and can take checks as a deposit.  The Silver Sage (local store/gas station/grill) has great burgers if anybody would like to stop in for lunch.  (No, they don't use our beef, yet.) The store looks a little scary, but the food is good. : )

If you can send us an email and let us know how many people you will be arriving with, it would be appreciated so that we can be prepared to accomodate you.  That being said, please don't exclude anybody who decided to tag along at the last minute just because you didn't notify us.

Finally, our farm is not fancy in any way.  We have made due with what we have to the best of our abilities.  There are many things we wish we had and wish we could show our visitors but we are limitied by space, time, and money.  We hope nobody shows up expecting a grand tour of a beautiful farm like one you might see in New England.  If you come prepared to enjoy the peace and quiet that country living offers and would like to see happy animals out playing around we believe you will have an enjoyable time. 

If you have questions, just give us a call or send an email.  We look forward to seeing you!

Christiansen Family Farm (Hog Heaven)
47 S. Main Street
Vernon, UT 84080
435-839-3482
chhd01@gmail.com
http://www.christiansenfarm.com/


Below you will find directions to our farm:

From Salt Lake County:

1. Merge onto I-80 W - 20.9 mi
2. Take exit 99 for State Hwy 36 toward Stansbury Tooele - 0.2 mi
3. Merge onto UT-36 S - 44.9 mi
4. Turn right at Castagno Rd - 0.1 mi
5. Turn left at Main St - 200 ft

From Utah County:

1. Turn right to merge onto I-15 N toward Salt Lake - 7.8 mi
2. Take Lehi exit 279 for Main St toward Lehi - 0.2 mi
3. Turn left at E Main St - 1.3 mi
4. At the traffic circle, take the 1st exit onto W Main St/UT-73 W
5. Continue to follow UT-73 W - 24.0 mi
6. Slight left toward Pony Express Trail Rd - 11.1 mi
7. Continue straight onto Pony Express Trail Rd - 2.5 mi
8. Turn left at UT-36 S - 5.7 mi
9. Turn right at Castagno Rd - 0.1 mi
10. Turn left at Main St - 200 ft

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was hoping to make it out to your farm with my family, but was unable to.
Hopefully you will do this again.

Thanks,
Bryan

http://utahpaw.blogspot.com/

Christiansen's Hog Heaven said...

Bryan,

Sorry you weren't able to make it. It was a beautiful day and we had a great turn out. Many people expressed interest in doing this again. We will try and offer a farm day 2-3 times a year. We have some fun ideas and activities that we would like to offer on the next farm day. We will keep our blog updated with upcoming events. We will also send out emails in advance.

Thanks,
Christian and Hollie