The infographic below, recently published by Health Science Degree Guide (http://www.health-science-degree.com), clearly details the radical and disgusting changes that our national food system has undergone within the past century. We challenge you to please view it, share it, and see how it changes your eating habits!
Above is Halvah, our sole Tamworth sow, grazing in the back pasture earlier this summer.
Here, Halvah keeps a watchful eye on her litter even while she is eating. Halvah came to Vernal Vibe Rise from Floyd, Virginia. We knew she was ‘the one’ because she was without a nose ring, unlike all of her sisters. We named her Halvah because of her lovely Tamworth coloring, which all of her piglets share.
Halvah enjoys a hefty post-delivery treat; we always offer sows an all-you-can-eat feed after they farrow in addition to the placenta, which provides essential nutrition for the sow and, in turn, her piglets. 
Seven healthy pure Tamworth piglets, four gilts and three boars–a solid number for a first farrow. 
We will have a few of these piglets for sale, either as unregistered pure Tamworth breeding stock or feeders. They will be ready to go by early October 2013, so please let us know ASAP if you are interested.
Congratulations, Halvah!
This Monday morning, with current uncharacteristic sunshine, offered the perfect weather for a field trip to Dilly Dally Farm in Crawley, West Virginia. My mother, Sarah Voorhees, requested an extra set of eyes during this week’s Hive Inspection, and I was glad to volunteer. The inaugural VVR Top Bar Hive has yet to be installed, and our resident bees still live–very comfortably–in a tree near our driveway.
As a result, I am living my Top Bar experience vicariously through my mother, until ours is up-and-buzzing next spring. After the mandatory donning of the full garb, we began to open up the hive.
The newest section of comb has a great number of bees hanging from it–and one another–in their usual string of activity.
Another bar, with completed comb, includes brood–and bees–but no honey yet.
The result of the inspection is that the bees are healthy, happy, and right on target (75 days) with the worker, drone brood, larvae, and newborn bees we witnessed. The hope is that the next inspection will yield yet more reproductive activity AND some honey stores for the coming cold season.
The link below will open the April issue of Farmers’ Markets Today, in which VVR was featured for our work in raising critically endangered heritage pork breeds such as the Ossabaw Island Hog and Gloucestershire Old Spots Pig. The story can be found on pages 5-9 of the magazine.
Mama Latifah, true to Ossabaw form, farrowed for the first time during the Summer 2012 Derecho, and made it through with a healthy pile of piglets.
The Buff Brahma is a stellar heritage chicken, one that we really enjoy having here on Vernal Vibe Rise. They are beautiful birds with feathers that run down their legs. They lay great eggs and make caring mothers.
This Brahma Mama was the first hen to take the chicken life cycle full circle here on VVR. What a dedicated and protective mother!
