by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author So much can change in a year. At first glance, 365 days can seem like such a long journey. Yet somehow, when I look back on the last year, I can’t believe how quickly it passed and how much changed as the calendar pages fell by the wayside. One […]

by Jennifer Burcke    Photos by author A foot of snow fell at 1840 Farm on Thursday of last week. It was a cruel reminder that winter is not yet ready to release us from its icy grasp. It seemed incredibly harsh, given that we had enjoyed such warm sunshine only two days before. Nevertheless, […]

by Jennifer Burcke In my last post, I shared the horror of finding two frozen and cracked eggs waiting for me in our coop on a frigid January morning. I removed their shells and placed them in a bowl in the hopes that they would defrost and be usable in a baking recipe. After they […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author I hold a wide array of positions here at 1840 Farm.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for me to fill the role of teacher, mother, cook, handyman, gardener, and farmer all in one day without ever leaving the driveway.  Lately, I’ve also been the resident ice queen. No, I […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author Eggs are a very precious commodity here at 1840 Farm. It has been almost a full year since our flock of heritage hens began laying eggs, yet the excitement of discovering an egg in the nest box hasn’t diminished at all. In fact, we still bring each egg into […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author Autumn is here. I’ve been trying to ignore its arrival, but I can no longer pretend that summer will go on forever. The nights are cooler, the days are shorter. It’s time to face facts and admit that the progression of the seasons is marching on with or without […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author We’re having a heat wave and the animals (and farmers) living at 1840 Farm are not amused. Come on Mother Nature, we chose to relocate more than 1,400 miles away from our original home in Kansas to our farm in New England because we wanted to avoid days of […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author Original birthday cakes are a tradition at 1840 Farm. I sometimes spend weeks preparing a cake’s blueprint and gathering the tools, both edible and not, to assemble the masterpiece in time for the big celebration. I’ve made three-dimensional poodles, polar bears, dinosaurs, and even a Flying Ford Anglia inspired […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author Our hens have lived at 1840 Farm since last September. They made their long transition from day-old chicks to egg-laying hens over the course of their first five months living here. They endured an extremely harsh winter in New England and emerged relatively unscathed. Within minutes of emerging from […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author Chickens are a lot more like toddlers than I could have ever imagined. They like shiny objects and can be distracted by a meager peace offering of dry cereal. They like to play and sometimes even fight with each other. If left alone too long without something to keep […]