Volkening Farm: We had originally purchased 50 acres where we have a maple wood stand for syrup, and then as we were planning to build another 100 acre spot came up for sale down the road. We then officially founded our farmstead sometime around 2003 moving out to the 100 acres that felt like the middle of nowhere west of London, Ontario. We built a large red barn. Definitely one of the best things we have done out here, building that barn. We got 2 Clydesdales, Ted and Molly-a dream for Kathy’s entire life. We also got mice in the house as soon as our old cats passed away, so we got new cats. In the while that we’ve lived here we’ve had 3 awesome dogs come and go (Skeet, Isha and Tango), one of the Clydes is gone (Ted) and the 2 original cats also have crossed the rainbow bridge. Now we have 2 dogs-a yellow lab (Sally) that joined our family a few years ago, and a mix mutt (Toby) that was dumped by someone out here! We found him starving and riddled with ticks in our field last year. He is fitting in wonderfully. There are MANY cats that come and go but 3 are mainstays (Rose, Oreo and Peggy) and are growing ancient! We have chickens for eating bugs and providing eggs, we raise our own and freezer camp the extra cockerels. We have a couple of very ancient turkeys, named Christmas and Easter, that were just never realized for dinner. A dive into muscovy ducks thanks to a friend has resulted in more ducks than we thought possible, and the realization that muscovy tastes amazing! They are the ultimate in renewable resource, 1 duck disappears and comes back in 35 days with 40+ ducklings in tow! Repeat this with every one of 6 hens, and well, ducks are infinitely renewable. We grow our own vegetables, have fruit trees on the go (apples, pears, plums, chums, mulberry, sea buckthorne, haskaps, sour cherries, cherries and plumcots). We also have honeybees, honey, comb honey and wax. We are avid outdoors people, and try to live off the land as much as we can! Our latest projects are raising native carolinian trees to plant along the field to prevent ongoing erosion, some cash crop-crop sharing and raising honey bees. We also sometimes make maple syrup. This year we are offering farm gate sales of bees, honey, comb honey, and wax for sale. Sometimes we have farmgate items like eggs, chicks, ready to lay pullets and there are pretty much always extra roosters/cockerels. Please contact us for more information!
