00:54 - Welcome to verdant view farm.

01:00 - My name is Elisa, and I'm one of the owner operators here at the farm.

01:04 - We're a fifth generation.

01:06 - Homestead farm, where we feature a farm stay where visitors

01:10 - from all over the world come to visit us and stay overnight on the farm.

01:13 - They bring their kids and get to experience

01:16 - what the farming in Lancaster County might look like.

01:19 - We also offer farm tours to the public, where you can come for an hour and milk

01:23 - a cow, collect chicken eggs, meet all the animals, interact

01:28 - with the animals and learn about learn about our operation.

01:31 - Come join us on a tour and my coworker Evan will be,

01:34 - showing you around.

01:38 - Well, welcome.

01:39 - My name is, As in that Nars.

01:41 - I work here at, Verdant View Farm, of which we're in the barn here.

01:46 - So this is, where we start the tour.

01:49 - This barn, is brand new,

01:54 - considering we were established in 1916.

01:56 - So if you can see, we have our,

01:59 - somebody carved our year of establishment in there.

02:03 - 2022.

02:04 - The barn downstairs is from 1916.

02:08 - So the reason I bring that up is it's,

02:11 - when I moved to the area, I had no idea how common barn fires were.

02:15 - So we unfortunately experienced one, in 2021.

02:19 - The reason that happens, just, for background, you have a lot of dry

02:23 - matter here.

02:24 - You have a lot of wood, and then we have electrical.

02:27 - So put those three things together.

02:29 - We get pretty, combustible.

02:32 - What is wonderful about this area, Lancaster County,

02:35 - we're surrounded by Amish farms.

02:36 - Most of our neighbors are Amish.

02:38 - We have, a couple of Amish women that work for us and, the B&B.

02:43 - But what's very unique

02:43 - about the Amish community and tradition is that how, the solidarity.

02:47 - So when barns burned to the ground,

02:51 - everybody comes together and you have that traditional Amish barn raising.

02:54 - So within a week, you go from no foundation to getting that barn back

03:00 - up. And I was privileged enough to see you on it is absolutely incredible.

03:03 - So that community came together, for us to.

03:07 - So, so from there, we'll we'll head out to the chickens.

03:16 - So at Verdin View, we have, we set on about 100 acres.

03:19 - So we have 40 acres north of the Strasburg rail,

03:25 - which will probably be cutting through here pretty quick.

03:27 - I can already hear it and see it in August.

03:30 - September. That'll be full of corn.

03:33 - Taller than me.

03:34 - So that's what we use for, for batting with our cows.

03:38 - But for, more immediately, we have our, our chicken coop,

03:41 - which we move twice a week.

03:43 - So we have these, this poly wire that we electrify at night to,

03:47 - keep away the, the foxes, weasels, dogs and, other associated, predators.

03:52 - We have 60 laying hens.

03:55 - So on a tour, if you're a guest, you would,

03:58 - you would come help me as we, collect eggs and, see what?

04:02 - See what our, ladies are up to.

04:04 - We have four different breeds.

04:05 - So a red sex link, white rock,

04:09 - the like horns, and then a German breed, bell style.

04:11 - There. So they have really pretty feathers.

04:14 - We have these laying boxes over here.

04:17 - Let's see if I can, procure a fresh one.

04:23 - OOP. Oh.

04:25 - How's it close? One.

04:26 - We got one.

04:27 - This is about as fresh as they get.

04:28 - And super warm.

04:29 - So we have about 80 hens and we get about 60 eggs a day.

04:34 - So you would be,

04:34 - part of that free labor force, helping us for our bed and breakfast.

04:38 - But they're, they're fun animals.

04:42 - People love to try to catch them.

04:43 - It's harder than it looks.

04:45 - So let's see if I can,

04:51 - All right.

04:51 - That one played chicken.

04:52 - So if you've never held a chicken before, kind of hold it like a football.

04:58 - But they're very soft.

05:00 - And once you kind of get them nice and, close, they, they calm down, but,

05:04 - yeah, you really just get up close and personal with, with,

05:07 - with our animals here. So chickens, especially

05:11 - so generally after,

05:12 - we're done feeding and watering and collecting eggs and catching

05:17 - whatever we want to do while head over to our goat pen.

05:25 - So usually the last stop of the view

05:27 - tour is to, is our goats here?

05:30 - So you can you can see our baby's sky here.

05:33 - Her mom, Luna, is trying to headbutt the, the cameraman there.

05:38 - So we have boots, our Billy goat here with the big horns.

05:44 - He is going to be, hopefully be the dad of, a lot of babies.

05:50 - So in a couple of months, we'll have, a bunch of babies.

05:53 - Luna had five last spring, so sky's the last.

05:56 - She's the last one of of hers. But. Yeah.

06:00 - So you can come in. We, we pet.

06:02 - See, they love kale.

06:04 - Sometimes we get kale in here.

06:06 - Sometimes I love dandelions.

06:07 - But they're very friendly, sociable animals.

06:11 - Guests love to play with them.

06:12 - As you can see, they're very cute.

06:14 - Skies about a year old.

06:15 - They're even cuter when they're, just born.

06:18 - So. Yeah, we have, these are pygmy goats.

06:21 - We have goats just for, just for fun.

06:24 - They also keep the, the grass.

06:26 - I know, Luna, we keep the grass and, the weeds down.

06:29 - So if you're, Yeah, interested in that.

06:32 - They're a good a good investment.

06:33 - But otherwise they just kind of do their thing.

06:36 - They love to eat.

06:37 - Hey, as you can see, keep them watered and they're,

06:41 - they're pretty much good to go.

06:42 - So one of the most popular attractions, especially when you have somebody like,

06:45 - like Sky here.

06:52 - So usually the first stop on the tour,

06:54 - at least with the animals, is our milking parlor here.

06:58 - So Verdant View was a dairy

07:01 - farm up until 2017.

07:04 - So from 1916 to 2017,

07:06 - this would have been the main, milking parlor, full of activity.

07:10 - So in the old days, we do it by hand.

07:12 - Now, most, most dairies do it by machine.

07:16 - But because dairy is just so much work, and the, the profit margins are pretty,

07:22 - pretty narrow for a farm of our operation, we transition to grass fed beef. So,

07:28 - the reason

07:28 - they're in here, all these ones that we're about to see, are pregnant.

07:31 - Chesapeake gave birth to crab cakes back in August.

07:36 - So she's been our milking cows for quite a while now.

07:38 - Chesapeake is an excellent example of our main breed, which is a hungry breed.

07:44 - My belly art.

07:45 - So it's a, it's, dual purpose cattle from eastern France.

07:50 - So they're good for for meat and dairy, especially for those alpine cheeses.

07:55 - So very, very good.

07:58 - Look at animals

07:59 - when they're clean, which they will be when they go back out on grass.

08:02 - But also, yeah, very big.

08:04 - And very, very sassy.

08:06 - So for milking,

08:08 - we'll keep her satisfied with some some treats here.

08:12 - Harder than it looks.

08:13 - She's like a vacuum cleaner.

08:14 - The way I describe it, you make your hand into an elf,

08:19 - we go sideways as big as we, we can.

08:22 - And we need to trap the milk from the outer into the teeth.

08:26 - So let's keep her fed.

08:27 - I'm going to make that owl into, close circle

08:31 - and then use those other fingers to squeeze the milk out.

08:34 - So basically, we're just trying to trap trap milk.

08:36 - So if I did it right, then we'll,

08:40 - we should get some fresh milk, so make that.

08:43 - Oh, I'm going to squeeze it off.

08:44 - I can feel it fill up.

08:46 - And then we got milk there.

08:48 - Okay. That's where the ice cream starts.

08:51 - We as a farm, we don't use the milk crab cake does all the all the nursing.

08:55 - But the way I describe it, it's, you know, it's fun, it's educational.

08:58 - It helps her. We can check for her health.

09:01 - And you never know when you're going to be lost in the middle

09:03 - of nowhere and have a cow, and you'll need to, milk it for for sustenance.

09:07 - At least that's what I.

09:08 - What I tell myself. So.

09:12 - So this is,

09:13 - most of our herd.

09:14 - These are all almost all of our females on this side.

09:20 - I don't know if it's 15 or 16 are pregnant.

09:23 - So beginning in June through, late fall, we'll be having some some new calves.

09:29 - As you can see, they're very hungry.

09:32 - And they generally know when we have this wide bucket of bread,

09:35 - that they're going to be fed.

09:37 - So we have a local, somebody picks up bread from a local food pantry, and we,

09:41 - we feed it by hand in, in the morning or on the tours,

09:45 - so you can see what it looks like to feed a cow by hand.

09:47 - I always start with how not to feed a cow.

09:50 - So you don't feed a cow like this.

09:54 - Or else you get a whole lot of love that you probably don't want.

09:57 - So I like to throw it to them.

10:00 - Or more.

10:03 - So it's basically like anything grainy, anything sweet they love,

10:07 - and they're just so food motivated and you can see they want a lot more.

10:11 - Unfortunately, I don't have them right now, but, it's something it's

10:14 - very fun to do, with the kids, on a tour. For.

10:48 - Thank you so much for coming to Virden View Farm.

10:51 - If you'd like to learn more about our tours and our farm stay,

10:53 - feel free to visit Verdant Vogue.com

10:57 - and hope to see you again soon.

11:02 - You will

11:04 - be in. The.