About Us
Here at The Smithshyre, we consider ourselves to be an "actually organic" (non-certified) homestead. We never use chemicals or altered seeds. Everything here is clean and pure, just the way nature intended. Our mission started out simple - clean food. Disenfranchised by the current food system, we were basically vegans eating a small portion of chicken, turkey and eggs. Then the opportunity came along for us to learn about growing vegetables and we thought, why not proteins too? We started off with a few laying hens, then got brave with chickens and turkeys. Once we harvested them and realized we could actually make food that was healthy, humane and delicious, our path became clear - buy a farm and "be the change you seek". "The Smithshyre" was born.
All of our livestock are rotated throughout the farms pastures and orchards. Pasturing our livestock makes them, our land and you more healthy.
Poultry is at the heart of every farm, as they provide delicious eggs to nurture our bodies and valuable poop to nourish the Earth. We prefer to hatch our own eggs and raise heritage breeds, some of whom are listed on the Livestock Conservancy watch lists. Our goals is to hatch large volumes to provide an alternative to hatchery birds. Hatchery birds do not carry the viability or longevity heritage poultry do. They lay longer and are more healthy, naturally. We hope to offer chicks mid-Summer through the Fall. We will not offer Spring chicks as our ladies are not laying yet in the Spring in numbers needed to put through a hatch. We do not light our ladies over Winter and offer this as time of healing and renewal. Our breeds are Black Australorp (recovering) a large, dual purpose breed with brown eggs, Delaware (watch) large, dual purpose breed with brown eggs and Cream Legbars, who are a medium sized chicken who lays a bluish egg. We also hope to offer Narragansett turkey poults to folks looking to start their own flock and to provide for holiday meals. When folks visit, Blue and Karen (both Narg toms) are our most popular attraction! Karen was not a very nice boy when he came here, so he gets a lot of forced cuddles, which he liked and now appreciates attention.
Neither of us tolerate cow milk, so as a homestead, we needed to supply our own dairy, enter Nigerian Dwarf Goats for milk. We make cheese, yogurt, butter, soap and ice cream to share with our friends and family. Someday, we aspire to have a dairy to share with our community. Kidds are available for sale, typically at 4 months, depending on their size, weaning status and completion of their socialization training. In an effort to keep the kidds happy and help socialize them, we started offering Cuddle Sessions & Kitsap Goat Yoga! Yes, it is as fun as it sounds. To keep us in milk, we breed for "freshening" every 3-4 months, which means BABIES multiple a year! Kidds are ready to do yoga 2-3 weeks after birth and retire from the class when they are no longer interested in playing (apx 4 months). See our Book Now page for more information and to purchase sessions.
We also raise Finnish Landrace sheep or Finn sheep. Their fiber is very soft and likened to merino. We sheer 2x yearly and offer raw fleece for sale. Perfect for felting or spinning into yarn. Typically, we carry, white, dark and light rosegrey, brown and the every beloved, true black. See our "fiber for sale" page for more details or email Roni. We also sell lambs and breeding stock. While all our breeders come from registered lines, we are not offering papered animals at this time due to the collapse of the disagreement of the two registries, one now being defunct. We can guarantee that they are pure bred Finn. Their temperament is wonderful and it's always fun when folks come for a visit and comment on how friendly our sheep are. They really do want to love on you.
We keep 2 large gardens, over 1/4 acre of production and have multiple small orchards and a berry patches. When you enter the barn yard, you are welcomed by the magic of fruit trees that are over 100 years old and still produce! Erin likes to say, "they stand in testiment to the pioneering spirit of the first European settlers on this property". See "The History of the Land" for more info (coming soon). We are in a continuous state of converting the property into a permaculture forest. These means there are rows of fruit trees being grown in various locations throughout the property.
The Smithshyre wants your family to enjoy local seasonal veggies, herbs, fruit and eggs. A source of food that you can feel good about. Where you know the animals live on pasture and forage naturally. Where you know the farm is actually organic and the animals all feed organically. Where you know the farm works in harmony with nature. The Smithshyre is your source for seasonal food. Products available at our farm stand, picked for order and Kitsap Fresh, your all local, online farmers market.
For your convenience we have a self serve farm-stand open daily during daylight hours. We have eggs and seasonal offerings all year.