Lay Lady Lay

It seems all the rain we’ve been having lately has caused pastured egg production out at Wingshadows Hacienda to take a dip. Apparently, the ladies don’t lay much when it rains. In any case, we decided to look for another farm that might have some similarly liberated hens. As is usually the case with these things, through word of mouth we happened upon Marisa Ponce de Leon, and her mother Elizabeth, and the appropriately titled Fountain of Youth Farm, in Ramona. So, last Saturday, I was off to Ramona in search of eggs!

Elizabeth’s family has been farming for ages, and had been raising livestock at the current location since the late 1950′s. Besides the hens that lay pastured ranch eggs, of the type we use, the Ponce de Leones also raise sheep, beef cattle, goats, llamas, and horses, although the latter two are just for fun. The animals are pasture-raised without hormones or chemicals.

While Saturday’s trip was devoted mostly to procuring eggs, we hope to be able to forge a relationship with the folks at FOYF, and serve our community some of their animals in the future. Thanks again to Marisa and Elizabeth for the tour, and they asked me to pass along that any of our guests are welcome to come out and visit the farm, with prior notice. So, if any of y’all are interested, inquire with one of The Linkery staff and we can point you in the right direction.

Here are some of the boer goats, which are known for being good meat producers.

Some of the girls: Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns.

A little protection from the coyotes.

The barn at FOYF is over 100 years old!

Marisa grabbin’ a few eggs while we were talking.

These ladies were a-layin’ somewhere in the barn, but Marisa has yet to find out where. Crafty!

With all the rain we’ve had, it was easy to forget how hot it gets out here in the summer. By the way, the farm served as a safety zone for area livestock during the previous fall’s wildfires, because of it’s central location in this particular valley.

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