Happy almost Summer! I wanted to write a blog post sort of explaining why we created Goat Island Acres. While it has been fun posting pictures on our social media of all our hobbies and hard work, there is a greater purpose we are striving towards.
A little back story might help! First off, Goat Island is a scenic island nestled in the Staunton River makes up southern-most portion of the Poindexter family farm. Currently, there are no goats inhabiting the island…but goats were plentiful on it in the days-of-old. These fertile low grounds were farmed by Blake’s grandfathers and great-grandfathers. More specifically, Granddaddy Billy Joe always raised world-class watermelons and cantaloupes that he would sell to local grocery stores and farmer’s markets.
When Blake and I first met, he would bring me here (remember we used to live several hours away), for weekends. Blake has always had the dream to raise his family were his roots are, and follow in his Granddaddy’s footsteps in being a steward of the land. I am just a wife who needed more hobbies and I wanted to help him transform those dreams into a reality. So together, we are working diligently to get the farm back to what it used to be in the past.
So, with all that being explained, we are hoping for a bountiful harvest this Summer with our gardens and are planning to find ways to sell and share all the produce. We have some ideas: First Saturdays (trade-lot) farmer’s market, a local general store out of the truck bed (watermelons and pumpkins), but we are open to any other suggestions! Eventually we would love to get into weekly customers, where we drop off bagged produce and herbs for the entire growing season-which is a definite goal if there is enough interest in this. In previous years, our watermelon and pumpkin patches have thrived, and we were able to harvest 150+ of each. We are praying that this year goes as well, and we can get creative on what to do with all of this sustainable produce.
Goat Island Acres 