Welcome to Bone Dry Ridge Farm
We are a small 40-acre farm located in the beautiful Independence Valley just 35 minutes south of Olympia, Washington. We are “the little bit of everything farm.” We raise Cattle, Icelandic Sheep, Pigs, and Chickens. We get meat from the cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens as well as wool and skins from the sheep, and of course, eggs from the chickens.
We moved to this farm in 2000. We started out with two cows, three sheep and three chickens. But as with any farm things change over time. We had Scottish Highland Cattle for many years but now raise Holstein/Angus/Wagyu beef. The flock of sheep has peaked out at about 20 ewes and each year we raise about 15 pigs. Still considered a small operation, but it keeps Selma busy all year long. We are still expanding. The flock of sheep gets bigger every year to keep up with customer demand. We have decided not to expand our small heard of cattle since the sheep are so much lighter on our land where clay soil is predominant. Sheep are also very well suited to a small farming operation. We have gotten such a good response to our pork we are now raising six pigs a year.
On our farm each animal has a place in the interwoven fabric of a farm. The sheep eat all the weeds and grasses the cows were not interested in. The pigs dig out the barn where the sheep spend the winter, the chickens eat the grain the pigs spill. The animals also give us manure that gets spread on the fields as fertilizer.
We practice rotational grazing, which means the cows and the sheep get moved to a clean pasture every few days. This not only helps keep the animals healthy by reducing parasites but also makes for healthier pastures. When you have healthy pastures, you have healthy animals. In addition to good grass we provide our animals with salt and minerals, something they are not able to receive from our Western Washington pastures. Our goal is to have happy healthy animals. Animals that are content are easy to take care of. Their purpose, after all, is to provide healthy meat for many.
We sell beef, lamb, pork, and eggs at this time. We have an e-mail list that our customers have requested to be on. Every Spring we send them our newsletter and brochures that explain what is for sale that year. It is on a “first come, first served” basis to sign up for an order of beef, lamb or pork. We give our existing customers two week lead before we send out the brochures on the general e-mail list. Usually within just a few weeks all the meat has been pre-ordered. Eggs are sold at the farm. We usually slaughter the beef cattle in mid-summer, pigs in late summer and the lambs in early fall. The meat is custom cut at a local butcher shop where our customers pick it up.
If you are interested in purchasing meat, wool, or eggs please contact us at selma@bonedryridgefarm.com for availability and/or to be added to the mailing list.