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Homestead Goods

Thanks for visiting our website. Each of the seasons allows us to provide different Pate Homestead offerings. In late winter we tap the maple trees and begin to produce MAPLE SYRUP. In Spring and throughout most of the Summer and Autumn, our hens are productive laying eggs. We often find ourselves overwhelmed by the daily haul. Once the garden is in, we let Mother Nature run its course. This has allowed us to offer limited vegetable surpluses in late Summer and early Autumn. Scroll down to learn more.

Maple Syrup

The maple trees we tap are located in Fremont, MI at the family farm. We began about five years ago with a half dozen tapped trees and processing the sap over an open fire pit. It was labor-intensive but rewarding. Over the years we have increased the number of taps, improved the sap process and time, and invested in our own Sugar Shack back on the Homestead.

We sell maple syrup to friends and locally in Muskegon, Twin Lake, Fremont, Montague, and Whitehall areas. In the summer months, you can find us at the Montague Farmers Market, especially around the Independence Day holiday, Labor Day, and Pumpkinfest. We can ship and take online payments. Most of our maple syrup is sold in glass bottles which you're welcome to keep and display once they're empty or return the glass bottle for a discount on your next purchase of our delicious maple syrup.

Here are the current sizes and prices: (updated February 2021)

16oz. $14.00

12oz. $10.00

8oz. $7.00

1.5oz. nips $2.50 (great for travel, kids, or Christmas stocking-stuffers)

Eggs

We maintain a flock of 30-40 laying hens. Our daughter has most of them named and she can remember each one! There is quite a variety of breeds and age groups in our flock too. We have Buff Orpington, Barred Rock, Black Sexlinks, Rhode Island Red, and Light Brahma among several other mixed standard and bantam breeds. The girls have been really productive egg layers. We feed our flock scratch grain and egg-layer crumbles along with allowing them to forage around the homestead (when it's not covered in snow). They are kept in their coop and chicken runs at night and let out each morning. We have been amazed at how they know to get back to the coop for the evening.

We sell our eggs to friends and locals for $2.00/dozen. We are not trying to get rich selling eggs. We just love sharing the farm-fresh goodness. The eggs range from light brown to dark brown with the occasional blue egg. Also, because we have standard and bantam breed hens, you might get some jumbo eggs along with some smaller bantam eggs.

Garden Vegetables

We spent time expanding the garden in 2020 while COVID-19 gave us a little more time at home to work on projects. Our offerings vary year to year and we are not as sophistacated in our garden planning and crop sharing as some other farmers in the area. We will happily sell or share what we have in excess.

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