Moo Moo Palooza

Today we visited a real, live, functioning dairy farm in Mesa- The Superstition Farm. In October the farm celebrates Moo Moo Palooza opening the place up to the public for tours and fall fun. Since Young's Farm closed we have been aimlessly searching for a really cool pumpkin place to pretend like it is Fall. I say pretend because, lets face it, 98 degrees = summer. Superstition Farm is definitely not the replacement we were looking for however, it was a cool way to spend our morning.

The farm has a pretty cool boutique like gift shop with products like Chicken Chuckers, Horse Poop Candy and Moo-pacino for sale., You can also buy locally made pasta, BBQ sauce, honey, jam and salsa there- not to mention the butter, cheese and ice cream made right there on the farm.

What else is so cool about the farm?

The petting zoo! This horse's name is Lover. He just turned 28 and is a retired champion barrel racer. Hmm... I'm not so sure I want to know how he got his name. As I have already been reminded several times, this IS a family blog. Also among the petting zoo animals are cupcake and Brownie( pygmy goats), Cookie and Carmichael (more goats), Sugar, Oreo and Peanut (turkey, dwarf goat and bunny respectively) .

Hey! What is the deal with all that Hay? Well, ya gotta feed those cows SOMETHING. Come to think of it, if I were one of those cows, I would take serious issue with all those kids playing on my food. This is where we waited for the Hayride- which was pretty much a ride around the cow pens. My favorite part was the smell, of course. I kept turning around making sure Jocelyn wasn't dry heaving in a corner somewhere.

With all the poop and pee we got to see up close and personal, I was relieved to see that the cow's food is dropped outside their roaming quarters so it stays nice and fresh. Yum! Fiber.

On our lovely tour, we noticed these baby cows being bottle fed. Naturally all the girls wanted a closer look. So, the boys headed towards the food and the gals headed for the babies. They were so adorable!This little guy was born just last night! According to the farm employee, they have at least one calf born every day. All I can say is KUDOS to the mama cow. That baby cow was pretty big and HAS HOOFS!!! Can you imagine having to deliver that?

Interesting Trivia about the farm:

All the cows are hosed down before milking ( twice a day!) and the udders are washed by hand before milking as well. These are some pretty clean cows.

Each cow produces 8 gallons of milk a day

they are all about living green: organic gardening, permacultures, xeriscape and cool stuff like that! When you attend Moo Moo Palooza they even teach you how to be environmentally conscious. Way to go!!!