What's happening around the farm.
Posted in Chickens, ducks, geese, CSA, Vegetables on May 15th, 2012
I am greatly appreciating a rainy day inside. The ducklings enjoyed it outside. They are incredible bug eaters. I did a quick video of them. With two hoophouses, I could stay busy in them for several rainy days, but in addition to piles of papers around the computer, I had a very long inside To [...]
Posted in Bees, Chickens, ducks, geese, CSA, Vegetables on May 9th, 2012
Spring fever has a different connotation on the farm. It relates to a feverish pace, not to taking it easy. I planned to move the newsletter to Sunday or Monday but am now getting to it Tuesday evening only because of the drizzle. Mostly things are moving along wonderfully. We do have a couple hickups [...]
Posted in Chickens, ducks, geese, CSA, General, Vegetables on Apr 18th, 2012
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing that it doesn’t belong in a fruit salad.” I don’t know the origin of this statement. I got it off another farmer’s email. It’s been a busy week, though it doesn’t sound like much. I have about half the potatoes planted. My goal, [...]
Posted in Bees, CSA, Vegetables on Apr 12th, 2012
can understand why cultures have worshiped the sun. As long as the sun was out today it was very comfortable washing greens and totes outside. Have a cloud cover the sun and the cold wet hands chilled the whole body. Sun come back out and comfy again. The onions I seeded last fall for early [...]
Posted in CSA, General, Vegetables on Apr 4th, 2012
Sunshine is nice. Growing plants is a solar activity. The hoophouses really are incredible solar collectors. Even on overcast days the hoophouse will get 10 to 20 degrees warmer than outside. (In the summer we roll the sides up and with a nice breeze it is cooler inside than outside.) It has been too warm [...]
Posted in Chickens, ducks, geese, CSA, General, Recipes, Vegetables on Mar 30th, 2012
First Mussie is setting. Our first mussie is firmly setting. Another is keeping eggs warm at night and getting ready to set firm. How can I tell? For one thing, she stays in the nest. They do need to get out once or twice a day, but anytime I look, she’s on the nest. I [...]
Posted in Bees, CSA, Vegetables on Mar 21st, 2012
The row cover worked well I laid a 30 x 100 foot sheet of heavy duty row cover over the strawberries last fall as a protective mulch. Using straw provides actual insulation while row cover provides wind protection and keeps a little soil heat in and can trap a little heat in sunny weather – [...]
Posted in Bees, Chickens, ducks, geese, CSA, Recipes, Vegetables on Mar 14th, 2012
March 14, 2012 New Truck!! Tuesdays should be calmer. Last week I listed major investments we still have to make this spring. First on the list was a market vehicle. Bruce Kennedy had a nice looking AWD regular van on his lot last fall we would probably have bought but it was for one of [...]
Posted in Bees, CSA, Recipes, Vegetables on Mar 8th, 2012
Remember the Ladybugs I collected and moved out to the hoophouse? I was harvesting and found these ladybug eggs. Yippee! I’ll gladly take your nuisance ladybugs and give them a good home. Sorry the photo is blurry – learning to use a cell phone camera with no close up features. Monday afternoon we actually had [...]
Posted in Bees, Chickens, ducks, geese, CSA, Recipes, Vegetables on Feb 22nd, 2012
First CSA plantings. Up to now all the planting and transplanting has been for the winter farmers market. The salad mixes we are planting now will be long gone before June. In contrast, the spinach we are harvesting was planted last September 25. This week we started onions, leeks, and tomatoes for the CSA. The [...]
