It’s finally March and spring is on the way. The sun was out Friday and Saturday so we tapped our Maple trees on the hillside. I think it’s 175 taps which is not huge compared to many but is respectable and will keep us very busy making maple syrup.
As we collect enough we’ll be boiling. We’ll post videos on social media and let everyone know via email or social media when they can swing by to observe and get a taste of the liquid gold.
We had piglets born to Momma Red a few weeks ago. There are 11 little bundles of muscle and energy having fun in the snow and ripping up hay bales. We now only have piglets 2x a year and have 2 sows. We used to have 4 litters from 2 sows and briefly had 3 sows with a total of 6 litters. We’ve found our sweet spot so to speak where we produce the right amount of pork for our customers balanced with our farm life and also what this land can environmentally handle safely. Pigs are really hard on land so we have to be careful how we manage them and their impact. Plus pigs consume a lot of grain and we prefer to concentrate on grass eating cows and chemical free vegetables. Those both use low inputs from outside the farm and work the best for our farm business and the land. Plus keep in mind it’s only 2 of us here full time and 1 off the farm weekdays- we do not have employees or low paid interns. We keep it simple and in that “sweet spot”.
oh wow, the post office just delivered the first of the seed orders from Johnny’s seeds. I ordered on Thursday and here they are on Saturday. I love that fast turn around.
Probably next weekend I’ll start seeding in the greenhouse right now I’m starting some peppers inside as they can be finicky and like more heat.
I’ve got some good plans for the summer gardens. More concentration on good lettuce, and salad fixings. I’m not doing much of those crazy veggies many have no idea what to do with.
I will have a kale, spinach, swiss chard mix for early spring salads and cooked greens, then move on to summer lettuces, radishes, zucchini then of course tomatoes and sweet corn.
I’m being careful of too many tomatoes so doing many different colors of cherry and grape tomatoes as farmstand customers love those the most. A few good sized slicers for sandwiches- red and ORANGE because color is good.
I going to try like crazy to have early carrots and carrots all summer. Last year I had some problems and no carrots until August. I’m on top of it this year (I hope).
We had awesome sweet corn last year but lost late plantings to ear worms. We could spray chemicals an we could get some genetically modified seed but those go completely against our beliefs. Most sweet corn in our area is sprayed with something either for weed control or insects. Some have the treatment built into the genetics of the seed. We don’t like it and we hear from our customers all the time how ours taste the best. So, Instead we will be trying a few new things- one of them is an organic treatment that is labor intensive. It involves applying mineral oil drops to every ear of corn at an early stage. I’m still researching and determined to come out ahead of those gross worms. Lots of reading and asking questions from me. Many organic farmers told me they just don’t raise it anymore or just raise 1 or 2 plantings for August and stop. I think we can win or at least come out ahead.
I’m off now I have some long awaited and long time saved for new appliances coming to the farm kitchen and need to get things moved around for that. I haven’t had a new stove or dishwasher in almost 20 years and what we have came with the house. They both are giving up so time to upgrade so my life is a little easier.
See you soon.
Tricia