What a change in weather-gladly welcomed. Today we welcomed four new members to our farm, Adelle, Sophia (the mothers) and Henry and Polar Bear (the baby boys)! They were a bit frightened at the beginning, but after we milked them and they saw they had plenty of green pasture to graze, it seems like they'll like it at SEEDS Farm. Not to mention the view-they have the best one of the farm! Feel free to visit, pet, and play with them. They are quite tame and follow you around as they grew up bottle fed, but if they're not watched closely they may bolt for our plants. The mothers were able to get out of the old hog house in one leap, so we put up another fence and that should keep them in. If you ever see them out of the fence, give us a call immediately! They're not supposed to get out.
As for other happenings on the farm, today we started at the back plot. We have it mostly planted with oats (to eat), sorghum (for making beer and molassas...an experiment), flax and sunflower (both for oil pressing and overall beauty). We got one more variety of watermelon in today, mountain yellow, which we planted with the rest of the melons. We started putting a handful of manure on the brassica's and sollenacias from the chicken coop last year and got quite far.
The irrigation was finished last night, so now everything we plan on irirgating is now set up. It's working wonderfully and we are lucky to have a system where we don't have to worry about a lack of water.
We are ending phase one-getting everything planted. Phase two will be controlling weeds! It looks beautiful now, but it's not going to last. To deal with the weeds in a few of the areas, we are going to mulch the brassicas and solenacias. But as you can see, there are quite a few weeds there already. To address that, we will put recycled cardboard down in the pathways to diminish the sunlight and then put mulch over. THis will not only kill the weeds, but will protect the plants. In order for the cardboard and mulch to be put down we have to make sure irrigation is set up (check) and they are all manured (almost check).
Phew! We're looking forward to the cooler weather for the rest of the week. We'll be out there Thursday and Friday from 5-8 and Saturday. This mulching project will take a lot of effort!
That sounds great! I'm excited about how the sorghum turns out. I've helped a GF friend brew with it a couple of times. I'd recommend an IPA style rather than something too mellow since the sorghum has its own bitterness or bite to it.
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