There’s just something about the onset of spring that makes it the perfect time of year. Maybe it’s the neon green peeking out of every tree and bush or the birds returning from their winter vacations, but on the farm, it’s just magical. This Spring has been very busy so far, and it’s not even officially spring yet!
We wrapped up our winter market garden with a fairly large
broccoli harvest. We planted 300 broccoli plants and ended up selling only
about 95. We had a couple of full rows that just never took root and eventually
died. I had the opportunity to put up a trail camera, and I saw plenty of deer inside
the electric fence nightly, but they didn’t seem to care for the actual
broccoli plants. It’s possible that they ate the seedlings that were planted,
which caused them to never take root, but without video evidence, I can only
make assumptions. The landowner for our market garden plot has denied our request
to hunt the deer there, but we understand why, and I won’t push back. I will
have to do some research to figure out alternative methods of keeping the deer
out because we still have Brussels sprouts in that plot and are starting our
spring/summer market garden.
We had a crazy storm just before all of this beautiful
weather that dumped about two inches of ice and snow blanketing the entire
property. Meteorologists have described the storm as “once in a lifetime”, and I know it’s a memory our family
will treasure. Schools were shut down for a week while the ice remained on the
ground, and the kids enjoyed sledding on the nearby hills, making tiny snowmen,
and throwing snowballs.
Tragedy and Triumph
Much like our successful broccoli season, we have had plenty of successes and failures on the livestock front as well. During the snowstorm, our sow gave birth to 8 piglets, but unfortunately, none of them survived. I was the one to find them, and my dear wife graciously helped me shield the kids from the tragedy. We suspect the cold was too much for them, and the birthing pen I had built for our sow was infiltrated by other animals, forcing her to give birth in the snow. It was very sad and I think about them often. I blame myself for not fencing off the birthing pen well enough, and I have vowed to
put in whatever work needs to be done for future babies to be born in a better environment.
Our three doe goats also gave birth recently and we had great success with them! I was able to put them in a new, permanently fenced area with their own house, fresh straw for birthing, and fresh water. Our three does are all sisters – Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy – and the first two are twins and Peggy is a single. Incredibly, Angelica and Eliza both gave birth to twins and Peggy gave birth to a single! Eliza had the first set, a boy and a girl, then Eliza with two girls, and finally Peggy with a beautiful little boy. They are so cute and we love being able to play with them and watch them jump around their field doing goat parkour. Check out our baby goat photo gallery here. We are still deciding what to do with the babies as our limited number of fields can only handle so many goat herds and we don’t want any inbreeding or inbreeding. These are Nigerian Dwarf goats which are bred for their milk production so if you are looking for a goat to add to your farm, keep an eye out on our Facebook page for any available babies! I also was able to hatch nine chicks and we have set some more for hatching already to try to combat this Bird Flu crisis.
Back over on the market garden, we still have Brussels sprouts growing which will be available on the Red Hills Online Market soon. We also have tons of onions still growing. If any died in the freeze or from other interference, I haven’t found them yet. Our littlest and I also plated 150 pounds of potatoes last weekend and we are very excited to see how those grow! I felt very connected to my Celtic ancestors when we planted them, and I am praying they are as easy to grow as people say. They were extremely easy to plant with the tractor and implements we already have on the farm. I will definitely keep you updated and be sure to find more pictures of our garden on Instagram.
The End of the Beginning
That’s all for now. As you can see, we are VERY busy and things are just getting started. I didn’t even mention the blackberry patch I just started. I created a trellis about 100 feet long with two high-tensile wires held up by two large 6-inch posts. I will try to clean that area up and get some pictures because I am very excited about the two varieties we have planted. One is a thornless bush, which I hope will encourage the kids to help me harvest them, and the other came from my Grandad’s house that he had growing there for many years along his fence line. He is a major inspiration for my farming and it is such an honor to have a piece of his legacy growing on our farm. STAY TUNED because with all of this new life on the farm, there are bound to be stories of my failures and successes, and I am nothing if not a storyteller.
