Summery winds and harvest of 55 pounds of beans and 48 pounds of cucumbers make it even more unbelievable that it is October! While we sweat, mess around with irrigating amidst this dry spell and worry about bitty winter greens bolting, John, Laura’s Dad, and the geese head south. They are wise knowing this lovely stretch of weather just can’t last. Still with tomatoes and these other delights of summer still with us, it is hard to be realistic about the passing of time. Luckily John set us forward with sharp tools, new perforated bins for root storage and lots of big and little fixes around the farm. Oh and also, some good coaching on this item called time. Thanks John! Lucky for all of us Kathy is not flying South yet and is putting up big batches of “Farmhouse Inn” applesauce!
Meanwhile, a focused team of 10 cranked and smashed the farm record for chicken processing Monday, landing 163 lovely chickens in the freezer. The next day we saw a hawk try to snatch a hen and realized we don’t think we lost any chickens to predators this year. And while typically one expects up to 10% loss of chicks, this year we lost few to none, matching our Humaneitarian aspirations.
Walt delivered more second cut and bedding hay. Flocks and herds rotated through their next paddocks. Four new Boer goats joined the farm family (see the farm’s Facebook
page if you are interested in voting on their names! They are acclimating in the front loafing area ready to blend with the herds as breeding starts this week. Straw, seed garlic, more jars and paper pots for the transplanter and a fancy new banner are making their way toward the farm. By the end of the week the hoop houses will have put away their summer outfits of heat loving plants and be well on their way to producing winter salads and spinach with great flavor and very low carbon footprints!
Apparently slow food happens at the pace of a blur!