CSA baskets and other farm news

This week's baskets include:
Fruit-bananas, apples, oranges, strawberries, avocados
California-yams, mesclun, avocados, cucumbers, broccoli,
Vermont Roots-leek, mesclun, carrots, onions, garlic, yams
Mixed-has all the vegetables.
Yesterday we went to Flavors of the Valley sampling andouille sausage from the farm raised steers. We gave out 800 samples of grilled sausage. Justin, Carin, Sarah and Chris made progress on the greenhouse project. Stephen and the fjords disced and harrowed ground for our grain trails and worked up a large area of the market garden. Above is a photo of the 100 year old plow the horses pull to turn under cover crops in the market garden. Through the Amish we can still buy parts for the plow.

busy Monday

Monday was spent rebuilding our medium sized greenhouse, which is stripped bare. The end walls are getting new battens over the 6 year old plastic. We are installing hemlock sidewall horizontal which will have aluminum channeling to hold the plastic skin in place. The sides will have hand crank roll ups to allow for temperature control. Most of the time is spent prepping the greenhouse for the installation of the cover. Later this week we will be ready to install the new cover. In addition to working on the greenhouse, the farm crew milked cows, fed calves, heifers, cows, tilled the bedded pack barn, watered 5 animal groups and cleaned out all the inside maternity pens. Dana Merrill arrived at 3:30 to pick-up our yearling heifer for the New England Jersey Cow sale on Saturday. Kevin Kaija from the NRCS spent the rest of the afternoon walking the pastures to help us redesign our grazing system for the cows. We will have high tensile perimeter fence with temporary internal fences to allow the paddocks to be set according to have many pounds of grass is needed to the cows each day.

Girls at the water cooler