Farmer Friday

Edda

Meet Edda, an Anatolian Shepherd, which is another livestock guardian breed. Edda is a master at escaping so my friend gave her to me to see if I could have better luck with her. Edda is a sweet girl and so far very timid. We are taking it slow and easy, but she's the reason I put hot wire on the inside of the duck pen.

another terrace

This week I worked on another terrace in the new garden. This pic is taken from the uphill side, you can see the top of the rock retaining wall here. While I hauled the rocks for the bottom part of the wall out of the creek, the rocks in the top part are right from the garden.

a nest of rocks

I think this is a rock breeding ground. I keep turning up whole nests of them!

The terrace

I loosened up the soil on the new terrace, hauled out a lot of rock, leveled it out roughly and gave it a good watering. I also got the hoops bent for the new bed, but ran out of time to finish. Maybe on Sunday.

eggs are looking up

Egg production is slowly increasing. Some of the oldest girls are back to business while some of the young pullets have also begun to lay.

baby pak choi

Some of the pak choi is trying to bloom so I cut most of it. Good news is that the whole plant is edible, flowers included. I also picked some red mustard. I didn't get a pic today, but I cleared a row of mustard and planted out 3 trays of pak choi. This week I also planted 120 tomato seeds of 6 varieties and a couple of trays of carnations. Running out of room under the lights already! Sunday I'll try and finish up the new bed so I can plant out lettuce and beets and make room to seed more spring veggies.

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Farmer Friday

putting in a ground rod

This week I put electric fence on the *inside* of this 20x20 pen.... Why? That's a secret! Find out in my next post!

blurry sunset

 We've had some cold, cloudy, windy days but no rain yet. But a few pretty sunsets.

low tunnel with fava beans on the left and red mustard 

red mustard

I picked red mustard for market but I pick even more for the chickens. They love it!

low tunnel with baby pak choi on the left, spinach sprouts on the right

baby pak choi

It's so warm the pak choi is trying to flower; they are good though, fresh, green, crispy, juicy.

eggs from the youngest black Ameraucana pullets

Several young pullets have begun to lay and some of the older girls also. By March everyone should be in full swing.

more pak choi ready to go to the garden

I have 4 trays each of pak choi, beets and lettuce ready to go to the garden. This week I also seeded 4 trays of leeks.

me and my .22

I lost about 5 chickens at my house in the big wooden coop in a week. I've never had anything get in there before. It was a skunk, which I trapped and dispatched. Peeee  eeeeeeeeeeeew! I'll be watching for signs it wasn't alone. For now things seem to be OK. for those that don't know, skunks are related to weasels and will eat eggs and chickens. They tend to just eat the heads and necks.

Harvet Monday

baby pak choi

Well I have finished my totals for 2017. I am going to try and be more organized on all fronts this year. Doing it all at once is a pain but now that the forms are set up in the computer it should be easier to keep up. I was actually surprised to discover how much I grew. The following does not include spoiled produce, with bug bites, bird pecks, ect. It also does not include a lot of herbs that I cut and fed to the chicken.

crop	2017
pak choi	7.3125
apples	19.2500
beets	35.8125
broccoli	6.1250
carrots	25.1875
cauliflower	3.8750
chard	57.9375
collards	50.5625
cucumber, Armenian	67.3750
cucumber, Market More	47.3125
elephant garlic	26.8750
green beans, bush	24.1250
green garlic
herb, basil, Italian	3.6875
herb, Basil, lemon	0.1250
herb, basil, thai	0.7500
herb, chives, Chinese	1.0000
herb, cilantro	5.5000
herb, dill	0.5625
herb, lavender	0.1250
herb, lovage	0.6875
herb, parsley curly	4.1250
herb, parsley,  flat	3.8125
herb, rosemary	0.3125
herb. Oregano	0.3750
herb. Sage	0.6875
kale	20.6875
kale, lancinato	37.5625
kale, red russian	29.6250
kale, scarlet	66.5625
leek	14.5625
lettuce bibb	13.2500
lettuce leaf mix	24.0000
melon, hales	46.8750
melon, Northern NM	34.8125
mustard, red giant	19.0625
mustard, red mizuna	7.0000
onion bulb	27.7500
onion, green	4.6250
potato white creamer	23.0625
potato, all blue	20.2375
potato, all red	17.3750
potato, Belinda	62.3750
potato, chieftan	5.5625
potato, yukon nugget	4.7500
potatoes	5.8000
pumpkin, Jack Be Little	3.3750
pumpkin, volunteer	43.1875
radish	6.1250
snap peas	49.6025
snap peas sweet magnolia	6.1875
spinach	7.5625
squash, Honey Boat Delicata	12.2500
squash, red kuri	30.1250
squash, spaghetti	99.2500
tomato, cherry mix	51.6250
tomato, large mix	13.6875
turnip greens	17.3750
turnips	23.1875
watermelon, Black Tail Mt.	69.8125
watermelon, Hopi Yellow	36.7500
zucchini & summer squash mix	747.1875
total for year	1724.5775

So I'm hooking up with Harvest Monday, a fun blog hop where you can show off your harvests. Of course I forgot to write down what I harvested this week. But it wasn't very much. A lot of things are looking a bit sad with the dry cold. 2018 goal; double the poundage ;-)

Farmer Friday

pea shoot

Yay it's Farmer Friday. We are having very much unseasonably warm weather here, bright and sunny and no rain in sight. That does not bode well for the future. In the meantime things are going along. The peas are beginning to sprout.

Extra Dwarf Baby Pak Choi

I picked some baby Pak Choi this morning. This has been a big hit with my customers and there never seems to be enough. I think I will start planting 4 trays of starts instead of just 2 at a time.

Fava beans and red Mustard

Under the row covers things are doing pretty well. Here's a couple of rows of fava beans and some Giant Red mustard. But I pick the mustard when it's small. Mustard is a hardy, fast growing green. Spicy raw, it has a totally different flavor when cooked.

red and green cabbage

One low tunnel was covered with old row cover which was beginning to disintegrate. So I pulled it off and replaced it with new cover. The red and green cabbages are doing well and just beginning to head up. I'm not sure how long it will be before they are ready to pick, maybe a month or two.

cilantro

Some cilantro, finally! Because it's been so warm and dry it has not been growing very well. It is a winter weed and likes it cool and damp. But I have a little bit for market tomorrow. I planted a few cilantro seeds between the cabbages when I set them out.

green cabbage just beginning to head

A peek into the green cabbage. You can see the new leaves are just beginning to curl up on themselves.

red mustard and cabbages

You can see more red mustard and the cabbages here, before I took off the row cover. I plant a lot of red mustard even though I don't sell a lot of it, because the chickens really like it. After pulling enough for a couple of bags for market I pull some more to feed to the chickens. If I was only growing for myself I would just pick the outside leaves and leave the rest of the plant to grow. It will keep going for several months that way.

scarlet kale

The kale is looking quit sad these days, I'm not sure if the plants are just too old or they haven't been getting enough water. I do have some replacements started and will plant some more. In the meantime I'll try to get them some more water and see if they perk up.

progress

I"m making some progress on the newish garden area. I'm almost done putting the hoops up, but had to quit first because the battery needed to charge on the driver and because I need to go pick things for market.

hatchery birds

The hatchery birds I bought this fall are doing well, tho a wee bit crowded. The cockerels are beginning to bother some of the pullets, so eggs won't be too far behind.  Those boys will be going to freezer camp pretty soon. As soon as I get done with this new garden space and get things planted out, I'll go back to work on the pen these birds need to move into. When I move them I will probably leave the boys where they are, then they will all have more room.