Good day to all. It is so hard to find time to “blog” these days but I find myself confined to the house at the moment to watch my son Noah play with his wooden train set. Hopefully enough time to share a little update to you all as to the “going ons” here on the farm.
I’m afraid most of what I will blog about today is our worries related to such an unseasonably wet June which is usually sunny and summer like.
A very wet spring and early summer is great for some crops and not for others. The leaf and root crops love these condition while for others it poses a great threat for fungus infestation due to the unseasonable moisture in June. We have noticed severe fungus infestation in our first succession of Zucchini, Peas and green house Tomatoes. While our peas have been bountiful thus far they have been taken over by a fungus and have prematurely come to an end. Our Green house tomatoes (early tomatoes) have also been affected and consequently will have a low yield and most likely be taken over. Our field tomatoes on the other hand seem to be unaffected and hopefully will provide the bounty we expect from it (fingers crossed). We also lost our scallions that we planted in the new field we think to wild turkeys and crows. The beets have also proven difficult due to a germination problem. We will have some to harvest but they will not be as bountiful as we had hoped.
Due to the wetness we have not been able to sow the last two successions of greens so there will be a window in which we will not have any but will have other crops to share.
We have a beautiful crop of potatoes, garlic and carrots standing which we will get a taste of this week.
Other News:
- We have completed the construction of the cheese making facility and have made 3 batches of cheese (Camembert & Brie). As raw milk cheese regulations go we will have to age them 60 days so it will be some time before we are able to make it available to the membership. We will also be purchasing 5 Jersey heifers (4 open and 1 bred) to assure an appropriate yield of milk next spring for cheese making.
- We also will start harvesting a few of our grass fed steers and will make a “NYC Mini Beef” share available sometime in late August.
- Our 25 piglets arrived this past Saturday and our very spunky and happy in their new wooded surroundings. We will again offer a pork share this Fall (Oct/Nov).
- We have decided in order to make some sort of time to concentrate on our new dairy operation that we will unfortunately not be raising heritage breed turkeys this year.
Ok. That is it for now as my son tugs on my shorts for me to read him a book.
See you all soon!
“Know Your Food!”
