Planting tomatoes, pruning apple trees, and visiting ducklings

Apple blossoms

We were thankful to have a lovely spring morning here today, especially after the crazy weather we had this weekend!  The crew is nearly finished pruning the apple trees, and the orchard looks so beautiful and vibrant.

Farmers David & Matt readying the greenhouse for planting tomatoes

I'm super excited to say that we'll be planting tomatoes this afternoon!  In the morning, Farmers David and Matt worked on preparing the first greenhouse for planting.  As the tomato plants grow, they'll be pruned to encourage vertical growth; the orange twine hanging from the ceiling of the greenhouse will be let down for support of the plants as they get taller.

Farmer Micah practices petting ducklings with one finger (with help from Farmer Wendy!)

The ducklings are still doing well and are so cute...  When kiddos visit with the small, fragile animals, we always teach them to pet with only their pointer fingers.

Ducklings

Ducklings have hatched!

The last farm babies appeared this weekend - our ducklings hatched!  These fuzzballs are the offspring of our Indian Runner ducks that patrol the side of our propagation house for slugs - they're very effective slug-hunters.

Unlike most ducks, Indian Runners stand upright and quickly scuttle rather than waddle - they're so much fun to watch. :)  The ducklings' mother is Sensei, a shy, brown duck; Sensei is accompanied by three drakes, or male ducks.

Pruning in the apple orchard

On Friday morning, before the rain hit us, we managed to make some more progress in the apple orchard.  Pruning the trees takes a lot of time, and, as you can see by looking at the pruned trees on the right side of this photo, we take quite a bit of growth off.  This will help the trees to produce a greater amount of fruit later in the season.

CSA: Early Spring Session (Week 4)

Delicious sorrel!

Week 4's box has a great assortment of produce.  Although technically a vegetable, rhubarb is often considered a fruit because of the way it's used (in pies and so forth) - while we're craving sweet fruit during the winter & early spring months, it's such a relief to have rhubarb appear.  

Mizuna (a peppery Japanese green) is reminiscent of arugula.  Raw, it adds a lot of flavor to salad; it's also great in stir-fries.

The aromatic herb fennel (I love that smell!) is fairly versatile - the bulb can be eaten raw, sauteed, braised, etc.  I'll be posting a great soup recipe that uses fennel later this week.

Sorrel has quickly become one of my favorite herbs - it has a crisp lemony flavor.  To make a quick and easy sauce that's great for poached fish, I just cut out the tough center stem, chop the leaves up, and saute them.  As they cook, the leaves break down into a thick sauce, which can be served as-is on top of cooked fish.  I like to add some cream to the sauteed sorrel.  (In this week's box, a bunch of cut sorrel - freshly harvested here at Jubilee - was packed in a plastic bag.  It looks a bit like spinach, which was loosely packed in a banded-bunch in the box).

Early Spring Session, Week 4: Box Contents
Chard
Mizuna or Red Mustard
Fennel
Rhubarb
Collard Raab
Yellow Onion
Crimini Mushrooms
Sorrel
Granny Smith Apples
Spinach

Lambs & plants

The newest addition to the flock (5 days old in this photo)

On April 4th, an adorable white-fleeced ram was born to Raindrop!  He's really frisky and has been having so much fun scampering through the tall grass and the dandelions.  Since he arrived, we've really been able to see how much the other, older lambs have grown - they look huge in comparison!

Enjoying some fresh grass

We use rotational grazing with our sheep, so their pen moves every so often to cover new ground.  They're currently enjoying the lush grass in our plum orchard, and they seem to particularly enjoy the dandelions.

Although the animals have been keeping us busy, we've also been getting a lot of work done with our veggies...

Farmer Micah inspects the tomato plants. 

We plant our tomato seeds in flat trays and then transplant the seedlings into 4-inch pots.  After they've had some time to sprout in the warm room in the white barn, they're moved over to the propagation house, where they'll grow a bit more before being planted in our greenhouses.

Sprouted peas ready for planting 

Before planting peas, we sprout them - the peas are placed in trays and then covered with damp burlap overnight.  They went into the ground several days ago - so much progress is being made for the Summer Session!

Running to the pasture

This video shows the first half of the herd (the pregnant cows) heading out to pasture for the first time this spring (and Micah provides a bit of narration!):

CSA: Early Spring Session (Week 3)

Although there's nothing particularly out of the ordinary in this week's box (aside from raab), I do want to emphasize how delicious cipollini onions are; they're sweeter than normal onions and are perfect for roasting.

Early Spring Session, Week 3: Box Contents
Eggs
Kale
Granny Smith Apples
Red Cipollini Onions
Red Savoy Cabbage
Beets
Carrots
Broccoli
Raab

The rest of the cows are outside!

The cows loved frolicking through the spring grass in their new pen today.

Since we had a beautiful, sunny day today, we decided to move the rest of the cow herd out of the barn and into the pasture (having already moved the calves outside yesterday).  It's always so much fun to watch the herd leave the barn in the spring - they kick up their heels, roll in the grass and dirt, and run from end to end of their pen.  For being such big animals, they're surprisingly spry!

Running in the pasture

The entire herd was separated into three parts during the winter.  The calves were in the loafing shed, and the rest of the herd was split into the two loafing sides of the new barn: one side consisted of younger heifers and steers, and the other side held a bull and pregnant cows.  Since the herd has been separated for several months, they're in the process of re-ordering their hierarchy - i.e., butting heads and chasing each other.  Once they are reunited with the calves in a few weeks, they'll adjust their hierarchy again.

Enjoying the fresh grass on the west side of the new barn

Because the grass is still quite short, the herd will only stay in this pen until tomorrow.  We practice Managed Intensive Rotational Grazing with our cows: the herd stays in one portion of pasture at a time and is systematically moved to a new section of pasture almost every day.  This method allows grass to recover, increases soil fertility, and mirrors the natural herd migration that exists for large ruminants in the wild (think of bison).  We also use rotational grazing for the sheep and pigs, though they don't need to be moved as often as the cows do.

Freedom!

Soon the cows will be losing their shaggy winter coats.  They're so excited to be out in the green grass - it really feels like spring!