May Update
It has been a much drier spring this year and with the recent trend of warm temperatures we have gotten an earlier start to our field plantings. This past Thursday we put in all of our potatoes, almost 3 weeks ahead of last year! Tilling the fields this spring has also been more efficient, with fewer passes with the tractor thanks to our new Land Pride tiller. It's wider than our previous tiller and covers both tire tracks, it's also a reverse rotation tiller which does a better job of working in previous year crop residue and produces a finer seed bed with only one pass.
The chickens have all feathered out and we moved them onto pasture last week, its amazing how quickly they transition from sitting inside the coop eating from feed trays, to scratching and digging and enjoying the outdoor buffet of insects and grasses.
Color is returning quickly to the orchard, as the gray bare trees now all have green leaves and the early varieties are adding in lots of pinks and whites as blossoms begin to open. It looks like it should be a strong year for the Prima and McIntosh varieties as they are loaded up with blossoms, the Red Delicious look about average while it looks like an off year for the Golden Delicious following a bumper crop of them last fall.
The first week for CSA share pickups looks like it will be sometime in mid June, we should be able to firm up the date over the next couple of weeks. Also - we are working on partnering with another small local organic farm with a large laying flock, to begin offering an "egg add-on" to shares. Hopefully more to come on this over the next week!
