May Day & Animal Farm

Red Russian kale, uncovered!

This has been a momentous week!  Wednesday evening found us digging drainage ditches in a downpour rerouting the water that threatened to expose the fragile roots of our young transplants and carry away seeds recently sown.  

dakota, muddy and brooke

During the deluge three new additions to our farm were peacefully grazing in the north pasture.  They are australian lowline cattle raised by our wonderful neighbors (http://www.bblowlines.com/)  They have a more compact frame than most beef cattle and are more efficient converters of pasture to meat.  Sean is setting up paddocks and a water system so we can move them & several more around our pasture during the season.  

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our first market! featuring our transplants

Thursday morning dawned calm and warm and we had the pleasure of doing the first market harvest!  On the menu: baby boc choy, red russian and curly kale, dandelion greens, and green garlic.  We sold our harvest along with herb and vegetable transplants raised from seed.  

After market we sat down to eat our first home grown boc choy and green garlic sauteed...yum!

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Yesterday we added to our menagerie and brought home 6 sheep to establish a flock of hair sheep crosses and work on mowing our grass.  Hair sheep shed instead of requiring shearing of their wool.  These sheep have several different blood lines, but a good portion of Katahdin (a variety of hair sheep).  They have been learning the electric fence and grazing steadily..