I Just Couldn't Make This Up

The scene? The home garden on Monday afternoon as I obsessed about when the tomatoes would ripen.

What happened? A number of buzzards were circling over the field and Emily, Sophia and Caitlin went to check it out. Theo and I stayed behind to keep working. A few minutes later, dark shapes flew overhead and Theo told me to duck. I heard a few wet splats and when I looked up, the buzzards had dropped meat all around us.

Definitely one of the stranger experiences of my life as I stood there with chunks of meat next to me in the grass. I'm happy that not only did the meat not hit us or any of the crops around us, but that I had someone to share the moment with. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have been able to believe it actually happened.

It's Summer!

Summer is officially here! See that tomato? It's this tomato. I took this picture yesterday and today it was ripe! And I ate it! And Emily ate one! We officially had tomatoes on the 29th of June which is ridiculously exciting. Too bad we ate all the ripe ones and will probably have to wait a few days to have any more.

Also, our first calf was born last night! I'm going to try to take a picture soon but it's pretty hard to find calves since their moms are so good at stashing them away to hide. Apparently it's pretty cute, though.

Chicken Heads

See that brown chicken with the excellent comb and waddle?

See my headless chicken with no comb and no wattle?

I call this: operation draw the head on the chicken. Not so easy, it turns out.

Community Living

These are some of the gems that get pulled out of a community fridge. There was no tuna in there, just some delicious, undated tuna water for the cats. Yum

Broilers

We're excited to be raising pastured broilers this summer. After these guys spent a few days in the brood house under heat lamps to get a little bigger before facing the world, we put them in their new home. We pull their 'chicken tractor' to a new piece of fresh grass each day and watch them run all around enjoying the sunshine and delicious bugs.

Our Flerd!

We've decided to try multi-species grazing and have introduced our flock of sheep to our herd of beef cows to make a flerd. So far they seem to be getting along quite well, though that mainly means ignoring each other. There was, however, one lamb that kept follow the cows around bleating while they ignored her. I don't think they know what to make of each other and are more focused on the tasty clover in their pasture.

Mock Market

In preparation for the summer season, Tyson and Stephen set up our market stand in the barn. We went over how to sell our produce with some pretty hilarious role-playing and tips and tricks for success at the Belmont Market.

How could anyone resist our five different varieties of kale?!

Restraining the Tomatoes

How fast they grow! Seems like yesterday they were little seeds sitting in a packet. Today, I finally put up trellising and tried to tame their wild natures into organized rows. Next year, I'm going to trellis them right when I transplant them since this was a bit of a pain. It's also easier to weed around them now. I hope that the little fruits on them ripen soon! I'd love a tomato before July!

Thanks Patrick!

This was operation 'borrow a truck and heist a washer, dryer and my old bike from my parent's house. Though I'm afraid that now I'm living with my own washer and dryer I'll be spoiled for life and never able to live without them.

Getting Closer!

The tractors are almost done!

Alien Plants

On a scale of plants that look like an alien, garlic scapes are a 1:

Fennel is a 9:

Not pictured? Kohl rabi. Too scary for the internet.

Farming is So Hard

Whenever anyone tells me that farming is backbreaking work, I just remember the time we ate fresh strawberries on our ice cream cones on a hot summer day. Life doesn't get much better than that.

Thunderstorms!

I wish I had had my camera this afternoon as we watched a huge storm roll across the fields. Caitlin, Theo, Emily and I were out weeding bind weed out of the garlic and onions when the sky darkened and thunder started rumbling. We said we would head back to the farm at the first lightning. The clouds were so awesome! The wind was blowing the truck doors closed as we jumped in a drove back. Such a fun time watching the rain from the front porch, eating left over steak, ice cream and M&Ms.

First Harvest

We walked through how a harvest day will work for the summer. It's excited to start to bring food out of the fields! We cleaned out the trucks, loaded up bins and drove out to the North Orange fields to check out our brassicas and chard.

After talking about quality control and efficiency, we filled a few harvest bins with greens and brought them back to the lower barn. We weighed, labeled and washed them, then put them in the cooler until they get eaten by us or taken to market.

Afterwards, we weeded for a bit before being joined by our beef cows.

What a Week!

So much is happening around the farm! One of the most exciting things is that we're getting ready to harvest some of the crops that are busy growing in the fields. It's great to be able to walk outside and grab some lettuce for lunch. Sadly, the bugs and pests are also ramping up their season so our sweet potatoes aren't looking too great, nor are the cauliflower. Both of these are growing in our home garden. The tomatoes are getting bigger each day, but the Green Grape variety seems to have been hit by a bit of disease. I had to compost two of them which was rather sad since they had already set fruit. Luckily, I had some extras in the cold frames.

Tonight is the Big Pig Gig, our annual fundraiser at the Charles Hotel in Boston. Josh and Obi have been working for a week now getting the decorations ready and I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

And, over Memorial Day weekend, Theo and I went backpacking! We climbed Mt Eisenhower, Mt Pierce and Mt Jackson in the White Mountains. Very foggy and chilly but we had a great time. It was fun to eat some of the kale from the farm when we camped at night!