What's New 1/13/09
by Joanne Frazer
Wow, I really must have not kept on top of turning the pages on our calendar 'cuz here it is feeling so much like SUMMER but the date I have is still in the depth of WINTER! Isn't this weather amazing!!! All our vegetables are loving it. Everything's growing so nicely. It's a joy to walk out in the garden! (Although we could say that at ANY time of the year!)
I forgot to mention that Jody (a wonderful person who is helping out on the farm) helped plant seeds into trays a couple of weeks ago. She planted 12,0000, yes that's right, 12,000 onion seeds in one day!!! Wow! John's been watering and nurturing them and they look great! John also cultivated the cover crops on front hillside and is busy tilling beds to get them ready for planting.
John and Andy just finished putting in the last fence post for our new sheep corral. It's designed to separate the rams from the ewes so we can control who's getting breed by whom. The most exciting part about it is that it will have GATES! That might not sound very exciting to you, but most of our fences have been temporary and so we haven't had the convenience of gates. It'll be nice to just swing it open and walk in.
Speaking of sheep, another ewe, Zelda, just lambed. The new lamb is the cutest one yet. She has a black nose, black ears, white fence with black freckles plus black circles around her eyes just like a panda! I really want to keep her! The interesting fact about this birth is that it is exactly one year since Zelda lambed last year! John checked the calendar and last year she lambed on January 12th and last year was a leap year so it would've been the exact same date this year.
We also had one of our "lambscapers" escape earlier this week. We had them all out in front of the house and Baa-Baa got out. She's the leader of the group and is very smart. John noticed the rest were talking amongst themselves. He thought someone had come by but when he looked out, there was Baa-Baa eating all this nice, tall grass on the other side of the fence! (that proves the grass really is greener) He went out the back to open the fencing so he could get the others back to their pen while I went out front to keep her from going out the driveway. I didn't have to worry much 'cuz there's a lot of feed right where she was. He was able to get the others back there, then opened the gate and called for Baa-Baa to come to him. She went through the gate, then took her time munching her way through my flower garden before she went through the fence to their pen. Just one more adventure for that ewe!
A friend of ours has a steer that we are buying. It's much more than we can use. Are any of you interested in going in on it? You can have a side, a quarter, or parts. It's grass fed and has led a happy, free range life. Please let us know soon. It will be butchered next Wednesday.
We're including a new vegetable this week. We call it "wintercress". We were just reading how nutritious it is. It's full of vitamins and minerals (especially selenium which our Western diets are lacking in and which is very necessary for our good health). You can use it raw in salads or braise it like you would spinach or chard. Let us know how you like it!
Thank you for your support,
medium box : $10.00
2 lettuces
Chard or kale or collards
Fennel
Scallions
Wintercress
large box : $15.00
2 lettuces
Chard or kale or collards
Fennel
Scallions
Wintercress
Potatoes
Brussel sprouts/broccoli/cabbage or
celeriac
extras include:
Egg $6.00/dozen
Thank you for being part of our beta test for the new version of our email newsletter. Please send in your order using this new system. Or if you're not ordering this week, then please respond to let me know that you received it and everything's working.
You can pick your boxes up here at the farm this Friday from 3PM to dark. We'll leave the boxes out on the table in front of the garage so you can pick them up on Saturday if that works better for you.
Thank you for your continuing support!
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