It’s almost officially summer and it already feels like it weather-wise. I’ve been behind in posting to the blog and just wanted to share some quick pictures of the spring so far. Super excited about the high tunnel. Spink got the automatic end vents and sidewalls hooked up a few months ago and they are […]
In February we helped a friend tap 650 maple trees on property owned and managed by Camp Whitewood in Windsor, OH. Thankfully, we had a beautiful day and got into a nice work rhythm. Hammer in the tap, hang the bucket, put the lid on and repeat! It’s incredible how quickly the sap flows on […]
Last year Spink built a germination chamber complete with grow lights. Unfortunately, the lights (LEDs) produce too much heat and the chamber has no way to cool down, so he made some modifications and now we just use it to germinate seeds and then move them to heat mats to grow a bit before hardening […]
Despite snow last weekend, it is indeed spring and that can only mean one thing on the farm – time for bed prep! Last year we read The Market Gardener by Jean-Martin Fortier. One of the tips in that book involves covering the beds with black tarps to kill the weeds while maintaining all the beneficial microorganisms […]
We do most of our propagation in soil blocks. Planting kale, spinach, lettuce, green onions, chard, and beets – the 20-block stand up soil blocker from Ladbrooke has been our go to tool. But we were ready to abandon this tool and change to plastic propagation trays. While we were attending the Young Farmers Conference this past […]
I recently finished reading The Lean Farm by Ben Hartman. This book is going to be a game changer for our farm and I cannot wait to begin putting some of the practices in this book to use. I’m also giddy because we got to meet the author and hear him speak at the Young Farmer’s […]
In early July we plowed a portion of our back lawn and planted a cover crop of buckwheat. It grew magnificently, making a nice canopy over the ground crowding out most of the weeds (with the exception of persistent purslane…argh). Last weekend it started to flower, so we tilled it under. In another week we […]
If you’ve been reading along, you have noticed that our backyard is a giant lawn. Well, no longer…at least one portion of grass (~2000 sq ft) will not need to be mowed any more. Phase 1 of our backyard transformation is underway as Spink spent the weekend doing some primary tillage, putting Bertha back to […]
My favorite new tool is the Fire Fly Plow (you can find it at Lehman’s). It is a hand powered plow used for cultivating and bed preparation. We purchased this off an old farmer just West of here along with a Planet Jr. double wheel cultivator, a handcart and a few other tools. This sat […]
Today we took two samples of soil from our SPIN beds and from our raised beds. We will send this in to a lab to learn more about what is in the soil and where we may need amendments. We used a soil probe to collect the sample. Since we waited so long, we had […]