First Harvest of the Season

Sugar Snap Pea Flower

This Week’s Harvest

Fennel

Rainbow Chard

Sweet Peas

Kohlrabi

Baby Spinach

How wonderful it is to be harvesting again!

The peas are fabulous.  I think I eat about half of what I harvest before I even get out of the field house.  The kohlrabi are perfect pale green  globes.  The Rainbow Chard is a burst of color.  The spinach is just right for salad.

Farm News

The farm is quite busy right now.  We are hard at work adding refrigeration to the cooler.  As you may know, we assembled the panels for the walk in cooler  two months ago.  Since then, we have added new circuit breakers to the electrical panel.  Now that there is power, we can install the refrigeration equipment.  This should be completed within the week.

At the same time, we have been working on the irrigation system.  The fields that were farmed last year are mostly done.   The new fields still remain.

Last year, I ordered irrigation equipment from vendors that I worked with when I farmed in CA.   This year I made a commitment to find a local vendor.  This proved to be more difficult than I thought because drip irrigation systems are not as common here.  A chance discussion with a farming colleague at the Farmer’s Market led me to a vendor in St. Paul, OR.  I spoke to the vendor on the phone Monday morning and my equipment began arriving today.  Halleluiah.   Now I can get water to the plants in the new field.

Don’t forget.  The first batch of chickens will go to the butchers early next week.  If you would like to order some, please let me know.

Chicken Losses

A difficult day.  Those of you that have visited the farm and our chickens may recall my saying that the most feared predator is domestic dogs.  Unfortunately, our worst fears have come true.  During the night, a dog got into the chickens and killed more than 70 birds.  Another eight were so badly injured that we had to put them out of their misery.

We lost 50 of our meat birds and more than 30 of the laying hens.  These birds were mature birds ready to begin laying.   In addition to the financial loss… several thousand dollars… it emotionally trying.  It is difficult to arrive at the farm in the morning and find mangled carcasses scattered through out the field.

Finding an appropriate way to dispose of the carcasses is also an issue.  We can not bury them because our water table is too high.  We are hoping that our garbage service will accept them if we bag them up.

After the catastrophe we spent some time fortifying our electric fence to increase the voltage.  It is now running 7,000 volts and gives a nasty shock, even if you are wearing rubber soled shoes.  We also mowed the fields adjacent to the birds to provide less cover to marauding creatures.  Hopefully, this will prevent future problems.  And… my mind will be much relieved on June 8^th when the remaining meat birds go to the butchers.

Fortunately, we still have enough birds for those that have pre-ordered chicken.  We can even take a few more orders.  But, we will not have as many dozen eggs each week as we had hoped.