This Week on the Farm 4/2- Goat!
Well it has been a busy week here on the farm. Monday morning we woke up to find a rogue goat outside the workshop. The goat belongs to a neighbor and it must have wandered over through a hole in the fence. First we tried to corner it in one of the barns, but the goat got spooked and ran through one of the doors and jumped down into the silo pit. Thinking that would be as good of place as any to keep it until the neighbor could come and collect it, we put a piece of metal over the door and went to eat our breakfast.
About ten minutes after we had finished eating Kay looked out the window and saw the goat walking down the driveway. The tricksy goat had escaped by jumping up on a tiny ledge and pushing its way through the crack between the silo and the piece of metal. Finally we cornered the poor goat in the west barn. Around 4PM, the neighbor arrived to pick up the goat, but instead of getting in the truck the goat ran like the wind, or as close to running like the wind that a goat can, back to its farm and the horse that it normally spends its days with.
That was an eventful start to our busy week. The rest of the time we planted seeds (Broccoli, Kohlrabi, Echinacea, and Rudbeckia), worked on the frame for the new greenhouse, tilled the field to get it ready for planting, and got manure and lime for the field.
The manure will help to replenish nutrients that have been lost over the years of farming and was provided by one of our neighbors who keeps horses. After sampling the soil, we discovered that the pH was too low to grow many of the crops that we intended to grow. So to bring the pH up to 7, a more neutral pH, we added lime. Both of these practices are organic and should help to provide us with the best soil possible.
This afternoon as soon as we plow the lime and manure into the soil we will be planting raspberries, rhubarb, and strawberries. Since these are perennial crops, we probably won’t have enough fruit this year to put in the boxes. Hopefully we will be able to get strawberries from Berryhill Farms in Rio this season so that everyone can enjoy fresh strawberries.
Below are photos of the crops that have germinated this week and some of our older crops that are doing well.
