This week on the farm we’ll have planted onions, scallions, leeks, chard, peas, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, chinese cabbage, broccoli, and artichokes. Using Biodynamic techniques we follow a planting calendar for optimum growth. The planting calendar is not only beneficial for the crops but it’s a great organizational tool for us! The potato order is coming soon so we’re on mole patrol for the rest of spring.
Planting tip: saved onion seeds might not be viable for large bulbs. Instead, plant multiple seeds in groups for fast growing scallions.
The hot weather crops like tomatoes, eggplants and peppers will be grown under lights on heating coils in the hot house. Between the hot house and the heat lamps for spring chicks, our electric use is high and that’s one of the reasons why we’re so interested in using energy generated by our biogas digester.
We’ve hired two seasonal agricultural workers and they started training this week. We’ll add two more in June- it’s nice to have some help!
The livestock are enjoying the spring grasses and we’ve secured their fence to protect them from all the coyotes.
Our first batch of Cornish Cross meat chicks will be ready for pick up in two weeks. It takes about ten weeks for them to reach butchering weight.
Farm visitors this week are renewable energy engineering students from Oregon Institute of Technology checking out our biogas digester.
Distillery news: Any day now we’ll be getting our grain mill which can be used to grind barley, corn, and other ingredients. It’s hard to find grain mills these days so we had it custom made. We’re working on our whiskey futures contract and permitting. Stay tuned…..
