I guess it has been a few months since I wrote anything, so time to check in again! It's been cold, and muddy, and snowy and frankly I enjoyed my fireplace and my paperbacks too much to want to be outdoorsy.
But my intrepid husband Jim happily kept on being a farmer all winter long. So although Antigua Farms has been hibernating over the Winter, but it has also been gearing up for the Spring.
More posts to come on some of the last few fall and winter projects, but
in the meantime here is a quick recap of the last few months:
October and November '12
In the last few months, the productive Antigua crew has been busy shoveling, fixing, and adding to the farm. Thomas and his Karma Farm crew acquired a new (and quite loud I might add) goat. We also organized a Halloween brush burning and soup sipping evening that included lots of guitar strumming as well. The warm fall weather allowed us to enjoy loads of veggies well into November,
with our very last batch of carrots harvested December 7th!
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| Quick and easy 'recycled-fence' for the corn field |
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| Jim and Silvio building the chicken coop |
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| Water cistern in progress |
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| Anti-Javelina terrorism security system |
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| Last supper |
December '12
We (and by we I mean Jim and Frank) spent most of the month of December amending the garden beds with mulch, leaves, and grass. Bags of raked leaves were scoured throughout town and the goats happily pooped all over the winterized garden.
Two full rows of garlic were planted and covered with hay. The warm greenhouse was used to grow grass and sprouts for use as chicken feed. Yogurt pots were saved meticulously for future seed starts. The snow showers could not stop Frank, who planted and harvested winter greens including lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and arugula.
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| Mini garlic shoots |
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| Dillan seeding bean sprouts in the greenhouse |
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| Baby spinach |
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| Frank putting the final touches on the raised beds |
January and February '13
We (and this time I did help) built a fence to separate the farm from the stone house. Although our tenants love the goats they welcomed the extra privacy! Jim finished building the water tank and connecting the gutters so we could take advantage of the rain storms and snowy weather. Muddy and feral kids were spotted on several occasions. Several raised beds were built and amended with mucho horse manure. There was also lots and lots of cleaning, cutting, and raking!
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| Clean goat pen and new fence! |
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| Jim's think tank |
Still in progress are a 'pot garden' for vines and climbing plants, a tree house, a
compostable toilet area, an larger corn field, and actual chickens in
the chicken coop. Two cute lil' baby goats are due in the Spring too, so
stay tuned for more exciting news!
The water catchment tank (400 gallons) filled right up and has been spilling over the overflow pipe for a few days. That water will be used for the goats, chickens, dogs, and also to keep the chicken run nice and moist in order to encourage the bugs to move in. We ended up with around 300 square feet of raised beds placed in bed areas that were particularly poor and none-productive last year. Frank says we will have enough garlic for at least three families for one year come May.
ReplyDeleteJim
In 2011, I had so much garlic it lasted the entire year. I had 2 full braids and a gallon of pealed garlic in the freezer. I ended up pealing and freezing some garlic that I freshly picked and didn't allow to dry out. It was incredibly easy to peal this way. And of course, just being able to grab a handful of frozen garlic, already pealed is a big plus. This year, I'll harvest garlic that came up as perennial. I don't think it will be nice big cloves, but hey, I didn't have to plant it. I'm also looking forward to see if the sorghum will behave as a perennial. We're still digging up Jerusalem artichokes. We've had kale, parsley, beet greens, bunch onions, broccoli, and small amounts of spinach through the winter. Oh, I love farmin'
ReplyDeleteI'm excited about the garlic. Our friend Frank made the BEST garlic soup, I need to get the recipe from him! Good idea to peel and freeze the garlic ahead of time. We still need to try the Jerusalem artichokes this year.
ReplyDelete