Monday, April 6, 2020

Spring Farm Chores... it's a long list

In a time where it feels like most things have shut down, farm chores have not. I must admit though, I enjoy the busyness and the distraction it provides. For the past couple of days the sun has been shining. When the temperature starts to warm up, the to-do list starts to grow. We are currently rotating beef cattle on fresh grazing every couple of days. The Rye-Triticale-Clover blend of grasses that we tried this year are doing great. We have another 20 acres of this same grass that will need to be harvested for hay in a week or so. The broiler chicks that are in the brooder will be going out to pasture this weekend. Once they are on pasture they require daily moves for fresh grass and bugs. Turkeys are already on pasture in the movable pasture pens. They are almost ready to go into the open cell free range system. Most of the winter garden is tilled under and almost ready for spring planting. Oh yeah, as soon as the ground is dry enough we need to plant about 60 acres of corn.
It makes me a little tired to write all of that out, but after a long rainy winter the ability to do those things is a welcome change. Not to mention, its a great distraction from... lets just say current events. I wish I could share these chores with each of you. It's good for the soul to smell the fresh tilled earth, to move cattle to fresh grass, and to place a baby chick in the brooder. If you have the ability to do some of these things around your place, I say do it. Otherwise, I'll continue sharing the stories with you here. Most importantly I'll continue sharing the bounty, the fruit of these labors, all of the yummy deliciousness that gets produced in these fields and pastures. We have been almost overwhelmed by the number of people that turned to us in a time of uncertainty. To the best of our ability we have filled every order that has come our way and we will continue to do so. As many grocery store shelves sit empty, the importance of a local food system has never been more evident.