The feel of the earth this time of year is both warm and wet, crumbly and smooth. It is a great feeling to finally put plants in the ground and feel the dirt on your skin.
Sunday we continued transplanting while Mr.
Makalea was able to get the upper garden
disced and harrowed. Monday brought more nice weather and the rows were cultivated in nice straight lines across the odd shaped triangular corner of the upper field. Just as quick as he finished our planting teams followed behind. One person laying down onion sets from each end of the row while a planter followed easily poking down each little plant.
The dry weather continued early on Tuesday and we were able to get broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower starts planted in between the onions. Several years of
interplanting have proven to us that this combination helps
control pests - onions and
brassicas. Throughout are also plants of catnip to help with aphids.
But that's not all the exciting news. We have some new farm animals! Baby chickens, turkeys, geese, and ducks are spread around the farm in their brooders. As soon as they feather out, they will have the opportunity to either free range or be on pasture. In addition, we have a new milk goat, two new Icelandic ewes, and 2 new Icelandic baby ewe lambs.
At the end of this month, beginning of next, we are expecting our milk cow Daisy to calf. A fine Jersey heifer would be nice but most of all we look forward to some fresh milk.
Each fall we take apples from our trees and put them through an old fashioned cider press. We then brew the cider into vinegar through the winter. Grapes are steamed and then fermented before the vinegar "mother" is added to make more vinegar. Unpasteurized vinegar is said to be very good for you.