More harvest

Things are still looking good... even though the weeds and grasses are a little out of control, that can be expected for the first few years as we try and turn this field into a forest.

You can see the corn coming up in the 3 sisters bed, on the mounds.



The greens and turnips are ROCKING:




Our blueberry bushes have TONS of fruit on them... not ripe yet of course. Apparently this is an unprecedented about of blueberries to be getting in the first year!



The pear tree and its guild is looking LUSH!



AND WE GOT BABY CHICKENS!!



12 total... 3 buff orpingtons, 3 americaunas, 3 australorps, and 3 brahmas. I wanted to try the americaunas and the brahama because I have never had those before, and I already know that orpingtons and australorps area really great.

Shiitake harvest

We put four shiitake logs in the woods near the field last March... every time we get a big rain we harvest a flush. This weekend we got the biggest one of all.





The rest are pretty sizable too:



I'm going to cook them in butter right now!!

May Harvest

There has been a lot of harvesting going on lately! We have gotten three paper grocery bags full of salad and mustard greens, two big beautiful bunches of kale, two big bunches of radishes, an onion or two, a tiny strawberry, some sorrel...

Sorrel:


Strawberry:


Radishes:




Kale:


Mixed greens:


Ash installed a three sister's bed (corn, squash, and beans):



And we had to kill a copperhead :(
(Copperhead in the woods= walk away. Copperhead in your garage = get out the rouge hoe)



The most exciting recent development was learning how to make cob!! Our friends Greg and Danielle are cob experts and are going to one day help us build our very own house.

Step one... dry mix the clay and sand.



Step two... add water (not too much!!) and mix it with your feet.


Step three... add straw or horse manure when the mix looks like a burrito. Mix in with your feet again.


Step four... roll into balls so you can carry it around and apply easier, and then COB IT UP!!!






We left big fingerprints in it to give the plaster something to adhere to later.

The deer fence is still not up. If anyone knows someone who doesn't charge like $2000 to help us put up a high tensile electric fence... send them our way! We have started using string to try and let out where we want it to go, but we're using the tree line an awful lot and would hate to make an expensive mistake that could have been caught in the planning stages.