Happy Easter
Our best wishes during this difficult time.
Produce available
• Spinach - Large bag (½ lb.) for $6.00 and small bag (1/4 lb.) for $3.00. We have a limited amount, so will fill any orders first come first served.
Ordering info: To order please contact us by e-mail (HarrisdaleFarmstead@gmail.com) or call us (712-243-3310) to inquire about availability and delivery options. We’ll work with you to get produce to you safely. While we have been staying home as much as possible to avoid COVID-19, Gil has been driving to town a couple of times a week for needed food and farm supplies. Tomorrow (April 9) is his next planned trip and delivery opportunity. Pick up at the Farmstead is, of course, an option.
Expected produce: With the warm weather, we are expecting to see our first asparagus any day. Our rhubarb has put out new stalks and leaves that are as yet too small to harvest, but it won’t be long. If you are interested in any of our upcoming items of produce, please let us know and we will contact you when we have some available.
Farm activities
Last week Ardy transplanted the first of the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage plants that she started in the Rolling Acres Farm greenhouse. Today, she has been transplanting out the second succession planting of these crops. When these small plants are first set out, we have been covering them with plastic gallon jugs with the bottoms cut out to protect them from the sun and wind. As the seedlings have become hardened in a bit, we have also covered them with the jugs when the temperature has dropped below freezing and taking off the jugs when it warms up again. Ardy also planted Pac choi, kale, Asian greens, and leek seeds as well onion sets in the kitchen garden and beet seed in a raised bed. We’ve covered many of these newly planted rows with white fabric cover to protect from insects and other predators. She has also been planting tomato, eggplant, and pepper seeds in the greenhouse.
Ardy has been investing a good deal of time into preparing the garden beds and into mulching, much more time than the actual planting takes. She mulches deeply with hay and straw in the actual growing areas and we use sheep bedding for mulch and fertility in other areas. We hope that this investment will pay off in effective weed suppression and moisture conservation. We are again using, where ever practical, the 18" high electrified netting around the perimeters of our vegetable beds. We hope that this netting will inhibit access by rabbits, woodchucks, and our dog. So far, it seems effective.
Gil has spent most of four days pruning the fruit and nut trees, the berry bushes, and the brambles. Pruning is not his favorite task; in part because of the uncertainties involved and in part because looking up and working above his head most of the time is quite tiring. We now face the similarly unexciting task of going back and picking up the pruned branches that now litter the planting area and making them into wood chips for mulch perennials. We had also ordered a half-dozen replacement trees and a similar number of replacements for the blueberry plants that died last spring. They arrived late last week and Gil got them planted the next day. We have a few new berry bushes on order and are looking forward to their arrival.
Lambing is finished for the year. Within two days of our last newsletter (March 22), the last three ewes gave birth. We got another set of twins and two sets of triplets, bringing our total lamb crop to 25. The lambs all appear to be doing fine. The December and January lambs are getting really big and may become available for your freezer late in the summer. Gil is working to schedule a veterinary visit next week to vaccinate them.
Harrison (Hairy Harry) is increasingly becoming bonded with the sheep and the cats (see the photos in the attached document) and is manifesting the guard dog qualities of the Great Pyrenees breed. Yesterday afternoon he suddenly started barking and growling and then he crawled under the gate into the sheep lots. He went right to the northeast corner of the lot and continued barking in that direction. Gil looked out and saw that a neighboring farmer was out spraying about a half mile away. Like a good guard dog is supposed to do Harry had positioned himself right between the sprayer and the sheep.