Nothing like pouring over the seed catalogs and saved seeds from last year. Read more…
Well, for awhile there we thought spring was already in the air and we were just going to skip winter altogether. The unseasonably warm weather has been getting us excited about growing veggies. And, of course every year at this time the process of looking through seed catalogs, has us dreaming of getting our hands in the soil and of the delicious possibilities for the harvest.
Last year with great ambition we planted 100lbs. of potatoes which we soon discovered took up most of the space for row crops leaving little room for much else; but we managed to squeeze everything in. This year we hope to have a more varied plan with many new and saved seeds, thanks to some of our new members. We are also developing orchards, nut trees and berry patches which will hopefully make for a bountiful forest garden with tasty and unusual fruits. Have you ever tried a Hearty Kiwi, Paw Paw or Shipova?
This year we will focus on soil improvement starting with green manures and no-till methods. Andrew and Haynes want to experiment with poultry feed made from grains and other crops grown at Katywil. It will be wonderful for our turkeys to become a little less dependent on big agribusiness feed suppliers.
Our small farm is growing little by little every year. We doubled the size last year and this year we hope to develop a fallow field for crop rotation. We are all looking forward to a productive year, keeping our fingers crossed that the fields don’t dry out too much from lack of snow.