They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
All the trees here are 2-3 year saplings, still building their basic structure. Pruning is important, but pretty straightforward. Oh, and taking out the wild cherry saplings. Those things are weeds. Too thick for Ellie Belle. She got about halfway through it but couldn't make it all the way through so Daddy had to finish… Continue reading Food hedge pruning
We finally got to the second major pruning task. It was on the list for Saturday, and then again Monday and Tuesday, but we just never got to it for one reason and another. By that I mean the kids. But here we are, pruning the mini-orchard at the house. These are trees and bushes… Continue reading More Pruning
Leg 1. Starting weight: 2.098 kg Recipe 1: 160g (90g salt [4.2%]) rub for one week in fridge. Salt box dredge without weighing for 9 days. Second weight 1.80 kg, (14.2% weight loss). Hung 1/18/2024 @ 60 degrees F, 50% humidity. Target weight: 1.47 kg Weight after 40 hours:1.70 kg. Weight after adding strutto: 1.85… Continue reading Lamb Prosciutto update
It is ironic, but one of the biggest challenges on our farm has been water. We receive 41 inches of rainfall annually, yet water is one of the biggest limiting factors to our productivity, because most of that rain falls between September and May and correspond to cloudy weather, while the periods of greatest sunshine… Continue reading Cold Weather
Quick update after we hung the prosciutto to age on Saturday. WE checked it on Monday, Jan 20, after it had been hanging a little less than 48 hours. I was amazed at how much weight they had already lost, about 0.15 to 0.20 kg each (roughly 2-3 ounces. Above you can see the reason… Continue reading Lamb Prosciutto: Part IV
Yesterday was MLK day (better known as "Milk Day" in our house. Mommy did not have to work as a result, so we had a family day. Of course we got some farm work done, and we will share that out in separate posts to... milk.... it for all its worth. But the highlight of… Continue reading Farm Feast
Despite Saturday's discombobulation, we did make forward progress on our lamb prosciutto. When Seppi and Daddy were over in the morning we put a thermo-hygrometer in the basement to check temperature and humidity. At 60 degrees F it was the perfect temperature, although 45% humidity is a little dry. So we turned the de-humidifier off.… Continue reading Lamb Prosciutto: Part III
25 degrees out this morning. Time to bust out these bad boys. The hens haven’t figured out where the liquid water is yet, but they will eventually. They’re dumb, but they’re not stupid.
With the weather turning cold for the next week or so, we are taking advantage of it to get our winter pruning done. We started with the orchard trees we planted in 2023. Last year we pruned them in February, But did not get around to summer pruning them, which, as it turned out, was… Continue reading Winter Pruning, day 1
Coldest morning of the year this morning. 25 degrees when I got to the farm at 5:30, so of course all the water troughs were frozen. This picture is from about 6:45, not 5:30. We've been having issues with this particular frost-free hydrant, one of the oldest ones I think, that the previous owner put… Continue reading Disappointment
Little Farm in the Big City 