The long weekend...

Today we harvested the first of our field spinach--if only the market started this week!  The bok choy, lettuce, broccoli, kale, and swiss chard are doing really well. The beans don't really seem to be growing, but we're hesitant to seed out more, in fear that they will all come at once and we'll have, like, 300 pounds of beans to deal with.
We're hoping to get some rain in the near future, the gardens are a bit dry.


All the animals are out on pasture.

All of the fruit trees are blooming.

I feel good!

Apple blossoms

  The Windsor Farmers' Market starts on June 2, the hours are from 9am-1pm.

Cherry blossoms/swiss chard growing in a pot on our porch

The Merry Month of May

Not only has spring sprung, May has begun! April was a busy month; a vacation down south, transplanting, seeding, garden preparation, fencing, et cetera.

Yes, I did "the tourist thing" while in NY

The gardens are starting to come together nicely, we are postponing the planting of some things until it gets a little warmer, also until we get some rain (we have had an unusually dry spring).  So far we have planted peas, beets, beans, lettuce, lettuce mix, kale, Swiss chard, carrots, onions, bok choy, radish, spring turnips and broccoli.

peas

    









The horses are out on pasture. We have one new male calf, Zamaree.

micro greens

Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in the greenhouse

Yesterday I started mowing the lawn.

Daffodils  

Ver Adest

It has been a long time since I last blogged. Since then six calves have been born; Zoe, Zanzibar, Penelope, Zeus, and Zachary, and another male calf that was a stillborn.

Zanzibar

In March we had a couple days of 80 F (27 C) weather. All of the flowers started popping up; a few days later we had snow! Speaking of snow...that's what's covering the ground right now! It has been a surprisingly dry spring, we have had very little rain and the ground is quite dry.

This is what Gabriel looks like now

Yesterday we seeded out some peas out in the garden. Most of our seedlings have been doing quite well, and as soon as the weather stabilizes we hope to transplant some of them.

Zoe

Zachary

Spring is just around the corner

View out of the front window

With spring just around the bend, we have started seeding. All of the onions have been seeded. Bok choy and lettuce, along with other greens, have been seeded to plant out in April.

Isabelle (the sow) is back from her hiatus with the cows, and is once again residing with Frisco in the pig barn.

Gabriel has grown a considerable amount. He spends most of his time with Tony, the blind calf.
A couple of the cows are expected to calve soon.

It is registration time for the CSA.

All you gardeners out there make a note that this year we will be inviting you to bag up aged manure for your garden. We will keep you posted on this.

Swiss chard, kale and broccoli

Welcome, Gabriel!

Gabriel

We are almost at midwinter.
Most of our seeds have been ordered.
Rachel had her calf on January 16.
I picked three possible names for him; Santiago, Gabriel, or Michael. We chose Gabriel.

The weather has been quite strange; snow, rain, freezing rain, temperature fluctuations.

The winter CSA is almost at it's close. The summer CSA brochures are ready.

We have been busy cutting firewood. Along with trying out some new recipes in the kitchen. For some delicious recipes, check out my other blog: http://inthekitchenwithfrancesca.blogspot.com

Isabelle, our pig, has been spending the winter in the company of the cows.
And, a very exciting fact, the days are getting longer!

Happy New Year!

Looking ahead to another year of farming and unpredictable weather.

This what the farm looked like December 23, 2011

The weather has been crazy; snow, pouring rain, warm and cold.
We covered the strawberries with straw.
The gardens are officially closed down for a little while.
We are mid-way through the Fall/Winter CSA.
We have started planning the CSA for the summer (our brochure will be ready soon) .

Our Jersey/Red Angus cross cow, Rachel, is in a calving pen. She will have her Jersey calf any day now.
We are going through all the seed catalogs, purchasing the seeds we will need for the season.

Beef Products:
ground beef
stew beef
steaks
roasts
beef ribs
beef liver

(from left to right) Chief, Buddy and Roscoe

Deck the Halls!

I have been very bad about blog posts the last month; my apologies.
We had our first snow storm of the season a few weeks ago. I stumbled through snow drifts continuously repeating under my breath "Ew, ew, ew." . Yes, I was a little turned off about the weather. But now the situation has changed! Texas has snow, and we have 60 F weather.
We are still harvesting carrots and leeks out of the garden. And the deer are eating the cabbage, and the leek tops (something I never thought they would do).
The Fall/Winter CSA has started, and is so far going well.
Fall/Winter CSA list:
carrots
apples
turnips
beets
garlic
onions
eggs
meat
squash
greens (HKSB, kale, etc.)
leeks
dried herbs
pesto
granola
honey
cider
potatoes
dried hot peppers

All the animals are doing well. The calves have been weaned from their mothers.

Our Wreath 

The Windsor Farmers' Market is still going. We have two more markets left; December 10, and December 17.  Also, with the holiday season we have been attending a few Christmas markets too.