The 80 pounds of slowly rotting seed potatoes have been on my back burner for a few months now. I haven't had time, place, or motivation for those poor Yukon Golds. But today is a biodynamic root day, and I finally decided to do what it took to get them in the ground.
But first, I put the peanuts in the ground. I had popped them out of their pods in mid-May, when they should have gone in the ground, but didn't plant them. Maybe they'll grow. And if not, well, there was hardly enough to eat.
I pulled a few onions. We have some reasonably sized ones, but most, after the 105 days allotted for growing onions, are barely larger than scallions. I'll continue to have patience.
I cut the potentially usable bits off the potatoes yesterday, which cut the total from six flats to one.
Starting this morning, I pulled seven varieties of special potatoes. One of the varieties of fingerling potatoes must have needed longer to develop, since I had planted a pound of seed potatoes and came away with three ounces of new growth. But that was the only bust in the bunch! The other variety of fingerling had four fold growth, or four pounds of potatoes.
One variety (Carola, a sunny yellow) increased almost twelve fold, and the best variety (Cranberry Red) produced over fourteen fold!
I started in March with 14.5 pounds and came away with over 120 pounds. That is a great feeling.
Next, I harvested whatever cabbage bits I could. Little cabbage heads have kept forming, but the cabbage field had become overrun with weeds.
The broccoli must have suffered the same fate as the cabbage: of the 150 plants, I found one small head this morning. I tried it and spit it out: bitter and not pleasant to swallow.
So we rolled up the drip tape and Phil tilled the bed.
Then he plowed three and a half rows, so I could just drop the seed potato pieces in. Previously, I had planted eight rows of potatoes in neat beds. The spacing was great, but I only managed to get the potato bits about two inches down. And I found that I couldn't hill them well: I had almost no soil to pile around the plants.
So we'll try the plow method. Three and a half rows instead of eight, but the seed potatoes are a good six inches or so buried, with plenty of soil to hill around them.
Physically, that was a LOT easier on me. Even so, by 6pm, after bending, digging, and planting since before 9am, I wasn't eager to go milk.
Isaiah has begun to pray for two things. He asks that Catherine, due in July, will have a healthy girl calf (and that neither will die); and he asks that Reese will give more milk.
Phil has changed the pattern of grazing for the cows. They no longer walk down slope to rest in the shade (he finally ran out of movable posts). Now they graze up slope only.
He filled a large tank in the back of the truck. From there, while he puts up the new section of fencing, the water gravity feeds into the cattle trough.
Whether because Reese walked less, or because of Isaiah's prayers, Reese about doubled yesterday's production. I'll take a bit more than a gallon of rich milk.
And she's figured out how much she can shift about in the hobbles. She certainly doesn't plant her feet and stand still!
Phil moved the layer hens today, out of the cherry orchard and into the apple orchard, following the sheep. We hope they scratch the dung and eat the flies. It is quite beautiful to see them against the neatly trimmed grass.
We have started to get a single pullet egg every day. The incredible White Leghorns, the most productive chickens, have already begun to lay. They are less than four months old (usual egg laying doesn't start until five months or so)!
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