Finally, an update!

Sorry for the long absence! CSA season has been a crazy time for Ben and I, and the blog has had to take a backseat. However, I will attempt to catch you up as best I can!

The piglets aren't piglets anymore! Flo Jo, Herkimer, and Crysta have grown so much in the past month! They love their outdoor pen so much better than being in the chicken coup.

We were able to transport them out into their new pen a few weeks ago by throwing some cracked corn in the back of Dora's dog crate, and shutting them in. We then loaded the crate onto our garden cart and wheeled them right into their new pen. It was the smoothest transition we could have imagined... when they emerged from their crate they immediately put their noses to the soil, rooting around in pig heaven. Before we knew it they were covered in mud and running around playing tag in their yard. They are the happiest pigs I have ever seen.

One of my favorite things to do is to come up to the side of their pen (which is 20x50), yell "Come on guys!" and start running for the other end of their pen. When they hear that they all come bursting out of their little tarped in shelter and chase me down to the other end.

It took a little bit for the pigs to figure out that they could trust me, but now we have really comfortable interactions.... this is my sister Andrea rubbing Flo Jo's tummy!

In other news, Ben has baby chicks! We don't have any good pictures of them since they are under a red heat lamp, but once they get a little bigger I promise to post some.

They are black australorps. There are 25 of them.

We're still removing rocks daily... many of them are too heavy for us to move ourselves...

So the tractor does a good amount of the work for us. Thank goodness.

Our CSA has been going for three weeks now. Honestly I have to admit that we have far less produce than I had planned. From the rain and cold in May to a lack of experience in planning the season out, the first shares we've put out have been smaller than I had hoped.

But our shareholders have been tremendously supportive and are looking forward, as are we, to the green beans, squash, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. For now though, we are enjoying plentiful amounts of salad turnips and greens! These turnips can be pink or white and they can be eaten raw. The white ones are a little spicier than the pink ones, and both have delicious greens. I'm trying to get the town of Randolph addicted to them because they are an early, quick root vegetable that's as easy to grow as it is tasty. So far our CSA seems to like them and the Randolph Farm Stand even bought a few bunches from us last week! Such excitement!

This picture is one that Ben took of me a couple weekends ago. He thought the world needed to see what farmer Claire wears for Sunday chores... Sometimes it just feels better to be out in the field in my pajamas...

Now I'll leave you with some more pictures from the farm and a promise to do a better job of keeping you posted! Enjoy!

The Season is Under Way!

Well, I moved to the farm almost a week ago, but I've only been farming full time for the past two days since my last exam was on Tuesday... which means that I am officially done with my college career! Life has begun! I can't tell you how amazing it is to be living each day, doing what it is I love, on my own terms, at my own pace! This has already been such a great experience for me, but it has had no shortage of challenges!

Before I get into the craziness that has been my life as Farmer Claire for the past couple days I'll just say that the garlic continues to get bigger and more beautiful every day. It feels so good to see something growing as we get the season started. It's a reminder of all the wonderful things that lie ahead!

Before I begin, let me say that this is me being completely real about my learning curve in an attempt to keep things honest and open... I'm having a blast but I don't know everything. So this is as much a discovery process as it is a very familiar comfortable way of life for me...

Alright, so this week I realized that I needed to lime our soil heavily before Fred came to plow on Wednesday since we need to raise our pH by a full point! However, Wednesday morning arrived, and since I had been in Burlington the day before finishing up my exam and running errands I totally forgot to purchase the lime! So I frantically called Ben at 9:00am (who was still in Burlington) in an attempt to figure out how we could calculate the amount of lime to use... after consulting many books, our brains, and our soil test we decided that I only had a couple hours til Fred would arrive and it was more important to have some lime on than none at all (We've since figured it out and will apply the rest soon).

Instead of continuing to freak out I pulled myself together, picked up some lime from Central Supplies and spread fifteen 40 pound bags of lime over the first half acre. We know that's far less than we will need, but at least it was something. Our soil looked like a light snow had fallen on it...

Fred arrived that afternoon and did a fantastic job roughing up the ground. He went back over the area we limed with his plow and then turned over the new parcel I marked out behind the barn.

When Fred was done, my worst fears were reality... there were huge rocks everywhere. 

So today I spent the better part of my morning out there with a demolition bar, trying my darndest to get as many of the big ones moved as I could... but with it being so muddy and the ground being so uneven the tractor was no use. I had to give up... Hopefully after the rain lets up I'll be able to make a bigger dent in the boulders out there. For now I've decided to focus my energy on other things.

Like the plants! I think I've got about 40 trays seeded at the moment. 

I've been using a soil block maker which takes a bit longer than the plastic seed trays to set up, but it has a much smaller ecological footprint which is why I'm sticking with it! 

Those little seedling trays have taken up all the temporary space 

I had set up for them in the hoop house, so today Jake gave me some carpentry lessons as we constructed our first hoop house table out of the hemlock we got from the Howards! Soon the whole greenhouse will be full of those tables. I have to be honest, I'm really happy with how it turned out. I can't wait to make more!

Finally, before I head to bed I have to let you know that our t-shirts have arrived! We got them done at Green Mountain Imprints in Shelburne. 

They've got our farm logo on the front and a great line drawing of the barn and the hoop house that Jake designed for us (it may look very familiar as it has appeared on this blog once before) on the back.

These lovely shirts come in red, navy blue, chocolate brown, or a mossy-green color. They are printed on organic cotton and are $18.00. Shoot me an email if you'd like one!