Bent Pine Farm – The First Year

Bent Pine Farm the First Year

The first year (Apr 2014 – 2015) has been an adventure. We’ve started the chicken egg layers and meat birds; the Peking ducks are growing and should be ready to mate in October; The rabbits have bred (theoretically) and the fish are started…

The hot weather came too fast and none of the cool weather crops developed well. Broccoli, carrots, brussel sprouts didn’t do well. We got some real nice lettuce (heat resistant) and kale, cabbage and some carrots…but you can’t convince me that they wouldn’t have been much bigger given cool temps…

The cowpeas produced an abundance of beans. We ate the tender young beans and froze several batches. The rest we let go to seed, dried and shelled (the youngest granddaughter is great at shelling!) the rest. Cover crops are just about done. We’ll be starting the fall garden in a couple of weeks.

West Garden in the Summer
West Garden in the Summer

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We lost our first crop of Black Soldier Flies by feeding them too much cracked corn at one time. Also, lost the first hive of bees to marauders (see the post). We have begun to store up veggies (carrots, beans, sweet potatoes, summer and winter squash). We are ‘brewing’ Kombucha, baking bread, making pizza, roti, and baguettes, chicken curry with our own meat birds, and selling eggs from our free range flock of Red Stars at the online Farmers Market, and freezing some for when the birds slow down their laying.

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Free Range

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Happy Homesteading,

T.

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