Here's what's happening on the farm!

Hi everybody,

This winter has been pretty rough and it's just begun! Thanks to neighbor Ken for plowing us out when we got 20 inches of snow a couple of weeks ago. I think we would have been snowed in for a week. The average snowfall for the entire month of December here is 1.7 inches and we got 20 inches in a day! It was so wet in the fall and now so snowy it's been tough to clean up some of the garden areas from the fall harvests. I finally took Hank the tractor and the big tiller out a couple of days ago and even though the top inch or so of the ground was frozen, I was able to till under much of the remnants of the fall crops like broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, some herbs etc. and get them into the soil to start adding more organic matter. It just looks better all cleaned up too.

A lot of the newer chickens are beginning to lay their eggs right on schedule. It usually takes about 5 months for them to start laying. The first couple of weeks that they lay, the eggs are much smaller then what they will be once they get rollin'. Just a reminder, I deliver eggs in the Fallston area every other Thursday and once a month to many other areas. If you're interested just send me an email and we'll get you on the list for delicious fresh, free range eggs from happy chickens. Also if you're interested in having a small flock of your own, I will be happy to part with a few of the newer girls that are just starting to lay. These would be perfect for you to start with.

We're already starting to cruise through seed catalogs and are starting to plan for this coming year. I planted some strawberries this past fall in hopes we could have some fresh strawberries this spring for our CSA customers and for us too, without having to wait a year before we could enjoy them. They seem to have gotten a good foothold, we'll see how they winter over. Of course the garlic is in the ground and should be ready in June or so. This year we planted a type of garlic called "music". It's very tasty and the name is the best!

We have heated with wood for almost 30 years. Here at Rousedale for 17 years. Here we have two woodstove inserts in fireplaces that have done the job. This fall I purchased an outdoor wood furnace. This is not one of the hot water boiler types, but rather, a forced air system that I hooked right into the duct work of the house. It works pretty well and it keeps the dust and mess out of the house. When it's been really cold and windy, we still start the wood stove in the family room just make it a little more cozy. I do have to say, though, that the furnace is doing a pretty surprising job.

We still have a few spots still available for this year's CSA and plenty of eggs, drop us an email if you need any information beyond what's on the site.

Happy New Year!

Steve