Farm Life These Days It’s going to be a full house on the farm this season! In addition to the core crew on the farm (Tristan, his sister Annelise, Paul, Kelsey & Pia, Michelle & Avé), we are expecting more babies. In February, we sent our goats to 4 Bar Ranch to get friendly with the billy there. We believe both goats are pregnant, but it’s really hard to tell. We expect to see kids in June sometime. Two of our cows are also expecting which is great news for us. Our personal milk supply has been lower than usual after April was slaughtered mid-February. Daisy continues to supply 5 litres a day, however she is 15 years old, has been milking continuously for the past few years (yes, you read that right) and probably wants to retire soon! Mid-March saw 63 chicks arrive on our doorstep. They will be joining our existing flock of 32 laying hens, so watch out! We will have a ton of eggs in the next few months. Final numbers are still being decided, although we are sure to be getting at least 4 weaner pigs this spring. What’s Growing There is lots of new life on the plant side of things as well. Spinach and radishes have been growing in the greenhouse for a few weeks (fingers crossed that they’ll be ready for the first Kamloops Farmers’ Market on April 19th), in addition to tomato, pepper, cucumber, and lettuce starts that will be transplanted later this spring. Just this week, salad greens (e.g., arugula, mustard and mizuna) were planted in the field. Peas went in today and early corn will be planted tomorrow. Love this time of the season — so much anticipation! In partnership with TRU, Golden Ears will be growing barley sprouts to use for feed in an effort to determine if the sprouts bring omega 3 fatty acids to optimal levels. Sprout biscuits will mainly be for the cows, however we might split our flock of laying hens to see if their omega 3 levels are different depending on whether they have sprouts in their diet or not. Who would have thought that our farm would be part of research projects at the university? We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to use the Fodder Box which is on loan from the university. CSA Program is Back
We will be running our Community Supported Agriculture weekly food box program again this year. Please visit the CSA section of our website for full details (including our application form)!
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Photo credit: Martín Bustamante
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June 2020
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