planting corn

planting corn

I got 3 kinds of corn planted: sweet corn (not that wretched heirloom stuff from the 1800s again), white dent corn for cornmeal which we call “Papaw’s Corn,” and the strawberry popcorn I grew 2 years ago.

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market tomorrow with  swiss chard, a little kale and collards, lettuce, green onions, baby leeks, golden beets and chiogga beets, easter egg radishes, sweet potatoes, wheat,  cut herbs : basil, thyme, chives, mint, and some beautiful potted basil plants. Thai basil has a wonderful hint of cinnamon;  lettuce leaf basil has huge leaves, you could use 1 or 2 leaves on a whole sandwich and then genovese, my favorite. The most heavenly flavor and aroma. You have to come by to at least smell it. I did have a lot of plants…but I ate some so numbers are reduced 🙂  I had baked sweet potato fries with herby dip 3 nights this week, like so:

all the herbs with garlic, olive oil, lemon and salt

basil, oregano, thyme with garlic, olive oil, lemon & salt

Our Animal Welfare Approved, grass fed Angus beef in these cuts: big beautiful briskets and whole ribeye loin and strip loin, ground beef, stew meat, cube steak, philly steak, filet mignon, osso buco, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites.

taking the tractor back to the barn

taking the tractor back to the barn

basil plants

basil plants

I love my new yellow pots 🙂 Thai basil starts flowering not long after it’s born so don’t be like, that basil isn’t any good. It just flowers it’s whole life.

baled but not yet wrapped

baled but not yet wrapped

Shane has already mowed hay for baleage. He had alfalfa planted but the ryegrass overtook it so he couldn’t really make alfalfa horse hay, so he made baleage for our cows for this winter. Baleage is similar to silage, it’s baled while it’s still wet and wrapped in plastic. It ferments and is super high in nutrients. The cows love it and will always chose baleage over regular dry hay; it keeps momma cows fat and healthy, producing plenty of milk for their calves that are born in the fall.

So he has to  rake, then bale, then wrap. He already mowed it a day or 2 before. He starts in the morning getting it raked into windrows, then goes back with the baler, then back after that with the wrapper. The whole process takes around 12-14 hours depending on the size of the field. Can you imagine riding a tractor for 14 hours? He came home after midnight both nights. Nothing like making supper at 12:31 a.m.

Woohoo!

Woohoo!

Putting in water lines to the hoop houses and veggie fields, and getting rid of all those infernal hoses. Yay!

goodbye winter coats!

goodbye winter coats!

About 4 more of these sessions and we’ll be good. Solomon is such an interesting horse! I got him from a “trader” –  horse traders usually have a bad reputation for what kind of horse they’ll sell you. I’ve had some interesting interactions for sure! But I’ve bought several horses from traders because you can get them cheap, and it’s worth it if you’re experienced enough to see what you’re getting and be able to work through the problems. Solomon is really old now, the vet’s professional estimation is “old as hell.” He eats a lot of soup.

my farrier, Ryan, and Jake's rear end

my farrier Ryan

See you tomorrow!

PS – In coming weeks I will have more potted plants for the market: dill, thyme, purple basil, super dwarf  tomato, container tomato, heirloom tomato and sungold cherry tomato.