Hey there,
Another busy and hot week ahead. All this heat and rain is good for all the cover crops we planted last week. Oats, rye and tillage radish mostly, both for adding organic matter, reducing run off and nutrient leaching, as well as helping with soil compaction. The oats and radish will winter kill and leave lovely residue on the top of the soil to break down and feed the soil. The tillage radish is a type of daikon which grows long and large roots which penetrate deep into the soil, then when they die from the cold and break down, leave loose pockets in the ground that helps with compaction and water infiltration. The rye is a perennial and will overwinter and continue growing in the spring. This crop we will then mow and work into the ground before planting.
Some of the other jobs we are still working on are cleaning up the onions and garlic, weeding, transplanting, shipping the last beef animal of the year this week, and moving some of the turkeys around. They have out grown their current pen and are now split up over two spaces. It always surprises me that the turkeys seem small for so long, and then just explode with growth and are now doing the typical gobble and the toms are starting to make their huffing noises, fluff themselves up and strut around.
If you would like to see some of our lovely turkeys, or maybe have a stroll around the grounds and the bunkie, we are participating in the Rural Romp this year, put on by Taste Real, our local Wellington County farm and food promoters. It is a farm crawl with lots of other local farms participating, and we will have more information shortly. Saturday September 28!
