Many of you no doubt understand that the winter is a time for a brief pause in farming life, unfortunately I have this nasty habit of becoming lazy. As is more than evident by the lack of action here on the site. And to be honest there really hasn’t been too much going on as far as the farming goes. I have been sending my time splitting wood and trying to keep things in order. Mainly doing what I can while I am on the farm, after all not yet living there makes it difficult.
Fortunately seed companies must understand my laze and have been diligent in sending me the 2010 catalogs! So far I think we are going to mainly order from Territorial Seed Co and R.H. Shumways as well as get some things locally. I would prefer to get more seeds here along the front range but it is difficult to find the concentration in one source.
I have also been slowly moving towards acquiring some chickens both layers and meat birds for this year. A buddy has given me his old chicken equipment which makes it easier to get ready to go, but I cannot get the chickens until I live on the farm full time. There are quite a few chickens being given away and sold locally via craigslist but I think I might get my starter run from Murray McMurray Hatchery.
I also think I have figured out a better way to run the beans this year. I have access to a ton of old 2×4 and 4×4 all about 10′ tall. My plan is to use simple hinges and connect one end to the other and stand it up like an a-frame. Standing a few in succession about 10′ apart will allow me to string line between them and then down to another 2×4 secured on the ground. WIth this system I can allow the plants to grow the full height of the frame and I can pick from the inside. I hope it works!
One last rambling note: I am looking to grow a few new crops this year as experiments which will include:
- Hops
- Melons
- Eggplant
- Jerusalem Artichokes
- Potatoes
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
I also am ordering a few hardwood trees to resupply the trees we’ve cut for wood and hopefully I can get a few peach trees!!
More on all that as I get it going. Oh and I will give a full list of what I am ordering once I get it submitted.
Your farmer,
Steve
You know it is difficult to try and run a farm when living away from it. I currently live in the Colorado mountains about 40 miles from the farm, and while I love my mountain cabin it makes it difficult to get the things done on the farm that are needed. Initially I thought this would be a simple endeavor, however, as I get more involved and now realize just how much time it will take it makes the best sense to actually make the farm our home. So we have decided to either rent or sell our house and make the move to the farm.
You know this blog is actually what has done it for me, there is nothing more in your face than a two week gap of posts to realize that you haven’t done anything necessary to make the farm work better next year. I have built the compost bin and mulched the beds and turned the soil in the green house in preparation for the winter crops but it all seems so minor.
Another thing is that by not living on the farm we are not utilizing the veggies we could be, heck we haven’t harvested the beautiful greens we have in the fields and we have not planted more winter crops. Another thing is that I need to do is commit fully into the more grounded farm lifestyle, so we welcome it and are currently prepping the house for the market! Wish us luck on this new leg of our journey.
I was messing around in the old equipment lot on the north end of the property and I discovered this beauty. I am not too sure about it other than it is an old propane Farmall tractor. Larry, my father in law says he parked it up there 10 years ago and it ran fine. I wonder if I will et around to digging it out and hauling it up to the shop to see if we can get this baby to purr again. I really think a compact tractor is the way to go on our farm ideally with a loader and a tiller attachment, but the prices are ridiculous! Fortunately we have the John Deere 500c backhoe and the John Deere 4020 diesel tractor to get some of the tasks done, but they are pretty big machines and a bit more than I feel is necessary.
Given the copious amounts of pumpkins we had this year I decided that I should brew up a batch of pumpkin ale. This makes me pleased to no end to be producing beer from the farm. I guess having only the pumpkins coming from the farm is not all that great of a leap but next year we hope the hop vines produce and this will gives us more and more ingredients straight from these fertile fields.
I had been toying with the idea of brewing a butternut squash beer as well but I think the pumpkin will work better. After scouring the internet and picking a few fellow brewers brains I setted on the following recipe:
3 lbs Amber malt extract
3 lbs Light dry malt extract
1 lb crystal malt (med dark)
1/2 lb chocolate malt
1 tsp gypsum
1 whirlfloc tablet
2 oz kent goldings hops
1 oz fuggles hops
8 lbs pumpkin
pumpkin spice
4 cinnamon sticks
3 tsp nutmeg
6 whole allspice
1 pk London III ale yeast
3/4 cup corn sugar
Directions:
Quarter pumpkin, remove seeds place flesh side up in 1″ h20 sprinkle with pumpkin spice bake @ 350F 2 hours. Cut into 1″ squares slightly mash and set aside. (I left the skin on!) Steep crystal and chocolate malt and gypsum @ 155F for 30 minutes. Remove grains and add malt extract, kent hops, pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and a few shakes of pumpkin spice, boil 1 hr and add fuggles hops and whirlfloc last 5 mins of boil. Remove spices and pumpkin and cool wort. Pitch yeast and wait eagerly!
OG 1.054
Organization is one of those things that I try to accomplish in all I do. However I am notorious for having multiple projects out there flapping in the wind waiting for equipment, tools, time or space, fortunately I was able to tackle a project this weekend and finish it…almost.
I had seen a similar wall of tools in one of Eliot Coleman’s books (I forget which one) and figured this was such a simple idea that will be a great addition to the Dragonfly Farm, so I set out to build one.
Now I had everything on-site from one project or another and it was really quite easy once I got motivated. The materials I used were:
8 rough sawn 2″x10″x10′ cedar boards
2 10′ 4×4’s
Pretty cut and dry I think. I started by locating a place where the tools would be readily available near the green house. I then dug down about 30″ with a post hole digger to set the 4×4’s. Now I guessed the distance across and ended up at 8′8″, which I think is perfect! After sinking the posts I watered the holes and tamped the dirt in to form them up all the while using a 3′ level to insure I was some what straight. I decided to wait over night to let the ground firm up and get the posts set more firmly.
The next morning I re-measured my posts and got to cutting the cedar boards. I had scored these boards from a local apartment complex that was re-siding and was way too eager to have me haul them off. Originally I had used these for raised beds but decided that it was not the best utilization of space on the farm.
Once I had measured and leveled the first board I simply stacked one on top of the other and screwed them to the posts. After all the boards were mounted I screwed in hooks to hold the various tools.
Pretty quick and simple and it feels good to get something done.
This year marks the first year for Dragonfly Farm. Started as a means to keep Steve busy and John tired, we decided that we were sick of facilitating the degradation of the earth through larger produce factories chemically nuking our food and driving ridiculous distances to get it to us. Realizing that we love to eat fresh veggies and having the gracious donation of a little patch of land and some water from Steve’s in-laws, the Olin family, we have made an attempt at growing our own vegetables naturally through organic means.
Dragonfly Farm is bound by a few simple rules:
1. Farm utilizing only organic means
2. Work hard with nature to provide beautiful bountiful crops
3. Make enough money to cover our farm expenses and beer
Other than that there is not too much else driving us!
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