As much as I love when our garden is in full swing, with the flowers in bloom and daily vegetable harvests, winter might be my favorite time on the farm. You see, I’m a planner. I love spreadsheets and checklists. I love researching and drawing up plans.
Now, while it might not be “officially” winter, that hasn’t stopped me from starting my planning. We are increasing our cold-tolerant plantings this year, so I have been busy planning and planting bulbs, and seeds. I can’t wait until early spring to see these beauties shine!
Our broccoli and cabbage are still growing. The chickens and turkeys have been helping themselves to the cabbage, they must have known I was growing it for them. The snapdragons are also still in full bloom, which takes some of the dreariness out of the garden.
The chickens are struggling to stay in the sunlight. Since chickens are photoperiod, they need sunlight to produce eggs. As the sun shifts in the sky, and the number of daylight hours decreases, so do our eggs. We are still getting plenty for ourselves and to keep our shop full, but I will look forward to our spring bounty again!
Our FarmSchool chicks are growing strong. We will need to build a few more mobile coops this winter to house them as they grow! We have found that our hens prefer the mobile coops over free-ranging or the large indoor/outdoor coop.
This time of year means it’s Turkey Time! We have only processed one so far, since that’s all we needed for Thanksgiving. We will be doing a large processing in the middle of December and will have fresh turkeys available for purchase in our shop. Our kids love to participate in the processing and have each figured out which stage they like to be in charge of.
We are finally taking down our harvest decorations, so everyone around the farm is enjoying some extra pumpkin in their pastures this week.
