Birdsfoot Farm

Dear All,
we are happily announcing the birth of Milo, George Bemis, born on 10-11-15.  Mother, father and child are well.  The newest Birdsfooter is expected home soon.  He has a lot of "aunts" and "uncles" and "sister" Kira waiting to hold him.   Welcome to the green earth!

We are awaiting Carol's (the cow) calf any day.  She is a week past her due date; last year she was two weeks past.  I am working on a solid fence here at Birdsfoot, so that when the cows come here for the winter they have a good big pasture to be in.  I was thinking it to be a cow fence, but there have been many bear sitings right in this neighborhood and a cow three miles from here was injured, braised sides and the tail bitten off, by a predator holding it from the back.  So may be it  a bear fence I am building?  We are glad our cows have horns to defend themselves, although Carol moves very slowly right now.  Jeff lives at the end of their pasture and keeps an eye on them.

We are approaching the last week of the summer CSA and I will give info on the winter CSA soon.  We are waiting for the carrots to grow a bit more.  The first 300lb go to Birdsfoot.  I know we eat a lot of carrots, but the winter is long and we don't buy in veggies in June.  They have to last a long time.

We started planting garlic.  It is raining and we have to wait for dry ground to continue, but it is a start.  We have a new method planned:
First loosen the soil, then, roll haylage (fermented hay bales), third use a string trimmer with a blade on it to cut a line in long rows through the haylage into the soil, fourth plant into the slits and done!  We tried the slitting and it worked beautiful.  Usually we plant first then roll hay over it.  In the spring we spend hours freeing the garlic where the hay was too thick.  This should be a lot easier.  I feel very inventive.

Last, a tip the white long roots are parsnips.  They taste very good in soup or cut into 1/2" pieces, oiled and baked with salt and rosemary.
Enjoy, and thank you for letting us grow for you!
Dulli