Spring on the Farm 2022 - Quarterly Update
As promised, I am sharing seasonal farm updates with Home in the Hollow readers. There has been so much happening this spring at Home in the Hollow and I am excited to share the goings-on with you. Spoiler alert - be sure to read to the end of this post to see a little video I put together.
In early March, Caleb and I boiled down the maple sap we had collected over the winter, and enjoyed fresh maple syrup from our own trees. We collected and froze about 20 gallons of sap and ended up with about 2.5 pints of maple syrup.
The end of March we said goodbye to our 3 pigs. This was our first experience raising hogs and overall, it went really well. The one problem we encountered was loading them on the trailer to leave the farm. They weren't having it! It took almost 2 hours to load them and get on the road. We tried coaxing, bribing, and pushing them. Nothing seemed to work. The squealed, kicked, and ran all over their pen. Thanks to my father-in-law's assistance, we were finally able to load the pigs on the trailer. By the end of the ordeal Caleb and I were covered in pig poo. It was not one of our finer moments. On top of it all we were rushing to the butcher shop hoping to make it before they closed. We pulled in with 10 minutes to spare.
The beginning of April we added chicks to our farm with hopes of phasing out some of our older hens and replacing them with newer younger hens. We found several different varieties of chicks to add to our flock including: Blue Laced Wyandotte, Golden Laced Wyandotte, Barred Rock, ISA Brown, White Leg Horn, and Cinnamon Queen. We chose these varieties based on their hardiness and egg laying abilities. You can read more about choosing types of chicks in a blog post I wrote called Raising Chicks for Beginners.
In the past I haven't had issues with any of my chicks getting sick, but this year is different. I've had to treat several of my chicks for pasted vent. We spoke with our local farm supply store and they said that they've been getting a lot of complaints about sick chicks this year. Hopefully as it warms up and the chicks get bigger it won't be an issue anymore.
In the garden we've planted our onions, leeks, lettuce, and kale which we started from seed in the greenhouse. We direct sowed beets, carrots, turnips, and quinoa. As the temperatures continue to rise, we will tuck more and more seeds into the ground.
In the orchard we pruned the apple and pear trees. We removed the straw covering the strawberries, and planted two new peach trees. The orchard takes patience. I've been slowly adding to it over the years. Fruit takes several years to become established and produce, but once it gets going it sure is delicious!
You might be thinking we're crazy for collecting sap in freezing temperatures, adding chicks to our chore list, and slopping around in pig poop. And maybe we are! But I'll tell you one thing: it is such a rush when you sit down to a plate piled high with sausage you raised, eggs you've collected, and homemade waffles smothered in syrup from your own trees. That moment is pure euphoria!
Leave a comment and let us know what you've been up to this spring! We love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading,
Abby
