Black Brook Farm Growers: Spring and our new CSA room!

Well, it seems as if Winter is over and it's officially...Summer? At least I got to see one snow storm before it became 80 degrees...

The sheep are definitely happier, they've started ignoring their hay in favor of the green shoots that are sprouting up throughout their pasture. I've been watching them closely to see if their bellies are rounding out with little lambs, and I believe that they are. They also seem to be lazing throughout the pasture more, but that might just be because they're happy for warmth and sun to lay in.

Lambs aren't the only babies that we're getting ready for. I just placed an order for 75 freedom ranger chicks, which were our favorite broiler chicks from last year, so those should be arriving mid-April. Also, arriving mid-April is our new sow who we're going to pick up from Sugar Mountain Farm in Vermont. She will already have been bred, and should have piglets within a couple weeks of arriving. We also recently decided to start two beehives by the garden, which is very exciting. We've only learned a little bit about bees, but we can already tell that they're going to be fascinating to raise, not to mention how exciting it's going to be to have our own honey or how helpful they're going to be in the garden. They should arrive in early May, around the same time as the lambs.

And don't forget about these babies...

onions, leeks, cabbage, broccoli, swiss chard, beets and more!

After weeks of wading through spreadsheets we finally have a full planting schedule for the season, just in time to start planting! With temperatures in the 80s this week, keeping these little guys at the right temperature has been difficult. The greenhouse has been skyrocketing past 100 degrees daily so we've had to keep the flats outside. Although it's hard to complain about beautiful days and sun, this unseasonable weather makes us, as new farmers, pretty nervous. What's next? Snowstorms in June?

Meanwhile, we've been working on our new CSA pick-up room in the barn. One of the rooms on the back right-hand corner of the farm's beautiful 1800s barn was (extremely kindly and efficiently) cleaned out for us, and we got right down to work cutting a door to the garage (aka our tool storage and vegetable cleaning station) into our new farm store!