One of six chicks hatched at Tailwind this Spring.
Greetings Earthlings!
It’s finally June! Wow. The end of May was rough with a spell of low 50s for a few days and very rainy and windy. There was a hard frost on May 27 even. We had all our transplants in the ground. Like many area gardeners I was anxious about doing everything within reason to protect all plant babies. We covered and managed to come away with only some damage to our potato crop. We feel very fortunate. Every year there are challenges with the weather and climate change is only exacerbating the extremes.
Like usual Spring is one of the busiest times of year on the farm. We let a broody hen incubate 6 eggs. All of them have survived so far and are quickly morphing into their teenage feathers. We anticipate having to cull some roosters this year. At first the chicks were agreeable to Linden, but now are wild and the Mama Hen is very, very protective. Linden learned his lesson not to get in-between Mama Hen and her babies. We all steer clear.
We currently have 5 rounds of grey dove and black pearl oyster mushrooms started for a total of 35 buckets. Each bucket will likely produce somewhere in the range of 2.5 to 3 pounds of oysters over the course of its lifespan… so that leaves us with about 87.5 pounds of oyster mushrooms.
I asked Adam to invest in a more ergonomic set up in the inoculation chamber, so he invested in a $35 pulley. We are able to soak straw in a lime bathe to sterilize much more efficiency. Work smarter, not harder! See photo below of the operation. We have also been experimenting with a new substrate (food) cocoa bean hulls, which leaves the shed smelling like a chocolate factory!
We invested in a pulley system to save our backs and the struggle of lifting bags of wet, sterilized straw out this 55 gallon drum.
A flush of grey dove oyster mushrooms. We like grey doves because they have excellent flavor and store well compared to other varieties of oysters.
We are intercropping with wine cap mushrooms and almond agaricus, as well. We have never tried either of these mushroom varieties but loved the idea of growing for weed control, soil health and to enjoy a new variety.
We have also marketed some mixed boxes of oyster mushrooms and shiitakes and the have gone over well! We will have mushrooms until probably late June and then again in the fall. Let us know if you’re interested!
We’ve had some luck with our shiitake crop so far. They are certainly more unpredictable and difficult than oyster mushrooms!
Some of the grey dove crop. To cut down on waste, we use food grade buckets rather than plastic bags
Greenhouse finished. It only took 3 people (2 with a masters degree and 1 with a doctoral degree) a day of tinkering and assembling.
Plant babies in the greenhouse
Adam, Flannery’s Dad (Bill) and Flannery put up a greenhouse during a nice weekend in March. We hemmed and hawed about what made the most financial sense either retrofitting one of our existing sheds or purchasing a mail-order kit. We decided with the later!
The goal is to be able to start seeds out in the greenhouse rather than on racks of grow lights in the house. We’ve never had a ton of luck with transplants started in our spare bedroom or kitchen and feel like a designated space will help. Historically, I start seeds too early and the seedlings get so overgrown in their containers.
So far there has been a rookie learning curve with using the greenhouse, but the space is cozy and happy. It will be nice to visit in February, March, April and May when Iowa weather is grey and temperamental (who knows I might even grab a lawn chair). We installed a computer fan and an automatic window opener than opens at 80F and a mini space heater, but need to do more research on how to try to keep the temperature steady.
Our seedlings looked pretty good to start, but after several weeks seemed to stop growing. I’m not sure if this is related to potting mix, air flow or something else. We transplanted everything into the garden despite the majority being puny!
As mentioned we have everything in the garden. Flannery convinced Adam to till up more sod. We put onions, potatoes and leeks outside of our 12 foot fenced area and near our garlic. It seems less likely critters would bother these. This made room for Flannery’s flowers. She’s dabbling in cut flowers more seriously this season. I guess let’s define “serious” as the square footage of space devoted to crops, currently there’s about 1200 square feet devoted to flowers. We’ve been taking notes from Floret Farm, the Slow Flower industry standard. We purchased an irrigation system from DripWorks and rolls of Sunbelt Woven Ground Cover. Now stuff just needs to groooooowwwwwww.
