2012....

The farm has slowed down over the last month as we just have the horses, pigs, goats and our egg laying chickens to care for.

With winter being here it allows us to catch up with all the paperwork, accounts and start planning for our fourth season here at Strattons.

Seed catalogues have arrived and the planning for the CSA Vegetable boxes has begun.  This is our third year running the CSA and we are excited about the vegetables we are growing and to see the garden expand.  

Planning the CSA does take a little bit of time.  We start by reviewing last years season and then we start by choosing what vegetables we want in the baskets each week, what type of vegetables we are able to get a head start on in the solar passive greenhouse, and then all the calculations start on the amount of seed we need to purchase, the bed lengths required for each crop we grow as well as creating a planting schedule to follow.    

This year Strattons Farm joined a CSA! We joined a seed CSA which is offered by High Mowing Organic Seeds.  As our customers support us through the CSA and receive 15-20% more vegetables than you would if you brought them at the farmers market we follow the same principle in purchasing our Organic seeds.

2012 is not only the year of the Dragon but is also the year for birth here at the farm!

In spring we are hoping for our first kids, as Elly,(standing in the background in the photo) is showing all the signs of being pregnant. We will also be breeding Ina and Nigella our Berkshire gilts and we hope to start the search for a suitable Suffolk Stallion for May and Lily.

Michael will also be enlarging our Apiary this year by making his own splits as well as purchasing a few more nucs.  Our aim is to have 10 hives at the farm but this will also mean making changes to our farm, by re-introducing the hedgerows that were removed before we came here and starting to grow more specific plants on our farm to feed the bees.  Of course this will mean that we will remain the lunatic farmers in our neighbourhood as other farmers remove their hedgerows.

I think it is easy to say that we are in for another exciting and busy year at the farm filled with new challenges!