Farm Friday, May 20th, 2022

Why not share a few photos from a week on our farm?

Medium is full of intense discussion on important topics. This post is not that.

I live with my partner Jen on a farm owned by a Montessori school. We are teacher/farmers and have a new challenge every day. Here are some photos from our week.

Recently I heard a podcast featuring Niria Alicia about how maybe it is simple: we sit in circle and enjoy each other. I hope to keep a practice of at least occasionally sharing our farm with you as a pocket of joy.

NIRIA ALICIA on Pockets of Joy in the Resistance /260 - FOR THE WILD

Blossoms on a wild apple tree in our morel hunting grounds

The view looking back at the school.

Fiddleheads tightly coiled on an ostrich fern. Those are good cooked!

Pheasants Back growing on a dead elm stump. Edible, but not near as good as morels.

The haul from Sunday’s hunt. Notice the blue toy tractor that we found in the woods. Who knows how long it has been there?

We hiked all over on Sunday and then the next day I found these two in the front yard. Lol.

Our week started with a hunt for morels. The week before it had rained copious amounts on Wednesday and then got very warm. We made a bet with nature and invited a family out to go looking for the elusive morel mushroom, which only can be found for a short season in springtime. The lore says that when the oak leaves are the size of a squirrel’s ear is the time to look. So Sunday morning we inspected the oak leaves and decided it was worth a try. We almost gave up after two hours of nothing, but then one person in our group found a single morel, which opened the floodgates and we soon had a full basket! We also found some pheasant’s back mushrooms, stinging nettles, fiddleheads, and ramps which are all good too. I made the items into pizzas and we had rhubarb sauce and ice cream while we waited for the pizzas to cook.

Planting onions on a beautiful spring day.

On Tuesday we had a group of young people out and one of the projects was to plant thousands of onion, shallot and leek plants. They look like little pieces of grass at this stage.

On Wednesday our friend Matt came over and sprayed the inside of our woodshop with insulation. We are hoping to turn a three season shop into a four season shop. A big day for us!

On Thursday we had our shearer out to shear the five sheep who we care for (Merry, Lucy, Lilly, Pepper, and Chili). Our dog Pippa found a nest in some of the wool we removed from a fleece.

Pippa

Our llama, Precious, is having a hard time. She is near the end of her life and has trouble standing up. We are bringing hay and water to her.

The wool is naturally kinky. Like me.

New haircuts!

We had a hailstorm on Thursday evening!

I’m part of the “dirt-under-the-fingernails” set.

All this hail came off the roof of our greenhouse.

After the storm. Notice all the mowing I did and the huge compost pile. Our chickens are locked in their yard because of the Avian Flu.

Today we put up a new tire swing at the treehouse and rock climbing holds on the tree.