Garlic!

The first of the garlic is in! This is the variety called Armenian, and is a large hardneck type with 4-5 cloves per bulb. I estimate the harvest to be about 400lbs. I planted 80lbs of seed back in October, so the yield was about what I had expected. I plan on saving about 95% of the Armenian garlic for seed, which should plant about 1/2 acre of this variety for harvest in 2011.

The garlic was dug out of the ground, loaded in the truck (the garlic is growing on my friends’ farm nearby), brought back to my place, bundled and hung from the rafters of one of the outbuildings. This curing process helps to dry out the cloves and increases storage time.

There is still about 1/10 acre of garlic to be harvested next week if the weather permits. Most of that crop will be sold, with some being held over for seed.

I hope to plant upwards of 2/3 acre in garlic this October, and will be buying in a smaller amount of a few new varieties to build up my seed stock. I hope to eventually, in 2-3 years, to have one full acre in production. Garlic seed is quite expensive (often $10+/lb. and 1000 lbs sown per acre), so it pays to take the time and build up your own seed stock!

If you are interested in buying some garlic, I may have some available in a couple weeks. Price will be $6/lb. And bulbs weigh about two ounces a piece, so 8 to the pound.

Family Cow/Home Dairying Workshop

On Saturday, May 1st I will be offering a workshop on keeping a family cow. Workshop will run from 3-7pm, and cover these topics:

Organic/Holistic approaches to cow care
Milking/chores
Pasturing/feed
Home Dairying (making cheese, yogurt, kefir, etc)

Participants will leave with some tasty dairy products. Cost will be $30/person. Please no children under the age of 12. Space limited to 5 people.

I currently milk two Jersey cows by hand. They are raised organically and are 99.9% grass-fed. I also have experience as a commercial cheesemaker and have worked on dairies in Wisconsin and Vermont.

If you have ever thought of purchasing a cow for your family, wanted to make dairy products at home, our are just interested in learning, feel free to send me an email to staghornfarm at gmail.com or call 608-632-4480 (cell). Thanks!

Cows on grass.

Cows heading out to pasture for the first time this Spring.

The cows are starting to reap the benefits of our early Spring here in Wisconsin. Usually May 1st is the day to assume pasture will be cow-ready, but the ground is dry and the grass is getting up to 6 inches in some places. This pasture has been used and abused over the years. Two crops of hay have been taken off by the neighbor, and no nutrients have been put back on. I think the best thing for the plants is to have some grazers back on it. Grazing stimulates root growth in pasture plants at the same time the cows are depositing their manure. The end result is a healthier plants and happier cows.

I’ll be easing the cows onto the grass a few hours a day for the next week, as the change from dry hay to lush grass can wreak havoc on their digestive system. If put on lush pasture exclusively early in the season, cows can suffer from bloat, which can be life threatening.

Althea has been milking about 2 gallons a day in addition to whatever the calf is nursing from her. I expect that to go up as she gets some real grass in her system. And Alyssum is looking to be closer to calving every day!

A new calf!

On Tuesday, Althea had a healthy heifer calf! Around dinner time she was starting labor, and had dropped the calf by the time I came back from eating dinner. The calf (christened Bachelorette Buttons) was up on her feet within an hour and nursing happily.

I’ve decided to keep the cow and calf together for the time being. 99.5% of dairy farms separate them shortly after birth, mostly because of the logistical difficulties.  Its been demonstrated that calves which spend the first several weeks of life with their mother end up being more productive cows in their adulthood. We all need role models, right?

So far Althea has been a great mother.  She is a little more high-strung than usual, fretting over the calf, but she is slowly adjusting to the milking routine. And I don’t mind sharing the milk with the calf!

Althea and the new calf, 30 minutes after birth.

Goose Eggs!

With the longer days, the geese have started laying! They have built a little nest in the corner of the barnyard, and the three geese have been laying a couple a day for the past few days. I’ll be robbing the nest until April, when I hope they will set and raise some goslings. Until then I’ll be enjoying goose-egg omelettes!

For those of you who have never eaten one, these eggs are much richer in taste than chicken eggs. And about three times the size!

The Jersey girls.

The two newest additions to the farm!

They came from a great little organic dairy in Spooner, Wisconsin. They’ve been raised outdoors and been grazed since day one, which is a great bonus and a great rarity in modern dairy farming. Neither are milking now, but both are due to calve the end of March into April.

Althea is 3, and Alyssum is 4 years old. They are out of a great herd, and have been managed wonderfully up to this point, so I think they will be a great fit on this farm!

Winter on the Farm

View From the South

Things have been a bit slow since moving in the first of January, but I’ve been keeping myself occupied. The search for a pair of dairy cows has taken me to a few area farms to look at Jerseys, and I’m waiting to hear back from a few more farms here at the end of the month. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to learn that Turtle Lake is the epicenter of Guernsey cows in western Wisconsin, and I’m waiting to hear back from a some of those farmers as well. I expect to have a couple moved in by the first part of March. Then I’ll be making cheese nearly every day!

February means love is in the air, especially if you are a goose. The noise coming from the  pen suggests the gander has been hard at work courting his three lovely lady geese. They haven’t started laying eggs yet, but they should start any day. I would be immensely satisfied with 25 goslings, but its not really up to me!

Seed orders have pretty much all arrived too. I’ll be planting about four varieties of heirloom dry beans on about 2/3 acre. That and garlic are the main cash crops, but I’ll be growing a large kitchen garden and a few fodder crops for the animals such as corn, beets, and pumpkin seeds.

I’ve decided to put in an order of Cayuga ducks to the hatchery of about 40 birds. They are included in the Slow food organization’s “Ark of Taste,” so odds are they will be incredibly delicious. I’ll hope for a March arrival so that the ducks are out of the brooder as the turkey poults arrive in early April.

Otherwise I’ve been spending a lot of time walking the property with my dog, Moon. She has been a holy terror to the resident rabbit and squirrel population, which will ease the critter population on the garden this Spring. Good dog.

and thanks to new roommate Ross for the photo!

Garlic in the ground!

Moon relaxing in the garlic mulch.

It feels good to have the garlic planted and mulched for the winter. There is about 175 pounds in the ground, so I’m hoping to have upwards of 600 pounds of hardneck garlic to harvest next August. One variety is called Armenian, a large 5-clove type. The other was called “Rainbow” by the Amish fellow I bought the seed from, and that tends to have more 8-10 medium-size cloves per bulb. 

Green garlic could be ready in June, and scapes should be harvested the first part of July. Thanks to Josh and Rama for all their help!