Visiting Mt. Vernon Farm

Today started with hand weeding spinach again. I like the weeding, but my back and knees seem to complain about it here and there. Today I wore pants, so that helped a little bit. I also don't think I'm getting any faster. Hmmmm...

At 10am sharp, Cliff, the landlord, and Mike, his assistant, met us at Waterpenny Farm. Cliff has had this land in his family since 1827. Right now it is a full-fledged organic (but not certified on purpose) grass-fed animal farm. The land that Waterpenny is leasing used to be an apple orchard that sold apples to England. Rachel and Eric have been on the land for 1o years, since 2000. They signed a 40 year lease five years ago, so they plan to stick around for quite a while. Cliff said he is glad about that because the land that they moved onto was going to be a nuisance to him once the orchard was razed. Cliff's children are not likely to take over the land from him, so he is hoping that Mike and his wife (they are from Colorado!) will take over the operation (but not buy the land). Cliff would like to keep it in the family if possible.
It was fun to walk around the property with Mike and Cliff. We saw the hogs that I ran into last night as well as a sow and her piglets. The mama happened to roll over right when we were there to nurse. Lucky us! And lucky I remembered the camera.





Next we went to see the cows and their calves again. I learned something new there, too. I have pictured a "healthy" cowpie. That's right ladies and gents, if you ever need to know what one is, come back and look at these pictures again! It's round and all in one spot. And when you kick it open (with "shitkickers?") you should see a bunch of bugs scurrying about. Dung beetles. They are creating tunnels through this stuff and back into the ground, in essence fertilizing the grass!



Off to the sheep next. They only buy lambs and keep them on the property for less than a year I think they said they bought 200 of them last July and the last of them will be processed by May Day. In this picture you an see Lleo the Llama. It was so fun to watch the sheep and Lleo walk around the pasture. Lleo kept a close eye on us in case we were thinking about hurting his little lambs. And everywhere that Lleo went the lambs were sure to follow! They were comforted that he was there, it seemed. He looked like a big brother or something. Cute! Well, Cliff said he would break my neck with his front legs if I challenged him, but cute otherwise.

And then we went down to the store to see the different things that they sold. I thought it was pretty neat that they don't mix any of their meat. If you buy ground beef from them, you can see that it came from one cow and which cow it was (via its number)! So if there is any problem, they can trace it back to the cow and even the cow's mother. I bought eggs from them on Easter Sunday - did I mention that we saw a bunny on Sunday? It must have been the Easter bunny - and they were pretty darn good. And yes, Mom, a bit more expensive. $4.61 per dozen to be precise. They run a respectable operation, though, and Cliff and Mike are excited about doing as many things sustainably as they can.

After lunch we headed back to the greenhouse to spot tomatoes. I can't wait for those babies to fruit! Miranda said they have a blind tomato tasting in which people take notes and then vote on their favorite ones. I can hardly WAIT for that party. Any of you want to come out for it? It's an open invitation!

And last, we planted asian cabbage out behind my shed and then put ground cover over it. Eric said that this was unusual to plant here but he needed a dry place to plant and some of the interns last year kept a garden. Yes, you heard me correctly. After they got done farming all day, they came home and worked on their garden. What the?! Um, I'm not doing that. Except I may plant the Moonflower seeds that my aunt gave me two or three years ago and hope for the best.

There is something to my left chewing away at my wall in the shed. It was here yesterday. Eeeck. I'll let you know what it is if it makes it's way all the way through...and no, it's not this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail that I saw on my lunchbreak.