Start of a New Planting Year

Penner Farm from the air

Since my last post in late August, the farm took a different track from what you may expect.  Amazingly, there is still much going on after the growing season ended and the last of the vegetables had gone to market!  Stumping and plowing was done in the new planting area, old fire-piles were picked apart and spread out to return the carbon to the soil.  Horses were moved to the now vacant vegetable garden to do weed control and a bit of fertilizing, greenhouses were cleaned out and irrigation systems were put away for the winter.

We attended several late season markets with other products we have been carrying.  Preserves, bread, kitchen-based woodwork and some very late season produce which included our successful crop of Flaming Orange Habaneros!  These hot and beautiful peppers were worth the six and one half month wait!  We used some of them to create a superb appetizer product, Pineapple-Habanero jelly.  This can be used with crackers and cream cheese.

Now that February is here, I have been going through seed inventories, seed catalogues, notes from the 2016 season on things which we felt were important (products to add to our line, products to not bother with again) creating a summary report that will help us get the best things to market for next year.

Another project I have been looking at is deer-resistant fencing.  Because I am moving the operation to a new space, I realize I am into an area that a family of deer pass through on a daily basis.  I need to divert the path of these deer from the new field, while giving them an optional path to travel and still keep them out of the vegetables.  A day of on-line browsing for fencing was in order last week.  It seems that the best product may be a plastic mesh type fence.  It requires the least amount of labor to install and it is strong while still being light-weight.  It can be fastened to existing trees or you can install posts where needed.  Of course, I will need gates to access this space once the fence is up, so a few posts will be in order!  I will post this project when it starts.  Be prepared for a new route, deer family!