Pastured Hens and Cover Crops

Right now we have nine hens pasturing in three of these tractors.

A planting of rye and buckwheat where we grew a bed of greens and carrots last year. This fall we will plant garlic here after the chickens scratch through a few plantings like this.

Growing Food with Water Catchment

This is a February planting of beets, broccoli and lettuce.

Second cutting is going to be great on this patch.

New expanded beds all set up with irrigation from the cistern... Growing here now are potatoes , chard, lettuces, kales, cabbages,  radishes, beets, broccoli, mustards and soon sunflowers down the middle bed with the chamisa at the end. 

Inside view of the far left hoop.

Red Russian Kale 

Potatoes

Early Corn Planting

Blue Corn

Blue Corn plot to be a Three Sisters Garden across the driveway, next to perennial herb garden.

Second Blue Corn plot, also slated to become a Three Sisters Garden

Farming in the Rocky Mountains

Tomatoes getting their first true leaves.

Blue Flax Flower

Hot Peppers: Habanero, Jalapeño, Cayenne

Food Growing Everywhere!

This might be a year where we actually get some strawberries.

Companion planting of spinach and strawberries.

Hauling weeds off to the five hens that aren't on pasture.

Oregano 

We have tons of oregano . 

Parsley

Water Catchment to Irrigate Gardens

We finally have some soaker and drip tube set up in all the gardens. Some is leaky, some is fine. It is a big help to have set up.

Scallions, carrots and lettuce on 1/4 in. soaker hose from snow melt and rain catchment.

Lettuce and broccoli loving the soft water.

Beets coming along nicely. 

Moving the Chickens

Mike came out early this morning to load up ten hens and our 10 x 7 ft. tractor to take to a neighboring farm at the Real Food Nation property.

Hens waiting for better pastures.

Just two miles down the road, these ten hens will have plenty of pasture for weeks to come, eating up and tilling 70 sq. feet per day. We are attempting a cooperative relationship with other small farmers in ways like this that can benefit everyone and the land and animals bugs etc.

Farm Work

New three hen tractor. 

 The new smaller design of this tractor is good for getting the birds onto beds in-between other beds in production. It is also easy to move around by yourself and they are drinking out of these handy rabbit water bottles. They're great, no poop in the water and no need to reach in the tractor but for harvesting eggs of feeding grain.

Blue Corn bed #2 

 For sale this week we have:

-Heirloom Italian Flatleaf Parsley
-Red and White Chard
-Baby Red Russian Kale
-Spring Garlic Greens
-Lettuce Cutting Mix (mild Plants of the Southwest blend)
-Pastured/ Farm-fresh eggs
-Email or comment for more info or prices.

Also for sale we have 1 gal. Chinook hop plants. These are a great brewing hop and have been wintered @7200 ft elev. for three or more winters, including last winter's 30 below. Each pot has compost blend and two to three rhizomes in there so it could potentially be three plants this year, or certainly next season.

contact for details on hops for sale.

Hoop-Houses for Growing Food Year-Round

Beets, Lettuces and Broccoli

1/4 in. drip in place ready for a pump to deliver water we caught from the sky.

All the broccoli is doing pretty well, including transplants from thinning.

Pastured Poultry on Salad Greens

We thought we could salvage some seedlings we planted in this bed in Feb. but the aphids were just everywhere...so hens to the rescue!

It is so great to see chickens living in this environment and as farmers we have such great control of what they eat and how they impact the land by being able to move them on and off areas.

Planting Native Fruit Trees

Chokecherry trees from NM State Forestry 

Some of the Chokecherries had incredible root systems. These two are going to get planted in the ground somewhere, probably trade for smaller trees of different species.

Plums

The Four Seasons

This super wet snow came five days ago  

It was sunny and warm just an hour before this photo was taken