admin | January 6, 2012
In the fall we decided we’d try sheep farming for the winter. We purchased 25 bred ewes that are due any time before February. Purchasing the ewes was exciting as we were able to choose the ewes that we wanted from the lot. With the farmer we ran all the ewes through a shoot sorting [...]
admin | October 18, 2011
Thanksgiving is always associated with a lot of squash. People may not realize just how much squash is part of Thanksgiving. First there is the pumpkin pie a staple at every Thanksgiving dinner. Often squash is also a dish on the table maybe baked with maple syrup or brown sugar or layered into lasagna. Then [...]
admin | October 4, 2011
It turns out that our “friend” Mr. black bear has returned or maybe never left the area. But he is making his presence known yet again here at Willowtree. This time he has taken to the giant pumpkins Al was growing. Al puts a lot of time and effort into his giant pumpkins each year [...]
admin | August 16, 2011
In the spring our bee hives were destroyed by a bear, which was hungry for honey. We tried our best to pick up the pieces and put the hive back together but that night the bear came back and smashed the hive apart again, leaving us with nothing. We were really sad to have lost [...]
admin | July 26, 2011
This year we went big with our garlic crop. We planted 4 acres of garlic last fall for this year. This is about 10 times more than what we had last year, because last year we sold out of garlic early and had none left for seed. The garlic did fabulous this year. It sized up nicely [...]
admin | July 19, 2011
After a long and hot strawberry picking season we always like to take the Mexican workers out for a treat, to thank them for all their hard work and long hours in the strawberry patch. Strawberry picking is definitely one of the most grueling and seemingly endless jobs on the farm. They spend many hours [...]
admin | July 12, 2011
We have been busy this year building new pens and filling our petting zoo with all kinds of new animals. This year we got a new miniature donkey, Burrito. Burrito has really shaggy fur and is quite small compared to a regular donkey. He is really dwarfed by our horse Mulligan, but he is the [...]
admin | June 28, 2011
Our garlic is growing great this year. It loves all the moisture and cool days and so far the bulbs have been sizing up quicker than last year. The bulbs have been dividing into cloves with many already having 6-8 cloves per bulb. Soon enough, we will be digging it all up to hang and [...]
admin | June 7, 2011
The farm is green again and we have started to harvest several different crops. We have loads of red rhubarb, asparagus, spinach, and green garlic. We also have green fruit developing on both the Haskaps and strawberries as well as flower buds are starting on the raspberries. The crops have loved all the sun after [...]
admin | May 24, 2011
Like usual I did morning chores, feeding and watering the chicks and watering the greenhouse plants. Rather tame jobs compared to what came next. Cattle sorting. Sorting cows is a heart pumping job to start any morning. Today we had to sort one of our herds to send them to summer pasture. Before heading over [...]
