3 Flat Acres is interviewed by CRAFT!

We were recently interviewed by CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training).  See our interview here: 
Interview with 3 Flat Acres

2013 Garlic Crop is in

My garlic popping station

During my week of vacation from my day off-farm job, we planted next year's garlic crop.  We doubled the amount that we planted last year:  ~4800 to ~10,000.  That is 22 100 ft beds; each bed has 3 rows.  It's a lot of garlic!  And of course it rained almost all week but we planted anyway - thankful for rain gear! 

a bit hard to see, but the wooden stakes are the variety markers

The new addition to the house is moving along.

And the barn cats are doing nicely.  They are great companions while working.

Oscar on top of the straw bales

Cabbage!

Our cabbage experiment - direct seeded in the field - worked pretty well.  Next year I'll go back to transplanting seedlings, but since we were moving year during seedling starting time we put them straight into the field. 

We are dreaming of homemade kraut.

House Update

The house construction is moving along.  The basement and crawl space walls have been repaired, tuck pointed and/or re-poured and all have been sprayed with structural foam.  The basement floor has also been repoured - after Bill and some helpers dug down an additional 10" in the basement and hauled it up and out.  Tomorrow brings a crew of carpenters to help Bill pull off the old roof, reframe and prepare for the new roof.  This week also brings the excavator to dig the foundation for the addition (a/k/a the new house where we will live) - we hope the foundation will be poured early next week.

 The gray is the exterior foam which is structural.  The yellow are interior foundation walls which only need insulating

Interior shot.  The space where the ladder is going down will be the commercial kitchen (at grade) and a basement underneath

Labor Day found us seeding cover crops.  Bill cultivated with the tractor on Fields 1, 2, 4, 9 and 11.  I followed behind with the hand seeder.  1 and 2 got white clover while 4, 9, and 11 got a mixture of peas, oats, vetch, winter rye, and crimson clover; which will be tilled in next spring.  Fields 1 and 2 will be replanted with garlic in - yikes - 6 weeks.

The drought has claimed a fair number of our orchard trees, planted this spring.  We anticipate a 50% survival rate.

The barn cats are settling in nicely. 

All 4 sleeping

(Left to right:  Sylvia, Mr. White, Oscar, Thomas)



Organic pest control

This post is for Susan.  :)

National Organic Program (NOP) standards state that producers must use management practices for pest control.

When our inspector asked us how we plan to control pests, Bill and I asked, "are barn cats allowed?"  She said absolutely.

We don't have an issue with an overload of barn pests - although we don't have any feed supplied in our barn to draw them yet - when our neighbor's cat (who is a skilled mouser) had a litter we thought it would be a good time to get some kittens.  We took the whole litter:  3 males, 1 female.  We had them neutered/spayed and vaccinated under the "barn cat sterilization program" at the local animal hospital.

 Clockwise from upper left hand corner

Sylvia

Mr. White (we are watching Breaking Bad right now. 

This cat has professor-like patches on his elbows.)

Thomas

Oscar

Sylvia and Oscar both see a barn swallow swooping by

Mr. White - paws crossed, doesn't care

Thomas - well (can you tell ?) he's the alpha

They are 7 months old, friendly, and enjoyable to have around.  3 Flat Acres first official animals!

Harvest is curing

The garlic harvest is in and curing. The 100 degree heat and the rock hard soil slowed us down but we got it in.

We anticipate having our sales page activated by mid-August.

Hanging in bunches of 10 bulbs

The drying racks are 12' tall and each have six 5' bars

5000 bulbs m/l

New website is up!

Soon our garlic varieties will be for sale!

www.3flatacres.com