Food Frenzy

I gave the babies some sunflower microgreens, thinking their instincts would kick in because the stems resemble worms. It was hilarious! They grabbed the green but then didn't know quite what to do with them, so they ran around the box trying to keep the others from getting what they had! Crazy birds!

Also, more individual baby pix (sort of?). This is one of the Dark Cornish - I think. (the one in the front that is fully pictured). Cheetah and Leopard - although neither of them are very bold.

The silver gray dorkings I took a couple pictures of, none really demonstrate the cute black triangle on her head. Celeste and Hermione. 

Still need to get pix of Big Bertha and Beyonce, the Partridge Rocks. They are also not very brave, even though they are big!

And a curious cute yellow baby again just for fun! Except it turns out I don't have 3 buff Orphingtons - one of them is developing feathers on her feet, so I have no idea what she is. How exciting!

Adorable

The yellow lady in the middle is a buff Orphington. It seems I have 3 of them, so how about Honey, Nectar, and Pollen?

There are 2 golden polish with the funny topknot, I can't wait to see what they look like when they are grown LOL! Anna and Elvis ;)

There are 6 black Australorps! Supposed to be good layers AND good meat birds, so if I decide 19 new hens is too much, then at 12 weeks I might freeze some fresh chicken. Urgh. 

There are 2 of these white-faced bigguns - light Brahmas. They are supposed to mostly white when full grown, with a few black markings and FEATHERS ON THEIR FEET! how awesome is that! Frosty and Snowman is what I call these two.

Not yet pictured:  Silver gray Dorkings (2), dark Cornish (2), and Partridge Rocks (2). 

Farmer workout

The HOSS cultivator in action! Well, without a video, which makes it more like pre-1890s action ;)

I only took pix with the 3-tip cultivator attachment, which was tricky enough one-handed. 

I guess a better shot would have included the tines or at least a shot of the soil gracefully curving away from the tines. Ah well.

 Can't see much of the actual tool, I will have to get someone to hold it so I can take a more comprehensive photo soon!

Next step: Adding wood ash from winter and mushroom compost. Then it's planting time YAY!

The biggest one

The other trilliums in my pasture may not look like it in the previously posted photos, but they are pretty small. But today I found this monster trillium as I walked out to till the new garden! HUGE!

I found treasure in my pasture

Trilliums growing! such a lovely gift!

Peeking

Two of the five microgreens I planted are germinated and a third is peeking through the soil!

In the front its sunflower microgreens, in the back, beets are out and growing, chard is close behind and looks really similar LOL!

Can't wait to taste the beets, since I love beet greens starting a few days ago ;)

Microgreens for all!

Fill a tray with moistened seed starter, but not all the way up to the top. 

I bought these seed specifically for microgreens....how they actually differ from regular seeds of carrots, basil, kale, etc, I do not know. I might grow some all the way this spring just to see what happens LOL

Carrots, beets, chard. Sow them rather thickly. These three all have a 16-25 day germination time. 

Sprinkle some more seed starter thinly on top, although the instruction sheet that came with the seeds said fine vermiculite would also work. 

This tray is sunflower seeds (germination rather fast for these) then two rows of basil (long germination time of 16+ days). I figure you can't get sick of basil microgreens but again, I'm wondering how the basil will differ from my usual basil seeds, also growing, which I could have taken a photo of but didn't. Hmm....

The other batches I did weren't covered with anything, but the instruction sheet advised using a plastic dome (which won't really work in this case) or a "towel" and somehow that seemed a bit ambiguous to me. I immediately thought damp paper towel...so I tried that on the front tray. Since the sheet doesn't actually say damp, I used a piece of dry paper towel on the back tray. Hopefully I will record the results from dry versus damp paper towel and share that here, too! Surely!