March 5, 2014

Winter is a great time for things like studying, workshops and new infrastructure. Last week I went to a workshop on Cut Flower Production in hopes to use flowers for diversification and to spruce up the Farmer's Market table (not to mention the farm.) This week I am going to a Fresh Produce Safety Workshop. On my reading, I keep going back to portions of books as they apply to me. I am using the Chicken Tractor book to build a chicken tractor for the growing area. I love the way they show the different generations of chicken tractors and included why they changed them. It helps me learn from their mistakes as well as find one that will work better for my farm. I had read previously Joel Salatin's book on Pastured Poultry Profits and liked what he was doing, but am trying to apply it in a way that will work best for us. I'm also reading John Seymour's The New Self-Sufficient Gardener, or at least the section on the seasons of garden work, as I am determined to live and work in a more seasonal fashion as I believe it to be healthier and the way things were meant to be. I am planning a new "Seasonal Living" tab for my blog that will hopefully be updated every year as I learn. I ordered the following books and received them this week - The Complete Homestead Planner by Cynthia Bombach - this looks like it has some considerations that might be helpful, but may not be much more helpful than what I am already doing plus some other books I have read (it would probably be a great help to someone who is not very organized); The Homebrewer's Garden by Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher - this is mostly for my husband as he is already growing hops and just finished a batch of beer; and The New Farmers' Market by Vance Corum, Marcie Rosenzweig and Eric Gibson - I have not read enough of it yet to form an opinion but am looking forward to getting some great tips.