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| Five years ago we faced an
indisputable fact... our soil, never very rich to begin
with, was rapidly depleting into dust. Where
raspberries weren't taking hold of the fields, moss and
bracken were. Our gardens, once reasonably
productive, were sending forth yellowing and stunted
spinach. We needed to build up our soil, and we
needed to do it quickly. While truckloads of
compost are commercially available here, we didn't have
a whole lot of cash to throw at the problem.
Someone suggested chickens, in small pens, would do the
trick. And, of course, since Vermonters never
throw anything away (you never know when it |
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| might come in handy) back in the shed were the old
chicken water fonts and feeders. We trotted off to Agway and came
home with 12 very loud meat birds in a tiny shoebox, popped them in
their "chicken tractor" and stood back to watch the results.
And they |
| were eyepopping. That
first summer we let the chicks crop down the weeds in their pen
(visible in the back of the garden), then threw straw down for
their bedding. They churned and turned the straw hunting
for bugs and seeds, liberally fertilized it, and when they had
built up a good 6 inch bed, we moved the pen to a new section of
the garden and started the cycle anew. That first season,
12 birds built us 3 new freshly fertilized raised beds, which in
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| produced
fall crops of heroic proportions. We were sold on
chickens. I'll admit, slaughtering the meat birds wasn't
much fun (the first time is quite the story), so we decided to
try laying hens the next season. Three years later, we are in
the free range egg business, and you can see our little flock of
Rhode Island Reds and Gold Stars cleaning up the garden for us
last fall. The dogs are Golden Retrievers (we are Golden
Retriever Rescue for our corner of the world) and no, they don't
bother the chickens, but they will dig up the garden given half
a chance. |
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the farm, 2000... trees, vs.
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the farmhouse, 1950... no trees!
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| Today the farm is moving ever backwards toward the
future. As you can see, one of our most bountiful crops (but
hardest to harvest) is timber... firewood to heat our home. But we
keep a patch of wild brambles going for blackberries in the fall, defend
our apples and blueberries from deer with some success, and continue to
maintain a comfortable garden. Controlling spontaneous forest
growth is our number one problem, and to keep the brush from taking over
we will be adding dairy goats, probably next summer. We are happy
to entertain the curious visitor, really happy to entertain anyone who
knows anything about keeping dairy goats for soap production! Drop
us a line to let us know you're coming. |
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