Well, 2022 was a bit of a roller coaster, but it ended really well and the farm is truly set to spring forward in 2023! There were lots of adventures (and misadventures), but the farm animals are squared away for the important stuff and the plantings seem to be getting more and more fine tuned!
Today, New Years Eve, I actually planted a small row of shallots (French Round) that I had neglected to plant when they arrived in the Fall. To be honest, I thought they were some odd onion bulbs I was experimenting with (I’m still trying to nail down my onion crop). I finally looked them up and discovered they were shallots!
Since I had no room in my raised beds (all mostly garlic, with some shallots), I went to the veggie garden and chose the row where I lay several inches of horse manure out to plan sweet potatoes this past year. I chopped up the ground a bit (it was brutally cold a week ago – like 6 degrees! – but it has been in the 60’s the last couple of days and the ground had mostly thawed,) and planted the small batch. I then covered with a light covering of more horse manure. The final plan will be to put some straw or leaves down on them over the next week.
This is late (by about 2.5 months!), but we’ll see how they do. Worse case, I get some bulbs to try again in the Fall of 2023, when they are supposed to be planted.
In addition to this small planting, I took around 4 of my shallow harvest from last year that I accidentally left out on the counter too long. They began to sprout, so I figured I’d go ahead and plant the things!
I have lots of plans for this year. With the new internet, I’m hoping to record these misadventures right here…