plum blooms.

 This has got to be one of the latest that the plums have bloomed in years. It's the end of April already. They usually burst the first warm weekend in March and then get frosted or I try to cover them with sheets or put heaters under them only for them to get frosted anyway. So we might have a plum harvest this year. These are the Japanese plums with the light delicate flavor... which of course makes them marginally hardy. The hardy American prune plums bloom much later, but I don't think are as quite deliciously sweet.

And lambing season is now officially done. Every ewe had a successful lamb this year. Wohoo! 100% A plus ladies! And they are all healthy and growing like weeds. Which of course means either selling them now or putting up more fencing. 14 lambs total this year!!!!

I'm sketching out my new meat share plan called 8 families, 1 cow. If you're interested, just let me know. I'm super excited to try out new types of cows for the best flavor and the grass is greening up really well... although it is still quite wet. Nothing like a big animal on soft ground to make ankle breaking holes. Maybe I should just stick to sheep - they aerate the soil while fertilizing. My grass is always the first to green up in the spring. Must be all the poop. :)

I've been potting up my fruits for the first plant sale. It's going to be light to start out with the first Saturday, threat of frost is still pretty prevalent. Just the hardy herbs and small fruits including cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, and thornfree blackberries.
The next Saturday, May 7th is going to be a mothers day plant sale with blooming baskets, annuals, herbs, and some heirloom tomatoes.
May 14th is going to be the big plant sale with all the veggies. It's about the date of the last frost in the area so we'll have everything from squash to peppers to herbs to edible flowers. We'll have the baby lambs out and some peeps too for the kids to play with. I also found a local organic farm that makes flour for all those bread bakers out there. Let me know if there's a particular type you like and I'll make sure I have it.

The magnolias are coming out, the hyacinth are joining the daffodils in bloom and the 10 day forecast isn't showing any cold snaps below freezing any time soon. On the down side, it's been raining hard and the ground is totally soaked so the only thing I have coming up are some peas we put in a couple of months ago and last winters crop of spinach, kale, and lettuce is coming back. I hope things dry out for a big planting weekend. I'm sick of tripping over the hundred pounds of seed potatoes in my living room. Let's get this planting party started.