Spring 2012

Good Life Farm- Spring 2011 Quarterly Update

March 20, 2011

Spring is arriving! This past Thursday and Friday were Amazing! (For those of you not in our area, those two days were mid-50’s to 60’s and sunny. It is now back to low 40’s and dropping). The horses, chickens, ducks, guineas and dogs all demonstrated their appreciation for the sunlight in varied and creature-specific ways… generally frisking, running, leaping, scratching and exploring. Below is picture of the chickens sunbathing… pure pleasure!

2011 is so far the muddiest spring we’ve yet had on our farm. More often than not it has been cold, wet, wet, wet and wet! We hope this will translate into longer term water storage on our farm via some of the subsoiling-contour plowing we implemented last summer. We will no longer irrigate every new perennial planting (as we’ve done in the past two years with asparagus and the 2010 orchard), and hope that our newly created underground channels will contribute to our drought-tolerance design. This risk might seem like a poor use of our investment in plant material- particularly the 250+ new trees we will be planting. At this writing, we feel that this risk is an important part of helping us meet our low energy goals and creates greater incentive for creative design and problem solving. Here’s to that! If you care to further discuss the irrigation issue, I would suggest checking back to Sweet Land Farm’s blog entry from July 19, 2010,
which I advertised last summer as a great perspective on what irrigation means to Paul and Evangeline’s farm, and ours as well.

This year, I am full time on the farm. Much of that is due to the success of our high tunnel crops- in particular our Winter Greens Mix which is selling out constantly at Greenstar Co-op in Ithaca. Thanks to all of you how love them! Garrett is back to full- time at Snug Planet- a job which continues to offer him important education in home energy design. For the farm, this change means that we can refine and solidify many of our existing enterprises, and expand on others. (Think understory orchard plantings,  more annual crops and more poultry!) We feel that this step is an important part towards demonstrating that permaculture-guided farming can create financial success.

Here’s to this year!

Upcoming at the Good Life this Spring:

• Shelterbelt planting: Oaks and hybrid hazelnuts on contour strips in our
pasture. This is supported by part of our Transition to Organic NRCS EQIP
grant.
• Orchard Planting: 250+ more dual purpose cider and fresh eating apples,
heirloom and new disease resistant varieties
• High tunnel moves to spring and summer crops: adding some finesse to that system
• Asparagus: our first big harvest year. Last year we had spears as early as mid-April.

Many thanks to Ithaca Crop Mob who helped us plant over 180 new apple trees on Saturday, April 9, 2011. Our new trees include Gold Rush, Redfree, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Scarlett O’hara, Sweet 16, Akane, Ashmead’s Kernel, Freedom, Roxbury Russett and Hudson’s Gem. Our growing orchard- planted in 2010 and 2011 by the Crop Mob- will be certified organic with an emphasis on holistic, biodiverse management.

Volunteers are much appreciated at our farm, and we welcome your help for specific projects. Please give me a call and we can set up a visit… We encourage children, and will provide a meal. Please leave pets at home, as we have many of our own animals.

For more information about our produce or our farm, contact:

Melissa Madden -melissa@thegoodlifefarm.org - 607-351-3313